The Harvest

Chapter 5: False Threats

      

       I rushed into class right on time. I had no idea why they were making us take all these classes when most of us were going to die at the end anyways. I sat down beside Emily.

    "Where the Hell have you been!" Emily whispered.

     "I-I got lost."

      "How can you get lost with a GPS watch?"

     "I don't know how to use it."

     She sighed
     "I won't ask but whatever your hiding be careful Death is a mercy in this place."

I nodded. This classroom was different than the last. There was an arena at the center of the room. A male teacher walked into the arena and spoke. About 7 feet or so from us.

"This is where your second test will be." I heard a few excited, and fearful gasps around the room.

"We will train here over the course of this month all day after your first class until the real test. At the end you will all fight the captain of security, until you die or capture the flag attached to his back. The only catch is, he will have no weapons and you will all get one of your choosing." There were a few looks of confusion around the room, it sounded so easy.

"Would anyone like to volunteer to go into the arena first, to practice?" Silence.

"Alright you, short haired girl with the red streaks." He pointed to Emily. She let out an annoyed puff of air and headed to the center of the arena. Emily seemed confident enough in her abilities until the opponent walked into the arena.

    "This is the captain of security, Blake Herrison. But you will refer to him as sir." He looked straight at me and I had to keep my mouth from hitting the floor."
    Blake, the United States Army general was the Captain of security??? Was he going to hurt Emily?

     Without warning, the fight began. Blake lunged for Emily. She tried to escape but it was too late his rock of a fist collided with her face. She turned trying to catch her breath revealing the nasty bruise on her face. She then threw a punch at him but he simply grabbed her fist and flipped her, slamming into the ground.

     "Who's next?" The teacher looked straight at me.

   "How about our late student?" Some medics helped Emily out of the arena as I hesitantly walked to the center of the room. On my way to the arena I noticed a quick glance between Emily, on the bench, and Blake, I never would have noticed if I hadn't been so close. But I did. Did they know each other??? Did I miss something, he just punched her in the face but the way they looked at each other...like they were old friends.

   I looked up to Blake. Was he really going to beat me up. I looked away for a moment and that's when I spotted him. Calumn! Sitting right in the front row, he wore a disguise but I could recognize his eyes anywhere. He gave me an amused smirk and his eyes...they lit up? They were glowing. We were both frozen. My body it was as if I was possessed. I couldn't think straight. I could feel my eyes glowing too. Then Blake lunged for me. As if it was an instinct I stepped aside. Then my body was moving of its own accord. Throwing punches kicks and dodging like I'd done it my whole life.  Blake paused a moment and looked at me suspiciously.
       "It seems you've done this before."
     The words that came out weren't my own. They came out of my mouth and it was my voice b-but- they just weren't my words.

     "Maybe I have. You wanna play pretty boy, 'cause I'm pretty good at teaching lessons."

       And then, it was like a dance. Punches, kicks, swerves, I was doing things I knew I'd never learned.
      After a few more minutes of this I was on the verge of collapsing. Suddenly, I felt the grasp of control over me relinquish and sudden fear washed over me. I realized now that Blake was looking directly at Calumn. He turned towards me and surprised me when he said,
      "That's enough for now. I think you've proven yourself capable enough." Just like that I was dismissed. My body still trembling. Trying to recover from what just happened. I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead and took my seat next to Emily again. She seemed to know something had happened. "That bastard. He totally mind grabbed you."
Emily's eyes narrowed,
"Well at least nothing's broken."

    "I-I got what? I thought that stuff was just a myth."

     "Nope. You got lucky too, It seems you've found favor with the prince somehow, and I think everyone knows it."

    Why though? Why would the prince help me when I had literally hit him in the balls? What could make me stand out among the crowd of girls? I couldn't tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Did he have a fetish for pain or something? Creep. All I know is I would've been toast out there without him.

Emily looked at me seriously, and I could see the cold hard fear in her eyes. The fear not for herself, but for me.
     "Be careful little danger magnet, this could make your life a whole lot harder. And not just from the other contestants."

    "I'll be fine. Whatever happens I just know I'm gonna make it out alive. Or at least make my death mean something."

      "Just be careful not to drag too many people down with you."

And after a few more girls got some nasty injuries, class ended. We had a twenty minute break and then we would all work with individual tutors. I think that class left a lot of people shaken up, especially some of the younger ones because I heard some girls crying in the hall. I was the only one who exited the arena completely unscathed.
     I went to the gathering hall where we were supposed to 'mingle'. It was just a small room with some couches and two TVs. I don't really know what they expected us to do in there for twenty minutes really. After the first scare of the morning. I think it was just meant to relieve stress for some of the other girls. However, the more I thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. They hadn't cared about our health or state of mind before, so I don't see why they would now. I decided not to think about it and try to sleep for my twenty minutes. As soon as I sat down on the couch ,however, I noticed some walking, blonde, threats headed my way.

    She looked exactly like one of those, I follow all the society rules so they owe me, sort of attitude. She stood in front of me with her cliche little posse.
      "Hi, my names Amanda, I thought I'd introduce myself." Her fake smile was dripping with honey, but I could tell it was laced with cyanide.
       "Hi Amanda. Can I help you?"
        "Actually yes you can. Zoey here saw that little charade you pulled in the hall, and we just wanted to let you know that the chances of your survival are like 0 to none"
      "Thanks for the info, I'll make sure to worry myself to sleep with it."
    "Well I think you should know my mom was a high class society official, and we worked with the royal family, like, all the time so we have a major advantage over you."
      "Look I appreciate you coming over here telling me how dead I'm gonna be later, but I'm just trying to survive. Just like most of the girls here. I didn't ask for this, and the sick ones that did ask to be a part of this littler game can go be excited in your own little corner that 19 people will be dead by then end of this."
Her face paled and I knew the comment hit home. The girls all looked each other with a moment of realization. High official kid or not, we'd all been exposed to the harshness of the system.
She, well should I say, 'ran off to her little corner', and I was finally able to take my nap. Little did I know this would decision would come back to bite me in the butt.