Ascension

Chapter 2: Test 1

  I heard static above me and saw a fake tower in the sky with a huge speaker on the bottom. A voice boomed through the speaker, loud enough for people to hear miles from here, “Welcome contestants! Have you waited long? Our hundredth contestant has finally arrived in this Test, so it is time to begin. As you can see, you’re in an open field, but there’s no one, right? That is because the Test hasn’t started yet!”

  His voice was annoying to my ears. It was too high to belong to a guy’s, and the way he spoke was like treating these Tests as a game for children. It was nothing like I would expect in a place like this.

  “Now, I will explain the rules for Test 1. It’s quite simple. The Test will end once there are only half of the contestants left, which is fifty, and you may use whatever means necessary to do so. Simple, right? And there’s no time limit! Well, maybe a little bit because we don’t have all day as more contestants are being brought in every few minutes. Okay! Let’s start in five…”

  This Test required to kill or to be killed.

  “Four…”

  Or did it have to be like that?

  “Three…”

  Teammates. I should find teammates.

  “Two…”

  But then, who could I trust? Should I just hide?

  “One… Start!”

  Immediately, all at once, people appeared like stars on a clear night, wearing similar clothing as mine, but in different colors. Some clothes made them easy targets while others camouflaged them in the tall grass. Along with their clothes, each had their own weapon Ocaedien provided for them before they proceeded to the Tests.

  One attempted to kill me, but fell short as she was shot in the head – the blood spraying out and splattering across my face and clothes. I screeched from the sudden blow, nearly tripping on my own feet as I backed out and hid within the grass. First thing first, I needed to find a place to camp out and to make a plan. I couldn’t just aimlessly stroll around and shoot. I was sure there were people who were trained in situations like these.

  I ran through the grass, hearing shouts, screams, bullets being shot, metal clanking against metal, but the sound that conquered all was the silence that followed after someone died. It was terrible to imagine the gruesome actions before their death. Already, I had to kill someone. What kind of Test was this? Since when was killing so important to determine whether we could proceed or not?

  The sounds began to fade the farther I went, but I knew if I kept running, I would hit the end of the building. After all, this wasn’t an actual field. Where I was should be enough. I took a short break and recollected the images and sounds I saw and heard earlier.

  That woman was trying to kill me, and in return, she was killed cold blooded. She was a stranger to me, but to someone else, she was probably a daughter or someone’s sister. She was too young to be a mother; that I could tell. And the way her eyes widened in surprise as she was murdered stained my mind and caused shivers to run up my spine. I was never good at handling death especially in a situation like this.

  I caught my breath and tried to calm myself down. This was the first time to see someone be killed in front of me, but I couldn’t let that phase me. I had to continue onwards. I had to win this and achieve…

  “So, we weren’t the only ones running, huh, Sis?” A voice said from behind me.

  I spun around and pulled out my twin guns, pointing it towards the voice. No matter how much I didn’t want to kill anyone right now, I really couldn’t drop my guard at times like these. Humans were fairly unpredictable, and it would be difficult to trust someone with this Test in session.