"I've reached that age where my brain goes from 'You probably shouldn't say/do that' to 'What the hell, let's see what happens'." -Anonymous
Humphrey's P.O.V.
"You've been a bad little sister." Kate says while keeping the other girl on the floor. "Excuse me but what the fuck's going on?" I ask Kate, genuinely confused at what I'm seeing. "I'll explain later..."
"Nah, now. I helped you find your sister like I promised, the least you could do is tell me why you just knocked her onto the fucking floor." I demand. Kate glares at me but I don't break. She sighs and helps her sister get back on her feet. "Where do I even start? I suppose I should tell you that Lilly here, enjoys the outdoors (Straight to the backstory, huh? This isn't a good sign). Normally I'm there with her when she goes out to the city but she snuck off alone two days back." Kate explains. Her sister doesn't even show an ounce of guilt.
"How did you know you would find her when you were taken on the plane?" This question hit me when Kate said Lilly snuck off two days ago but the both of us woke up in a hangar with a cargo plane ready to take us to Jasper just earlier today. How did she know if her sister would still be in Jasper and that the plane would take us there? Kate is hesitant on her answer. "I was captured... like everyone else."
That questionable answer was all I needed to hear from her. I now had the feeling Kate knew something about the military wolves from before, the plane that we jumped out of and probably why Jasper is so deserted, just from that answer. "You're a shit liar, he probably already saw through it." Lilly says.
"So... now mind telling the FULL plot now?" I ask Kate, now beginning to annoy her. She almost snaps at me but we hear a loud explosion in the city before she does. "What the hell was that?" I ask. A few seconds later we hear another, and another.
"I don't know about you two but I really don't want to stay in the mall any longer to find out." Lilly says and immediately dashes for the nearest exit. Kate and I follow then hear loud bangs that sounded like gunshots echoing from somewhere inside the mall. I stop Kate and her sister then bring them into a furniture store on the left.
"Were those guns I heard?" Lilly asks. "No shit! All I wanted was to find you and bring you home before this stupid event started." Kate says as she repeatedly punches the side of a shelf. "We're still gonna have a talk about this 'event' thing after we get to safety." I tell her as I scout a second exit out of the store. "IF we get to safety." Kate says. "Pessimist." I mutter. I find the emergency exit and lead Kate and her sister out through the corridors. The first thing we see once we exit to the lower parts of the roof was a transport helicopter flying right above us with wolves sitting on the sides, carrying heavy weapons like light machine guns with rocket launchers in the back. "In, in in, in, in, in, in!" Kate yells as she pulls us back inside.
"Fuck! What the hell is going on?!" I yell silently. "Okay, now would be a good time to pull out that little device you got before you entered the plane." Kate tells me. I search my pockets and pull the smartphone thingy from my jacket. It activates almost instantly then I start to read the first alerts I missed since we dropped. "Welcome to Jasper... contestant. The city and other populated areas nearby have been vacated to avoid collateral damage. You will find that stores have been fully resupplied with all supplies and equipment. Loot to survive...? Hundreds of other wolves have landed just like you. Only a lone wolf or one pack will be left alive. Form an alliance with others or fight alone to survive. The carbon-geomagnetic storms will become increasingly dangerous throughout the duration of your survival... or hunting. Good luck." I finish reading the latest of it's messages. "That should answer some of your questions." Kate says to me. I scoff at her. "Yeah right, now I got loads more questions like: what's even the point of this deathmatch?"
The three of us walk back into the furniture store and compose ourselves. "There's still the armed guys walking somewhere in the mall. We could find some other way out rather than taking the chance of bumping into them around the next corner." Lilly suggests but Kate shakes her head. "We need to get to ground level and leave from there... unless you want to get riddled with bullets by the wolves in the chopper."
The pair of siblings look at me for an answer. "Well?" Lilly asks sounding rather patient than I expected. Her plan made a little more sense but Kate's plan might just work if we move down quick and quiet enough. What the hell, let's see what happens...
"I say we go with Kate's plan."
-Kate liked that (acclaim boosted)
-Lilly disliked that (acclaim diminished)
"What the hell dude! You'd go with my sister's suicidal idea than my safer and more obviously plausible plan?!" Lilly protests, just about loud enough for the roaming enemies to know we're still in the mall. "Sit down. If you want to find a separate exit to the roof, be my guest." Kate says. Lilly stays quiet but the pissed off energy she had on her was hard to ignore.
I lead the way out of the store and down to the escalators. We walk down the escalators crouched to avoid making anymore noise than we already made. Heavy footsteps are heard right around the escalator we were on. It was one guy though. "Shit..." I curse silently. Like I told Kate earlier, I barely had any combat experience and that's only when I'm trying to defend myself. What the fuck am I going to do against a guy with a rifle?
I peek over and see the guy below was walking towards the front of the escalator. I have only one shot to pull of this really, really stupid idea. I shouldn't do it, but if I survive it, I'd look like total a badass. What the hell, let's see what happens...
I vault over the side of the escalator and let myself drop below. It felt like time slowed down for as I fell. I start to think of what would happen if I landed wrong. What would happen if I missed? What would happen if the wolf somehow predicted I'd try and dive onto him and moves out of the way? Oh well, I shut my eyes and hope for the best.
I feel my elbow crash into wolf's neck as I land onto him and roll off his back. "Fucking hell... I think I killed him..." I say in between breaths. I get up from the floor and slowly approach the unresponsive wolf. I poke his side a few times with my foot but he doesn't do anything. I don't think I even heard wheeze out of him. Kate and Lilly rush down from escalator. "'No combat experience' my ass, that was great." Kate compliments me. I didn't know if I should've accepted it. Our devices from earlier give us another alert before we could talk about what just happened.
7th elimination: Dalton Gray
Killed by: Humphrey Collins
Method of killing: Hands-on combat
Kate and I watch camera footage of me jumping over the escalator and crashing onto the wolf below. "What the hell is this...?" I ask, not believing what I just saw from the device. "THEY'RE ON THE SECOND FLOOR, FIND THEM!!!" We hear a very angry voice yell from below us.
RUN
The three of us start to flee from the area as quickly as possible. "This was a stupid plan!" I say as we run back up the escalator. "You're such an ass! You went with Kate's idea now you're gonna get us all killed!" Lilly says to me. "Fine, I'm sorry! We'll go with your plan."
"Oh, don't you think it's already a bit too late for that?" She asks rhetorically. We sprint back into the furniture store on the left immediately head straight for the emergency exit. I almost trip running through the corridor leading to the roof. Kate pushes the doors open, ready to finally leave this place but we weren't out of the woods just yet.
"Whoops..." A medium sized timberwolf standing right outside says in a deep and raspy voice right after Kate had opened the doors. He whips out a gun from his belt and aims it us. "Heeey buddy, we don't want any trouble so how about you forget you saw us, and we'll-" I stop talking once the wolf cocks the pistol, ready to pull the trigger.
I don't want to die. Not here, not today, and definitely not because of some bullshit game. I push Kate and her sister aside and tackle the wolf to the floor. I hadn't planned what I'd do after knocked him down so I just repeatedly punch him in the face. He turns the table on me and flips us around. I'm now the one in the floor about to get repeatedly slugged in the face. I raise my arms to defend myself against his attacks. "Well fuck you, I've got fangs and I'm not pussy to show 'em!" The timberwolf shouts then goes straight for my neck. It seemed this was it for me. Never thought I'd die by another wolf's fangs.
I try to move my forearm in the way to block the feral son of a bitch but I knew I couldn't stop his jaws in time. A bang from behind the wolf stops the wolf just in time as he falls on my neck. The device vibrates in my pocket, hopefully meaning someone other than the siblings or I was killed.
I finally start breathing again after moving the dead timberwolf off me and confirming that I was still alive. Kate, with a tear streaming down her cheek, hands me the smoking gun she used to save me. "I don't like using these types of weapons. I want you to keep this for yourself." She tells me. I found it strange that she was okay with just a knife but not a firearm. It doesn't matter though, I'm really not in a position to judge since she saved my life with this gun. I take the pistol and shove it under my belt.
"We don't have time to waste. The others know we're on the roof." Lilly tells us. The three of us quickly make our way down the fire escape. I let Lilly then go down first because I was the one with the only weapon to keep us safe.
Three wolves barge out from the mall's emergency exit as Kate just as Kate reached the bottom. I quickly get to the ladder and slide down, hoping the don't see me. The gunshots I heard soon after were a pretty good hint that they did. I jump to the bottom and regroup with the siblings.
"Do any you two know how to hotwire a car?" I ask. Lilly hesitantly raises her hand. "I can't drive though." She confesses. "That's perfect! Well... not quite perfect but it's fine." I say to her with a bit too much excitement than I needed. She wears cute confused expression on her face before I lead her and Kate to the parking lot.
"So... which car?" I ask the sisters, motioning my arm towards the variety of vehicles. "Does it really matter?" Kate asks me. "Well, yes but actually no..." I reply. She rolls her eyes at me. Lilly runs straight to a sleek and shiny sedan. "What car's this supposed be? I've never seen it before." I say as I walk around the vehicle, inspecting it from the outside.
"It's a... it's a newer model of the Dakota Etrius." Lilly answers. The way she replied sounded a lot like how Kate answered my questions earlier. These two are really bad liers but I can't call Lilly out yet. "Hm... Etrius has never looked this good before... I like it." I play along to Lilly's lie.
I get ready to smash the driver's window of the 'Etrius'. "Wait!" She orders me to stop. I do as she say and slowly step away from the door. She pulls out some piece of gizmo and sticks it onto the door handle. It's blinks a few times before sparking and falling off the door. It looked like it didn't do anything but the headlights of the car blinked, showing that it was unlocked.
"Shit, that was my third one..." Lilly frowns, looking at the fried device. We immediately get shot at before we enter the vehicle. I groan in pain after getting shot in the calf by one of the pursuing wolves. "You okay?" Kate asks after entering in the back seat. "I've been through worse." I lie, this hurt way more than a simple bee sting. I shut the door and press a button on the wheel and put the car in ignition.
Luckily it seemed this car had bullet proof glass or else everyone in this car would've been a goner. I step on the gas and ram through two of the three wolves out the parking lot. I pull the handbrake, letting the car slide onto the street then slamming back on it. It looked like we were in the clear and the helicopter from before is still nowhere in sight.
"So... where am I dropping you two?" I ask. Neither of them give me an answer. I wanted to think that they didn't want to leave me yet but that would be pushing it. "Well?"
"We can't go back home." Kate finally give an answer. "What? Where are you two even from?" I ask the sisters. "We're from an undisclosed safehaven outside of the city." Lilly states.
"What the hell?!" Kate exclaims at her sister. "He was gonna find out anyway! The Etrius thing was hard to come up with, he obviously saw through it!"
"Yeah, Dakota stopped manufacturing in 2034. Cars like this aren't anywhere near from here." I say. "So tell me... about this 'undisclosed' place you're from and why you can't go back?" The sisters look at eachother before looking back at me.
A/N: I'm finally done with this chapter. I struggled way too much getting back into writing and 'the block' made it worse. On the plus side (or minus), I have a new story in the works! First three chapters are done, all being moderated and modified right now. I'm planning on posting the story with having atleast four chapters done for it. With that out of the way, I hope you're healthy and well during the sequel of 2020. We've all been affected by this pandemic in some way aswell as by other events. Stay strong, keep a positive view in bad situations and keep loved ones close to your hearts.
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Blazin' Blitz: I'm gonna focus back on AELIHS for the next three months.
Humphrey: Lilly hasn't been in for the past month, is every thing good?
Kate: She said something about having personal issues to deal with before coming back here.
Blazin' Blitz: Pain... she atleast helped me with the new story before taking a leave.
Garth: I sense sad vibes in the lounge. Wagwan dudes?
Kate: 2020 aftermath I guess.
Humphrey: Lack of enthusiasm, energy, jokes... you name it.
Garth: Hm...
Blazin' Blitz: Ded chat.