Number 7

Four

"Ugh," I groaned, a throbbing coming from my head. "What happened?"
No one answered.
I attempted to get up, but for the second time today, my feet and hands were tied by rope to a tree. I looked around, and saw that I was in the my team's base. "Hello!?" I shouted. Night was approaching, and in the dusk I couldn't see anybody.
My team stepped out into the shadows, Darcy, our leader at the front, Cal behind him, and the rest of the team fanning out around them.
"You idiot," Darcy said. "You flipping idiot."
"What?" I asked. "What did I do?"

"YOU SCREWED EVERYTHING!" Cal screamed at me. I stood there stunned. Cal never lost his cool. Especially not at his best friend.
"How?" I tried to keep the worry out of my voice. "Honestly, what did I do?"
Cal went to yell again, but Darcy put a hand over his mouth. "Dave is dead."
Terror shot through me. Dave was Cal's cousin. A great friend of ours both. He was like a brother to me. How did he die? Why were they angry at me?
"It's your fault," Cal spoke softly but with an intensity in his eyes I'd never seen before. If looks could kill, the tree I was tied to would set alight and roast me alive.

"Cal, what did I do? Darcy?"
"What you did? What didn't you do?! You screwed up everything!"
It all flooded back to me. Going to the secret entrance. Being knocked out by the boy. "Look, I'm sorry I accidentally led them to the entrance. I really am. But how the heck does that have anything to do with Dave?"
"Just shut up." Cal spoke.
"But-,"
"SHUT UP!"
Darcy put a hand out to block Cal, but was too late. Cal slapped me, and I could feel his handprint on my jaw. I spat on the ground.

"Love you too buddy." I said sarcastically.
"You're pathetic," Darcy said, and untied me. "The Indigo team won today, and their reward was a new player. You."
"You're just handing me off?" I said, although I wondered which was worse. Indigo or here. If I was in Indigo now, Cal and Darcy could abuse me all they wanted without the Ghosts punishing them. But then again, Liam would make my life hard either way, so I was probably better off on the other team.
"Yes, I'm handing you off, you-"
"Ok, enough with the idiot stuff. I don't know how you somehow cam to the conclusion that I killed your cousin, but if you want to blame it on me, that's fine." I walked away calmly before Cal could yell at me any more.
"You're gonna regret this," is all he said.

I walked calmly in the direction of the Indigo base, looking over my shoulder every so often, not quite sure why. The sun was completely set now, and the moon was new, so I was walking blindly through the island at night with no light whatsoever. I took the way around the beach, and used my dagger as a glow stick, pressing the button which electrified the metal. I'd attached a circuit to a car battery I'd found in the forest one day, and Cal had taken it apart and rearranged it, making it smaller, so it could fit in the handle. I'd cut a small hole in the bottom for a button. It was quite simple. I smiled sadly at that. What had i possibly done to make Cal and everyone else think I had killed, or helped kill Dave? I shook my head.

It didn't matter. I was going to get out of here, one way or another. It didn't matter what Cal or Darcy or anyone thought or did. Whatever team I was on, I was going to get me, and all the other 59 teenagers out of here.
I looked back towards the forest, and saw a light. A campfire. Heading towards it, I saw a few familiar faces. I purposely avoided Liam and sat down opposite him around the campfire. Elle was no where to be seen.
"Get lost, newbie." Liam spat at me.
"So you guys hate me too? Why would that be? I thought we were on the same team, or am I wrong?"
Liam's face was contorted in pure anger. He swore at me. . "Do you try to be a nutcase, or does it come naturally?"
A few kids laughed at this.

"I don't know, I know it comes naturally for you." I said back. More kids laughed, this time with me.
Liam took out his sword and threw it at me. I stood up and sidestepped, and it landed beside me, the handle sticking up in the dirt, quivering. I looked back at Liam, and all of a sudden he was right in my face, his hands around my neck in a choke-hold. I tried to breath, but I couldn't, and I struggled to pry his fingers off my neck. He lifted me off the ground with one hand, and brought up his second sword with his other. My eyes went wide. He pressed the tip of it on my belly, and it easily ripped through my shirt. Blood started to trickle down my torso, and i squirmed less, desperately trying to fall back. My hands grasped the air, my pockets, flailing everywhere, and my fingers brushed metal.

My dagger.
I smiled at Liam tauntingly, and before he could react, brought the flat of my dagger to his head, and pressed the button. He immediately jolted backwards, cutting me more, and fell down limp. Murmurs of disbelief travelled around the campfire, and I left him there in the dirt. He was unconscious, not dead. I limped away to find a tree to sleep in. "Thanks for the warm welcome." I muttered.
Pulling off my shirt, which was soaked with red, I twisted it and tied it around my abdomen, attempting to stem the bleeding.

I climbed a tree a little off camp and bent some of the smaller branches, tying them to the main branch, preventing any access into the tree. I lay down on a branch higher up, just beneath the canopy, and closed my eyes.
Why did everybody hate me?
Sleep came irresistibly, providing relief for the burning in my torso. He hadn't cut me too deeply, but the sword had split the skin. Slowly, the leaves above me turned darker and darker, until I dozed off completely.