2.1
After exiting Bone Creek's southeast gate and continuing on for around a mile down the river that ran through the city, Skye, Yumi, Sasha, and Corvus could hear the distant murmur of a crowd.
"That's it," Skye told them, nodding in the direction of the sound. "It's usually farther than this, so you guys picked a good year to come."
As they approached, the voices got louder, and the crowds came into view.
Most people were gathered in front of TV monitors, which displayed video feeds of various sections of the tournament grounds. But many others were simply gathered along the perimeter of the competition area, where a yellow caution tape was the only thing separating contestants from spectators.
"So… it's only kids competing?" Sasha asked hesitantly. Skye had explained the gist of the tournament on the way over, but most of it still made no sense to him.
"Yes," she replied. "That's how we build a strong future for our city."
The four newcomers merged into the crowd around the television system.
"Skye! Hello."
"Ah, hello, Skye."
A pair of spectators immediately greeted Skye with a respectful bow of their heads, and she smiled warmly at them.
"Hi, Claire. Hi, Jackson."
Sasha watched, deeply intrigued by the dynamic between Skye and civilians whose city she was in charge of. She seemed to be on a first-name basis with everyone, greeting them casually as if they were all close friends, yet there was still an obvious difference in authority. Everyone respected her, and everyone treated her accordingly.
Many people greeted Skye, but once things settled down, the four were left standing with Jackson and Claire.
Skye turned to the couple and asked, "So, how's it going?"
"Oh, it's incredible!" Jackson replied excitedly. "There are around eight headbands left right now, and I think it's gonna heat up soon!"
"Oh boy," Skye replied with a soft laugh. "Who are you rooting for?"
Jackson sighed and said, "Honestly, I've had to switch every day cause they keep getting eliminated! I like to root for the underdogs, you know? Right now, I'm rooting for that girl with the afro, Izzie."
"I'm rooting for Coral!" Claire chimed in. "She's so cool!"
"Ahh, Coral?" Skye nodded. "I assume the whole trio is still in, right?"
"Yup," Jackson confirmed regretfully. "They keep taking out everyone I root for."
"They aren't teaming up, are they?" Skye quickly asked.
Some stages of the tournament were carried out in groups, but for the individual stages, teaming was strictly forbidden.
"Nope. They're just stronger than everyone else," Jackson admitted. "But who knows–maybe Izzie can pull it off!"
At that moment, a murmur ran through the crowd as a pair of fighters appeared on one of the TVs. The two were standing on opposite banks of the river, facing each other across the 50-foot gap.
"That's Izzie!" Jackson gasped.
Skye squinted at the TV screen. "But isn't that Trey on the other side?"
Jackson's face fell. "Oh, come on…"
But the pair appeared to be in a deadlock, unable to cover the boundary that the river posed.
"Uhh, what are the headbands for?" Sasha asked, pointing towards the screen.
Both Trey and Izzie had purple bandanas tied around their heads.
"The objective of the tournament is to take other fighters' bandanas," Skye explained. "Losing your bandana doesn't immediately eliminate you, but whoever doesn't have one when the time runs out is eliminated."
"oh… so how many people are left right now?"
"Twenty-three," Skye replied. "According to Jackson, there are eight headbands left, which means that fifteen kids are desperately trying to steal one before the time runs out."
She checked her watch.
"They have forty minutes."
On the TV screen, Izzie raised her gun.
"Woah, do they kill each other?" Yumi asked candidly, eyebrows raised.
"No," Skye quickly replied before adding, "...well, it's happened, but only a few times."
Jackson clenched his fists. "Come onnn, Izzie!"
At the exact moment that Izzie fired her pistol, Trey hurled something across the river so quickly that the screen couldn't capture any of it. From the looks of things, Izzie dodged the attack, but Trey did not.
The boy stumbled, and his opponent raised her pistol again.
"Come on, come on!" Jackson wasn't alone as he watched the duel with his mouth gaping open.
Again, the girl shot, and the boy threw.
This time, both attacks hit their marks. Izzie hastily wrenched something out of her stomach and tossed it aside, but her moment of inattention cost her dearly.
Another knife came whizzing across the water, sticking her in the upper thigh.
She staggered, and got hit by another.
"Auuugh!" Jackson wailed something of a sob at the sight. Claire pursed her lips and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
"Woah!"
"What happened?"
In the midst of the excitement, another TV showed something strange, and the crowd gasped in surprise when they saw it.
One of the contestants who'd had a bandana only a moment before was now bareheaded and glancing around in confusion, clearly just as shocked as the crowd was.
While the spectators were anxiously glancing from screen to screen, trying to figure out what had happened, Trey had crossed the river and pulled the headband off of Izzie's head. He tore it in half, letting the two pieces of fabric fall to the ground at their owner's side.
"T-the poor girl," Jackson stammered, clutching tightly against Claire.
"There are still thirty minutes, Jackson!" she reminded him. "Maybe she'll get up and take someone else's."
He sniffled and nodded, refocusing his eyes back onto the TVs.
But over the next half hour, although there were several outbursts from the crowd, none were in reaction to Izzie.
It appeared that a large group of kids without headbands had ganged up and were hunting down the survivors. The rule about teaming only extended to those still wearing bandanas, so there was nothing illegal about their strategy.
With ten minutes left in the day of competition, the group found their target.
To the dismay of the spectator's, the camera's view was obstructed by a clump of trees, but they still watched the flickers of movement they could see with baited breath, wondering who the unfortunate survivor was and how long it would be before their headband traded hands.
But the scuffle kept going, continuing on for far longer than it should have.
"What's going on?!" Jackson was at his wit's end, and his voice was high and strained as he squinted at the screen for all he was worth.
"Hmm…" Skye, too, was watching with great interest. "We might not find out until it's over."
The battle ended, and the timer ran out.
An alarm blared through the woods, signaling that the day was over.
Armed adults, presumably soldiers of some sort, rushed into the arena to ensure that the fighting stopped and those still wounded could be tended to.
Although the TV feeds had been cut off, the suspense felt within the crowd reached an all-time high.
The TVs couldn't capture everything, so the day's results were still unknown.
Who was left, and who had been eliminated?
The answers to everyone's questions were about to arrive.