"How many days left until we meet Saris?" I asked Demi. I had lost track of the days, but Demi had the foresight to mark them off by using her spear to cut small holes into the bottom of her pant leg.

"You ask that almost every day."

"Sorry, I keep forgetting."

She examined her clothes, "Oh. Well, actually I'm glad you asked. We're meeting today."

"Today, really? It's been that long?"

"You know what they say: time flies when you're having fun." She looked at me and smiled, "Let's finish up this area, then head to the forest."

Our plan to leave the town with two days left, then search the graveyard before heading to the forest hadn't panned out. We ended up finding a few more teams on what was supposed to be our last day in town. Because of our finding, we decided to spend one more day there. Thanks to that, we were able to find a few more teams, but we didn't get to the cemetery until today. When we got there, I was immediately reminded of what happened. The ground was still blackened from the fire and it was empty of people, but we did a thorough search just in case.

"This is not okay," Demi said, moving ahead of me, "it's worse than a ghost town."

"I guess no one wants to be here because of what happened." We were leaving the graveyard and heading towards the church. "You think we'll find anyone inside?"

"I hope so. It's not like we didn't find anyone over the past week, but I know we didn't find enough to fight off Fire King's team." She had warmed up to the idea of calling him by his new nickname. Either that, or she warmed up to me and only called him that for my sake.

The past several days had been a lot of fun despite where we were and what we were trying to do. I got to spend them with the girl I liked. We had a lot of fun together, just talking or making jokes. From my perspective, we had left titles of enemies or acquaintances far behind and were solid friends now. I wanted to tell her how I felt before I got locked into the 'friend zone', but I was worried she wouldn't feel the same way and it would mess up what we had. Every time I worked up the courage, sure that my attraction was obvious and that she was flirting right back, I'd imagine how awkward things would be if she rejected me and I'd end up chickening out.

It wasn't all fun and games though, we had a job to do and we both took it seriously. Searching for people had been somewhat exhausting and while we found a decent amount of people, it still paled in comparison to who we were going up against. Sure, we asked everyone we met to spread the word, but we also ran into people who already knew. Sometimes, they told us instead of the other way around. I hoped that Saris was having more luck than us. Otherwise, we're going to be outnumbered; probably by a lot.

I was also able to update Tommy, Michael and Sidra on everything that had been going on during the week. They had been worried when I wasn't messaging them as often as usual, but I explained that it was too risky to do it at night while we had been stalking Fire King's team. Sidra was still working hard but otherwise didn't have much to say and my friends had their usual banter about random things. Tommy was excited for me, now that Demi was back. Michael was too, but he wasn't as vocal about it. My mom had also texted me, saying that, as expected, she had caught dad's cold, but it was nothing serious.

I was surprised that I hadn't seen a text from Rayne, Saris' fiance. Though, I suppose she didn't think of herself as together with him anymore, not after all this time. Still, I had expected some kind of response; maybe the message was too vague. It was kind of a relief since I didn't know how Saris would react if her message was dispiriting. Not for the first time, I wondered how long Saris had really been here. Demi said that he had a reputation when she first arrived and she had been here around a year already.

Before I could finish my thought, I got chills just outside of the church. We opened the door and found a few people inside, sitting on the pews. They turned, fear in their eyes and weapons appearing but Demi and I raised our hands defensively. We weren't there to hurt them and we needed them to know it. A voice called from one of the pews and a young girl came out into the center aisle.

"Xander!" she cried. It was Mel, the girl I had met and helped in the graveyard. She came right up to me, smiling widely.

"Hey, Mel," I replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, we weren't ready to leave the graveyard," she gestured around the room, "but we were afraid that it would be attacked again so we came here."

"You've been here for what...like two weeks?"

"Almost, yeah. We did try heading out to the forest, but we saw the army and ended up coming back here."

"That's not a good idea," Demi chimed in. "The game usually finds ways to keep you moving. I'm surprised you aren't dead, or that it's not snowing already," she added with a shiver.

We needed to get to business. There were more than ten people here and this was our last stop before trying to meet up with Saris. We had to convince them to help us. Taking a breath, I spoke up, "You were all at the graveyard when it happened?" I got a few nods. "We're gathering everyone to meet at the beach, near the cliffside to the north. In the morning, the day after tomorrow, we're going to lure them there, then take down the fire user and his team."

There was a strange silence at first, then a voice called from one of the far pews, "No way! He'll kill us all!"

A murmuring began and more complaints rose from the people. Mel looked at me and said, "We can't do it. You were there, you saw what he could do. He killed so many people, by himself. There's no chance."

I looked around at all of the frightened people, then back to Mel and finally at Demi. She looked uncomfortable, like she didn't know what to do, but I did. I addressed the crowd. "So is this the plan? Stay in here until someone or something kills you? This game doesn't end with you choosing a life like this. It works against you. I'm sure that some of you already know this. There's no escaping this game or running from it or anyone here. If you do, you get a worse fate. At least some of you must know about the lions." I saw a few people cringe when I mentioned the beasts. "I'm sorry that you lost your teams, your allies and your friends, but that's how this game works. I won't sugarcoat it, one way or another, either them or you will die; usually both. And if your cycle ends here, just remember that you have another cycle to start. No, it's not ideal and no one asked for this, but here we are. This game runs on fear but that doesn't mean we have to give in to it." I looked at everyone, I didn't know if I was winning them over or not.

Demi stepped beside me. "There was one place that was safe for everyone. A place where no one had to die and everyone could just be people again. That safety was challenged and now, it's up to us to answer that challenge, loud and clear, making it obvious that it will not be tolerated. If we don't, then there will never be a safe place because everyone will know that it is undefended. We've been searching everywhere, trying to find people to fight with us and we need you too. It's going to take everyone to win. While we will not make you fight, we will tell you that you should. What that fire user did was an insult to everyone here. It's uncaring and cruel and we cannot allow this to go without a fight. Win or lose, we'll give them something to remember. We'll show them that we do not tolerate this betrayal to the only rules this place has.

Everyone seemed to be listening but no one said anything. "Will you fight with us?" I asked. No one spoke.

"Xander?" Demi looked at me expectantly, but my mind was racing, trying to figure out what to say that might make a difference. Then Mel spoke to the crowd.

"This is my first time here. Xander had saved me when that fire user came and killed everyone. I was too afraid to do anything. I'm still terrified, but...that's not a way to live. We can't just hide from them for three cycles because we're scared. What are we going to do the next time a strong opponent comes around? I don't want to just run, hide and die. I'm going to fight! And if I die, then I'll know that I died for a good cause. I died for all of you. I died for Kate and everyone else who gave their lives trying to stop this from ever happening. I'm not going to die curled up here and hiding just to wait for the end. I think Xander and his friend are right. We need to fight!"

The people began to mumble. I couldn't tell what they were saying but it got louder until they were nearly shouting to be heard above each other. They were all going to fight! Relief came over me in a wave and Demi grabbed my arm and said "Let's go. We need to meet with Saris."

"Mel!" I said before we left. "In two days, meet at the northern cliffside of the beach. It's to the west. We're going to try to attack that morning." She nodded, then joined the crowd in their rallying chant.

As we left, we could still hear the shouts of the people inside the church, ready to march to the battleground. We probably wouldn't find anyone else here and I hoped that it would be enough. Everyone seemed ready to fight. Hopefully, it would last, but the next step for Demi and I would be to get with Saris and find out just how prepared we really were.

"I'm actually surprised that worked," Demi said. "They really seemed against it at first."

"Yeah. I think Mel turned them around."

"You started it," Demi pointed out.

"Ha. Right. My award-winning argument that they were going to die anyway? You were the one that tried to encourage them. I just depressed everyone."

She laughed, "Either way, it worked out. Let's pick up the pace, we don't want Saris to wait too long."

We jogged away from the church and headed back towards the forest, where Saris would be waiting for us, but we saw the outline of the looming army in the distance. They weren't in our way to the forest, but they were uncomfortably close, so we veered around to keep them just out of sight. In the week that we had been seeking allies, the army had methodically been going around the map, presumably trying to take out teams. Luckily, they were moving slowly and it was easy to avoid them, but this wasn't the first time we saw them. We had to hide from them on our third day in the town. It took them the majority of the day to leave and we lost a lot of time having to weave in and out of buildings to avoid them.

A few minutes later, we slowed to a walk and I could see the outline of the same fields of gold that I had seen before we went our separate ways from Saris. It felt a little like déjà vu, that or like we were running in circles. Our detour would only add an hour or so to our journey and, as we had done for all of our travel time, we talked.

"Since your parents and sister left Michigan, do you have any relatives around your home?" Demi asked.

"No. My family's pretty small and spread out. I have an aunt and uncle in South Dakota and a cousin in Texas, but that's about it."

"What about your grandparents?"

"They passed away when I was a kid. My mom's parents had her when they were a bit older and my dad's parents were heavy smokers and both died of lung cancer. I don't really remember any of them."

"Hmm. I think that's sad. I've always wanted a bigger family; like sisters or a brother or something. I've got lots of extended family but my parents didn't want more kids."

"When you get married, do you think you'll have a big family?"

"I think I'd like that. No less than three, I think. What about you?"

"Honestly, I've never really thought about it. The only thing on my mind was what I was going to do that day or that week or weekend."

"It's an important part of your future." Demi poked me, "You should think about it."

"Sure."

When we made it to the edge of the forest, Demi used her power to split into two. She used her double to scout ahead and look for the cuts that Saris said he would make on the trees. Her double went left and we went right at a leisurely pace. Neither of us expected to find anyone except for Saris in here. The army had passed through the forest on their way to the town several days ago and while it was possible that others could have come here afterward, we were hoping that everyone remaining was already heading to the beach.

Several minutes inside the shelter of the trees, we spotted one with the X that we were looking for, then another. We followed the marked path until we came to a familiar house. Not the cabin in the woods that Anne and I had stayed in. This was the first house I had found here: the one where I had been arrested. I felt embarrassed, even though Demi wouldn't know what had happened, but she noticed me hesitate.

"What's wrong?"

"I...Don't like this place."

She looked at the house and cocked her head, "Why?"

"Oh...No reason," I slumped.

Demi shrugged and we continued moving towards the house. We walked up to the familiar door and opened it, leading into the familiar kitchen. The familiar white tiled floor and green cabinets looked the same as they had on my first trip here. As we strolled through the kitchen and into the living room, we saw Saris sitting comfortably in the chair opposite Larry, who was occupying his regular seat in shade form.

"You made it," Saris said with a grin. "Let's get down to business."