Kalon
My younger brother fired shots until the clip emptied.
He practiced reloaded with quickness, then emptied that entire clip as well.
My younger brother Kyza damaged the target significantly, hitting it with shot after shot.
Kyza is only a couple years younger than me, but he's handled this entire thing much better than I have.
He's determined to get stronger.
I haven't quite gathered a way to cope with the possibility of us all being dead within the next ten days.
Daysha's family as well. Her mother and father, and a few of her brothers or sisters.
I wondered which siblings were captured with her, basically put all of their deaths on my head.
Day didn't deserve this, they stalked her and thought her family would make good use of this massacre.
I wanted to find her, so it's also gave me motivation to leave our room and go with my little brother on his training journey.
The only thing Kyza has been doing, is training.
I haven't done anything proactive besides looking out for my little brother.
After Kyza finally settled down from wanting to shoot everything, we decided on spending time in the weight room.
The weight room was a little more crowded than the other training rooms.
The people with the brown uniforms were watching from another room, some were taking notes but most were just talking amongst each other.
There was a group of about twelve people, mostly boys but a few girls. Mostly were Caucasian but a few had some kind of African heritage in them. They all seemed pretty young, athletic, and energetic. They were lifting weights and helping each other.
There was a couple of other groups, both much smaller though. One was a couple of Asian kids. Both were young, but one seemed like a freshmen in high school. The other was a couple of brothers, brown Hispanic heritage who seemed like adults.
I can't really tell if they're teenagers or not, but I know they're young adults.
Kyza gave me and eye and nodded to the group of twelve. "Yo, if they're an alliance that's fucked up."
"It's a benefit to them, they'll survive longer as a group." I said. "But I thought we were all randomly picked."
"Maybe they have like a super team or something every year." Kyza said. "Explains why all the brownies are here."
"Brownies?"
"Them motherfuckas' with the brown uniforms." Kyza said. "We calling them brownies."
A door opened, one of the brownies came from their side room to speak with the group of twelve.
"No fuckin' way." Kyza continued. "They working with the brownies?"
"I don't know." I said. "We don't know what's going on, and we don't care."
"Why not?" Kyza questioned. "You're not training, so do some spying. Go find out what the hell they got going on."
"Kyza, demanding as he's ever been." I mumbled as I made my way towards the group. "Don't hurt yourself lifting heavy shit, I'll be right back."
Getting to know my enemies was a good idea, so I took to it.
First, I came to the Asians.
The older one had the knife's slash on his family's name. He was the family captain.
They mugged me, but I ignored it. I'd mug someone for walking up on me too.
I spoke to them. "You guys have any idea what that group is?"
The elder of the duo spoke, "I know, but what does it matter? Everyone one us will be dead rather I tell you or not, them included."
I gasped. "Damn, you don't have any faith?"
"You do?"
I almost lied, but decided to tell the truth. "I have faith in my brother, that he'll do his best to help me keep our family alive. But in the end, I don't really think there's a chance we'll survive. I'm Kalon, what's your name?"
"Shiori, this is my little brother River." His little brother was young, like my fourteen year old sister brought with us.
I asked River. "You're like fourteen, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"We're mostly quiet." Shiori said. "He doesn't speak much."
"If they're making big alliances like that, it'll probably be smart to join groups ourselves. At least until things simmer down, a hundred people is a lot."
"You just met me, and you're asking me to team up?"
"I mean.." I trailed off, but continued. "We could help keep our families safe, and I have a girlfriend that's here too. The three of our families would be something."
Shiori put his head down. "This year, they purposely picked many younger and athletic people to make it more interesting."
"Shiori, how do you know this?"
"My auntie, and a couple cousins survived a few years ago. My aunt works for them." Shiori continued. "I just spoke with her not too long ago."
"I have family members who won too. My uncle, two older cousins."
"My auntie told me there was no hope of me winning." Shiori sighed. "My family gave in."
"What?"
Tears came to River's eyes.
I asked again. "Wait, what do you mean Shiori?"
"There's a term, if you want to commit suicide before the battle."
"I'm sorry Shiori." I shook my head, sympathized for the both of them. "You have my condolences."
I never thought some families would commit suicide and leave their children behind. Though I never thought about it, I'm sure some full families kill themselves sometimes.
"Just because the odds of us dying are higher than us winning, doesn't mean we have to just roll over." I told them. "We have something to fight for, so we're gonna fight for it until there's no more fight left in us."
"My girlfriend is named Day, she's gonna join us in the field for sure. If you come across her, tell her I'm here and looking for her." I told him. "If you wanna win, I'll help you get there and if we can't win we'll just die together."'
"Wow." Shiori said softly. "You're so sincere."
"I know right, just let me know if you're taking me seriously later. I'm gonna see what's up with this big group since you won't tell me. Take care alright?"
"Hey!" Shiori called out just before I turned my back. "They're the elite, trying out for the elite at least."
"Now ya talking!" I continued. "What the hell is the elite?"
"They're a group that's pretty much put together by the ones who kidnap us."
"The brownies."
Shiori looked at me for a moment then continued explaining. "The brownies are in charge of making sure the best of us are known and ranked, to make it easier they recruit a group that they believe can produce a winner. Usually betters put their money on members in the elite. This year it should be different, considering that they decided to make it more interesting."
"Could we be members of the elite?"
Shiori took shock to my question, but answered. "If you're good enough to catch their eye, they'll most likely come to you with an offer. The elite usually isn't put together until after the first three days or so."
I nodded. "What are benefits of being in the elite?"
"They're well connected." Shiori said. "They'll basically be helped by the brownies, they'll have control of more ground because their numbers. They'll get around smoother until the time comes for them to kill each other."
"My brother is special, if they recruit us do you think we can eliminate them with a little inside game on them?"
"That's strategic, but like I said they're well connected. We'll have to stay away from each other and play it smart at least."
"Of course." I continued. "We'll meet everyday at the gun range."
"Deal."
I took a deep breath, contemplated on if this was even a good decision or not.
But I always trusted my gut, I went for my opportunity on the elite.
I joined the group, speaking to them and being social.
It didn't catch anyone's interest though, maybe because it seemed as if I were trying too hard to fit in.
But one of the brownies acknowledged me.
"Hope." The brownie said. "We've had a winner named Hope before, same relation right?"
The other brownie jumped in. "You're Kalon, aren't you?"
"Why aren't you the captain?" A brownie asked. "Your father isn't the captain is he?"
I nodded. "He is."
"Isn't your little brother here with you?"
"Kyza, he's over there lifting weights." I pointed out my brother, it's good that their noticing us. Maybe joining the elite could be easier because my uncle is a winner. "Kyza has extreme confidence, the kid can lead us to win it all."
I hyped my brother up, hoping for the brownies to fall for it and want us in the elite.
It worked, one of the brownies ordered the other to go and check out my brother while he asked me a few questions.
"Let's walk and talk Kalon." The brownie said, we walked slowly towards my brother. "Have you ever considered joining a group when you go in?"
"A group?" I played dumb. "But won't we have to kill each other to win?"
"Eventually." He continued. "Or you could just abandon the group. Either way it goes, you start with one hundred people in there with you. A group would certainly help you. Every year we form a group called the elite, we recruit people we think could come out as winners."
"We'll take it to consideration, my brother doesn't really get along with others too much."
"That's fine, you can take your time we won't have things all figured out for the next couple of days anyway. As of now, we have the elite's captain and second in command. We just need to find them some key pieces. We believe you and your brother Kyza could be among the elite."
"What about the rest of my family?"
"The elite's family are taken care of while your in there. We noticed that being a member of the elite brings many dangers, everyone wants you dead. So we started keeping up to three of their family members secured."
Kamil.
"That's a strong benefit." I said. "We're likely going to be interested, how will I get back to you with our answer?"
"We get around, just inform one of us and we'll get you started."
I nodded and thanked them for the offer.
I made my way to Kyza, stood there while he finished answering questions from the brownie. When he finished we left the weight room, both of us were smiling.
"This is good." Kyza said. "How did you do that?"
"It was actually pretty easy." I continued. "We'll have better odds of winning if we can kill off the elite."
"We'll need a big group."
"The Asian kids don't have a family." I told my brother. "They'll team up with us, and we have Daysha's family."
"I still can't believe she's here too man, that's so fucked up."
"Yeah, I know." I continued. "I still don't know what to do about that Kyza."
"We gotta stay alive." Kyza frowned at me. "Brother you have to cope with her death now because you know it's coming."
"Kyza don't fuckin' talk like that!"
"It's true!" Kyza didn't stop. "Our family is in a deep position, we can't afford compassion right now Kalon."
I stopped walking. "Kyza, I need time."
Kyza shook his head. "We don't have any damn time brother."
"The older Asian kid is named Shiori, if you seen him speak with him because he's gonna be apart of our alliance." I told my brother. "I need to go find Day, I won't stop looking for her until I find her. I need to speak with her and apologize for ever getting her in this situation."
"This isn't your fault Kalon!"
"Her getting captured is my fault, they stalked her because of me."
"You blame yourself for everything. Let things go Kalon, these could be your last days of even living."
"Our free lives are over." I turned my back to my brother. "Now we're just slaves."