"HEY, WHO'S OVER THERE?" Charlotte Hew (Girl No.26) yelled across the landing strip as she saw two figures heading towards the tower.
Charlotte realized the huge mistake that she just made. I'm fucking retarded! Wishing she could kick herself, she scurried over behind a small tree just as she heard a gun go off. The bullet went straight in her direction but just landed in the bushes.
"Why did I have to yell… why?" Charlotte whispered under her breath.
Of course, the good-natured Chinese-Jamaican girl was just trying to get everyone together but she had forgotten to think about the circumstances of the game. Now I probably blew it with whoever is shooting at me!
Another bullet soared past her. Charlotte slowly peaked her head around the tree.
All the way at the other side of the landing strip near the tower, she could barely make out the two dark figures.
Maybe it's Lauren and Genevieve; she thought thinking about her best friends. She'd met Lauren in 7th grade when she had tried out for the volleyball team. Genevieve she'd known since they were in pre-K. I know I'm gonna regret this but if it's them…
"LAUREN! GENEVIEVE! IS THAT YOU GUYS? IT'S ME CHARLOTTE!" she yelled, only slightly poking her head around the tree. There was silence for a moment and then another gunshot.
"Fuck my life!" Charlotte murmured. Whoever it was wasn't being very cooperative. Whatever, I need to bounce. Tying her black hair in a sideways ponytail, the school's star track runner took of into the jungle hoping that she would find her friends.
It was Graduation Day. Several hours before the Jorge D. Gonzalez Class of '08, would be dragged off into the United States Battle Royale.
Charlotte Hew looked at her watch anxiously. It read 10:15 am. They would all have to walk out onto the field in only 15 minutes. She looked at her white gown and her graduation hat and chuckled. The tassel looked ridiculous. Well the big day is finally here. But why do I feel so under whelmed?
All the seniors were crowded into the gym chatting with their friends and getting ready to walk out in front of their parents and family.
"Woah! Charlotte you look so sexy in that grad gown," Genevieve shouted running over to Charlotte with Lauren in tow.
Charlotte rolled her eyes and laughed. Genevieve had the best sense of humor and sarcasm.
"Well, at least in two hours we can take it off," Lauren said. Her face was blanched for someone reason, as if she'd seen a ghost. The real reason though was because she had to give a speech in front of everyone. She'd been writing it for weeks, editing and omitting the paper so much that it barely even looked like her first draft.
"Lauren, you look so dead, is everything alright?" Charlotte asked.
"Yah, Yah, I'm fine it's just that the speech is like really making me nervous," Lauren replied.
Charlotte hugged her and said, "It'll be fine, don't worry. You're not the only one that's giving a speech."
Lauren and Ryan Schneider had been picked to give speeches because of their skill in the school newspaper. Both were killer writers. On top of that, Dana would be giving a speech because she was class president and Tawny would as well since she was the valedictorian.
"Besides, you'll be able to sit next to Ryan on stage" Genevieve cooed. It was a well known fact that Ryan was one of the best looking guys in the grade. He was a skater, but didn't let that get in the way of his social life. His good looks had gotten him into some of the more popular cliques in the school, but he never let it get to him like some others did. Humble, and kind to all, Ryan was top boyfriend material. If you could ever even get your hands him. As a well respected ladies man, his schedule was never open to most goggling girls.
"He's a fine piece of man candy," Charlotte drooled.
"It'll probably make me more nervous if I look at him. I'll just start cracking up on stage," Lauren continued with her sob story.
"Lauren, chillax you're gonna do amazing, I've heard you practicing your speech like a billion times, it sounds perfect and you're gonna be perfect!" Genevieve said.
Lauren smiled and gave her two best friends a hug.
"I don't know why I'm whining and complaining. We should be comforting Veronica instead of me," Lauren said.
"Does she even want our comforting?" Charlotte asked.
"It doesn't matter if she wants it, it's that she NEEDS it," Lauren replied.
Charlotte looked towards the bleachers and saw Veronica sitting alone with her head lowered in her arms. All of a sudden feeling terrible, Charlotte began to walk over to her. She realized how Veronica had gone through such a hard last couple of months and felt like just talking to her and soothing her.
Genevieve and Lauren followed, but Genevieve harshly said, "You guys can go talk to her. But I'm not saying a word to that bitch."
"Gen, you know what happened between her and Sean. He tried to fucking rape her. And I know that she said some mean shit to us, but she doesn't deserve this. She was our best friend, and I don't want that to change," Charlotte said.
The three girls were quiet for a minute and then Genevieve said, "You're right. Lets go talk to her. But after that, I'm gonna go beat the shit out of Sean. Look at him over there, sucking Jennifer's face off! Why the hell does he deserve to move on like that while Veronica gets to suffer? God, Jennifer's such a dumb bitch for falling for his horse shit and so is Veronica. We warned her."
"Yah, well, we've all done some pretty dumb shit before," Charlotte said quickly. With that, she briskly walked to the bleachers and began to ascend them. Lauren and Genevieve followed, but giggled as Charlotte stumbled several times over her gown. She was a top athlete, but even she was not devoid of clumsiness.
Veronica saw the three girls coming towards her and began to tear up. She jumped up and through her geyser of tears said, "You guys have no idea how hard it's been. I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry for all the stuff I said. I take it all back."
"We were coming to talk to you about that. But listen we forgive you, and we just wanna be passed this hurdle," Charlotte said as Veronica climbed down towards them. She was about one row above of them, when she stumbled over her gown and lost her balance.
For a split second, she went aerial.
Lauren and Charlotte screamed as they caught her and stumbled back, tripping over the edge of one of the benches. All three girls rolled down the wooden bleachers like bowling balls. Lauren knocked into Genevieve sending her flying too.
All four girls crashed onto the gym floor with a bang. Besides some bruises though, they were fine. People around them began to laugh. Some girls even took out their cameras to take pictures.
"You guys are quite possibly the stupidest whore's in the entire world," Genevieve joked as she rubbed her head.
With that, the four girls started to laugh harder than they had in a long while. Patrick and Natalie, laughing as well, ran over to them.
"That just made my day," Patrick grinned as he helped the girls up from the floor.
Veronica dusted herself off and then gave her three friends a group hug. Tearing up again, she stammered, "I don't ever want to leave you guys again!"
Breaking up the sentimental moment, one of the teachers yelled across the gym, "PLACES EVERYBODY!"
"Good luck Lauren!" Charlotte said.
Everyone had to line up in alphabetical order. Charlotte departed her friends and got in line between Sam Henderson and Mandy Howe.
"Smooth move back there," Mandy laughed as Charlotte wedged herself in. Even in her graduation gown, Mandy still managed to look slutty. Her lips were painted in a trashy red color that would make any street hooker jealous. She's such a pretty girl, why does she do this to herself?
Ignoring her quick thought, Charlotte replied, "I know, I felt ridiculous. But whatever, it was funny as hell."
Mandy nodded and laughed again
"You ready for this?" Charlotte continued.
"No way, my whole entire fucking family is here to see me and my sister," Mandy replied. Her identical twin Mikaela (who was supposed to be behind her) was no where to be seen though.
"Where is she anyway?" Charlotte asked.
"Oh you know, the Skank Squad always likes to make an entrance," Mandy said dryly.
Gripping the Colt King Cobra Revolver a little too tightly, Mandy Howe's (Girl No. 30) knuckles began to turn white. She squinted off into the distance where an unknown assailant had been hiding.
"Um Mandy……Mandy?" Roxanne Dawson (Girl No.29) said in her soft voice.
Mandy didn't reply she just continued to stare into the distance. Behind them, the landing strip tower loomed in the sky. Roxanne had suggested they come hear because of the good vantage point. Back at the base, Mandy had been the second to last person to leave. Scared, she had sprinted out of the building thinking that people were just waiting outside to gun down unlucky late leavers.
Outside, Mandy had immediately heard someone calling her name. Reacting in fear, she ran in other direction but tripped over a root. Although a bit chubby, Roxanne Dawson (the caller) had quickly caught up with the fallen girl.
I barely know this chick and she wants to team up with me? Mandy had been curious about Roxanne's intentions through out the whole game. She'd known her for what twenty minutes on a bus? Of course the ginger (as everyone called her) was hard to miss at school; but Mandy had never even bothered to even find out the girl's name. What was her deal?
Still gripping onto the gun, Mandy barely whispered, "I think I missed."
Roxanne gulped and then said, "Mandy I think you should put your gun down now. Whoever it was, is gone I think. By the way did you hear anything that the person yelled out?"
Finally loosening up a bit, Mandy lowered her revolver and turned around to face Roxanne. Observing the red head, Mandy almost envied her for her bad looks. She had too many freckles on her face, and had chubby cheeks like a hamster. Although her hair color was pretty and rare, her split ends were atrocious and her greasy hair just hung down like a mop.
And yet Mandy wished that she possessed all those ugly qualities. Her shoulder length black hair contrasted with her beautiful green eyes. Mandy's body was also in perfect proportion: nice boobs, gorgeous hips, and a perfect face only a Greek sculptor could chisel. But her looks had brought her too much trouble in her life. Now I'm just known as a slut.
Although about a minute had past, Mandy finally replied to Roxanne's question, "I'm not really sure what I heard. I think that whoever it was, was probably a girl. She was yelling out names or something."
"What if they were trying to contact us to get together?" Roxanne asked.
"I-I……I don't know. I just reacted without thinking," Mandy paused, "I was….scared."
Roxanne just nodded and then opened up her map. Turning on her flashlight, she could see that the landing strip was located in sector E-10 on the eastern part of the island. Roxanne could see that they were not far from the ocean.
The landing strip itself was a decent size, big enough to land several small planes or helicopters. Tall grass had sprouted up all in the middle of the landing strip. However, no trees had grown on the strip, which enabled people to easily see across the whole way. Roxanne guessed that the tower was about a good 40 or 50 feet high. Looking up from the map, Roxanne turned off her flashlight and said, "I think we should go in now. It's really creepy out here."
Mandy nodded and walked over to the door that led into the tower. She yanked hard on the metal door but it was bolted. Mandy grunted in annoyance and kicked it.
"Fuck it's bolted. Use one of your grenades on it," she said to Roxanne.
"I only have ten, let's not waste them. I have a feeling we're gonna really need them in the next couple of days," Roxanne replied, "just use gun."
Mandy rolled her eyes and aimed her gun at the handle. She fired, and with a loud clang, the door swung open.
"Damn, these bullets are really powerful," Mandy said as she eyed the smoke rising out of the barrel.
The two girls walked into the building and immediately shuddered at the musty odor. It was evident that no one had been there in years.
"Ew. I'm gonna open up some windows up there," Roxanne whined as she held her nose.
"There's probably some toxic, nasty ass spores in the air. That would suck to die of poisoning," Mandy said.
At the bottom of the tower there were several small wooden crates, and next to them, was the long spiral staircase that led to the top.
"Well, let's go up and check out that beautiful view," Mandy joked.
