FLASHBACK/DREAM SEQUENCE - Dani is dreaming, but it is a flashback

She was thrown to the dirty ground with immense force, her body aching and bloodied. The sounds of terrified screams and deafening screeches filled her ears, while the rusty smell of blood sickened her. She raised her head and allowed her hazel eyes to scan her surroundings. Hundreds of humans that were chained together looked at her with fear in their eyes, sympathizing for the young girl. The Locust that were keeping the humans captive all laughed menacingly, enjoying the pain the girl was enduring. She looked up and stared at her attacker in the eyes, finding no trace of kindness in his empty eyes. He was a Kantus, and his name was Repto. He was an authority figure among the Locust, one the Queen's guards, and he was one of the most brutal Locust in all of Sera. He wore red and black armour that made him stand out from the others. The young girl placed her hands on the floor of the Hollow, and tried to slowly raise her self up from the ground, unaware of the injuries she had sustained during time with the locust. Repto stood over and her kicked her back onto her stomach as she let out a blood curdling scream. Her ribs were definitely broken. Two Grenadiers came over the young girl and pinned her arms and legs to the ground with their own scaly hands, and Repto bent over a ripped her shirt off of her back. A drone came over to Repto and handed him a long whip with spikes on it. He cracked it in midair, allowing the sharp sound to echo throughout the hollow, followed by the fearful screams of the young girl. She tried her hardest to break free from the strong grips of the two locust, but it was impossible. She held her breath as Repto flicked the whip back, preparing to torture the young girl. After what seemed like an eternity, he brought the whip down on her back and excruciating pain filled Dani's body.

The whip tore at the flesh of her back and Dani's blood soaked the ground. Her screams had turned into violent sobs, the sound of which made the Locust laugh harder. Every time the whip came into contact with her bare back, a human prisoner would scream, fearing they would be next. She closed her eyes and prayed that it would be over soon, that she would die and be freed from this grotesque torture. But death never came, and she was forced to endure pain at the hand of Repto. Her body went limp and the two drones pinning her down let go, and spoke to Repto. As the three locust communicated, Dani lowed her breathing and tried her hardest to appear dead. She knew there was no chance of survival in this hell, so she would try to runaway, knowing the locust would kill her instantly. Taking her chances, she used all of her remaining strength to lift her self off of the ground ignoring the searing pain, and stood on her two feet. Repto looked back her, unable to contain his amazement. He had never seen a single human stand up on their own after a whipping, especially someone her size. He walked over to her and pulled a Gorgon Pistol out of the side of his armour, and Dani closed her eyes tightly, accepting her fate.

Repto raised the pistol, and was taken by surprise when a human man ran toward the two of them and screamed, "NOOO!"

Dani opened her eyes and watched as her brother, Deryk, stood between her and Repto, the chain around his neck broken. The two siblings looked undeniably similar, both skinny, with black hair and hazel eyes, even the locust were able to make the connection between the two. Repto growled and stared at Deryk, unable to believe that a small human would stand up to him.

"Kill me instead," he said, as Dani began to protest, "Danielle, shut up! Kill me instead."

"No Deryk, go away!" she said in a hoarse voice, attempting to push her brother away. Her attempts failed and he stayed between the girl and the monster, refusing to watch his sister being killed in front of him.

Repto watched as the siblings bickered and a quiet, twisted laugh came from the back of his throat. He raised the pistol again, and struck Deryk across the face, watching as he fell to floor unconscious. Dani screamed and dropped to her knees, tears pouring out of her eyes. She was shaking uncontrollably, the wounds in her back causing her intense pain. She crawled over to he brother and placed her hand on his face, his cold touch frightening her. A large scaly arm went around her throat and cut off her air supply, leaving her to struggle for air. The world around her went blurry and soon enough, she was unconscious too.

When she awoke, Dani was surrounded by pure darkness and silence. She wondered whether she was dead or alive, and if this was what happened after you die. She felt her surroundings, and realized she was not in the after life, but in a prison cell-like enclosure where Locust kept hostages. The smell was atrocious, Dani didn't want to think about what could be rotting away in here with her. Her body ached with every breath she took, her broken ribs refusing to cooperate. She wrapped her arms around her body and fantasized about breaking free from here with her brother by her side. A small smile crept up onto her face as she pictured her brother in his COG uniform. He was an excellent solider, capable of risking his life to save others, a true hero. When the Locust found Dani and Deryk, Deryk put up the biggest fight of his life and tried to get Dani to run to safety, but she was too late. They were captured as prisoner, and told they were going to be "processed," even thinking the word sent a shiver down her spine.

The door of the cell opened and a large Locust holding a meat cleaver entered. Dani was terrified of the monstrous creature and kept her distance. The Butcher placed a large plate on the ground in front of her full of suspicious looking meat that smelled disgusting. The Butcher grunted and left the cell, darkness filling up the small space once again. At first she refused to go near the meat, planning to starve herself to death, but her stomach growled violently so she surrendered to her hunger. She felt around for the plate and picked up the meat, thankful for the darkness because she would not have to look at the food. Taking a large breath, she took a small bite of the meat and gagged. It was sour and tough, and left a horrible taste in her mouth. Dani knew that this would be the only nourishment that the Locust would provide, so she held her nose and ate the rest.

She has spent three weeks in the cell, alone in the darkness. Everyday the butcher would enter and provide her with Rockworm meat, which she would eat without hesitation. She had grown accustomed to the locust meat, even the smell didn't bother her anymore. Once a locust had even brought her a raggedy grey cloth that she used a shirt. Dani didn't get to move around a lot in the small space, so her ribs healed quickly, leaving only the wounds on her back, which still bled from time to time. But the excruciating pain was gone, along with her total resentment toward the Locust. She was beginning to empathize for the creatures and began looking forward to their visits, any form of contact was worshipped by her. On several occasions, she hallucinated about her father, which made her anger toward him grow. In her mind, he was torturing her from beyond the grave.

One day, the door of her cell opened and Dani stood up expecting to see the Butcher. She was extremely confused when the high ranking Kantus, Repto entered her cell. She hadn't seen him since he tortured her, and a sense of anger washed over her. He was the Locust who had struck her brother, her brother who was trying to save her.

"Cooomeeee," he hissed in his deadly voice, and Dani obeyed knowing what the Kantus was capable of. She followed him out of her cell, stopping to stretch her legs that were extremely stiff. He waited patiently for the girl, which made Dani suspicious. Over the past three weeks, she had wondered why the Locust were keeping her alive, and now they were being patient with her. It made no sense to Dani.

She followed him toward a group a prisoners who stared curiously at Dani. They were chained together, bruised and frightened, much like she had been her first night in the Hollow. Her confusion became stronger, why did Repto bring her here? Repto went into the crowd of the prisoners and unchained a small girl, no older than three years old. Her mother screamed as her child was taken away from her and placed beside a Drone with a hammer burst. Repto the signalled toward a group a Drones, and then an anorexic looking man was thrown to the ground at Dani's feet. He was extremely skinny, bald and covered in scars an wounds. The man looked up at Dani, and her heart raced as she stared into her brothers eyes.

Repto handed her a Snub Pistol, stolen from the COG and hissed, "You kill him, or I kill both of them." He gestured toward Deryk and the little girl.

Dani let out a small whimper and legs began shaking as she was told of the ultimatum. Everything made sense now. The Locust were keeping her alive as part of sick game of Repto's. He saw how they would risk their lives for each other, and wanted to see how far he could push their love for one another. He wanted to turn her into a monster, just like him.

The tears began streaming down her face and she said, "I can't, I can't do it." Repto cocked his own pistol and pointed it toward the little girls head, and her mother howled.

"Please!" she begged, "Please! I'll do anything!"

"Danielle," Deryk whispered, holding onto his sisters ankle. She bent down and stared at her brother in the eyes, the beauty of the hazel colour making her feel slightly warm.

"Danielle, you have to do it," he said to his sister, "I'm going to die anyway, I would rather my last memory be of you, instead of some Locust bastard. Save the little girl."

"I can't do it Deryk.." she sobbed, "You're my brother, I can't ki-"

"Danielle!" he yelled cutting her off, "Do it!"

The Locust and the prisoners watched the two siblings have their moment together. Dani was crying her heart out as she ran her hand over brothers face, knowing what she would have to do. She stood up and pointed the pistol at her brother, her hand shaking.

"I love you," she sobbed.

He gave her his famous smirk and said, "I love you too."

"I'm so sorry," she cried, before pulling the trigger. His lifeless body lay limp on the floor, his grasp on her ankle gone. Dani collapsed, sobbing intensely , beside her brothers dead body, She buried her head in his chest, refusing to believe he was no longer in there.

"Deryk..." she whimpered refusing to let go of him. The silence that filled the hollow was disrupted by the deafening sound of a gun being fired. Dani shot her head up and felt the horror consume her when she saw the little girl fall to the ground, dead.

Repto stood over the body of the young girl and laughed at Dani who was attempting to control her growing rage. The mother of the girl had collapsed and was out cold, the other prisoners were trying to revive her. The tears had stopped flowing from her eyes, her anger was eating her alive. She stared back at Repto, the desire to spill his blood was overwhelming. She raised the snub pistol that was still in her hand and pointed it at Repto with a sick smile on her face. Aiming it at his face, she pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

She immediately felt like an idiot, they had only put one bullet in the gun, "Fuck," she said backing away from the angry Kantus. Repto held his pistol in his hand and walked over to Dani, striking her across the face and knocking her out.

When she awoke, she was reminiscent of her first night with the Locust. She was angry and afraid, but this time she was determined. She wanted Repto dead, even if she lost her own life in the process. He was a demon among monsters, a predator who not only physically attacks his prey, but also psychology destroys them. She sat on the far side of the dark cell and watched the door, waiting for the butcher to come in with her daily meal. She planned to run past him and find Repto, expect she had no idea where Repto would be.

After hours of planning how she would kill the Kantus leader, the door of the cell opened and light spilled into the dark enclosure. Dani stood up to greet the Butcher, but gasped when she saw Repto standing there, with the whip in his hands. He walked into the cell and grabbed her leg, pulling her roughly out of the cell. She kicked and screamed at the top of her lungs, but had no affect on the large creature. He threw her to the ground and got the whip ready. Thinking fast, Dani searched his body for a weak spot in his armour. Using all of her strength, she kicked him in the inner thigh beside his crotch, and he let out a high screech. She kicked him again, on his other inner thigh and watched as he fell to his knees, dropping the whip. Knowing she had a limited amount of time, Dani got to her feet and planned to run away, but a new idea came to her head. Acting quickly, Dani picked up the whip he had dropped and wrapped it around Repto's neck twice. The Kantus thrashed violently in front of her, so she placed her feet on his shoulders and pulled as hard as she could. He stood up and stumbled, his arms flailing, trying the get the girl off of his back. His vulnerability only made her pull on the whip harder, the spikes piercing his neck. The creature gasped for air, making absolutely no noise, while Dani's arms shook from the stress of the whip. Eventually, Repto stopped struggling and fell forward onto his knees. He clawed at the whip around his neck, before falling completely on his stomach, the armour clanging once it came into contact with the ground.

Dani didn't let go of the whip, fearing he would regain conscientiousness the moment she let go. She pulled for several minutes before finally letting go and accepting that the Kantus was dead. She panted heavily, completely taken back by the fact that the monstrous creature was simply flesh and blood, much like herself. The sound of footsteps made her jump and she turned around the see the Butcher holding her daily meal, utterly shocked at the sight of Repto's dead body. They stared at each other intently, before the Butcher moved to the left to reveal the door he came out of. Dani was unsure what was happening, so the Butcher gestured toward herself, and then toward the door. Her eyes widened at the realization that Butcher was helping her escape. She stepped toward to enormous locust who turned its back on her and opened the door. She followed the butcher through to a place in the hollow near the kitchen, where the wall had a number of holes larger enough to fit a person. Rockworm holes. The butcher pointed toward one the holes, and then stared at Dani. She looked at the dark hole and a shiver went down her back, it was sketchy, but she had no other choice. Getting down on her hands and knees, she stared into the dark space and swallowed hard.

"Thank you," she said to the Butcher, and then began crawling into the darkness. After spending three weeks alone in the dark, she was used to it. As she crawled, she thought about the Butcher who had helped her escape, she couldn't believe that locust were capable of acting that way. But the more she thought about it, she realized they were all just following orders, it was the Queen who had made them this way. It was the locust like Repto who weren't just following orders, but wanted to cause pain for their own entertainment that Dani resented.

She crawled for at least an hour, before seeing light at the end of the tunnel. She stuck her head out of the hole and looked around, no one was here. She crawled out of the tunnel and stood up, thankful to finally be able to stand on her two feet. The ground was slanted, so that meant that following the ground upwards would lead her somewhere. She walked as quietly as she could through the hollow and felt her heart leap when she saw light. Ignoring her attempts at silence, Dani ran as fast as she could toward the opening of the Hollow, finding herself amidst a group of stranded. They all stared at her, but she couldn't care less. The shining sun was warm and the freedom was intoxicating.