I cracked my eyes open. A groan escaped my lips as I stirred. I lifted myself up. My head throbbed and my muscles ached. I examined my new surroundings. My body was resting on a threadbare doctor's bed. Baby blue wallpaper was peeling at the base of the walls. The room had no windows and a stainless steel door. My chest tightened. Why was it so bolted up?

I slid my legs onto the edge of the mattress, swinging them as the cold floor stung my bare feet. I looked down at my toes. Where did my shoes go? I slid off the bed completely. My eyes widened. Instead of my normal jeans and jacket, I was in a thin, white nightgown. I shrieked, hopping back under the covers.

"It's fine Katherine, no one else is here." I turned my head toward the familiar voice. The three guys in the black suits were standing next to a wall. One of them had their nose in a crooked position. Wow, that move really works.

Jeffrey and the other guy had their shades on and were standing with perfect posture. The guy with the broken nose, on the other hand, leaned casually on the wall, his sunglasses tucked into his collar. He looked at me with icy blue eyes. Goosebumps crawled up my arms.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked. I was surprised at how exasperated my voice sounded. It was how I talked to Caden when he would randomly appear to one of my school events. My heart ached at the thought of my brother. I hoped that Stace had already told him.

Jeffrey shrugged. "We were ordered to wait for you to wake up so we could escort you to the Main Hall." The way he talked was casual, as if he did this every day. I mean, he probably did. I wondered what they did when the Pestilention wasn't going on. Probably slept and tried to heal the bruises people gave them from last year.

"Well, do you guys have something for me to change into?" I hugged the blanket closer to my chest. The one leaning on the wall cracked a small smile. It was barely there, but it was still visible.

"Why? I think you look great." His eyes seemed to laugh at me. I felt my ears turn hot. I glared at him. I didn't really know his name. Or the other guy. They were Thing One, Thing Two, and Jeff—the new Three Stooges.

"That's enough, Marcus," Thing Two said. Thing One—now known as Marcus—rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

Jeffrey ignored the two. "There are clothes over there." He pointed at a table. "Just call us once you're finished, Katherine."

"Can you just call me Kat?" I asked. "I don't go by Katherine."

"Whatever you want," Thing Two told me. I chewed on the inside of my lip. Out of the three, he seemed to be the only one that was emotionless. I wondered if he even had a name.

"Let's go, Anthony," Jeffrey told him. Never mind. The three men walked out.

I threw the nightgown off before sliding the clothes on. It was a plain black t-shirt with matching pants. To my disgust, they fitted perfectly. I slipped on the pair of black leather combat boots that were under the table. It felt weird without socks, but I guess I couldn't have everything.

The door opened and Marcus slid into the room.

"I could've been changing still, you know," I pointed out.

"I wouldn't have minded." I rolled my eyes and tied my shoelaces.

"Are you ready?" Marcus asked impatiently. I nodded and stood up. He led me outside the room and to where Anthony and Jeffrey were standing. They nodded at Marcus before leaving us alone. Marcus continued walking. I jogged to catch up with him.

He was quiet. The room filled with an almost unsettling silence. "I'm sorry that I broke your nose," I said lamely.

The corner of his lips tugged. "It's fine. It was a nice hit." After that Marcus didn't speak again, so I allowed the silence to linger until we reached our destination.

The Main Hall was a large room filled with what I assumed to be over forty people in clothes similar to mine. They all stood awkwardly in a clump in the center of the room. I glanced around at my surroundings. There were about fifty more doors. An armed guard stood sentry at each entrance.

I felt a hand nudge my back. I stumbled forward. I whipped my head around and shot a dirty look at Marcus, who wore an innocent look. Oh please, he looked anything but innocent.

I rolled my eyes, getting the hint he wanted me to leave him alone. I slipped between a couple of people in an attempt to blend in. A couple of kids around my age were either having friendly conversations or glaring at people. I assumed that those glaring were thinking about how they'd stop others from passing the obstacles. I shuddered and ignored them as I tried to get to the other side of the room.

Shoulders and elbows rammed into me as I walked. I felt like a five-year-old trying to find my parents at Disneyland, lost and confused, and trying not to cry. If you cry, Kat... I didn't finish the threat. My mind was too cluttered to think straight. The smell of body odor and cheap perfume overwhelmed my nose. It was probably what was making me feel like there was a balloon in my head.

I finally survived the mob and pressed myself against the wall. I sucked in a breath of fresh air. My chest lifted up and down heavily. The room started to spin as the noise of chatter continued. I chewed on my fingernail, nearly hitting the nub of my ring finger.

"That's a bad habit." I looked up from my hand to see a pale-faced boy. He looked no older than I was. Thick black glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, enlarging his chocolate eyes. His brown, curly hair was freshly clipped. The corner of his lips tugged, leaving a permanent smile on his face.

"Yeah, I know. I only do it when I'm nervous," I explained. I ran a hand through my scarlet hair.

"Well, I don't think you want to do it here," he said. "You see those cameras?" He pointed a thin finger towards a small, box-like object hanging in the corner. "Those are live." My eyes widened. I almost forgot the fact that everyone around the world was watching us. Almost.

I smoothed my hair back down and prayed I didn't have a zit. Because hey, I had to look nice on camera before everyone saw me slip on something and die, right?

I ignored the cameras and turned back to the boy. "I'm Kat."

"Aster." He stuck out his hand. "I'm from Nevada."

I forced a closed lip smile. "New York." I shook his hand. He pumped my arm up and down gently.

Aster's eyes lit up. He dropped his arm to his side. "I was wondering when I was going to meet the New Yorker who tried to beat up three guys and escape."

"Um, yeah. That's me," I said with a nervous laugh. Wow, the news got around quickly.

I looked over Aster's shoulder to see a couple of eyes shooting daggers at us. I chewed the inside of my lip. Aster saw who I was glancing at and turned around. He flashed me a reassuring smile.

"Oh, you're looking at them." He jabbed a thumb their way. "They're this year's Backstabbers."

The Backstabbers were a group that was formed in the early years of the Pestilention. There's really only one way to explain them: they killed off their competition. They slaughtered and helped each other until the end. At the final obstacle they all turned on each other. They killed each other off until there was only one person remaining. It was a way for people who were desperate—or just wanted to kill—to survive.

The Pestilention didn't ban the Backstabbers because it was great entertainment. The anticipation and action gave the audience, and the other tributes, an irreplaceable thrill.

Aster shrugged. "I've met a couple of them already. I met a few from Idaho, New Orleans, and Michigan. They seem pretty tough, but I don't think that they'll kill us on the first obstacle."

One of the guys in the pack turned his head to me. He seemed to be at least eighteen, maybe older. A dragon tattoo slithered from under his shirt and wrapped around his ear. The forked tongue nearly hitting the outer canthus of his eye. Its yellow eyes seemed to stare at me. Half of the guy's head was shaved, leaving his oily-gold hair to cover one of his eyes. I shuddered at the thought of him snapping a tributes neck or shoving them underwater. I dreaded the thought of the Mushu tattoo being the last thing I would ever see.

"So." Aster's and my head whipped simultaneously towards the voice. A guy with curly black hair and a strong jawline smirked, leaning on the wall. His arms were folded casually over his strong chest. Something about him reminded me of one of the Greek gods we learned about in school. It might've been the hair and the tan skin or how charming he looked.

"I'm Aster," Aster said. "Who are you?"

"Alexander," he replied. I could hear a slight accent in his voice. French? Had to be French. He turned to me and winked. "But you can call me Alex."

"That's great." By his tone of voice, I could already tell that he was the pretty-but-obnoxious type.

A girl with blonde hair and blue streaks walked up and turned to Alex, completely ignoring Aster's and my presence. I forced a smile. Great. New friends.

"Hey, hot stuff." She smirked and batted her long lashes. Alex grinned. I rolled my eyes but felt relieved to have Alex be distracted.

"I'm Bella." She wrapped her hair around her finger, biting her bright pink lip.

"Alex."

"Well, aren't we making some friends today?" Aster said with a low whistle.

Alex's eyes narrowed. I stifled a laugh. Aster had a wide smile on his face. I locked eyes with him, grinning.

A finger tapped my shoulder. I sighed and turned around to see a woman with light blonde hair that went up to her pointed chin. She looked to be in her thirties, pounds of makeup covering about ten years of that. She smiled, showing me a row of big teeth.

"Hello, my name is Jane Winters, and I was wondering if I could pull you aside for a quick interview?" the lady asked. Her voice was pitchy, making it so I almost had to cover one ear to concentrate on what she was saying. I nodded and she and her camera crew led me away from the three and through another door.

The room was practically empty. It only had a couch and a chandelier with bright lights resting on the ceiling. The floor had a carpet with an odd pattern—every twist and turn of the design was different. I could've stared at it for an hour and I would have only analyzed a fourth of the floor.

"What's your name?" Jane asked, getting comfortable on the white couch. I slowly rested myself on it, the cushion sinking under my weight.

"Kat Parsons."

"Which state are you from?" she questioned. Her voice was serious, her eyes burning holes into me.

"New York."

Her eyes lit up, and her lips stretched into a smile as if to say finally, something interesting! "You're the one that put up a fight in the van!"

I sighed and bit my lip, staring at the ceiling. I sighed, curling my fingers into my palms and placed them on my lap. "I wouldn't say that I put up a fight—"

"Tell me, Kat, why did you do it? It was three against one."

I shook my head. "I didn't want to fight them. I was just trying to escape to get back to my brother." She smoothed her navy blue skirt and crossed her knees.

"So there was no fighting?" she asked, not hiding her disappointment.

"Not really. Sorry to disappoint you," I said.

She slid her fingers through her hair, bored with the conversation. "Have you met anyone yet? Are you thinking of making an alliance with anyone? How about the Backstabbers? Are you prepared to take them on?"

I could barely make out what she was saying. It was all mush in my head. "Well, I guess I've met a couple of people, they're okay. I'm not sure about alliances, though. Whatever keeps me alive." I took a deep breath, my shoulders raising. "I'm hoping that the Backstabbers will leave me alone as long as I leave them alone."

She nodded. "We wouldn't want you getting killed now, would we?" I responded with a closed-lip smile, forcing a laugh.

"I saw you with that boy earlier. Are you and him a thing?" Jane asked. "I think that you guys would be such a cute couple."

I felt my ears turn hot. Right when I got thrown into that van I should've known that this game would take over my life. There was no way that I was going to have my life controlled by some buck-toothed gossip seeker, though.

"Are you serious? We just met!" I rolled my eyes. "Nothing is going on between us."

Jane recoiled as if I just stabbed her in the gut for shooting down the drama. I smiled, feeling satisfied. I hoped that the cameras were live. Everyone needed to know that. If I was going to die, it would be with me being honest.

"Good luck to you, Miss Parsons." Jane suddenly flashed me a smile, showing me her enormous teeth. It was as if I hadn't said a word.

"Thanks," I nodded. "Now, you should go find someone else's gossip somewhere else."

Jane's lips covered her large teeth, her mouth as straight as a blade. "Thank you for your time, Katherine." She spat my name like it was acid.

"You too," I replied sweetly. That gave me the award of seeing her blazing eyes roll.

Jane twirled her finger, motioning for the camera crew to cut the cameras. I hid my smile as I left. I could feel Jane's cold glare like knives digging into my back. Something told me I shouldn't have done that, but I didn't care. Who cared if the audience didn't like me? They would see what they had chosen to deal with and that I wasn't leaving without a fight.

The group I was talking with was gone. Alex and Bella were probably still flirting elsewhere, and Aster must have been socializing with someone else. I shrugged and rested my head on the wall. I rested my eyes.

"Hi." My eyelids snapped open. I turned to face a pair of thick glasses and a crooked smile.

"Hey, you left me," I teased.

Aster scratched the back of his neck. "To be fair, you left me first."

"Where were you?" I shifted myself into a more comfortable position, leaning my shoulder on the wall.

"Getting interviewed," his voice dropped to a whisper. "What's up with that lady's teeth?"

I shrugged. "What's up with her invasive attitude?" Aster laughed, his glasses sliding to the tip of his nose. I hadn't necessarily meant it as a joke, but I cracked a smile, anyway.

We began talking about the Pestilention and how anxious we were about it. Soon enough we had gone off topic, so far that I hadn't known what we were talking about by the end.

"Would the people with their state's first letter starting with A through D please follow a guard to head to the Observatory Room? For those of you that are staying, please wait for a guard to retrieve you to take you to your rooms," a loud voice boomed, silencing the crowd. A couple of people left, following men identical to Anthony, Marcus, and Jeffrey.

The Observatory Room was a way for us to get an idea of a few obstacles that we were going to go up against. It had been a fun way for me and Caden to bet on what obstacles runners would have had to face. I had always seemed to have guessed at least one. Hopefully, that skill could come in play today.

A guard nodded to Aster. My new friend waved goodbye. He followed the guard, and I stared at his brown curls until he disappeared into the crowd. I was glad that Aster would be with me in the observatory room. He seemed to be the nicest one here.

"All right Katherine, let's go." I turned to Marcus. People had to stop creeping behind me. It was freaky, and I promise that it wasn't healthy to nearly have heart attacks three times a day.

"I go by Kat," I reminded him before grinning. "Did you miss me?"

"No." His voice sounded tired. "I'm just unlucky enough to end up being one of the few people who know where your room is."

"Haha. Can we just go before I turn your nose the other way around?"

"It's already deformed, so I don't see what else you can do." Marcus shrugged as if he got punched in the nose all the time. He turned, motioning me to follow him with his finger. I trailed behind, the voices in the room cutting off as he led me out of the door and through a new hallway.

Hello, everyone! This chapter was super fun to make, and I'm so excited to share it with you guys! Sorry for the late update. I had a concert this weekend and then a lot of schoolwork for the past couple of days.

I'd love to give a shout-out to my friend iDream0utl0ud for helping me out with editing and writing this story. If you wouldn't mind giving her a follow, she'll be publishing this book on her profile, too!

Please don't forget to comment, read, or vote. Slap your dentures on that vote button. If you don't have a pair because you're young or you don't know where you grandparent's pair are, gently do it with your real ones. I don't know, just try it.

Also, if you like this book, please tell your friends, family, dog, cat, neighbor, grandparents, or sock to check it out! What? Haven't you taught your sock to read? Oh well. Just me. Stay cool. :)

This song is calledIf I Die Young by The Band Perry. I hope you guys like it.