Kiriyama casually wiped the drying blood off of a hand knife he found embedded in a dead student, the knife making a wet slushing sound as it was pulled out of the forehead. It was most likely only a few hours after the student's death, because the flies had yet to discover their meal. Whoever killed her must have murdered her in panic, her weapon was still in her hand, clear in view for anyone to see. He closed the knife back in its case and proceeded to hide the weapon in the back of his shoe. Bending over the body, he snapped the stiff fingers one by one to release the crossbow the corpse held with a death grip.

Near her shoes were trailings of blood, a sign she tried to struggle to get up and fight with her opponent. He searched for any weapons she may have hid, but found nothing. Most of the bodies who he'd come across were the same thing, they only possessed their own weapons. They weren't even playing the game, simply useless beings running back and forth until they no longer lived.

A slight rustle from the bushes behind him, and he checked his weapon hidden in the sleeve of his jacket. Another rustle, and the sound of a branch breaking. Was this person an idiot? Anyone with normal hearing could hear the commotion he/she was making. The person hiding didn't have a gun, or a long-range weapon, or else they would have tried using it already. Instead of an easy kill, Kiriyama chose to crouch down, pretending to tie his shoes. Another sound, heavy breathing, and the smell of sweat mixed with fear.

A step, another, and another. Faster, speeding up with each step until the last few metres were made with a dash. In the moment when the opponent was directly behind him, his gun slid into his hand, and he turned, releasing the bullet with deadly accuracy. The bullet dug itself in, making its home between the man's eyebrows. Hardly any blood came out of the wound, the student must have been in too much of a shock.

The student's weapon, surprisingly, was a gun. He held down the wounded student's arm with his leg, picking up the gun and opening the end to check for bullets. None. What had he been planning to do, kill him with a bullet-less gun? The saneness of the plan escaped him, there was no logic in attacking someone with a useless gun.

Hooking the empty gun to the back of his belt, he loaded a new magazine into his weapon, and aiming the gun to the boy…

He released the trigger.

Boy #5 Yoshimi Dead.

7 more to go.

Motobuchi tripped over a jagged rock standing upright from the ground, managing to regain his balance even with the amount of items he carried in his camouflage-colored shoulder bag. Raising his black-rimmed glasses to a higher position on his nose, he glanced back to where Satomi walked a few steps behind him.

Since the incident in the hideout, he hadn't exchanged a word with Satomi. His chest was still stinging from the bullet. Without the vest, he would have been killed, but instead he was left with what was probably a massive bruise which would only serve as a disadvantage when he had to face the others.

"Hey Motobuchi," a weak voice spoke. When he glanced back with a questioning look, Satomi shrank back, her footsteps slowing so that an even larger distance formed between them. A few seconds passed without Satomi continuing, so he asked, "What?"

"Why didn't you kill me back there?"

"Huh?" He stopped, causing Satomi, who had her eyes firmly affixed on the ground, to bump into him. She raised her vision with a puzzled expression.

"I used you as a shield from the bullet, and on top of that, you killed Yuki."

The vision of her friend crumpling to the ground flashed past her eyes, causing her to involuntarily wince. Motobuchi switched the bags' weight to his left shoulder, his hand closing and opening over the shoulder strap.

"She…had a knife in her hand."

"What?" Her eyes widened at the statement.

"While she was hugging you, she had a knife aimed at your lower back. She was going to—"

"Liar! Yuki would never do that!"

Tears welled up in her eyes. She had known Yuki since she was in elementary school, they had gone through the insecurities of middle school and high school together, Yuki was her closest friend. She knew Yuki, no matter what happened, she could trust her. They would have found a way out together.

Motobuchi grabbed the sides of her arms, slightly shaking her. "She tried to kill me, and she would have killed you too—"

"No." Shaking her head furiously, she tried to release herself from Motobuchi's grip but it was in vain.

"I know she was your friend, but people in situations like this do things that are out of their character—"

"How would you know? You've never even talked to her! She would never have been able to kill me!"

He suddenly did a 180 degree turn, pulling her in the direction of where the hide-out they had left half an hour before.

"What are you doing?" She dug her heels into the ground, the dirt collecting and leaving dents in the ground as she resisted.

"If you want to deny the truth, then I'll show you the truth. I'll show you the knife she still has in her hands—"

"Let me go—"

A bullet slicing through the air cut their conversation short, the bullet lodging into Motobuchi's chest, or rather, the center of his bullet proof vest.

"Shit.." He whispered under his breath, looking up to where the bullet came from. His eyes finally focused on a distant figure, dressed in a white shirt and shorts…with long hair? A girl? He shoved Satomi behind a tree as another round was fired. The person was coming closer by the second. She would have accurate firing range within 40…no…35 seconds. They had no time to waste.

"Listen Satomi, if you don't believe me, fine. But right now, whoever's heading our way has murder on her mind, and you'd be putting your life and mine on the line if you choose to still argue with me right now. We're going to run further into the woods on the left, don't say anything, just run. Understand?"

She nodded numbly, her hands trembling as she squeezed his upper arm to let him know she would follow his instructions. She said nothing as he threw her bag into the opposite direction they were heading. Gripping onto her hand tightly, he ran towards the left, weaving back and forth in case the person chose to randomly fire into the woods.

He had taken the time to memorize the map earlier while he was in his hideout, and he had a fairly good idea of where he was. Noting the landmark of a fence, he turned a sharp right. There was a small opening about a five meters ahead, they would be able to skid down through the opening to reach the lower level of the mountain. Without knowing that path, it would be near impossible for whoever was coming after them to get close enough to shoot, even if the person knew where they were.

"Can you see the narrow gravel path between the two bushes, they lead to the lower section of the mountain. Go through there, and once you reach the flat surface about 10 meters down, turn right."

"What about you?"

"I'll catch up with you. Now go!"

She nodded fearfully, disappearing into the bushes. As soon as she was out of sight, he unzipped his bag, drawing out fishing lines wrapped around a spool. He had confused the shooter as to which direction they had run when he threw Satomi's bag in the opposite direction. And because they had turned quite a few times in different directions, it would take even longer for her to find them. His hands shaking with nervousness, he unwrapped the string, tying ends together on different trees around neck level. With luck, the person would be running, and if she ran through one of the trees he strung the fishing line across, the invisible string would create a deep cut into her neck, perhaps enough to kill her.

Satisfied with the work, he put the spool back into his bag and ran to catch up with Satomi below.

"Was that…"

"A gunshot."

Nanahara finished her sentence for her, screwing the cap back onto the water bottle. There had been a few gunshots heard from their hiding place, some closer than others. His 'weapon', a Global Positioning System, allowed him and Nakagawa to head in the opposite direction whenever a student was getting too close in their direction. He had no idea what to do aside from running away, Nakagawa would probably end up dead if they encountered those with guns because she wouldn't have the heart to fight back. Then again, fighting back against a gun would be a pretty difficult task in itself.

"What are we going to do…it won't be long before there are so many danger zones that we're trapped in one section of the island…"

"We'll figure out what to do when the time comes."

"But then it'll be—"

"I SAID—" His voice trailed off. Holding his head, he pulled on his hair with frustration. The situation they were in right now, wasn't Nakagawa's fault, so why was he talking to her as if she was? It wasn't anyone's fault. This game… "…I'm sorry Nakagawa."

She shook her head, "I'm sorry too. Everyone's emotions are barely balancing on a thin-line, I shouldn't have doubted you. In this game, I can't afford to doubt anyone, because their idea could turn out to be the one idea that could get us all out of here….off this island."

He nodded, feeling a little better about the situation, knowing at least he was with someone he could trust.

"I'll study the map again, to see if I can get any clues as to where we could go."

Tracing the outline of the map with the pencil provided in the plastic bag, he drew borders along the danger zones to match up with the GPS image. Shading in the areas that were off-limits, he left the safe-zones unshaded.

"Hey Nakagawa…"

"Hm?"

"What weapon did you get anyway?"

Nanahara had his back to her, bent over the map with concentration. He didn't know why the question hadn't hit him earlier. If she had a gun, they might have better chances of surviving. Or maybe a knife? He had a pretty good throw, and the knife he had with him had to be left behind because he couldn't get the knife out of the skull. Maybe…

The sound of flesh meeting steel and an intense feeling of pain swept over him. He felt dizzy…and strangely a little sleepy? He looked down to the center of the pain, and what he saw…was the end of a knife that went through his body from the back. His blood collected around the knife and dripped, dripped, off the tip. Where did…

A strong need to cough, and he complied, watching as what he coughed up turned out to be blood. His own blood. The red substance like saliva, flowed from his mouth, the liquid dribbling down his neck.

"Nakagawa.."

She embraced him from behind, the action causing the knife deeper into his flesh. He winced, biting his lip hard enough to bleed, from the pain. She leaned her chin on his left shoulder, whispering "It'll end quicker if you didn't speak."

"Naka..gawa.." What was she doing…

"Thank you Nanahara. For saving my life before."

She released her hold from him, slowly turning the knife, the ripping sound of human flesh mingling with the sound of her feet digging into the dirt ground. Blood swam across his khaki jacket, making the wound seem larger than it was. Just a little more…. He involuntarily began to shake, the map and pencil rattling to the ground in a bloody mess.

…And she withdrew the knife from his back.

"Motobuchi" Her word came out only as a whisper, and if he hadn't been as alert as he was he would have missed her. Satomi was hiding behind a bush, near the base of the trail he told her to follow. He grabbed her roughly by the arm hissing, "What the hell are you doing? Didn't I tell you to run?"

"I couldn't leave you there by yourself just so I could save myself."

"Idiot, are you trying to get both of us killed!" His eyes kept on wandering to the path where he had come from, praying that whoever had been chasing them was caught in one of the traps he had set.

"That's not what—"

A rustle in the far left, behind the bushes between the trees caused both of them to freeze.

Kiriyama followed the sound of the gunshots, even though they were coming from far away, he felt confident he would be at the scene before the shooters left. Or shootER, the bullets were all coming from the same type of gun. The gunshots subsided, and he was only left with his sense of direction to lead the way.

The weapon he acquired earlier would be of no use. The knife would be a risky weapon to use up against a person with agility, because even with the aim that he has, it would be difficult to pierce any critical body parts on a moving body.

A emotionless smile crept to his lips, the image of the girl he had run into earlier running past his mind. The bullets he had heard came steady and with experience, it had to be her, none of the others remaining had that kind of ability. Finally, a person who would give him a good time without dying on him as easily as the others.

Motobuchi swore to himself internally. It had been a mistake to come down this path, the girl with the gun must have been down this path earlier and knew it better than he did. They were dead now, they were going up against someone who had a weapon that could kill from afar, while all they had was…a cookie cutter and a bullet proof vest that wouldn't protect Satomi because he was the one who wore it.

He pushed down on Satomi's shoulder, hiding her behind the bushes. The killer already knew someone was there, but perhaps she hadn't noticed Satomi yet. He would run in the opposite direction giving time for Satomi to run and…His eyes widened. It wasn't the girl with long hair. It was….Nakagawa. And what the hell was she doing holding a bloody knife…

Nakagawa hadn't noticed their presence, so he crouched down beside Satomi, placing a finger to his lips as a sign for her to be quiet. She nodded. He pointed to a clearing to the west of Nakagawa and held up three fingers, signaling they would make a run for it in three counts. Three…Nakagawa picked up a couple of grass roots and wiped the blood as best as she could from the knife. Two….she placed the knife into its holder on her waist. One…she turned away….and RUN.

Motobuchi no longer cared that he and Satomi were making a racket as they ran through the forest, his camouflage bag hitting his leg over and over as they placed further distance between them and that part of the mountain. They collapsed, with their backs leaning against each other near a stream, their breaths coming out in short gasps. He gulped in air, wiping the perspiration from his face. After the first 20 meters or so, he no longer heard Nakagawa's footsteps behind them. And even if she did manage to catch up now, he didn't have the energy to run any further. He unzipped his bag, taking out a handkerchief and dipping it into the stream. Wringing out as much water as he could, he handed it to Satomi, who looked as tired as he did.

"Do you…think…we lost her?" Satomi asked, closing her eyes as she placed the fabric onto her face to cool off.

"I don't know…maybe."

"She was shooting at us before, I wonder why she didn't use her gun when she chased after us."

That was when he realized Satomi still thought the person chasing them was the girl with the gun, not Nakagawa as he knew. And maybe it was better that she didn't know. He had seen Satomi talking to Nakagawa a few times in school…

"Yeah…I wonder why."

Tbc….