Numbers That Follows

chapter 7

 It was a circle field with bleachers all around. About Halfway on one of the longer sides was a box. Armin was sitting inside waving for us to come sit with him.

"Did you girls have fun?" Armin asked

We nodded our heads, I had an amazing time. Slowly I started feeling guilty and a pit formed in my stomach. I shouldn't be having fun. I left all the others behind. I got away and they were left fighting for their lives. I stood up for them for so long and then just up and left them. I abandoned my friends. I abandoned my pack.

"Are you okay?" Armin placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Of course I'm just a little tired, that's all." I lied.

Armin seemed to have bought my lie because he dropped the subject. I pushed the guilt away and turned my attention to the arena. It was a round field with a group of guys getting warmed up in the center. I could see Flint was setting up something away from the group. James and Beric were warming up with the rest of the guys. Flint moved from what he was doing and had a mike in his hand.

"Thank you all for coming to this year's guard cup. We Had about 60 candidates this year, during the games and events we had the qualifier rounds. Everyone left is now officially in the guard. All that's left is to find the top five. We will start with a bracket system once you lose your out. Last 5 standing will be the five you can however challenge one of the five for their spot." Flint paused "first up James and Neven."

James and some other guy came into the center field. Once the bell rang it took about 20 seconds for James to beat the one guy. When the last match ended the crowd yelled and cheered for the five finalists. Flint shook the hands of all the five.

"As of right now the five finalists are James, Beric, Thraxal, Zion, and Ramos. At this time are there any challengers that think that they deserve the position more than these five?" Flint's questioning voice rang through the arena.

Everyone looked around trying to see if any one wanted to challenge them. The whole stadium was silent. To be honest I did want to see a challenge. I thought it would be cool to see what it was like. But By the looks of it no one thought they could beat the men standing in the arena.

"Looks like there are no challenges at this time. So with that, the festival and activities will continue till the party tonight." Flint dismissed everyone.

Slowly everyone started to get up from their seats and disperse. Armin and Arrah started getting ready to go as well. I in turn followed suit. We started toward the middle of the arena. When we got close I could see the boys all talking.

"Hey!" Arrah yelled toward them. "You guys didn't do half as bad as I thought."

"So glad you have so much faith in us." James walked over and nudged her.

They all laughed, it was a nice moment. I stood off to the side behind Armin. They let me in but I still felt out of place.

"You must be One?" I was pulled from my thoughts.

I looked up but couldn't tell who spoke.

"What?" I asked.

"You must be One, right?" Zion asked, "I'm Zion."

"Yeah that's me." I answered.

"I have heard you're talented ." He responded.

"Not sure that's the word I would use, Legendary that's the word I would use" Thraxal commented.

I started to get more uncomfortable. I looked at the ground, not quite sure what to say. Then as if on cue Arrah decided to butt in.

"Well, good job guys, you did great. Me and One are going to get ready for tonight. So we are going to bounce and see you tonight." Arrah grabbed my hand and started walking away.