44 students remaining

"Good evening contestants it's time for Mr Henderson's second announcement. Well we have been busy haven't we? After only one kill in the first five hours the second five hours brings us four kills. It's still a slow start but it is defiantly an improvement. Remember, you can't always trust your friends and you always have to keep your wits about you. Take into consideration things like doors that are ajar and taking your eyes off your opponent. Check your maps for the new forbidden zone. You see that the map is divided into squares and these are labelled A1, A2 etc so as the first square was, obviously, D4, where our wonderful school is situated. Last announcement made C3 a forbidden zone and our new zone is F5. I feel like I'm playing Battleships. C4 HIT! Goodnight children. Rest assured there will be some of you who won't survive to hear my next announcement."

Rishi headed east. After the announcement he saw that there was a forbidden zone ahead of him so anyone near there would head to the shelter offered by the residential area to stay the night. The woodland to the north of it would be a scary place to spend the night so he was almost guaranteed to find a weak player with a hopefully good weapon. Crossing into the residential area Rishi felt the reassuring texture of concrete under his feet. This was his domain. The first house he checked was empty, the second was locked but the third was not. Quietly he opened the door, cursing as it creaked. The ground floor was deserted but noises from upstairs told him that the house had residents. Heading upstairs he found Toni-Lynn Smith (female student number twenty one) and Emma Short (female student number twenty) asleep on the tattered remains of a blanket. Their weapons lay on the floor next to them. Rishi smirked. They would offer no protection from his blade. What use were a toilet brush and a glue gun? Bending down Rishi clamped a hand over Toni-Lynn's mouth. Her eyes snapped open and she began to struggle. She was no match for Rishi's strength and he lifted her and dragged her from the room. Quietly he dragged her into the next room and pressed the blade of his machete into her throat. After a slight resistance the blade cut through her skin and blood bubbled from the wound. Rishi continued cutting until her throat was wide open. Cutting through half of her neck bone he propped her up in front of the door and tossed one of her shoes into the hall. Pressing himself up behind the door he listened for the noises of Emma getting up to investigate. "Toni? Toni where are you?"

Emma pushed open the door.

"There you are Toni. What are you doing here? You gave me such a fright. Come on then Toni. Remember when we said it was safer to stick together-ARGH!"

Emma had reached out to pull Toni back and as soon as she touched her, her head flopped backwards and Toni fell to the floor. Rishi chose this moment to strike. His machete swung towards Emma who turned and ducked out of the way. With a grunt of annoyance Rishi swung again, this time aiming for Emma's exposed arm but she was already running to the room where her weapon was. Rishi crashed through the door and saw Emma pointing her glue gun at him. Squeezing the trigger a glob of hot glue landed on Rishi's arm, burning through his skin and cooling, forming an impregnable scab-like covering of the wound. This was too much for Rishi. He would not be denied a kill with his third swing. Deciding to thrust the machete he caught Emma of guard and before she could fire the glue gun again Rishi sank the blade into her chest. Emma's ribs cracked under the force and pierced her lungs and heart. Letting her body fall to the floor Rishi pulled his blade free and, after thinking, wiped the blood on his machete onto Emma's school uniform. Packing their food and water Rishi stepped out into the quiet street. The quiet night was then shattered as gunshots ripped through the wall next to him. Rishi took cover and soon realised that the bullets weren't aimed at him. Someone else was fighting for their life tonight.

42 students remaining

Vinny and Tom sat in silence. They had found the general store and were taking a break from plundering it. It was Tom who broke the silence.

"So you are a player right. You have chosen to kill."

"I have to kill Tom. We all do. You above all should know that. I'm just trying to survive. I don't want to kill everyone. We should find some other people and form a group with them.

"Can you trust anyone though?"

"No but I won't kill some people. Even I have limits."

"You know what people say when they find out that their next door neighbour is a serial killer, or a terrorist?"

Vinny stopped what he was doing and turned towards Tom. "No what do they say?"

"They say that they would never have suspected that person. How did you become this Vinny? How did you become this person, this killer? You aren't a bad person, you don't smoke, drink often. You don't take drugs or break the rules. Who created this person inside you? Was it your dad?"

"I've never met my dad. Never went out fishing with him, never done all those father-son things."

"Did he walk out on your family before you were born or something?"

"No he was an anonymous sperm donor."

Tom chuckled. Here they were in this god forsaken place, competing to survive at the expense of their friends and Vinny could still joke about his parentage. It was then that a single shot smashed through the window and thudded into Tom's arm. Parts of his flesh were blown away and he dropped to the ground. Not screaming in pain however. He was crouching down and was motioning for Vinny to do the same. Crawling behind the counter they waited. Soon they heard the jingle of the bells near the shop door informing them that the assailant was in the shop with them. Vinny clutched his rifle and peeked around the corner. What he saw was equally frightening and amazing.

It was Lois. Her arm seemed to be growing a green fungus and she was sweating profusely. It was clear she had an infected wound beyond a stage that could be treated. Ignoring Tom and Vinny Lois crossed over to a shelf and started gulping down pills for headaches. She was to far gone. Vinny motioned to Tom and he stood. His good arm shakily held his shotgun steady. Then, in a moment of calm, his arm stopped shaking long enough to pull the trigger. Lois's back turned red and she was thrown forward into the shelf. Tom let the shotgun fall to the floor and crouched down. Vinny thought that he was overcome with emotion again but it turned out he was inspecting his injury. He turned to face Vinny.

"Get her weapon, food and water. She has a gun so check for extra bullets. Then we need to get to the clinic. I don't want to turn out like her."

41 students remaining