Survivalist Island

Chapter 1

 I live in SunSet, one of the five districts. I was born and raised in this little district, where everyone is a farmer, coal miner, or a store owner. I live in one of the poorest districts. The district of NightRise is the poorest, currently, and the district of MorningSet it the richest district of the five. My name? Sky Shaymin. I am a woman who was born and raised as an Atheist, but at the age 15, I changed my views on religion, and I converted to Islam. I am now currently 19 years old, still living with my mom and dad, in the district of SunSet.

Our districts are contained inside the country of Aglen. The capital, Caplen, is in the center of the country, surrounded by the five districts, SunSet, NightRise, MidNight, NoonLight, MorningRise. The five districts agreed, long ago, that a contest shall be held, every four year, to decide which district shall have control of the entire country. This ensures peace for the districts, and for the past 24 years, the district of NightRise has been in power with their leader, Don Pruett.

President Pruett has an approval rating of 89% in NightRise district, but in the other districts, his approval rating is less than 15%. His decisions for the country only benefits the NightRise district and makes the other districts more poor, forcing NightRise to rise to the top. Pruett has been accused for rigging the four-year event to help the people from NightRise.

The four-year event doesn't officially have a name but is universally known as Survivalist Island. This is because each district volunteers three different people to go and participate on the island. These people are then forced to go through challenges and then who ever loses the challenge, will be killed as soon as they get to the finish line. Then after each challenge, there is a vote, to see who will have a disadvantage in the next challenge. Then the cycle is repeated, every other day, until only one person is left. This, in my opinion, is a very gruesome way of deciding on which district shall control the country. I would think it would be more easy to just having a vote from all people to vote on a leader, but this is the best we have.

I still remember the day that my brother was taken to the Island, he lasted for the first three rounds, but then he received the most votes after the fourth challenge. Our family mourned for him for weeks after the event ended. We all were affected by the island, and swore that if anyone of us were ever taken to the island, we would resist being taken away from our family, our freedom, our life.

I sat there, on my bed, thinking of what could happen the next week. Could I be taken onto the Island? Will any of my friends or family be taken onto the Island? Every four years these thoughts crowded my mind this fear of being taken, this fear of death. The fear of the unknown.

"What's wrong?" asked Alex, which is my Dad.

"Well, it's just..." I kept thinking of the fears I had, about the Island, "just next week, I fear that one of you will be taken onto the island, that your life might be taken, from that greedy bastard, Pruett."

He then put his arm around me, comforting me. "It'll be okay, we aren't going anywhere. We will always be here for you. Supporting you and protecting you from anything harmful."

This was a lot for me to take in, this... this island survival game is just, so cruel, so inhuman. This is the first time I'm really thinking that I will be taken, because only people from 13 to 21 years old are admitted onto the Island, and the older you are, the more likely you are to be taken onto the Island. This will be the last time I will have a chance to be taken onto the Island, with that in mind, I fear for my life, more than ever before.

I kept wondering, throughout the night. I wondered if the whole Island thing will be over, someday. The Island is one of death and greed, but a revolution hasn't happened yet because of the people liking the games. It is shown to the people as the contestants going through challenges and who ever lost, gets a minor injury, but since my brother died on the Island, because of the challenges, they told us the truth of it, and told us not to tell anyone about it.