Chapter 4: Decisions in the night
The short wait from the time Mizhuo left the classroom until her name was called was the most agonizing minutes Megumi had experienced in her life. What if she was too late? What if one of the 4 other students released before her had gotten to Mizhuo first? What if she was already dead? Megumi gave herself a metal slap in the face as she past a row of soldiers down a long hallway, ending in a doorway out into the darkness. "Think positive. There's only four people out here yet, besides you and Mizhuo, and none of them are the killing kind. Akamatsu wouldn't even hurt a fly, and Oki might look scary, but he's a good guy, as far as I know. The same goes for the rest of them...But.." Doubt and terror filled all of Megumis beeing. Stopping in the doorway, to scared to move out into the open, she looked out. There were loads of trees and bushed everywhere, and it was clearly night. The moon was full and round, and the black velvet of the sky was scattered with silver stars. Megumi might have apreciated the beauty of the view if she hadn't been terrified beyond belief. As she hesitantly took a step outside, she heard something move through the bushed. She didn't see anyone though. Taking a deep breath, she ran to the nearest bushes, and crouched down, hiding. Mizhuo was nowhere in sight. As she scrambled to her feet,ready to keep moving at the smallest sound, she suddenly felt s pair of hands over her mouth and waist, pulling her back, while effectivly stopping her from screaming. Close to panic, Megumi suddenly heard a whisper that made everything perfect again. "It's me, don't worry" The hands released her, and as Megumi turned around, she saw the most beautiful sight in her short life. She flung herself around Mizhuo's shoulders, hugging her tight, while crying her eyes out. Suddenly she felt the other girls body stiffen, and pulled away. Looking up, she saw Mizhuo signal her to be quiet and pointed back to the building they had just exited. Toshinori Oda stood out in the open, with his bag in front of him. He bent down, looking more and more like a frog than ever,reminding them horribly of and pulled something out of the bag. From the distance and in the dark it looked like a normal vest, but the girls guessed that is was bulletproof. With a gleeful expression, Oda quickly pulled it over his shirt, and put his uniform jacket back on, and sprinted of into the night.
Mizhuo had felt a wave of relief when she finally had Megumi within hugging distance, but the feeling was quickly fading. It was too dangerous to stay put. Lightly tapping Megumi's shoulder, she signaled for the both of them to move. They gathered their bags, and started running. Mizhuo didn't know how long or how far they had been moving, but in the end they both fell to the ground exhausted, and fell asleep under a branch.
When she woke up, Mizhuo was still groggy and dizzy with exhaustion, but shook the last bit of sleep her head, and looked over at Megumi, who was still asleep on the ground next to her. Suddenly she heard a sound that made her jump to her feet, before she felt absolutely ridiculous. It was a bird chirping. They must have fallen asleep right beneath a bird's nest. They couldn't have slept long. It was still dark outside, and the moon was still up. Laughing quietly to herself, she woke Megumi with a soft kiss on the lips. The girls didn't feel like there was much to talk about, not yet anyway, so breakfast was a quiet affair of cardboard-tasting millitary rations and water. After washing the last amount of sleep from their face in a tiny brook, they sat down on a rotten piece of wood which by the looks of a tree nearby had been hit by lightening. "So...What do we do? I mean...Do we fight? Do we find more people? Hide out?" Mizhuo looked at her girlfriend(her heart swelled with pride and happiness at the thought. Megumi..Her girlfriend. Even now, in this fucked up situation, it was enough to make her smile..almost) Megumi chewed her bottom lip nervously, and said " I don't know..I realy hate this. I don't want to fight! I can't kill anyone! And I don't want to leave you either!" Tears were pouring down her cheeks now, and Mizhuo had never seen anything so defenceless, sweet and heartbreaking . Taking Megumis face in her hand she gave the smaller girl a passionate, lingering kiss that she hoped would convey all the emotions she felt at the moment "I know. This is horrible. Let's just find somewhere to hide out. If we're lucky, we'll both be alive in three days, and then we can die together, when the collars explode. I don't know if any of the others will play, but I won't. Besides.. the Princess Prexia Dikiane Mizhuo doesn't condone pointless violence!"Mizhuo anounced the last part grandly, like the bards of oldl. Megumi wiped her tears and laughted weakly, exactly the reaction Mizhuo had hoped the refference to their favorite role playing game would get. "Hey, let's make a deal" Mizhuo rumaged through her bag, suddenly remembering something from the introduction video. There it was, the map of the island, and a list of her classmates. Quickly unfolding the map, she looked over it, and found what she was hoping for. "Here, see, the cluster of houses there? It's probably a residential area. If we get separated for whatever reason, let's meet up again there." Megumi grabbed her bag, and started searching for the map. Suddenly she gave a small yell, and quickly threw it away. Her finger was quickly turning red with blood.
"What happend" Mizhuo cried out and rushed to Megumi's side."It's nothing. I just cut myself on something." Grabbing her bag again, Megumi carefully looked through it again. There it was. A long, sharp diving knife. It was her issued weapon, and it sent shivers down her spine. This was all to real, and they would all die. As Mizhuo saw the knife gleaming in the moonlight, she once again grabbed her bag and searched more thoroughly while Megumi marked out their meeting point on her map. Shaking, Mizhuo found what she was searching for. She had gotten a revolver. "At least I'll be able to protect us. A revolver isn't too horrible a wapon." The girls got to their feet, and started moving.
Suddenly, Mizhuo's foot got caught in a root, and she fell flat faced on the grownd, and just as suddenly, she was Prexia Dikiane Mizhuo again, standing next to an angel in a temple of slippery green plants, surrounded by familiar demons in the dark.