• I ran. My heart thudded in my chest and echoed to my ears. I couldn’t feel my legs anymore because they went numb from the hours of running. It was getting hard to breathe with a face mask covering my mouth. They did this on purpose, just to make things more interesting.
    I turned left and then a right, but almost hit the bush. The thorns caked every bush and the bush itself was skyrocket tall. It reaches all the way to the top, as far as the eyes can see. But I couldn’t really tell. It was so dark here in this maze.
    I jerked back, running again. There was a scream behind me, louder, louder, and then stopped suddenly with a crash. Someone fell and crushed their bones. That’s what happens when you try to climb your way out of here. I don’t know why someone would even try that—there’s thorns on there, plus they’re watching. Everyone else is too; on the outside, where the finish line is. That’s where I’m going.
    There was a sharp pain in my hand. I cried out, dropping to the metal floor on my knees with my hurt hand cradled close to my body. It was the number they engraved there, the symbol. It gave me a short jolt of electricity that runs through my veins. That’s how they tell us were losing time. In total, there are ten warnings in this maze. I’ve received nine. Not much time left now.
    I pushed the floor with my hand to help me up and started running. My feet slapped the floor hard. I kept turning blindly. Fear stabbed my heart and made my mind cloud with dread. I don’t want to lose. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here to die.
    Dead end. I’ve reached a dead end. In all directions, there’s no escape except to turn back and run it all over again. My hand flicked with electricity again. I bit down on my tongue so hard that it was bleeding. That was my final warning. A few more minutes till its over.
    “Screw this” I huffed, muscles tensing with anger. I didn’t come all this way just to fail. I didn’t let all those people die just to fail. I yelled so loud that the veins in my neck popped. This is all useless. It’s pointless to run now. I stared at the bush straight ahead and dashed for it. My skin ripped once I reached the thorns. Some came off and just stayed with me inside my skin. I clenched my teeth to keep myself from shouting with pain. This was too much. I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.
    But I kept on going. After a minute or two, my body was going numb. I was glad of that because I couldn’t feel anything anymore so the thorns were nothing to me. After another minute, I start to get scared. This was a stupid idea. What if I get stuck here? I gulped and started running faster. I closed my eyes so that it wouldn’t get cut.
    Bright lights. I could see bright lights even with my eyes shut. This is death. I thought. All that running, all that work, now I get to rest. Suddenly the bush was gone. I opened my eyes and see a stadium. The ceiling was up high and people crowded the seats. They cheered with arms in the air. I turned around and see the thorn bush. Turned back around and there was other people in ages twelve to twenty. I’m fifteen.
    “You have luck”
    I looked up at the humongous screen. Everyone else quieted and looks too.
    “You made it here a second before the game was going to end” the man says, the one constructing this whole ‘game’. He never comes out so no one knows what he looks like. All he does is broadcast live. His mask was all white, not even a face on it.
    “Yea…” I said quietly.
    “Everyone” he says to the winners. “The twenty-three of you had won this round and therefore saved your life. This was only your second round…”
    He was right. This was our second round. The first had been a one on one round, a mental test. You do things to your opponents to make them…crack—break apart.
    “…but it seems that we have two p-eople too many” his voice got cut off for a moment. “And now it’s time for the voting. Who in this winners group will get voted off? The decision is yours” he didn’t say any more because he was waiting.
    Everyone gulped. They weren’t angry about this twist in event. The only things going through their mind is the thought of being voted off. I eyed everyone of them—of my opponents. There were two people that strike me off as dangerous. One was a man, his muscles were enormous; a very strong rival. The other was a woman. She wore glasses and business-like clothes, not even a scratch on it. It made me wonder how she got through the maze. That’s the two I wanted voted off; the physically strong one and the mentally intelligent one. I could tell that everyone else was thinking the same.
    “Vote final”
    Him speaking made everyone look up. I turned back to the two people but they were no where in sight.
    “Now that the extra bodies have been dealt with, it’s time for the next round”
    Silent agony from the winners. None was hoping for another round, especially me. A dark pit formed in my stomach, making me want to puke.
    “Twenty-one of you here will be grouped with two other people. You will be together from now on” he paused. “One: D342, M5664, and L3452. Two: F886, T473, L800. Three…”
    He kept naming all the groups by the number that was engraved on the back of our hand. If there’s twenty-one here and we’re being paired off in three, that means there’s seven groups in all. I stared at the others who got together. How did I end up in this mess? This isn’t what I wanted at all. Not at all…
    “…twenty-one: S876, K863, and K1019”
    K1019—that’s me, I’m in the last group. It was easy to look for the other two people because we were the last.
    “Get yourself acquainted because these are the people you will trust your life with” and the screen blinked off.
    A murmur spread throughout the winners. I looked at my partners. They looked at me.
    “I’m Kevin” says the guy. “Eighteen years old”
    “I’m Sicily” says the girl. “Thirteen”
    “Kwan—fifteen” I said.
    Kevin pointed to the stairs that led to the rooms where everyone sleeps. “Let’s go to my room so we can talk” he walks without a reply from us. I glanced at Sicily but she didn’t look back, so we just followed.
    Once we went inside, my wounds began to burn. His room was big for just one person.
    “Let’s get to business” Kevin shuts the door and leans against it, arms crossed. “I want to get to know how we all ended up in this suicide game. Starting with you”—he points to me—“Kwan”

    Characters!
    First is Kwan(take the wings out), then Kevin, then Sicily
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