The Test

Chapter 3

Day 1

"Read it out loud." Said one of the others.

"Okay..." I said. I swallowed hardly and opened the book. "INSTRUCTIONS:
Hello, my dear students. Welcome to the test. As you can tell by looking around, you are in a jungle. If you look to your east, you will see a tower. Now, every day, in the morning, you should walk up that tower, and there will be a book with your name on it. Open it up. There should be three achievements written down, and you have to complete these achievements. If you do not complete them before sunset, you will be sacrificed... Good luck." I finished up, and when I looked around, almost everyone was already running towards the tower. Except for me, and Becca, who gave each other a nod, and then went running to our east, too.

The tower looked old. It was halfway torn down, although I know that this test only started three years ago, now four. But it was definitely not stable. But when I saw the others, they just went up the tower without thought, so I did too. At the very top of the tower, just as the book explained, were more books, but with names on it. I searched and searched for "Ryan" until I finally found it. I opened it up.

Welcome Ryan! Your achievements are:
1. Build yourself a house
2. Find three fruits
3. Sacrifice someone
So, as you can tell, it all starts out easy, but be aware, they will get worse.

I was shocked at the last achievement. I-I HAD TO KILL SOMEONE?! I have never killed a person before, and I was scared: Will these stupid achievements change who I am? How will these achievements get worse? Do the others have the same achievements as me..?

How was I going to kill someone?! I'm not that strong that I could twist someone's neck around or something, and I didn't have any weapons either... DOES THAT MEAN I HAVE TO MAKE MY OWN WEAPONS?!?!?! No! No, no, no! I-I-I... I just can't. I wasn't born to kill.

I got some twigs from a jungle tree... And... YES! I found bananas... And... Something else I couldn't recognize. I climbed up the tree, and... A BOX?! I opened the box, and... THERE WAS A KNIFE AND A ROPE!!!!! This was such a lucky day! I took the knife, and carried on, searching for some food.

It all seemed peaceful until... I heard a scream that came from a familiar voice. It sounded like... Becca. She carried on screaming and I ran towards the sound. I ended up on a clear surface, no trees. Good for a house... But there was Becca. On top of her was a guy punching her. I was in panic. I had to be her hero. I had to save the girl I love. I just wished she knew I loved her, or for me to know if she loves me too, before she dies. And I didn't want her to die. I took my knife and came and jumped on the guy on top of her and stabbed him. He started being more concentrated on me, and punched my torso. Pain came running through my whole body, and I screamed. But I had to stay tough. I kept on stabbing him until he fell and bled out. I counted my stabs... Two... Three.. Four.. Five... Six. I stabbed him six times. And that was the first time I ever killed a person. Achievement number three was complete. The achievement I wanted to complete the least. Becca ran into my arms. "You're my hero!" She said. "I still have to kill someone. It's my third achievement. I don't want to."

"I don't either. But I did it." I felt a tear run down my cheek. "It felt horrible." But then I noticed that everyone had the same achievements. "Becca. Everyone has the same achievements. We have to stay together. No matter what. Promise?"

"Promise." She looked at my, now bloody, knife. "Where'd you get that from?"

"Oh, the knife?"

"Ya."

"That... Okay. Don't tell anyone. But there are hidden boxes in this jungle. I found one... And got this!" I said. I had excitement in my voice, and I'm sure Becca noticed.

And since I said that, we checked every tree and bush to see if there's fruits or boxes. I hoped sunset didn't come anytime soon.

Eventually, we found more bananas, some mango, and a few berries. Achievement number two was complete. Now we only had to build a house. So we got as much wood a see could. We even got really long twigs with leaves at the end of them with my knife. We carried on walking around, and I found an amazing twig, super big, and with leaves. I climbed the tree to cut off the twig, but when I climbed up, I found something, so I climbed higher. "What're you doing?" Becca asked.

"I think there might be another box up there." I said and carried on climbing. And I was right. There was a box. I climbed back down so Becca could see. When I was down, Becca asked if she could open it, so I handed it over to her. She opened it, and... Oh. My. God. Inside was so much food, it could last for weeks. There was steak, and pork, both cooked, and then there were carrots and cucumbers. I hoped we were the only ones that knew about these boxes. I wanted the all for myself and Becca.

Later, we went back to the clear area and started building. We both worked on out own houses to make sure it counted in he rules, and I shared my rope with her to tie twigs together. We used my knife to cut the knife. I wondered how the others were building their houses.

Our houses turned out looking like tents made of leaves and twigs, but it would protect us from the rain and it would give us a place to sleep. Now Becca had to kill someone... I wanted to help her but I noticed that we are probably the most powerful people in this place. We had a knife. Nobody could beat us. So I gave her the knife and she went away looking for someone to kill.

A few minutes later I heard a scream and then after a few more minutes I saw Beca coming out from the bushes crying. I hugged her for at least an hour, and she was hugging me back, not saying a word as if we were sharing our tears from killing an innocent person that wanted to survive this thing.

All our achievements for that day were complete. We just hoped the teamwork counted. And it did. Soon came sunset and we were able to sleep peacefully through the night. We were relieved. We have survived the first day, and some didn't. We knew that. We heard sacrificed during the night. But then I realized something I totally forgot about. At some point, me and Becca will probably have to kill each other...