Author Note:

May have gone a little of tangent here, in terms of writing style. But, well, I suppose it has been a tough few days. I'm interested to know if it's actually interesting. Will it live up to the previous chapters? Only you can tell me how to improve and what to work on.

In other news, I released the first chapter of Hyperion Brat, my Borderlands fic. You shouldn't need any previous knowledge of the franchise to enjoy the story, and I'd certainly appreciate some more feedback on it. Meh, up to you.

OH, OH, there's an OC in this chapter. He'll be showing up a fair bit, probably. Alton House submitted the OC for one Adrian Hall, a bespectacled director. He's strategic and odd, as I'm sure you'll see.

Anyway, here's the next chapter for AFC.

Order up.

It's not easy.

I inspected the troops with mild disappointment.

We stood on the clearings edge, furthest from the shore, a haphazard collection of onlookers passing by in curiosity as our remaining two members hurried back.

"Here's the last of them." Florida announced, presenting yet another boy.

This one looked a little different to the others. Lanky, and tall. Taller than me by an inch, perhaps. His narrow glasses threw an odd glint in the midday sun. Maybe they were fake…

"What's your name?"

The boy paused to collect his breath, obviously a little worn from keeping up with his guide. "Adrian. Hall." The surname almost sounded like an afterthought.

"Fighting experience?"

"Taekwondo and Jujutsu."

I glanced at Florida, who nodded in confirmation. After the morning's fight, she had quickly gone about starting half a dozen more. She knew who the combatants were. Her winning streak showed no indication of slowing, however.

"Welcome to the team." I gestured to fall in.

He remained where he was, partially removed. Whatever.

The two other boys were brutish, reminding me of the many high school bullies I had pissed off over the years. Classic blond hair blue eyes type deal. Maybe they were brothers? Maybe they were Swedish… I refrained from asking. Too many 'maybes,' too early in the morning.

Clearing my voice, I prepared for the briefing. As all eyes fell on me, I stiffened awkwardly. Each person here could probably kick my ass in a fight. Why was I the leader? More importantly, why was Florida the only girl? "Are you trying to start a harem?"

The karate champion took a step back from the unexpected question. "N- No?"

"Hm." The eyes turned back to me. Fine, whatever. "You all know why you're here." Pausing for dramatic effect, I realised there wasn't much left to say. "Let's go."

A unanimous blink told me they weren't satisfied.

"That wasn't very motivating." Adrian noted scientifically.

Ignoring him, I turned, staff in hand, and started into the plantation style woodlands. With a silent hesitation, the group followed a distance behind.

The most noticeable part of the journey was its entrance. Stepping from one biome to the other always carried a foreboding vibe. But as usual, the trees swayed in the breeze, and the occasional leave spun from their high branches, setting us at ease within moments.

At times, the trunks would fall into a scattered alignment, presenting small corridors which aided our hike. It was as beautiful as ever. I shook my head, reminding myself that we were trying to escape this digital prison, not admire it.

Florida caught up to me. "Where are we going?"

Uhhhhh, "I was following you."

"You're at the front of the line."

"Right."

"Are you okay?"

I pinched her sleeve and pulled her a little closer, she tensed, but didn't complain before my thoughts spilled into a whisper. "I've never been with a group before and I'm not a leader, I'm an introvert. To be frank, I haven't got a clue what I'm doing and I'm pretty sure we've been wandering in circles for the past couple minutes."

The girl stared at me, realisation dawning as she comprehended the barrage of words. "You've never had a girlfriend have you?"

A flash of red hit my cheekbones as she nailed the truth to a public noticeboard. But for some reason, I felt much better having shared my worries, even if she was being a bitch about it. "You should take over."

"God no, I'm as bad as you are."

"You've never had a boyfriend?"

"That is not what I was referring to." Her serious expression flushed in confirmation.

"Oh god, we're going to die."

"Think of something!" She shout-whispered.

My mind spun in several different directions, finally latching onto why I had been doing so well during my time in Notchcraft. I hadn't had to work with other people. One person I could handle, but any more than that sent me into a nervous wreck. This was a terrible idea. Only a single sliver of hope protruded from the mess that was my train of thought. Straightening my posture, I waited for the others to catch up before clearing my voice. "I have an idea!" Everything I said sounded like a straight lie, I tried to tone down the enthusiasm. "A test of leadership, to see who will be the best second in command!" It didn't work.

The Swedes seemed interested.

Adrian saw straight through me.

Nevertheless, with a sigh, he trudged to the front and kept walking.

"What do we have to do?" One of the blonds asked, utterly fooled.

"Uhh, follow Adrian?"

They nodded, and hustled onwards.

A moment passed as the wind whistled past us, bringing a collection of leaves with it. The momentary change of sunlight reflected a spectrum of green from every surface before the breeze died back down.

"You're the worst liar ever." Florida complained.

"Leave me alone."

After a while, I had managed to calm myself down. Being in charge took its toll on me, and to be honest, I was brutally happy the experience was over with. Furthermore, Florida seemed to have opened up a little more after realising we were both loners. Although, we seemed to be on different sides of the line. Where she was tough and successful, I was weak and lucky. She had respect, and until recently, I never had.

"So you've never had a girlfriend?"

"You're bringing this up now?"

"Just wondering. I mean, everybody's shipping you with that nurse."

A stroke of awkward embarrassment hit me as I ducked under a low branch. "All ten thousand people?"

"Pretty much."

"Why?" I was a little anxious to know. Giddy, maybe.

She shrugged. "You guys are kind of cute? I don't know. I'm not into this sort of thing."

"What are you into?"

"Huh?"

I looked at her. "What are you into? I'm interested."

She paused, thinking. "Fighting, I guess. Fighting games… Dogs."

"Dogs?"

She tensed up as I caught on, uncomfortable that she had let the detail go. "Yeah, got a problem?"

"No, dogs are cool. We used to have one."

"What breed?!" Her eyes practically lit up, if I looked close enough, I was sure I could see stars.

Her enthusiasm sent me back a step as we came to a halt. "B- Border Terrier?"

A small 'o' formed on her lips, prompting more details.

"He loved cheese. Like, a serious cheese addiction."

"Cheese?"

"Yeah, it was kind of wei-"

Up ahead, Adrian appeared from around the corner. Pressing a finger to his lips, the other hand prompted us forwards. With his dark and tattered clothing, he almost looked like a hulking statue. That, or he had been sucked into this world whilst robbing someone's house.

My grasp tightened around my staff as the two of us paced towards him, softening our steps on the crisp grass below. As we neared, new sounds rose to the senses. Slight, and almost indistinguishable, but present nonetheless. Animals, or enemies?

"Baaa."

The initial call was followed by a chorus of duplicates. Well, that answers that.

All three of us joined the Swede brothers at the top of a small mound, which seemed to separate the forest from the next biome. It only veered up slightly, which made it easy enough to peer over onto the grass plains below.

And let me tell you, these plains were broad. Far larger than our miniscule clearing. It separated from the forest in a jagged manner, before widening out to grasp the entirety of my vision. I couldn't see its end, nor any phrase of reference. It was just… flat. Like a healthy green desert, hammered by wind.

Because the gale had been growing stronger. I realised that now. Having dismissed it as changing weather, I had no idea what was really causing the trees to waver and shake in their boots. An endless runway like this certainly gave the winds a good run up…

"What do you think?"

I refocussed on the nearest group of animals. Sheep. A small herd of six or so. They actually looked pretty cute with their fluffy, pristine coats. Again, another feature of this game that was unjustly clean. Maybe Notch was just a germophobe. My mind ticked over the sight of each animal. They were quite large… "We can probably only manage two."

Adrian nodded. "We'll leave it to you guys then."

"Us?" Florida seemed a little disjointed.

"You both have weapons."

"T- True…"

He paused, judging her demeanour. "Can you kill it?"

"Of course I can." She snapped, looking to me before she had time to reconsider. "Ready?"

"Uh, y- yeah. Are you sure abo-"

"Go!"

And then we were running. In a whir, Florida had grabbed my wrist, and pulled me along for the ride. Our short trip to the bottom gave me no time to consider a plan of attack. Neither did I have time to ponder exactly how it would feel to crush a defenceless animal's skull.

I soon found out.

With a frantic beat of warning cries, like a guitar chord strummed wrong, the flock bolted. But they were far too slow. We were practically on top of them, and in a split second, I heard a foreboding squelch resound from Florida's blade. Too much adrenaline flooded my blood, pumping my muscles into action. I jabbed out at the first streak of white that came within range. A whimper accompanied the impact, and before I knew it, I had straddled the poor thing as it thrashed in a dizzy terror.

Wielding my staff, I heaved upwards, and brought the blunted end down hard.

Crunch.

Pounding hoof beats filled what soon became an empty silence. My heart was beating fast, faster than usual. I felt sick. There was no warmup, and no warning. Run, kill. It had lasted mere seconds. To be honest, I was still confused as to what we were supposed to do. I think a little bit of my consciousness was still up on the ridge, waiting for proper orders before doing anything rash.

I looked down.

A flush of crimson escaped in great streams from a gaping hole in the temple. It flowed in heaves, soon covering the sheep's face in a thick red veil. Its open eye stared accusingly.

I didn't shake, or feint, or anything theatrical like that. I simply stood up, and looked over to the huntress. Her stone sword impaled the target's spine, lodged straight through. She wasn't moving.

"Florida." … Nothing. "Flo."

Twitching at the odd nickname, she looked up to me, her face empty.

Because that's the thing, isn't it. So many stories talk about killing, and death. The hero always needs to slay some villain, or some monster. And sure, the first few times it's hard, and sad… But then we move on. The stories start describing death less and less because we think we can understand what it means.

We can't.

It's not easy. And I hope it never is.

Dusk was nearing by the time we returned. The sun sat lazily above the forest, threatening to drop at any moment. It looked tired. I could hardly blame it.

Voices rang out as we emerged.

The last lines of people were filing into the newly expanded fort. It was as if it had rolled over on itself, doubling in size. I found myself admiring the collective work of our builders. I also found myself wondering if they had cut any corners to get it done on time.

But as we pulled closer, the wall revealed itself to be sturdy and quite intact. Somebody even had time to add a small parapet. The guard stared down at us excitedly, his eyes lingering on the collection of ingredients trailed in our wake. Spinning, he shouted into the buzz of noise. "The hunters are back!"

A small cheer echoed out the gates, but it did nothing to subdue the chatter of conversation. It was unusual, a little nervous. Had something happened?

I glanced over at Florida. She was still a little out of it, but she recognised it as well. Her shrug said she didn't know either.

As soon as we crossed the threshold, several figures jumped out at us, hurrying to bring news. "Jake needs to see you."

I sighed. "Alright, I'll be there in a seco-"

"All of you."

My mind rang with warning signs. Something was wrong. Why would he need all of the fighters? Maybe it was just a debrief? No, the air was too tense for that. "What's going on?"

"You'll see, just hurry up!"

Without another word, our guides pushed through the crowd, opening a path for us. We didn't need to be told twice.

The inner wall loomed above as we crossed inside, finally finding an open space. Although, every tiny gap and every open entrance was filled with curious faces, staring in at whatever was going on.

A collection of people gathered in the clearing's centre, folded around a bulky wooden table. But some of them were… unfamiliar.

Jake's voice was raised. "I'm not sure if you understand your position." His arms spread to present his accomplishments. "You're in no place, to be making demands. Oh, Eli, get over here."

Cautious, I gripped my staff, advancing towards the meeting. I was beginning to recognise the situation. Stamped on the stranger's arms, were the jet black numbers of nation sixteen.

Sixteen? I glanced around hopefully. And sure enough, a little removed and more than a little out of her comfort zone, a familiar blonde girl fiddled with her bowstring.

Her ocean blue eyes caught mine, widening in recognition. She looked away shyly, as if ashamed.

"We're not making demands, we're negotiating."

I examined the visitors. Six of them, excluding her, all men. They were built, and tough, a show of power. Furthermore, they all flashed stone blades at their belts. It was obvious they had been given their nation's best. Their leader was perhaps the oldest, in his late twenties no doubt. He seemed to be a fan of hand gestures.

"Negotiating? After we caught you sneaking around?" Jake was pressing his authority, it would seem.

"We were looking for the bloody entrance! This thing is a fucking circle, how were we supposed to know where it was?"

I realised now why Jake wanted us here. It was a response to their threat, a shield to wave in their face. But there were more of them… and they had better weapons. If this went south, I wasn't sure we could fend them off. Delicately, I pressed my heel against Jake's foot.

He ignored me. "Bullshit, you were looking for vulnerabilities!"

"Vulnerabilities? It's made out of fucking wood! Have you considered the fire threat? We didn't need an inspection to figure out the quickest way to kill you lot."

"So you wer-"

I stamped into his ankle, desperate to gain his attention.

His gaze whipped around, anger in his eyes. "What!?"

All attention was on me now.

I shifted awkwardly as silence enveloped the grounds. "W- Why don't we talk this out over a meal?" Shifting in an attempt to explain, I gestured to the food atop the Swiss brother's shoulders "We've got plenty for a stew, or something…"

Dozens of eyes peered through me, labelling me as a fucking imbecile.

Florida stepped up to my side. "Y- Yeah, it sounds like a good idea. It's hard to negotiate on an empty stomach… or so I've heard."

I nodded vigorously, trying to convince them. Their expressions were open books.

A pair of imbeciles.

"I…"

The sounds of a dozen heads turning put the new speaker on pause. She took a step back, her blonde hair bobbing in retreat. Her voice came out as an almost inaudible whisper. "…I like food."

Agreement from both parties.

The tension could have been cut with a hammer. Nevertheless, after an age, Jake threw his hands in the air. "Fine! But if he so much as touches that sword," he spun to point at the primary intruder "you shove your staff up his ass."

Florida looked at him in disbelief. "Dude, too graphic."

"I'm not doing that."

"You get the gist!" Our leader yelled at the air. "Get something cooking." He stormed off in no specific direction, wanting to be away from it all.

I glanced to Florida, who gave a relieved huff. She soon turned to begin the organising of our first meal. Entrusting her with the task, I looked back to the girl from sixteen, only to find she had been watching me. Hurriedly, her ocean gaze snapped to the trodden grass, adverting themselves.

The flickered back a moment later. Something within them was apologetic, like they were admitting to some sin. For the life of me, I couldn't guess at what it was.

I nodded to the closest parapet, empty, now that the second wall had been erected. A place to talk.

She pursed her lips in decision. Her complexion flickered as a large cooking fire took light, casting new shades in every direction, building in potency with each passing second. Once again, I couldn't help but admire her beauty. A type of innocent elegance might be the best way to describe it… But even then, it didn't do her justice.

She nodded back.

Author Note:

So yeah, sorry if it's a little unsatisfying, but there's some roadblock here that I needed to get over. Publishing what's already been written usually helps. Let me know how you found it, and sorry if I haven't replied to PMs, there's an overload of them at the moment. (Like usual)