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A hole had, actually, magically appeared in the forcefield, and when Aryssa walked through, it closed behind her. She ran back to the capitol where her companions were waiting. “We were about to leave!” Geo said. “No we weren’t.” Bresh cut in. “We would never leave you alone Aryssa!” “Let’s go.” Melinda commanded, looking as serious and commanding as ever. It still felt weird for Aryssa to have seen her crying, best to forget about it. “Dibs out on dragging the body cart!” Sophie suddenly exclaimed. “What! No you can’t do that! You can’t dibs out!”

Aryssa had been put under Melvis’ command, actually most everyone had, and maybe it was some sick revenge of his, but Melvis put her on Varnish cutting duty. She and four others were in the kitchens of Central Five, being brought Varnish parts from some of the other kids. One kid brought in the meat, another washed off the slime and gore, the third skinned it and took out the bones, she cut the meat into thin neat slices, and the last kid cooked it to disinfect it. It was dirty disgusting work done without gloves. Aryssa was surprised she hadn’t vomited yet. Especially that one time when a bug crawled out. She nearly threw down th

“There she is!” Geo exclaimed as he let the varnish head he was carrying drop. Aryssa winced as the head fell with a SQUISH. “Here I am,” She said with much less enthusiasm. The survivors were pilling up the Varnish in one corner, and the dead in another. The injured were being taken care of right on the spot. She had over reacted. There weren’t as many dead as she thought there had been. “ARYSSA!” Aryssa flinched. It was Bresh. “Are you okay?” He asked as he ran over. “I’m fine.” “You have blood all over you!” He licked his thumb and started to wash off some

Her hands hit the bloody ground and she struggled to maintain her focus. Everything was swirling around her and she felt ill. Everything was only a blur of black and red now. A hand touched her shoulder and everything shifted back into place. The person pulled her up and she coughed into her hand. Her still adjusting eyes could only see the blood on her hands and before she could control herself she vomited on the ground. Tears slid down her cheeks and she clung to the person as he picked her up in his arms. She sobbed silently and refused to open her eyes, but she still kept seeing all the gore. Eventually the rythmtic movement of the person

“WAKE UP! We gotta eat, eat, eat!” Geo said as he crashed inside their house. He proceeded to leave before Sophie could strangle him. Aryssa yawned and realized that everyone was already dressed up. She got dressed and headed outside. Everyone was jumpy as they ate their breakfast. Varold was nowhere in sight. “This is your first time, so eat as much as you can. Meat included.” Melinda told Aryssa. She reluctantly ate the meat. “After breakfast Varold will brief us on what to do and where the Varnish are located. Then we have around twenty minutes to get our gear before we head out.” Aryssa nodded, she was

Melinda trained Aryssa in the art of running till the sun disappeared below the horizon. At that point they headed back to the village for the famed campfire Melvis had talked about. It was unbelievably dark outside, and the only source of light was the huge bone fire in the middle. Everyone was laid out on the ground or sitting on the logs. They were all chatting and recounting previous battles. People had to sit in teams, so Aryssa sat with Bresh, Sophie, Melinda and Geo.   “This’ll be my…one hundred fiftieth, somewhere in there, battle!” Geo exclaimed. “Man, I can’t believe you’re still counting,

“So how does it work? Do you just run and you’re good? How do you avoid all the trees? Have you ever jumped while running? Would that be dangerous? Would you start flying? How fast can you go?” Aryssa vomited the questions like there was no tomorrow. She walked a bit faster to keep up with Melinda. “Where are we going? Are we seriously going to start with the forest? Isn’t that a bit dangerous? I don’t think I can avoid super well! How were you on your first try? Can we get hurt? Have people died running? Oh no! I don’t want to die! Am I going to die if I fail!? How can this be easy!? So you’re

“So yeah, glowing trees. Have you seen them?” Aryssa asked Melvis. He fingered his food a bit. Aryssa had purposefully searched him out so she could sit beside him during supper. “Hmm, I can’t say that I have. Not that I really leave Central that often. So how’s it feel, getting the treatment?” “I certainly feel invincible!” “Yeah, you won’t be thinking that way tomorrow.” He said, which dropped Aryssa mood a little. She popped one of the berries in her mouth. It had been fun to momentarily spar with Bresh, however she was in no hurry to meet the Varnish. “But what do you

“Hey, Aryssa,” Varold tapped Aryssa’s cheek and her eyes snapped open. She sat up gasping for air and coughing. She wrapped the blanket Varold had placed around her even tighter. She blinked and shivered; and took in her surroundings. She was still in that underground creepy place, but now she was out of the pod, soaking wet, with a blanket as her only covering. “What happened?” “I’m sorry, it’s more painful for see-ers.” “What?” “A see-er. Someone who can see perocity.” Aryssa waited for him to continue. Her ear twitched to her left, had she heard something? &ldquo