The White Games take place in the modern-day world. 24 ordinary young adults have been kidnapped by unknown forces and deposited onto an island located in a mysterious and unknown location. Once there, they will be informed by a strange individual...
"Keep up, Nic!" I shout over my shoulder as I lead the way up the old dirt path. In the near distance, the large orange-striped lighthouse towers from the rocky bluff. Our destination.
I haven't forgotten what Mr. White said last night, about the dogs and his own plans to kill a Challenger. Not that I'm in any danger from the second category. Why would Mr. White choose me when I'm the best player? One of the few who think that this game is...well, fun.
Maybe that's not the right word. It's not as much fun as it is...liberating. At least here I don't have to hide my true self. Hide what I am. I'm not some fancy pants wimp, sipping tea and hopping on airlines like my parents. No one can force me to be anything except for what I am. For the first time ever, I can just be myself without fear of my parents repercussion.
Nic struggles past me as I stop to consider what I just thought. The guy is limping and leaning heavily on his spear, which he uses as a crutch. His shoulder is still bandaged, but I can smell the decay already. The wound is infected, and we don't have any way of healing it.
"Stupid moron," I mutter as he struggles past. Why did he have to let himself get speared? The ignoramus. He's too useful to die, yet I can't see a way to save him. If only he hadn't been so stupid.
"When are these dogs supposed to show?" Nic asks through gritted teeth. His feet stumble across the rocky ground, but he manages to stay upright.
I shrug. "Mr. White didn't say. But I don't doubt they will come soon. Possibly after the rankings." That'll happen in a few minutes. Along with the updating of my map. I glance down at my datapad screen, wishing that it showed where the other Challengers were all the time instead of every hour. It's been so long since the last reading. Who knows where those others have gone? I don't like not knowing.
Nic suddenly pulls himself short, staring up at the lighthouse with an apprehensive stare. "Think that will keep the dogs out?" He sounds uncertain. A first for him. The cocky bastard use to not care for anything, but with his injury...Well, now he's very uncertain of himself.
"It will," I tell him. "How would they even get in?"
He scowls at me. "Whatever. When are those rankings coming?"
As if his words were some sort of signal, our datapads come alive with ringing. Unlike every other time the Rankings happened, Mr. White does not appear on our screen. Instead, it goes right for the rankings shift.
I watch the portrait of my face—my university photo, I absentmindedly note—as it sits at #1. I don't anticipate any change there as the faces below me begin to rearrange themselves. I didn't do anything that would cause me to—
My portrait slides down the rankings, being jumped over by the face of Felix Leonard until he comes to a halt at #1. He is the top. Not me. He is. I am not.
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