Part Two: Game Start
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No one spoke. For a long moment, it seemed as if no one was even breathing. Then someone laughed, a high, startled, disbelieving laugh. It came from Michael Corner (Male Student 2, Ravenclaw). He was one of the smartest guys in their year, and now he seemed on the verge of breaking down.
"Something amuses you, Mister Corner?" Professor Phalanx arched an eyebrow. Michael's laughter immediately died.
"It's a joke, right?" he said. "Kill each other? It's gotta be some kind of sick joke!"
"Is that what you think?" she favored him with another one of those chilling smiles. "Let me assure you; this is no joke. This is the Ministry of Magic's final solution."
"Solution to what? What have we ever done?" Hermione blurted out.
"Ah, the delightful Miss Granger. I'd heard you might be a problem."
"Solution to what?" Hermione refused to be intimidated, even by a woman with a wand and a gun.
"To the sad, sorry state of the entire Magical community." Professor Phalanx said. "I'm sure you know we are not what we once were. And it's because of worthless children like you lot. I've heard about all the trouble you kids caused last year. Well you may or may not be please to know that you are not the only ones. All over the world, young witches and wizards are losing respect for their elders. Cutting class, breaking rules, endangering themselves and others with reckless stunts. The situation must be dealt with. Harshly and permanently. So the Ministry, in cooperation with other Magical governments, passed a new law, Educational Reform Act No. 68. Or as some of us like to call it, the Battle Royale Act. It's very simple, every year, one Sixth Year class will be chosen at random from every school of magic in the world to participate in the Battle Royale program. You're class has been selected for the inaugural program."
"I don't understand," Hermione said. "How is killing us supposed to solve anything?"
"First of all, Miss Granger, we are not going to kill you. You are going to kill each other. Second, the point is for your deaths to serve as a deterrent to others. We predict we'll only need to run Battle Royale a few times, make sure students know that they have as good a chance as anyone of being selected, and they'll fall back in line. Fear can be a powerful motivator, after all."
"You monster!" Lavender Brown (Female Student 16, Gryffindor) stood up, pushing her chair out of the way. "How could anyone do this?"
"It's your own faults," Phalanx replied calmly. "Nothing else seems to reach you kids, so we've had to get...drastic. Of course you won't be around to appreciate the lesson, but you will make a powerful example for others."
"Professor," Draco Malfoy (Male Student 8, Slytherin) raised his hand.
"Yes, Mister Malfoy?" Phalanx asked.
"You said 'with one exception' we were all here to die," Malfoy said.
"Very observant of you Mister Malfoy," Professor Phalanx said, "Well, obviously there will come a point when only one of you is left alive. We will, of course, not ask that lucky individual to commit suicide. The last student left standing gets to go home."
"One more question, Professor," Malfoy said.
"Yes?"
"Will we be able to use our wands?"
Everyone turned toward Malfoy. Most of the students had been expecting him to try and weasel his way out of this death game, not that they could blame him. His fellow Slytherins were probably assuming he would come up with some brilliant plan to get everyone out, or at least all the Slytherins. No one expected him to ask about the rules as if he was planning on going along with all of this. But a moment later, Harry got over his shock. He should have guessed that if anyone was willing to kill their classmates it would be Malfoy.
"No, your wands have been confiscated and will not be returned except to the eventual winner," Professor Phalanx said. "And I warn you not to use any kind of magic to try and escape from the game. Now if there are no further questions, I will explain the rules."
She pulled her wand out of its holster and waved it at the dry erase board in the front of the classroom. An image swam up out of the board, an island drawn in multicolored ink. Little blue waves moved across the board, representing the ocean. The island was shaped a bit like a crescent moon. The points faced south, giving the island the disturbing appearance of a frowning mouth.
"We are here," Phalanx waved her wand, placing a glowing red 'X' near the center of the island, "in the public high school of a small island town off the coast of Scotland. This island will be your battleground for the next three days. The original inhabitants have been evacuated. You may go anywhere except back to this school. Which brings me to the collars you're all wearing. They're actually Muggle technology, enhanced with a few spells here and there. They are waterproof, shockproof, immune to all forms of magical interference, and impossible to remove, except by a qualified Ministry Artificer. And I wouldn't suggest that anyone test me on this point. Meddle with your collar too much and it will explode."
A dozen or so pairs of hands immediately dropped from their owners' collars.
"These collars serve a number of functions. They let us track your movements so that we can follow the progress of the battle. They monitor your pulse so we can keep track of who is alive and who is dead. Finally, they allow us to make sure you keep fighting."
With another wave of her wand, she placed a grid of squares over the map of the island.
"The island is divided into various zones designated by a number and a letter, A=01, B=01...you get the idea. Starting at 7:00 A.M. and every two hours from then on, one of these zones, chosen at random, will become forbidden. Any living student caught in a Forbidden Zone will have their collar detonated automatically. So hiding out is not an option, you must keep moving to stay in the safe area; and that area will grow steadily smaller as the game progresses. This area, B=4, will become Forbidden as soon as the game begins, so as I said, you may not return to this school once we are underway. And should any of you try to escape, we can cause your collar to explode. Finally, if twenty-four hours pass without a death, or if there is more than one student left alive seventy-two hours after the start of the game, all of your collars will detonate automatically. Just so we're all clear on this; there is no escape. The only way out is to be the last student left alive. Any questions so far."
No one spoke up.
"If you have any questions, you had better ask them now, you won't get another chance." A pause. "Or do you still think this is all some kind of joke? Very well, then. Inside each of your desks is a sheet of paper, a quill, and some ink. Take them out and write the following: 'I will kill...' and fill in the name of a classmate. Continue in this manner until you have every other student's name on the page."
Harry was about to pick up the ink, trying to remain clearheaded in the midst of this horror, trying to come up with some way out, when a bottle of ink flew across the room and smashed against the wall. He looked around, along with everyone else, to see Justin Finch-Fletchley (Male Student 11, Hufflepuff) standing next to his desk, glaring hatefully at Professor Phalanx.
"I won't do it!" he said firmly, "I won't write that! And you're crazy if you think you can make me kill people!"
"Are you saying you won't participate in the program?" Phalanx asked nonchalantly.
"Did I stutter?" The whole class was aghast, watching Justin's every move with a mixture of awe and terror, they had never seen him act so resolutely.
"Consider this very carefully, Mister Finch-Fletchley. No one is exempt from this game. Are you absolutely sure you won't participate?"
"What can you do if I say 'no'?" Justin half-laughed, "Kill me?"
"Actually," Phalanx said, her hand drifting down toward her waist, "yes." In a flash, she pulled her gun out of its holster and fired.
The shot filled the entire room. Students screamed and fell out of their chairs trying to duck. Some of them had never seen a gun before, but the explosive shot left no doubt of what it was capable of. But the sound was only half the terror. When the screams had passed and the echoing gunshot faded, a small, breathless squeak came from the seat behind Justin's, where Pansy Parkinson (Female Student 9, Slytherin) had suddenly been bathed in something red. It didn't take Harry and the others long to figure out what that something was. Justin teetered for a moment, then toppled over into the aisle. He landed face-up, giving everyone a clear view of the gaping hole that dominated the center of his forehead. From the back of his head, thankfully hidden from view, a puddle of dark crimson spread across the plastic-covered floor.
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Professor Phalanx covered the rest of the class with her smoking gun.
"Is there anyone else who would like to abstain from this program? I trust you are all now quite convinced of the reality of your situation?" She smiled at them. "Then pick up your quills and write."
Harry felt like he was going to explode. How could this be happening? He had seen death before, but not like this. That...bitch had just blown Justin's brains out, as casually as turning off the kitchen light. It was insane!
"Mister Potter," Harry felt his heart drop into his sneakers as the hot metal of the gun touched the back of his head, "I was wondering if you'd cause trouble. I suppose you think that being the famous Harry Potter should exempt you from this program."
"N-no Professor," Harry said, fighting equal measures of fear and anger to keep his voice level.
"Then write."
He had no choice. He was, quite literally, powerless. Hating himself all the while, Harry picked up his quill and wrote.
'I will kill Draco Malfoy.'
The hot metal left his neck.
"Very good, Potter," Phalanx said. "Now continue, and don't forget to include your little friends as well."
Harry kept writing, there was no other choice, but the longer he went on, the harder it got. Eventually, with the page almost full, he found he could not continue. There were two lines he simply could not bring himself to write.
"Potter..." Professor Phalanx gestured with the gun. "All the way now."
If she kills me, I can't get us out. Harry thought to himself. I don't have to do it; I just have to write it. He picked up his quill...
'I will kill Hermione Granger.'
'I will kill Ron Weasley.'
His horrible task completed, Harry laid down the quill.
"Well, now that we have that out of the way, there's just one more thing to go over," Phalanx signaled to the two men, who had remained still and silent through the entire proceedings. They waved their wands and a pile of black nylon duffle bags appeared by the exit.
"You will exit this classroom by student number, alternating boy/girl. As you leave you will each take the top bag from the pile. Each bag contains a map of the battleground, a compass, a watch, a flashlight, food and water, and a weapon. Now, these weapons are randomly selected. There are guns, knives, bludgeoning weapons, and a few surprises. You might luck out, or you might not. Most of these are Muggle weapons, so take a moment to read the instructions and familiarize yourself with your weapon. Oh and one other thing. Included with your map is a copy of your class list; you may want to use it to keep track of the casualties. I will make announcements four times daily, at 6:00 and 12:00, telling you which of your classmates have died in the past six hours and giving you the next three Forbidden Zones. Any questions?"
There were none. Behind and to the left of Harry, Pansy Parkinson sniffled, trying not to look at the corpse of Justin Finch-Fletchley, which still lay at her feet. Further back someone gagged and vomited. But no one asked questions. Harry, meanwhile, was trying to keep thinking on his feet. He had hoped they would all leave together; that way he could rally the others together. Leaving one at a time would make that difficult at best. He would have to rethink things a little. Assuming they started with number 1, nearly the entire class would leave before him.
"Very good," the Professor continued. "The game begins as soon as the first student exits this building. Other than those we have already gone over, there are no rules. Feel free to do whatever it takes to win. Some of you may wish to team up. That is perfectly fine, a good strategy even. But remember that friends are as much a liability in this game as an asset. You can team up all you want, but understand that in the end only one of you can leave this island alive. Remember that."
She checked her watch.
"Well if there are no further questions, let us begin. It is 1:32 A.M. Your seventy-two hours begin now. You will leave in two minute intervals," Phalanx said, reaching into a small bowl on the teacher's desk, she pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it, "starting with...Boys No. 10, Gregory Goyle."
Goyle stood up shakily. He had lost all of his macho posturing and looked simply like a frightened child. He stumbled up front, took the top bag, threw a last desperate glance at Malfoy and the other students, and then disappeared into the hallway.
Two minutes passed and then Blaise Zabini (Female Student 10, Slytherin) took her bag and went out into the game. Every two minutes, another student took their bag of goodies and headed out into the night. The pace kept up, the pile of bags growing ever smaller. And then...
"Boys No. 16, Ron Weasley."
Ron stood up steadily, determined not to let any fear show. As he walked by Harry's desk, he looked down at his best friend. The look in his eyes was like nothing Harry had ever seen, desperate and fearful, but also full of defiance. Harry knew then, as if there had been any doubt, that he could count on Ron. Ron would never play the game. Together, they would beat this thing, just like they always did.
'Wait for me,' Harry mouthed silently. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron nod ever so slightly. Professor Phalanx did not seem to notice. Ron picked up his bag, glaring hatefully at the Professor and her guards. Then he took off down the corridor. Harry wished he could leave at the same time as Ron, but that wasn't possible. Ron would wait for him if he could. And even if something forced Ron to leave, Harry and Hermione would still be entering the game almost simultaneously. Unless of course something made her leave in the two minutes between their departures.
"Girls No. 16, Lavender Brown."
On by one, the Gryffindors left. Whenever possible, Harry tried to signal them to meet him outside. He was pretty sure Parvati Patil (Female Student 17, Gryffindor) caught it, but Neville Longbottom was so terrified that he barely made it up to the front of the classroom, he certainly didn't see Harry trying to covertly get his attention. He would just have to rely on Ron to gather the ones he missed once they got outside. As Seamus Finnegan (Male Student 18, Gryffindor) made his way past Harry - too preoccupied to see his signal - someone placed a folded piece of paper on Harry's desk. Surprised, Harry looked around. Hermione caught his eyes and winked. Quietly, making sure no one saw him, Harry unfolded the paper. It seemed Hermione had ripped a corner off of her 'I will kill' list and written him a note.
'I'll wait for you.'
Before Harry could respond, Hermione's name was called. Like Ron, she made sure not to betray the slightest fear as she stood, took her bag, and left. And then it was Harry's turn.
"Boys No. 19, Harry Potter," Professor Phalanx called.
Harry pushed his chair back and stood up. He took what, for all he knew, might be his last look at his classmates. Then, before Phalanx could shoot him for dawdling or something. He ran to the door, grabbed the top bag on the pile, and sprinted down the hall to the exit. First order of business: meet up with Ron and Hermione, along with any others they had managed to recruit. Second: gather everyone else they could. They had to stay together to beat the system and get out of here alive. But first things first, get out there and meet up with...
An empty courtyard.
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The school sat in a sunken courtyard, roughly three meters below ground level. A concrete blacktop with four basketball hoops stretched out in front of him. At the end of the blacktop, a set of concrete stairs led up out of the courtyard. Harry looked around, but saw no one. It didn't make sense. He knew Ron had gotten his message, and Hermione had given him a note. They had both agreed to wait and meet up. They wouldn't have split, would they? Unless there was some reason they couldn't stay...
That thought had barely filtered through his mind when something fell at his feet with a dull, metallic *clink*. Harry, having been subjected to far too many of Dudley's action movies, knew better than to waste time looking at the object. He had a pretty good idea what it was. He kicked the metal ball one way and ran the other. Sure enough, an instant later the hand grenade exploded. Harry had thought he was far enough away, but as the force of the blast threw him off his feet, his left arm lit up with fiery pain. Harry fell to the ground. He could tell he was bleeding, but he had to get up. He had to run.
"Don't move, Potter!" a familiar voice rang out.
Harry staggered to his feet. Gregory Goyle (Male Student 10, Slytherin) stood near the school doorway. In his hand he held another grenade. He had pulled out the pin and was holding the clip on. All he had to do was let go, say by throwing the grenade at Harry for instance, and it would be armed. And then it would explode, and there was no way he could dodge this one.
Is that it? Ten seconds in and I'm dead? No chance to gather the others, no escape...just blown to bits.
"Listen to me, Goyle," Harry said desperately, backing away as covertly as possible, not that he had anywhere to back into except a steep concrete embankment. "We don't have to do this, we can all get out together, we just have to..." He stopped as the back of his foot hit something. Looking down, he saw that he had nearly tripped over the outstretched hand of Eloise Midgin (Female Student 12, Hufflepuff). He hadn't seen her before because she was hidden around the corner of the school building. She lay face down, with three bullet holes in her back. She was dead.
"Goyle...you...?"
"That's right," Goyle finished for him. "Took me a while to figure this Muggle thing out; all the others got away, even that fat lump Longbottom, but she was too slow. I ran out of bullets but fortunately, Eloise got these bomb things."
"Why? How could you..."
"You heard the lady," Goyle said, aweing and terrifying Harry with how calm he could be given the circumstances. Then again, his father was a Death Eater. Did the apple really fall that close to the tree? "The only way out of here is to kill everyone else."
"What about Malfoy? You going to kill your boss?"
"Of course; that's the game. But it's you I'm really happy about. Can you imagine how proud my father will be when he finds out I killed the famous Harry Potter? How proud Lord Voldemort will be?"
"You're crazy, Goyle," Harry said. "You can't do this."
"Enough stalling!" Goyle snapped. "Gotta get you out of the way before the next one comes out."
"Too late," a girl's voice said from the door. An aluminium baseball bat swung out of the darkness and struck Goyle straight in the back of the head. From then on, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Goyle crumpled, revealing Sally-Ann Perks (Female Student 19, Gryffindor) behind him, brandishing her bat, an open duffle bag at her feet. As he fell, the grenade slipped from his hand; the clip popped out and bounced off the wall of the school. Sally-Ann smiled nervously and called out to Harry.
"Harry! Are you all right?"
"RUN!" Harry cried, but it was too late. The now-active grenade landed between Goyle and Sally-Ann. Harry could only turn his head away from the inevitable. The explosion engulfed both the unconscious Goyle and Sally-Ann, still wearing her smile of triumph even as the shrapnel tore into her.
Part of Harry wanted to stay, but he knew that there was nothing he could do for either of them. They were dead. And Eloise Midgin was dead. And he was exposed standing out here. How many others had chosen Goyle's path? How many people were playing the game? He wanted to wait for Dean Thomas to come out, but suddenly it didn't seem worth the risk. Instead, cradling his own burned and shrapnel-ridden arm, he grabbed his weapon bag and ran up the stairs and away from the school as fast as his legs would carry him.
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Hermione Granger (Female Student 18, Gryffindor) huddled in a drainage ditch a few-hundred meters from the school building. She was fairly sure that she had made it out of the starting area, so she wouldn't be in danger when it went forbidden soon. And she seemed to have lost Goyle, though maybe he was still loitering around the school waiting for new victims. It was only by blind luck that she hadn't fallen victim to him just two minutes earlier.
When she got out into the courtyard and found none of the other Gryffindors there, she knew something was wrong. That immediately led to knowing that she had to get out of there, fast. The school that had been their starting area turned out to have a design very similar to the primary school she had attended before Hogwarts. Most of the students probably went up the stairs right in front of them to get out, but there should be another set of stairs on the opposite end. She turned and ran to go around the school building...and tripped on the bullet-riddled body of Eloise Midgin. Then a shot rang out, the bullet cracking the pavement right next to Hermione's head. She scrambled to her feet and ran, but she managed to catch a glimpse of Goyle chasing her with an automatic pistol. Fortunately she was much faster than the hefty Slytherin. She got around the building and up the back stairs with no further shots fired. When she found the empty culvert for draining stormwater out of the streets she hid down inside it and tried to collect her thoughts. So far no luck.
First, at least one person was playing the game, and he was ambushing people as they came out of the school. Second, she hadn't heard the shots that killed Eloise, which meant that some kind of soundproofing charm must have been placed on the building. Third, Harry would be coming out right after her, and walking straight into Goyle's trap. Quickly, Hermione opened her duffle bag, looking for a weapon. There was the promised map, compass, and flashlight, stored in a waterproof plastic bag, a few bottles of water, three or four hard rolls, and...a stake? She pulled a short, wooden tent stake out of the bag.
"Well this would be absolutely smashing if I needed to save Harry from a Vampire!" she muttered to herself.
Suddenly, an explosion rang out back at the school. Not a gunshot, it was more like a bomb had gone off. Hermione checked her watch. Exactly two minutes had passed since she left. Harry! She climbed out of the drainage ditch and ran back to the school as fast as she could, arriving just in time to see Goyle and Sally-Ann get torn to peices by a grenade. Harry was also there, she couldn't see him very well down in the dark courtyard, but his arm seemed to be bleeding. He grabbed his bag and ran without noticing her. Hermione wanted to call out to him, but looking at the mangled bodies of Sally-Ann and Goyle, a horrible thought struck her. Each bag only held one weapon and Goyle had attacked her with a gun. Was it possible? Was Harry the one with the grenades?
No. She couldn't let herself start thinking like that. But then again...Goyle was attacking him. Maybe Harry had got Sally-Ann by accident when he killed Goyle...
Stop it! This was exactly what Phalanx and the people running the program wanted. They wanted everyone to suspect everyone else, even those closest to them. As soon as you stopped trusting, it was all over and any chance of escaping this nightmare went right out the window. And if she couldn't trust Harry, who could she trust? She had to risk it.
Listen to yourself! 'Risk it'? This is Harry Potter! Your best friend! And he's hurt; he's bleeding.
She had made her decision. One look at the bodies told her there was nothing she could do for Sally-Ann. But she could still catch up with Harry. She set off, following a trail of blood into the woods.
If she had hesitated a moment longer, she would have seen Dean Thomas (Male Student 20, Gryffindor) come out and find the three bodies by the entrance. She would have been there when he took one look at the bloody wreck of Sally-Ann Perks and doubled over, trying to throw up, but finding his stomach already empty. She would have noticed the helpless look on his face as it dawned on him that his classmates were willing to kill each other just because the government said so and as he came to the conclusion that there was no way out.
And she would have been able to stop him from locking himself in the groundskeeper's equipment shed near the stairs, watching the picture of Ginny Weasley that he'd been carrying smile and wave at him for a few long minutes, then taking his provided weapon (a small switchblade knife) and slicing open his wrists.
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To be continued...