abel [https://imgur.com/gfZpXk6.png]

They left as a group.

Forming the rear of a group of nearly fifty, Abel walked side by side with Sarah, Bernard somewhere ahead of them, Daryl leading the pack. There was the low murmur of words, people talking with one another for the first time since entering the city, as well as nervous laughter being shared.

Sarah hadn’t wanted to go. She’d thought it was too dangerous, too much of an unwarranted risk to take. That night, after the recording had played through the city, Daryl had appeared in the doorway and invited them to help carry Annie to her resting place nearby. After seeing her friend and the stiff bodies of many others being tossed into an unmarked grave, dirt covering them one shovel at a time, she had changed her mind.

“Lyssa will be there,” she repeated quietly as we walked down one of the long roads. The arena had seemed so close from the top floors of their apartment building, yet it would likely be another half hour before they were able to enter it.

Their group splintered off into two. Walking around a large piece of rock, a boulder from unknown origin sitting in the middle of the street. If what Daryl had said to them was true, and all of the cars had vanished on the night of the Change, there was no point in trying to clear it from the street. The roads belonged to human feet alone, and evading such a massive obstacle was easy enough.

“Someone’s Command?” Sarah suggested, looking at the boulder behind them as the group joined together again.

“It’s possible. Don’t know where else a boulder that size would’ve come from.”

She was quiet a moment. “Where is any of this coming from? The arena appearing. The trees in the park disappearing. The cars disappearing. That boulder appearing. Lyssa had that dagger. It just appeared out of nowhere. How is any of this possible? You can’t just create or destroy matter. I don’t understand science or math at all, but even I know that much.”

Abel shook his head. “I’ve been trying not to think about it. These things...can’t be real. Yet...”

They walked over a pothole that looked to have been caused by an explosion. He let his words fall away.

“Sorry,” Sarah began a minute later. “I won’t lie, I’ve been avoiding you and everyone else. I had watched Annie my whole life, and I refused to let anything happen to her, even after she...but now she’s buried. It may have been selfish, but I didn’t even want to think of myself, let alone other people, until she was taken care of. That’s how it has always been.

“She’s gone now, so I have to take care of myself. And Lyssa. And you.” She smiled. “Though maybe you’ll have to look after me, like Lyssa asked you to. Anyway, I hope I didn’t hurt you at all.”

Abel shook his head. “I’m just glad you’re able to move on. In a certain sense, I’m fortunate just to have even met the three of you.”

“Three?” Bernard’s voice came from ahead. He had a smug grin on his face as he fell back through the ranks. “There were five of us on that train car. Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

“Am I?” Abel asked him, a joking smile on his face.

“I don’t think so,” Sarah said in a whisper before Bernard had finally reached them.

He took a spot beside Abel, kicking his feet out as he walked. “So, Daryl mentioned you were in the fencing club. You going to compete?”

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“Yeah. Are you?”

The man raised his eyebrows, giving a satisfied nod. “Oh really? I planned on it, but now I’m not too sure.” He flashed a grin. “I wouldn’t want to end up in a fight with you. You’d probably whoop me, huh?”

Abel laughed.

“What about you?”

“I’m not competing,” Sarah answered, flat.

“Just watching? You going to cheer me on?”

“Maybe,” she said, though her body language made it clear she was refraining from telling him to walk away.

“I overhead your apology,” he said, “I’m sorry too; I’ve been avoiding people and trying to clear my mind. After this is all through, we can try to start over from the beginning, okay?”

He waited for Abel to give a nod, then he smiled and looked at Sarah. “Wish me luck!” and then he was jogging around the group, back to his previous position, already invading another conversation.

“I hope he loses in the first round,” Sarah said, sticking out her tongue. “Were you really in the fencing club?”

“Yeah, I was really into it. Won a few tournaments. Haven’t had much practice since I entered college, though.”

“You’re really sure you want to compete?” She asked, voice quieter. “I mean, you have to be pretty confident in yourself to want to compete. The duels will go until someone submits, but we’re in a city that has some terrible people in it. People who are trying to raise their Bara rating. What happens when you have to compete against people like that?”

“I’ll fight them just the same as anyone else,” he said.

“There will be people who will fight to the death. They’ll come at you with the intention of killing you.”

“That’s what fighting is, Sarah.”

“I know,” she said shaking her head, “What I’m trying to get at is that there are people who won’t submit. Can you kill them, Abel?”

He licked his lips, taking a moment. “I’d like to think that most people would like to live another day.”

“And if not?”

He shrugged. “I’ll quit. I’m not going to take someone’s life to win, if I have a choice in the matter. And if I’m outmatched in the first round, I’ll be more than eager to submit and admit defeat.”

Her face seemed content at the words, and she gave a slow nod, brown hair bobbing as she walked. “I’m glad to hear that. I don’t think Lyssa will compete, but if she did, she’d say the same thing. She has always been like that. Selfless, I guess is the word.”

The closer their steps brought them to the arena, the taller it began to look. Their group began to take on others, solitary walkers and small groups making their way to the same destination. It had nearly become second nature for Abel to Check those he saw, not caring for their names or Commands, only for their level in Bara.

Most he saw were Zeroes. Their original group had a lean towards Kara, but four individuals, solitary stragglers joining them from intersections of streets, had Bara points. People from the trains who had been unable to find a new home in the city. Dirty and hungry, they were welcomed with a warm smiles and a healthy amount of reserve.

One man: Heath Tyrell. Kara 1. Bara 2. He got a cold welcome at first, but then conversations started and he was walking amongst the group just the same as the others, eager to be in a conversation, to be with others once again.

Abel felt guilty for judging the man. As a whole, they were still undecided on how SkySight had chosen the Karma levels for those brought into the city by train, yet the general assumption was that it was better to assume the numbers were correct. Better to remain safe than end up with a knife in your back.

He thought about Lyssa, wandering alone through the streets, just like these men. She was a good girl. If the Karma levels were to be believed, she was good-natured enough that she’d been granted a level in Kara. Misfortune had placed her where she was.

That was, of course, assuming that her level had been in Kara to begin with. He remembered the young girl’s words:

“She’s a liar. Be careful, Abel. She’s going to lie and trick you. Don’t believe her.” She had said.

He hadn’t seen her Karma levels before she mentioned they had been switched. It was a possibility she had lied to him. To all of them. There was no way to prove or disprove the claim.

“It has been almost a week,” Abel said aloud, “since we split apart from Lyssa.”

Sarah frowned at him. “I’m sure she’s alright. She’s tough. She’ll be there. She will.”

“Do you really think her Karma levels were switched?” Abel asked, his thoughts spilling out of his mouth.

When he looked to Sarah, her stare was drilling a hole in his forehead. “Of course. What kind of stupid question is that?”

He raised his hands, shaking them, “I just, I mean, do you really think someone out there has such an unfair Command? It seems like it would ruin the whole system that has been setup.”

She was quiet a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. But Lyssa wouldn’t lie. She- what the...”

And then they had stumbled upon the arena’s entrance.