“BadEve!” the girl shouted as she took something from her pocket, quickly tucked it into Eve’s shirt and shoved her off.
She lunged for me, grabbing ahold of my wrist and pulled me along with her.
“What the-” I heard Eve’s voice behind us.
“They call me the Bomb Girl,” the stranger smiled at me as we ran together.
My eyes widened in surprise, before I heard something go off behind us, gravel sprayed and dust billowed from where Eve was standing.
“You didn’t kill her, right?” I asked, taken aback by what had just happened.
“Nah, it wasn’t powerful enough, I just wanted to ruin that ugly face of hers.”
We continued for a while, before she pulled me into one of the ruined houses, hiding us from the open areas.
Our eyes collided, as doubt filled the space between us. We were supposed to battle each other as well.
“Truce, just this once?” she winked at me, before she slipped out of the ruins, leaving me behind.
I hadn’t even had time to ask her name, or give her an answer before she was gone. She seemed… experienced. Perhaps this wasn’t her first year trying out? That or she had no worry in her bones about whether she failed or passed.
I took a deep breath, collecting myself anew, before continuing on. I preferred stealth, that way I had more time to think, aim and calculate. Perhaps it was of all the thievery I had to lower myself to that had made me excel at these things.
The people who weren’t soldiers were poor, constantly on the verge of starvation. No one cared for them; they had failed at advancing into higher society. Now they were workers, providing for others, not themselves.
I had no intention of ending up like that for another year.
As I rounded a corner, I bumped right into another woman. She looked frightened and I was just lucky enough that I recovered faster than her to shoot her purple before she got me.
She sighed when she missed, and strolled away defeated, without uttering as much as a word. It almost made me feel bad. Almost.
Suddenly I found myself in a long corridor inside the ruins, how had I ended up here? I hated being in enclosed spaces like this—no hiding spots, nowhere to run.
I glanced around the corner at the end of the hall and saw a man gripping his gun hard, scouting the room ahead. He was making his way to the other side, to a doorway that led back outside again. Should I take him out first, or what if he has people outside waiting?
Before I was able to make up my mind I felt a gun at the back of my head.
My heart almost stopped before I heard:
“Well, look who I found.”
CHAPTER
2
Ishot my elbow backwards, slamming hard against my target, earning a smothered coughing sound out of them.Grabbing my gun, I spun around, pointing it at my target.
My eyes widened in disbelief. “Lionel?”
“Long time no see, Ethalyn,” he smiled back, his impossible light brown eyes glittering, before waving his hands in the air in surrender.
My hand curled into a fist and I struck him in the side of his arm. “Jerk! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Shhh!” he pulled me closer, hiding me from the open room.
I had forgotten there was still another contestant inside. Silence filled the space as I started struggling against his grip. When had he become so strong?
My hand pressed against his chest and finally he let go. “What are you doing here?”
