my name could be called out for any round.
You never knew when.
Chapter 5
Exactly one hour passed, and we were still waiting for the first round of Undecided to finish. I had been staring at Isaac for a total of full five minutes. He didn’t seem as tensed as I was but he did look scared, no doubt about that. Everyone was scared. It was a lot like prison: waiting in a small cramped partially darkened place to be called out for execution. I had never felt so scared in my life. All my life, I had been studying about monsters and creatures and how to defend myself against them and all of it was just to train us for the paranormal obstacles we would eventually have to face. The Unknown.
Suddenly the man’s voice appeared again. “Our first round of Undecided has finished, with two new Dragon affiliates, one Pegasus affiliate, one Mermaid affiliate, one Sphinx affiliate and finally one new Phoenix affiliate all whom have made it through the first round. Unfortunately, four were rejected “.
The voice stopped for two seconds and then rose again.
“And now for the next round”.
I prepared myself to hear my name come up next, so I would not get shocked and end up crying like the other girl. Lexus bit her fingernails. Despite Lexus’s strong personality, I could still see that she was as afraid as anyone. I rested my head on my knees and closed my eyes. I realized that it would be better if my name came up than waiting to be chosen. I couldn’t run away from this challenge that I was about to face; a challenge that would entirely change my future.
“Dex Gossamer.”
The boy’s eyes were opened wide. He stood up and walked towards the entrance, trying to cover his fear with a confident facade.
“Dallas Sawyer.”
The boy stood up and fist pounded his friends as they shouted out words of encouragement.
“Lexus Keats.”
Lexus stopped biting her fingernails and turned to look at me with terror in her eyes. I smiled at her reassuringly,
“You can do this. I know you can.” She nodded and smiled wryly. She stood up and confidently walked away behind the boy. I watched her go as she took her place in line. I couldn’t imagine myself winning if Lexus was left dead in the Unknown. I would rather have us both dead than see one of us rejected.
“Emma Ryan.”
The girl stood up a little too fast and slightly stumbled back. She straightened her hair and walked towards the entrance.
“Mason Westfield.”
Mason raised his eyebrow as Isaac patted his shoulder and walked behind the girl. I turned around to see Isaac as worried as I was when Lexus’s name came up. We both didn’t see that coming. Isaac’s eyes looked straight into mine. He pressed his lips together and sighed. I mouthed to him that it was going to be okay. Both of them were going to be okay. I hoped.
“Ember Mayze.”
The boy, Sam, must have been the girl’s twin brother. She walked towards the entrance the same way her brother did. They didn’t look that identical though. I breathed in and out slowly. I needed to calm down.
“Isaac Abernorth.”
I turned to Isaac, worried as ever. No. Not my brother, not yet at least. He cleared his throat and walked towards me. I was shocked when he crouched down next to me and gave me a genuine hug. I hugged him back tightly.
“We’ll make it through this, the both of us. I promise you” Isaac whispered. I pushed him away, trying my best not to cry. He stood up and walked behind the line, right behind Ember Mayze.
“Winter Odette.”
Winter walked towards the entrance in a regular pace, not like some of the others who either walked slowly or stumbled on their way towards the back of the line. She stood at the end of the line and reached for her pocket. She cursed when she remembered that the guards had taken away her phone and destroyed it.
“Summer Odette.”
Summer stood up and straightened her shirt. She smiled at everyone and waved as she walked towards the entrance. It looked as if she was heading to receive a reward rather than face her possible death. She stood behind her sister and hugged her awkwardly. I started to laugh silently to myself. But my laugh ended abruptly…
“Iris Abernorth.”
I tensed up and shuddered. I was not ready yet. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten too comfortable. I breathed in and out slowly, and then stood up. I walked towards the entrance with a straight back. My legs felt like rubber.
“Come on Iris. You can do it!” I thought to myself as I stood behind Summer, who was now extremely happy that I was behind her.
The man’s voice appeared,
“Ladies and gentleman. Our ten Undecided.”
The guard opened the entrance, and we walked through it. This was it. This was where our destiny lay. You were either an Accepted and lived or Rejected and died.
I looked back at the door as the guard closed it behind us. There was no way out now; no backing out.
As we walked through the entrance, the air seemed very humid. The tension was almost palpable. I saw bleachers full of affiliates to my left and a long, metal table six feet away from the seats. The leaders of each sector were sitting behind the table with the symbol of their sector in front of them. Guards were closely packed near the leaders, all of them giving both us and the affiliates on the bench seats warned looks. Just a little message that no one should even think about taking one step towards the leaders.
There were ten openings to the Unknown. We all separated and picked our desired entrances.
I looked at the leaders and saw a middle-aged man sitting behind the table with the symbol of the Phoenix Sector in front of him; his eyes were as green as fresh grass on a spring day. He had messy, jet black hair, and his newly shaved beard was slowly growing back. He had a very friendly look compared to his voice.
One of the leaders, a man with dark brown hair, looked at me with a faint smirk forming his lips, giving me what seemed to be a challenging look. He made me feel tenser and so I kept my eyes on the man with the friendly face instead who was looking around at everyone else.
The Phoenix leader spoke up.
“Hello, and welcome to the Sector Commemoration. You have come from a very long and tiring journey. I hope you have rested enough because here starts the most difficult part of the journey that will lead you to the sector to which you belong.” He sounded very serious.
He paused for a couple of seconds and continued, “The rules of this challenge are the following: You are not allowed to carry any weapon to the test. The guard will come over and give you a pat down to see if you’re carrying any weapons. Second, you will face a series of unknown obstacle courses, and I must, unfortunately, inform you that some of you will most likely die, so you’d better be on your guard, use your time wisely and most importantly, make the right decisions in there. This is not something to be taken lightly. Last but not least, you will have an hour to complete this maze. After exactly an hour, I will swipe a finger over this small screen here,” he pointed at a small, black, rectangular screen in the middle of the table, “and that will order the system to suck all the Oxygen in the Unknown, and whoever is left in the Unknown will die from suffocation and will, unfortunately, be rejected.” He had difficulty saying the last word.
“Prepare yourselves for the test…” He finally said.
Four guards came over. One of them came to me; I lifted my hands up as he gave me a pat down. The guards immediately left. There was no sound at all erupting from the crowd. It was so quiet; you could hear a pin drop. I looked around the stadium. Some people looked anxious while others looked excited.
I turned to face the Unknown; the barrier surrounding the