Survivors

Chapter 20: Jada

Chapter 20: Jada

          I wish the day before the match had lasted longer, but it seemed to have flown by. We all met up at breakfast and had a great time laughing and sharing stories, mostly of past fights. We went through the rest of the day just relaxing and play fighting, and also keeping our bodies fit for the next day. It just seemed like the sun rose and set in a matter of a couple of hours. I spent the night with Melissa.

          Today is my first game. We—me, Xain, and Katya—got up at around 6:30, even though the game doesn’t start until noon, to just hang out and train. We don’t know where Clay is. Xain and I are actually the first ones up. When I see him in the training area, he’s holding a box.

          “What’s that?” I ask, eyeing the long, rectangular box.

          He hands it to me. “For you.”

          I open the top off and see that it’s a sword. A long and slender sword. It has a slight curve to the tip and the handle is decorated with some kind of dark jewel. At the end of the handle are two short stings with beads attached at the end. My favorite part, it’s black and light-pink.

          “How’d you know pink was my favorite color?” I ask in glee as I twirl the blade. It’s perfect size and everything.

          “I talked to Melissa,” Xain smiles. “She thinks that you kept up with the rose for so long because of it being your favorite color.”

          “Thank you,” I hug Xain and say.

          “Already in love, I see.” We both turn to see Katya sitting in the ceiling above us on a pillar twirling a knife. It’s scary how silent she is.

          “How’d you get up there?” I ask. “And how long have you been there?”

          “I climbed up here by using some of the fake trees and ropes about a minute before you got here and followed you to Xain.” She says right before she leaps down with near cat-like agility.

          “Seen Clay?” Xain asks. Katya just wrinkles her nose as if she smelled something unpleasant.

          “What am I? The red-head keeper?” That statement made me laugh. Right then, Clay hops out from behind one of the booths. Katya throws a knife an inch from his head.

          “It’s me!” Clay yells fearfully.

          “I know,” Katya smiles, “I just don’t like you.”

          We only get about an hour of training before we are called to the pick-up zone. Abi’s there to wish us luck, and then we’re guided to a ship. The ship closes and shuts out every bit of view of what’s happening outside. A medic in a lab-coat comes up to me and draws a tiny bit of blood from me. I watch as she inserts the syringe into a large handheld device.

          “What’s that?” I ask the medic.

          “We use your DNA to track you,” she answers without looking up, “Your DNA has changed from what we have on file, so we needed to update it.”

          How could my DNA have been changed? Did Xain have something to do with it?

          The ride takes about half an hour before we feel the hovercraft touch down and the doors open up to release us. The arena looks so serene and beautiful that many of the rookies are breathless in admiration.

          “Admire while you can,” one of the fighters says, “pretty soon, the bloodshed will start.”

          “I thought it was safe,” a rookie says in response somewhere.