As the fifth day settled into night, the camp lay quiet under the canopy of stars, with the distant hum of nocturnal animals breaking the silence now and then.
Martin stood still at the edge of the camp, his gaze fixed on the dense jungle beyond. Nirvana and the others sat close by, sharpening their blades and checking their gear, their minds focused on the final two days of the assessment.
Dom's group, now an ally of sorts, was doing much of the same, preparing for the chaos that would inevitably erupt as the teams converged toward the center of the island.
Martin knew what the endgame would look like—chaos, bloodshed, and desperate attempts to secure a place in the final five teams allowed to survive the kill zone. But Martin wasn't interested in waiting for the inevitable. He preferred to act.
