It didn’t take longer for hunger to set in. Whatever was in those meal bars the Peacekeepers had given the group, they didn’t keep them well fed for very long. Amber’s stomach started to growl not long after they had encountered the second group, and James made it perfectly clear how he was faring.

“Can’t believe they dropped us in here with nothing. No food, no water…” he mumbled to himself, just loud enough to let everyone know how frustrated he was. They all felt the same way, but James wasn’t making the situation any better by complaining like a child.

“Maybe we should look out for something to eat? You know, rabbit? Something like that.”

“No fauna. Remember?” Amber replied.

“Nah, nah. He just said dangerous fauna, remember? Unless you think a rabbit might be too much of a fight for you.”

Amber could sense the bitterness in his voice. She didn’t doubt for a second that he resented her, and wondered if it was because she didn’t shoot at the last team with him, or if it was just general sexism.

Dane spoke up from behind her. “Still, shooting at something might draw someone to us. Probably best to not chance it, right?”

“Probably.” Clay replied.

“Well what if–“

“Look, James.” Amber interrupted, “We were dropped off a few hours ago, are you seriously so hungry that you can’t go a little bit without food? You would think you were already from Aurum with how much you complain about missing a meal.”

He looked back at her, his eyes bloodshot as he sneered. Amber thought that James had looked rough when she first saw him, but now he seemed like he might be ill.

“At least I’m carrying my own weight around here.” He grumbled.

Amber grit her teeth as James turned back around and picked up his pace so that he could whisper something to Clay. Amber heard a set of footsteps behind her as well as Dane stepped up to speak to her.

“I don’t like that guy.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Really? I think he’s kind of charming.”

“Don't let them get you down, I didn’t shoot either. But, they are kind of right.”

Amber looked back at Dane with disgust. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m just saying, there isn’t any promise that someone we run into is going to go easy on us. Just because we might have doubts–“

“I know, Dane. I know.”

“It’s not like I’m in a glass house myself, you know? Besides, people signed up for this.”

Amber scoffed. “I don’t think anyone signed up to murder each other. If anything, we were all tricked into it.”

“Well, not like we can tap out now. It’s us or them.”

It was a truth that Amber did not want to hear. There was no going back and changing things, no tapping out, no talking the Peacekeepers, or whoever was overseeing this “trial”, into something different.

“Had to be a death match… couldn’t have been a game of checkers.” Amber groaned.

“You’d probably lose that pretty quick.” Dane replied.

“Yeah, but it would be a hell of a lot less stressful.

Hours went by, and hours more. The motley crew of four trudged through brush well through the day, until the sun was starting to sink beneath the trees. And still, no sign of any other people. Not even any indicator that they were headed in the right direction. For all they knew, that trail was just leading them deeper into the forest and away from the proving grounds.

“I don’t like the thought of stopping out in the open, but we should probably find a place to rest for the night.” Amber said, breaking what was a silence that probably spanned the entirety of the afternoon.

Clay looked around him, sighing. “Agreed. I was hoping we could find some building or even a cave for the night, but it’s gonna be dark soon.”

“We could head that way.” Dane suggested, pointing upwards to the side opposite the trail. The land was on a slight incline, with the top just a few feet ahead of them.

“Would be good to get the high ground.” Amber said. “Not as good as a place in cover, but we should only really have to watch one side.”

Clay nodded in agreement. For a moment, Amber felt that he actually might have respected her input. “Would be a lot harder for someone to sneak up on us if they had to climb uphill.” He looked at the three, gesturing behind him at the incline. “Anyone volunteer to go take a peek?”

Dane raised his hand and stepped forward without hesitation. “Yeah, I’ll go. Might as well do something for the team.”

“Good luck.” Amber said, as he gave a thumbs up back. His climb up the hill was brief, crouching and stepping up as leaves rustled underneath his boots. Certainly anyone else who tried the same would make just as much noise, and would limit the area that another team could approach them from.

After poking his head up the incline, he turned back and gave another thumbs up. The last three followed suit, finding fairly even ground at the top. Amber could hardly make out anything further down the other side of the hill. Just more trees. She let out a disappointed sigh, having hoped for at least a tool shed that showed they might find something else. Something besides the brownish-green shade of the leaves.

Meanwhile, Clay sat down and leaned against a tree while pointing between Dane and Amber. “I got a proposal for you two. Seeing how James and I took one team out of the equation today, why don’t you two go find us something to eat?”

Just when I thought you respected me. Amber thought to herself.

“Why should we do that? Shouldn’t we all contribute?” Dane asked.

James found a cozy pile of dirt and laid down, after taking his gun from his waistband and setting it beside him. “We contributed by scratching off some of the competition. Thanks to us, we’re one step closer to Aurum! What have you done today?”

Amber stepped forward, ready to knock a few of James’ teeth loose before she felt Dane hold her back. He shook his head at her, and she pulled herself free of his grasp.

“Fine.” She spat, storming off into the woods behind her.

Her and Dane had worked out a system for foraging. One would keep watch while the other would look for nuts, roots, anything that might be edible. Eventually, Amber had found a few bushes that sported red berries. After a brief taste test, they seemed worth gathering.

“Red and sweet are good to eat, right?” She asked as she gathered a few handfuls and stuffed them into her pockets. It would have been nice if they had found a bag along the way…

“I thought green and sweet are good to eat?” Dane replied.

“Umm… have you ever had something to eat that was green and sweet?”

“Well, Mama Es made this cake out of–“

“Never mind. Can you help me get a few more of these?”

After a few more minutes of picking berries, the two made their way back to camp, Dane carrying an especially large bundle of the red berries with his shirt as a makeshift basket.

“Hopefully this will be enough for James. Heaven forbid he starve.” Amber said, to Dane’s amusement.

“If we’re lucky, he’ll choke on some pocket lint or some thorns and wear his throat out.”

And just as Amber expected, James gave nothing but a look of disgust when the two returned with their harvest.

“The hell is this?” He asked, holding up a berry between his fingers. Amber couldn’t help but notice that his eyes were almost as red as the juice running down his wrist.

“Don’t know, but they tasted fine.” Amber said.

“Well what if you found some bad ones, poison. Poison that takes a while to kill you?”

“These berries should be fine.” Clay chimed in. “If they were bad, good chance she’d have spit them out. Besides, might keep us just hydrated enough to find some water tomorrow.”

James said nothing, sitting on the ground and watching everyone else have a few berries to eat before he finally gave in and tried a handful himself.

“So… we did pretty well for the first day.” Amber said.

Clay nodded in agreement. “Didn’t get dropped in the first hour, I’ll take it. Hopefully some of the rest of the herd got thinned out without us.”

“I’m still kind of surprised that we didn’t see anybody else. You guys don’t think we’re going the wrong way, do you?” Dane asked.

Amber looked up and around. Their surroundings didn’t look any different from any other place they had been today. But the possibility of getting lost stayed in her mind.

“Doubt it.” Clay replied, between bites. “Folks who run this little competition probably had plans for that. And seeing how we haven’t heard from anyone else, we’re probably just late to the party.”

“Well, good. Maybe we can scrape by without having to fight many others.” Amber offered.

Clay shook his head. “No, not good. Think about it, the others probably have time to find supplies, ammo, and take better positions. Meanwhile, we’re stuck on a hill eating berries, hardly in a better place from where we started. And on top of that, that shuttle they send would probably be closer to the action.”

“Well when you put it that way…”

The tone around the group began to grow grim as the sun started to fade, and Amber could hardly make out the shape of her teammates in the twilight. Until Clay spoke up to try and turn the mood around.

“But don’t let that get you down. If they’re getting cocky, they’re probably getting sloppy. We just have to be careful, is all.”

Amber wasn’t sure if she bought that…

The weather was starting to grow colder as the sun sank down, and night fell upon the group.

“Should we start a fire?” James asked, finally speaking up from his hour-long silence.

“No,” Clay replied, “no fires. It’d just give us away.”

James grunted and rolled over into the dirt, holding onto himself. Amber could almost swear that he was starting to shiver, but maybe it was just her eyes playing tricks on her in the dim light.

It isn’t that cold. She thought to herself.

“Well, the rest of us should probably take turns on watch.” Amber said, a bite in her voice as she stared at James.

“I’ll go first. Wouldn’t be the longest time I went without sleep.” Clay offered.

“Oh yeah?” Dane asked. “And what is the longest you’ve been?”

“Three days. Could've gone longer, but after that you start seeing shit.”

Amber offered no protest. She found a spot in the ground to lay down, and curled up to try and find some comfort. She reached into her pocket to fish out the letter to read and give herself some motivation. Sadly, she could hardly even see the paper itself, let alone the words that were written on it. Giving up, she laid aside and fell swiftly into a dreamless slumber. Clay would eventually wake her to take the second watch, and she resisted the urge to spend that time lost in fantasies or worrying about how Valierie might be doing. She had to focus, listen, even the slightest rustle could mean doom. Thankfully, despite a few instances of branches swaying too heavily for her comfort, the night was uneventful. Dane took the last watch, and she tried to get the last bit of sleep that she would need.

Morning came not with light, but with the stomach wrenching sound of vomiting. Amber rolled over and saw James lurched over a bush, spilling the contents of his stomach onto the dirt. The smell finally reached her, and she stumbled backwards to try and spare herself from any part of the unpleasant act.

“Aw, shit man.” Dane said. Cautiously approaching James. “You ok?”

“Fuck no, I’m not alright!” He snapped between bouts of spitting bile out of his mouth. “The berries… I knew they were bad!”

James reached into his waistband to try and pull out his weapon, and Amber reached for hers in turn. Her fears were spared when he began to fumble along his pants, and looked over to see he had left his gun on the ground behind everyone. He bolted for it, falling to the ground as Dane climbed on top of him, pinning him down firmly.. James began to wail in fear, tears welling up in his eyes as if he were a scared child. As much as Amber hated the guy, this was a sad display to see.

“Easy, easy.” Dane cooed, as if he were trying to soothe a stray kitten. “It’s ok, we’re not gonna hurt you. We all ate the berries too, remember? Nobody tried to poison you.”

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Clay snapped, keeping his distance from the scene.

“He’s going through withdrawal.”

“Withdrawal?” Clay asked, clearly irritated. “Withdrawal from what?”

“Hard to tell, but maybe brosia? Lost two of my brothers to that stuff, and they started acting like this after they had gone too long without a fix.”

“So what do we do?” Amber asked. “Not like we can find a dealer out here.”

By now, James had somewhat calmed down, though he still breathed heavily, and Amber could see his eyes as red as they were yesterday.

“James? Can you hear me?” Dane asked, still holding him firmly.

“Yes.” He groaned.

“How long since you had a fix?”

“Two days before I got picked up… doc gave me some kind of… shot to hold me off.”

Dane nodded over to Clay, who took James’ weapon and held onto it himself.

“Doctors probably just gave him some cleanser to hold off symptoms. It’s supposed to be used to wean them off of most drugs, but it can be hell if they cut you off cold turkey.”

“Well I doubt we are going to find anything like that out here.” Amber said. She stepped up to Clay, and spoke softly. “Why don’t we just leave him. No way we can do well with him in this condition.”

“No.” Clay replied, without missing a beat. “I never leave a man behind.”

She looked back down to Dane, who was nodding his head in agreement.

“Ok. Fine, let’s just hope they left us some drugs or cleanser to fight over.”