What are you fighting for?

11. The Pain

I open my eyes as the sun rays pierce through my lids. I open them to find bruises and cuts and bandages all over my body.
A red stain formed on the white bandage on my left foot.
I lift it to find a deep wound sliced in the flesh. It's heavily oozing out blood and there's a bluish-purple bruise forming around it. I lightly press my index finger against the center of the cut and suck in a sharp breath as the pain spirals all across my body.

"What are you doing?" Adyns deep voice sounds from behind me "I just went to get another first aid kit from the city"

I lift myself up, leaning on my lower arms. The raven haired boy kneels down to look at my leg
"I guess you need stitches"

Immediately he searches for a needle in the kit.
"Wait" my voice screeching hysterically.
"Here, bite on this" handing me a piece of fabric.

Loosing no time he starts sewing the flesh together as if he does it every day. Colorful spots contour the sides of my eyes and despite biting the fabric, a muffled scream escapes my mouth from the pain.

"Yesterday" he starts after dressing the wound again "You pushed me aside. The chunk hit you because you saved me although you could have just let me die. Why?" A mocking smirk appears on his face but his dark eyes are soft.

"You could have killed me during the fight. I owed you my life. Guess we are even now" after my high pitched screams my voice has gone back to its normal, steady sound. Why else would I have saved him? I knew we would both die, crashed by cement falling down on us, if we didn't hold together.

The second week had officially started. Only three more until this is over.

"How is the city?" I ask wishing to return but knowing there is little chance.
"It's a ruin, just a scattered pile of concrete. Looks like we have to stay here."

He sits down to my left, both of us facing the lake. The water was uncommonly clear, so much so that it was impossible to gauge the depth. The rocks below could be ten feet down or forty; one depth was diveable and the other was not.

"The earthquake yesterday was a clear sign. They want us to play by the rules. No deal, no peace, no sitting by the lake together" my head doesn't move a bit, eyes still fixated on the surface of  the water.

"But nevertheless, we are sitting here" he says, and I can see him looking at me from the corner of his eyes "You are hurt. Do you really want to fight?" He stretches in the warmth of the sunlight.

I know what he wants to say. He alludes to our fight. I lost miserably so his original plan would still be the best way of winning this. I can still kill him in three weeks after I showed the world how he really is. In silence we both agree to keep playing by our rules.

It's weird how I tolerate him here, next to me. Or I guess it's just the fake me tolerating the fake him. After all we both act to persue our plan.

"Tell me about your first kill"

"Loredana" I reply without having to think "A girl with long, straight, blonde hair and hazel eyes. There was no spectacular fight. I shot her from the window of a building with a sniper. But that wasn't fair, she had no chance"

It was the first and only time I ever took someone out of the game with a sniper. I feel like I owe them a fair fight and a way to defend themselves. I always felt like a coward. It was so far away, so impersonal. The one and only reason we are here is to find the strongest person to lead an entire nation. A coward can't be a leader. Since then I've used the sniper exclusively to observe.

"What about you?"

"It- it was a boy, I think" his irises wander to the top left corner of his eyes "Yes, it was a boy with brown hair, I believe he had grey eyes and an awfully smug expression on his face. He jumped at me right here at the lake and the fight started.
When it comes to the fight there's no honour, no code. All that matters is the win and we take nothing for granted. I offered him peace first, a chance to surrender on my terms and join my team, something he of course refused. Then the first blow came, his hand wit a knife swinging at me. I grabbed his wrist turned him around and sliced his throat" he speaks those cruel words with such softness.

There he is. The Adyn Ibara I remember. Cruel and merciless. He doesn't even know his name, he didn't care for him although he was a competitor. We are all in here together, and although we are here to fight, this gives us a special bond. If I kill someone at least I owe him the respect of learning his name.

He described Akiro. I never really knew him, he was in a different team.
Originally, there were more than only those two teams, despite the ones fighting alone. About six more I think but they dissolved pretty fast. Either by members dying or by joining other teams.

My focus returns to the lake, where the water is just as calm as it was just a couple minutes ago.

The first time I saw Keon comes to my mind. He is probably watching me right now thinking "What are you doing Zana. He is the enemy"

But I know what I'm doing. I will stick to the plan, finish this and return home, to Keon.