©Hour 14: 32 Remaining- 2:00am

Student,

Time is very, very short. I have written his to help you. Believe it or not. I must be brief. Down by the docks, hidden underneath Pier 3, inside a container, is a boat, small but reliable. Inside that boat are instructions for the removal of what you are wearing, the standard-issue explosive collar. With its removal, escape from the island should be relatively easy. Patrol boats are poorly manned, and will not attack another boat, believing it to be 'secure'. Do your best to get as many of your fellow students out as possible, though I understand that gaining trust will be difficult.

Also, DO NOT speak of this out loud. There ARE microphones hidden in the collars, and if those in charge hear of this they will detonate your collars immediately.

There are further instructions inside the boat, in regards to further protection upon getting back to the mainland. Be warned. Whoever escapes will be wanted criminals, with death without trial extremely likely.

Good luck

Underneath the words was a scrawled, un-readable signature.

Girl #12, Sophie, stared at the crumpled piece of paper, her insides frozen. Suddenly, a way out had presented itself and it seemed too good to be true. She kept thinking that any second now she'd wake up, but she never did. She even went as far as to pinch herself, even though she knew as she did it that it was thoroughly real.

Girl #5, Tess, yawned as she felt her eyes flutter open. She wiped them with her hands, before sliding out from underneath the cliff-face. She stretched and twisted from side to side, marvelling at the darkness that surrounded her. Tess, being a city girl, had never really been in true darkness such as the one she was now in. She couldn't see anything in front of her, and it, coupled with the lessening pitter-patter of the rain gave her a pleasant rush of adrenalin.

It took her a while to remember what she had been doing before she had had her little nap, but as soon as the face of Girl #4, Melanie, slipped into her mind she burst into action. She grabbed her bag from under the cliff, checked her map and compass, and then headed off into the forest, back in the direction she'd come from. She would find Melanie, and all would be right.

What she didn't realise is that her bag was suddenly lighter than it had been. She mistook it as her getting used to it, when in fact something rather important had slipped out.

Lying in the mud, back at the cliff where she had slept, was her only weapon, her katana.

Boy #15, Darren, opened his eye as he felt himself come out of yet another unconscious stupor. This last rest hadn't lasted long, only ten minutes or so. From what he could see, his girlfriend, Girl #6, Alana, was standing up by the mouth of the cave, peering out into the darkness. He wanted to call out to her, but he couldn't make any noise loud enough for her to hear.

The one small mercy of the whole thing was that the faggot, Boy #14, Calin, was asleep. Darren couldn't believe that that filthy, little, pansy-ass fudge-packer had gotten the better of him. The first one had been so easy, a simple jab and the deed was done. But Calin, the real poofter of the two, had surprised him, and his empty eye socket was a testament to that. To be perfectly honest, Darren was just the slightest bit impressed that a boa-wearing batty boy could actually hold his own. Of course, he'd never admit it.

Darren tried to close his eye and sleep once more, but his mind had awoken, and he couldn't shut it off. Instead, he stared at the sleeping Calin, his mind buzzing with all sorts of things. None of it made much sense to him, but Darren knew that it all revolved around Calin. Darren truly and unerringly hated the boy. However, another feeling towards him had sprung up during the last fourteen hours. Darren couldn't figure out what it was, until he realised he was sweating and shaking, just from looking at the kid. Darren was scared of him.

"30 bullets left…30…30…" Boy #1, Sam, muttered under his breath, "30 bullets with 32 to go…31 to go minus me…30 bullets with 31 to go…not enough…it's not enough." He held the MAC-10's clip up to his eyes and checked its ammunition count again. "Not enough…"

Sweat began to bead on the boy's forehead as he crashed through the undergrowth. He hadn't stopped moving for hours but he hadn't been feeling the burn, but now that this new development had arisen he could feel every single little ache and groan in his body.

"No, no, no, no, not enough, not enough, not enough. Need more…30 bullets 31 to go need more need more…can't finish it off with only 30 bullets need some more need something else to finish the game. Can't leave the game unfinished, oh no, that's for quitters, I'm not going to be a quitter this time. Always fuck everything up not this, can't fuck this up or I'm fucked too…"

His rant was cut short when his path did. A solid mound of rock and dirt had appeared in front of him, and he'd run straight into it.

Getting to his feet and dusting his school trousers off, Sam hissed at the cliff-face he'd missed in his haste for the kill. He picked up his torch and his gun and began to skirt along the edge of the cliff-face, hissing at regular intervals.

He was about to turn and head back into the forest when his torch slipped over something shining in the mud beneath the cliff. Getting down onto his knees, Sam stuck an arm into the sort-of cave formed underneath the cliff and felt around. His hands closed around something cold and he grabbed it, pulling it out into his torch-light.

A soft whistle escaped him.

"Well lookie here, Mary-Jane," Sam whispered, "Someone's given us our Christmas in July present!" He squealed with childish delight and bounded off into the trees, his gun and pack over one shoulder, and his new toy, a small katana, in his hands.

"Hey, Kris," Girl #16, Alexandra, asked hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Boy #5, Kris, answered.

"This is a bit…icky but, have you ever…had sex?" She asked, turning red.

Kris laughed and nodded, "Yeah, I have."

"What's it like?" Alex asked, propping herself up against the pillows she rested on. Her leg was feeling more or less okay for the moment. The pain was still there, but the throbbing had lessened, and hopefully it wasn't getting too infected.

"Well," Kris said, trying to think of the proper words, "It's hard to explain. I'm probably not the expert on it mind you, but…it's kinda amazing. I mean…it wasn't with someone that I loved; it was really with someone I barely knew. But still…I felt so connected with her. Like just for a moment our two bodies had become one and we'd gotten lost in a forest of ecstasy." He stared blankly for a moment and then laughed, awkwardly.

Alex stared at him, her mouth open. Finally she managed to say, "God, Kris, I never knew you could use words like that."

"Neither did I."

The pair of them laughed, before Kris asked, "Have you?"

"Me?" Alex asked, giggling, "No way, I mean look at me. I'm no prize catch."

"So? I know way more disgusting girls than you who've gotten laid."

"Thanks Kris…" She said, mockingly offended, "But…I don't know…I've always been…scared of boys."

"Scared? How can you be scared of boys?" He asked, puzzled.

"Well it's like…" She started, "I've always been told…God it's stupid…I've always been told about…Bad Things."

"Bad Things?" Kris repeated.

"Yeah, Bad Things. My sister told me all about the Bad Things. The Things that boys do when they're mad, or sad, or lost, or bored, the Things that they hurt girls like me for." Alex said, her eyes glazing over in terror at the thought of the Bad Things. Kris waited for her to continue. "All of primary school was a nightmare for me whenever there were boys around. I was so sure that they were going to get out their dingle-dangles and hurt me…"

"Dingle-dangles?" Kris questioned.

"That's what my sister said penises were called, dingle-dangles. I was so scared of them. I had nightmares about these big, greasy, hairy, tentacle monsters coming out at me from the walls. But as I got older, the Bad Things stopped worrying me. I don't know if I forgot about them or if I got over them, but they weren't in my mind anymore…"

"But?"

"But now…they've come back." A genuine look of fear came into Alex's face as she grabbed one of Kris' hands. He was startled by the palpable terror that emanated from her. "I think it's Dave…there's something wrong with Dave. It's the Bad Things, I know it, that's what's wrong with him."

"Dave? Come on!" Kris said, pulling away, "Dave couldn't do anything bad, especially to a girl."

"Didn't you see him? All day he's been different, he barely talks, and now he's gone out and has been sitting in that fucking Volkswagen for hours!" Alex said, her voice trembling.

Kris didn't want to admit it, but Dave had been concerning him for some time. Something was definitely wrong with him. But he couldn't let on to Alex that he thought that. He had to calm her down or she'd just wind up hurting herself.

"Listen, Alex," He said, in his most adult voice, "The Bad Things aren't going to happen to you, okay? The Bad Things are gone, and aren't coming back. Dave is just feeling guilty about what he did to you, he can't deal with it himself. That's why he's out there. The only reason the Bad Things came to mind is because you are worried that you're going to die without ever making love to someone, which is valid. It's something that some of the people on this island will never get to do. But understand me when I say that there are more important things right now, you getting better for one thing." He began rubbing on of her hands, and he felt her tension began to ebb away, "So you're just going to rest now, and not think about those non-existent Things, okay?"

Alex smiled at Kris, "Thanks," She said, "For everything."

Boy #18, Dan, sighed. He longed to be returned to his comfy home, his comfy bed, and comfy sheets. Everything here was painful and cold and all he wanted was some degree of comfort. It couldn't be found. He sighed again. He also wanted to be back at school, a place that, even though it was full of those who hated him, was a place where he felt safe. There were no surprises at school. He came in, he studied hard and he knew the answers. That's all there was to it. But in a Battle Royale there are too many variables. The rules don't apply. E doesn't equal MC squared, y doesn't equal mx plus c. Any second something could come along and throw the whole thing out of whack.

It frightened him. He desperately needed to be back in his world of safe, red margins and aligned seating. He needed to be told the answers so he could get the top mark and prove to everyone that no matter how they put him down he still came up trumps in what mattered.

He couldn't go back to that. He knew it. So what Dan did instead was do what he always did in class. He was going to prove to everyone that he was the best. He didn't believe it himself anymore, he knew deep down he was just a lame-ass nerd, but he needed to prove himself to his bastard classmates just so he could go on living. He'd show them that even with all their make-up, their muscles and their friends, he was the one who had the advantage in life, that he was going to be the last standing at least once in his life.

Boy #12, Gavin was exhausted. He'd rested for hours beforehand, but travelling in the dark with the amount of weight he was carrying was painfully tedious and slow. He panted as he finally gave up and slipped to the ground. He'd done his best to follow what he thought was a route to the island's school-building. He was hoping that some other students with the desire to escape had gone there under the similar assumption that those who wanted company would go to a major feature on the map. Gavin didn't really know what he was going to say when he got there and he didn't really care. Right now all he wanted to do was get there safely.

As much as he tried to tell himself that it was all alright and that there weren't many people playing, walking through the dark on a strange island was terrifying. His mind turned any tiny noise into some hellish monster and no matter how much his common sense tried to tell him otherwise he genuinely believed it to be there.

Sighing, Gavin eased himself slowly back onto his feet. He couldn't give in, to his pain or to his fear. Otherwise he might as well throw in the towel already.

Girl #19, Emma, smirked as she peered over the small ridge. Not twenty metres away from her sat the Health Clinic, and flickering through one of the windows she could see a faint light. She was right, there were people there.

The question was what was she going to do in regards to them.

She silently slipped down to the Clinic's level and shuffled forward, trying to take in as much of the area as she could, checking to see if there were any sentries or something similar. As she rounded one of the buildings corners she gasped and crouched down. Right in front of her sat a banged up Volkswagen. Peering around the corner, Emma spotted someone sitting in the front seat.

The door swung open, and the figure dropped out onto the ground, and headed into the building.

Her eyebrows furrowed, Emma followed, silently, still unable to tell who it was that she was following.

The person went into the clinic, and before the door could close, Emma grabbed it and slipped inside, gently closing the door behind her.

Her sawn-off shotgun clenched tightly in one hand, Emma crouched down low and skirted around the outside of the room, following her target down a hall towards what she guessed were the bedrooms. People were talking in one of them. It sounded like two people, a boy and a girl, but she couldn't tell what they were saying or who it was.

For a moment she couldn't figure out why the person she was following was waiting at the door, and then finally it clicked in her brain. All thoughts of potentially harming whoever it was that was there were gone when she realised the gravity of what was about to take place.

Two, black shoe clad feet dropped down into the mud beneath the beat-up Volkswagen. They moved forward up towards the front door of the clinic, and paused for a moment as they wiped themselves on the doormat before entering. They were silent as they slipped up towards the door to the first bedroom. Again they paused.

Boy #4, Dave, stood firm and tall, his back pressed against the wall of the clinic. His ears were alert, and pricked up as he heard the voices from inside the room.

"…Have you ever had sex…?" He heard Alex say.

Dave stopped and listened to the conversation that followed, and found out all about the Bad Things. They intrigued him.

He heard Alex accuse him, and then Kris defend him and smiled. Kris was a true friend.

He heard the two say goodbyes to each other, and for a moment every single muscle in Dave's body tensed for what would come next, that moment that Dave had been pondering since he'd gotten into the Volkswagen van, the moment when Dave thought that all would be made crystal clear.

32 Remain