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Two Students Dead:

Connor Delaures

Becky Baker

20 students left

Day 1: Morning

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"Maya, wake up."

The blonde felt several nudges on her shoulder. She was too tired to move; all she wanted to do was sleep. She was comfortable, a little too comfortable and very warm. She felt a series of more nudges. She barely reacted to them; she was too exhausted.

"Maya?"

She forced her eyes open and saw harsh sunlight coming through the cave entrance. She felt her cheek brush up against Zig's arm. Her eyelids felt heavy and she could barely move a muscle.

"I feel really tired…" She managed to mumble, still leaning against Zig.

Zig gently pulled back her coat to examine her cut; he slightly unwrapped his sweater and saw that the bleeding had coated his wrapped sweater, but ceased. He placed the coat back on her. Afterwards he placed his palm on her forehead; it was incredibly warm. She had a fever, a really bad one. It must have been from the result of losing so much blood and the cut getting infected.

"There's a clinic not too far from here." Zig nervously said, referring to the map he studied yesterday. Maya's state was slowly terrifying him, "…Maybe they have something."

She slowly nodded, her eyelids downturned.

"Can you stand up?"

Maya shook her head.

Zig wrapped Maya's arm around him; he slowly got up with Maya trying her best to push through. Zig slightly bent over to pick up both bags.

"Aren't those too heavy?" She asked, her voice very weak, "You can leave mines."

"I'm not going to, your whisk might come in handy." Zig jokingly replied; trying to bring some form of light into this situation. His expression immediately returned to a worried one when he saw Maya's barely responsive condition.

They finally went outside the cave with Zig carrying two heavy duffel bags in one hand and Maya in the other. Maya could barely walk as he was trudging through the hill they were on. He took out the folded map from his jean pocket and glanced at it, trying to figure out which way they were specifically going to go.

A sudden blare of noise came through some high speakers, all of them installed throughout the island. This definitely caught both of their attention. Followed by that, the Canadian national anthem played through them.

"Attention class!" Mr Raditch's voice could be heard through the speakers with the anthem playing in the background; again, he spoke as if everything was alright, "I'm sure you're all wide awake by now if you got any sleep at all."

Zig looked across from him and saw a speaker hanging on a tall pole not too far from them.

"This is the official first announcement of BR. As of now, we've had a total of five students who have died; they are: Mike Dallas, Miles Hollingsworth, Connor Delaures, Becky Baker, and…Jenna Middleton."

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"…No, no, no." Alli shook her head as she heard the devastating announcement. She was completely astounded at the fact that people were going out of their way to kill; she thought everyone would abstain from that…wait out the three days and hope for someone to get them out of this game. She dropped down to her knees, "Who would actually do this?"

Clare kneeled down to comfort her best friend. Was she supposed to be surprised that someone from Degrassi would decide to do this? There were a lot of strange people who went to their school. Now that Jenna and Connor were gone, they knew they had to be extra careful.

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The Canadian anthem was slowly fading before Raditch resumed.

Zig hoisted Maya above him, piggyback style. She absently placed her arms around his shoulders while leaning towards his back.

"Now for the important news. Every few hours or so there will be an area of danger zones. If you remain in these danger zones during a duration of time your neck collar will explode." He announced, "The danger zones as of now are in coordinates D20 from 2:00 P.M to 3:15 P.M…'

Zig immediately fished out a pen and map from one of the duffel bags. The map was arranged into several different sections, labeled with coordinates, letters on the x-axis and numbers on the y axis. He made sure to mark the all the danger zone areas with the times they would come into effect.

"…A8 from 7:30 A.M to 2:45 P.M, and B20 from 1:00 P.M to 3:00 P.M. That's it for now. Happy fighting, class." Raditch said before turning off his speaker.

"I think we're in A8." Zig said, looking at the map, "We need to move to another area quickly since it's almost 7:00."

xxxx

Alli and Clare had to find somewhere safe to stay for the remainder of the game.

That's what they were going to do.

Alli followed Clare as they both used their maps to find some sort of shelter they could stay in for the meantime. They weren't going to take any chances to find anyone else they knew; it was too risky for them to do so. Just in case; they both took out their weapons, only to defend themselves if they were to run into any trouble.

The two stopped once they reached a small cabin-like house that was still hidden in the forest they walked through. Alli went closer to it first as Clare nervously followed.

Alli silently peered through the windows of the house as Clare stood behind her.

"Does it look like anyone's in there?" Clare whispered, walking closer to it. Alli shrugged; she couldn't quite see through the musty windows. Clare looked through the tiny window that framed the front door of the house. All she could see was a small dark and dim interior with old wooden furniture and dusty, torn couches.

"Can you see through there?" Alli asked.

Clare nodded, "Yeah, I think so. It looks empty from here."

"…I'm going to open it."

"Okay." Alli nodded.

Clare's hands shook as she reached for the doorknob. She held onto her weapon, a gun shaped electric taser. She could feel herself shaking as she turned the doorknob around. Part of her didn't want to do this. She was frightened after what happened to Jenna and Connor.

Her heart nearly imploded out of her chest when the door suddenly opened in front of her.

She immediately turned on the tazer, out of fear. A myriad of sparking sounds came from the weapon, electrocuting the person in front of her. She could hear a pained yell and a hard thud on the floor.

"Clare!" Alli shouted; she had realized who her best friend had injured.

Clare opened her eyes.

She instantaneously dropped her weapon once she saw who lay before her. The person was barely moving, out of shock from the attack.

Out of all the people in this game…

…It had to be Eli.

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After thirty minutes, Zig and Maya managed to reach the forest, Zig double checking the map to make sure that was the right way to the clinic. His back was starting to ache from carrying Maya for such a long time. He would occasionally stop to let himself rest, but not for too long. Maya had to get better really soon.

"Imogen! You're seriously not going to do this!"

Zig immediately hid behind one of the bushes when he heard the voice. He slowly let himself crouch down to make himself even more hidden, being careful with Maya.

He saw a girl with light blonde hair in a loop braid run after another girl with giant framed glasses. Imogen and her girlfriend. Imogen carried a large microphone, which was possibly her weapon, while Jack was frantically chasing after her.

"Talk to me, please!" Jack shouted.

Imogen stopped and turned around to face her, "Are you going to help me or not?!"

Jack was about to open her mouth to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. She wanted to be with her girlfriend every step in the way, but what she was doing was unreasonable. Imogen often made brash decisions without thinking them true and having to reap the consequences; Jack was afraid that she about to do something she would regret.

"Becky died, Jack." Imogen said, "We need to gather everyone who's not participating in this and find some way to get out of here!"

"…That's not a good idea. Some people are in it for real." Jack replied, "They might find us-"

She immediately stopped when they heard a rustle through the trees. Zig hid further behind the bush he was hiding in, if that was possible.

"It's true, someone might find you."

Jack and Imogen turned their heads into their direction of the voice. They saw the class president, Drew, come out of the bushes. He held a small handgun, towards the two. Zig's eyes widened; he looked at Maya whose eyes were half shut. He hoped to god that they wouldn't be seen.

"Are you really participating in this?" Jack asked as Imogen stared in shock at Drew; who kept his grip solid on his weapon.

"My best friend died." Drew replied, "…I want to get out of this game."

What Drew said didn't make much sense to them. They understood the fact that he was greatly grieving over someone, but killing others to win a game wasn't going to help in the long run. All of the killing would probably traumatize him for the rest of his life. He thought it was hopeless; he thought it was pointless and near impossible to find some tricky way out of Raditch's game. He had to do what he could to try to survive at least.

"I'm sorry." Drew said; he was about to pull the trigger.

"Stop!" Imogen frantically shouted, waving her hands about, "Drew, you can't! We're your friends! …S-sort of! But w-we can find some way out of this!"

"How?" He said, lowering his gun, his voice showing complete despair and hopelessness.

Jack nervously looked at Imogen, waiting for her to say something. Judging from the vacant look on her girlfriend's face; she didn't have any idea.

"I-I don't know...that's what I'm trying to find out." Imogen quietly said, her head facing downwards. Drew looked at her for a moment. He saw how clueless yet scared she was. Drew's eyes trembled for a moment before he dropped his gun on the ground.

He fell to his knees.

"I never seem to get a break…" Drew murmured, it looked like he was on the verge of tears, "These past two years have been horrible on me. I've been scared for so long, I've suffered from ptsd, I got a concussion, I broke off an engagement, I nearly ruined Clare's life, and I've lost my only brother and Dallas…now this."

It was true. Drew's life had been a whirlwind; he had gone through so much. She was surprised the guy still had his sanity intact. However, Drew had managed to stay strong throughout it all. He never fell into any deep depression, he never contemplated suicide…he just kept on going. But to see him look like this, was a completely different experience altogether. It was if he had lost all hope. That wasn't the Drew she knew.

Imogen looked at him, empathy in her eyes, "We'll find some way to get out of here. I promise."

"Imogen! Watch out!" Jack suddenly yelled, seeing a figure emerge from the bushes.

The brunette cried in pain as she fell over. Her eyes widened when she saw an arrow through her chest.

"Imogen!" Drew shouted. He turned back and saw Luke. He had a crossbow in hand and a knife in the other. Drew grabbed his gun from the floor. Right before he could shoot, Luke immediately kicked the weapon from his hand, causing Drew to clutch his fist in pain. He dropped his knife and quickly picked up Drew's weapon.

"I'm here to win, no questions." He said, before shooting Drew twice in the back. The former class president quailed from the bullets and fell over. Zig slightly flinched from the loud shots.

"Argh-!"

Luke felt a sharp object hit his forehead. He saw Jack from afar catch a boomerang like weapon. He pressed the trigger several more times, as Jack dodged by dropping to the ground. She firmly threw the boomerang again, fury in her face. The boomerang hit him again, this time on his hand. Luke fumbled with the gun before dropping it.

Jack immediately ran towards the fallen gun and snatched it, before she stealthily rolled over to avoid another shot arrow.

She bent over, aiming the gun at Luke. Her hands shook as she held the weapon.

"You're not going to do it." Luke said, as he held his crossbow, pointing it at her.

"…I have no choice. You killed them." Jack replied.

"I want to get out of this game as much as you do." He said, about ready to press the button to shoot, "But I'm actually brave enough to."

Jack's eyes widened. She tried shooting the gun again, but only heard a click sound. She pressed the trigger some more, her expression becoming more frantic. There were no more bullets left.

Luke pressed his crossbow and shot once more. Jack shouted as she jumped away, narrowly missing the arrow. She immediately got up on her feet and made a run for it, skillfully dodging the arrows as she ran into the forest. Luke immediately chased after her.

Zig had on a shocked expression as he looked at them both run a far distance away from them. His lip quivered when he saw Imogen's and Drew's bodies. These were some of the people who went to the same school as him. He would see them in the halls of Degrassi, energetically talking to their respective friends and cliques, being normal high school students. Now here they were, laying lifeless on the grass.

It was unreal.

They were never going to wake up again. He didn't ever want to see Maya like that. He had to get her to the clinic so he could hopefully find some medicine to make her feel better.

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Clare immediately kneeled down, tears suddenly falling down her cheeks.

"Oh my god Eli!" She cried, "I-I d-didn't mean to-!"

"I-It's okay." He strained out.

"It's not!" Clare exclaimed, "I just electrocuted you!"

"Just help me up, please?" He said, grunting in pain as he tried getting up himself once.

Clare immediately nodded. Alli helped Clare hoist Eli beside them as they went into the cabin. Eli lie on one of the couches; his body still recovering from the sudden tazer shock. Clare insisted that she would leave and not bother Eli, but he insisted she and her friend stay since he knew they were looking for a place to stay. Clare remorsefully looked at Eli; she couldn't say anything. She had so much to say to him, yet she couldn't say anything. Alli could feel the tension between them as she sat beside Clare; it was way too obvious not to notice.

"…I'm going to go to the other room, if you don't mind." Alli gawkily said; this was becoming too awkward for her to handle. She knew that Clare and Eli had a lot to catch up on.

"Alli!" Clare quietly said, not wanting her to leave them alone. Alli simply nudged Clare, motioning her to talk to him. Afterwards she simply left them.

Clare sighed; she knew what Alli was doing. It was silent between them, even as Eli sat up on his sofa.

"I have something to say-." They both spoke up at the same time. Clare's eyes widened while Eli slightly chuckled. When Clare was about to say something again, she noticed Eli doing it at the same time. They both immediately stopped again.

"…You go first." He said.

Clare could've sworn she felt herself smile, but she went back to a neutral expression, "Thank you for letting us stay here. You didn't have to since we weren't exactly friendly towards each other…"

"I couldn't leave you out there." He replied.

"Yes you could have!" Clare suddenly heard herself say; she couldn't believe her sudden change of voice, "We're all going to die really soon so there really isn't a point!"

She thought it was futile by now now. Two of her friends she knew since she was 14 had died this morning. Eli could have easily killed her if he wanted to, so he could win the game. They hadn't exactly left off at good terms so it would be understandable for him to do that so he could survive and go on with his life.

Eli gave her a puzzled and surprised look; he didn't know what to say now. Why was Clare acting like this? Once Clare saw Eli's concerned expression; she immediately burst into tears. Alli slightly peeked from the door of the other room, surprised at her friend's sudden breakdown.

She could feel loud sobs escape her as she placed lowered her head into the palms of her hands. When Alli was about to go comfort her best friend, she stopped once she saw Eli move towards Clare.

"Clare!" Eli exclaimed, immediately attending to her.

"Some of my friends died this morning!" She cried, "…I'm never going to see them again! …Not to mention I have a baby on the way! This is so unbelievable!"

Eli didn't say anymore; he listened to her cry and pour out all of the emotions she had been holding in. It was traumatizing for him to hear, especially at the fact that her baby was also his. That meant his son was never going to be born if they didn't make it out.

He removed her hands, getting a good look at her tear stricken face. Eli simply wrapped his arms around her, enclosing her into a hug.

"…I'm so sorry Clare." That was all he could muster out to her.

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"There it is." Zig said. He glanced at his map and then at the building in front of him. It was the clinic building all right.

The house was old…just like all of the other buildings in the island. The faded pasty blue shutters of the house were torn and worn out. Moss and vines were surrounding the house, the plants slowly encircling it. Some of the windows were cracked through while the door looked like it was barely holding itself.

Zig's back was numb by now as he still tightly held onto Maya. His arms were also completely sore, the handles of the duffel bags weighing them down.

He went closer to the clinic. He felt his foot get stuck on something. He tried wriggling free from whatever caught him, but he couldn't. Instead he heard the clanking of something against glass as he struggled against the thin string that was wrapped around his ankle.

"Shit!" He whispered. His heartbeat rising. It was trap. He should have known someone had occupied this house by now.

He saw the door burst open.

When he saw who answered the door, his panicked expression changed into a completely relieved one.

"Tiny!" He exclaimed.

Tiny immediately lowered the assault rifle he held when he saw Zig carrying Maya behind him.

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"Her shoulder got hit bad with an arrow." Zig said, as he looked down at Maya who was placed on what looked to be like a clinic stretcher. She was barely asleep, but still moving.

Grace pulled the edge of her coat back and nearly grimaced when she saw the amount of blood that accumulated on Zig's sweater. Zig saw Tiny immediately go through the medicine cabinets, looking for something appropriate that could help Maya get better.

"There's fever medicine and antibiotics." He said.

"What if they're expired?" Grace asked.

Zig looked at Grace, fear erupting through his eyes. He didn't want to hear any 'what ifs' especially one that sounded like that. There was a split second of silence between them before Tiny continued to grab several medicines from the cabinet, ignoring Grace's scary question. He placed them on the table beside Maya. Zig looked through the various bottles of medicine, some being for the common flu or cold, and some being simple antibiotics.

Zig opened one of them as Grace gave him a water bottle from her duffle bag.

"Here Maya, take these." Zig said, handing her two pills.

She slowly nodded; taking them before swallowing them down with the water bottle.

I hope this works.

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…2 hours later.

"Hell yeah, I am." Grace said, looking at Zig who gave her his most shocked expression he could muster. He couldn't believe she was actually going through with this…but on the other hand, he wasn't surprised.

Grace brought an old laptop from the other room and set it on the table across from Maya who had gotten better in the past couple of hours they had been inside the clinic room. The medicines they used on her were expired, but they still worked. Maya had her cut cleaned, disinfected and rewrapped. She felt a small bandage on her cheek as well.

"What's happening?" They could hear Maya from the stretcher chair. She was more awake and finally aware of what the three were talking about.

"I'm going to break the system." She said.

"Huh?" Maya raised her eyebrows, completely confused as to what she was talking about. She assumed it was her slight grogginess from her cut that was getting to her.

She saw Grace quickly write something on a piece of paper. She put her glasses on and leaned forwards from the stretcher to get a better look at it.

I know a way to hack into the system. I'm going to get us out of the game. – The paper read.

"Seriously?!" Maya exclaimed, her excitement coming back. It had been awhile since she smiled, "You're going to-"

"Shh!" Tiny said.

Maya raised her eyebrows; she wasn't being too loud. Tiny pointed to Grace; Maya glanced at her again. She was writing something else. She held the sheet of paper for Maya to see.

We can't say anything mentioning this aloud; there's a recorder on the mic. They'll catch on to what we're doing if we're not careful.

Maya's eyes widened as she nodded. Grace was the computer hacking expert of Degrassi. To see her taking this into a much bigger and serious scale was the greatest news she had gotten in what felt to be like a long time.

"I managed to get this started up." Grace said, holding the old laptop she brought with her, "It's really old, but all I needed to do was to replace to the hard drive."

"She's a genius, this one." Tiny said, before watching Grace open up the laptop to begin her hacking mission.

Zig saw Maya looking a lot better than she did earlier. He managed to sneak many glances at her, just to make sure the medicine was going to work. He was incredibly grateful it did.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." He said, looking at her.

"Yeah, me too." She smiled, "Thanks, Zig."

This mission will work…it has to work.

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and another one finished! C:

I hope to get this finished before season 14 of Degrassi resumes.

Please R&R! Tell me what you think of this chapter.