Chapter 9

It was morning, Roland and Mokuba had been up since dawn searching for Kaiba and the others. Mokuba seemed refreshed from his sleep, and Roland who had been awake all night was still very alert even though he had been awake for over twenty-four hours.

They came to some fallen trees that were piled up in a clearing and spotted Andrew and Duke who were both sleeping. Excitedly Mokuba ran up to them. "Hey guys wake up!"

Andrew awoke with a start as he heard Mokuba and glanced at Duke who was rubbing his eyes as he too had woken up. "You fell asleep!" Andrew said as he grabbed Duke by the throat. "I stayed awake on my watch to make sure that we weren't attacked by anyone who might be playing this game, and this is how you repay me!"

Mokuba stood shocked as he watched the two of them argue,

"I don't see what you're complaining about." Duke protested to Andrew's comments. "You're still alive."

"Yeah, no thanks to you!" Andrew roared.

"Please don't argue." Mokuba said as he tried to talk the two of them out of fighting each other. "We should concentrate on finding the others."

"He's right." Andrew released his hold on Duke as he threw him towards the fallen trees. "I'll deal with you later."

Yami was up a tree looking through a pair of binoculars searching for any sign of the others that may be close by. The other three were sat on the ground as they ate some of their bread for breakfast. Zene had been awake the longest as she awoke from still feeling slightly uneasy about being around the other three.

"Come you see anything?" Bakura shouted up to Yami.

"Not yet. I think it would be a good idea if we … hold on." Yami was about to suggest that they move to some place else when he spotted a group appearing from the other side of a hill. "I see some of the others coming this way. Three of them; Kaiba, Serenity and Sarah." He began to descend the tree.

"Sarah!" Bakura said with a mouthful of bread. He got up and raced off in the direction that Yami had been looking.

"Wait for us!" Tea shouted after him.

The locator bleeped loudly in Kaiba's hand as he and the two girls walked towards the area where five flashing dots where coming from, all of them heading their way. Kaiba looked up to see Bakura in the lead with Yugi, Tea and Zene following right behind. The morning sun shone across his face highlighting the bruise on his left cheek where Sarah had struck him.

As Sarah saw Bakura appear she gave a joyful squeal before she ran towards him. She was so glad to see him that she threw herself in to his open arms, nearly knocking him off balance, and kissed him. "I've been so worried about you, and missed you so much."

"Me too." Bakura kissed her back.

By now the others had gathered where the two love birds stood. "Oh please, do you two have to do that?" Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"Still your usual cheery self I see." Zene laughed, and was met with an un-amused glare from Kaiba.

Tea approached Serenity who looked like she hadn't slept for weeks. "I'm sorry to hear about Joey. I'm here if you want to talk about it." and without warning Serenity collapsed in to sobs as she rest against her.

Feeling uncomfortable about what was happening and trying not to think about his friend's death, Yami turned to Kaiba. "What's that?" he asked.

"It's a locator, which helped us to track you down." Kaiba told him. "Did you leave anyone behind in there?"

"No, it was just the four of us." Yami exclaimed and turned to see the edge of the forest.

"Well then you where being followed." Kaiba pointed out.

"By whom?" Yami asked as he looked at Kaiba as though he could tell from the locator.

"I don't know." Kaiba replied and he flashed a sly smile as he said; "Let's find out."

Kaiba and Yami broke away from the rest of the group, who slowly followed them, as they went to investigate who it was that was coming their way. The bushes began the rustle and Emma emerged from them covered in blood.

"Emma!" the two of them exclaimed at the same time at seeing their friend.

"Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" Yami asked concerned, whilst Kaiba remained quiet and the others caught up with them.

Emma stared at them all with sore tired eyes. She moved towards Serenity and removed something from her jacket pocket. She handed it to Serenity. "What I've done is unforgivable." she spoke very quietly.

Serenity looked down at her hands and saw the dogtag that Joey always wore. Her eyes filled up with tears. "You killed my brother!" she lashed out and began to continuously hit Emma who just stood there and took each blow.

The others shook their heads in disbelief. All apart from Zene, who had no reason to believe or disbelieve anything about any of them, accept Kaiba.

Seeing that her blows weren't doing anything Serenity turned and rushed to the nearest person and buried her head in their clothing as she continued to cry even more.

Kaiba didn't take too kindly to being the one that Serenity had chosen as she was covering his white coat with her mucus and tears. But he ignored the fact that she was there as he stared coldly at Emma wanting explanations.

Emma stared at Serenity and thought about how much the younger girl was hurting from the lose of her brother. She also felt slightly jealous as she watched her crying on to Kaiba. Without even seeing Kaiba's demanding look she began to explain what had happened. "We were attacked by an eliminator who I managed to kill in self defence, but Joey had been shot in the back by an arrow." She looked up to find everyone, even Serenity, staring at her.

"I tried to carry him to find help but it was useless as nobody was around to hear my cries. He had lost a lot of blood and was very weak. I tried to keep him alive during the night but …." Emma stopped and found herself biting her lip as her eyes watered. "He died in my arms. And everything that he said to me was true." She dropped down to her knees and was crying heavily. "Every person that dies during this game is due to me. I was the one that invited you all here so I'm responsible for all of your lives."

It wasn't long before Emma felt someone's arm around her shoulder. She looked up to see Tea crouched down beside her. She began to cry harder as the person that she had wanted to comfort her was Kaiba. She couldn't believe that after everything she had done for him he wouldn't drop his guard for one moment to comfort a friend in need. She leaned into Tea and continued to cry as she wrapped her arms around her and told her that it wasn't her fault.