Hello my lovely readers. It's me, RjBoss12. I'm here to bring a third installment to you. I know some of you are surprised I'm making a third installment. After all, the Naib fan group is a pretty big one. (Believe me, I've checked) After so many close calls, they've decided to give me leniency as long as I don't disrespect Naib any more than I have. Though, you're not here to see if I survived or not. You want to see if Zac lives another day. Welp, let's jump right into it.

Zac was bushed after the day's events. After helping Tracy and Helena cook, he had to do a meet and greet with everyone else who was currently living in the manor. With 20 something survivors to go through, it was easy to believe that Zac needed some R&R time. After escaping from the combined efforts of Emma, Tracy, and Helena, who had wanted to give him the full tour, Zac decided to try to take a nap in his room. Before he had gotten the chance to however, he heard the sound of a microphone being turned on. It's screech caused him and everyone else to cover their ears. Coming back down the stairs, he saw Martha, the coordinator, holding the microphone. After receiving everyone's attention, she began to speak. " Hello everyone, I hope everybody has enjoyed the festivities of this morning. As much as I'd like them to continue, we do have a few matches to go through today." A few people in the room groaned while others sported a ferocious grin on their faces. Zac could tell that having a match was something some enjoyed more than others. "Alright, I'd like to ask if anyone would like to volunteer to do a match today? Those who volunteer will get tomorrow off. This was said on the sheet given to us by the host." Instantly, almost every hand went up. Zac looked around in curiosity, wondering why so many people suddenly became so willing to participate in a match. Tracy saw this and decided to explain it to him. " Days off are super hard to come by. Usually, everyone is in a match from 8 in the morning to around 10 at night. At most, people get about 4 hours to themselves per day." Hearing this shocking detail, Zac decided to sit down and watch as the others continued to try and decide who would be in the matches for the day. In the end, they all agreed that pulling names to decide would be best. Since there would be 4 matches that day, the group filled up 4 boards with 5 spots on each board. There were four spots on there for survivors and one for the hunter. As everyone began writing their names on a sheet of paper, Martha began to walk towards Zac. " Zac, do you want to enter the drawing as well?" Zac looked shocked and was about to say no before Tracy chimed in before him. " Sure he does. He may be new, but his ability is going to be awesome. I can't wait to see the look on the hunters' faces when they meet him" Zac sighed, knowing there was no way around this, and nodded his head yes. He then filled out a piece of paper with his name on it and handed it to Martha. Martha took the slip while giving Zac an apologetic look. Zac simply shrugged as he waited for everyone else to hand in theirs. After everybody had given their paper, Martha handed all of the sheets to Emily, who put them in a hat. Afterwards, she began to rifle through. All the survivors waited in anticipation as Emily called out the first group. "Ok everyone, here we go. The first group will be….. Aesop….. Victor….. Andrew…. And Luca." As you glanced around, you noticed the four of them begin to group up. Zac thought about it for a second and tried to remember who they were. " They were the embalmer, the postman, the grave keeper and the prisoner in case you were wondering." Zac looked over to Helena who had just appeared out of nowhere. " Geez, you came out of the blue. Also, that doesn't sound like a very strong team." Zac thought back to the hall and the silhouettes who he guessed were the hunters. He couldn't see how those jobs would be able to take on those … those monsters. "Don't count them out yet. I can't speak for Mr. Carl, but those other three have some sort of dynamic going. Despite the fact that 2 of them don't talk,the other one never stops opening his mouth." Tracy seemed pretty confident in their abilities so Zac decided to just wait and see what would happen. While team one went off to plan a strategy, Emily decided to pull for the next team. " Team two will consist of …. Vera…. Eli…. Fiona…. And Patricia. " Zac saw three females and one male leave the room. To say the team looked odd would have been a complete understatement. The team consisted of one person with dead animal bones and another one with horns on their head holding some kind of disc in their hand. That wasn't even mentioning the guy who had a literal owl on his shoulder. Zac noticed his eyes were covered by a blindfold, prompting him to wonder how does he see? As Zac wondered this, he missed Emily calling the third team. Tracy later told him that the team consisted of William, Martha, Kurt and Emily herself. Zac didn't remember meeting Kurt, but knew the others sort of well. Judging by how they acted and what he had seen them do, Zac kinda felt bad for the hunter. He had a feeling they would be a tough group to handle. Before she left, Emily decided to draw the last names of the day. Feeling as though he could relax, Zac grabbed himself a can of soda and began to drink when Emily read out the last names. "Team four will consist of…. Emma…. Helena…. Tracy…. And Zac." At hearing his name, Zac nearly spit his drink out. The only thing that stopped him was Naib walking past him. As if he saw what Zac was about to do, he instantly gave him a death glare, almost begging him to spit out his drink. Deciding to choose life over death, Zac swallowed and began to cough. Tracy and Helena started to pat his back as Naib walked away along with everyone else who hadn't gotten a match. Emily came down to talk to Zac as he was busy hacking up a lung. " Well, I wish you the best of luck in your match. Ms Adams, Woods and Reznik are all veterans of the game at this point. They should be able to help you with surviving this match." With those words, Emily patted Zac on the back and went off to join her team. While Zac was a bit lost, Helena and Tracy attempted to lighten the mood. "Well, I didn't see that coming. I honestly didn't think you'd get picked. This seems almost funny." Helena gave Tracy a stern glance as she turned back to Zac. " Don't worry Zac, Tracy and I are some of the best decoders in the game. Emma is also a really good kiter. We'll be in and out as quick as a snap." As if to emphasize her point, Helena quickly snapped her fingers. What no one anticipated afterwards was the rumbling. Zac, Tracy and Helena all felt the rumbling at the same time. Though, while Zac stood up to see what it was, Helena and Tracy immediately dove for cover behind the couch they were sitting. Before he could ask why they did that, he began to hear a high pitched noise coming closer. "...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… ZAC!" was all Zac heard before he was tackled. After the shock, he looked up to see Emma pulling him, jumping up and down. " We get to be in a group for your first match. Aren't you excited? I know I am! Come on, let's go prep you for the match. Tracy and Helena already told me what your ability is going to be, so let's go bake before it's game time!" Zac hadn't gotten a single word out as Emma began to drag him away by his collar towards the kitchen. As Zac looked back, he could see Helena and Tracy waving at him, almost as if to apologize. He only glared and called out " GIVE ME SOME WARNING NEXT TIME!" as he was fully dragged away.

It was around five in the afternoon when the game started. Beginning at 12, Zac and his team had spent time preparing treats for his match. Well, it was more like Zac was making the food while the other three mostly watched and attempted to help when they could. While they were cooking, they heard the commotion from the others on how their matches had gone. The first team had gotten a 2 man tie with Victor and Aesop getting out. Zac wondered what happened to Luca and Andrew, but Tracy told him not to worry about it. She said that they'd be back in a bit. The second round had been a complete win with all four of the survivors getting out. Zac thought that was pretty neat, but everyone else made it sound as though that outcome was too obvious. The third game also ended with a win, but with only Kurt, Martha and Emily making it out. Emily told everyone that William decided to sacrifice his escape to make sure the rest of the group got away. Everyone seemed to just nod, saying that, that was the type of person William was. When five in the afternoon came around, Zac's nerves were beyond shot. Worrying about facing one of the hunters, he had almost decided to skip the match. While a lot of the survivors knew he was scared, they couldn't let him skip out. Skipping out would bring on a consequence for all of the survivors. In the end, it came down to Kevin lassoing Zac and forcing him to go to the meeting hall. On the way there, Zac did nothing but kick and struggle trying to go back to his room. Kevin only shrugged, saying "Geez, with that kind of struggling, you'll have no problems in the match." After about 5 minutes, Zac was placed in his seat, alongside Emma, Tracy and Helena. Emma handed Zac a satchel filled with all of his special treats. " We wouldn't want you to go in unarmed."she smiled as she pressed a button in front of her. Tracy and Helena also pressed the buttons in front of them. Though hesitant, Zac was about to press his button when Tracy stopped him. "Oh, I almost forgot. Here, take this." As Tracy said this, she strapped on a watch to his arm. Zac was about to ask what it did when Tracy slapped the button down in front of him. In an instant, Zac felt the world around him spin as unconsciousness took control. The last voice he heard was the voice of Miss Nightingale saying "Good Luck."

End of Cha… Wait wait wait, we can't end it like this. I'm not gonna leave the group on a cliffhanger so let's just continue.

As Zac woke up, he noticed his surroundings had changed. Instead of the waiting room he had been in, he woke up in a whole other place. The ceiling was high and around him were many long corridors. Pulling himself together, Zac began to wander. The entire place was full of broken walls and busted windows. Before he could wander any further, he heard a buzzing. Trying to locate the source, he found it was coming from his watch, he lifted it up and began to poke around with it. After hitting a random button, he heard one of the group's voices. " Zac, can you hear me?" The voice belonged to Tracy and Zac quickly responded. "I can hear you. Where are we?" "We're at the White Sand Street Asylum. Man, of all the maps to get. Maybe the hunter will go friendly." Tracy said, a sense of hope in her voice. That was immediately trashed as Zac heard Emma's voice come through. "Guys, you need to hide. Hunter is near me and closing in fast!" Zac heard Tracy sigh as she asked who it was. " Bad news guys, it's Mary." "Really, of all the hunters to get in this match, we get her?!" Zac heard Tracy screech. She then did some breathing to calm down and spoke again. " Ok, here's the plan. Emma, keep Mary busy for as long as you can. We'll focus on decoding the ciphers. Zac, I want you to either find Helena or myself. If you can't find us, look for a cipher and decode it like we told you. With any luck, we'll be out of here with minor damage." As Tracy said this, Zac's watch let out a notification showing 2 cipher machines were finished. With that, Tracy and Emma jumped off the communication wave and everything was silent. Not wanting to be alone, Zac immediately began to search for another person. The farther he walked, the more lost he became. Eventually, he came across what the group had explained was a cipher machine. Looking at his watch, he noticed that there were only two ciphers remaining and everyone seemed to be ok. Deciding he wanted to be at least a bit helpful, Zac walked over to the cipher and began to attempt working on it. As he tried, he noticed that some of the mess from his earlier cooking began to drip onto the cipher machine. Each time it dripped, it caused Zac to set off the machine, sending sparks of electricity off of it. Though it took a while, Zac actually managed to complete the cipher 50% of the way. As he was about to continue decoding, he suddenly felt a pain in his chest. His heart began to beat irregularly. It was almost as if it was trying to warn him of something. Looking around, he noticed Emma come barreling down the hallway. He was about to ask what was wrong when she quickly tackled him into another room. Once inside, she pulled him behind what looked like pews. She then made a shushing sound as she peered around the corner. "Emma, what was that…" Zac didn't get to finish his sentence when Emma put her hand over his mouth. Zac pondered this as he heard footsteps. The steps sounded like someone wearing heels. Zac peeked around the corner as well and saw a stunning sight. In front of where they were hiding stood a woman. She wore a bright red dress and red shoes. Her skin was an icy blue and her eyes seemed dark and soulless. In her hand, from what he could gather, was a blade of glass. What truly caught Zac's attention was her throat. Her throat seemed stitched together and looked very loose. Part of her neck was unstitched and dried blood could be seen underneath. The woman continued to edge closer and closer to them as more and more sweat poured down Zac's brow. He turned to Emma for advice, but could see she was out of it. He knew that they needed a way out of there, yet no ideas came to his head. He then felt a slight buzzing on his arm as he turned to look at his watch. It was a text from Tracy. The message read " My robot scanned the area and found you and Emma pinned down. We'd help but we're not equipped for the job. Have you used your item yet? If not, I think now's a good time for it." Zac began to wonder how his stuff could help him when he suddenly remembered. Back at the manor, he was told that they would give him benefits based off of the jobs they had or what they had with them. Opening his satchel, Zac found 5 cookies, 2 pieces of fresh bread and 3 pies. An idea forming in his head, he picked up a cookie and turned to Emma. "Emma here, eat this." Emma turned to him with a tired look on her face, she stared at the cookie and silently asked "what is it?" "It's my super special personally made cookie: The double choco sugar cookie. I don't know if this'll work, but Tracy said the manor gives benefits based on a person. Hopefully, the same works for my baked goods." Zac whispered, nudging the cookie towards Emma. Zac winced as he heard the footsteps get closer, wishing Emma would eat the cookie faster. At this point, they had nothing to lose. After a second of groaning, Emma finally ate the cookie as Mary was about to turn the corner. As soon as Emma finished the cookie, the color immediately returned to her face. She immediately jumped up, much to the surprise of both you and Mary, who you hoped hadn't seen you yet. Emma then began shouting and yelling. "I feel wonderful! Almost as if I could go on forever!" With those words, Emma immediately boosted out of the room. Mary soon gave chase, swinging her shard and barely missing. When he thought the coast was clear, Zac stood to his feet. He examined the room and started back towards the cipher. The watch showed only one more cipher was necessary. As soon as Zac sped out of the door however, he instantly felt a slash across his back. Falling forwards, he instantly looked behind to see a horrifying sight, it was Mary, but also not her. This Mary was see through. As he stared in shock the mirror image simply smiled and said the words " I knew there was someone else there." As it said this, the mirror image seemed to spin. As it did, the mirror-like image became more life-like. In less than a second, the real Mary stood before him. Zac attempted to reach for his cane, yet found it was across the hall. With no way to stand back up without the support, Zac began to scoot backwards while Mary walked towards him menacingly. She seemed to smile as she proceeded to speak. " So, you are the new survivor? The others were right, you aren't much. That little trick you pulled with the chair breaker was interesting, but fruitless nonetheless. All we'd have to do is take away your cane and you're left with nothing. Well, I might as well make this quick, I have three other survivors to hunt down." With that being said, Mary raised her hand to the sky as she prepared to swing the shard down on him. Zac shut his eyes, awaiting the hit. Instead however, all he heard was a sudden "thwonk." Opening his eyes, Zac saw Helena holding her cane in a batting stance. He then felt himself being pulled away slowly by someone else. Looking behind him, Zac saw Tracy pulling him as hard as she could towards his cane. As Mary shook her head a bit, she began to walk towards Zac when Helena hit her once again. Feeling annoyed, Mary turned her attention to Helena as she booked it out of the room. Mary followed behind, shouting at her as she seemed to pull a mirror out of nowhere. While that happened, Tracy shoved Zac's cane into his stomach and pulled him along to the cipher he had worked on before. The cipher was at 70%. Zac looked over to Tracy, who was shaking and had worry written all over her face. "Thank you for rescuing me." Tracy then shoved Zac and said " If you want to thank us, focus on decoding. Helena isn't going to last long kiting Mary. As she said that, the watch went off, showing Helena had been injured. Zac and Tracy began decoding as Emma contacted them to say she was waiting at the gate. However, Zac noticed that Tracy seemed to be doing worse and worse, missing more of the machine than he was. Zac looked over to her and asked if she was ok. Tracy proceeded to sigh, a tear trailing down her face. "I'm scared, I'm just really scared. You and Helena are injured, Emma is bone tired and I can't seem to do this cipher right." "Hey, we're injured, but we're not downed yet. Let's get this done and get out of here." Tracy seemed to smile, yet still seemed distressed. Seeing this, Zac decided to try something. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a loaf of bread. Breaking it apart, he offered some to Tracy. She eyed the bread before taking a bite. In an instant, a change seemed to appear. She went from distressed and worried to extremely calm. "Wow, this bread is so crunchy. It tastes so good" As she finished the bread, she immediately went to work on the cipher. Zac smiled as he ate the bread as well. Instantly, he felt calm and relaxed. All of his worries seemed to dissipate. Little by little, they worked on the cipher until they had finished it. As they typed the last part, an alarm suddenly went off in the distance. " Tracy immediately went to her watch to contact Emma, asking "Which gate are you at?" "I'm at the north gate." she replied with great speed. Immediately, the two of them took off towards the gate. Tracy led the way as Zac attempted to follow. The problem was, Tracy was moving way faster than before. Zac tried to keep up, but only just managed not to fall behind. Tracy noticed and decided to address it. "Sorry, I forgot you don't have your builds unlocked." "My what?" "I'll explain later, let's go." It took a bit, but Tracy and Zac finally made it to the gate, which had already been opened by Emma. Emma patted Zac's shoulder. "Not bad for your first game. Your food really came in handy." She said, smiling. Zac was about to respond, when all of a sudden, a jolt went through the watch. Looking down, you all saw that Helena had gone from full health to downed. As Zac thought about this, he looked over to Tracy and Emma. Both of them looked healthy and refreshed while he still felt tired and grungy. Zac was going to ask about the reason behind this when he heard struggling coming from down the hall. Looking out, you saw Mary holding Helena in what looked like balloons before putting her on a chair. As she did, a countdown started. Zac looked to the others, questioning what was happening, yet saw they were heading out. "Wait, what about Helena? She's in trouble!" The two looked sorrowfully at each other as they turned to Zac. "We can't do anything. Mary has something that will instantly down anyone she hits. None of us are safe from it. As long as the three of us make it out, we win. Now, we need to go." Tracy said sadly as she and Emma ran past the barrier separating the map and the exit. Zac was about to exit as well, when he heard a yell. Looking back, he saw Mary had cut Helena across the arm as she was chaired. A few tears were produced as Helena attempted to hold in her cries. Mary just seemed to smile and slash again, causing Helena to scream in response. Zac didn't know why, but those screams tugged at his mind, as if it was pulling at something locked away. Without thinking, he immediately turned back and rushed as fast as he could towards Helena and Mary. Mary saw this, only laughing as she took a step back. "Go ahead, free the girl. I'll just knock her down and you with her. As Zac rushed forward, he looked into the satchel he still had. When he got to Helena, he tore off the bindings and started pushing her to the exit. As Mary lifted up her shard to down them both, Zac picked up one of the pies he had and smashed it right in her face. What happened next was talked about for a long while. When the pie made contact, Mary just seemed to freeze as the substance fell down her face. The silence soon turned into full on rage. Mary swiped the pie off of her face and made a full fledged sprint towards the two survivors. Zac and Helena saw this and quickly moved faster towards the exit gate. As they made it to the gate, Zac fell down due to something caught on his ankle. Looking behind him, he saw Mary holding on to his one leg, attempting to pull him back to the map. Zac struggled as much as he could as Mary slowly dragged him back into the map. Helena held on to his arms, but offered little resistance against the maddened Mary. As soon as it seemed like Mary had him, Zac saw Tracy's doll leap out from the side of the opening. It's sudden appearance caused Mary to loosen her grip, allowing Zac to pull away and make it out of the map. Seeing Zac escape, Mary took her frustrations out on the doll. She began to tear it apart as though it were the one who humiliated her. As Zac made his way out, the last thing he heard was the sound of Mary cursing his name and how she would get even. Though inside, Zac could only smile. He had saved someone. That alone was enough to make him feel good. With that, he and Helena walked out of the map, tired and ready for a nap.

End of chapter 3

Well…. That escalated really quickly. Now, along with Naib fans, BQ fans are gonna be after my head. Why do I do this to myself?... Oh yeah, because it makes for a more interesting plot.

Zac has finished his first match. It was an interesting one for sure. However, it seems a memory that was hidden may be surfacing. What in the world could it be? Also, the builds? What are those? How will Zac utilize them? That's all for next time!

To end off the chapter, it's time to reveal Zac's traits. Here they are:

Trait 1: Master Baker. The baker carries with him a satchel holding an assortment of goods. The goods inside can give survivors different buffs depending on what is consumed

Cookies: sugar rush (8% speed increase) 5 per match

Fresh bread: Calmed mind (10% decoding increase) 3 per match

Pies: Comedy (Stuns hunter for 7 sec. Hitting hunter with pies causes hunter to target baker only for 20 sec) 3 per match

Trait 2: Messy cooker

Having no time to clean up before his match starts, the baker is usually very sticky. Decoding is reduced by 20%. People who decode on the same cipher as baker receive 10% decode debuff.)

The second part means if baker leaves the cipher unfinished and someone comes in to finish it, decoding that cipher leads to decoding 10% slower on that cipher. Not other ciphers

Trait 3: Balancing act

(In his first few matches) Limited by the loss of an appendage, the bakers vaulting speed is decreased by 15%||

Trait 4: Forever Remembered

The baker never wants to lose another person like he did before. When a person is chaired, the baker's movement speed is increased by 50% when running towards a chaired ally. Running away from chaired ally by a certain radius slows movement speed by 20% ( This trait overtakes escape when all ciphers are finished)

Well that's all for now.

TTFN: Ta Ta For Now