In the end, Ember spent the entirety of the first day in the tree, stirring four times when the pop of a flare sounded over the steady buzz of the forests’ comings and goings. She slipped down the trunk when the sky began to dim, her legs and buttocks sore from her prolonged rest, and picked a roundabout way back to the wall, scanning with her infrared every dozen paces. 

The remaining two-thirds of the class trickled in just after sundown, wary of falling into an ambush before they had reached the safe zone. Against the wall, Ophelia and her TAs had set up sturdy tents for themselves, and the five eliminated students had been issued a handful of smaller tents, inside which Ember spotted sleeping mats and blankets. 

Unsurprisingly, Ophelia ran a strict camp. The eliminated students were to have no contact with the current participants and were issued only a sleeping bag to ward off the night’s chill. Even so, the group’s spirits were high for having made it through the first day, and when Lance built a campfire, most of the others gathered around for some conversation.

Ember sat back and listened, learning that two students had been eliminated in head-on-fights, and the other two in an ambush from Gunther and his underlings. Otherwise, there wasn’t much news: a black bear had been spotted drinking from a stream, but had run off when startled; a pisces had found a hunting knife—presumably dropped by one of the eliminated students—in a clearing to the northeast.

At dinnertime, the smell of roast wafted from the camp, and Ember saw a couple of the students’ mouths watering—after that, there was less talk, and the group split into smaller cliques. Jisu etched a circular gameboard into the soil, and she, Ember, and Lance took turns playing Mehen, a game from her hometown in the Hecatomb mountains. 

Around midnight, they found sleeping spots against the trunk of an old oak, caged in by its rolling roots. Jisu slept furthest from the center, keeping watch over the others (though she insisted it was because she felt claustrophobic), and Ember angled herself below a parting of the branches and fell asleep beneath the bright pinpricks of the stars.

***

Ophelia woke them up just before sunup with a blast from a horn. Ember jerked harshly awake, nearly falling from her spot; they hadn’t been allowed much sleep, which she saw reflected in the eyes of the remaining students as they gathered obediently around Ophelia. The 30-second head start was repeated, and this time, all of the participants scattered into the woods.

Ember re-established herself in the tree from the day before, settling on a branch ten feet above the ground and watching the clouds through the gaps in the leaves. Twice she heard the sound of distant fighting, but it wasn’t close enough to tell who was involved. 

Around noon, footsteps began to crunch toward her tree. She sat up, keeping herself out of view, and leaned forward—it was a mammalian Linnaean who had been on the opposite team during capture the flag, someone Ember knew only well enough to be certain that she was the stronger fighter. 

She watched as the mammal walked nearly underneath the tree, considering letting him pass unmolested. Then, she thought of Lance and Jisu, who might be feeling hunger gnawing at their bellies already, and changed her mind.

She dropped down from the branch, not bothering to pull the knife from its sheath. “Behind you,” she warned, though it would have been easy to grab his flare long before he took notice of her. He whipped around, his eyes as wide as saucers, and she saw defeat dawn behind them as he recognized her. Still, he unlatched his weapon—a tactical machete, its blade dulled by the rubber coating—from his hip and squared off against her, giving a slight nod to indicate that he was ready.

It was over quickly. Ember leaped forward, her knee striking his wielding arm at the joint and sending the machine flying from his hand. Using his backward momentum against him, she swept out his bottom legs and pinned him against the ground. 

After a minute of struggling, he tapped out against her arm. They sat together on the forest floor as he pulled the release on the cylindrical flare, sending a red streak arching above the trees. “Good game,” she said, offering her hand to help him stand.

He shook his head, a little disgruntled, but not angry. “I should’ve thought of the trees,” he admitted. “At least now I can get something to eat.”

Before she could reply, he reached out and pressed something into her hand: a roll of field dressings, his extra item. She looked down at them, unable to think of what to say. “Thanks for giving me the chance to fight,” he said. “Watch out for Gunther’s group. They took out Amelia this morning.” 

He retreated to the camp without another word. She watched him go, feeling slightly off-kilter, then assessed the position of the sun. It had been over twenty-four hours since the start of the exam. Her canteen was about half full; she would need to find water soon and food if the exam went on long enough, but she thought it best to wait to venture out when the number of participants had dwindled lower.

She settled back in the tree, finding a position that alleviated her soreness, and busied herself with practicing her infrared until sundown. 

***

The energy on the second night was more subdued than on the first. Eight students trickled into the camp: herself, Jisu, Lance, Daniel, Craig, and Gunther’s team of three, meaning only two more had been eliminated.

There wasn’t much talk among the participants. Daniel rocked back and forth on his heels, looking miserable, and even Jisu was disgruntled after returning from nature’s calling. When the smell of food wafted over from Ophelia’s camp, a fierce argument broke out underneath the tree where Gunther’s team had settled. 

As dusk deepened, Ember, Jisu, and Lance returned to the tree where they’d spent the first night. They exchanged a few words, but Ember could tell from the dark bags under her friends’ eyes that they weren’t up for a round of games.

Ember lit a fire with Lance’s gear, and the ermine lay propped up against a tall root, half-asleep but uneasy. Jisu offered him a few strips of leaf-wrapped squirrel meat, which he gratefully accepted, and busied herself by gnawing on the end of a thigh bone. 

“What’s that?” Ember asked, angling her chin at a long, thin cut running up the ermine’s calf. 

He stirred, and the dying firelight caught on the newly bruised skin disappearing under his collar. “Gunther’s group is targeting me. I’m an easier mark than you, Jisu, or Craig, and they couldn’t find Daniel yesterday.”

“That piece of shit,” Ember said under her breath, the thin layer of goodwill she’d built up with the pisces over the last few months disappearing completely. Waving away Lance’s protests, she trapped his calf between her feet to bandage it. “I’m not letting you get eliminated by that coward.”

She was tying off the dressing—Lance’s calf was thin, and she had only used a third of the roll—when they were startled by raised voices. The three exchanged an alarmed look and rose to their feet in search of the source of the commotion. 

Ember stopped at a gap between the trees, hiding herself in shadow. About twenty yards away, where Gunther and his two lackeys had set up camp, Ophelia and a group of students were locked in a heated debate. The instructor was standing with her back to Ember, her hands on her hips and her spines standing at attention. 

“That guy was eliminated yesterday,” Jisu said as she and Lance came up behind Ember, pointing to a mammal who had slumped so far into himself it looked as though he was trying to disappear. Strangely enough, he was clothed in all black, with an extra shirt worn over his head like a hood. 

“I know what I saw,” Ophelia said, her voice cutting through Gunther’s half-cocked explanation. She strode past the pisces, stooping in the dirt, and reemerged a moment later with her arms dirtied and her hands filled with a mess of dark objects. It took Ember a moment to realize that the fireworm had dug up the remains of a forbidden dinner, no doubt snuck into Gunther’s camp by the sheepish-looking mammal and then hastily buried.

Jisu let out a poorly concealed scoff, and Ember added cheating to the list of Gunther’s offenses. 

“I am utterly ashamed of you,” Ophelia said, and Ember could picture her disgusted frown. “I was quite clear that there was to be no communication between the active and eliminated participants.”

The accused spoke over each other, their voices high-pitched in desperation. Ember rolled her eyes into the darkness, Jisu’s murmur of ‘pathetic’ echoing the sentiment beside her. 

Ophelia lowered her voice, and Ember had to strain to hear her. “I understand that you are all stretched thin, so I’m going to dock you twenty points and let you off with a warning. If this behavior happens again, you will be receiving zeros for the final and a disciplinary report.”

A just punishment, if a little lenient. She doesn’t want to end their exams and send them back to the comfort of camp. Ember looked over at her friends for their opinion, only to find Lance walking back toward their tree with stooped shoulders. 

She shot a questioning look at Jisu, who spat the squirrel bone from her lips and grimaced. “With that penalty, they can only pass by taking the top three slots. They’ll have their eyes on him tomorrow.”

Ember scowled. “You’re right.” 

“Nothing we can do,” the panther added, but the downward turn of her brows told Ember that she wasn’t entirely convinced. 

“We’ll see,” Ember said, anger stirring inside her chest like the awakening of a slumbering beast. “I’ll take the first watch tonight.”