The Arbiter for this vote was Warren. The man was fairly nondescript, and one of the few people who were not part of the Bloc or the Unaffiliated, at least as far as Wendy was aware. The truly unaffiliated.


    “I will now read the three names in an arbitrary order,” Warren said. “Lucile.”


    “Again!” the young woman said, exasperated. “This is getting boring. We should give someone else a turn.”


    Lucile was disliked, but Wendy hadn’t ordered the Bloc to eliminate her yet, thinking that it was best to have her around as a kind of insurance policy. If things went wrong and it seemed like Wendy herself was in danger of being eliminated, it should be relatively easy to turn the ire of the group towards Lucile.


    “Justin,” Warren said.


    Justin didn’t move for a few seconds. Ryan barked: “Come on, man!” and Justin shuffled forwards, head down, not looking at anyone.


    “And lastly,” Warren said. “Um.”


    He cleared his throat.


    “Let me triple check the votes,” he said, and everyone watched as he shuffled and recounted the slips of paper.


    “I’ve counted again, and I didn’t mess it up the first time. You all are free to verify the count afterwards, and execute me if there is foul play. I promise I am doing this accurately,” he said. “Anyway, the final name is: Wendy.”


    Wendy’s body and various parts of her brain seemed to process this at different speeds. She found herself walking to the middle of the circle, face largely impassive but with some involuntary twitching of her eyelids. She wondered whether she should be panicking more and marvelled at the fact that she wasn’t.


    Before she knew it she was lying on the ground, and Warren was about to read out the name of the person who would be eliminated. It wouldn’t be Wendy, surely, the Bloc had been directed to vote for someone else, and they finally controlled the majority of the votes, she should be safe, surely she was safe, as long as the Bloc was trustworthy she was safe –


    But was the Bloc trustworthy? Did they resent her? Had they realized that the Bloc must eventually dissolve, were they all turning against her?


    “And the person with the most votes, nine votes, who will be eliminated is… Justin.”


    Wendy barked out an involuntary laugh. She forced herself to stop as everyone glared at her.


    “Any last words, Justin?” Warren asked.


    Justin opened his mouth, and nothing came out. He kept his head down, not facing anyone.


    “Nothing?” Warren asked. “Well then –”


    “Wait!” It was a whisper, but everyone heard Justin. The guns remained pointed at him.


    “In the land of the sky, oh the land of the sky, the place where the dusk and the sun do collide…”


    Justin’s voice grew in strength as he continued. It was a song, and he had a beautiful voice. There was no accompaniment, but it would have felt wrong if anything interrupted this melody.


    “And people, in harmony lie,


    For there is no dark in the land of the sky.”


    Wendy could barely move, barely breathe. Justin’s voice was beautiful, so beautiful, so full of strength and life and beauty, and they were going to send him to Hell? It wasn’t right. For the first time, the horror of it all hit her, and tears welled in her eyes, but she forced them back.


    “As angels do cry,


    For there is no dark in –”


    The gunshot rang in the sudden silence. People turned to look at Josh, who said “What? Who knows how long that would have gone on? We all voted for him; no need to be so disapproving!”


    No one replied.


    Justin’s body sank to the the ground, the fires of Hell swallowing him up.


    ~


    Afterwards, the vote totals were revealed, and it turned out Warren had been completely honest. Wendy had received a total of six votes. Justin had gotten nine. It hadn’t been that close.


    But still, Wendy’s fears were realized. It wasn’t just that people were voting for her. That alone wasn’t surprising – although she hadn’t heard even a whisper of anyone planning to vote for her, it might very well be the case that they were, and had neglected to inform her. Of course she had a target on her back, by being an outspoken leader, and a covert leader of the Bloc. If a few people outside the Bloc voted for her, well, that was to be expected, and that would be resolved in due time, as those people were eliminated one by one.


    No, the problem was that although there were twelve people in the Bloc, Justin had only received nine votes. That meant that three people in the Bloc had defected, had voted for someone else. At least three, really! And there was a good chance that of those who had defected, they had voted for Wendy.


    There were nine loyal members of the Bloc, assuming that the nine votes for Justin were all from loyal Bloc members carrying out Wendy’s orders. But there were still twenty people alive and voting. That meant that the loyal members of the Bloc could be outvoted. That meant that Wendy could be eliminated the very next dawn.


    “I’d like to volunteer to be the next Arbiter,” Wendy said when the time came.


    “I’d support that,” Claire said quickly.


    Wendy narrowed her eyes at the other woman. As far as Wendy could tell, Claire was the closest thing to an enemy that Wendy had. She led the other main faction, and they had never liked each other. Wendy was sure Claire saw her as a threat and was all too eager to eliminate her. Why then would Claire support Wendy becoming Arbiter, granting her immunity for one round?


    It must be because they had all agreed, when setting up the elimination by voting system, that no individual could be Arbiter more than twice. This would be Wendy’s second and final time. From Claire’s perspective, Wendy was wasting her final immunity when there were still so many people left, instead of saving it for when there were fewer people and everyone had a higher probability of being chosen for elimination.


    But it had to be done. Because Wendy couldn’t find herself in the center of the circle, not again. Not without figuring out who the traitors to the Bloc were, and dealing with them.


    With Claire and Wendy’s agreement, the rest of the group unanimously agreed on Wendy being the next Arbiter.


    ~


    There were three main subgroups in the Bloc. Wendy began by approaching Trinity.


    “What’s up,” Trinity said. “How are you doing? It must have been pretty stressful to be up for elimination like that.”


    Wendy shrugged. “It was… not particularly pleasant,” she said. Affect nonchalance. Never admit weakness, except when doing so is itself a sign of strength.


    “Well, at least you’re Arbiter now, so you are spared for at least one more day. Sorry to be a downer like that. I mean, the plan is still on. But what’s going on with the votes?”


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    So Trinity had noticed too. Trinity was the closest thing Wendy had to a second in command. The Bloc Within the Bloc and the Bloc Within the Bloc Within the Bloc had actually been Trinity’s idea, though the Bloc itself had been Wendy’s plan. But Trinity was a member of the core inner group, the group that, if everything went according to plan, would take the four slots in Heaven. Wendy, Trinity, Alexandra, and Tyler.


    “There are traitors among us,” Wendy said. “But don’t worry. I’m taking steps to remedy the situation.”


    “So you know who the traitors are?” Trinity asked.


    “It’s best to keep this information maximally compartmentalized,” Wendy said, because she didn’t think a less honest evasion would work. Trinity was shockingly sharp for someone who presented as such a bimbo.


    “Well, fair enough. I trust you. You know I’m on your side, right? Us two no matter what, to the land of eternal bliss. I have no reason to betray you, and so you have no reason to betray me.”


    “For sure,” Wendy said. She did not think Trinity was a traitor – she truly had no incentive to be – but one could never be too sure. “We’re voting for Lucas this time. Tell Tyler and Alexandra.”


    “Don’t you want to vote for Claire or Peter or Ryan, while you are immune?” Trinity asked. “They are greater threats.”


    “I want to make sure we have the numbers before going for more polarizing figures,” Wendy said.


    ~


    With that taken care of, Wendy went to Josh.


    “Hello,” Josh said. “Come to tell me who we are sending to Hell?”


    “I guess so, although I wouldn’t put it like that,” Wendy said.


    “Well, we tried to use better methods to choose who to send to Heaven, and that didn’t work, so why sugarcoat what we are doing now?” Josh was still bitter about the random selection thing, but this is what made him a good ally. He still liked Wendy for her perceived integrity in organizing and supporting the random selection at the beginning of this whole debacle.


    “Fair enough,” Wendy said. It was best not to antagonize Josh. He was probably the least liked of the whole Bloc, and he could be erratic. She thought he was loyal, but was he the kind of erratic who would turn on her? She didn’t know. Josh also was not part of the Bloc Within the Bloc, but she didn’t expect him to have enough foresight for this to be an issue for him, as long as no one had spilled the beans about the secret inner group.


    “So who is it this time?” Josh asked.


    “Claire,” Wendy said. “And tell Kyle and Elena and Benjamin, if you don’t mind.”


    “Sure,” Josh said. “It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.”


    ~


    And finally she went to Thomas.


    “Hello, Leader,” Thomas said.


    Wendy couldn’t tell if the Leader thing was supposed to be ironic or genuine. Thomas seemed to want to think of himself as important, so she thought it was genuine, but if so, it was annoying. Still, best not to let her annoyance show. She could play along. It wasn’t so annoying that she should risk eternal torment.


    “Hello, Thomas,” Wendy said. “Your Leader comes with instructions.”


    “Yes,” Tomas said, “What are the instructions? I saw you in the ring last dawn, of course, and I was very impressed with how you kept your cool. All part of the plan, right?”


    Thomas seemed nervous. Did this mean he was betraying her? Or was it just natural to be nervous in a place like this? She had known lots of people kind of like Thomas, back in her old life. Climbers. It was possible he was just nervous because he saw her as a boss, and wanted to make a good impression. Or maybe he was selling her out to her enemies. Hard to say.


    “All part of the plan,” she echoed. “And as for the next vote, we are voting for Lucile. Please let Nate, Daliah, and Anita know.”


    “Of course,” Thomas said. “Thanks for letting me know! Will do!”


    Thomas was in the Bloc Within the Bloc, but not the Bloc Within the Bloc Within the Bloc. That should make him loyal, since she had put trust in him, invited him to the secret group. But people didn’t always behave rationally, so she had to make sure.


    ~


    When Wendy tallied the votes, her heart sank. It was the worst possible scenario. She knew who the traitors were, and she knew how things were about to play out. She was screwed.


    Was there some way she could fudge the votes? Rig things for a better outcome? No, they would find out, and she would be executed. She had designed the system too well, made it too robust, too hard to fake votes without getting executed yourself. She had suggested the system to keep order, to make sure that no one would fake that she had received the most votes, but now the impossibility of fraud was biting her in the ass.


    “The three people who received the most votes are: Claire. Lucas. And Trinity.”


    Wendy forced herself to watch Trinity’s face as the young woman walked into the semicircle, eyes straight ahead, not acknowledging Wendy at all. Is this what Wendy had looked like, when she had been in the semicircle last dawn?


    Claire, for her part, nodded to the onlookers, and flashed Wendy a smile, casually dropping to the ground for the crowd to train their guns on her.


    With a heavy heart, Wendy said: “The person who received the most votes is Trinity. Trinity, any last words?”


    Trinity looked so very young, lying on the ground, her face turned up at Wendy in an expression of shock. The shock quickly turned to fear and then anger.


    “You’re a traitor!” Trinity screamed. “Wendy’s a traitor! She was supposed to be in a secret group with me. The Bloc Within the Bloc Within the Bloc! We were supposed to go to Heaven together!”


    “I’m the Arbiter. I didn’t vote,” Wendy said, not really sure who she was trying to convince.


    “Do not trust Wendy! That’s my last words. She’s a traitor, cares only about herself. I’ll see you in Hell, Wendy!”


    Wendy tried not to look as Trinity was shot and dragged down to Hell. Somehow, the horrible wrongness of Hell felt so much worse when you were sure it was where you were going to wind up.


    The votes told the story. Wendy had thought she was being clever. She had even thought she was a genius. She had taken the Arbiter position, guaranteeing she couldn’t lose this round, and used the vote as an experiment. She had told three groups within the Bloc three different people to vote for, and by counting the votes, she knew who had obeyed her and who had defected. Trinity and her group, Wendy’s most loyal allies, had voted for Lucas like they were supposed to. Josh and his group had followed instructions, voting for Claire. But Thomas and his group had defected. Worse, they would know that she knew that they had defected, because for the first time ever, Lucile had not received even a single vote. Thomas and his group must have put at least some of their votes towards Trinity, because she had received a shocking nine votes.


    Wendy was so screwed. Maybe it had always been a dream. Five slots out of thirty people – the ego to think her chances were better than one in six! But now the Bloc was dead. Her best ally, killed. The majority of votes, out of her control. Public opinion, turned against her by Trinity’s last words.


    For the first time in this place, Wendy was at a loss. She had no more plans. She felt like crying, but she just sat there, numb, as Lucile was somehow chosen as the next Arbiter.


    ~


    Wendy sat alone in an out of the way office. She had only cried for maybe twenty minutes, pulling herself back and controlling herself afterwards. For what, she didn’t know. She had tried to give instructions to the remaining Bloc members, but from their reactions, it was clear they were not going to obey her.


    She had no power. She had no leverage. She was almost surely going to be voted out this next day, to be consigned to infinite torture.


    “Hey,” a voice said.


    “What do you want, Lucile?”


    “Just checking on you. How are you doing?”


    “Bad. I’m going to be sent to Hell, if you haven’t noticed.”


    “So you’re just giving up?”


    “I guess so. I don’t think it matters what I do.”


    “Let me offer you some sage advice,” said Lucile, who was probably less than half Wendy’s age. “What we do always matters. Even if we lose, even if it seems like everything is over, it’s never over while we’re still breathing.”


    “We’re not breathing,” Wendy said. “Have you noticed? Our bodies don’t need to breathe here, just like we don’t need to eat or sleep. Our lungs pump out of habit, but if you hold your breath, you can go indefinitely.”


    “Okay, whatever. Figure of speech. But here’s another thing: remember when I tried to sneak into Heaven, and Avery caught me, and everyone hated me because y’all were jealous that I was smarter than you and thought of it first?”


    “I think everyone hating you may have had more to do with your attitude than your specific actions.”


    “Well, either way. Point is, I didn’t go cry in a random office and give up. I pushed through, and I’m still here, somehow, against all the odds.”


    “You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t congratulate you,” Wendy said.


    “You are forgiven! Now, it’s cliche advice, but cliches are cliches because they are good advice. It’s not over till it’s over.”


    “Why are you telling me this? If I take you at face value, you are still trying to win this horrible game, and if that’s true, why would you encourage me to be your competition? It makes no sense.”


    “Well, you are on to something,” Lucile admitted. “I do in fact have a use for you. You see, I have a message for the people, but it’s a message that has the potential to antagonize, and so I can’t be seen to be the one to say it. But it’s too complicated to just write on the whiteboard like you did with the idea of eliminating one person at a time. That was you, right? It was a smart move.”


    “How’d you know?” Wendy asked.


    “Context clues.”


    “Well, it wasn’t me personally, but I deputized someone else to do it, yes.”


    “Well,” Lucile said, “I wish to do something similar, but this time, you will be my agent. Can you stand to be the one taking orders?”


    “At this point, I’d take anything,” said Wendy. Which was probably a bit too much honesty. She found herself calculating again, minding her words and how she presented herself, figuring out how to gain maximum advantage from every interaction. She didn’t know what Lucile was going to say, but somehow, she had hope again, because why shouldn’t she? There was nothing to be gained by not trying.