Orphan

Chapter 29 - The volunteers

"Well, that was unlucky.""Poor Samuel.""If only he could have kicked just one more time. Maybe hen would have survived. Just kidding, there are no maybes in this world.""Well, that's that. Do we have any Volunteers?"It was as if he had let the worms out of the jar, because after he said that the whole stadium erupted, with children pushing and shoving trying to get to the door. But it was useless. The men guarding the doors just had their arms folded across their chest and stood their ground. They were too strong and didn't even flinch at all when the children were coming over. Some kids even managed to get around them, but the doors were locked! "I am going to start picking names...we need more points. Look at us. We only have two points. I am going to lose face if you guys don't start getting your act together.""Anyone want to go?"I couldn't believe it, Xie Li, our coach, our teacher was actually asking for us to volunteer."You got to do it sooner or...""I'll do it." "Nice one Tina! I knew you had it in you. Please go through the gates and take the slide."There in front of our seats was a massive glass gate, with a slide that disappeared into a trapdoor in the wall."Well, it's time to start the second round, from Xie Li's team we have Tina who has volunteered. Wait, we have another. It's Dylan. The winner of the first event. It must be raining cats and dogs. We got two more. Ruby and Yuki.""That's all of them. Let's see how the new contestants fair."And like before the candidates once again was dropped from their glass boxes and into the water.It was not as breathtaking as the previous time. Tina took only 3 minutes and 20 seconds to reach the alter, followed by Dylan, who finished it at 4 minutes. Ruby was next, and Yuki also finished without breaking a sweat. Cheers roared from the stadium, as everyone shouted and screamed for their team members to get in and out, this went for what felt like ages before the stadium started to quieten down as kids disappeared in the alter. Some managed to survive, but most were not so lucky, their bodies floated on top of the river waiting to be pulled up by the boats that shot out from secret trapdoors. It was coming closer and closer to my turn. The kids had started to slow down and didn't want to go out as they watched others fall before them.