Sierra

6. The Next Stage

We all watch as she aimed the last arrow.

She hit it on the bird's wing.

The bird screeched, but did not fall and instead it continued it's soaring in the ring formation.

Clara dropped her bow.

We all look at her and she breaks down into tears.

Now is not the time to be emotional, Clara.

Something hits me on the shoulder, and a pebble bounces on the rough surface of this rocky waterfall mountain.

Where did this come from?

There was nothing above me.

Oscar was watching the birds, probably examining the relation of them and Clara.

I pick up the pebble, then kneel over some twigs that were piled up behind a rock wall.

Grinding, pressure flaking, putting all my effort into this, I'm finally grasping a stone-headed arrow.

"Hey, Clara. Shoot your shot."

I hand her the arrow I made, and she stands up.

Feeling a bit comforted now, at least.

She aimed this arrow at the bird, and before it even reached halfway, it burst into small pebbles that created an arch in front of us.

Within seconds, the sandy wind blew against my face again and everyone was teleported to an empty field where we were all spread out around a spacious stage.

The lady from the beginning was standing on the platform, her heels higher than the waterfall mountain we just climbed.

"As soon as someone gets hold of the last flag, easy. The game ends. For every last flag you got hold of, you get a bonus survival point. We don't need to tell you the way we assign survival points."

Her voice echoes around this extensive area and everyone looks up at their own statistics that were shown in technological screens.

I look up at mine.

"And as I said, two people will be eliminated every stage. Two of the people with the lowest survival points."

Mine read:

Sierra Trison

Age: 15
Survival points: 2
Bonus points: +1 last flag

{[]} {[]} {[]}

When the screens disappeared, I saw Dexter and Sam turn into pixels from their circular platforms.

They were teleported to the spacious place where the lady was, and I saw Sam's worried face; the way he lifts his hands up in surrender.

"There are 2 competitors, who have lower survival points than these two idiots. But we have chosen to eliminate them because they were caught communicating. An addition to that, they were using the flags to confuse the others. I didn't set it as a rule in the beginning, because I wanted to see which of you would do the illegal of Veronica. Remember, we are people of the honest."

Did they not catch Chris and Clara in their kissing fit?

Did they not see me with Oscar?

What about the spectators?

Oscar was right. The butterflies are watching.

Chris and Clara are going to be eliminated next.

My instinct stings me inside.

They're my friends.

I never had friends because mom always told me that they weren't necessary; they would just cause your family to be executed.

They are necessary.

If Oscar was to be eliminated in any of these stages...

The thoughts whirled around my mind, and when I heard a flickering sound of electricity, Dexter and Sam's families were on the platform as well, and all of them became pixel blocks that were soon sweeped off into large sacks.

"May the next stage begin."

The lady lifted her arms in victory and the sandy storm comes again.

{[]} {[]} {[]}

This time, when I open my eyes, all I saw were rocky silhouettes.

It was nighttime here, where I spawned, for some reason, and all I heard was the sound of water dripping.

I check for a match in my pocket or any source of flames just so I can get something around me lit.

There's a firelighter.

My mind moves to the time where we all sat in a circle before the Earth Rune spawned.

"Hearts, Fire element."

I take out one of my blades, and I set it on fire.

It bursts into flames and becomes a torch-like light source.

Just when I was about to play around with the blade, swinging it around and around with one finger from the ring that was attached to it at the end, I heard voices that echoed from the opening.

{[]} {[]} {[]}

𝐴𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒!

𝐻𝑖 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒! 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑎𝑚 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 :3

𝑆𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟! 𝑥