All initiates stand on the weaponry training ground, armed with tranquilizer guns and tasers.

"This is your weaponry exam. The rules for ranking are simple - you have to take out as many fellow initiates as you can before going down, and each person you will take out will give you 10 points.

You will all be given location trackers which are connected to us with audio. Once you beat a person you have to activate their tracker and speak your name into the device so that we can accordingly award the points.

Now go! And try not to kill each other. "

Mr. Jerry finishes with his trademark smirk.

We all take off running to the area which has dense vegetation for better cover.

Suddenly, I feel someone tackle me from behind.

My instincts kick in as I wrench my body around and make the person who tackled me take the impact of the fall.

I turn to see a face I don't even recognise, and with one strong jerk I free my arm and reach for my taser.

He struggles beneath me as I trap him where he has fallen, and tase him in one swift motion.

Then I get up and activate his tracker, telling them my name as I am awarded 10 points.

Just as I am about to get up, I spot movement to my left and duck just in time as a dart whizzes past my ear.

I duck behind the poor unconscious boy I just tased as I try to make out who my attacker is.

Then I catch a glimpse of an annoyingly red pout, and I chuckle to myself. Boy, this is going to be GOOOD.

I run towards Cherry before she can even load her second dart and pin her to the ground as she thrashes against me to get up.

Her mouth is simultaneously working up some of the filthiest curses I have heard as her nails rake through the skin of my arms, drawing blood.

"You should really shut up, you know" I say to her with an amused smile as I finish loading my dart and shoot into her arm.

As her body slowly goes slack, I activate her tracker and get my points.

After about 30 minutes of ducking and taking down people I haven't even met, I hear sounds of a scuffle, and I silently inch towards the noises, thinking that I can take out two distracted birds with one stone.

As I reach the clearing, I see Mike and Jay locked in intense hand to hand combat, sweat glistening on the bodies of both, and then I see that they have managed to throw away each other's weapons.

I load my gun and take aim at Mike. They are too focused on each other to spot me, and I get a clean shot as Mike slowly collapses.

Jay reacts even before Mike is completely passed out, as he hurriedly picks up his weapon and once again gets into a fighting stance.

He stops in his tracks as he sees me, though, and I carefully walk towards Mike's tracker, weapon still in place, and announce my name in it.

After a minute Jay says, "Guess we're both worth more than 10 points" and gives me a winning smile.

"To each other, at least." I say as I turn and walk away, his soft chuckles fading behind me.

It is the last 10 minutes before the exam ends, and so far I have managed to get a pretty impressive score without being taken down.

I am currently hiding behind a tree, gun in hand, when suddenly a dart zooms past my right ear and embeds itself in the tree.

It is so close that I don't think the attacker meant to actually hit me. And that can mean only one person -

I look up in the direction the dart came from, and Surprise!! I am right.

Looking at me with a cocky smile with her gun hoisted over her shoulder is Bella.

Before my brain can even process her standing there, she has lunged at me, and I crash into the tree, HARD, the wind knocked from my lungs due to the impact.

I gasp as I thrash to regain control, when I spot her trying to reach her taser, and as soon as she pulls it out I grab her wrist and twist it, making her drop it, as I kick it away from her.

While I am focused on the taser, though, she grabs my ankle and pulls, making me lose my balance as I fall to the ground.

She starts to try and pull me, but I get my other leg into position as I kick hard in her ribs.

As she wheezes I grab her head in my hands and jerk it down, my knee connecting with her nose as I hear a crunch on impact.

She lets out a howl, and then her hand reaches back as she grabs my ponytail and twists, my pain making me let her go as she throws a punch to my face and gets on top of me, and holds both my arms down.

I try to get my legs free and knee her in her sides and back, and though her grip falters it doesn't give, but suddenly I spot Kalani near us, gun aimed at Bella.

I try to hold Bella in place to give her a clear shot, but Bella spots the shift in my expressions, and with a superhuman force grabs me and rolls both of us to the side.

I try to look at Kalani agoin but see that she is busy with some other initiate.

Before Bella can regain her hold, I twist myself out of her grasp and take out my taser, but before I can tase her, a shrill noise resounds in the woods, signalling the end of test time.

I chuckle to myself as I put the taser back, and Bella gets up and smirks at me, giving me a mock salute.

"Later, flower" she says as she walks away, and I shake my head as I take in my bleeding body and torn clothes.

Massaging my head where Bella almost ripped my hair out, I walk back to the dorm to take a shower while we wait for further instructions.

In the evening, we are all relaxing in the community building when Ms. Maya walks in and announces some very special news: we can pick our dresses, songs and decorations for the choosing ceremony in the upcoming week.

You see, the Choice is not some serious event. It is a festival symbolising growth. Each year, initiated dress up, dance and give speeches and unwind until midnight, when the Choice is made.

Outside the Reticence, the world is divided into continents and countries. Initiates get to choose any festive wear from numerous cultures for their Choosing ceremony.

Even as we are excited about the day, we are also terrified. Because one Choice later, we are not going to remember any of us. Any of our family.

Or atleast, so we think so YET.

Hmmmmm what do you think our Rebels are going to try? Keep reading to find out omg we are soo close to the end!!
I feel like a child whose fingertips are almost touching a house full of candy omg!!!!