I would like to thank all the beta readers who made this chapter possible.
Disclaimer: I do not own Btooom
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He was too fat to climb that tree. He tried jumping on it, but it caused him pain instead of gain. After two more attempts, he hoped someone would show up and help him.
No one did, which was somewhat of a relief because then he had to risk them being hostile towards him. Thinking of which, Hostel was the scariest movie he ever watched, which didn't help the similar situation he was in. Though in the movie, they were bringing in tourists, not dropping them out of planes.
Brian had an idea that was so asinine it could either work or break his belly. He grabbed his outstretched belly, took a deep breath to assure him what he was doing was for survival, and he did the "Truffle Shuffle" into the bark of the tree.
The Chuck-inspired performance worked. His entire belly made the tree shake violently enough for the metal briefcase to fall out of the branches it was nestled in. Brian caught it with as much strength as he could muster, but it was too much, as the briefcase nearly shot open and all the supplies almost fell on the floor.
XXX
An hour after Brian found that briefcase of food, it was time for another player to die. Two nerds were on this island. They were fans of animated DC or Marvel movies, especially the ones that contained violence and sex.
One of them was named Ian and the other was named James. Ian was pudgy, and had blond hair and blue eyes. He wore a blue shirt with Captain America on it. James, the older adult, was a thin but resilient thinker who wore a purple shirt with the Black Panther from Captain America Civil War on it.
Ian carried a Barrier Bim and James clutched a Flamable Oil-Splashing Flame Bim. The boys were gamers, but in real life, they didn't know a good way to use the Bims.
If James used his Bim on an enemy at a close range, he could get caught in his own trap, which would be a burning wall of fire.
Suddenly, someone activated his scouter/sonar. The brothers started to run back, and by activating theirs at the same time, or perhaps by sheer luck, they were able to disable the scrounged being used to trace them.
The player chasing them was a former mercenary. He tried rescuing someone in a poor village, failed, and went MIA where his fellow mercenaries were killed, excluding one who lived long enough to be deliberately tortured for a bogus location he gave them, and then was killed. He felt it was best to try saving one person after killing six others.
The man didn't need a scouter to know where a couple of cowards would run. He knew that once they realized they couldn't beat him by foot, they would split apart to either try attacking him on different sides, or one of them would get away.
They didn't count on how well he could throw a Bim. He threw a Flammable Oil-Splashing Flame Bim ahead of the two boys. Fire rose from the ground and blocked their exit. In fact, it surrounded them in a small space. Unafraid of the flames, he jumped through it and prepared to punch one of the boys.
Before he could react, a small Bim was put on his shirt and made a strange opening sound. If he remembered, this was the Bim that could put holes in things.
The man was lucky that the flames helped him rip off his shirt and throw it into the fire. The Bim went off, pushing away the flames, and the two boys ran as fast as they could through them to get away from their worst threat yet.
Once the mercenary escaped his own trap, it was a big chase scene. This soon led the three of them to a steep cliff, with nothing but the beach below them to catch them if they fell. The mercenary had them right where he wanted them. He considered ramming into them and pushing them both off the cliff while they trembled at the sight of his muscles.
James was shown the insides of a man. It was dark and bloody. He threw up on the spot. To make things even more horrifying, Ian lowered his knife to the mercenary's fingers.
"Leave him alone! We don't have to eat him!" James screamed.
"We need to try everything we can to survive." Ian said.
Ian grabbed a stick and carried it to the fire the Flammable Oil Bim created. It caught fire on the tip, and he carried it to his friend, threatening him with a knife.
"Put some sticks on the ground so I can start a fire. Now, we're going to burn his meat."
XXX
Brian left his comfort zone to think about survival. People often said he could skip a few meals, unless he wanted to be an obese loser whose only career was a comedian. Now, Brian limited himself to one meal a day, so he could at least live for two more weeks.
Brian was concerned about the Bims he carried. He capitalized on the Bim he thought would help him survive, the Cracker Bim. It was the fastest Bim that exploded and it was small enough to blend in.
Brian thought he heard a person he was afraid of. To his relief, it was just a fourteen year-old-girl. He was cautious because had heard of a psychotic fourteen-year-old murderer. She was a real sadist. Brian watched her sit on her knees with a look of curiosity in her eyes. Was it because of his size, or was it what he carried?
"Hello there. My name is Brian. What's your name?"
"Harmony." The girl said to Brian. "My father likes to think of me as his 'Sweet Harmony'. Can I please have a sandwich? If I don't eat something soon, I might have to eat a whole arm."
Brian wasn't surprised; cannibalism wasn't that hard to believe with the island being a place they were only three or four, out of about thirty, people survived. He opened the case and handed her the sandwich she so politely asked for.
She smelled it before licking it, then finally took a bite of it. She continued to chew on it while her eyes fixated on Brian. "It's good...but it's not great."
Brian wasn't the chef of that "good but not great" sandwich recipe. Harmony continued to eat the sandwich, enjoying it more than she cared to admit. At last the food was swallowed.
"I need your help," Harmony said. "I only need it now, after seeing that you're not malevolent or playing this game to survive. I need you to find a player with a tidal wave tattoo on his right leg. Do that for me, and I will pay you back for food I've eaten times two."
Brian knew that on this island, looks were deceiving. A person who seemed to be looking out for you could be leading you into a trap; two people together bring out the worst of each other, and the experienced are not always the easiest to spot. Of these examples, he only experienced the last one. The others came to him in a mysterious echo.
"Look, it's not that I'm scared. I just can't support the decisions of a little girl."
"Well, I'm not scared of going, because I know this will kill me if I go alone," she told Brian.
Those small words convinced Brian to get off his large butt and follow her to where the well was supposed to be.
She walked from a dirty, squiggly path, down to what looked like a feeding ground for birds. Just north of that, they found the well she mentioned.
To Brian's surprise and horror, she jumped down the well as a rabbit hops into its hole. Since Brian was too fat to fit down the well, he paced back and forth, his chubby face brimmed with red sweat. Suddenly, she jumped out with a basket and a rabbit suit on.
"I thought you said you couldn't do it alone?!" Brian shouted.
"That's true; being small draws more attention than being big here." She said.
The girl walked away, leaving Brian with the impresssion that she wanted to be the Easter Bunny. Suddenly, a Bim hurled into the air and erupted acid smoke.
This was a real life tragedy, like Hamlet, where everyone dies and the ones who bring about this insanity pay for it with their lives.
James watched from behind Ian, the one who threw the Bim.
Ian planned to make the girl lose everything from the smoke, but she quickly moved away from the falling acid, as if her bunny suit gave her super speed.
Ian moved his two legs as fast as he could. He easily caught up with the fourteen year-old girl, even though she started with what looked like great speed. He pulled out a Cracker and threw it at her.
Ian moved his two legs as fast as he could. He easily caught up with the fourteen year-old girl, even though she started with what looked like great speed. He pulled out a Cracker and threw it at her.
With more fat in his body than muscle, Brian was slow, but he managed to knock James off his feet and send his body rolling down the hill. Unfortunately, this made him look like a coward who would abandon Harmony when she needed him.
Speaking of Harmony, she threw a Timer Bim at the psychopathic Ian. She was smart enough to hold onto it for a few seconds before throwing it at Ian. He hid behind a tree, the only rational thing he could think of, as he was more afraid of losing than dying.