Battle Royale

Chapter 1

The sky outside was slowly growing darker, the sun was falling over a red horizon, and the 16 students sat in the bus, unaware of the imminent peril drawing closer them with every mile they passed. Sigrund Kotvik (Student No. 11) smiled as his friend, Roth Cobalt (Student No. 5) cracked a joke about their aging teacher, Mr. Falk. It was the day of the overnight graduation field trip, the 9th grade class was going to spend the night in the Marine Research Center on Wilson Island, a 5 hour drive out of town by bus.

Roth looked to the front of the bus, making sure Mr. Falk hadn't heard the joke about his somewhat annoying ability to go on about any irrelevant topic during class. Roth was a slim boy with sharp blue eyes and black hair in a crew cut. Though he didn't have many good friends in the class, most of his classmates liked him, simply because of his abilities to lead, and his witty sense of humor.

Sigrund (or Siggi, as he liked to be called) was in the window seat next to Roth. His hair was yellow-blond and swept back with a moderate amount of hair gel. He was, for the most part, an easy-going, honest boy. He was a solid B+ student, and played soccer in the fall but not much else, one of the only things about him that stood out was the fact that he had four siblings, one of them his twin sister in the class, Ragga.

Across the aisle Amet Danrus (Student No. 6) was sitting with his legs in the space between their seats, leaning towards Roth making snide remarks about their other teachers. While he could be hot headed, Amet was a generally casual person. He had mild acne, angled eyebrows, and curly black hair that always looked like it was just a little bit in need of a cut. He was an unusually questioning boy,which could get him in trouble at times.

A chorus of laughter came from the front of the bus. Amet glanced forward at the five students leaning out in the aisle, talking excitedly with one another. Aurelia Blacklace, (Student No. 3) Sapphire Godgale, (Student No. 8) Ben McCarthy, (Student No. 12) Essej Rehceeb, (Student No. 13) and Xander Todd (Student No. 16) were the 5 students who were, in Amet's opinion, the most shallow and irritating. Ben was a show-off, Essej was obnoxious, Sapphire was stuck up, etc. And it just happened that the five of them were best friends, which made them all the more aggravating to Amet.

Just a seat back from the 3 boys were Raggavelta, or "Ragga" Kotvik (Student No. 10, Siggi's twin sister) and Aludol Isarne (Student No. 9, who, for some reason, liked to be called Sairah.) Physically, at least, the two girls were complete opposites. Ragga had fair skin and hair that was blond, like her brother's, that framed her small face,and was so long it reached a few inches past her hips. Sairah, on the other hand, was a dark-complexioned, girl with a buzz cut and a mysterious knife scar stretching from her right temple to her jaw. Anyone could tell you she was the most muscular person in the whole class.

But the two girls were completely inseparable, and had been best friends for the past 3 years. They conversed softly, Ragga was grinning.

Across from them sat Tamwell Alexander, (Student No. 1, also known as Tam,) and Markus Bennet. (Student No. 2) The two of them were both quiet, and kept to themselves, so most of the people in the class didn't know them too well. But from what Siggi could tell, they seemed like they were nice guys.

Two seats behind the two pairs of friends three girls were sitting. Daina Thorlacius, (Student No. 15) Lacey Diaz, (Student No. 7) and Camille Cho (Student No. 4)

Daina was a short girl with dirty blond hair and what Siggi thought was too much eyeliner. A few years back, he'd been practically in love with her, although now he couldn't fathom why he'd liked her at all. She was plainly too loud, too in-your-face, almost too confident, which threw a lot of people off.

If there was a rebel in Mr. Falk's class, it was Lacey. Lacey always had her dark hair in a ponytail, and was well liked by exactly none of her teachers. She had a silver stud in her left nostril, thick, straight eyebrows and a sarcastic disposition. She'd made a point to let everyone know in one way or another that she wasn't to be messed with.

The quietest girl in the group was Camille Cho. Her glossy black hair went to about the middle of her back, and whenever she looked at you she always seemed to be studying you deeply, trying to find something out. It was common knowledge in the class that she had crush on Roth, although it seemed he himself was the only one oblivious to it.

And seated in the very back of the bus was Nasrene Solomon, (Student No. 14) all alone. There was nobody more gossiped about in the class than Nasrene. A tall girl with mocha colored skin, she was silent and still, so much that it was almost unnerving. She hid her dark, cold eyes behind a mass of black hair, and rarely responded when people talked to her. Siggi had heard a lot of things about her. Some people said she'd been abused as a child, others that she was depressed, or even a psychopath. All Siggi knew was that had never, not once seen her smile.

"Hey! Siggi!" He turned around to see his sister, kneeling on her seat. "Do you have those cookies Varith made?"

Varith, one of their holder sisters, had baked the twins some peanut butter cookies for them to eat on the trip. Siggi had them in his backpack. "Yeah, I-"

Tam, Markus, Sairah, Roth, and Amet all suddenly perked up. "Cookies?" Amet asked.

Siggi put his face in his hands and laughed. "Now I have to give cookies to everyone Ragga."

Roth grinned as Siggi reluctantly unzipped his backpack. He pulled out a lump of tinfoil and began unwrapping it. He distributed one cookie to everyone that was sitting near him, including himself, and wrapped the two remaining cookies back up in the foil. 

"These are real good." Markus said as he wiped crumbs off his face with the back of his hand.

"Yeah," Sairah agreed

"Varith is a pretty good cook." Ragga said.

The sun sank further as the students kept talking, excited for the night ahead of them.

But it was around 7:30 when Lacey saw something was off. Everyone was asleep. Sure, she knew a few people that liked to sleep that early, but not everyone in the class, and certainly not on the night of a school trip. Looking around, she stood up in front of her seat. The students were slumped over each other, like they'd all of a sudden passed out.  Her eyes locked on the rear view mirror. The bus driver was wearing an oxygen mask. We're being gassed? What kind of fucked up field trip is this? She looked around and sluggishly tried to wake up Daina, but she felt herself getting weaker. No, I have to be strong! I have to...I have to...