Inside the central monitoring chamber, Professor Helene Draven stood with her grey eyes fixed on the floating holographic screens that lined the walls. The room was enormous — a circular chamber with rows of technicians hunched over consoles, their fingers flying across interfaces, their voices low and urgent.
Screens covered every surface, each one showing a different part of the Sealed Valley — candidates fighting, candidates running, candidates dying.
The light from the screens cast pale blue shadows across her dark skin, and her silver hair was pulled back from her face in a tight, severe bun that made her look even more tired than she felt.
She had been standing there for days, watching children hunt children.
She watched the purple plague crawl from candidate to candidate, turning friends into murderers. Her hands curled into tight fists at her sides, her nails digging deep into her palms.
She should have known something was wrong when the test changed.
