Part Two - The Rules
Almost unnoticed with all the furore around Hannelore, a small, rather sinewy figure in a black suit, white shirt, and with greased hair slipped into the room. Around 45, he exuded severity and cruelty and you could see from his eyes that he had seen much degradation.
“Pupils of the Harvey Institute, pay attention now.”
He didn’t need to shout. The students were more than aware that the man in front of them was indeed Mr Harvey, and that non-co-operation would be severely punished. They fell silent straight away.
“Pupils of the Harvey Institute, welcome to Calne. Some of you will be here for the next ten days. Others will be departing sooner than they think. For your information, Calne is a small town of about 10,000 inhabitants – at least, it would be if we hadn’t evacuated it- in the west of England, about 40 miles to the west of the historic city of Bristol.
“I apologise for the slightly… unconventional means of bringing you to this beautiful part of the world, but it was the only way of getting you here in comfort, style and stresslessness, bearing in mind you are this year’s honoured participants of the Battle Royale.”
Silence around the room. It took a few moments for Harvey’s words to register.
“I’m sure you’re aware that last year, there was a somewhat abortive attempt by the European Regime to run a Battle Royale in the Parisian Catacombs. And, of course, you equally know the winner of last year’s competition, Simon Carter. He has catapulted himself, through courage and model good citizenship, into a life of TV-punditry and celebrity supermarket openings. Oh, and wealth beyond your wildest dreams.
“Well, Lady Luck has smiled upon you miscreants who it’s been my unpleasant duty to have to wet-nurse for the last six years. One of you will have the good fortune to be able to join Simon in his life of unabashed luxury and paradigmatic brilliance as the winner of this year’s European Battle Royale. We’d hate to think that no-one would win, wouldn’t we class?”
Still silence.
“Well, wouldn’t we?”
More silence.
Harvey reduced his voice to almost a whisper.
“I would sincerely counsel one of you to answer me. You have been, after all, live on television since you arrived in this hovel. We wouldn’t want anyone to get a bad impression of you magnificent deviants now, would we, because that would reflect badly on the school, and, after all my efforts, I wouldn’t want my school to get a bad name because of one of you F*CKERS!”
With that, he slammed his fist down onto a table.
Everyone jumped. In the back corner, Sam Warner started to quietly weep, developing quickly into a loud bawl.
“Sam Warner” continued Harvey, obsequiously, “our habitual cry-baby and wanker. You little mummy’s boy. You don’t know how good it is to be able to say that to you after all this time. You disgust me. You repel me with your snivelling, your constant pant-wetting, your stench. Do YOU want to give MY school a bad name?”
Sam could do little but continue to blubber.
“Sam, my boy. Come here. Come to Mr Harvey. It’s OK, nothing’s going to happen to you. Come here.”
Sam looked around, desperate to make eye contact with anyone who could reassure him this wasn’t some trick of Harvey’s. He’d fallen prey to this ruse before, and as a result could confirm at least one of the rumours doing the rounds about the school’s principal and his unusual methods of castigation. No-one, however, would look at him, and were all either gazing at the floor in front of them or straight at Mr Harvey.
Stupid with shock, Sam got up and started to walk to the front of the room. As he stood up though, a dark blot spread from between his legs down the front of his trousers, and, by the time he was half-way across the room, his trousers were soaked and he was bawling again, snot dangling from his nose.
“Stop there Warner. Don’t you dare come any closer.”
Sam stopped. The pupils around him scattered, fleeing from their stinking, piss-sodden classmate.
“Warner. See the necklace you’re wearing? It’s not a gift, or a special prize for being the Institute’s most frequent wanker and bed-wetter, even though, if there was one…” Harvey’s voice trailed off, lost in raucous guffaws.
After a few moments, his laughter waned and he wiped the tears of amusement from his eyes.
“Warner, I’ve decided. You don’t deserve to live.”
He turned to the rest of the class. “As far as you’re concerned, I’m God. I can allow you the gift of life, or I can take that gift away.”
He turned to Sam silently, looked him in the eye, held up a small remote control, and pressed the single button on it. On Sam’s necklace, there was a sharp metallic clunk and then a soft hiss. Sam screamed as something sharp stuck in his neck, puncturing his jugular and he felt some cold liquid enter his bloodstream.
“It’s poison, Sam. Are you feeling sleepy yet? You’re quite small, so it shouldn’t take too long to send you on to a better place.”
Sam collapsed to the floor in a puddle of his own piss, his eyes closing involuntarily and his limbs jerking in spastic spasms of seizure. As he died in front of his classmates, as a final humiliation, his sphincter gave way and steaming sloppy shit spilled over the shiny lino.
The class panicked, and ran from their seats towards the windows, beating desperately at the frames with their fists, trying to escape blindly from the horror they’d just witnessed. Soldiers stationed at the front of the classroom let off a volley of warning shots into the ceiling, causing large lumps of plaster to rain down around them.
“Settle. Down. Now. Or you will all be shot” ordered Harvey. The class complied, falling to the floor, most of them weeping and all of them ashen-faced and trembling, trying to avoid looking at the shit-covered corpse halfway up the aisle.
“Now. The Rules.”
“Every six hours I shall broadcast details of the game which you must listen to on the transistor radios – I will proclaim the names of your fallen comrades, for example. I shall also tell you of Danger Zones which, if you tread in any area of that Zone once it is live, your necklace will be activated and you will be out of the game. I shall also tell you of the Group Zones.
“After I announce a Group Zone, you have three hours before it goes live. During the three hours subsequently – in other words, between three and six hours after I have announced it – you must be in the zone for a minimum of ninety minutes. If you are not, we will activate your collar.
“The object of the game is to be the last person alive. You may use any means necessary to achieve that aim. Weapons have been hidden in areas of the map for you to find. However, as I have taught you, use your initiative. If you can’t find a weapon, you’ll have to make one. You will have six hours grace between you starting out from the HQ here to the announcement of the first Group Zone.
“Remember – you are on television. There is a camera and microphone in your collar. Any attempt to disable these, or prevent their efficient use, will result in your permanent removal from the game, and therefore life.
“The game area is surrounded by a fence. But if you were entertaining any ideas about climbing over this fence, think again. For a start, it’s ten metres high, and runs ten metres deep. Guards in guardtowers can see every inch of the fence, and are under orders to shoot on sight anyone tampering with it, or digging underneath it. You may also want to know that it’s electrified with a fatal charge.
“You would be best advised to keep your eyes open at all times... because you never know what little tricks we might be playing on you from time to time. All in the name of good entertainment and high ratings, of course.
“Blame yourselves for this! If your generation hadn’t been so degenerate and had simply followed the rules set down for you by our beloved Great Leader, maybe this wouldn’t have been a necessary measure. Look at you, you disgusting reprobates. Look at yourselves. Park Lee-soo, you’re a diseased street-crawling rent boy pimped by Natsume. You sicken me.”
Harvey paced up and down the classroom. Every step he came closer to the students, the more they tried to move away. Menacingly, he strode up to the Courtney brothers, by this stage trying to hide in a corner.
“Leon Courtney, I don’t give a f*ck if you can hear me or not, but you and your creepy brother are nothing better than jumped-up little football hooligans. You’re both such freaks no woman would look at you twice, and you spend so much time together you’re probably queer for each other.”
He looked over at the group containing Tsutsuno, Abe, Delonge and Nilsson. Crouched on the floor, they were holding each other tightly as if to shield themselves from his verbal onslaught.
“As for you four, how could any of you ever be accepted back into decent society? One of you is a psychopath, one a food freak, one a terrorist, and the last a spoiled frigid princess. You deserve each other. You’ll probably end up f*cking each other for the nation’s entertainment by the time it’s all over anyway. You should all die a dog’s death.”
“And as for you” he said, turning to Wolfsberg-Schmidt, “you are nothing more than an expensive tart leeching off the system and daddy’s money. You’d f*ck a corpse if you thought the family would pay you. And the way you brought down my friend Peter Jakobsfeld... his wife deserved more than his suicide.”
“I tell you, you only have yourselves to blame. I wish I’d been allowed to have my own way with you and lobotomise the lot of you. But maybe this way is better... this way, society will be rid, finally, of all but one of you.”
“Oh, and by the way... may I introduce Miss Delilah Haddington, who many of you will become acquainted with, I’m sure, during the next few days. She’s here because she’s a special case, harder to crack than any of you snivelling low-lives. I’d watch out for her, if I were you.
“You have five days. If in five days more than one person is left alive, all the collars of all the surviving participants will be activated.
“You will be given your packs shortly. Line up, collect your pack, and leave quickly, because you never know who may be lying in wait for you outside. May the best potential Good Citizen – if there even is one amongst you reprobates - emerge victorious.”
Student #25 Sam Warner dead. 25 TO GO
Still chuckling softly to herself from the frenzied panic those poor children
around her had woken to a young woman leant out from the shadowy recess of the
corner to study them further.
Pathetic little specimens they were, each believing in their own personal rebellion
and that someone out there really gave a f**k if they lived to take another
breath or died, pooled in their own putrid faeces. Only a few even warranted
her attention - even those would cause no problems in the long run, mere obstacles
of flesh and bone for her to dispose of.
Her attractive face was marred by a cruel little smile curling at the corner of her lips and the bright lights of actual pleasure danced through her pale eyes. With a languid indulgence Delilah immersed herself once more in shadow, outwardly indifferent now, but internally thrilled beyond measure by the bloody tableau before her.
Kyo was shaking now, horrified and sickened to the point of nearly throwing up by Sam's sudden death. So he'd been a weird, fixated kid, but he didn't deserve this. None of them deserved this.
He'd heard of the Battle Royale before; of the viciously violent events in France and seen what victory had done to the winner. A pawn in the Great Leader's schemes and from Mr.Harvey's reactions he could tell the man was relishing every second of this.
When he'd insulted Park a sudden flare of rage inside himself had surprised Kyo, but now it was gone-- dulled to nothing by the appearance of another young woman close by, her eyes lacking some normal humanity.
He shuddered and whispered to Park, "Ignore him....p-please."
Dev on the other hand was furious and only Ryu's hand, shooting out to latch onto his wrist stopped him from getting up and punching Harvey.
How could he? Not only had he bad mouthed all his friends, made Kyo and Reiko cry, but now he was trying to shop Dev to the whole class. It had taken a lot of practise and will-power as well as regular drug dosings to get him back on track and make sure the others remained blissfully ignorant of his condition and now one word from Harvey could wreck everything.
He scowled, but it was mostly lost under his long bangs and so went un-noticed-- or so he hoped. But, everyone heard him call Harvey a dickless Bastard. He was beyond caring if it got him killed. There was no way on Earth he'd play their little games.
Pimped? Kyo, Park's pimp???!!!
Park's face flushed scarlet with fury. This was the first day he'd even had the balls to talk to Kyo, let alone anything else, so his comments had been entirely unjustified. God, he hated Harvey worse than anything else in the world right at that moment, holding Kyo's shuddering body close to him, trying to soothe his crush's tears whilst feeling like becoming hysterical himself. But he dared not to let his emotions run away with him again right now. One of them had to hold it together, and he had promised the petite Japanese that it would be him.
"Damn right, babe. It's OK, he knows that's not true, he's doing it on purpose to make us have a pop at him," Park whispered, resting his head against Bukiyo's, his arms around the Japanese boy's chest protectively, his chin on Kyo's shoulder from behind.
His stomach was turning over with seething anger, but he had at least realised very quickly that Harvey was doing it on purpose, trying to incite hatred and despair in the students... and trying to incite someone to attack him so that he could kill them as he had done with Sam.
And frankly, Park couldn't think of a worse way to go than drawing your last breath in front of all your friends, in a puddle of your own shit. He'd rather have cut his own head off with a blunt butter knife. He barely knew the pathetic little kid who Harvey had just murdered, but he was damn sure of one thing: Harvey was a total f**king psychopath who probably got his rocks off by maiming, torturing and killing his own students.
As for the Battle Royale... well, f**k, they'd all heard about what happened in France, surely? Park's jaw clenched tightly as he realised that no matter what happened, they were all going to die.
Maybe one of them would be lucky enough to survive - although eyeballing the unpleasant new transfer in the corner convinced Park that none of them stood a chance against an obvious bitch like that, who had been smiling throughout Sam's death. He had seen the dim light glinting off her sharp teeth, and it put him in mind of the mouth of a very dangerous animal.
Unfortunately, he caught her eye for just a moment too long, and she gave him a totally evil smile, the same kind of smile she had worn while Sam was expiring on the floor, to which his reply was instinctively to bare his teeth at her in a defensive snarl.
If she came anywhere near his Kyo, or tried to hurt him in any way, he would rip her head off with his bare hands and piss in her neckhole.
Ryu thanked God he had caught Devon in time before he could do something mad, like attack Harvey (as clearly the principal had wanted them to - after all, an attack from an enraged student would justify that student being killed horribly).
And the last thing he wanted was to wind up dead on TV, probably being watched by his parents on a prime-time show. Hadn't his parents had enough to cope with already, his older twin siblings having been killed by the Regime for subversive and terrorist activities?
"Stop it Devon, don't give him what he wants - another f**king victim," he hissed, pulling the other boy back down.
Ryuji shuddered, supporting Rei's skinny body as best he could. Eventually he was going to have to confess everything to Jennifer; there wasn't much time left for them, and he wanted to make the most of what he had remaining.
"Guys... you heard what he said, one of us is a terrorist," Ryu muttered, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "And I guess you better know right now... if they think there's a terrorist in this room, they think you're sitting with him. It's... a long, long story, and I'll tell you all later. But if you wanna stick with me, I think we might have a shot at bringing down their system... if you don't want to play, that is. I won't be playing. I'd rather die than kill any of my friends."
"I saw all that stuff about the French BR last year, and it frightened me then," he continued in a hoarse whisper, "But I did begin to think of ways they could have escaped at the time... maybe it could work here, maybe not. This is different to what they had to deal with. But... the offer's there. That's all."
And he threw Jennifer a slightly desperate look as if to say, please come with me... he wanted to be able to tell her he would protect her at all costs, he would make this work for them... but his voice got stuck in his throat, and he choked back the words, unable to take the emotional risk right now when they were all under this much pressure.
Reiko, on the other hand, was not necessarily of the same attitude. Indeed, she had sanguine depths the like of which none of her friends would ever have expected.
She almost for a moment considered the option of taking revenge for all the terrible things certain of the other kids had done and said to her... beginning with the ones she hated the most, the Courtney brothers.
They had been responsible for much of her humiliation during her time at the school, and why? Because she had had some romantic interest in Leon, which his brother had completely ruined, for no apparent good reason.
Perhaps Harvey was right, that Paul and Leon were a little too close to each other to be wholly innocent... either way, she had finally managed to get the courage to ask Leon for a date, and Paul had begun a hate campaign against her that had nearly caused her to commit jisatsu <suicide> out of shame and self-loathing. She still harboured a bit of a crush on Leon, but had no idea at all whether he had ever even liked her, thanks to his darling asshole of a brother.
She was still contemplating this when Ryuji asked them if they would come with him.
"Of course I'm with you, Ryu," she replied distractedly... but secretly, her mind was full of vengeful, murderous thoughts towards her classmates.
"Well seen as it's show and tell here, " Dev began with a strangely quiet resignation for him, "You might as well know now, you've got about three days until I go postal."
He smiled at the others, tinged with regret; if only he'd been packing some more medication, but no-- as usual he'd thought he was too good for it, he could cope-- right.
"So I'm gonna decline the team up okay? You're better off far away from me." He desperatly wanted to help them,but this was the best way. They all looked puzzled by his deliberatly obscure warning.
Kyo glanced up, feeling Park's arms tighten across his heaving chest and caught the tail end of Delilah's ice cold smile. It chilled him to the bone and he turned away, burying his face in Park's shoulder. That girl-- something was very very wrong with her.
Awww, the pretty little Asian was scared. Delilah grinned to herself, amused by his Korean friend's faux bravado. They were so endearing, but she was going to enjoy killing them both and that feeling out-weighed any faint lingering of empathy in her dark heart.
She watched Harvey, waiting patiently for her name to be called.
Sylvain, on the other hand, was barely surprised. He had wondered if this would be coming. After all, he had actually known some of the people who had been involved in the French Battle; some of his old friends from Saint-Dizier had died in those stinking underground catacombs. And he had mourned them, and the terrible ways they had been killed.
So now it had come to him. What a f***ing surprise. In a way, he almost felt responsible - as if the French BR had followed him from France to the UK, as if he was a hex on these kids. But he knew that was his illness talking.
However, he had been listening very carefully to each and every word Harvey had spoken... and the psychopath tag had not gone past him, as it had with most of the other kids. Yeah, Reiko was a food freak, and Jennifer a spoiled princess, so where did that leave the 'terrorist' and 'psychopath' labels? Which belonged to whom?
Was the generally sweet-natured Ryuji really a ravening murderer, or a political subversive? Sylvain looked askance at him and Devon, and wondered to himself, thinking that Ryu was probably the smarter of the two, which would qualify him for the subversive label better than the skate kid...
The little blond suddenly realised that he knew almost nothing whatsoever about Devon Delonge, other than his name, his ambiguous sexuality and his love of skateboarding... other than he'd always had an inexplicable fear of him, despite the overly chirpy exterior.
However, it was about this point that Sylvain had a nasty shock: he realised that he only had two days' worth of medication left. His breath caught in his chest, and he wanted to burst into tears on the spot, because he knew that without his pills, bad things tended to happen inside his head... he didn't want to get involved in the Battle, didn't want to hurt anyone... but would he be able to control himself without his pills?
And he looked at Delilah, the new girl... she looked back at him, almost coldly. But Sylvain was smitten... she was so, so pretty, he wanted to talk to her, so he tried to crawl out of sight across to where she was sitting, and said in a rather wobbly way, "Errr... hi, I'm Sylvain, um - why are you here?" which was not the world's best chat-up line, but it would have to do, considering their situation right now.
Delilah looked up, regarding the little blonde who knelt nervously before her with something akin to apathy. From the doe-eyed expression on his not-disagreeable face she could tell instantly he liked her. Despite how cold and merciless she must seem to the others-- maybe he was delusional. Of course already she was considering how to use him to her advantage.
With a calculating pause she leant forward, "The same reason as you sweet-heart." As ambiguous as her reply was she used her closer proximity to the boy fully, offering him a sultry smile.
She reached out and pressed a slender fingertip to his lips, "Now shhh...it'd be such a waste if Harvey got you too.
football hooligan?! Freak?!? QUEER FOR EACH OTHER?!?! Paul seethed with rage. That sick f*ck, I oughtta tear him a new one! He turned sharply to Leon, surprised to see his brother actually shaking with fear. This only fuelled Paul's anger more and he actually made a move to get up.
Leon's hand shot out and grabbed his arm with a vice-like grip. Leon shook his head don't f**k with him
Paul had never known his brother to be scared of anyone. Least of all that flabby, middle-aged bastard. But then again I guess he had good reason to.
Everyone at the institute knew the story or some variation thereof. Paul knew more than most but even he was unable to get the full story from Leon. Even so, to scare his brother sh*tless must've taken something pretty damn bad. Worse than watching that Warner kid die in a pool of his own sh*t! Paul's hand went to his neck. His collar must've been attatched when he was unconscious. We've gotta think of a way to get these damn things off before we think of doing anything to Harvey. Until then he can switch us off like a f*cking TV!
Leon meanwhile was eyeballing the new girl. Relieved he had persuaded Paul out of doing anything dumb he sat cross legged and peered out through his hair at the Haddington girl. She didn't look like much, wonder why she's so dangerous? Admittedly the way she looked at everyone in apparent amusement at their fear, an odd smile on her lips, seemed to hint at insanity. She would definitely be up for playing this game Leon thought. With that his eyes started wandering around the class. I wonder who else will be up for it?
Paul flicked him in the head, a somewhat crude but effective attention-grabber. "Come on, we'd better line up. I just hope that bag contains something I can ram up Harvey's ass!" he hissed in a low voice.
Sylvain audibly gulped when he felt the touch of Delilah's finger on his lips. Back home in France, he hadn't had much luck with the ladies, due to his weird unpredictable moods and psychotic episodes that would make him behave irrationally at best, completely loopy at worst.
Who knows... maybe he would be luckier with this girl. Perhaps for the next two days, she wouldn't have to find out about his schizophrenia, and he might - just might - finally get some action. Shit, even a damn kiss would be good. He wasn't a bad-looking boy, after all... a bit on the skinny side, perhaps, but some girls liked that, and certainly his face didn't resemble chopped liver, unlike some of the other students...
He fluttered his long blond eyelashes, floundering for something to say. "Um - what I meant was, you - you're not from the Institute, are you? I would definitely have noticed you before... er, I mean, you're really pretty..." he mumbled, flustered and horny and embarrassed all at the same time. "W-what did Harvey mean when he said you were a special case?"
Ryuji looked anxiously at Devon, not understanding what on earth he was talking about, 'going postal'... but he got a slight gist of what the Canadian was hinting at. After all, hadn't Harvey said that one of their number was a 'psycho'? It sure as shit wasn't Ryu - he was a bit of a coward, really, and not known for being confrontational, even, let alone psycho... it wasn't Rei, or Jen, so that only left one...
"Dev... don't be crazy, man. We won't get anywhere if we don't stick together. Whatever problem it is you have, let us deal with it together. We've only got five days in total anyway, and I'm sure you wouldn't - " Ryu thought carefully how to word this, " - I'm sure you wouldn't do anything bad to any of us, no matter what..."
"But it's your choice, y'know? You have to do what you think is best - not just for us, but for yourself."
If Park hadn't been so shit-scared, he would have been really enjoying himself by now. He had his beloved crush in his arms, burying his face in the Korean's shoulder, entwined in each others' arms like lovers.
By now, ordinarily, Park would have tried to grab a sneaky kiss. Despite the terror he still felt, like black ice melting in his veins where blood should be flowing, nothing much in his repertoire had changed.
He leaned down and dropped a very small kiss on Kyo's forehead. He wasn't asking for or expecting anything in return, but if Kyo thought there was absolutely any point in trying to cover up his own sexuality now, he was mad. They had five days left, tops.
Park resolved to try and make the most of any remaining time they had left together; and he would f**king kill anyone who tried to come between them or make trouble for them. Including that evil witch of a transfer slut, or her new lapdog, Sylvain Roberge.
Ami sat up, and took a deep breath, calming herself down. She listened to Harvey's everyword, wincing inwardly as he commented on the other students. She let out a sigh of relief as he ignored her.She wiped the remainder of her tears, not currently caring if her mascara was smudged or not. She took the chopsticks she was currently wearing out of her hair, and shook her head letting her auburn hair fall loosely about her face. She ran her fingers through her hair once, then brushed it out of her face.
Her helpful nature taking over, she crawled over to Hannelore. She smiled at the German girl and then at Karine. She turned back to the German girl. "Bist du ok, Hannelore?" (are you ok, Hannelore?) she looked over to Harvey, then whispered to Hannelore a slight hint of hatred in her voice "Er spricht Scheisse." (He speaks s***)
She directed her emotional gaze first at Sylvain, rolled her eyes, then redirected it at Delilah. "Und sie ist eine Schlampe." She turned her now concerned gaze back to the German girl.
"Na, was weiss i'?" replied Hannelore. "I wass net, ob i laufen konn. Man hat mir den Fussgelenk gebrochen, glaub'i. Er ist aan totaler Oarschloch. Er hat das mir gemacht. Einfach reingekommen, nix gesagt, nur Schlaegerei. Irgendwann hab'i ihn klar total veraergert muessen..."
She got to her feet. Here, in Ami, she thought, was an ally. Although she didn't really know the girl, she knew she was tough - she had that look in her eyes. And, right now, especially at this stage, Hannelore realised she needed as much help as she could get.
And what was with those insults? Man, Harvey looked pissed. OK, so what he said was true - Peter Jakobsfeld had been a party official down in Garmisch, where she'd been vacationing with a boyfriend. He'd been suave, sophisticated, rich. He'd wooed her in a bar after a day's ski-ing on black runs. Promised her a good time, trips to see the sights of Europe and beyond. She'd ditched boyfriend pretty quick, and taken up with Peter, even though he was easily thirty years older. He had a Porsche, an obvious sign he was a party member, and for three days he had sped her through the alps in a dizzying whirl of society soirees and party money.
On her return home, Peter had visited. Needless to say, that was when things had started getting serious. The second night, he'd professed his undying love for her, and said that he'd ditch his wife Trude for her. Hannelore, being just over 17 at the time, didn't share the same view. Neither, it had to be said, did her parents, although they could see the pecuniary advantages of Hannelore being the mistress of a high-up party official. And, it had to be said, so did Hannelore, who milked Peter for as much as he was worth.
When it started to turn sour, Hannelore felt used. So she secretly filmed themselves making love one night, and mailed the tape to both his wife and his party bosses. Officially, Peter had killed himself out of shame, but she had a feeling that was not quite the truth.
Of course, Ami didn't need to know this right now. Hannelore was ashamed of her past, and had tried to make out to everyone she was sent to Harvey because she was a tough bitch with an iron heart.
"Ami, willst du mit mir kommn? Alleine kann man's nicht schaffen..."
---
Translations:
"What do I know? I dunno if I can walk. I think they broke my ankle. He's a total arsehole. He did that to me. Just came in, said nothing, just hit. Sometime I must have really upset him..."
"Ami, d'you want to come with me? We won't make it alone..."
"I don't care about myself and you know, I'd stay with you all if I could."
Devon had obviously made up his mind, but allowed Ryuji one, small concession, "I'll protect you as long as I can, but the second I start acting up let me go okay?" He smiled at them in turn, his expression full of genuine warmth and a lingering optimism he always tried to impress on everyone.
Ryu had honestly thought he wouldn't hurt them, but then again he'd never seen Devon off the medication.
Kyo's cheeks flushed with a sudden redness and he peeked up at Park from beneath his thick, black bangs. "We have to go now...don't we?" He whispered frightenedly, but for now his tears had ceased.
Now this was definatly something Delilah could use-- the poor delusional boy thought he 'liked' her. Of course she knew her attractiveness was a weapon and whereas it seemed other girls-- namely the German who was giving her vicious looks from across the room, used their looks for money and luxury, Delilah utilised hers to take advantage of weaker minded individuals such as the one before her.
In a single, swift gesture she pulled Sylvain to his feet and offered him another tempting smile laced with false sincerity, "I just haven't bought in to his bullshit that's all....I'm his pet project, a transfer...but I won't hurt you." She whispered, enjoying the embarrased expression on his face.
Ryu gave a small, respectful nod which was more like a half-bow, although from the way Devon was talking, he was beginning to feel like perhaps this was a bad idea - after all, he had two girls to protect and maybe Devon really was that unstable...
"Arigatou," he managed finally, "But... I mean... what kind of thing are you talking about? I mean to say, what can we expect? You're not going to just kind of... wig out and attack us, are you? I - I'm sorry, I don't mean to be offensive, or anything, it's just there are two girls here, and I couldn't bear it if either of them got hurt on my account..."
What Ryuji really meant by this was: I couldn't bear it if you hurt either of them because I was too scared to go it alone.
Reiko made a small expression of contempt at Ryu's old-fashioned sexist comments, knowing full well she could defend herself, but she knew he was only worried about protecting one of the two girls - Jennifer.
Rei knew she was very much on her own because no-one would care enough to defend her against the wolves at the door.
Park tried to calm the other boy down, gently caressing his shoulders with genuine tenderness. "Not for a moment, Kyo... wait and see what comes next, hmm? I dare say they'll chuck us out of here pretty soon, though..."
Together the boys sat and watched the soldiers checking the contents of the military-issue packs that had been brought into the room in a big metal trolley.
"Just... just say you'll come with me, though... I couldn't stand this alone, and I want to fight for you. I-" and he swallowed uneasily, lowering his voice even more and averting his gaze, "I have a big crush on you. Have done for ages. I'm sorry if you find that embarrassing, but f**k it - you may as well know now. I don't expect you to say or do anything, but... I had to tell you. Couldn't go and die on you without doing the big confession, could I now?"
Dev got to his feet, smiling sadly at Ryuji, he'd made a mistake being honest with them and now Ryu wanted him far away from the girls. He could tell-- the psycho label Harvey had stuck on him had been brutally effective. But he wasn't one to wallow in self-pity and at least he was free now to help everyone...maybe deliver messages and stuff, afterall if they let him take his skateboard he could travel round wherever they were faster than anyone else. His plans were hazy at best and would only go on as long as he could keep his mind.
"S'ok Ryu man, I don't honestly know...I might attack you...I might just kill myself, s'all been kept under wraps, but...anyway." He shrugged, "I'll be around if you need me."
He turned to walk away. Jennifer, Ryu and Reiko were alot safer on their own.
"m-me??" Kyo blinked, unable to process what Park had just admitted to him-- Park Lee-soo...who'd never said a word to him in all their time at the Harvey, who barely spared him even a glance until today had a crush on him??
It was inconcievable and for a moment Kyo just sat dumbly staring up at Park as if he'd gone insane. But, the expression on Park's face-- determined and sincere was enough to convince him that the Korean wasn't lying or trying to get some action before they died.
"Of course I'll go with you."
Ryuji instantly felt bad the moment he saw how his words had affected Devon. If Dev had a problem, it wasn't his fault. He had been totally unfair to sit in judgement on the Canadian like that...
...but his words had frightened Ryu and made him anxious for their safety. He was in a real quandary. Eventually, though, he sighed.
"Dev... whatever it is that your problem is, I'm sorry for you. I mean... for God's sake, we're friends, aren't we? But... but if you feel that the best course of action for you is to go off and help the others too, then don't worry about us, we'll be fine..."
Helplessly Ryu shrugged, unsure as to how to proceed. "I'm sorry for what I said before. I just don't understand the situation with you, is all, and I was trying to find out what it was. I never even knew there was a problem, I never understood why you were in the Institute in the first place, except maybe for the whole bisexual thing..."
"But your choice is your choice, man, and I respect it."
Rei, however, was still brooding to herself, hoping she would get some kind of item in her bag that might help her... settle a few old debts. And hiding behind Ryuji's kindness and wish to plan an escape might buy her a little misplaced trust from some people. She caught Paul Courtney's eye by accident, and gave him a ferocious scowl, envisioning a little target on his forehead, right between his eyes.
Park rolled his eyes in mild amusement at Kyo's shock, and he sighed, almost sadly, grinning his endearing lop-sided grin, swiping at his wet eyelids to try to stop the tears from showing.
"Thank you... thank you for coming with me," he said softly, lowering his dark gaze momentarily.
"And yeah, I do have a major crush on you, silly. Man, to think I couldn't get the courage to talk to you until today, and now, boom, we find ourselves in a Battle Royale. Of all the luck, huh? Unbelievable. Yet more great timing from me..." and his breath choked up a little.
Those stinging tears were becoming harder to wipe away, and he couldn't hide the trembling of his hands much longer.
Park bit his lower lip hard and gave Kyo a look of open fear and pain, his arms enveloping the Japanese boy even closer to him.
Dev chuckled softly, turning back to Ryu and the girls. "I'd have kept that under wraps man, my boyfriend back home...well we were both damn discreet. Nah...s'more than that, but you don't need to hear my sob-story right?" He offered the Japanese student a rueful smile.
"I guess I'll see you round, maybe. And remember, whatever happens; I'm still your friend." ^_^
This time he really did walk away, as far away in the small classroom as he could get from the other students.
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Kyo had never seen Park cry and it made him feel terrible, a pain as vivid as if he'd been slapped in the face, which actually served to wake him from the heavy weight of self-pity he'd been cowering under.
"Oh Park-kun.." He murmured, reaching up hesitantly to hug his new friend tightly. "Don't cry, we'll be alright."
”I can’t f**king believe this!” Hans thought after witnessing Sam Warner’s cruel death. “That guy’s a psycho!” Which was pretty much what everyone who knew the kid back in Germany had been saying about him. But hell, that gun went off by accident (or, at least that’s what he had kept telling himself). This was cold-hearted murder! Sure, Hans himself had been close to wring Sam’s neck a few times, but that wouldn’t have improved his situation much. Besides, Mr. Harvey probably had something special in mind for the ones that tried something like that, and he definitely didn’t want to find out what that could be. As a result, he had kept as much to himself as he possibly could. He was absolutely not a loner, so this had been quite a challenge for him. But he thought he’d manage to pull it off quite well. The only person he had kind of befriended was Tobias Clyffe, but he sold drugs so why would that be strange?
He leant back to the wall and closed his eyes, trying to get his thoughts sorted out. Obviously, Mr. Harvey wanted the class to go on a killing-spree, with only one person coming out as a winner… And Hans had already come to the conclusion that he would not be that person. But no way he’d give up without a fight.
Jennifer had not got a chance to answer Ryu’s question because of Devon. She did not want to play this game and since Ryu said he might know a way out, she might as well go with him and Reiko… She wanted Dev to go with them as well, but because of his “problem” maybe watching him walk away was for the best. She wanted to say something to him, to make him change his mind and help them for as long as he could, only what could she say? Please? Then again, what if he didn’t get a chance to take off before going “crazy”? According to him, there was a strong possibility that he’d hurt them and Jennifer wanted to stay alive for as long as she could. If that meant not having Devon go with them, then so be it. Yes, she decided, it’ll be better like this.
“So…” she started while turning to the other two, ”what
now…?”