Every colonist, ages eleven to eighteen, must participate and pass the 'skill test.' All classes of the participants will be paused. The test lasts for one workweek; each day is a new phase of the trial, with the last day, day five, being a culmination of everything they've learned up until this point. As they would train most days, they'd only have twelve hours of sleep total for the entire week. On average, two colonists per colony die yearly due to the difficulties of the test; hence, the residents of Crater renamed it 'The week of death' or 'Death week.'
Twenty years ago, Orion created the test. Each year, he would evaluate the progression and status of each colony and build their tests around that. Since no one has seen him or had any contact for some time now, they must go back to the first-ever test implemented as default.
Lubbock stood tall, his eyes scanning the crowd of kids in front of him. Most had heard the horror stories of this week; highly exaggerated, most likely, but almost all of them were on edge. It was this year's first time. They were all standing near the front gate, the cold fall morning making them all bunch together.
They split up the colonists by age group for this section to make things easier. Eleven to twelve were with Sylas—Group A. Thirteen to sixteen were with Lubbock—Group B. Seventeen and eighteen joined Amelia—Group C.
He glanced to Neph; he sensed they both had similar thoughts running through their heads. 'Who's going to die this year?'
"The fact that this is still allowed…" sighed Lubbock. 'Orion is a crazy, senile old man! If he were here, he'd have that look he has every year at this time. Absolute glee.'
Zoe awkwardly maneuvered through the crowd. The loud buzzing and murmuring of the group made her wince as it seemed to slowly go up in volume the longer she paid attention to it.
Finally spotting the familiar faded white jacket, she walked towards it, seeing Ivy talking to Herald and some of his friends. She had just finished explaining where she was for the past few weeks.
"There you are," Ivy grinned, turning around.
"Wussup," Herald yawned.
"Man," one of his friends said, "I dunno about all this."
"This is all of our first times, so they'll probably go easy on us."
"Maybe," his friend said, not sounding too convinced.
"What about you?" Herald asked Zoe, "This is the first time you've done it too, right?"
"Quite honestly, I'm a bit afraid," Zoe said colorlessly.
"Colson said we'd probably get through it pretty easily," Ivy chimed in.
"My dad told me that it's more about mental strength than physical," Herald mentioned. "Just gotta keep pushing forward."
Next to Lubbock, Sylas stood, staring at his watch. "Just one more minute." He unhooked the giant megaphone that was strapped around his chest. "What do you think of the warmup, pushups, and crunches before the run?"
"Adding stretching before all that would be beneficial."
"Hm, yeah," He turned on the megaphone, lifted it to his mouth, and took a deep breath. Lubbock quickly plugged his ears with his fingers, bracing himself. "On the ground! Now! You'll do push-ups for a minute and thirty seconds. You have to do a minimum of sixty, and you'll count off as you do them!"
There was a collective grumble as everyone got down in the plank position, counting aloud. Afterward, they did as many situps as possible in that same time.
Sylas looked to the wall that surrounded Crater. Ropes had been fastened at the top, dangling down until they touched the dirt floor.
When it was her turn, Zoe stepped towards the rope. She glanced behind her, Ivy gave her a thumbs-up of encouragement. She looked to her right; Sylas watched her with a pencil and clipboard while an injured kid beside him held a stopwatch. He nodded, indicating her start. Taking a deep breath, Zoe gripped the climbing rope, pulling herself up with surprising ease. Before she knew it, she had reached the top of the seventeen-meter wall, then started her descent back down. 'That was really easy.'
"Impressive, Zoe. Great improvements. Keep up the good work. Next!" He shouted, pointing at Ivy. She bounced towards the rope, eagerly grabbing it and shimmying up and back down in less than twenty seconds.
Once everyone had completed the rope climb, Sylas yelled at them to get in several lines. When he blew his whistle, they would all sprint around the inside perimeter of Crater's walls, reaching the back gate, which would bring them to the next section of their course.
When they arrived, most of Group A was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Ivy walked to the front of the crowd, seeing hundreds of large rocks spaced apart in several rows in front of them.
Herald moved beside Ivy; just like her and Zoe, he'd barely broken a sweat from the run. He glanced at Zoe, 'Kinda surprised. She kept up pretty well. She always seemed weak.'
"What do ya think we're gonna do?" Ivy asked.
"Some kind of lifting," Zoe mused, brushing her long white hair from out in front of her face. Her dilated blue eyes watched as a sweaty Sylas lumbered over to one of the rocks. He squatted down, grabbing it, holding it close to his chest; he exploded upwards, pushing the rock high into the air before dropping it down.
"That's how you do it! Each rock is basically the same weight. We'll all do forty of these at the same time!"
"You're on my team," Reiza said, walking up to Colson.
"Ah, my best friend in the whole wide world, what a pleasure," Colson smiled, pushing himself off the wall from which he was leaning.
Group B was located in the inner wall with over one hundred members. Colson noticed that with Lubbock training them, it was more relaxed than in previous years.
Lubbock had randomly assigned each colonist with another, making several groups of two. They'd be together for the rest of the day, helping each other train.
"Ugh, not this again," Reiza rolled her eyes as Lubbock led them toward a training building. "This about to be real easy," she told Colson. "The trick to this one here, is we need to pace ourselves the entire time."
"Wait, you've done this before? I thought this was for triple-star training."
"Maybe a month or two ago. Sylas got real mad one day and made us all go through it."
"Huh, alright."
Lubbock cleared his throat and spoke over the noise of the crowd. His voice was calm, commanding attention from everyone in the room. "The course in front of us is what you'll have to complete. They give you an hour and fifteen. Those who cannot complete it in that time will be sent to an extended group called Group X. You will remain in that crowd for the remainder of the week and beyond that. I suggest you work hard; otherwise, I can't say your future here in Crater will be very bright."
He let the thought linger in everyone's mind for a few seconds before speaking again. "Line up, and we shall commence in a few minutes."
Herald let the mini boulder drop at his feet. "Screw this," he exhaled loudly, plopping down on the rock. His vision blurred slightly, and his head felt like it was slowly filling with helium.
"You get a minute rest and we run again!" Sylas screamed.
"They really are trying to kill us," Herald's friend gasped beside him.
"Not too bad," Zoe looked to Ivy, "I'm glad I listened to you back then."
"What do you mean?" Ivy breathed.
"When we got to Cassius, I wanted to leave, but you made us stay." She paused, her eyes studying her briefly. "I wish I was more like you."
Ivy looked up, a bit shocked, "Why?"
"Sorry," Zoe looked away, "I didn't realize I said that out loud," she monotoned.
"Wow, that sucked," Colson said, tossing his food tray onto the table and sitting next to Zoe.
The cafeteria was unusually quiet. As if everyone in the room was about to fall asleep. A constant wave of exhaustion permeated. The clattering of the tray echoed throughout the hall.
"What'd you have to do?" Ivy asked.
"They made us do some obstacle course. Legitimately awful."
"We did that before, right?" Ivy asked, looking at Zoe, who nodded in confirmation.
"I have to concur," Zoe said, "Legitimately awful."
"What about you guys?"
"Running. Lifting rocks. Running. Climbing. Running," she sighed, looking at the clock on the wall. They had less than thirty minutes until they were back outside training again.
A few minutes later, Reiza strolled into the food hall with a large group. She pointed to Ivy at the back of the room. Leaning towards Herald, a wicked grin on her face, "You wanna see something funny?"
"Huh?" Herald looked to where she was pointing, "sure?"
Her friends all giggled as Reiza casually strolled over to their table, taking her phone from her back pocket. She tried to keep a blank expression, but the closer she got the harder it was to maintain.
Colson glanced up, seeing someone approach from the corner of his eye.
She brought the phone up to Ivy's ear, tapping the screen as she did so. Ivy glanced up just as a loud boom came from the speakers of the phone.
Ivy jumped back, tripping over her chair, crashing backwards to the ground.
"Reiza, what the hell is wrong with you?" Colson yelled, getting up from his seat. His fists balled so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"Whoops," she shrugged, an innocent smirk on her face. She looked down at Ivy, her eyes had a wild glazed look.
The whole of the cafeteria was even more silent than before, as if everyone collectively held their breath, waiting for something to happen.
Zoe crouched down next to Ivy; not sure what to say. 'That look in her eyes,' she thought.
Tears stung Ivy's eyes as her hand moved to her pocket, where she kept her remaining brass knuckle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zoe's mouth moving, telling her something, but Ivy couldn't hear a word she said. A layer of white noise. The roaring of water. Her heart pumping over a million times a minute.
"Uh oh," Reiza grinned, watching Ivy get to her feet. She slipped the phone back into her pocket, waiting for Ivy to move.
It was Colson who stepped forward, his fists still balled. "You know, Reiza," he said.
"Oh yeah, what?" her eyes shifting to him.
Looking around the room, the hundreds of wide eyes staring back. "You really are lucky." He glared back at Reiza, "Nepotism really is a wonderful thing," he mumbled, taking a deep breath to calm himself, turning back around. 'If anything happens, I'll be in deep trouble for the rest of my life. If you ignore it, it goes away.' He took another slow breath, remembering the breathing exercises Cahya had taught him. Almost instantly, he felt his anger subside.
Reiza seemed to sense this. "Aw, well," she said with a pouty look. She turned around, waltzing back towards her group of friends. Most had covered their mouths, trying not to laugh.
Herald glanced from her to Ivy and back to Reiza again as she strolled past him, "Come on," she said, walking to the food line as if nothing had happened. The others around followed her, laughing about what happened.
Seeing that the entire exchange was over, the low hum of chatter started back up.
"Uh, Ivy?" Zoe asked tentatively.
There was a long pause before she got a response.
"What."
Zoe didn't say anything. Not sure what to say or if there was anything she could say.
"I've got a good feeling. These kids have really improved this year," Lubbock yawned, looking over several pieces of paper. Each one had the stats of each colonist taking the test. He was laid back in a large brown chair. Incense and warm-scented candles littered his office.
"I bet that at least four will kick the bucket," Amelia smiled, looking over his shoulder at one of the pages. "That kid right there," she pointed to the name of a girl. "I had her earlier; she barely made it through the warmup run. She ain't gonna make it too much longer." To her right, leaning against the wall, a man named Daniel Sherve; an administrator in Crater's school.
"I don't like thinking about that stuff," Lubbock said.
"Fair enough," Amelia yawned, waving some smoke away from her face. "Did you peep the new kids at group A? Some of them have pretty promising auras."
"Yeah, I noticed that. The weird brainy one, Zoe, she's caught my interest the most."
"A night and day difference from when I last saw her," Amelia noted. "From what I heard from Sylas, Herald is killin' it; more than usual. What do you think, Sydney?" she looked down at one of her two dogs lying by her feet. "How 'bout you?" She looked to Sherve.
"My money would be on Reiza, Colson, or maybe the new girl. Hard to say, haven't seen much of her, though."
"Oh yeah! I heard a lot of people were steaming over that mission incident she had," Amelia let out a small chuckle.
"I must've missed that. What happened?"
"Well, I don't know everything, but I guess Colson, Zoe, and the new one went on a mission a few weeks back. They forged Neph's signature on it and sent it in acting like he signed off on them to go."
"Oh, yikes, that's bad."
"Yeah, even worse when you realize the mission they forged was for an emergency call to one of our farms down in California."
"Yeah," Lubbock interjected, "Neph told me he was able to calm them down. I guess the farmers there all had good things to say about them."
"Interesting," Sherve said, "So, they were able to complete it?"
"Apparently so," Amelia shrugged.
"They're just on very thin ice when it comes to Crater. Well, two of them are, anyways." Lubbock said. "I think Zoe's father, Joel, was able to pull some strings and get her out of trouble, but the other two…They should hope to not get into any more issues. Otherwise, we may have to call for-"
"Lubbock!" A voice came from behind the door, followed by several knocks.
"Come in," he yawned.
A man wearing a suit walked in. He held a large, corded phone in his hand with a muffled voice yelling from it. "Well, it seems like we have a problem with Princess again. This time in 'meal hall one.' Well, actually," he held the phone back to his ear.
"Oh man," Lubbock sighed, getting to his feet. "Not surprised in the slightest. If I was Aye, I'd keep a leash on her twenty-four-seven. He's right when he says parents should be strict, and usually are, but he just can't seem to apply that to her."
"Well, the problem seemed to have taken care of itself," the assistant said, putting the phone down.
"I'm already up," Lubbock said, stretching. "I should get over there and see what's up." He walked to the large window in his office, looking out over the eastern districts. "Cancel all meetings and appointments for the next hour," he clicked the latch, opening the window and taking a quick glance down. They were about ten stories up.
A light breeze entered through the opening, blowing some loose papers around the office.
"Uh, sir?"
"Close the window," Lubbock looked down once more, clearing himself. He took a step back, leaping out.
Only Neph noticed his quick descent, who scowled as he watched Lubbock fall past his window.
"Oof," he groaned, landing hard on the ground below. Without missing a beat, he ran towards the cafeteria.
A few minutes later, he arrived, walking inside, scanning the whole place. It was easy to spot Reiza; she wore a bright pink and sky blue outfit. 'Hmm,' he thought. 'Everything seems normal, but I just have this sneaking suspicion…' As he paced through the dining hall, he felt an odd tension. It was as if he were one of the Crater police officers, and every kid in the room had something illegal on them.
"Oh well," he mumbled; about to turn towards the door, he saw three kids sitting at one of the back tables.
The following two days were fairly uneventful for them. Colson, Zoe, and Ivy easily breezed through most of the activities that had been set for them. The fourth day, Thursday, was what Colson was excited about. They set the whole day for sparring.
Pearson always found a way to win whenever they'd have familial fights. Colson was confident that with everything that's happened in the past three weeks, he'd easily knock him out.
On Wednesday, each test taker who hadn't given up or been bedridden from strain had received a slip of paper under their door. It had the colonist's name on the top in bold letters, and in the middle of the page, two lines. The instruction for the top—Write the name of the colonists you would most like to fight. For the bottom line—Write the name of one colonist you would least like to fight.
'Hmm,' Colson thought with a grin, looking at the paper. "Pearson," he wrote in large letters on the top line. "Least like to…" he thought for a while. 'I'm assuming they'll be segregating the spars by gender, so I don't think I'll need to worry about having to fight Zoe or something. It's also a shame cause I won't be able to get Reiza back for what she did.' He wrote the name Herald. 'If she was suffering from a severe nut allergy and I had an epipen, I'd probably use it on myself in front of her. Heh, imagine the look on her face when she realizes she won't be getting saved.'
Zoe looked down, seeing the pieces of paper being slid under her door. Picking them up, she read them carefully, tossing Ivy's on her vacant bed. 'Probably with Herald,' she sighed, taking out a pen and writing only one name. On the bottom line, she wrote Reiza.
It took almost all night, but the brackets were made. Lubbock, Neph, Amelia, and Silas all stood in front of the large whiteboard.
"I don't know…" mumbled Neph warily.
"Oh, I do know! It's perfect!" Silas' eyes glittered with glee.
"Some of these guys are about to have one helluva time," Amelia yawned. "Back to back, to back."
Lubbock just grunted with dissatisfaction.
"To be fair," Neph said, "Orion would be proud."
"Since when have you cared about holding to his vision?" Amelia cackled.
"Once they see this; that'll really put a pep in their step. The bunch of lazies is what they are!" Silas said.
"You really made us stay up this long for this convoluted list. I hate you."
They meticulously placed each colonist in one of ten groups. Every other group alternated between the genders, making it so five groups comprised of only boys, while the other five were girls.
'Just my luck,' Zoe walked into the small circular room. The first person her eyes were drawn to was Reiza. She stood tall, studying a canvas on the wall. Several feet away, Ivy stood, looking at the same piece. 'Of course, they're both in my group. It's like the universe just keeps putting us together.'
Ivy glanced over, seeing Zoe walk towards her. There was an odd look on her face, an expression that she couldn't understand.
"Hey," Ivy said, a forced grin on her face.
Zoe looked at the canvas, finding her name. She was paired up to fight Ivy, with Reiza fighting the loser of the two. "If I had to guess, this wasn't solely based on who chose who, but also how well we all did in the previous days."
"No hard feelings, alright. Whoever wins, wins, and we move on."
"Ain't this great!" Reiza said, walking up to them. She put her arms around both their shoulders.
Zoe flinched hard, moving out from under her arm. "Don't do that," she snapped, a bit too loud.
Ivy didn't react. She looked towards the referee, who was standing next to the canvas. "What are the rules?"
"Uh," his eyes swept the room, taking a quick head count. He pointed towards bleachers nailed high on the wall, having to take a ladder to sit on them. "Now that everyone's arrived, we can start early. Sit up there and I'll explain the rules."
Reiza smirked, "You know, Ivy…I'd die before I let you win over me."
"Be ready to do that," Ivy said with a humorless smile.
Once everyone had sat, looking down at him in the middle of the circular building.
"It's very simple. Once you hear the whistle, you fight. To win, the other person must be unable to defend themselves, either tap out—verbally or physically; if your opponent is knocked unconscious, that would also award you the win. Also, there's a no-stalling rule. If thirty seconds go by without action, I'll be forced to step in."
"Wait, hold on," a girl said, "What about weapons?"
"All weapons are allowed."
A nervous murmur erupted throughout the group. "Isn't that, well, dangerous?"
"The world is, well, dangerous," the referee mocked
"Hey!"
"Any more questions?"
More chatter in the crowd. "Why is it made like that?" One asked, "Like, why are some fighting the winners of other matches first? Can only one person pass and everyone else fail? It's barely even a bracket!"
"Good question! To answer the first questions; the wonderful chairmen made the brackets, and they saw to see fit we did them in this fashion. The other question; there will only be one ultimate loser of the group. Everyone but one will pass this day of the test." After a relieved sigh came from the crowd, he spoke up once more, "we will conduct the first matches ASAP. There will be a twenty-minute break, and the second half of the matches will begin; starting with Zoe and Ivy."
By the time the last match of the first half had arrived, Ivy had passed out, completely asleep and snoring. Zoe had been closely watching every single match, trying to pick out every small pattern in each person's movements, and any possible exploitable weaknesses.
The fight didn't last long. It was clear from the start who would win. A taller girl, older by a year; she fought against a very nervous one. The way she held the knife looked as if she'd never even held a butter-knife before, much less a weapon.
Her grip on the blade was loose and shaky; anyone could've easily slapped the blade out of her hand.
That's exactly what happened. After a long period of pacing, the nervous girl ran forward, flailing her knife wildly. The older one quickly side stepped it, knocking the weapon from her, putting her own knife to the girl's throat.
After that, there was no fight left in her. She quickly yelled, "I surrender!"
During the short halftime break, Colson found both Zoe and Ivy outside their building.
Zoe had her usual blank expression, crouching down, staring at several cards laid on the grass in front of her. Tentatively, she flipped each one over. Next to her, Ivy was happily munching on hidden snacks in her backpack.
"Have you guys fought yet?" Colson asked, walking toward them.
"No," Ivy said through a mouthful of food, "We both fight in a few minutes."
"Oh," Colson said. After a pause, he looked back at Ivy, "You mean, fight each other?"
"Mhm," Zoe said, waving her hands over the cards. As she did so, they miraculously flipped over, revealing them to all be jokers.
"Yikes, that sucks. Do you think they'll let people watch other fights while waiting?"
"I dunno," Ivy shrugged, "I can ask the ref."
"My fight won't be till a lot later today, one of the last ones."
"I don't see why not," the referee said, "as long as you're back in time for your match, you're good. Also, I'd tell your ref, so he knows."
"Cool, thanks!" Colson said, walking back towards Ivy and Zoe. "He said I'm all good," he said when close.
"We have about a minute left," Zoe said, looking at the clock tower in the distance.
"You ready?"
"Not really. Nervous, maybe."
Reiza sat on the bleachers; her eyes following them as they walked in.
Colson climbed the ladder, sitting in the back row, getting the best view.
After a few minutes, the remaining girls trickled in through the entrance.
The referee called Ivy and Zoe to the starting areas on the floor. The room was completely silent. As they walked to the starting spots, their footsteps echoed on the blood-stained checkered concrete tile.
As they stood across from each other, their eyes never shifted away, nor did they blink.
'I honestly don't know who's gonna win this,' Colson thought. His heart beat nervously, but he wasn't sure who he was nervous for. Glancing around, it seemed as if everyone was just as interested as he was; their eyes glued to the floor below them.
The referee held his hand high, turning to Zoe, "ready?"
She barely heard his voice over her heart pounding in her chest.
"I am," she nodded. Her hands drifted to her sides, where she had her two daggers. She quickly recoiled once her fingertips made contact with the hilts. 'I don't think I could use these. I don't think I could ever hurt her. Maybe if I really had to. Would she even hesitate to attack me?'
Looking to Ivy, the referee asked, "ready?"
"Yep."
"Fight!" He dropped his hand, taking a big step back.