Guts Day

Breathe. Million things running through my head. Migraine. Hot. Heat. Sweat. Ew. A dark figure sat up, a thin arm reached up and raked through greasy, sweat matted hair. Quiet, forcibly controlled breaths swirled in and out of her nostrils. Dark eyes, apprehensive, shifted to the source of the reedy blue light illuminating her room. 2:10 AM.

A chill ran up her spine. 50 minutes. 50 precious minutes. Until-

"Rebeka, get up! You have to prepare! Sheesh, why does your school have to demand you to get there a 3 o' clock just for a fun day?" The hallway light blared in her unaccustomed eyes as her mother's cheery voice rang into the room.

Teeth grit together. Damn...

"Up! Up! Up! Let's go! Get changed!"

"Yeah, yeah." Feigned nonchalance, annoyance. "I'm a-gettin'"

Shower. Change. Pack. Eat. 2:45 AM. 15 minutes. Oh God, please, please. A shaky breath caught. Save me...

Lumber into the car. Yawn. Drive. 2:53 AM, arrive. 7 minutes. Get out, into the darkness of the school. The "Have fun!" Barely reaches her ears as she forced a grin and waves. I love you Mom.

It's dark in the cool mid-winter's night, stars shrouded away and the silvery hope the moon gives barely kissing the building behind its puffy curtain. The chatter of people, jovial and light, hums from the school. Barely concealing the nervousness. The fear. Apprehension. She can taste it in the air. Regardless, she smiled softly.

"BEKAAAAA!!!" A happy squeal from a thundering red head nearly tackled the dark haired girl. "You made it! Everyone's here already! We're gonna party up, right?"

A flash of teeth and an earnest nod. "Hell yeah, I don't wanna be alone out there. I don't get how those solos do it."

The taller girl laughed lightly. "You're just happy because you have this awesome one to be in your party. Do you know how many requests I got?"

"Hey, I got requests too, don't got stealing all the glory." She snipes, falling into step with her friend. They chat back and forth amiably, an easy atmosphere around the two. But whispers were present, rumors flew at the sight of them.

"Darn, I was hoping you'd have to do a consolation match. That way, it would have been more interesting."

Rebeka turns to smirk at the curly haired girl, tangled chocolate locks forced into a frizzy ponytail. "Pft, you make it sound like you've won already. Humble much, Steph?"

Carlie, an equally curly haired girl, raised an amused eyebrow at her. "Do we need to be? We got Thea."

"Boo-yah."

Stephanie grins. "Mrs. Hulk. La Thea-hulk."

"Well-"

Rebeka's Point of View

The monotone bell droned across campus, the students shushing uncharacteristically. A click and the sound a throat clearing then a reedy, static clung voice stating: "Students, I thank you all for coming to the annual Miels E. Activities Day. We all hope that this will be an enjoyable day for all of you. Now the 7th and 8th graders should report to their homerooms as soon as this announcement is over. After majority gather in their teams and sign solo or party in the multipurpose room, we will relay the rules of our school game while you are all there. Lastly, head to the PE area to pick up your reserved equipment for the day. Dismissed!"

Excitement buzzed in the air as talk resumed, loud as ever. I filled my lungs with cool winter air, steeling myself for the fierce competition, then nodded at one of my teammates. "You sign up for us with Sabrina, we'll grab your equipment. It's your first year, right? We'll hear the rules from the loudspeaker while we get them."

Taylor smiled shakily; Sabrina tucking her ever present book under her arm and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder before heading off. Pursing my lips, a bit unsure, I resumed my stroll with the remaining group of my friends. Eighth graders flooded the gym, all disregarding directions. Nobody cared really. I whistled appreciatively as I noticed our gear, laid out beautifully. "Wow, the principal actually used school funds this time. Ugh, I remember last year, it was ugly."

Mana, my long time friend from Japan, facepalmed, shaking her head. "That was terrible, I still don't know how we survived through that."

Collective statements agreeing followed. Snickering at one that dissed the principal's stinginess, a familiar shade of faded gray caught my eye. My good mood dissipated immediately. He held my stare defiantly, as if challenging me to say something. He's soloing. My fists clenched as worry filled my mind, plaguing me like locusts. I cursed him mentally, giving me the instinct to worry about every irrational thing the proclaimed genius kid of Miels did.

"You're stupid." I hissed quietly. "You can go and die for all I care. You and your stupid male pride."

A dry smile was his only reply as he crouched to inspect another row of craft. Before I could verbally attack him anymore, the loudspeaker crackled to life once more and this time, the vice principal's steady voice filtered through.

"Good morning students. Before you head off to collect your tools-" A few of the eighth grader broke into grins, like me. Oops, too late. "-we want you to know the rules.

"You cannot leave Miels day, or as you guys call it, Guts Day. We'll be watching the boundaries, teachers will be stationed at the ends, which stretch out into the neighborhood.

"If you try to leave, teachers, who will be armed with weapons much stronger than yours, will terminate you immediately and without thought.

"If you surrender, a teacher will come and 'relieve' you of duty via termination.

"All means of exterminations are allowed and it is all against all. Teammates can indeed betray you.

"Impromptu alliances are allowed. Be aware that they can be taken back as soon as they are made.

"There will be no sleeping. There may be naps to temporarily recuperate, but nothing more than three hours of inactivity. You must be awake for at least twelve hours before rest is allowed. Any student caught will face termination by teacher.

"While you are awake and active, you absolutely must kill. If not, you will face termination.

"If you are to hold out until the dawn of the next morning, then you win along with the rest of the survivors.

"That is all. Thank you for your time. You may go a pick up your chosen weapons in the Gym. Be sure to show your ID card to the vendor or he may call you out for falsification of identity, which will result in termination." A crackle, then a grim silence.

Knitting my brows together, I swallowed. And anxiety swallowed me. I tossed our ID cards at our vendor. He gave me a thin smile, sliding our weapons over to us. "I can only imagine how the 7th graders are reacting. The fresh meat's gonna be easy picking, aren't they?"

I glared at him stonily. Icy eyes locked onto the teen from behind me. Stephanie sashayed over to me, leaning her elbow on my head with tremendous height. "Aren't you clever? You do know what type of group we are, right? The ones that never shut up. You don't know just how many enemies you've made. And it's one more contestant out of the game."

His cerulean eyes widened and I smirked cruelly. "In this game, the weak are devoured by the strong. Or...are the strong devoured by the weak?" I let loose a humorless chuckle. "I trust that you'll show me this year."

He croaked, unable to even beg for mercy. I swooped up out equipment and walked out quickly, not allowing him to see the sly smirks curled onto our faces. As soon as we were out, Thea punched me in the shoulder playfully. "Sheesh, not giving anyone ease on the brainy side of things."

Steph shrugs. "He's just mentally destroyed now. He'll just be picked off a lot sooner, he's too mentally unprepared after us rocking his stable state of mind. But then again, a bulkhead like you wouldn't understand this would you, T?"

"Shut up!" And the squawk of a Stephanie being tackled by a Thea sounded, then chaos ensued.

Taylor and Sabrina enter with bemused expressions as the they pass the tangled mass that is Stephanie and Thea. I roll my eyes. "C'mon, get suited up, we gotta go soon."

Organizing the different tipped arrows, I latch the quiver onto my back, the familiar feeling of a bow and arrow in my hands soothing me momentarily. I was a sniper. I sigh as I begin the more than tedious task of tying my packs of throwing daggers to my thighs, glancing up at my teammates. "Ready."

Thea, the forward, hefted an impressive lance with a matching shield while Steph, her backup and counterpart, spun two european swords around her hands. "Ready," They replied simultaneously. No wonder they're best friends.

Sarah, our only blond and doctor, slipped on her medic pack and short swords with shaking hands, knowing fully her frail body would not hold out if she were to be attacked. And that scared her. "R-Ready." Mana, our second forward, smiled at her the best she could, but the whiteness of her knuckles on her ever shifting and changing staff said otherwise. "I'm locked 'n loaded."

Carlie slid the last of her daggers in her sleeves, the fashion befitting out assassin and spy. With cold, unfeeling eyes, she murmured: "I'm ready to go."

Connie armed with only a longsword and throwing needles, grinning merrily, as if there was nothing in the world that was bothering her. But in facts she had the role of a scout, one of the most dangerous. Taylor, eyes wary, sheathed her two katana and inspected her longest one distractedly. "I'm ready... I think."

Lastly, our leader and tactician, Sabrina, with diamond covered wire string ready at her fingers, bowed her head, an early tribute for those who will fall. Silence reigned.

The loudspeaker spoke. "All groups and solos are at their respective start points. Provision packs are all in the court. First come, first serve. Who will come out with victory at their sides, we shall see. The seventh annual Guts Day at 5:59 AM starts in

"Three."

Sabrina raised her head and glanced back at us.

"Two."

And smiled confidently.

"One."

"You know what to do."

"Let the games begin."


I AM DONE!!!!! This'll probably be a two part story, I dunno really. This cliffy was so cheesy TAT. I hated the part where I had to describe the weapons, but you guys need to know, or else you won't understand much. Well, this is it for now. PLEASE REVIEW. I'LL BE GIVEN YU COOKIES!!!!!