CHAPTER 1:

REGISTRATION

 “Welcome to the 183rd annual Apocalypse: World Tournament, where players from around the globe come together to test their skills in Apocalypse: World and fight their way to becoming the Squadron of Earth!”

“This is so exciting!” Bruce shouted as he listened to Ernest Clyde shout over the intercom and stare at us with his gleaming blue eyes. “The moment we’ve been waiting for. The moment we’ve been training for! The moment where we all finally enter the A.W.T!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Come on, Bruce, you’ve got to keep it together, man. We’ve still got a ways to go before we can even get to the sign up desk,” I made a quick gesture to the creepy old lady sitting at the large white table, writing down all the names of the new players entering the tournament. I imagine she has written hundreds of thousands of names by now, and she still has to write no less than 240 names before she can even write ours. Just thinking about all that writing makes my hand hurt.

“Caloum, how could you not be excited right now? You’ve been waiting to lead a squadron into battle since day one, and here we are! What do you do? Just stand there like a totem pole.”

“I am excited, Bruce. I’m excited for all of us! I’m just better at containing it than most people.”

“Well, you may be good at holding in excitement,” Sarah butted in as she walked up behind us, Jessie and Ellie right behind her, “but you are definitely not good at holding in your anxiety.”

“Sarah! You made it!” I pulled her close and held her in my arms.

“Of course we made it,” she said as she continued to embrace me.

“Sorry we’re a little late,” Jessie added, brushing some of her dark hair from her eyes. “It was ridiculous trying to get here.”

“I bet,” Bruce replied, “Even with Caloum and I coming as early as we did, traffic was packed like nothing I’ve ever seen!”

“It doesn’t matter now. We’re all here together, ready to win this tournament!”

The five of us didn’t have any problem holding in a group cheer; it’s not like we would have been told to keep it down or anything. It felt like standing in a high school cafeteria again, but ten times bigger and twenty times more populated. To add on to that, the walls were reflecting all of that noise and focusing it back to the center of the room, so this crowd was having a competition with the room to see who could be the loudest. On the bright side, the massive windows were all open, letting all the cool, spring air flow in, so it wasn’t hot and stuffy like you would usually imagine a jammed room like this to be.

“Hey, you ready for this?” Sarah teased as she nudged my arm.

I paused. “No.”

“No? Why not?” She asked with a grin, as if I was teasing.

“Well, I am ready for this. I mean, we’ve been training for this for a really long time. But,” I paused to think.

The grin from Sarah’s face dissolved as she saw the look on mine. “Oh.”

“Yeah. I just wish he was here.”

She brushed her hands against my cheeks as she gently pressed her lips against mine. “He would be proud of you, Caloum. And you know he’ll be watching.”

“I know,” I half-chuckled. “I just wish he could be here to see this.”

As Sarah and I stood there waiting our turn at the table, the intercom blasted itself over the crowd.

“Attention contestants, the registration for the London team has closed, coming in at a record one million, seven-hundred and seven thousand, eight-hundred and six contestants! Congratulations London! Good luck everyone!”

Once the intercom cut off, the crowd went ballistic.

“How many did he say?” Ellie had to make sure she heard herself correctly.

“One million, seven-hundred and seven thousand, eight-hundred and six people!” Jessie repeated.

“That’s an awful lot from London!” Bruce added.

“I don’t think they got past 1.5 million last year. Did they?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t even think they got past 1.3 million.”

“Well good for them,” I said. “How many did we get last year? Does anyone remember?”

“I think was more than two-hundred million,” Bruce answered, “but I don’t remember the exact number.”

“Hey,” one of the guys behind us shouted,” the lines moving.” He pointed ahead of us. When we turned, we realized the line had moved at least two spaces up.

“Oh,” I exclaimed, “sorry man.”

The five of us started to move forward, giving more room to the people behind us. As we moved, I couldn’t help but notice Bruce starting to look down at his watch, then up at the Jumbo Tron on the ceiling, and back and forth from there.

“You seem nervous. What’s the matter?” I inquired.

“It’s almost 10 o’ clock and they haven’t posted the listing for the stages yet. They usually do by now.”

I couldn’t help but glance to look at my watch; it was four minutes until 10. I also couldn’t help but look up at the Jumbo Tron to see that Bruce was right. Why I was actually surprised was beyond me.

“This is making me worry,” Bruce quickly added.

“What is there to worry about?” I asked. “I mean, just because they don’t have the stages posted doesn’t mean they’re going to,” I had to pause for a moment to think of a response, “I don’t know, end the tournament or something.”

“Well obviously,” Bruce snapped, “but it makes me feel kind of unprepared.”

“Bruce, relax!” Jessie jumped into the conversation. “You’re getting paranoid. I thought Caloum was the only one who was going to be nervous this entire time.”