Nadia. A part of him roots for her, his girl; but then he feels sick with himself. How can he participate in any way? Even in the smallest part, rooting for a capture in his mind is an offense to his sense of morality.
Nadia yelps in pain as someone steps on her bare feet; but she doesn’t let it slow her down. Something catches her eye —a mound of white tokens which the other girls haven’t yet noticed. She starts to run towards the tokens. Only a few feet away, soon she will be there but then —there is an explosion of movement to her left. She turns just as Tira crashes into the ground and four girls in red robes pummel the ten-year-old trying to pry green tokens out of her hand. Nadia remembers her promise; but she hesitates —self-preservation first. She had always been taught that. It was drilled into her head. And despite her disgust for the codes of level 5, she finds herself obeying many of the rules without much thought. This situation makes her obey even quicker, like an instinct. She looks at the mound of white tokens again. A shock of fear hits her chest. What if those tokens are very valuable? What if she doesn’t have another chance? What if Kyra is right and she really won’t make it? Maybe she simply isn’t as tough as she thought. A wave of guilt washes over her. She is just like them, the people who betrayed her and her family —set them up, engineered their fall. No, she shakes off the thought. She is not like them; she is Nadia Comani, daughter of some of the kindest and most generous people Calcane City has ever known. It’s a thought that she holds on to and refuses to relinquish. She is different, she has something to prove and she intends to prove it. She turns back on her heels and charges towards the girls. Go after the weakest link first and hope the others just scram. She revs back her fist and for the first time in her life, she strikes another person. But it isn’t hard enough. Giving her no time to react, the girls turn on her. In an instant she is on her back, flailing her arms about to fight them off; but her head still gets its fair share of blows before they slowly trickle to a stop. The red robed girls have more important things to do, more tokens to get. But the rain of tokens doesn’t stop, nor does the herd of other girls running around to get those tokens. Nadia can feel feet trampling over her body. Through the shocks of pain and the blanket of blood pouring over her eyelids, she forces herself to her feet. She lifts her head, scared, desperate and confused; no longer confident, no longer sure of herself.
“You can do it!” Percy finds himself yelling out as if some demon has possessed his body.
Nadia jerks her head up and to the left. With her right hand she clears the veil of blood from her eyes. She sees him. She sees Percy. She sees her chance to find her sister. She breaks into a run, slow at first but then fast and determined. She clasps onto a hard plastic imitation vine that climbs the wall to the first level balcony. Nadia’s eyes lock onto Percy again as she mounts and ascends the vine. Percy shakes his head as if to warn her against it; but she doesn’t stop. She quickly makes her way up the vine as the elites scream in horror and delight. They hadn’t bet on getting this close to the action. Thomas directs the elites back from the ledge, but Percy steps closer and peers down into Nadia’s face.
“Percy!” Claudia tries to pull her husband away; but he yanks his arm from her grasp. They become the center of attention. Everyone is watching. Everyone is taking note. The rumor mill has already begun its machinations. Thomas stands back watching Percy. He furrows his brow as he watches Percy lean over the ledge. And just as Nadia reaches out to grab the balcony ledge; Percy grasps her hand, shoving the black token into her palm. Their eyes meet, and for a moment they connect. Percy tries to pull her to safety; but out of nowhere he sees Thomas’ signature black boots ram into Nadia’s chest and send her plummeting to the ground.
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Author’s Note
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