(I hope y’all enjoy it because it’s rushed, I made some of part four before this and I’ve been very eager to finish it and get it out to y’all, thanks for y’all’s patience. Y’all including anyone who actually reads my pieces and this😅)

We had left the citadel long ago, only encountering 17 different squads, some aggressive, some surprised, some melancholy.

My team is getting tired though, we haven’t been able to sleep since the day we got our new uniforms.

I am just hoping we can make it out of danger, get rest, and be refreshed before some team with more energy than us, eliminates us.

“Ey’ Tara,” Mir exclaims out of nowhere, “Why so gloomy?”

“Ey’ Mir,” I exclaim back, “Why do loud!”

Then I feel heat, it has to be hot, since the suit is heat reflecting.

I look up to see a city, covered in flames that devour buildings after buildings. I hear people getting burned as the numbers go down.

My eyes widen, my limbs start shaking, adrenaline courses through my body. My mind goes limp, like a dead tree waiting to be cut down or revived.

Mir comes from behind me and puts her arm around my shoulders and neck. Snapping me back into reality.

“That’s hot,” Mir comments as Rysic and Dynamite walk up beside us.

I only gulped in return. The smoke blinding my eyes tremendously.

Coughing a bit, I look over to Rysic, “You….have a….plan?”

“I say we!” He exclaims then quiets down, “Stay here until it burns out?”

“Great, and watch the numbers tick down until it’s just us? I bet you almost every team in the last 200 is either in there or around it watching it like we are,” Dynamite exclaims, “We have to go save them! If we don’t then it’s just a stupid win that will make us feel guilty until we die from it! In the real world!”

“Who cares about the real world when we would be risking our place in this dumb game!” Rysic exclaims back, “We can! WE CAN STAND HERE AND DO NOTHING!”

“Alright, alright. STOP yelling,” Mir says, “You’re scaring the baby.”

“I am not a baby!” I reply angrily, “But I agree with dynamite, we have to save our competitors even if we risk losing this idiotic, stupid, mother fletching game!”

I take a deep breath and walk towards the fire, everyone following me.

By the time we got to the city, a couple skyscrapers were falling, tons still left, the numbers, even lower.

“Katara, do you have a plan?” Mir asks as we stand a couple feet away from a flaming building.

“Well…umn….,” I stutter “Save people?”

“Well that helps,” Rysic Mutters beneath his breath.

I then hear a scream, it’s high pitched wail beneath the call scared me to my bones.

Then a flash of clothing flys behind the fire.

Someone is there, I can see their eyes watching us, still, beady, eyes.

“It looks like…a kid?” Mir said right before the sky scraper right next to us starts creaking, groaning, falling.

I run forward, instinct guiding my legs to protect what looks like a kid.

I feel the texture of their clothes as I tumble out of the way with them, another building comping right for us, forcing me to force the kid and me further and further into the burning ash city.

I hear a huge pop, fire breathing on my back as I struggle to run faster.

I squint my eyes as a gigantic smoke cloud invades the fresh-ish air, making me sick to my stomach. Running backwards, scaling mounds of rubble, burning rubble, I could already feel burns accumulating on my body.

I pick up the child so they don’t get burned, then I see the blue sky, running as fast as I can without tripping or stumbling.

Then I start rolling from a brick sticking up, at least I’m not rolling on a huge fire.

Then cooler air hits me, I see I have made it safely outside without letting the child get hurt.

I feel hands grab the child, “Make sure they are ok,” I whisper-rasp between breaths.

Hands then start to heal my burns, immediately relief hits me like a wave. I smile softly and sit up.

“Why’d you save her! You could have died!” Mir yells at the top of her voice.

“That’s what I came down here to do, save them,” I say back, angrily.

The child looks at me with bright eyes, only around thirteen or fourteen, they had been forced into this wretched game, and surprisingly still alive.

“Are you alright?” I ask kindly.

She nods with a slight tilt of her head.

“Can you speak?” I wonder aloud.

Then she shakes her head, making me gasp.

“Great,” Rysic’s says with attitude, “She’s mute, how does that help, oh and she’s competition, so can I just kill her?” He asks, aiming the barrel of his gun to her head.

I move forward and block the shots from her as his finger puts pressure on the trigger.

“She’s just a child,” I say as loud I can, the smoke ruining my throat.

Then I pass out from smoke inhalation, I could feel my friends presence though, like they were watching as I go into a deep sleep.