SHOLEM

CHAPTER SEVEN

SORTING GAM
DAY THREE CULLING TEST
TRAINING HALL

"Once the whistle is blown, you'll have only a few minutes to choose a weapon of your choice and get ready to fight, there are only simple rules in place for the fight," the main administrator's voice could be heard loud over the speaker, no one has ever seen the man before, but his voice has been the driver of their life, steering them in different directions over the course of her life, Sheil growl softly. Things are beginning to get heated for them, third day of the culling and Sheil can already tell it's the day some of them will die.

Sheil was standing still along with the ninety-nine other girls. With the blindfold in their hand, to cover their eyes once the test began, they all stood scattered all around the big hall, bigger than their normal class where they undergo training. Aside from the size of the hall, one side of it was filled with different weapons, ranging from knife to spear, to sword and machete, the window of the hall is high up that the Ray of sun barely flitters in. On one side of the wall she saw the red button for the alarm, Sheil wonders why they bother putting that there, they've never allowed them to touch anything in any of the halls.

Sheil looked at the weapon rack trying to get the exact place they placed the throwing knife, her specialty and favorite weapon. Even without turning around to look at the other girls, she can detect the overall feeling dominating the hall. Anticipation is the most dominant feeling, making some of the girls fidgety where they are standing. She can guess that some of them will fail even before the test begins with the way they constantly turn to look at others around them.

Most of them are watching for any weakness they can explore during the fight, while some are weighing which opponent to tackle first. Sheil noticed Yalowel is looking at the weapon rack just like her. One of the rules of the assassin's glinders is with the right weapon you can take down any opponent. Though it seems, the anxiousness and the anticipation of the fight had made most of the girls forget the rules.

"There are series of changes in this year's pairing and culling and this also affects how today's test will be run," the voice said. "Instead of the standard twenty girls elimination we do each year, we will be eliminating fourty from each glind this year. This is part of the precautions put in place to thin down the number of female that enters into the society," Sheil was shocked at this New development, just as the rest of the other glinders are shocked, though none of them dares to show it in their actions, but from the few faces sheil could see, she knows they were as shocked as she is.

This changes everything, it means, amongst the hundred of them standing in the hall, only sixty will remain by the end of the day. This is probably another one of the new patriarchal rules that is being enforced, just like several others that has been shoved down their throats for the last several years. Sheil nearly broke down and weep, why do any of them have to die. They've come all this way only to die during one of their tests. And they will give them no choice but to follow the rules. She wished she could do something at this moment to change the fate of the girls that will end up dead today, but there is nothing she can do except to continue until she is strong enough to fight for their freedom.

"Today's test is quite simple and easy enough. The fight will only lasted for forty-five minutes, by the end of this skill test, some of you standing here right now will be dead," the administrator chuckled darkly and then laughed loudly, Sheil shuddered at hearing her inner fear confirmed and the administrator even chuckled at his own joke. Joking about these innocent girls' death, they are making them kill each other, washing their hands clean of blood. By the end of the day, none of them will remain innocent anymore. This is the end of the beginning.