Blood Rose

17

You're stronger than they tell you. I turned my head to look at Fox, smiling at the smallest but most effective comment. He believes in my abilities, and I wasn't about to let him down.

"On your marks," I tensed my muscles. "get set," I had my eyes set on the tree line. "Go!" A gun went off but I could hardly hear it. My legs were taking me far, and I felt an adrenaline I've never felt before. I couldn't hear anything or see the others until I went past the tree line and started dodging various things like logs, stumps, bushes, anything that could get in my way. I could hear my light breathing and the whisp of whirling past leaves and branches. I kept my eyes open and continued to look all around me.

I let out a grunt of surprise when something toppled over me and fell on top of my back. The girl let out her own grunt, but it was from the impact from the speed we were going. She flipped me around and raised her fist to punch, but I dodged my head, her fist cracking slightly from hitting the hard dirt. She went for another punch and hit me square in the nose. I quickly folded my legs, pushing my feet up and knocking her off of me. I strained my ears to hear the crank from a camera changing angles. Great.

"You think you're all that, eh?" She gave me a sadistic grin, as if she had the advantage. "able to dodge a few punches and kick me off is not really that impressive."

"Maybe not." I shrugged and bent back when she threw a kick at me before reaching up and grabbing her foot, twisting it. She groaned in slight pain and attempted to hop out of it. I pulled her by the foot towards me, grabbing her by the knee before flipping her onto her back where I got on top of her, leaning towards her face. "But you're not wrong, I do think I'm all that." She growled and tried to kick me off, but I distracted her by giving her a punch and then stomped on her stomach, making her grimace and groan. I hopped up and darted, the girl not being my main agenda.

I ran in a different direction, straining my ears again to listen in on what else was happening. There was another fight, but nobody mentioned a flag. Just pinning each other down and trying to eliminate one less competitor.

I stopped still when I heard no more fighting, and just running. I looked up in realization. Of course they wouldn't put the flag on the ground. That would be far too easy, they wanted to test every ability they could.

I continued to run and looked up every now and then until I saw yellow and hopped straight onto the tree. This was a tall tree, and I was going to have trouble getting up and down. I struggled finding a rhythm before I got the hang of it and and pulled myself to the top, earning a few scratches on my palms and shines.

I started reaching for the flag dug into the bark of the tree. I quickly held onto the branch I was sitting on like a koala when I nearly fell before regaining my balance and reaching out again.

"Having trouble?" I froze at a new voice, turning towards it. Another girl was on the tree, and before I could blink she reached out and grabbed my wrist hard before shaking me and the branch I was on. I cringed at a crack before climbing onto another branch, this one farther away from the girl. I reached out again for the flag and got a hold on the pole before I was grabbed and thrown into the air.

I resisted a scream to show my weakness before I got a hold of a branch and held on like a monkey, dangling in the air. I watched gritting my teeth as the girl took the pole out of the bark and started climbing down.

"Shit." I cursed under my breath, feeling every viewer's eye on my situation. I knew that the cameras were on us because of the flag, so I had to do something. Without looking down I let go, feeling the air bite at my skin before I tumbled into a landing, looking up with a growl at the girl finishing. She widened her eyes at me before jumping the rest of the way off the trunk and darted.