Saturday, July 17, 2010. Local time: 5:45 AM
Ursula Murray (Girl #16) had spent the last several months recovering from the horrifying memory of her stepfather stabbing her mother to death in a drunken rage, and her trip to Paris was her way of trying to move on from the traumatic experience. Unfortunately, this was the last thing she wanted: to be thrust into a life-or-death game of survival. She was now wondering if she was even allowed to be happy anymore.
Ursula's designated weapon was a sleek Beretta M9, which she did not want to use. But, did she have any choice? As she walked through a large fortress on the western part of the island near a large look-out tower, she got her answer.
No.
Warren Gaston (Boy #15), a formerly easy-going boy with blonde hair and green eyes (Ursula herself found him to be fairly handsome), suddenly opened fire on Ursula from the tower with his designated Walther PPK. Fortunately, Warren was a terrible shot, and he was far away (the tower was about thirty feet high), so Ursula was able to take cover. Every few seconds she would get an opening and fire back, but because of Warren's distance, she missed.
Ursula wondered if she had any hope of surviving this.
…
Jack Underhill (Boy #8) and Phil Raymond (Boy #21) had managed to find each other fairly early in the game, and had spent the game so far trying to find their teammates, Alan Edwards and Charlie Davis, and if possible, the team mascot Eric Allen. They were hoping that the team together could find a way off the island. But, so far, things seemed hopeless. Jack and Phil had found the body of Irene Baxter, and Phil, arguably the smartest player on the football team, guessed that she was killed by a machine gun due to over a dozen bullet holes and hearing something like a machine gun earlier.
Jack had received a SIG Sauer P226 pistol as a weapon, while Phil received an aluminum baseball bat. They were glad that they had at least one gun, but they hoped that Alan or Charlie had another. The more, the merrier.
"So Phil," Jack asked, "have you thought of any way off this rock yet?"
"Not yet," Phil responded, "but don't hold your breath. This whole thing is pretty airtight. I don't think there's any way outta these collars." As Phil said this, he looked at Charlie's collar. He noticed a small hole on the top of the collar. He looked closer and tried to figure out what it was.
A microphone! The Administrator and his assistants were listening! It made perfect sense; they could not be watching since there were no cameras anywhere (Phil had looked, but he figured that at best they were watching via satellite), so they had to be monitoring the students somehow.
Phil then felt his own collar in the same area, and felt a similar hole.
"What are you doing man?" Jack asked, confused.
Phil put his finger over his hole, and motioned to Jack to do the same.
"They're listening," Phil said quietly, "so be careful what you say!"
Jack nodded, impressed that Phil was able to figure it out.
Phil then took his hand off his collar. "We gotta find them soon."
"You're right man," Jack responded, "let's keep moving."
That was when they heard that cocky but cool voice.
"You lookin for me?" Alan said sarcastically.
Jack and Phil quickly jumped around and were relieved to see Alan holding a sniper rifle. Eric and Charlie were standing beside him.
"Y'know," Eric said, "I had that exact reaction."
All five boys laughed, excited to be reunited.
However, that joy quickly went away when gunfire erupted nearby. Alan and Jack clutched their guns tightly.
"Follow me," Alan said in a very serious tone.
Alan moved forward, holding his Dragunov sniper rifle. Jack stood beside him with his SIG Sauer P226 ready to go, and the rest followed closely behind. Charlie and Phil kept their cool fairly well, while Eric nearly peed his pants in fear.
The group emerged from the woods and found themselves at an old and abandoned fortress. They could tell that there was a gunfight underway inside.
Alan saw a large tower that appeared to have someone inside. He could not tell exactly who it was, but he was fairly sure it was a boy. He looked through the scope of his rifle and figured out who it was.
"It's the soccer goalie. What's his name?"
"Warren?" Jack responded. "He's shooting at someone?" Jack was surprised, since Warren was a fairly nice kid.
"Yeah. I guess this whole thing just got to him."
"Or maybe," Phil jumped in, "he's defending himself."
"Maybe," Jack said.
"Well, who's he shootin at?" Charlie asked.
"I don't know," Alan said, "but I'm gonna find out."
At that point, Alan climbed up onto a wall and started crawling, hoping not to be seen by either shooter. When he got to what he guessed was a safe point, he looked for the other shooter. As the others made their way over quickly but quietly, he found the other shooter.
"Ursula Murray," he said, "the black girl whose mom got killed a while back."
"Shoot her!" Charlie said angrily.
"What?" Phil said in shock. He knew Charlie was kinda dim, but he never thought he would say something so mean.
"She's nuts! That girl is crazy enough to start killing people. Alan, put her down!"
"I'm not gonna shoot either of them!" Alan said sternly. "At least until we try to get them to join us."
"That's a good idea," Eric said. "They might just be scared is all."
"All right I got a plan," Jack said. "I'm gonna go out there and try to get them to join us, but shoot them if they try anything! Charlie, since you wanna shoot Ursula so badly, you take my gun and if she tries anything, shoot her. Can you really do that?"
"Yeah man," Charlie responded.
"And Alan," Jack continued, "you do the same, but on Warren. He does anything, shoot him!"
"Do we have to kill them?" Eric said nervously, not wanting them to die.
"It's the best we got," Phil responded. "Besides, I think you're right. They're just scared. All we're gonna do is put some sense back into them."
Eric nodded.
"All right," Jack said, taking a deep breath. "Let's do this."
At that point, Jack climbed over their cover, jumped off the wall, and landed feet first on the ground ten feet below. The landing stung his foot a little, but it was ultimately no big deal.
"He's got balls," Alan said quietly.
"Stop shooting!" Jack yelled out. "We know you're scared. It's okay, we are too! I've got my friends together and we're gonna try and figure a way out. We want as many people with us as possible. You can both join us! You'll be safe. It's me, Alan, Phil, Charlie, and Eric. You both have guns, and we need more! We're building an army, and an army with no guns is nothing. Whataya say? Are you both in?"
"Y'know," Phil said quietly, "he'd make a good salesman someday."
Ursula had just been staring at Jack the whole time. She was intrigued; was there actually hope after all?
However, when she stepped out of cover to walk over towards Jack, a bullet fired by Warren suddenly flew by her face, hit a nearby wall, and sent pieces of debris into her eye. Jack quickly stepped back as Ursula ran away, screaming obscenities at Warren. Jack tried to call her back to him, but she disappeared.
At that point, Warren turned his attention to Jack. He opened fire, but thankfully, he once again missed due to his poor aim.
Charlie shot back at the tower and wondered why Alan had not taken the shot. "What the fuck man? Shoot him!"
"I'm aiming," Alan said. "I don't wanna miss."
"Well can't you-"
"Shut the hell up Charlie!" Phil snapped as he slapped Charlie in the shoulder. "Let him concentrate."
A new gunshot rang out. It was Alan. The bullet hit its target and knocked warren off his feet. He fell to the floor of his perch, writhed around for a moment, and finally stopped moving.
"You're safe Jack," Alan said, slightly shaken from shooting a classmate.
"Thanks man," Jack said. "I tried. I wish she would have stayed. I think she was good."
"No way dude," Charlie butt in, "she probably woulda shot ya if Warren didn't first."
"Dude," Phil said, "just because a lotta bad shit has happened to her lately doesn't mean she's a killer. So please stop assuming that or I'll kick your ass. Got it?"
Charlie nodded, giving Jack his gun back after the latter returned to the group.
"Hey," Charlie said, "let's go get his gun! I need one y'know."
Before Eric or Phil could say that they also needed guns, Charlie jumped over the wall and ran towards the tower. Alan jumped down behind him, knowing that Charlie was not going to grab Warren's rations. The rest of the guys followed after.
Charlie ran to the tower and found a ladder on the back, and quickly started climbing. Alan followed while Phil, Jack, and Eric waited on the ground.
"Hey Charlie," Alan called up.
"Yeah?" Charlie responded.
"Think you could grab Warren's bag? We could use his food and water and all that."
"Yeah yeah yeah sure whatever."
Charlie reached the top of the tower, when suddenly, three shots rang out. All three passed through Charlie's chest, causing him to fall from the tower. If Phil and Jack had not broken his fall, he would have died on impact. Alan quickly climbed to the top of the tower. Warren was still alive! Alan was furious, not only at Warren for shooting one of his best friends, but also at himself, for not successfully killing Warren.
The reason that the handsome soccer goalie had only fired three shots was simple; only three shots remained in the gun. The even-more-handsome quarterback reached the top of the tower as Warren reloaded and, without hesitation or mercy, Alan aimed directly at Warren's heart and fired. Warren died almost instantly. Alan did not bother to get Warren's gun; instead, he slid down the ladder to Charlie. He was surprised that Charlie had survived both being shot and a three story fall.
"A-A-A-Alan?" Charlie said, spewing blood from his mouth.
"What is it buddy?" Alan said, trying to hold back his tears.
"I-Is he d-d-dead?"
"Yeah. I got him this time."
Alan paused.
"It's my fault man," Alan continued, starting to cry. "If I got him the first time you wouldn't have been shot! I'm so sorry buddy!" Eric, Phil, and Jack were crying too now.
"It's n-n-not your f-fault d-dude. I-I sh-shoulda b-b-been more c-careful."
Charlie paused.
"Y-Y-You g-got him," Charlie continued. "W-we're-c-c-cool."
Alan was surprised. "You forgive me?"
Charlie nodded, and then died. All four boys hugged Charlie's corpse, crying.
…
"Good morning boys and girls!" The Administrator's sickly cheerful voice announced over the island's nearly three dozen P.A. Systems. "You've only been at it for about an hour and a half, but we've already got four fatalities! Keep up this pace, you'll be down to half by noontime!"
"Sick bastard," Kurt said to himself, disgusted. Lily nodded.
"Here is the list of your dead classmates, in the order they died. First, we had our only girl so far: Girl #17, Irene Baxter."
Elizabeth Chandler (Girl #14) and Quinn Gilroy (Girl #20), Irene's best friends were devastated at the news that they never got to see their friend, and Elizabeth started to cry.
"After that, we had Boy #14, Vincent Iriloni. And, just in the last few minutes, we lost Boy #15 Warren Gaston and Boy #18 Charlie Davis. That leaves thirty-eight eligible contestants left."
No one cared much about the deaths of Vincent and Warren, as most of both students' friends were in other classes, but Charlie's death was surprising to many, as he was a strong and bulky football player. How was he taken down?
"Now students, this next part is important. I'll wait a few seconds for you to get out your maps and pens so you can write down the first set of danger zones."
Pause.
"Everyone ready? Hope so, because I'm not repeating these. At 7:00, we have A-5."
A-5 was mostly ocean, but the northernmost point of the island was within the zone as well.
"Then at 9:00, we have E-3."
E-3 was the zone directly south of the school's zone.
"And, at 11:00, we have h-6."
H-6 was mostly the southern slope of the smaller of the two hills on the island.
"Good luck to all of you. You are off to a great start. I've noticed there are quite a few alliances that have formed already. That's good, because it always amuses me when the groups fall apart. Have a nice day!"
The P.A. system clicked off.
Zachary was somewhat relieved that the three people he was searching for, Donna, Kurt, and Alan, were alive at the moment (unless one just got killed in the last ten seconds). He was sad for the loss of Irene, Vincent, Warren, and Charlie, but he figured it was best to try and move on.
However, one thing from the Administrator's announcement was bugging him. He said that it always amuses him when alliances fall apart.
Always?
How many times has he forced people to play this horrible game? Was it always kids? How did he get away with it?
Zachary figured he was most likely never going to get any answers, so he just shook the thought away. Clutching his Remington 870, which he considered a "don't fuck with me" weapon, he continued moving through the woods, hoping that the next person he ran into was, at the very least, not going to try to take his gun from him.
Dead
Boys
#14, #15, #18
Girls
#17
Eliminated
Warren Gaston
Charlie Davis
38 Contestants Remaining
