"Let's rest a while." Larry (Boy #9) collapsed beneath a tree and rested his back up against it.
"Okay." Lauren (Girl #16) smiled and sat next to him, somehow finding his hand with hers and resting her head on his shoulder. She exhaled deeply and allowed her body to relax in the safety of her boyfriend's presence.
Larry took his weapon, brass knuckles, off his hand and flexed it a bit. He supposed he shouldn't have gripped the knuckles so intensely, but tension filled his body. It was tough keeping the noise down when aimlessly wandering through the forest. Larry wondered if it would be better to find a place to settle and hide out there, but he figured that wandering was better at avoiding people than sitting in one place. It had worked so far. The only person they had run across was that bleeding boy. Larry recognized him from school but couldn't remember his name. He wondered if he was still alive.
He glanced down at Lauren and saw her gently snoozing up against his body. He thought about waking her, but decided against it. They had been moving for some time now, and she deserved some rest.
Larry took hold of his brass knuckles and held them in his hand, imaging a figure stumbling out of the foliage holding a gun. His weapon was nearly useless, and Lauren's certainly was. It was a good thing he had waited for her outside the school, she probably may not have lasted long with a rubber band as her weapon.
"Hi. Is your name Larry?"
"Yeah." Larry looked up from his hospital bed and stared over at the young girl in scrubs. He squinted at her and shifted a little uncomfortably, making sure the sheets completely covered his partially clothed body. The last thing he wanted was to start talking to her with his bare ass showing.
"My name's Lauren." She smiled and approached the bed, "I'm a volunteer here. Is there anything I can get for you?"
"Uh…" Larry stuttered, looking around him. He didn't see anything else he needed – book, television, deck of cards, food. It seemed he had everything.
"Looks like I'm all set." He told her with a shrug.
"Oh, okay." Lauren smiled kindly but looked a little disappointed, "Well, if there's anything you need-" She turned to go.
"Do you know how to play gin?" Larry pulled the cards over and opened the deck, "There aren't too many good players around here."
"Actually, I don't." Lauren responded. But she approached the bed again, pulling over a chair, "But I'd like to learn."
She learned quickly and they immediately began to play, with Lauren asking small questions every once in a while. The game progressed, each of them winning multiple hands.
"So how'd you break your leg?" she asked removing a card from her hand and placing it on the deck.
"Snowboarding accident."
"Really?"
"Yup. Went off a snow mound and landed badly. Tumbled about halfway down the mountain and into a tree."
"That's awful!"
"I'm fine now."
"That's true." She smiled. Larry found himself drawn to the smile – he couldn't get enough of it. Every time it happened, he found himself trying to get her smiling again. And every time she would oblige him.
They played in silence for a minute.
"Well, I've got other patients to visit." Lauren stood to leave.
"You're going to leave right in the middle of the game?" Larry asked in shock.
"Game's over." She smirked and giggled, placing down her cards, "Gin."
Larry's mouth dropped and he looked over at her in time to see her wave and walk down the hallway giggling to herself. Larry gathered the cards together and shuffled them absent mindedly. He wondered if she would come back to see him soon. He'd like that very much.
Larry brushed some hair from her face as she gracefully slept. He sighed and shook the fatigue from his own body. He'd need to be at the top of his game to protect them both. But what would happen in the endgame? Even if they were able to avoid everyone else and somehow survive as the last two remaining, what then? He looked down into her face and a pit formed in his stomach. He knew what he'd have to do then. He'd take himself out. There was no way he'd allow Lauren to die. And since escape was impossible, she would be the final contestant. And while he was hopeful for the future, a single thought resounded in his head.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die!
Samantha's (Girl #8) mind raced at blazing speeds as the elevator made its long ascent. She could still see Joshua's (Boy #1) sliced body and dangling entrails in her mind and her eyes welled with tears. Joshua was dead and she'd be next. She needed to get away, needed to hide from him. He was coming for her life next!
The door opened on the top floor and Samantha raced out, taking a moment to look over the balcony of the floor and seeing Joshua's corpse lying in a pool of blood. Unmoving. Silent. But the boy was gone. Where was he? The elevator doors closed behind her and Samantha raced off to the side further back into the building to find a hiding place. Many of the office supplies and objects had been removed, but plenty of cubicles still stood. She ran between them, looking for one that would conceal her the best. She finally chose one and crawled beneath the desktop that curved around the square space.
The elevator bell echoed throughout the floor.
Samantha gasped and fished in her bag for her box of tacks, not entirely sure what purpose they would serve. She sat there for a bit without hearing or seeing anything, but the time passed slowly the minutes feeling like hours. Then, without warning, legs appeared next to her. She stifled a scream as liquid from the bloody scythe dripped onto the carpeted floor next to her. Her eyes watered over in pure terror and her stomach churned inside her. She kept her silence however, and the boy slowly moved onward, searching for her in other places.
She slowly exhaled and then slowly inhaled, silently allowing air into her lungs once again. She could hear him now, slowly searching for her, hunting for his prey. But she remained quiet and still, even when his legs appeared next to her again. She didn't react, she didn't move, she didn't breathe. And soon, she couldn't hear him anymore. Instead, Samantha heard the elevator bell. Her mouth opened and she gasped slightly, then instantly placing her hands over her mouth. However, no footsteps approached her, instead she heard the elevator ring again, and heard it slowly descend as the dings became further and further away.
She nearly screamed with joy as she sat hidden in the cubicle. She had stayed hidden, and he had not been able to find her! She was safe. Slowly, softly, she reached into her duffel bag and pulled out her watch. Five minutes to eight. Blocks 2 and 24 were about to go danger zone. Samantha worried that she was in the block 2, but she remembered that she had checked her map before entering this building in the first place. And she had found a good hiding place, just like she had planned. She hadn't planned on finding two boys – one who wanted to save her and one who wanted to end her.
Samantha thought back to her contact with Joshua. She remembered the smile he had given her after handing over the rose. A pang of guilt raced through her. He had poured out his feelings for her and she had given nothing in return. Granted, it's not as if she could return his feelings for her. But he was dead now. And Samantha wished she had been more kind in his last moments of life. Even after she had rejected him, he had saved her life. Perhaps he truly had loved her.
She took a deep breath and relaxed in her hiding spot in the cubicle and let the fear slowly drain from her figure. The danger had passed for now, and as long as she remained hidden, she would remain safe.
Blocks 2 and 24 went danger zone without taking any unlucky contestants with them.
Genevive (Girl # 21) examined the electrical wiring laid out before her. Small lights flashed and wires crossed every which way. However, given her limited knowledge, she was making progress from when she started nearly three hours before. She had identified what appeared to be a thermometer in the collars as well as another device which took the pulse. And she had also begun to understand the mechanics of the explosive as well. A cut wire on Alex's collar had suddenly caused it to beep twice before exploding near Genevive's face. Luckily, she had escaped injury but her observers, Marty (Boy #25) and Ron (Boy #8), looked upon her skeptically. She wished she didn't have an audience, but Ron had saved her life, and would allow her to live so long as she could get the collars off. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she failed at all four collars she had to work on.
And Marty struck her as odd too. Genevive didn't like the way he kept staring at her. As if she didn't notice him stealing glances at her cleavage when she leaned over the collars. She wasn't sure what kind situation she was in at the moment, but it sure wasn't a safe one nor a comfortable one.
With the box cutter Ron had given her, Genevive reached in and pulled out the unnecessary life monitoring devices. She looked around the necklace and saw that wires crossed all over the place, but they all led to different places. She had hoped that they would have led to a single place, which would have been a good indication of where the important devices were located.
Recognizing which cut had set off the bomb last time, Genevive moved to another set of wiring and began poking around, looking for familiar electrical setups. She pushed the wires aside and looked for some sort of…switch or something that could be used to removed the collars. Clearly the answer to taking them off resided inside the circuitry since the collars were smooth the entire way around, with no place to insert a device to remove them like a key in a lock.
Genevive carefully removed another portion from the collar. She wasn't exactly sure what purpose it served, but the explosive hadn't gone off and that was certainly a plus. Feeling adventurous, she began to remove another portion. She heard it almost immediately. Two quick beeps.
"Get down!" she yelled out and jumped off to the side. Marty and Ron instantly stood and took cover behind some trees. The explosive went off echoing through the dense forest. Genevive lifted her head off the ground.
"Damn!" she murmured. That was the second collar that was gone, which meant she only had two more to work on before things got dangerous. Ron sighed in frustration and took his usual spot observing Genevive's work with a watchful eye.
Marty sighed too but didn't sit down.
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." He said glancing one last time at Genevive's body.
"Okay." Ron replied without much interest and Genevive didn't respond at all.
And Marty walked off into the forest unaware that he would not see Genevive or Ron alive again.
Current danger zones: 2, 15, 24, 28, 41
Pending danger zones: 21, 64
(38) Contestants remaining
