"I am Unnamed. My title is dead."
In the World, the Planet, and the Base, it's either be number one or die.
The alternative to dying, however, is to become an Unnamed. Turning eighteen means that you will compete for your name. Come out on top, you...
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Mortimer the Elite Solver walks into the room the Runner sleeps in to wake him up. A light layer of sweat has formed on his forehead as he tosses and turns beneath the sheets. The Elite reaches down to gently shake him, when the click of a gun echoes through the room.
"Don't move," he hears.
The old man looks up to see a girl standing on the other side of the bed next to the open window, aiming the gun at his chest.
"What are you doing?" Mortimer croaks, moving his hands up to show he's not a threat. The girl keeps the gun trained on him, her right hand hidden behind her back.
"Why didn't he come back to the Runner's Building last night?" She asks, her voice razor sharp. "And why did that man know him, the one working for the Elite Leader?"
"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," the Elite Solver tells her.
"Bull," she spits quietly. She pulls her hidden hand out from behind her back. It holds another gun, and she points it at the sleeping Runner. "Talk or both of you die."
Mortimer takes a step forward to try and justify with her, try and persuade her to set the gun down, but she smirks and shakes her head.
"Don't even think about it, old man. I was taught well how to use these weapons."
The old man stops moving and swallows the saliva in his dry mouth. How would she know how to use a gun? No one aside from Elites have learned, unless...
"You're a part of the Unnamed," the Elite Solver concludes.
"Right-on," she smirks again. "We can cut right to the chase then. Talk."
"I don't know what you mean," the Elite Solver pleads.
"Don't play stupid with me, Solver," the girl snarls, waving the gun around. "Why did that man know him? And why was the Runner acting like he knew him?"
"I'm sorry, I don't—"
Bang!
Blood seeps from the white fabric beneath the jacket with the Solver's symbol on it. The Runner jerks awake, adrenaline pumping through his body. He sees the old man fall to his knees and watches as his face drains of blood, falling to the floor.
The Runner is awake and on his feet, and he kneels over the man, watching, waiting for the rise of his chest, for the intake of air through his mouth, through his nose, but neither come. He lays still on the wooden floor, eyes wide open and glossed over.
The Runner feels his heart ache and a sad, confused cry escapes his mouth. He just promised he wouldn't let this happen—and then it happened.
He turns to the person with a problem too big to handle without violence. The girl. The girl he had saved from the guy the Elite Leader sent. She stands with one gun down at her side and the other one pointed at the Runner.
