Blood drips off the knuckles of Robert's knuckles. I don't know if it's the other guy's blood or his own. He presses his fists down into the fibers of the carpet and rubs them back and forth. At my size I can see the thin streaks of blood on the carpet. At a normal size it is almost undetectable to the naked eye. The red blood will soon change it's color to brown. The brown will blend into the light brown carpet. Then, nobody will notice it.

I walk closer to Robert. As I get closer, I see his body is shaking. Shaking from the adrenaline. I can see his knuckles clearer from here. The two middle knuckles from his right hand are busted open. Blood is dripping out like a faucet that hasn't been completely turned off. His left fist is completely fine. No marks on it except for the smudged blood stains. 

"Hey. That was, um, kinda crazy. You uh, you really beat the shit outta him." I say to Robert. "You uh, you alright? Man."

He's knelt on the ground staring at it. I can see him staring at the blood stains on the ground. He doesn't show me his face. He's frozen in time. I feel the courage to speak to him one more time. I say, "Well, um, I'm gonna leave you to, uh, rest up. We really need to talk later. After the fightings over. If, I don't wanna think about it, but if we lose, I might have a plan to get us out of here."

I turn myself away from him, ready to head back to the group when I hear a grunt. I turn back around to see Robert half staring at me. His eyes are red and a bit watery. He opens his mouth to say, "Light."

I'm confused by this. What does he mean? What light? "What about the light?" I ask him.

"The light. The light in his eyes. It was-. It nearly-. I almost-." I see something that I never would have thought I would have seen. A tear is falling down Robert's right eyelid, followed by another, and another. His nose is turning red. I'm at a loss for words. I don't know how to react in this situation.

I grab the back of my head with my left hand and rub it. I let out a sigh of confusion. I'm scratching in my brain for some teenage words of wisdom, but I realize that it's a contradiction. Teenagers have no words of wisdom. I'm gonna have to throw ideas at a boards and see what sticks.

"You had to do what you had to do. We cannot afford any losse-." I'm cut off by someone.

"The next fight will be a girl fight. That means there will be scratching and hair pulling." Monie states. I'm gonna try to ignore her again. "The next fight will-"

"Robert man, you can't break down at a time like this. We need you-"

"Sarah will fight-" That catches my attention. Sarah will win easily. If she wants too.

"As I was saying. We need you. I tried to talk to everyone. I tried to take lead, but no one will listen. It's you they listen too. You almost killed that guy, but it's for survival. I know that sounds very harsh, but you can't control your instincts at a time like this. The will to survive is sometimes too great to control."

"Against that red headed girl right there."

"You are the leader. The guy who can take control of us. I might have a plan. It's involves Sarah." Robert turns his head completely facing me. I have his full attention. "Please don't freak out."

"Are you ready to fight? Then go!"

"Sarah shrank us." I pause and let him soak it in. He has a confused look on his face. I continue. "Not intentionally though. It was a freak accident. In face I helped cause the accident. If I would have left her alone, none of this would have happened. It's both of our faults."

Nothing. There's nothing in his eyes. No anger or confusion. He just stares at me with darkness in his eyes. The abyss gazes also. He doesn't say anything. His head goes back to the blood streaks he made.

I know he's not n the right mindset but I'm getting a little pissed off. "You're not gonna say anything. That's ok. I don't know what's going on in your head right now. I just hope it clears because when it's time. I hope you can step up and help. Everybody's gonna need you." And with that, I leave him be.

"The winner is- the red headed girl!" Monie shouts. I stop walking. Did she just say that? Oh shit! Sarah quit didn't she? I run towards the group. What the hell's going on?

I stop when I reach Dave and Maria. "What happened?" I ask them.

"Sarah got her ass beat. She didn't even put up a fight." Dave tells me. "It was like a monkey fighting a gorilla."

I look at where Sarah's standing. She's walking back towards us. Her head is down, not looking at us. When she reaches me, I stop her with my left arm. "What the hell was that Sarah?" I ask angrily.

She doesn't say anything. "I'm getting pretty pissed off at these no responses. I'll say again. What the hell was that?" I'm boiling right now. "You can cost this team our lives. You could have easily beat her. Why aren't you trying? The only way we can escape is with you."

"Dom what are you talking about?" Maria asks me.

"I'll have to answer in a little bit." I respond. I turn my attention back to Sarah. "We're losing Robert. If we lose you, there is no way any of us will survive. I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told Robert. When it's time, you're gonna have to step up and help."

I let go of Sarah. She walking towards Robert. Is that the quitters circle or something? I turn my head around to see Tyrell and Beta looking at me. Tyrell gives me a small smile. It's like he was impressed by what I said. Beta does the same as his brother.

"Each team has one win. I think we will go back to the guys for a little bit. Wasn't there a guy named Archie on your team?" Monie asks us. Payback time. I'm the one who starts it. 

"He's right here!" I yell out. I point my middle finger at him. Dave joins me, then Maria, then Tyrell, followed by Beta, soon the entire team is pointing at him with our middle fingers. The expression on his rat face is priceless. He's frozen on the spot like the coward he is.

"You better get over here Archie. Or you'll end up as my foot's best friend." Monie tells him. Archie slowly begins to walk to the battlefield. Before he's out of clear view, I can see that he's grinning from ear to ear. What the hell does he have planned?

"Dave, I'm not too sure about Archie. This asshole could sabatoge us." I say to Dave.

"I'll kill him before he can." Dave says.

Archie's opponent is Mark. One of the only guys I know from that team. The other being Tony. I need to find a way to save both of them. They helped us. They are good guys.

"Ready? Go!" Monie exclaims. 

Both guys are hesitant to do anything. They are just circling around each other, throwing no strikes. If I had a watch, I would look down at it. It feels that at least two minutes has passed since the start. Still, nothing has happened. I can see Monie getting restless up on her bed. 

"Punch! Kick! Do something!" Monie says nearly screaming at them. She's not happy.

Mark finally tries to throw a punch at Archie. It's about to land on his face until it stops. Mark stopped attacking becauase Archie's starting to act weird. He lifts his arms over his head. His body is beginning to shake like a vibrator. He falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

There is not one person in this room that knows what's going on. Everybody is confused as hell. I'm scratching my head at this shit. I see Mark is standing over Archie's body. He lowers himself to get closer to his face. He turns Archie's head from side to side.

I can't see Archie's face. His body looks kind of motionless. Could he have died from shock? "Anybody know what's going on?" I ask.

"No clue man." Tyrell says. "Is he dead?"

"I don't know"

Mark looks up from Archie's head. I hear him shout, "I think he's dead!"

Then, it happens. Something I would have never expected. It happens so fast. Archie's right hand grabs onto Mark's face. He pushes his head back with force. Mark's neck is sticking out in the open. None of us saw him have it. When did he bring it? There is a knife in the left hand of Archie. He brings the blade to Mark's neck and with one slash, blood sprays out like a hose from Mark's neck. Archie is covered in blood. The most fucked up thing, I think I can hear him laughing.

All of us are frozen in time. Shock. Shock has overcome us. The same way shock overcame Robert. I'm now in the same position Robert is in. I knew Archie was an asshole, but I would have never imagined he was a murderer. I'm a little scared now. Archie is coming our way. We get away from him. The knife still caked with warm blood from a new friend. The pain.

The ground shakes. I turn to see Monie jumping off her bed. She picks Mark's dead body off the ground. His body is thrown into the trash can where two other's lie.

"What a show! How can we top that? Hmm, with Dom Flash of course." Monie says. My heart sinks in fear. The time for me to fight has come. Maria gives me a huge hug before I leave. The walk to the field feels short.

My opponent walks to me. When he gets closer I recognize who it is. It's Tony, with tears in his eyes from the death of his friend. We both don't want to do this, but we know we have too. I look down to see the blood of a fallen man we both knew. The red blood will soon change it's color to brown. The brown will blend into the light brown carpet. Then, nobody will notice it.