“And after that, we wandered into the meadow and found the barn”, Adam Spencers (Boy #15) continued, talking rapidly. “We’ve been here for about three hours”.

Mitch Kelley (Boy #10) blinked, still disbelieving that he had actually found Adam. It was almost too good to be true; was Burke going to pop out at any minute and reveal that Mitch had been dreaming for hours? All Mitch needed now to declare that he was dreaming was for Peter Juntz to walk in unharmed, or better yet, Burke to walk in and proclaim the entire program an elaborate joke. However, he knew only the first was faintly possible.

After leaving the school, Adam had attempted to look for Mitch, only to find his good friend Nathan Carpenter (Boy #16) instead, who, being the sixteenth boy, had left merely one person after Adam. They had been wandering on the border of the island for several hours, and so long, had not met anyone; Mitch was envious.

Ever since he and Adam had started talking, he noticed that Terry and Luke had actually begun to speak to eachother. It was strange, because usually, Terry only spoke to him about their personal problems; it was strange to see Luke nodding and shrugging as she spoke.

Sitting beside Adam on a bale of hay, Nathan Carpenter read his comic book with his trembling and frightened hands. The Mercedes girls, hardly speaking to eachother, sat in the corner beside J.C Brooke, who was relaxing on the hay as she read a lawn magazine with her tired eyes. Somehow, one of the three girls in the kitchen had found the magazine in the kitchen, and when J.C Brooke (Girl #1) whined that she was bored, she had been given her least favorite pastime as a result; reading.

“All of you are so boring”, J.C snapped, not glancing up from her magazine. “At least when I was with Zane and my friends, everybody was fighting and I was actually enjoying it”.

Prudence Mercedes (Girl #8) glared. “Shut your mouth, J.C, or I’ll do it for you”.

Seeing that somebody with the last name of Mercedes had threatened her, J.C’s eyes bulged wide and she quickly returned back to reading her boring lawn gardening magazine.

“Good afternoon competitors!”

It was Burke’s voice. Even though they were in a barn, his crackly voice was somehow being magnified by an intercom inside the barn. Almost instantly, everybody in the entire room was silent; even J.C and Prudence instantly stopped bickering.

“It’s time for the noon announcement. I hope you’ve all had a good morning. Well, all thirty-five of you that are still alive. Well, it’s time for the body count. For the girls, we had Nicole Zaun (Girl #21) and Risa Ridgeway (Girl #14). Looks like you’ll all be needing a new class president. We had no boys. You’re all getting lazy; start killing more to bring up our ratings. And the Danger Zones. At 1:34, we have I9, at 4:23 we have D10, and at 5:45 we have F14. Take a break and eat some lunch before you shoot any more bullets. Burke out!”

As the sound of an intercom shuffling echoed over the intercom, Mitch instinctively turned around to Sadie Mercedes. He had been prepared for Risa’s death, considering he had been the cause, but Nicole Zaun had become a victim to the program, too? Due to the fact her best friend didn’t seem very surprised, Mitch assumed that Sadie had witnessed Nicole’s death.

Their class was slowly declining in numbers, and soon, there would be only one left. But who? Darren? Demi? J.C? Zane? Chris? Or possibly Mitch himself? In the end, forty-one students would be corpses and the winner, either proud or mind-tattered, would walk out unscathed.

“Risa’s dead”, Sadie mumbled, still staring into space. “She was our class president, right?”

Luke nodded. “Yeah…She was….”. He angrily spun his head around, swishing his ponytail, to glare at Mitch

Ever since the amazement of finding Adam had began to fade, Mitch wondered if he should tell the others in the barn the truth about the horror that had befallen Risa Ridgeway. Their class president had died, and as much as he refused to admit it, he had been the culprit. He was technically a player in the game, and now, he knew certain people would snap his neck the minute he said it; especially selfish and tough J.C and muscular Prudence.

“So”, Adam continued, glancing toward Mitch’s two teammates. “You teamed up with them?”

The way he said, “them” was almost like accusing Mitch of a deadly crime. The words hurt, and even though Adam was his best friend, Mitch became defensive.

“What’s wrong with them, Adam?” Mitch snapped back. “Terry’s my friend!”

For a second, he thought Luke was going to make another smart-alecky and idiotic remark. When he didn’t, Mitch ended up wishing he had; he wouldn’t have been left staring at his best friend like he had never known him.

“Nothing”, Adam said, still staring. “But do you really think we could trust Terry or Luke?”

Terry’s eyes lit up in anger. “What?”

“Look, Mitch. I’m sorry if I sound like a dick or something, but you’re looking at the sociopaths of our grade. Everybody’s scared of them, well, at least her, and for some reason, you teamed up with both of them. For all we know, Luke could be a mass murderer and Terry could be a convicted serial killer. Don’t you think, Nathan?”

Nathan Carpenter, still reading his comic book, merely nodded as his eyes scanned the pages. In all his years of being in Nathan’s classes, Mitch noticed he had never seen him talk once. Was he mute or just incredibly shy? Either way, it didn’t matter. Furiously, Mitch stood up in front of Luke and Terry.

“Just because people get bullied doesn’t make them sociopaths, Adam! In fact, I’m pretty sure Zane Barrens bullied both of us this morning!”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m different than them!”

Mitch stared at his friend, his mouth agape. For the entire competition, his only goal had been to find his best friend Adam and trust him until the game was over. But now, staring in front of him, did he even know Adam? Faced in a life or death situation, had Adam changed his personality completely. Maybe it was true; the game changed people.

Luke stood up from their bale of hay beside Mitch, angrily shaking his ponytail out of his eyes. “You must think pretty highly of yourself, huh, Adam?”

Adam glared but didn’t say anything. In the corner, Sadie Mercedes (Girl #9) sniffled softly but didn’t say anything as well.

“How do you know Perry and her friends aren’t out to kill us?” Luke snapped. “They put us all in a room together, for Christ’s sake! How do you know methane gas won’t come pouring in and kill us all?”

However, Luke didn’t need to continue. Mitch saw Adam’s logic. He judged people by how they socialized, and if they didn’t socialize well, they weren’t a good person in Adam’s book. Maybe this was why Adam hung out with Nathan Carpenter; he never talked and simply listened.

What had happened to Adam Spencers? Not Adam Spencers (Boy #15), but Adam Spencers before that number had joined with his name. What had happened to his laid-back friend with a twisted and funny sense of humor? Had the game truly warped him completely?

“It just goes to show you”, Adam snapped. “You don’t know people until your life is in the picture”.

“I thought you were my friend…”, Mitch whispered.

“It’s either Luke and Terry or me, Mitch. Either join up with them and die or join up with me, find Peter Juntz, and maybe find a way off this island”.

Suddenly, a new voice rang through the air.

“Stop fighting!”

Of all people, it was Nathan Carpenter. His voice was high, almost like he had never gone through puberty. When everybody else in the barn stared blankly, including the Mercedes girls and J.C, he made a strange stuttering nose and continued to read his comic book.

“Anyway”, Terry started. “Nobody should have to choose between their friends in a time like this. Adam, you’re being a dipshit. Mitch, stop jumping on anybody just because you’re scared of trusting them”.

“I trusted Adam”, Mitch retorted. “In fact, he was the only person I trusted for awhile until he turned into a complete dipshit!”

Adam glared. “Think of it this way, Mitch. I don’t know you anymore if you go with them. In fact, if I see you, I’ll kill you if I see you after we leave this barn”.

There was a dumbfounded silence in the room that could have gone on for a century. Even J.C and the Mercedes triplets, who were minding their own buisness and not getting involved, stared at the continuing drama. Suddenly, almost like a miracle, Perry Rumbaugh who, after knocking the door, entered the room with a platter of sandwiches, breaking the awkward silence.

“There’s turkey, tomato, lettuce, and honey mustard”, Perry said, all in one breathe. “The wheat bread is hand-baked; June and Leana rolled the dough themselves!”

With a sigh, Mitch reached over and grabbed a mustard-dripping sandwich, tore it apart with his teeth, and swallowed it in nearly one bite. Adam, meanwhile, didn’t take a sandwich; he only continued to stare at him coldly.

“Perry”, Prudence said, reluctantly taking a sandwich as the platter was passed around. “We all really appreciate when you three are doing for everyone, and it’s great you want to help, but do you really have any clue how to get off the island other than helping people?”

Perry stared. “Why?”

“Well, while they’ve been arguing like idiots, Sadie and I have been talking. No offense, but we think you have no clue what you’re doing”.

Glaring as she bit into her sandwich, J.C rolled her eyes. “They’re helping us, Prudence. Isn’t it obvious? Oh, pass me the mustard, Terry”.

“No, J.C!” Prudence yelled. “It’s not! They have no idea what they’re doing other than helping everyone! When Day Three comes, and the collars start counting down, they’ll probally still be here rolling dough and making sandwiches! They don’t have any plans!”

Almost in a daze, Perry rubbed her head and quickly left the room, leaving them alone once again with a platter of sandwiches. Angrily, Adam stood up and stomped over to Mitch, glaring down with his sunburned face.

“I’m going to help them in the kitchen”, he said, his hot breath stinging Mitch’s nose. “Have fun dieing”.

As Adam quickly left, followed by Nathan who instantly folded his comic book and left, Mitch thought he was going to cry for a second. Not just for himself and Adam, but everybody in the barn. Poor Mitch. Poor Adam. Poor Terry. Even Poor J.C. Nobody deserved to be put into this horrible game, not only was it a physical challenge but the prospect of life and death altered minds, just like it had with Adam’s.

“Adam was the only person I could trust”, Mitch said, almost to no one. “I didn’t trust anyone because I was scared something like this would happen. I-

“I…killed…her…”

The three remaining students in the barn who didn’t know of his crime, Prudence, Sadie, and J.C, all locked their eyes on Mitch like he was the defendant at a court hearing. Terry hugged herself deeply, staring down at the ground like she was too ashamed of Mitch to glance up.

Had he actually said those words? What has possessed him to say that? Now, Prudence Mercedes…Oh, God!

“Risa?” Sadie asked in a faint whisper.

Mitch nodded. “Risa”.

“Nicole is dead, Mitch”, Sadie yelped suddenly. “I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but she’s dead. She was there one minute, and the next, the dirt swallowed her up. It just ate her up like she was never there! It just ate her up!”

Prudence bit her lip as she shrugged at Mitch. “She’s delirious. Nicole dieing really messed her up. She fainted on the way here, but Perry gave her some kind of pill and it jerked her awake in about a minute. Maybe they were caffeine pills. Anyway, I’m not even going to ask you about Risa, just like you’re not going to ask us about Nicole. Deal?”

“Deal...”

Relieved that he wasn’t going to be eliminated anytime soon, he watched suspiciously as Prudence rose from the bale of hay, strutted over to his bale, and bent down beside his backpack. She pulled out his metallic taser, buzzing a blue jolt of electricity that wiggled like a centipede. Her eyes seemed enchanted by it, almost like she had never seen light before.

“Your weapon, Mitch?”

He nodded. “Yeah”.

“I got a sowing kit”, Terry said suddenly. “Mitch stitched up my arm with it”.

Luke, slightly embarrassed, glanced down at the ground as his face turned red like a turnip. “A Bible…”.

Prudence, slightly amused by Luke’s answer, nodded. “I got a rake; lucky me, huh? Sadie’s weapon was a samurai sword. What about you, J.C?”

J.C, clicking her braces, glanced up from the boring lawn magazine like she had been disrupted in the middle of important business. “What?”

“Your weapon, you little shit! What was it?”

“A pistol. I lost it when I was being chased by Meyerhold Zemeckis after Zane killed Jesse and Skylar”.

Almost instantly, the air in the room was as still as a humid day. Even the noise of the kitchen just outside seemed to stop, isolating the entire room. Mitch felt his jaw drop.

“Zane is playing the game?”

J.C nodded, still not seeming to care at all. “He offed them both with sleeping pills when I was out collecting food with Rory. We both ran off and ended up getting seperated in the forest. My boyfriend is still out there, so watch out”.

So Zane Barrens (Boy #1) had decided to please the government and take part in the game. It was strange, because he was likely the most vocal in the class, besides Prudence, at voicing his displeasure with the government. It was odd he would comply with their rules like this…

“Something doesn’t add up”, Terry said, bemused. “Zane wouldn’t do this…”.

“Believe what you want, but he’s out there, Klingerman”.

“So is Darren”, Mitch said, remembering how he and Terry had fled. “He’s playing the game, too. Luke saw Shyla pointing a pistol at Adrienne at the beach; he thinks she’s playing the game, but I don’t believe it”.

Sadie whimpered. “Darren buried Nicole…”.

So that had been the fate of Nicole Zaun (Girl #21). At least, unlike all of the other students, she had been given a somewhat proper burial. She wouldn’t have to face the indignity of being shuffled into a wet and bloody, plastic body bag alongside her classmates.

“Anyway, it’s time to choose sides”, Prudence continued. “There’s forty-two of us, and only one is leaving here alive. It could be somebody in this room or it could be somebody out there. Anyway, we have to set our goals right now. Adam already set his. Do any of you know what you’re doing?”

“I’m staying with them until something exciting happens”, Luke answered.

Exciting. What did that mean? Whatever it meant, Mitch refused to think about it. Luke was a pest, and if he ignored him enough, he would simply buzz away to agitate somebody else.

“I was going to team up with Adam and find Peter Juntz”, Mitch murmured. “But now…”. He sighed inwardly, blinking again to convince himself of what had just happened. This was real; everything in the program was so frightently real.

“Sorry about your friend”, Terry said.

Mitch shrugged. “I guess you don’t know who your friends are until your life depends on it, huh, Terry?”

Terry stared blankly. “I don’t have any friends. But if I did, they wouldn’t be the kind of people who would turn their back on me. They would give me attention and accept me. I really never talked to anyone to get that kind of friend, though”.

“That’s because you’re a loser!” J.C snorted through a mouthful of wheat bread and lettuce.

Ignoring J.C, Mitch glanced at his cheap watch. Every tick, barely audible under his heartbeat, meant another second under the wrath of the program. Any of those seconds, any of his classmates could be gone. Spanish Rivers High, freshman advanced science, was slowly declining even faster than those seconds. His mind sung to him, naming every one of his classmates and matching them to those ticks.

Tick…Mae….

Tick…Enrique…

Tick…Risa…

Tick…..Nicole…

Who would join with the seconds next? Adam? J.C? Nathan? Perry? The possibilities were endless, but it all boiled down to one truth.

The program had mentally destroyed Mitch’s one friend, the only person he had been willing to trust. Either that, or Adam had let this willingly happen to himself. Mitch’s main character flaw was trusting in fear that others would walk out on him. Not only had his father walked out on him, along with his mother, but now Adam had also taken the haunted path away from Mitch Kelley’s heart.

“I hate this game”, Mitch said suddenly. “I don’t want to play…”

“Zoom in on the terrified face of Mitch Kelley; Boy #10”, Luke said abruptly. “Thrown into the program by fate. Will he win? Tune in during the next episode for the conclusion of the high-rating Program”.

“I never watched the program on television”, Terry noted. “What’s it like?”

“It’s like pro-wrestling”, Prudence said, almost thoughtfully. “Except once you’re in the ring, anything goes and the loser can never wrestle again”.

“And nobody wins”.

Sadie Mercedes (Girl #9) spoke these words in a mumbled and tired voice, almost like she was coming out of a trance. She was almost emotionless, and her face, streaked with dirt marks, looked like a permanent stare of a doll.

Prudence rolled her eyes. “Will you stop that, Sadie? You’re making the whole fucking situation worse than it already is?”

“Think about it, Prudence. I told you earlier. It’s all like putting a bunch of mice in a maze and cheese at the end. They all go through the tubes, fighting eachother to find the cheese first, but when they find it, they lock all of the mice up in cages and start again. Turn the mice into students and you have the program”.

“I’m not a lab rat”, J.C snapped.

“You are, J.C. I am, Mitch is, and everyone else on this island is. Who am I kidding? I don’t even know what I’m talking about, right? I’m just Sadie Mercedes; the anorexic sister of that sociopath kid Jude, right?”

“I never thought that!” Terry said instantly.

J.C raised an eyebrow from behind her magazine. “I did!”

“Shut up, J.C!” everybody screamed in unison.

As J.C returned to reading her magazine, Mitch pictured himself finally getting the cheese at the end of the maze and only having it pulled away at the last second. Was Sadie right? Was the winner of the program simply killed afterwards and the new batch of students shipped in directly after?

Struggling not to think about it, Mitch lay back on the bale of hay to hear his wristwatch tick again.

Tick…Skylar….

Tick…Jesse…

Tick…Kevin…

And maybe, eventually….

Tick…Adam..

“What other vegetables do we need in the soup, Shyla?”

Amber Prescott spoke these words in Ms.Latenio’s cooking class. Because Amber was not exactly a good student, usually bringing home test scores that her parents would never put in the living room with her cheerleading trophies, she had thought taking a cooking class would be a fairly good way to maintain her grade point average and get the credits she needed to graduate into her sophomore year.

When Shyla signed up, Amber prayed that her little, “Amber Prescott fan club”, would not follow her into the class. However, by the time she realized this, it was too late; the entire cheerleading team, including Erin, Victoria, and Adrienne, had somehow fought their way onto the class list. Sometimes, Amber wished she could just have a class alone with her best friend Shyla.

Shyla glanced down at the ingredients as Amber piled the carrots and broccoli onto the counter. Victoria and Erin, standing nearby with their aprons, were busily cutting up the vegetables and gossiping.

“I think we need one more carrot”, Shyla said, reading off the list. “Oh, and I think you forgot the pepper. We don’t really have a lot of time left to boil the soup, so you should probally hurry up”.

Nodding, Amber turned around and hurried back to the miniature fridge in their kitchen. As she was retrieving the pepper and carrot, a red nail gently tapped her on the shoulder.

“Amber…”

Spinning around with the vegetables in her arms, Amber used all of her self-control not the groan when she saw it was none other than Adrienne Spring. She was hunched over the black stove and boiling the water as steam rose up past her permanently smiling face.

“Check out the nerd group over there”.

There were fifteen students in Ms.Latenio’s cooking class, meaning three groups of five at each individual kitchen. In the back corner of the room, Meyerhold Zemeckis was slaving over his stove as the steam rose up over the foggy glasses of Mae Yamamoto, who was glancing into the pot of soup like it was as complicated as one of the parabolic algebra questions she had been so successful at solving. Logan Spruce, taking up half of their small kitchen, was struggling to put on her cooking apron over her bloated belly. Two other students, Kyle Pratt and Hannah Broach, from other classes, were busily cutting vegetables on the cutting board as Kyle fingered with his zits. According to Adrienne, it was, in fact, the, “nerd group”.

Knowing Adrienne was planning something, Amber cocked an eyebrow. “What are you planning?”

“How about we play a trick on Mae Yamamoto? I have the perfect idea”.

The moment Amber registered the words, “Mae”, and, “trick”, in the same seconds, her mind instantly blocked out Adrienne’s words. Nearly every day, Amber would let herself be manipulated by Amber into embarrassing the unpopular students. Even when Amber refused to do anything, Adrienne would still find a way to make the situation look like Amber was the cruel and vicious bully. It angered her that Adrienne had made her appear to be a stereotypical bratty cheerleader.

“So, anyway, we’ll go up to her and-

Walking away immeadidly, leaving Adrienne in the middle of a sentence, Amber walked past Victoria and Erin cutting the vegetables and hurried back to Shyla. She handed her the pepper and carrots clutched in her arms like a merchant at a market.

In the kitchen beside them, Mitch Kelley, along with Adam Spencers, Peter Juntz, and the Igolovosky twins, was shredding what appeared to be a green pepper with a grater, clicking the piercing on his tongue in rhythm with the metal grinding.

They were almost done preparing the soup, too…

Angrily, Amber fumbled past Adrienne and shuffled the grater out of the cabinet. Clenching it tightly, she shoved the pepper against it roughly, dripping the greenish white juice down her fingers.

“Amber, you’re going to cut yourself if you’re not careful’, Shyla warned. “Here, let me grate the pepper. You can help Adrienne boil the water”.

Turning back toward Adrienne, Amber gulped. She was chewing gum with her rosy lips and stirring the watery soup like she was charming evil spirits. Having no other choice, Amber returned to her friend as the sound of the chewing gum echoed like splashing water.

“Hello Adrienne…’

Adrienne grinned with her big mouth. “Welcome back Amber. So, are you ready to mess around with Mae Yamamoto?”

Amber rolled her eyes as she glanced over at innocent Mae in the back of the room. She was writing something down on the ingredient sheet and smiling sheepishly at something Logan Spruce had said to her.

“Adrienne, I’m not going to pick on Mae Yamamoto again. I mean, the last time I did it, I almost got suspended. The big football game is coming up in a couple of weeks and I have to be there to lead the cheerleading team. My whole family is coming to watch me”.

Adrienne rolled her eyes. She stopped stirring the watery soup, causing it to burn and sizzle. “Well, then your family is going to miss out on getting another trophy to put in the living room”.

Leaving the wooden spoon in the sizzling soup, Adrienne Spring grinned triumphantly, fluffed out her cooking apron, and began to walk across the cooking room; directly toward Mae Yamamoto’s cooking group. Sensing danger for Mae, Amber gulped and quickly began to follow Adrienne.

“Six more minutes to start boiling the soup and sample taste!” Ms.Latenio chirped from her desk. “You’re all doing a great job! Especially Kitchen B! You did a wonderful job boiling the soup, Peter!”

Rushing over, Amber watched as Adrienne stopped dead in her tracks in front of Mae’s kitchen of outcasts. Chewing her gum loudly, she raised her eyebrow, craned her neck slowly back, and faced Amber.

“What do you think of that rumor about Nathan Carpenter getting an A on the science exam, Amber?”

Amber stared, unsure of Adrienne’s intentions. “There is no rumor at all. He got an A; he’s the best at science in our entire grade. In fact, that test was easy. Everybody got an A on it”.

“So, you’re saying you think the test was really easy?”

Amber nodded, choosing her words carefully. “Yeah. I mean, it was eighth grade science, anyway. You’d have to be as smart as a middle schooler not to pass it”.

Adrienne gasped dramatically, suddenly raising her voice so everybody in the entire cooking room could hear her. “What? Are you saying my good friend Mae here is an idiot?”

The moment Mae spun around from her pot of soup, Amber felt her skin crawl. Despite being the smartest girl in their grade, Mae had accidentally skipped a question on the exam and answered everything wrong; she had answered question eight with the answer to question seven, question nine with the answer to question eight, and so on.

And Adrienne had just twisted her words into insulting this poor girl.

Her eyes filled with tears, Mae cried out defenselessly and sobbed something that sounded like, “Amber…why?” Quickly untying and throwing her cooking apron the ground, Mae adjusted her watery glasses, sniffled, and dashed out the door.

“Dear?” Ms.Latenio asked, shocked. “Honey, come back!”

As Mrs.Latenio rose from her desk and left the room hurriedly, telling everyone to continue working as she found out what was wrong with Mae, Adrienne smirked like a gremlin at Amber before strutting back to their kitchen. Horrified, and knowing everybody thought she was even more of a cheerleading bully than she was before, Amber stared out like a deer to headlights and she walked back to Shyla’s side.

“What was that all about?” Shyla said, alarmed. “Did Adrienne do something? Amber?”

Amber said nothing, but merely whimpered as she picked up the carrot and began to grate it. Every thick cut into the carrot stung her ears, almost sounding like Adrienne chewing her gum. The sound of the splitting carrot was followed by the metallic clink of it hitting the counter top; the same sound of Adrienne’s cavities and gold fillings made when she chewed gum…

Thuck…Thuck…Clink…Clink…

The noise went on as Mae Yamamoto sobbing in the hallway rung distantly through Amber’s ears.

Amber Prescott (Girl #13) woke up screaming as she sprung up from the sand dune.

For a second, she was sure she was in her room, covered in pink wallpaper and stuffed animals, and it was a Saturday. She would wake up, go with Shyla to the mall, and hopefully avoid any girls that pestered her. However, feeling the metal program collar around her neck, the truth came spiraling back, almost making Amber faint.

Glancing around, she saw Shyla staring out across the beach at Adrienne’s fort, almost like they were playing a violent version of capture-the-flag. Rubbing her head, she stretched her tired body and crawled over to Shyla’s side.

"How's your migraine?"

“Better. Victoria keeps staring at us, though”, Shyla noted. “Erin doesn’t seem to care about anything anymore, and Adrienne is just relaxing and watching the water. It looks like she went out for a day at the beach, for god’s sake!”

“I keep trying to convince myself this is a day at the beach”, Amber moaned, still stretching. “But then I hear someone screaming once in awhile and I remember I’m in the program”.

Shyla forced herself to smile, nestling her hand in a friendly gesture against Amber’s shoulder. “Y’know, not awhile ago, a cruise ship passed. It’s one of those cruise ships for billionaires when they invest in the program and bid on it. Some of them were cheering your name”.

“Really?”

She nodded. “When they saw Adrienne, she danced on the sand to get them cheering for her. It was horrible to watch. Besides everyone here on the beach, they yelled out a couple of other names…. Lea….Chris Barrister….Jude….Darren Warner. Do you think any of them are playing the game?”

Amber shrugged. “Well, I guess at least one of them has to be, right?”

“Maybe. Anyway, we have Victoria’s pistol, so they’re definitely not coming anywhere near here for awhile. You got rid of your sledgehammer, right?”

Amber nodded bitterly. Her weapon had been too heavy for her and she had discarded it immeadidly.

“My butter knife is still in my backpack”, Shyla continued. “But it’s not going to be much help. Erin has that brick and Adrienne has a toothbrush. We have the only real weapon here”. She paused for a second before moving on. "You missed the body count".

Amber's eyes widened. "I did?"

"Risa Ridgeway and Nicole Zaun".

Amber shuddered, seeing the faces of the two dead girls flash before her eyes. Nicole was a fairly short girl who was a talented artist, a fairly good student, and a companion of Sadie Mercedes. Risa was their optimistic class president, and Amber couldn't remember a moment in time when she had let anybody be upset when she was around; she was like the guardian angel of Spanish Rivers.

"I don't know why it scares me, but I don't want to hear the next body count", Amber sighed. "Seven people already is enough. Nobody else deserves this. Not even..."

Amber glanced down at the pistol against the sand dune and shuddered. They could simply shoot their three former friends right now and continue onward with the competition. But how could they do something so horrible? How could Amber even think something like that? Was she becoming like Adrienne?

Pushing the thought away, Amber looked up to see Shyla was smiling at her.

“Amber”, she began. “I don’t know if this makes much sense, and I’m not sure why I’m even saying it, but thanks for being my friend”.

Zane Barrens (Boy #1) was surprised at how miniscule the campsite of Chris Barrister (Boy #2) was.

Aside from a shabby fort of sticks sticking into the murky bog water and a wet tree beside it, stenched with a smell that showed the boys had urinated on it as a toilet, the small ground beside the bog was their campsite.

His mouth was still throbbing from losing his teeth, and it didn’t help at all that he was relatively sure he had swallowed one. He felt an unpleasant lump in his stomach as Eddie Dunnerman (Boy #4), the linebacker, and Preston Tracy (Boy #18), the tortured mascot of the football team, lugged him into the campsite by the duct tape they had imprisoned him in.

“Hey Chris, look!” Eddie suddenly cried, pointing out into the bog.

Beside a tattered remains of a log, along with several footprints that were still clearly visible, several bread rolls covered in plastic and water bottles bobbed in the bog. Sticking out by the gauge, a sniper rifle edged out along with a pistol that was laying against the log.

Almost instantly, Zane recognized the rifle as the weapon J.C had stolen from him, and the pistol belonging to J.C Brooke (Girl #1) herself. What had happened?

“Thank the lord!” Chris’s voice, from behind them, yelped. “More shit to torture you with Zane, ol’ buddy!”

They dropped him roughly beside the urine-stenched tree, instantly causing him to discover that not only urine was on it. He struggled to hide his nose from the rancid smell, but it was too much; he vomited, letting it drip onto the tree and pass the loose duct tape they had taken off over his mouth.

Everything J.C has stolen was here, so what had happened to her? She hadn’t been in the announcement, so she had to be alive. But what did she have to defend herself, now? She was alone on an island where nobody would think twice about protecting somebody like her. She was teetering on the edge of her life until Zane found her.

“I don’t feel right about this”, Preston said again. His face was still bruised from the last slap, but he still didn’t seem to have learned. “Can’t we at least move him away from the tree we’re all using as a toilet? That’s really gr-

The sound of Chris Barrister cocking Zane’s own rifle echoed behind his ears. Almost instantly, small and timid Preston gave a frightened squeal and wove his hands wildly in front of him.

“You see, Preston”, Chris’s voice said. “When you’re a mascot, it should be a privilege to help out the football team. Now, you aren’t being very courteous of me, and after all, I’m the quarterback. Does that seem right, Preston?”

When Preston didn’t answer, Zane listened to Chris laugh like a hyena, followed by brainless Eddie joining in like a chorus. They were like animals, and they were actually having fun during the competition. He had to get out of here, but to where? He was the juvenile delinquent bully of his grade; they all despised him, especially Mitch Kelley. Why had he always been rude and obnoxiously picked on all of his classmates? Was it really because of what Skylar or Jesse had said; they all just had something that he didn’t?

No, that wasn’t true. He had been the leader of his group, and they had all respected him. Well, that was before his cruel tyranny had caused Skylar Tierren (Boy #17) and Jesse Morgan (Girl #10) to commit suicide. But now, Zane truly saw what tyranny over a group was.

It was called Chris Barrister.

“Now Zane”, Chris’s voice said from behind him, obviously pointing the rifle right at his head. “You’re coated in duct tape, so you obviously can’t run. I would talk if I were you. Before you die, I want you to tell the truth. Who killed Jesse and Skylar?”

“They killed themselves!” Zane roared, a string of vomit hanging from his mouth. “They used Rory’s sleeping pills to kill themselves”.

“Bullshit! You were right next to their bodies! You’re a cold-blooded murderer”.

Eddie, mindlessly, agreed. “Yeah, a cold-blooded murderer!”

Zane closed his eyes, preparing himself for the bullet that would penetrate the bony cradle of his brain. He thought about his mellow life before the competition. Riding his bike to the river with J.C to burn things; he had been disturbed, but he had enjoyed himself. Going to see the new American adaptation of a Japanese movie with Skylar after school…They hadn’t understood the subtitles but there had been enough gore to make up for it…Wake up…Go to lake…Go to school…Wake up…Burn…

“I’m going to die”, Zane thought. “This is it”.

He found himself almost making up the end of the competition in his head. The winner turned out to be of all people, J.C Brooke (Girl #1). She had ended up brutally killing obnoxious Mitch Kelley during the final seconds and had finally returned home to Spanish Rivers. And right after that, the fucking government started planning the next competition…

Nice job winning, J.C. Good luck…

And that was when he heard the sounder of the gun screech out into the afternoon air of Cuna Cielo, spitting out a barrage of bullets.

However, instead of him, what followed was Chris Barrister yelling out in agony.

The bullets had all pierced through the first layer of his skin, becoming lodged inside like perfectly round boils in his arm. A thin line, where the bullets had entered, pierced down Chris’s arm in a bloody incision. His face was pale, completely shocked.

And holding the carbines of the gun was Preston Tracy (Boy #18).

“Before you kill him”, Preston said, trembling like a frightened kitten. “Y-Y-Y-You should keep him longer. We’ll watch him lose his mind. Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?”

“You shot me!”

In a matter of seconds, Preston had been pummeled by nearly six punches from both Eddie and Chris. Deliriously, bruised and beaten, he fainted to the wet ground of the campsite raggedly as the rifle dropped to the murky floor of the bog.

The trigger clicked softly, with no result, indicating the gun was on safety all along…

“You don’t have the balls to kill me, Chris, do you?” Zane said, finally understanding. “You just want to look impressive in front of Preston and Eddie”.

Chris glared. “Shut up! But Preston was right. We’ll keep you a little longer, Zane. Consider it charity for your life. But if you put one toe out of line, a bullet is going straight through your brain. But until then…”.

Whistling thoughtfully, and cringing from the nerves in his arm twitching from the blood loss, Chris reached into Preston’s backpack and carefully pulled out the nearly finished roll of gray duct tape. Quickly, he tore off a final piece, sticking it firmly onto Zane’s bleeding and vomit-covered mouth.

“I’m tired of your tough little voice”.

Some people move on easily. No matter how big the grudge is that they could hold, they would learn to forget and regret, moving on like nothing had ever happened. Some people are liked that.

Perry Rumbaugh (Girl #15) wasn’t.

Looking through the crooked mirror in the barn’s kitchen, as Leana Devora (Girl #2) and June Harrison (Girl #4) giggled at the kitchen counter, she surveyed her appearance. All in all, she was a fairly decent looking girl. Her skin was tan, blending in perfectly with her long and braided black hair and bronzed and serious half-Asian face. And to top it off, there was an explosive collar around her neck.

However, none of this was enough to impress Leana Devora (Girl #2).

Ever since they had wet their beds and drew on the walls, Leana and Perry had been inseparable. From riding their tricycles down the street as children to walking down the rivers and playing, “pretending games”, it looked like they would always be together. They had been more than best friends; they cared about eachother almost as sisters.

However, during fifth grade, when the opposite genders were finally beginning to notice eachother, Perry noticed she wasn’t exactly staring in the right direction. She remembered hiding under the bleachers at cheerleading practice, watching Amber Prescott sail through the air in her tight and beautiful skirt over her athletic and thin body. Something about it caused Perry to wonder. And by the time this hopeful wondering turned into a realization, Perry was confident and proud of her sexuality. In fact, she even knew who she was in love with: Leana.

Unfortunately, at the same time where the opposite sexes began to notice eachother, students also began to form middle school cliques and exclusive groups. While Perry, being fairly intelligent, became one of the science club members, Leana, always athletic and excelling at sports, became fairly popular on the lacrosse team with the athletic girls, especially June Harrison (Girl #4). Before September of sixth grade had passed, the, “best friend”, relationship of June Harrison and Leana Devora was well-known and nobody had any clue who Perry Rumbaugh was.

However, she didn’t care. All she knew was that she would never forgive or regret. She would hold a grudge against the world, especially June Harrison (Girl #4), who had stolen Leana away from her. Even if Leana was straight, which she was, it mattered more than ever, especially in a situation like the program.

“Perry?”

Turning around from the mirror, Perry forced herself to smile at the slightly plump face of June Harrison (Girl #4). Behind her, Leana Devora was blowing up several balloons, which sadly, had turned out to be her weapon. June’s weapon, a hot glue gun, was nestled softly in her bag while Perry’s, an M16 machine gun, lay, tempting her, on the kitchen counter.

“Did you give them the sandwiches?” June asked, excitedly. “I thought we put too much wheat in the dough, but I think it turned out-

“June, do we have any idea what we’re doing?”

June stared. “Huh?”

Perry sighed, unprepared for what she was about to say. “Prudence Mercedes said that we have no clue what we’re doing other than helping people. When the third day comes, we’ll probally still be here baking dough and giving out medicine”.

“But we’re helping peopl-

“Yeah, but is that enough?”

There was an awkward silence between the girls, only punctuated by the sound of Leana blowing up balloons, for no good reason at all to Perry, behind them. Finally, for no good reason once more, June giggled.

“Don’t worry, Perry. We know exactly what we’re doing. You know, you’re pretty cool. I wish I hung out with you more back at Spanish Rivers”.

“Thanks”, Perry lied, forcing herself not to grit her teeth. “You’re cool, too”.

As June strutted away back toward Leana, Perry thought more and more about her grudge. June was a monster; she had stolen Leana away from her and now she would never know how Perry really felt. That was all Perry wanted; she wanted Leana to feel her before those last seconds of the third day ticked away.

With a sigh, she walked over to the counter where Leana was still busily blowing up the balloons with her slightly swollen and blue lips. Her eyes, always fixated like an animal staring at headlights, were directly forward, not even glancing at Perry. It almost made her want to cry.

“Leana?”

Leana nodded, blowing air into the balloon and watching it inflate to the size of her head quickly.

“Do you remember how we were friends?”

Leana stared. “Excuse me?”

“We were friends. Remember? Me? When we were little kids?”

“She has to remember”, Perry thought. “June couldn’t have made her forget this much. I hate June. I’m never going to let myself forget what she did to Leana. We weren’t just friends, Leana. We were much more, and you never knew”.

For a second, she could have been speaking in a foreign language to Leana Devora. Then, compassionately, she smiled warmly.

“Of course I remember, Perry”, Leana said. “I wouldn’t have invited you into our group if I didn’t. We just sort of stopped hanging out with eachother; it happens a lot. But we’re still best friends, right? You just got into your math club and I got into my lacrosse and-

“Science”, Perry said, coldly. “I got into my science club and you got into your lacrosse. Not math”.

That was more than enough for her. June had destroyed her friend, and now, Perry’s grudge was greater than ever. June had no clue what it meant to be in love; or more importantly, find out you were in love with your best friend who was the same gender as you. Perry had never told her parents she was a lesbian, but for some reason, the guilt that she hadn’t told Leana was much worse. It ate away at her, almost begging to be let out at any minute.

“Right”, Leana said, still smiling. “Your science club. Hey, could you do me a favor? I dropped some aspirin out in the main room of the barn when I was coming back from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Can you go get it?”

For a second, Perry was about to comply. But that was before she locked eyes on June Harrison (Girl #4) again, who’s blonde hair was swaying softly with her head in the fridge. The grudge was coursing through her, inching through every vein and pour until Perry Rumbaugh (Girl #15) was practically breathing anger.

“Only if June comes with me”, Perry said.

For a second, Leana looked slightly surprised. But then, her face faded back to its normal bubbly smile. “Whatever! You guys can go together if you want. I’ll stay here and start working on dinner for later on. I want it to be really special for everyone. You know, I feel bad for Nathan and Adam. It looked like they wanted to help with dinner, but I sent them back in the room. Three girls is enough to make a good dinner”.

With a shrug, June heaved her backpack over her shoulder and marched out the wooden door. As Perry followed, it was almost like she was on fire. Every inch of her was breathing anger at her grudge against June, vowing to never forgive or forget what she had done. She was a monster; she had taken away Perry’s only love and was treating her like a, “friend”, instead of what Leana truly was.

As they walked out the door, leaving Leana behind in the kitchen, Perry instantly noticed that Adam Spencers (Boy #15) and Nathan Carpenter (Boy #16) were both slouched against the wall to the stables, where the rest of the visitors all were.

“Why are you guys here?” June asked, slightly surprised.

“Mitch is being an asshole”, Adam sighed. “Long story. I really don’t want to talk about it…”

Passing the two boys slouched against the wall, Perry instantly spotted the bottle of aspirin in the middle of the barn floor, almost like it had been purposelessly dropped there. The entire barn smelled like horses and sweat, not much different than Perry’s feelings for June.

“Why did you want me to come with you?” June asked.

“Oh, I’m bad at finding things”, Perry sighed. “I didn’t want to look stupid in front of Leana when I couldn’t find a bottle of pills”.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. They’re right here in the middle of the floor!”

Smiling, like the mindless witch Perry knew she was, June hunched over to pick up the pills. At that point, Perry knew the grudge was uncontrollable now; she had become the grudge herself. All she was now was a living manifestation of anger and lost love. She was confused; just because her love was different didn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. Leana needed to know how she felt by the end of the program, and this monster being around would ruin the few moments Perry had left of her life.

Quickly, Perry kicked the bottle of aspirin with the heel of her shoe, sending it spinning around the barn floor and under a wooden barrel in the corner of the room. For a second, June stared bewildered at her. Then, she glared in annoyance.

“That wasn’t very nice. I thought you invited me out here to help you look for the aspirin!”

“I’m sorry”, Perry sighed, struggling to come up with an excuse. “I have clumsy feet”.

Rolling her eyes, June quickly crawled over to the barrel, eyeing under it like she was glancing for monsters under her bed. Quietly, Perry reached into her exposed backpack, doing her best to not make any noise as it loosened open.

“I don’t see it”, June whined, her eyes nearly closed from squinting. “Why’d you kick it away?”

Perry didn’t answer. Instead, feeling the grudge inside her eating at her heart, she pulled out the wire of the hot glue gun from June’s backpack, followed by the hot glue gun itself that came dangling after.

Leana didn’t know her anymore. She would never feel her now. They had no plans. They wouldn’t get off the island…

And it all boiled down to June Harrison (Girl #4).

Tightening the cord of the hot glue gun cord like an elastic band, Perry shrieked in rage as she swung the cord tightly around June's neck.

No Students Eliminated

35 Students Remaining

Yep, a cliffhanger. Find out what happened to June and Perry in the next chapter! I'll tell you right now that Leana blowing up her balloons she recieved as a weapon is actually REALLY important for the next chapter. You'll find out soon.