Chapter 4

Chapter 4. Sorry I forgot to say it before, but I do own the characters for this story, but not the background/universe of it. Reviews would be much appreciated. I decided to start The Program slowly so that the readers could know more about the characters before the carnage. Battle Royale is not just blood and gore. Reviews would be much appreciated.

The frightened, average-faced and short Hisame Shikamoto slowly stood up, sweating, and moved towards the classroom door. There, she took a quick glance at her weirdly blond-haired and blue-eyed cousin, Mari. The message was clear. Hisame wanted to say "I am going to wait for you.", but her voice couldn't come out. She was too scared. As she left the school, one of the guards gave her a duffel bag, with a weapon and food inside. Then Hisame left the school.

"Girl number #2, Kumiko Noma!" – screamed the malicious teacher.

Kumiko, the beautiful and frigid class bitch, who along with her friends had a really bad reputation, stood up. She seemed to be calm and reserved, not feeling any nervousness or fear. Kumiko was the total opposite of Hisame. She didn't even look back at her friends before leaving.

"Girl number #3, Chitose Higurashi!"

Chitose, the weak but loyal friend of Yoriko Shibasaki, also nervously stood up and looked back at her friend. She already knew they would wait for each other. While Yoriko was crying at the table, Chitose controlled her fear and left the school quietly. What an irony. The girl who looked like a 10-year old was not afraid, but the one who's athletic and strong was.

As the next girls were quickly being called, Asuka looked back at Kyoko, deep into her eyes, and said:

"When you leave the school, call my name." – Of course Asuka wasn't going to walk all by herself, and become an easy prey. She noticed that, with the exception of the poor Sato who did not have any friends, everybody else was going to ally with their closest group.

"I think we should call more people to go with us." – replied Kyoko.

"I don't t think it's a good idea. With the exception of Chitose and Yoriko, we are not actually friends with anybody else." – Asuka was right. She and Kyoko did not trust the other girl groups in class. Rin's group sometimes did mean things to other students and were always gossiping during class. Miki and Kageri were two snobs, manipulative and trendy. Girls like Aya Tsunaba or Mari Shikamoto were way too strange to be trusted. And of course they could never think of allying with Kumiko's group.

"Well, then we are in a lot of bad luck. Our friends and Misa, all of them leave the school before we do."- Kyoko lamented that bad coincidence as the other girls were called to leave. A hysterical Tomoko left the door shaking. Rin also looked back at her friends to say that she would wait. Kageri was screaming and desperate, and Sachiko just repeated Rin's gestures.

When Aya Tsunaba was called, she stood proudly and fearless, and as she received her bag, made the cross signal and prayed a little before leaving.

"We should talk to Yoriko and tell her to wait for us." – The idea was shining brightly through Kyoko's mind.

The girls looked to Yoriko's desk and gave up. It was way too far from where they were sitting, and if they stood up without having their name called they would be shot by the two guards. Besides, Yoriko was still crying, drowning in her own pain. She would not hear them.

After Hana Nozaki left, it was Misa's turn. Misa was nice to Asuka and Kyoko, but they did not know her enough to offer her their own backs. As she left, a guard, attracted by her sensual and feminine body, slapped her in the buttocks. All the girls held their breath. If Misa did anything to fight back, she would be shot. But the girl simply ignored the humiliation and kept walking forwards, slightly glaring at the guard with an angry expression. Soon after the fake-blonde Mari left, as scared and unconfident as her cousin, Asuka was called:

"Girl #13, Asuka Yamanaka!" – Asuka got up and stared gently at Kyoko.

"Don't worry, I'll wait." – Asuka could not hold her own fear or her trembling feet, as she walked away from the school and picked up her bag like a zombie. She also could not hide the single tear that dropped from her left eye. After Asuka left the school, she could not remember, for example, which color the walls of the hallway were. She wasn't looking at them.

Outside, the air was cold and threatening. After the school, there was a huge crossroad, with several options of streets to go. There were no street name signals, maybe because The Program coordinators wanted the girls to get lost and then run into each other, not knowing where they were going. Thankfully, Asuka found a large wooden box (maybe there was something inside), used for weapon trafficking, and decided to hide behind so that she would not be seen. She went over there and remained quiet.

From where she was, Asuka could not see her classmate's faces, but could still hear their voices. She recognized Sato's weeping, her annoying, baby like-voice; the same with Kagura Soga. But she could not hear anything from the others except their steps. Finally, Asuka heard a voice that filled her with happiness:

"Asuka?"- it was Kyoko. Asuka quickly came out of her hiding spot and hugged her best friend with all the strength she could. It was so great that there was nobody else there except for them!

They hugged for a while until they heard more steps coming out of the school. Both did not even look back to see who it was. Asuka just whispered in Kyoko's ear:

"Let's go before somebody sees us." – Then both started running west, through the dirty, poorly illuminated street, until they could not see the school anymore.

A few seconds later, Shizuko Honda left the school. She felt so much regret on not telling her two friends to wait for her. Now she was alone, and pregnant, which would make it much more difficult to survive. Then, an intense truth made Shizuko's blood run cold. What if her baby came out on the island? She was already nine months pregnant, and the doctor said it would be born really soon. During the labor, she would be completely defenseless. If at least Rena and Natsumi were there to help her…

Out of fear and curiosity, Shizuko decided to check her weapon to see what it was. She opened her bag and took the object out. Shizuko smiled with joy, because luck was on her side. Of course, she would not kill anybody, but at least a weapon like that would help her for self-defense. The pregnant girl started walking faster and went through a narrow street, trying to find her friends.

On her right hand, there was an Uzi machine gun.