Selection
A 980 word short story
For ten years, Huxley trained for a good death. A warrior's death. His family feared the opposite would happen if he did not act soon enough. Their minds rattled with the thoughts of his face battered with wrinkles instead of scars, loss of limb due to poor health instead of the price of combat, or his life succumbing to cancer and other diseases. He wondered what his legacy would be.
Now at age thirty-five, he was up for Selection.
The sun fell that evening and the cool air of autumn night wrapped the District City tight in the darkness. The perfume of burning leaves failed to mask the stench of death and rot within the city limits with rowdy spectators thronging the arena that towered in the center of the District - an iron jungle in desperate need of cleansing fire.