Chapter 8

Asuka and Kyoko arrived at the market square a little bit past 10:00 am. Since they found each other outside of the school, the two girls spent the entire time looking for a place to stay and walking through the deserted streets, without meeting anyone. They were lucky their class was relatively small, with only 22 people. The more people there were, smaller would be their chances of surviving until the end. They were well-armed, just in case: Asuka had received a .38 Glock pistol, and Kyoko got one of the strangest weapons in the game: a flamethrower. It was actually a good weapon, as it could burn an opponent down in single second.

"Let's rest here for a while. I'm really tired." – whispered Asuka under her breath. The girls spent the entire time so far without eating anything, water being the only thing keeping them able to stand on their feet. It was an extremely hot day, and sweat dripped over the two friend's bodies. Yet, they had managed to frantically walk nonstop through more than three hours. They haven't found any good place: it seemed as if the vast majority of the houses were locked or barreled, along with the stores. The Program organizers probably wanted the students to struggle to find a house, so that the majority would end up confrontating each other on the streets.

"Alright, Asuka." – The pair got closer to the plaza, and now they could clearly see a fountain at the center of it, gracefully throwing water on the air. If the girls were not in The Program, the first thing they would do would be jump into the fountain and bathe in it. But the elegant school uniforms were the only clothes they had.

"I wish Nobuo was here…" – Kyoko had no choice but to start bawling. She would actually love to be with her boyfriend again, the handsome and one year older guy that was simply perfect for her. She wondered what would be like to swim in that fountain with him and Asuka, and then forget about The Program, forget about everything. Shame things had turned out that way, but Kyoko was still very hopeful. She and Asuka would escape with more people, then they would become a famous classical music band, and years later they would overthrow that monstrous government. But it was only dreams. Reality came fast, laying only a few steps in front of Asuka and Kyoko, in the form of Miki Nakayoshi's dead body.

"AAARRGGHH"- Asuka screamed at the top of her lungs when first seeing the body. Miki was clearly dead, with a large stabbing mark on her neck and a pool of bright red blood all around her. Her face was extremely pale and her eyes were twisted with fear. Both girls had never seen a body in their lives, so for them the impact was huge. Asuka started crying and kneeling to the ground, while Kyoko held her and cried as well. They did not really believe that some people WOULD play that game. It seemed that their class wasn't that innocent and fragile, even though it was made only by girls.

"Where…. Where is her weapon?" – questioned Asuka, crying. The person who killed Miki took her weapon away. Who could that be? Miki wasn't a very likeable girl, but wasn't actually hated by the class like Kumiko Noma's gang was. There were no specific grudges against her, or even reasons for her death. Perhaps, Kyoko thought, this game does not need reasons. People kill only for pleasure. Kyoko tried to stop thinking about the brutality of the human nature. It was too depressing.

"We can't stay here much longer, Asuka. The person who killed her is probably nearby, waiting to make another victim." – A wave of fear went through their bodies. If someone attacked them, at least one would die. Asuka and Kyoko were not killers, much less aggressive or knew how to fight. One shot and it would be over for at least one of them. And without the other… everything would fall apart for the remaining one, everything.

"Ok. Let's g…"- Asuka's eyes were illuminated as she saw an open store on the other side of the plaza. It was small and hidden, but she was sure that it was open. The plate on the front side of the place said: "Noodle Mania- Everything you can eat!" – Both girls loved noodles, and would actually start killing to get to eat that.

"Let's get a little and then we go. I can't stand being hungry anymore." – said Asuka with the most joy she could muster after seeing a dead body. She started running towards the noodle shop, while Kyoko ran behind her. For Kyoko, there was something really wrong there. They had just seen someone dead, and were worried about attackers nearby. All of a sudden, they see a good place to eat. Was it some sort of joke? It was way too good to be true. Butterflies flew through Kyoko's stomach. What if someone was waiting for them there?

Kyoko's thoughts were answered with a bang.

"GET DOWN!"- Kyoko screamed, as she pulled her friend to the floor with all her strength. The bullet shot at medium range narrowly missed Asuka's head and hit a wall in the back of the shop instead. Kyoko, still lying on the floor, instinctively looked over her shoulder to see who had shot. And the person who was playing that game was exactly the person she could never imagine would play.

It was Sato Mizunoe. The fat, glass-eyed girl was clearly out of her mind. Her face was red with anger and madness, and there were marks of tears near her eyes. She was mumbling some sentences incorrectly while pointing her Walter PPK at them. How could Kyoko never think that the bullied, overlooked girl would want revenge against her classmates? Anyway, she tried to stop Sato by trying to help her:

"Sato, don't worry! We're not your enemies! We want to help you to escape this island with us! Don't shoot, please!" – Kyoko yelled and begged. The beautiful, popular girl was now lowering herself to a level of inferiority , lower than the class outcast.

"Stop… lying!" – Sato screamed, and then fired another shot again. The ugly girl had never used a gun before, so aiming wasn't easy for her. The bullet hit the wall several feet next to the girls. At that range, it would probably take a while until Sato finally managed to fatally shoot them, but Kyoko was determined not to wait. She would try to convince Sato not to shoot once more, before taking Asuka's hand and running away. Killing Sato was out of question.

"Sato." – Kyoko spoke in a quieter and gentler tone- "Sato, I understand what you are going through. I know how you feel. You were bullied a lot in school, and now you want to take revenge. You have this right. But it doesn't mean that you can take someone's life. It's not like that. Stop it right now and we'll try to…"

A third shot went through the air, and Kyoko felt like her right arm was on fire. She howled in pain as her arm bled and Kyoko screamed. Killed by Sato Mizunoe. It was the least possible way to die in that Program, and yet it was going to happen. Asuka Yamanaka and Kyoko Tachibana, cause of death: shot down by the class outcast. Kyoko's cries were suddenly broken by Sato's angry voice.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up! What do you know about me? Nothing! You were always pretty and popular, you'll never understand me, none of you will!" – Sato started crying again, washing her glasses and face with tears. Instead of calming her down, Kyoko only made her angrier. "You deserve to die, all of you! You never helped me, never!"

"Sato… please… forgive me… I'm sorry" – Kyoko cried in the middle of her own pain, as the red mark on her coat got bigger. Yes, what Sato said was true. Kyoko always thought that Sato was too shy to enjoy meeting people, but in reality all the ugly girl really wanted was a friend. If she had opened up to Sato or went against Kumiko's gang at least once, this would not be happening. Such a shame.

Meanwhile, Sato took a few steps closer to the pair. It would be one bullet for each one, to lose the smallest amount of bullets as possible. "Shoot to kill, in the middle of the eyes, and then you'll see your family again." – Sato pointed her Walter PPK at Kyoko, ready to shoot.

But she did not count with Asuka. The weaker member of the two had long recovered from the shock of being thrown to the ground quickly, and was playing unconscious. At first, she doubted about shooting Sato, but seeing what happened to Kyoko, Asuka now knew how dangerous not defending yourself was in that Program. She would NOT end like Miki. "No, not like her. We'll make it through the end." With these words in mind, Asuka lifted her right arm, raising her Glock, and shot Sato square in the foot.

"AAAARRGGHHH"- The fat girl screamed in pain as blood erupted from her left foot and she fell backwards on the floor. The bullet she aimed for Kyoko hit nothing but air. As Sato fell, she couldn't believe in what had just happened. She did not see the shot coming, it was way too fast. Revenge wasn't going to be easy, after all.

"I'm sorry, Sato."- said Asuka, before grabbing Kyoko by the shoulder and running away, stopping for a while to get some noodles in the shop. Sato tried to stand up, but she could not. The pain was too big and the shot was spot-on. It would be hard to walk from now on. But Sato wasn't stupid. She knew that if she just remained lying down there, she would die from blood loss, or someone would come attracted by the gunshots and finish her off. The girl needed to act, fast.

Grunting with pain as she crawled to the nearest wall, Sato struggled to stand up, looking at the blood freely flowing from her wounded foot. The girl had some experience with medicine (her father was a doctor), so she already knew what she had to do. Without hesitating, Sato cleaned the wound with an antiseptic rag in order to purify it, and then pressed on it until the blood coagulated. It did not hit any arteries, thankfully. Finally, Sato grabbed a band-aid and covered the wound with it. The pain was smaller and it was possible to walk, but there was still a lot of difficulty in moving the left foot.

"This is the worst day of my life"- thought Sato as she turned a corner and kept on walking slowly through the street. If she could not kill Asuka and Kyoko, then she would have no chances against Tsukiko and her friends. Sato decided to abandon the revenge plan. It was pointless. All she wanted now was to survive as much as possible, although she knew that she would die sooner or later.

After walking for a very long time through a street filled with small houses, Sato finally found one that had the door wide open. Meanwhile, the pain on her left foot was getting bigger, as she shouldn't have exercised a wounded member. But Sato didn't care. If she stood in the same place for a long time, she would be killed. Thinking only about her own death, Sato took a step inside the house and looked into the kitchen.

Nothing in this world could prepare her for what she saw.

Two girls were dead at the center of the kitchen. One of them was lying in the middle of litters of blood, with her body split in half. Her intestines and other organs were around her, her long hair red with blood. The other dead girl was on top of her, with a hole in the back of her head and a puddle of blood underneath it.

Sato couldn't take it anymore. First Miki, and now those two? For a moment, the class outcast saw herself as one of the dead girls. She ran out of the house and vomited all of her lunch from the previous day on the floor. That was a nightmare, a nightmare. Sato was about to run away, but something led her back to the house. She started to piece together the girl's faces with her own memories. Could they be… them?

Sato's predictions came true as soon as she saw the bodies in the kitchen again. Yes, there they were. Tomoko Kobi and Tsukiko Amano, the girls who ruined Sato's life and stepped on her dreams. Both of them were equally dead and bloodied, like two slaughtered pigs. A wave of joy and happiness penetrated Sato's body. Finally, it happened. They were dead and she was free. Sato would kill them, but someone else did the act first. The door of the birdcage was open. She could finally fly.

"Who is the pig now? Who?" – screamed Sato as she ran up to the bodies and started stepping and kicking them with anger. Those bitches deserved everything they got. Sato turned Tsukiko's face towards her, which appeared to be laughing and in pain at the same time, and spat on it. But Sato stopped as soon as she heard steps coming from the garden, on the other side of the house.

"Shit. There's someone else in here!"- The other girl who was coming probably heard her screams and came for the kill. A buzzing sound filled the air. It was the noise of a chainsaw being turned on. Sato stepped back in fear, sweat wetting her shirt. Kumiko Noma came into the kitchen, pointing the bloodied chainsaw at Sato. Her eyes were as cold as a hawk's, and she was feeling pleasure with Sato's fear.

"Die, ugly."- said Kumiko, and started running towards Sato with the chainsaw over her head.

Being fat and having her left foot hit by a bullet, Sato would never be faster than Kumiko. But out of desperation and pure fear, for a few moments she was. The outcast quickly ran to the top of the stairs, ignoring the pain on her left foot. She tripped once, but quickly put herself together and kept running, never looking back. The chainsaws's blade was only a few inches behind her, and yet Sato managed to open the bathroom's door (almost getting sliced in the process), close it before Kumiko could enter and lock herself in.

But Kumiko did not give up. As Sato cried and screamed, curled on a fetal position, Kumiko's chainsaw started cutting the door, sending pieces of wood everywhere. It was only a matter of seconds before she managed to open a hole big enough to come in.

"Mom, dad, I'm sorry, so sorry, I failed with both of you, I was never the daughter you wanted to have."- Sato was crying as she thought about her family. "I'll never have sex, graduate, or even kiss. I'm going to die without having lived." – Sato couldn't stop remembering her memories with her family, her failed tries to get closer with boys, always ending with rejections, and all the bullying and humiliation she went through. Her life had been meaningless and empty.

Kumiko's chainsaw was now opening a second line on the door, with no effort at all.

For a very brief period, Sato remembered that she could use her Walter PPK to shoot Kumiko dead. But she was too scared for it; her hands were trembling with fear. And after failing miserably to hit several shots against Asuka and Kyoko, Sato didn't trust her aim anymore. It could delay her death, but not stop it.

Then the fat girl remembered something. Something good.

It was the song she started listening to about a year ago, everytime she felt sad or unhappy. She heard every day, after being bullied at school. And this song filled her with hope, hope that one day she would get a better life and stop suffering. The song was Somewhere Over The Rainbow, by Judy Garland.

A square started to appear on the door, and the buzzing sound became bigger. It wouldn't be long before Sato was dead.

The class outcast remembered the bird she saw on the street about an hour ago, the beautiful, blue bird that could fly to anyplace. She remembered how she wanted to be him, to be able to fly. No wonder her favorite verses of the song were: Somwhere Over the Rainbow/ Bluebirds fly/ If they fly over the rainbow/ so why, then o why, can't I?"

Yes, she could still be free. Sato knew that she would die, but not on Kumiko's terms. There was still something that she could do, something to free herself from the birdcage and start flying the distance. The girl stood up and faced the door. Yes, she wouldn't die that way. She could still take control of her own life, could still defeat the ones who tormented her.

Raising her Walter PPK to her head, Sato smiled and laughed at destiny's face for the first and last time as she pulled the trigger.

"BAAAANNG!"- The gunshot was heard in the entire neighborhood. Kumiko instantly stopped cutting the door and even jumped backwards, thinking the shot was aimed at her. When she quickly realized what happened, the beautiful girl put her hand inside the hole and unlocked the door from the inside.

Sato was lying face down on the bathroom floor, clearly dead. Brain and blood stained the left wall grotesquely, and more blood flew through the side of the girl's head. Sato had killed herself.

"Crap. Couldn't kill her." – It did not matter much for Kumiko after a few seconds, after all Sato was dead anyway. For Kumiko, the other girls in the class were nothing but bugs and dolls, that she could use and then break when she wanted to. That doll broke herself before Kumiko could do it, but there were still many others in that small district.

Kumiko analyzed the body more closely. For a very strange reason, Sato was smiling and seemed to be happy. But Kumiko remained indifferent, grabbing the girl's Walter PPK along with her bag and walking downstairs.

On the bathroom window, the same beautiful blue bird Sato saw was now flying through the sky. Finally free.

Girl #18 Sato Mizunoe- Dead

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