Hour 15, Part 2
37 Contestants Remaining
The battle was deafening, disorienting. Basim Sharafi, a.k.a. Boy # 13, barely had any idea of how it started, but he knew that it was bad. Real bad. People were running around, trying to find cover as the massive man in the potato-sack mask mowed a path of destruction through the church. There was fire. Screaming. People were dying. He only had time to act on instinct, but at least that was an easy path to follow. Amanda Marquette, a.k.a. Girl # 18, sat right next to him, yet despite her state of shock she did not scream when the battle began. She ducked down with the rest of them, only taking glances every so often in between volleys of gunfire. He wanted to protect her, wanted to shield her with his own body. Instead he had to fight to keep her from joining in the battle. Upon seeing their attacker she had gained a manic, almost mad look in her eyes. She'd pulled out her gun (well, one of them, she does have two, right?) and taken a few shots at the monster like the rest of them had. If he had been better armed, he would have joined her in kind. Instead he was forced to watch as his friends, people he'd known for as long as he could remember, were cut down by the monster's bullets all around him. Aziz took one in the arm, a large gout of blood exploding from the wound in his left bicep. Basim tried to call out for his friend, but could not over the din of the battle. We're all going to die in here...
The two youths ran across the snow still reeling from the horrors that they had just been forced to witness. Amanda was on guard, holding her pistol defensively and ready to jump at anything that moved. Basim was more worried about everyone else. How many made it out? Who got it in there, what the hell happened? How many of us are left? What about Isaac? Can we... can we still escape? Still pull this off?
"Where the hell are we going?" Amanda asked Basim as they continued to run..
"Away from here, hide out, wait for that guy to move on," Basim shot back. It seemed the only thing to do under the circumstances. It's all that makes sense. Amanda's got a gun, you've got a big curved knife. Last check that guy's got a machine gun, an ax, firebombs, and who knows what else.
"But everyone else, we they're still in there!" Amanda protested. She tried to dig her feet into the ground, but the boy was much stronger and continued to pull her down the snowy street.
"We can't fight that... that thing, Amanda," Basim said, "not if we want to survive this."
"But he killed Kendal!" she protested, shaking herself from his grip and pointing her gun back at the church, "That monster killed Kendal, and if he's still in there we might be able to catch him off guard! I'm a pretty damn good shot, I can get him in the back of the head, and then we can try and find a place to hide!"
Basim found himself torn. He cared greatly for Amanda, but this... this was almost too typical of her. Once she got something in her head, it was rather difficult to try and talk her out of it. But maybe she's right. Maybe you can catch that monster distracted and end this. But wasn't he getting shot already? You saw him take direct hits, some that even looked like he took them to the head! How the hell does someone take shots to the head and live?
"No. Not just the two of us, not with just one gun," Basim said adamantly.
A look of dawning comprehension passed Amanda's face, and she shot Basim a quick and almost evilly excited grin, "But I've got two guns."
"What?" Basim asked.
Amanda tore open her bag enthusiastically, pulling free the Desert Eagle she had taken from Kendal's bag before abandoning her to die. The gun felt massive and unwieldy in her hands, but she knew well enough that it was a very good one. Basim looked uncertainly to the weapon. It was fairly obvious that she wanted to give it to him so they could try and find the monster and fight it, and that doing so would almost certainly mean certain death. But what if they could pull it off? What if they actually could fight that thing, somehow get the upper hand and make a difference? No. It's impossible. There's no way in hell you can do it. Hell, thirty people, most of them with guns of some sorts, couldn't fight it off. It's suicide!
And yet it was easy to tell that nothing he could do could dissuade Amanda from trying to fight. She would go back, alone if she had to, and she would try to kill the monster. Son of a bitch.
Reluctantly, the boy grabbed the gun from her hand, "Then let's go."
It was chaos, that much was plain to the girl as she surveyed the area around the church. People seemed to be running in every direction, none of them close enough to want to try and take a shot at. She could see Amos Epstein, a.k.a. Boy # 7, dressed in only his street clothes and running through the streets without any real sense of direction. For a while it looked like he was trying to search for someone, but he ultimately just wound up wandering off down some side street and disappearing from sight. You can't expect them to come to you, if you're going to do this, you're going to have to play this hardcore. Be proactive, attack them, don't wait for them to come falling into your lap-
It was uncanny. The girl ran right into her path, distracted, not even minding the gun that she held at about waist height. She was distracted, looked upset, and almost certainly would be an easy fight. But she was coming too fast. Getting off a good shot (especially without knowing what the gun kicked like) would be difficult. Have to play this one by ear then.
And so, Sophia Apollinar, a.k.a. Girl # 6, ran into Phoebe Valverde, a.k.a. Girl # 11. Phoebe had prepared for the running girl, setting off charging toward her from the back alley with a scream and knocking her to the ground. The attack came off as a total surprise, and Sophia went down without a sound. Phoebe set about pummeling the girl, pistol-whipping her about the head. For her part, Sophia responded well as she raised her arms in self-defense. None of the strikes managed to get her in the head, but there was no way that she was going to be able to respond quickly. Well, there's always the old standby.
Although the attack wasn't the best in the world under the circumstances, Sophia didn't figure that she had any other options. Gathering up all of her strength, she kneed Phoebe in the crotch. Hard. Although it didn't have the same impact as attacking a boy in the same area, it did have a pretty good kick to it. The girl rolled off of Sophia howling, and both girls quickly scrambled for their guns.
Phoebe was on her feet faster, pointing her gun at the downed girl. She looked at Sophia, staring at that terrible scar on her upper lip. Staring at her curly hair, that smattering of acne across her cheeks and forehead. Sickening.
"You are one ugly bitch," Phoebe said spitefully.
And yet, despite the fact that she was on the ground and had a gun pointed at her chest, Sophia was laughing.
"I may be, but you're one stupid bitch," Sophia said as she whipped her arm around. She didn't know if she had the time to do it, she didn't know if she could pull it off, but it seemed that Phoebe wasn't expecting any form of retaliation. Sophia was able to swing her arm around, snub-nosed revolver in hand, and fire off two shots directly into Phoebe's chest. The shock flung the girl off her feet and into the snow with a scream.
Cursing and stumbling to her feet, Sophia set off into the snow.
Phoebe was soon to follow. They call it a bulletproof vest, it's supposed to stop bullets. You'd think that'd be enough, but no, they really should make it so you don't feel the bullets either. God damn those hurt.
"Did you hear those?" Amanda asked as she picked up speed.
"I think they were right up ahead," Basim responded. With guns drawn, the two contestants ran back towards the church. As before, Basim was worried about what they would find, yet willing to go if just to protect Amanda. We have to turn back. This is a bad idea. This is a very bad idea. This is so damn-
When Sophia ran across their path, it took everything Basim had within him not to shoot her.
"Jesus Christ, hold the fuck up!" Sophia shouted as she held her hands in the air. Amanda seemed less likely to slow down, but did so when Basim stopped.
"You all right there Sophie?" Basim asked.
"About as good as I can be under the circumstances," she replied.
"Have you seen anyone else? Isaac, Rub, Aziz?" Basim asked. He wasn't too hopeful for the answer, but it was worth a shot. Getting everyone who had survived back together... that was the only way anything could be done.
"They're all over the place," Sophia responded, "trying to get the hell out of there. What the hell were you doing running back this way?"
"Gonna try to kill that son of a bitch, that's what we're gonna do," Amanda responded. The look of shock that crossed Sophia's face took even Basim by surprise.
"Are you fucking high?" Sophia asked.
"I don't need to explain myself to you," Amanda replied, "we just gotta-"
The gunshots that rang across the street caught the trio off guard. Whoever was shooting wasn't the most accurate in the world, but they seemed to know what they were doing at the very least. Instinctively the three began shooting back, catching only the briefest of glances as Phoebe ducked into an alley between buildings.
"Who the hell was that?" Basim asked.
"I shot her!" Sophia responded as she began firing back in the direction of Phoebe.
"Not well enough!" Amanda responded as she took three more shots at Phoebe. The girl from the alley charged forward, hiding behind a parked car and sneaking out for a quick couple shots. Sophia tried to shoot back, but found only the clicking of an empty gun.
"I'm out!" she called.
"Me too!" Amanda replied as she reached to her pocket for a refill. Taking a chance, Phoebe rushed the armed trio as the two girls tried to reload. She fired shots wildly, watching as they blew small holes in the shop they stood against. Raising the massive pistol in his hands, Basim attempted to shoot back. The gun simply would not fire. It did not click empty, it just refused to fire.
"Run!" he called, forcing the two girls in front of him as they ran in the opposite direction of their pursuing attacker. Dodging down the nearest side street they could find, the trio tried to outrun their pursuer. Showing considerable grace and speed, Phoebe was able to keep up and keep the trio in her sights. Her gun clicked empty after another volley of three shots, but with quick hands she was able to reload the weapon and continue her pursuit. Basim looked back to the girl and could only marvel. She can't hit any of us and yet she can reload while running. How the hell does that work?
But her reloading slowed her down slightly, and that was enough. Just hurry, turn down the next street and duck into a building, we can lose her. We can do this, just keep moving, keep them moving...
When she stumbled, Basim pushed the two girls before him hard around the corner. Just a little bit faster, a little further, give me a shop up ahead, a movie theater, a gas station, anything, anything that'll let us hide and get the hell out of this...
And when he saw the two people standing before them in the street, Basim felt like everything had ended. The boy was clearly Iago Cilek, a.k.a. Boy # 21, holding a military rifle with expert posture. Considering the sword held across his back and the blood on his white jacket, it was clear that he had already made at least one kill. The other person he could not recognize, but they were not dressed like any of the rest. Their clothing was less bulky, more functional (if not nearly as warm). A series of belts criss-crossed their chest filled with various bullets and extra clips. Their face was covered with a thick red scarf, sunglasses, and the black hood of their parka. Considering the size, it was likely a girl. Two monsters in this game, two monsters unleashed to kill us all. They called the boy Grendel. They called the girl...
"Scylla," the boy muttered. The girl held a sawed-off shotgun in one hand and a semi-automatic pistol in the other. Between the two killers in the street before him and the girl trying to be a killer behind him, Basim didn't know what to do. Sophia seemed to be frozen in her path, and Amanda quickly tried to reload her pistol. It was coming down to a gunfight on all ends, and it was going to be bad.
And then came something completely unexpected.
"Get down!" Scylla said authoritatively. At first the trio of runners did not seem to know what to do. They looked to one another strangely as if trying to validate what the killer before them had said.
"I said get down!" Scylla said as she rushed towards the group. With a surprisingly delicate jump, the creature in the black parka drop-kicked Basim. Amanda hollered out, readying her pistol as she prepared to kill Scylla. She was cut off by the heavy boom of a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun going off with both barrels. Amanda and Sophia were able to see for the briefest of moments the red mist that used to be Phoebe's head fill the air, her body falling to the ground in a bloody heap. Completely methodical, Scylla wandered over to the body on the ground. She stripped Phoebe of her pistol, ammunition and bulletproof vest. Walking back to the stunned trio and Iago, Scylla tossed the bulletproof vest on the ground.
"Bulletproof vest. You never know how many of these are circulating in the game. If you ever come up to someone you mean to kill in this game, you go for the legs, the arm or the head. If you shoot someone and they stay down, you go up to them and make sure they're dead. I don't care if it takes another bullet, but you make sure their head ain't much more than what I've made this bitch's into," Scylla said as she forced Phoebe's pistol down the front of her pants.
"Now," Scylla continued authoritatively as she helped Basim to his feet, "we've just had a pretty good shooting match here. You're lucky we were in the neighborhood to save your pretty as an acne cream commercial asses, but there's some dangerous fucking people out here who're going to want to be finding who was shooting things off out here."
"Who the hell are you?" Amanda asked incredulously.
The figure with the red scarf around the mouth cocked their head, but Basim could've sworn that they were smiling at him.
"Just come with me if you want to live," Scylla said with great strength.
Sophia, Amanda and Basim looked confused to one another for a moment. Basim even took a glance Iago's way, but it didn't look like he had any answers either. Scylla simply shook her head disappointed. Pulling the hood of her parka down, the girl set free an almost waist-length black ponytail. Pulling the scarf down from her mouth, she revealed light-brown and still deeply tanned skin surrounding a surprisingly jovial smile. Finally she removed the sunglasses, revealing one brown eye that looked weary yet bright, and an eye patch where her other eye should be.
Amanda and Basim came to the realization of who was standing before them slowly, but Sophia was quicker.
She spoke out of fear and a slightly awed sense of being star struck, "Holy shit."
"You people have no clue where 'Come with me if you want to live' comes from, do you?" Ashley Vasquez, a.k.a. Scylla, a.k.a. Girl # 26, asked with exasperation, "Fucking kids. Paul would've found it funny."
