before the beyond | ziall boyxboy

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Song of the chapter: From Eden- Hozier

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Cheers echo through the arena as they ran, knives in hand and cuts through their flesh as their bare feet slapped against the gravelled terrain. Chants of names and screams of joy and pain heard throughout the arena, from runners and spectators. One boy fell, collapsing under his own weight and tumbling forward across the stones, skin shed and knife discarded as he scrapes along the path; the others barely cast an eye towards him. Zayn remembered him as the boy who never quite managed to keep up, a liability in the team and a nuisance to their survival. He would be stabbed or starved and that would be that.

The ovations picked up as the boy's body was collected by one of the officiators, who sedated the lad and picked up his grimy, skin and bone body and slung it over his shoulder without a care, letting his head hang awkwardly and his most likely broken ankle smite against the man's back.

But that's how it was, the way it always had been. As far as Zayn knew, anyway.

Liam was by far the strongest, and slashed through the wolves belly with his knife when it pounced, ducking under and turning to create a gushing gash in the dark creature's hind leg. Blood spilled but he paid no mind to it, watching another boy on his team stab the creature between the eyes and effectively end it's life with very little remorse. He turned to Zayn, the only person he had got to know since he arrived, and awaited for the signal of where to go next.

"We need to head left, there is another wolf somewhere nearby so be careful and look out for a red stone in the path." He huffed, flicking some of his jaggedly cut fringe from his eyes and tucking away the holographic map he had been given before the run. Liam nodded to him, quickly glancing to the other four boys in his team to check their knives were still clutched safely in their hands before turning on his heel and tearing away again. Their legs ached and protested with every step, muscles straining and bulging against their wound ridden skin as they went; cameras focusing on their worn out faces and injuries.

They moved swiftly despite the cuts and stones in their feet and the heat on their bare shoulders and backs. Managing to fight off two more wolves with no more than a rough maul to the forearm for one of the boys, the crowd had settled somewhat, knowing that the team had made it through yet another run. But the lads didn't slow down, they held their pace throughout and changed from path to path in search of the red tile in the flooring. "We're on the wrong side of the arena, Liam!" Zayn yelled out to their leader, holding the device beaming up a map shakily in one hand and his knife in the other, "If we don't turn around now we'll run out of time."

All six of the boys darted through the maze like structure in search of a turning to the left, managing to find a craggily fitted one soon enough and shuffling their way through, The walls were uneven and cut through their skin as they shimmied through the gap. Thin trickles of blood streaming down their torsos and limbs; dirt and dust gathering in the wounds as they continued through the passage way. Their feet ached and their lungs screamed in protest, but as soon as they scrambled out, they were sprinting again in search of red. Liam's throat felt like sandpaper, the need for water to quench his immense thirst great but that would only come once they had finished.

;

Zayn's body sagged against the rugged wall of his room as he sat down. His team acting similarly, pulling stones from their sliced up feet and breathing ruggedly in an attempt to catch their breath and rest. Their ribs could be counted with the little they were fed and their stomachs were muscular but caving in with malnourishment. They wore only pants, and their legs were fatless and strong from all the running.