What are you fighting for?

1. The Game

There is this one tower from which you can look over all four areas. The city in the north, the forest in the east, the desert in the south and the lake in the west. Everything connected by the plain, round battle space in the middle.

"I knew you would come here"

Zana blinks as she looks away from her snipers scope. With her hands she pushes herself up from the dusty ground she was laying on.
"Of course you did" she says and steps closer to him.

Keon opens his arms to embrace her. Zana rests her head on his shoulder and feels his chest rising and falling as he leaves out a heavy sigh.

He presses a kiss on her forehead and holds her in front of him.
"You should come. It won't be long until she dissolves" Keon says, looking into his girlfriends blue eyes. One might describe her as ordinary with her brown waves that are now licking and lapping around in the breeze, although she tied them together in a ponytail like she usually does. She is of average height and neither very thin nor corpulent. With her lips that are rarely contorted into a smile and her eyebrows that are usually pulled into a frown there would be nothing special in her face if it wasn't for those piercing blue eyes. Her eyes were fire in water, if you can imagine such a thing. They were passion in ice. Her features would not turn heads, or make anyone look twice; they were normal, plain even. But her eyes were like the stars, the way they drew you in to explore the swirling emotion held in their depths. The black of her pupil was surrounded by a ring of jagged silver fire swallowed by sapphire blue. At one glance you could see the storm inside them.

Besides the neutral expression that she awlays wears, Keon sees that she is hurt. Empathetically he tilts his head to the right, looking at her through the black strands of hair falling over his dark eyes. They are so dark, one might not see the difference between the black pupil and its black surrounding iris.

With his pale skin, plump lips and kind eyes that can barely be seen through his bangs, Keons look fits his charming character. He is sentimental and affectionate. But while he was the warm one, Zana has always been 'colder'. She is dauntless, courageous and brave with a strong sense of justice. Keon knows best that her only weakness is the fear of losing her loved ones, which just came true.

"I just didn't expect it" she mumbles.
This morning Eulalie died. She committed suicide, jumping of just this tower, where the couple now stands.
"Now there's only four of us" Keon states, sitting down next to the window.
"And three of them" his girlfriend adds.

About one year ago the government sent 40 people away on a different planet to fight until only one is left. But this is not a game, the winner is to be the next leader, governor or however you want to call it, since nobody could decide on a polity.
Those 40 were provided with special weapons, with white blades. When killed, you won't die but be send back to the original planet. The rest of the population can follow the fight per live broadcast.

Pretty fast the group divided into two camps, fighting for different political principles. On one side Soleil Rikio, Runyon Minter under the lead of Adyn Ibara, are left. After some time Zana figured out that they are radical in what they do and freedom is not their first priority. Especially Adyn appears to be cold and viscous.

On the other side there are Merce Kumara, Kaiora LeMay, Keon Elway and Zana Burris. They want democracy and freedom for their home but now that they've lost Elualie Perrin their lead over the others is decreasing.

"Alright, let's go"
They turn to the staircase and walk down hundreds of stairs of the tower, their headquarter.

The two enter another room where Kaiora and Merce already stand around the table Eulalie is laid upon. She was a beautiful woman with her silver hair, full red lips and dark blue eyes. But more than that she was soft, diplomatic and kind but stubborn. Since the beginning she knew what she wanted and initiated the founding of the group. With her great intelligence she always planned all attacks and defense strategies but she never went on missions, she was no fighter. Eulalie came from a wealthy family, she knew from the start that she wouldn't be the last one standing.

She always preferred talking over using your fists or any weapon, that's why it surprised all of them that she never told them about her plan. The ranks of the competitors are thinning out and maybe the pressure was just too high.

"I will miss her kind smile" Kaiora looks down on her friend, taking her hand
"She is not dead" Merce says, his jaw clenching
"But she's gone" Zana steps closer, the sound of her heavy boots follow her through the room "and there aren't many left"

"The game is ending" Merce tilts his head, looking over to Zana.
"This i-"
In just that moment Eulalie starts dissolving into light blue pixels.
Lifting into the air until nothing is left of her.

Zana hated this. Not just because the silver haired girl had become her friend but because of the fact that she went voluntarily. It was a sign of weakness and it was unnecessary. They're fighting for an important thing.
This is not just a game.