Battle Royale #3 1st place winner Samael.

This round of Battle Royale was a writing contest with a twist. The writer was to use 1000 words to inspire a scene, the winner of the BR would have their scene drawn as the prize. Samael came in first with a hellish punishment for Brown.

The following is the 1000 story Samael submitted.

Repetition by Samael

Brown ran and ran, through broken streets and blasted out buildings and twisting tunnels that never seemed to end. The hamster and former dictator could not recall how he had gotten here, in this cityscape under a pitch black empty sky. The city was wrecked and gray, the wind didn't blow, and all was quiet save for his own scrabbling and exertion. A few city lights still worked against all logic, creating islands of light in a sea of dark. But it was far too dangerous to make oneself so visible here. He was not alone, although he wished he was. The only plush in this land of dust and ruin perhaps, but not the only life. That thing saw to that.

He flung himself over a mound of rubble, and hunched behind a rusted out dumpster, forcing his heavy breathing to be quiet. He wanted to keep running, but he was no athlete and needed to stop and rest or he’d wear himself out too fast. That thing kept following him, and it's intent was clear. Days it had chased Brown...or at least the small plush assumed it was days, impossible to be sure when the sky was always black. He was hungry, tired, and had no idea how to get out of this place. No water, nor food, nor any help at all could be found. Brown found himself missing his lavish accommodations, he had gotten use to a rich lifestyle. What had happened to that lifestyle anyway? He strained to recall his last memories before this place. That troublemaker Fox...he entered the facility along with Grey, they found Katt, did something, and then Brown...ah, why could he not remember? All would have to wait, getting away was the f-

It ripped into Browns hide before he knew it was there, sending his blood to the ground in a spray of red gore. But despite piercing through him Brown didn't die at once. In fact it took him a long time to die, it saw to that. His screams echoed in the cold empty cityscape. But eventually, his body could take no more and he escaped the red torment for the black silence of death. At least it was over; at least he could stop now...

---

Brown snuck through the shadows, making not a sound. If he could hide himself perhaps that thing would leave him alone and he could get out of here. How had he gotten here anyway? The memory would just not come.

He clung to the shadows and made himself as small as he could, not hard when you consider his size. Briefly he wondered what happened to this city, it was like a bomb hit it, but not a single body in sight. Wait, is that? Yes, it's here. Hold still, it can't see you, it can't-

In the next instant Brown was being held against the wall by the thing. The instant after, he popped like a grape.

---

Brown breathed heavily, standing in a beam of light. A thing had chased him through this blasted out city for days now, and he was out of options. He didn't know how he got here, but unless he stopped this thing he would not get out.

With that thought, that thing came around the corner. "Come on! Come and get me!" Brown shouted with as much force as his tiny frame could manage. It obliged, and advanced. Brown tried not to bolt as the twisted form closed in on the little hamster. Closer, closer, it was nearly upon him. That's when Brown tugged the rope and sent half a building collapsing right on top of it. A trap days in the making buried the thing under tons of rubble. It's form vanished under the avalanche, and for a moment the silence was pierced by the sound of collapsing cityscape. Brown was even now too much a gentleman to shout for joy, but he permitted himself a smile. A smile that vanished the moment the thing popped out of the rubble like it was Styrofoam rather than a small mountain of metal and concrete.

Brown didn’t start running; he knew there was no point. It never got tired, he did, and he was in the open with nowhere to go. He was dead, he knew it. Even if that had not been the case, he felt so drained, like he had been doing this longer than just a few days, even if he could recall nothing of it. As it closed in on his exhausted form, he could only think one thing, a rather childish thought for a gentleman like him. “That’s not fair.” Perhaps it wasn’t, but the thing didn’t seem to care.

---

Brown ran and ran and ran, it caught up to him and he died.

---


Brown darted through narrow places where it could not get to him, it got to him anyway, and he died

---

Brown hid in high places where it could not reach, it climbed up and got him, and he died.

---

Brown went deep underground in the old subways, through the dirt exposed by a collapsed wall, franticly digging like a vermin to get away. Somewhere, anywhere but here! Anywhere but here, anywhere but here, anywhere but here! Then it appeared against all logic in the space to his left, and suddenly Brown was buried alive with it.

---

Brown sprinted till he dropped, it found him and he died.

---

He fought back, attacking with a hunk of pipe and desperation that should not have arisen from just a few hours of running, but some madness possessed Brown and he struck. It didn’t even seem to care, and thus he died.

---

He pleaded with it, and he died.

---

He knelt before it, and died.

---

Brown woke up in and empty, blasted out city with no idea how he got there. He promptly started screaming. He didn’t know why.

=^.^=