Scarlet in Glezentine

Chapter 10 - Hunting

The girls huddled around to where the king was standing, looking tired, but overall fine. 

Then a loud voice says "Congratulations! Great job to all those who finished, or not. Here are the scores to those who finished the entire track. In third is Sally W. In second is Alex N. And first place goes to Scarlet S. The runners up are Jamie S. and Sam N." The crowd cheers loudly. "I've turned off and stopped all the traps including the tree teethers, rolling boulders, and the holes in the ground. Now we're all going to find and count the dead."

He walks off the stage, and starts walking towards the finish line, and everyone follows.

I think about what he said, or didn't say. The arrows. He probably just forgot to say it. Yeah that's it. He forgot. But what if he forgot to turn them off?

"Scarlet?" asks Caroline. "What's your guess?"

I definitely missed something. I think they had a whole conversation when we were walking. I see there are some bodies in the cart, and multiple people limping beside it.

"Scarlet?" Caroline repeats.

Oh right. "Um, it's ... going to be ... 3? Yup. 3. That's my answer." I say, trying to sound confident. They just look at me, confused.

"I asked who do you think is going to win, James or Adam. What's your guess?"

Ooh. That makes much more sense. "Well, I'm not sure," I say, thinking that "3" sounded much smarter.

A big banner catches my eye up ahead. The halfway point! I speed up slightly and others do too. Then I notice that it's not halfway, it's the starting line! It went by faster than I thought it would.

The king goes over and stands on a big stage. Those things are everywhere! I think, as he goes and clears his throat. A bell chimes overhead and I have to cover my ears from the noise. It's way louder in person.

Once everyone is here, the king continues. "Next is the challenge for Princess Caroline. It's the Hunting Range! Please Listen! Only the top 20 people can move onto the next challenge. Is that clear?" He asks. 

"Those 20 will be the strongest, fastest, and smartest of them all. Not everyone will live, so the goal is to survive the night, but also to shoot the most targets. That includes animals, people, and the targets that were made for this exact reason. You'll know it once you see it." The king looks at his wrist. "It begins at 8:30. In an hour. It starts at the edge of the forest. Go!"

Did I hear him right? 8:30 is in an hour? That means it's 7:30 already!

I look up at the sky. The sun is shining into the horizon, so it is still quite bright out. Something is different. I don't know how to explain it, but the time feels... wrong. Like it's actually supposed to be way later than it actually is.

I shake myself out of the thought when I see a familiar house with a bright blue door.

James lets himself in, gesturing for us to come inside too. We follow him and Sid down at the table.

"I'm going to get changed," says James as he runs up the stairs.

Only now I notice Adam's not here. I instantly feel bad for the thought, but asked anyway, "Where'd Adam go?"

"To his own house. Right next door, actually."

It was only moments before the front door opened, and Adam stepped through, wearing dark clothing, perfect for hunting at night. James on the other hand, is taking forever. What was taking so long? Was he taking a bath or something? 

After what felt like an hour but was no more than 15 minutes, he finally made it back down stairs. He, like Adam, has on a dark outfit with good running shoes.

We all get out of the house and start walking back to where I'd finished my race.

"How far is the forest?" I asked no one in particular.

James is the one who answers. "It's about 15 minutes from where you finished, so about half an hour from here."

"Half an hour?!" I say, surprised. "Then we need to go faster!"

"It's fine." Caroline assured me. "They'll be on time."

We get there with 10 minutes left to spare, and I see lots of people, and although most of them aren't going to participate, I can tell who will. They wear dark clothes, or camouflage. Most wear all black.

James and Adam slip off and join the line to get checked off the list, and scanned to make sure they didn't bring anything with them.

I see a few people get scanned, and the scanner beeped. They had to take out everything and anything, then get scanned again.

Both James and Adam are fine. After getting scanned, they go to another line, this one smaller, at a table filled with weapons. There are a few swords, but mostly arrows.

When they take one, they also put on the number sticker that's attached to it. Adam gets #16 and James gets #31.

They also get something that looks like a head camera. And once they put it on, two images appear in their number square on a big screen that I hadn't noticed before. One image showed what was in front of him, one showed what was behind him.

Everyone stands on the starting line, waiting to go in.

A few minutes later, all of the competing boys appear out of nowhere, and the king starts talking. "Welcome to the second challenge for Princess Caroline! This is the Hunting Range, where you'll be sent in five at a time, depending on how you scored the last time. Does this make sense? Good. We'll be starting off with Dozer N, Samson S, Joe W, Henry N, and the other Joe W. On your mark, get set, go!"

Everyone cheers as the five contestants take off towards the trees in every direction.

I stop listening to the King until I hear James and Adam's names get called. They step up to the line, and go. I intensely watch both of their numbers on the screen. 

Before writing this online, I've been writing this on paper. When Caroline says "They'll be in time." it's the bottom of page 30! So...Many.....Pages! *Internally crying*