The Last Victor

Chapter 3

The Selection - Part 3

I know I'm anxious when I feel the wind more keenly in my eyes; it's that tearless stage when the eyes take on a sheen of water and a tension builds behind them. I need to shake it off.

Now is not the time or place for tears.

I feel fingers lace between mine, giving my hand a firm squeeze.

Closing my eyes, I release a deep breath I didn't know I was holding and let my body relax by his touch.

"I'm sorry."

"I know," Asher gives my hand another squeeze. "It's okay."

"Is—is Danny alright?" I gulp, my words coming out unsteady.

"Yeah, he's okay. I found him when they were taking us all up here. He's a couple rows behind us right now."

I turn over my shoulder and search the crowd of blue until I lock eyes with a familiar face.

Feeling a weight being lift off me, I finally feel like I could catch a proper breath.

"Thank you." I turn to face Asher, giving his hand a grateful squeeze.

He gives me a warm, small smile. "Anything—"

A boy only a few sections ahead of us abruptly stands up, cutting both the announcer and Asher off whilst getting the attention of everyone inside of the arena. I recognize him to be Jeremiah, someone who I shared my Lionheart course with in school.

"You can't force us to participate! If this place was built to protect us from the outside, then why are you still sending us out there?! You're killing us off for your own pleasure!"

Remington Vaughn, the announcer, narrows his eyes at him with an amused laugh.

"I admire your bravery, there's no doubt that you fit your Lionheart title."

He pauses, before going on.

"But you know the rules as much as I do, and you know what happens to people who don't follow the guidelines." his tone turns flat, expression darkening.

"To the pit!" he nods to the guards, who immediately act on Jeremiah and pull him in the opposite direction. Everyone watches on with horror.

"Anyone else?"

Silence lingers in the air, thick and heavy.

"Good." his mouth twitches up into his signature grin, "As you all know, there are 3 people chosen from each quarter, making there eighteen total participants in the Trials."

He paces up and down the stage in a leisurely manner.

"The Trials themself are quite simple!" he shrugs, "All eighteen participants will be placed outside of the enclosure in disadvantageous conditions. You will be faced with obstacles such as Roamers, your very own competitors, and some additional surprises made by the creators."

"There will be a total of five rounds, with a minimum of three eliminations of participants in each."

"You survive, you move on to the next round. You lose, well...." he sneers, a look of malevolence taking over his features, "You'll have the same fate as your Lionheart friend Jeremiah."

He waits a moment before he continues.

"If however, you fail in anyway to finish each round or somehow manage to perish during one of the challenges, you will automatically be eliminated from that round. But under the circumstances that you all finish and survive in a given round, and there is not an automatic elimination of three, you will all go into sudden death with a vote off of the enclosures choice."