As we filed into the cafeteria, the warm smells of roasted vegetables and savory meat stews filled the air, welcoming us in.
The place wasn't as crowded as usual, with only the twenty remaining students sitting at scattered tables, most of them looking exhausted or pensive after the day's events. Lise, Zaya, and I settled into a corner table, the three of us pulling our chairs in close.
"Only twenty of us left." I said, breaking the silence as we unwrapped our utensils. "Can you believe it?"
Lise gave a small, humorless laugh. "Hardly. I mean, we started with nearly a hundred."
Her gaze drifted around the room, observing the remnants of the competition: some slumped over their food, others in tight groups, whispering furiously. "And yet here we are, the only three left from our university."