Part 4 - Day One, 06:00 to 12:00

<sound of trumpet fanfare>

Wakey wakey, my little children!

If you were catnapping, now's the time to sit up, wipe the sleepy dust from your eyes and PAY ATTENTION.

I'm disappointed with you. So disappointed. None of you maggots has shown any inclination of being model Good Citizens at all! No-one's died yet!

THIS MUST STOP RIGHT NOW. I can't do your dirty work for you, you know. I've already taken one of you out - what more do you want of me? Do you want more than one favour, more than your one pound of flesh? You lazy little shits, get your fingers out of your arses and get. killing.

Danger Zones for this six hour period: C3, G9. Don't tread in them, or it's curtains!

Group Zone, to start in three hours time, 09:00: D8, D9. You need to be in the zone for at least ninety minutes between 09:00 and 12:00 or... it's CURTAINS!

All map co-ordinates refer to your main colour map, courtesy of the Ordnance Survey. Say thank you to the nice map men!

Now get on with it, for f--k's sake. If there's no killing in this next game period... well, we have a little surprise.

Message ends <click>

As their transistor radios activated themselves automatically, it nearly made Park jump out of his skin - he hadn't noticed the time as they searched the police station for anything even vaguely more useful than a bunch of coffee machine filters and some batons (although thoughtfully Park had equipped himself with one, as had the little Japanese, just in case).

So when the music blared out, his knees buckled, his legs collapsed under him and he sat heavily on the floor, pressing his palm to his chest to try to calm his thundering heart, his face draining of all colour.

"F***ing shit!" he said breathlessly, gasping still from the shock and trying to find the radio in the bottom of his bag. Both himself and his new friend listened to the messages and announcement on their radios, marking the zones off on their maps.

"I think we've got lucky as far as the Group Zone goes, hon... it's not so far from us this time, so we should be quite early. Perhaps we'll be there before the others," he said quietly, squeezing the other boy's hand reassuringly. "Come on, let's get searching again..."

But as they made their way into the abandoned cells, Park suddenly spotted something hanging on a hook outside the doors: there was a bunch of body armour, to start with. So the two boys shyly removed their shirts and each put on a black Kevlar undervest; even though it was a little weighty, Park knew it would at least offer them both some small kind of protection... and then the slender Korean found something even more useful than that...

"Shit, Kyo, will you look at that," Park exclaimed softly, taking the tiny Glock handgun down from the high shelf it was lying on, and giving the other boy a slightly dazed look. "Just what we wanted..."

And then, very gently and very seriously, he took Kyo's hands, opened the palms to him, placed the handgun into them, and curled his crush's fingers around it to show that he was giving it to the petite Japanese, and there was to be no argument about it. "You defend yourself with this, OK? I've got a big stick for myself, I can knock the f***ers down," he smiled, lifting the boy's clasped hands to his lips and dropping a soft kiss onto them.

Hannelore woke with a start when Harvey's announcement blared over the radio. She'd spent the (fortunately dry) night sleeping in woods close to the school, waiting for first light so she could find something suitable to support her weight. Ami had stayed with her, though hadn't had much sleep, Hannelore felt: Hannelore herself though was quite accustomed to sleeping in uncomforable places, and it posed no problem to her.

So... no-one had died during the night. That was, in a way, reassuring, though she didn't know what the little surprise would be that Harvey alluded to. Still, last night when she'd gone through her bag, she'd found a sawn-off shotgun with 40 rounds. Might be useful, if I decide to play the game, she thought.

She thought of the task ahead of her... it sure as hell wouldn't be easy. Getting up, she felt her ankle take more of her weight than it had some hours before, and she hobbled up to find a branch. In the distance, though, she saw Ami coming towards her waving one - she'd obviously woken before Hannelore and had opted to help her friend.

"Ami, thanks. Listen - did you hear that about the group zone? We need to get there by 10.30 at the latest. I still don't know how quickly I can walk... shall we find something for breakfast on the way? I'm starving.

The sun was turning the sky the colour of fire when Paul's radio blazed into life. "Holy shit!!" Paul had been asleep. The brothers had arrived at the mill a few hours after sundown and decided it'd be best to conduct a search once it was light. Paul turned to where Leon had been sleeping, but he was no longer there.

Slightly panicked, Paul rose to his feet and started to look around. Suddenly the door to the mill opened and Leon emerged wearing a big smile and carrying a bigger machine gun in his hands. Jackpot! It was the Colt M4 Assault Rifle!

Leon held up a box. It was a case of bullets for the Colt, 200 rounds. Paul laughed at their good fortune. "I think we're gonna get a chance to use that soon, the group zone has just been announced." He indicated the 2 squares on the map. "If we get there early we'll be in a better position. Come on, let's move"

Ami smiled at Hannelore sadly. "I heard, and every ones still alive." she shook her head, thoughts drifting through her mind. *Everyones still alive, but what hope do we have.* She whiped a stray tear and nodded. "If we start walking now we should be able to make it. We have a fair amount of time. And we should get breakfast." She smiled again at the German girl.

They walked in silence for a while, each girl lost in thought. Ami continued to think about what they were going to do. Scratch they, what she was going to do. She swore a long time ago she would never kill, not even in selfdefence. That's why she went to so many protests, she didn't want others to kill. There was no such thing as neccessary killing. she stopped completely lost in thought.

"I won't do it, I won't" she whispered looking up at Hannelore. "I don't know what to do. We're going to die if we don't kill anyon, but I don't want their deaths on my conscience." She threw her bag to the ground. "How can this make us better people? Its making us become murderers, we should be locked up for what we are doing here....."

Delilah was no going to give up her new pet easily and after giving that whining bitch whose name she couldn't even be bothered to remember, a harsh and totally unexpected punch in the face that dropped her like a tonne of bricks she'd dragged Sylvain off in the direction of the nearest building.

Until the radio went off at dawn she'd sat in silent vigil, trying to ignore Sylvain's endearingly pathetic attempts at flirting. After Harvey's announcement ended she felt a utterly disappointed and regretted leaving the girl alive-- the first kill should be hers-- of that she was certain.

"Sweetheart....shall we get going?"

After boarding up the road for as long as he could be bothered Devon had lost himself in the streets and somehow ended up close to the danger zone, close enough in fact to see its invisible border from the window of the house he'd broken into.

Opening his bag, in the shadows had been both an amusing and frightening experience and he'd sat laughing, on the very edge of tears for a little too long.

The sound of static crackling woke him from the crumpled heap he'd ended up in on someone elses bed.

He sat up slowly, brushing back a few thin strands of hair stuck to his forehead and fanned himself as he listened silently. At least no one was dead and cortesy of what he'd found in his bag he could at least die with a smile on his face now.

Dev took a deep breath and braced himself for the day ahead, wondering if he'd even survive it. Before he could begin to wallow in self-pity he jumped off the bed and packed to head for group zone.

Kyo stared at Park in disbelief as he gently kissed his trembling hands. It was almost beyond him to concieve that anyone could be so selfless and for a dark moment he was overtaken by paranoia, but it quickly faded when the Korean's gaze met his own.

There was no question about it-- Park wanted him to survive. He trusted Kyo not to turn the gun upon him. The very thought made tears prick at the corner of Kyo's almond shaped eyes and with a gracious nod he whispered, "A-arigato, I will defend us both." Though he was weak, both physically and often mentally, the passionate, determined tone of his voice proved that his words were sincere.

Tucking the gun into the waistband of his pants he bowed to Park again, wishing suddenly to push his luck; to reach out to his new-found friend and at least make a connection before he died.

But again his nerves got the better of him.

Ami's words stunned Hannelore. She hadn't expected this resolutely headstrong girl to suddenly renounce her only chance of reaching twenty.

"Listen to me. This is what he wants. He wants us to worry, he wants us to have crises of conscience. It makes us easier targets and, more to the point, it makes for better TV. Or have you forgotten that?

"Look, I've got this shotgun. If anyone has a go at us in the GZ, I'm not going to be afraid to use it in self-defence. Y'know, I've had training, I can handle myself... even like this, injured. We've got to keep a low profile though. Game HQ knows where we are, and who knows if they're sharing that information with anyone else. They know I'm hurt... and because Harvey hates me I wouldn't put it past him to send someone to get me...

"Let's find some transport... a bike, or a car. We'll need to break into a house. Maybe I can find some bandages or something too. I need some painkillers as well. And I'm starving hungry. We've got a while until we have to be in the GZ, so let's make the most of it."

Park merely acknowledged Kyo's bow with a slightly rueful look and a heavy-hearted shrug. He realised in that split-second that he had made the final decision to sacrifice his own life for the one person for whom he'd ever felt anything deeper than carnal desire.

And it was a very painful realisation, because Park knew that the one chance he'd had at having some kind of meaningful relationship with anyone was slipping away from him as the seconds ticked off the clock. His entire life had been driven by selfish motives: he'd lost count of the number of times he'd seduced and lied and broken hearts, simply because of the fact that he was physically beautiful and totally driven by one emotion - sheer wanton lust and nothing more.

So now he was being karmically repaid for all the shitty things he'd done in his few short years on earth, he accepted his punishment, had been somehow expecting it... almost welcomed it. He would trade his life for the life of a boy who had hidden his true nature out of fear, and who had lived a pure, innocent life the exact polar opposite of the Korean's, too afraid to act on his emotions and desires.

If Park had ever had a problem with Kyo's attitude, it was only because the other boy's willpower, strength and determination made him feel ashamed of himself, and that was an uncomfortable, difficult emotion for someone who had lived so shamelessly in pursuit of decadence.

Park didn't want to die, but he was damned if he wouldn't go down fighting for the only person he'd ever truly loved.

He gave a heavy sigh, gazing pensively at the Japanese boy, and made a monumental effort to give him a smile, but he knew that smile had nothing but hurt and fear twisting it into more of a grimace.

"No, Kyo," he replied gently, stepping forward and cupping the other boy's face in his hands. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, I can look after both of us. I gave you the gun to defend yourself. Not me, OK? No arguments," and he leaned forward, left a very small kiss at the corner of Kyo's lips, and then mentally shook himself into action again, knowing that they had to get going for the group zone.

"We should get moving. I'm guessing a lot of the others are going to want to get there early too, and we don't want to run into trouble on the way. Are you ready to go, hon?"

Sylvain was beginning to wonder exactly what he had gotten himself into here. He wasn't stupid, by any stretch of the imagination. Easily led, yes; cowardly, a pretty fair judgement; frequently mistaken for a doormat by the girls in his surroundings, yep, that too. But not so absolutely dim that he couldn't tell when he was in a pretty precarious situation.

And the way Delilah had simply slugged Chloe with a pretty hefty thump in the face, almost knocking her out cold, to make her let go of his arm had made the little French boy stagger backwards in shock and fall on his ass into the dirt. He hadn't expected the pretty stranger to do anything quite as... unnecessarily violent as that. That seemed kind of... uncalled for. All kinds of alarm bells had begun ringing when she had quite apparently been smiling whilst wiping Chloe's blood off her knuckles.

And another thing which had begun to bother him: if she was as interested in him as she had seemed initially to be, why wasn't she responding (either positively or negatively) to his sincere, although doubtless clumsy, efforts to flirt with her? Eventually, Sylvain had given up, and fallen into hurt and puzzled silence, sipping water from his bottle and grimacing as he forced cold rice pudding down into his growling stomach.

However, he had not been expecting what happened just a few minutes after Harvey's announcement: just as they were loading up their bags to move, there was a sudden, blood-curdling howl from behind them, and a dark shape flew out of the low bushes, launching itself at Delilah.

However, the transfer's instincts were sharp and true, and she side-stepped the figure within a split-second of getting brained by a crude weapon made out of a tin of catfood inside a plastic carrier bag. Apparently it would seem that the pair had been stalked by Chloe since Delilah had knocked her down, hiding and waiting for her chance to strike, and Sylvain barely wanted to know the outcome of this suicidal attack, backing off with fear.

Harvey's announcement fanfare had awoken Ryuji first as the three of them dozed in a small shed just between the sandpit site and the concrete works, and he had gently shaken the two girls awake... but not before he had sat for a few moments in silence, watching the beautiful Swedish blonde sleep, his heart beating a little too fast in his thin chest.

However,eventually and very reluctantly the soft-hearted Japanese boy tried to wake them again. "Hey... hey, Jen, Rei, wake up, there's an announcement," he said softly, "You better hear this..."

Rei stirred first, yawning hugely and struggling for her bag, ostensibly to get some water but also to pop a secretive pill. When you ate as little as she did, you needed something to keep you running on empty.

Jen woke a little after, clearly still feeling some of the effects of the gas from last night, and all three listened grimly to Harvey's showboating-asshole speech, probably ghost-written by someone for him, who knew what kind of melodramatics appealed to prime-time TV audiences.

But when they came to mark the group zone squares on their maps, Ryu was the first to realise exactly where they were in relation to the first GZ as he marked off the squares.

"Jesus - they're all coming here! We're right in the f**king middle of it!" he exclaimed in shock, "We better find somewhere to hide, and fast!"

Rei said nothing, but secretly she was happy to hear the news. They'd be the first people in the zone, because after all they were already here... and OK, so her whip wasn't up to much, but the handle was heavy, made out of leather-strapped wood, and could easily knock someone out if she hit them across the back of the head, or maybe even kill them if she hit them in the temple...

The three of them swiftly packed their bags, and headed out across the sand, trying to find some kind of bunker or hiding-spot. However, suddenly Rei tripped over something lodged in the sand, and shouted "Kuso!" ("Shit!"), landing flat on her backside. But what she discovered buried there soon made her angry scowl turn into a beam of delight.

"Hey! HEY!!! Look at this!" she crowed, scrabbling in the sand and dragging up a big black Gatling machine-gun on a kind of tripod, with several rounds of ammunition wound around the stand. "We got the big prize, guys! Errr...." and the glee was suddenly replaced with disappointment, "Do any of us know how to make it work, though?"

The three of them exchanged baffled looks, until Ryu shrugged and said quietly, "I think it needs one person to shoot it and another to feed the bullets in..."

After about twenty solid minutes of fiddling with the weighty machine, Ryu finally got it working, and between himself and Rei they let off a sudden, terrifying burst of gunfire which threw both of them onto their backsides in the sand.

"F***ING-A!!!" Rei laughed delightedly, scrambling to her feet, "Let's get this baby out of sight. Man, we are so gonna be able to... defend ourselves with this!"

Not for the first time since they had left Battle HQ, Ryu gave her a slightly askance look, moving closer to Jen as if he was feeling the first chill of a possible threat to his crush; they lugged the gun between them to a lower position, and all three of them lay down on their fronts in the sand, watching and waiting for the first of the others to arrive.

Ryu looked over at Jen, and squeezed her hand in an attempt to make her smile. He felt sad to see her normally breezy and cheerful face looking so drawn and tired, and wished he could think of something better to say than "It's OK Jen, I won't let anything happen to you..."

It had been several minutes since the Courtneys had left the Mill and had now found their way to the main road. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Paul heard the sounds of an engine! He grabbed Leon and pushed them both into the bushes by the roadside, out of sight.

Peeking through the long grass, Paul saw the source of the noise. It was Will Collins, the quiet Australian student who had recently transferred to the institute. Somehow he had aquired a motorbike and had got it started. It wasn't very powerful. To Paul's untrained ear it sounded no bigger than a 125 but it stilll beat walking. He turned to Leon "I want that bike"

As Paul looked back round at the bike he was suddenly amazed at his good fortune. As he watched, the bike slid on an uneven patch of road and skidded out from under Will, leaving the Australian crumpled on the floor clutching his knee.

Paul smiled and turned back to Leon, but he was already gone.

Leon stepped from the bushes and put the Colt up to his shoulder. He didn't even wait for the Austrialian to turn around.

The Colt rattled angrily as it spat out a handful of rounds, aimed unerringly at Will's head. The boy shuddered as the bullets ripped the top of his skull into a bloody mash, and then lay perfectly still, a dark pool spreading out to grope the edge of the road.

Paul stepped out "Holy shit! That was intense!" and went to check Will's bag. He pulled out a bayonet. "Hmm, better than nothing. Come on let's go!" Paul wanted to be out of there quickly before the gunfire drew any interested parties.

Leon remained motionless for a few seconds. He had been hunting many times and had killed an impressive collection of deer and pheasants. But this was the first time he had ever killed a human being. He was surprised to be feeling no emotion for taking another person's life. In fact, it had been rather easy

Student #4 Will Collins dead. 24 TO GO

Kyo nodded, his cheeks stained crimson by Park's selfless and sweet gesture. Eventhough he'd never admit it, Park's continued attention felt quite natural and he was beginning to loose a little of the sickening edge of fear he'd been just tolerating since the battle began.

"Hai, " With a faint smile he reached out and took hold of Park's hand, squeezing it reassuringly. no matter what the Korean said he would protect them both as much as he could.

"Oh please." Delilah gave the girl a mildly annoyed look and unzipped her bag, never taking her oddly souless gaze off the stranger.
Her eyes did however flick to Sylvain just as she drew a square blade from her bag, its dull metal glinting in the morning sun.

Chloe gaped for a moment, torn between running and attacking before he reckless streak kicked in and throwing caution to the wind she flung herself at Delilah honestly expecting the other girl would be hit by her wild, uncontrolled swings of the crude weapon.

Delilah moved fluidly though, avoiding each strike until she could lash out, grabbing the front of Chloe's clothing and wrenching her forward so suddenly that the catfood flew from her hand.

"Game over sweetheart." The English rose said spitefully before drawing the cleaver across Chloe's pale throat. To Sylvain's horror she seemed to be reveling in the geysher of blood that spurted form the girl's throat as she tossed her cruelly aside.

Dev squeaked in surprise as he searched under the bed he'd been 'sleeping' in all night. A largish unmarked box had caught his eye and the contents was surely one of the hidden special weapons Harvey had mentioned. He pulled out the boxy Bazoka and eyed it warily, glancing at the shells next to it before bundling the whole lot into his bag.

Of course he'd never be able to bring himself to use it, but maybe one of his friends could. With renewed hope he set out again on his skateboard to find someone he knew.

Student #14 Chloe Karn dead. 23 TO GO

"What the... what the f**k did you do that for?!" Sylvain screamed, horrified, as Delilah threw the young girl's body, still twitching and fountaining blood, down into the long grass, stooping to clean her gore-stained cleaver on Chloe's skirt.

He hastily turned his back on the transfer as shocked waves of nausea shook his stomach, and the half-digested rice pudding he'd managed to stuff down made a surprise reappearance all over the ground. But as soon as he'd done it, he realised what a stupid thing to do that was: now he couldn't see whether she was going to murder him with the cleaver too. He shut his eyes, almost hoping she would, and let him out of this horrible nightmare for good.

But she didn't, and he collapsed to his knees, shaking and vomiting twice more before his breathing started to calm itself and his eyes stopped watering. So why was she sparing him? What did she want from him? And how the hell could he escape now - and would he actually want to?

Somehow, he figured the safest place to be was hiding behind a psycho right now, and he was now pretty much halfway to convinced that she wasn't quite like the other girls he knew...

It wasn't too long a walk for the two boys from the police station to the two map squares of the first GZ: indeed, it was pretty straightforward - straight along the main Oxford Road, and turn off onto Sand Pit Road, crossing the marsh by means of the tarmac'ed road leading to Abberd Lane.

It was truly eerie: the whole town was silent and empty, not another person in sight. It made Park think of the ending of a scary ghost film he'd seen called Kairo, when everyone in Tokyo just disappeared almost overnight... and the whole city wound up empty, just like this...

Both of the boys were pretty much silent, afraid that if they talked, it would attract unwanted attention from anyone who happened to be going along the same route. And it was just as well, because as they approached the gates to the concrete works, they heard muffled voices coming from one of the smaller buildings lining the route, and Park's heart began to pound with fear, the adrenaline coursing through his veins again. He could almost hear Kyo's heartbeat too, feeling how the other boy's hand was beginning to get a cold sweat on, and his fingers were trembling.

They scurried on as quietly as possible, ducking into a small vault-like storage cellar under an outbuilding, the pair of them crouching down and hiding behind a collection of seemingly empty, heavy plastic barrels.

This was as safe a place as any, Park figured, and hopefully even if someone came in, the couple would see any invaders long before they were seen themselves - the light was dim, and their eyes would be better adjusted to it than anyone just coming down there. The Korean put his arms around Kyo (secretly for his own reassurance, as well as to reassure the Japanese boy), both of them absolutely terrified and shaking, all their senses on red alert.

"Is this OK?" Park whispered in Kyo's ear, both of them huddled in the corner, "Think you can wait out ninety minutes here? If anyone comes in, we'll be able to see them..."

Tobias and Rainbow had been spending the night at Aberd House farm and were therefore already on the outskirts of the designated Group Zone. They had also been fortunate that the old owner of the farm had left a shotgun behind. It was something of an antique and there were only 5 shells for it. But at least they could protect themselves if necessary.

Neither of them had the intention of playing the game. In fact their original plan had been to escape together. But after heading east to check out the perimeter fence, they realised it was impossible.

Tobias sighed and took a drag on his joint. He had secretly come up with a new plan. He had only been hanging around with Rainbow for a couple of weeks and already she was starting to irritate him. At first he was happy because the sex was good. (not to mention easily coerced from the promiscuous hippy) but her constant babbling about topics she really had no knowledge about was starting to drive Tobias nuts!

It wasn't bad enough to make him want to kill her. But hell, if it came down to him or her, that wasn't a choice at all! So Tobias' new plan was to stay out of sight, let everyone else kill each other off, then take out Rainbow and win the game.

Breaking his chain of thought, Rainbow emerged from the ajoining room. "I think we're a little too far from the Group Zone. We're gonna have to move a little north."

Tobias blew a cloud of smoke at her "OK, let's move" he said. He grabbed the shotgun and followed her out.

Delilah hadn't quite expected such a sudden and spectacular reaction from the little French kid. Relenting slightly in the face of something so pathetically endearing she returned the cleaver to her bag and approached him slowly; kneeling to lay a hand on his trembling shoulder.

"I did it for you sweetheart.....she was clearly insane."

After a small pause for effect she asked quietly, "Are you alright?"

Kyo nodded, trying not to make a sound as he shifted in Park's arms, so he could rest his head on the Korean's shoulder. Even something so innocent caused a bright stain of pink to erupt over his cheeks and he closed his eyes; praying silently that they'd make it through the next few hours.

"Park-san.....if I don't make it out of here....p-please...please....remember me on White Day." He whispered softly; no one else would even remember his name, not even his family cared and a horrible certainty about his fate entered Kyo's voice, but only faintly.

Hans had been spending the last couple of hours searching the hospital for anything useful. He had come across several scalpels – one which he had attached to his belt, one he had put in his pocket and two he had been practicing throwing during the last 30 minutes before the first announcement – and a Syringe with ampoules of deadly poison. It definitely wasn’t what he wanted, but as long as he didn’t have a gun pointed at him he might be able to take down a few students.
He had put the radio, the maps and a pen on a desk behind him, so that he wouldn’t have trouble getting to it in time. When the radio activated itself, he threw one of the scalpels towards the wall, where it got stuck – and he smiled, proud of himself for finally starting to get the technique – before walking over to the desk, grabbing the pen, awaiting the information.

After marking the danger zones and group zones, Hans started planning his next move. He figured the best thing would be heading northeast, to H10 and from there follow the fences to the sandpits in E10 and E9, and then entering D9. There seemed to be some sort of building there. If he hurried he might be able to hide out there. He had to stay out of sight until he had found himself a better weapon that’s a fact.
He packed his bag, not bothering with the two scalpels he had been practicing with, and left, constantly looking over his shoulders, making sure he was alone.

This was easily on the top 10 over best things that had happened lately. Jennifer just stood there, with a dropped jaw, while Reiko dragged out the gattling gun. She had never seen one in real life. It was… beautiful. And, just like Rei said, after getting the dang thing to work (so powerful) they’d be able to defend themselves, at last. If anyone tried something, he’d be ripped to pieces for sure. And this was just what they needed; after all they were all coming here. The pure thought made her shiver. Here…

Almost as if he had read her thoughts, Ryu said, “It's OK Jen, I won't let anything happen to you..." while squeezing her hand. She made an attempt to smile – must have looked extremely fake, she though. “Don’t worry, Ryu, I’ll be fine”. She was glad she had friends like him. By herself, she’d be lost, and probably dead by now, as she had spent her entire life relying on others. Still holding his hand, they awaited the rest of the class.

Tobias and Rainbow had entered the Group Zone a good hour ago and were now cautiously making their way along square D9 on the map aiming to come out at the top and move onto somewhere safer.

They had taken a back alley in order to not be noticed. Although it was morning, not much of the sunlight filtered through the close tree cover and so Tobias kept a firm grip on the shotgun and frequently checked over his shoulder. He moved slightly ahead of Rainbow to check the path ahead and noticed something that would make their passage a lot quicker. It was a 125cc Trials Bike!

Tobias knew a fair amount about motorbikes, his brother bought an old one and they had spent many afternoons fixing it up. It wasn't to dissimilar to this one. He handed the shotgun to Rainbow, "Take this and keep an eye out" he whispered "I'll go and see if I can't get that bike started" Rainbow nervously gripped the shotgun. She knew she'd never be able to fire it at another human being, but maybe she could scare them away with it. It was pretty frightening after all.

The first thing Tobias noticed as he straddled the bike was the smell of fuel. He figured it was probably fumes from the gas tank which was missing it's cap. He leaned down for the ignition wires and noticed they were already exposed as if somebody had hotwired the bike before and then disconnected the wires.

Rainbow approached the bike and broke Tobias' concentration "Come on! We need to get out of here!" she pleaded. They had been in the zone nearly long enough now and certainly had no plans to go into extra time. Tobias looked up distractedly "OK, OK I know! Just give me a second OK. I nearly got this" he hissed.

When he reached down and took hold of the wires, he realised they were damp. There was also a strip of cloth he hadn't noticed before, seemingly tied to the bike's bodywork. If Tobias had been thinking straight, maybe he would have left the bike alone but he was too single-minded in his desire to leave so he struck the wires together to make them spark.

After the initial spark, Tobias was shocked to discover something burst into flame. It was the strip of cloth. Tobias also noticed for the first time that the cloth wasn't attatched to the body work after all! He could only watch, eyes wide in terror as the flame snaked it's way up to the hole in the gas tank.

FOOM! The earth shook as the bike flew apart, spraying burning shrapnel. Pieces of the bike's engine embedded themselves in Tobias' legs and groin, a piece of the gas tank sheared off and sliced up his chest, exposing his ribcage to the morning air. This would have been incredibly painful had another torn sheet of metal not taken his head clean off his shoulders, blood fountaining from his neck like a burst hose. As Tobias' legs spasmed, the remains of the bike toppled over, speading burning wreckage across the path.

Rainbow had been standing too close to the bike. The explosion picked her up and violently threw her against a wall. The shotgun flew from her grasp. Shrapnel from the bike pierced her right knee, her chest and finally her face, slicing into her eyes.

Blinded, she dropped to the floor emitting a series of choked coughs, a dark red foam dripping from her mouth. She heard a voice. For an insane moment, she thought it might be Tobias, then the ringing in her ears subsided enough for her to pick it out better.

"Maybe next time you'll take the f*cking bus!" an amused voice yelled followed by a sly snicker. Rainbow knew that voice.

She desperately scrabbled for the lost shotgun. Some low-level survival instinct kicking in, past her unbelievable agony. She may die, but not by his hands!

Mercifully she found it! Rainbow raised herself painfully onto her knees and aimed the shotgun in the rough direction of the voice. She fired.

The shot crashed hopelessly wide of the target to strike ineffectually at the trees. But the rifle had been in a poor state of repair and the recoil had caused the stock to splinter and break apart, driving shards of wood deep into Rainbow's shoulder.

As Rainbow slumped back against the wall, she tossed the shotgun. Feeling her agony could possibly get no worse, her ragged screams were suddenly stopped cold by a rattling sound.

Student #3 Tobias Clyffe dead,
Student #9 Rainbow De'Ath dead, 21 TO GO

Leon slipped into the trees as soon has he saw the two figures making their way up the path, intending to take them out as soon as they got close enough. Then he saw one of them point at the bike. Leon knew what Paul had done to the bike so he held fire and waited, a smile spreading across his face.

Leon recognised the pair as they drew closer. Tobias Clyffe and Rainbow De'Ath. Leon didn't really know the pair, but remembered Paul's comments after he had spent an hour with Rainbow in the store cupboard. "You should go out with her man" He had said. "She puts out on the first date. And hell, you wouldn't even need to put up with her yapping!"

Leon ducked down as he saw Tobias reach for the bike's ignition wires.

Paul had been in the bushes pissing as the bike exploded. "Holy shit!" He cried as bits of burning debris crashed into the trees above his head. "F*ck!" he retorted angrily as he noticed he had piss down his trousers from where he had stopped concentrating on his aim. He zipped up and emerged from the trees to check out the bike.

Paul had been planning to blow up the bike himself a little later. It was going to serve as a distraction while the boys made their escape across the marshes to St Edmunds school where they were going to restock their supplies and rest up until the next announcement. But now this stupid f*ck had come along and set it off early.

Paul's eyes widened as he say the wreckage. twisted metal and blood lay in scattered piles. Tobias' ruined body still straddled the remains of the bike his head was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe next time you'll take the f*cking bus!" he chortled. Then he noticed the second body.

It was that hippy chick he used to screw when he was bored, but now she was scarcely recognisable. A piece of broken pipe showed from a gash across her chest, her face was sliced almost in half and almost entirely masked in blood. Yet she was somehow, alive? She was also armed!

Paul saw her raise the shotgun, several feet too wide and fired. She cried out and threw the gun away. Paul took a step forward and grabbed it in one hand. Before he could do anything more, Paul was nearly deafened by the stuttering of the Colt just behind his shoulder.

The bullets ripped into the girl's face. neck and shoulders and she slumped to the floor, finally dead.

The shotgun felt strangely hot in Paul's hands. He inspected it. The force of the shot had split the barrel down the middle. Even if they could repair the stock, there was no way the gun would ever fire again. Paul sighed, disappointed. He tossed the gun into the smouldering wreckage.

He turned to Leon. "I'm betting somebody must have heard that" he smirked "think it's time we got out of here!"

The two boys ran up the path and disappeared.

Mr Harvey was watching in Game HQ as the class started to assemble in the Group Zone. Pretty much everyone was there now, bar two or three, and they would be coming soon. Besides, now would be the opportune time to unveil another little twist of his, without the risk of damaging his game plan.

"Sergeant, start me up a helicopter. I want to go on air safari. Gilbert, Harbud, Olley, Bathe: you're with me."

The pilot, Harvey and the four soldiers hurried over to the school field. In Harvey's hands were a GPS locator, to show the precise location of each student, and a sniper rifle. A machine gun would have been too simple - there's no sport in that, thought Harvey to himself.

The helicopter was also equipped with a box of tear gas grenades, just in case some rats had their heads too buried in their lairs and needed flushing out. The pilot had been watching the footage, so was only too aware that some of the weapons had been found - he'd have to be very careful to not fly too low, especially around the sandpit where the Gatling was, the Courtneys and Devon Delonge.

In a scream of engine noise and whirring blades, the chopper slowly lifted off from the centre circle of John Bentley School's best football field. It would be a short flight to the zone.

"Gentlemen" said Harvey to his adjutants, "your task is to defend all four corners of the helicopter. Only open fire if you see participants aiming a weapon at us. Failure to comply with this instruction will result in your entry to the game, forcibly. I'm here for the sport - I have a rifle and I'm going to see how many trophies I can bag."

In that short time, the helicopter had flown over to square D8, and was circling as Harvey turned on his GPS locator to find a suitable first kill. A small circle on the display indicated the location of Anneke Joostens, who was trying to hide under a bush. As the helicopter hovered above her, she bolted and tried to run along the road towards the farm. Harvey ordered the pilot to stay hovering while he levelled his sights and aimed for her head.

A sharp retort and the smell of cordite filled the cockpit as Anneke's head exploded onto the tarmac.

"Excellent" exclaimed Harvey. "Land."

As the helicopter touched down, Harvey approached the still warm corpse of Joostens, dipped his fingers in her blood, and drew his fingers across his cheeks. Second blood.

"Take off" yelled Harvey as he ran back to the helicopter, aware the other students were probably aware what was going on, and that he was now a target. As the helicopter gained height, he saw the Courtney brothers staring at him from near to the farm.

"Higher" he yelled at the pilot, whilst pulling the pin on a grenade. As they flew over, he threw the charge at the running brothers, and they were hidden in a cloud of dust and tear gas.

"Just one left - to the sandpit..." As the helicopter swooped low towards the concrete works, he found his target: the group with the Gatling gun. Aiming shakily towards them, he fired, and saw Reiko Abe lifting the muzzle of the Gatling and aiming back at them, letting off a sharp volley of bullets. His shot missed, but Harbud, following orders, aimed at the girl and caught her side, causing her to fall face down into the sand. However, the GPS indicated she was still alive.

"Back to base. I've got to do some work. I can't spend all day having fun, you know."

Student #13 Anneke Joostens dead, 20 to go

Park looked round at the other boy, trying to keep his runaway emotions under some kind of control and failing miserably. Hot tears dripped off his long eyelashes and he hugged Kyo even harder.

"Don't - don't be an idiot Bukiyo, that's such a dumb thing to say - for God's sake, do you think I wouldn't remember you on White Day next year? F**k, man, I can't cook for shit but I'm gonna be at your door with f**king home-made cookies, don't blame me if they're more like frisbees than anything you could actually eat," he whispered, trying to laugh his tears off, but only succeeding in making things worse. He completely broke down, choking on his own breathless sobs.

The beautiful boy's words had cut him really deep. Kyo seriously believed that when he died here, no-one would remember him. Park heard the profound belief in his voice; and he realised that few people would mourn him too. They were a pair of lost souls and they weren't even dead yet.

Enough... enough and more than enough. Park couldn't take it any more. He'd wasted enough time, and he knew they didn't have much time left. He swiped at his wet face with his sleeve, still crying but less desperately now, and looked sheepishly at the little Japanese, as if apologising in advance for what he was about to say and do.

"I could never forget you... please don't forget me either. I - I'm sorry. I love you, Kyo," he murmured, lowering his eyes and leaning towards Kyo, giving up the fight to resist his giddy emotions and allowing his lips to touch the other boy's in a dark, hesitant kiss, all the while unable to get a lyric from one of his favourite songs out of his head... it was so apt, under the circumstances.

'Now they say that hell is a place where memory's dead and the only
thing left is this moment moving further away
But I will always try to remember the way you moved your lips
against mine in the lonely bed
If I forget who you were then, I will lose what I am now
Forever and ever and ever and ever again...'*

But before the other boy could even react one way or the other, there was suddenly a terrifying noise of a low-flying helicopter swooping outside, then a chilling scream rent the air. Park jumped a mile, all of his senses back on red alert... stupid, stupid, he berated himself, You can't afford to take your eye off the ball, even for a second... you endangered Bukiyo, you selfish f**king moron...

However, they pressed closer into the wall, both of them breathing heavily with fear; the noises soon stopped, and soon enough all was silent again. Park didn't know what to do: whether they should think about getting out once the ninety minutes were up, or whether they should stay a little longer. They had been safe enough getting in - would they be so safe getting out again?

He looked back at Kyo again, and the other boy's face was absolutely scarlet, averting his eyes... in embarrassment, or in shame? The Korean held his breath, fearing he had gone way too far and ruined everything...

... and what the hell had happened outside? Had there really been a helicopter attack of some kind? And who had screamed like that? Park was afraid that he had recognised the voice, and that it had been Reiko's... but could they afford to find out?

Sylvain tried not to shudder when he felt Delilah's hand on his shoulder. Oh, he was so confused. He had just witnessed her cut another girl's throat in cold blood, and yet now she was saying she had done it to protect him? Somehow he knew that was bullshit, and yet... yet her expression was so hurt and tender towards him, maybe there was some truth in it, after all...

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'm OK... I'm sorry, I never saw anyone dead before," he mumbled, passing his shaking hands over his face, "She did try to attack us, didn't she?"

He wasn't really seeking reassurance for what happened... only that he was afraid of the pretty transfer now, and he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that she was not going to let him get away from her, or else he might be the next one to end up getting their throat sliced open like a pork chop.

"We'd better get to the zone," he was midway through saying, when suddenly a low-flying helicopter erased his words, and the pair of them dived for cover under a low copse of trees.

Kyo shuddered uncontrollably, clinging to Park at the sounds emanating from outside and when everything suddenly went deathly quiet it was somehow worse-- the fear of the unknown made him want to cry again, to just take the gun Park had given him and end it all before he had to hear anything so terror-inducing again.

But he found a little reserve of strength and loosened his grip on Park, letting him go entirely, but still unable to take his mind off the lingering sensation of the Korean's soft lips brushing over his own and the honesty in his voice as he confessed his love.

It had left the little Japanese rather shell-shocked and it was this strange detatchment from reality that caused him to get up sharply, drawing the gun from his waistband as he crept towards the door, before Park could stop him.

Clamping her hand round Sylvain's waist Delilah wrenched him into the nearby cluster of greenery and held him tightly to her, staying utterly still.

No doubt the organizers of this little jaunt were getting bored already and had decided to spice things up a bit. Fine by her as long as they kept the f**k out of her way.

From the rapid assault of gunfire and muted explosions a way off just before havok really had descended on to this battlefield and Delilah was reveling in it-- a wickedly delighted glint in her eyes as she hugged Sylvain close.

Her pet was the only thing she wanted to keep safe for now, if anyone was going to have the pleasure of killing him it was her and even the thought sent a shiver of anticipation running through her slender body.

She knew he wasn't oblivious to her 'darker' side, but there was nothing he could do to resist it.

Once the chaos seemed to have died down she pulled him up, her arms still threaded around his waist and purred into his ear, "We're nearly there now sweetheart, don't be afraid."

Park was more than a little startled when Kyo leapt up and started out for the door on his own. But in a way, he'd expected just this to happen. He didn't deserve any better; he hadn't earned any better. But he couldn't just let the other boy go out into danger like this. No matter what, he had vowed to protect Bukiyo, and that's exactly what he intended to do.

"What the hell are you doing?" he cried out in alarm, jumping to his feet and making a swipe for the Japanese kid, "Are you crazy? You don't know what's happening out there, for God's sake, it could be the f**king army or anything! Don't do this just because of what I did - this is f**king lunacy!" and he caught hold of the other boy's arm, trying to pull him back.

If anyone was going to get killed round here, it would the Korean. He had chosen to die, he couldn't let Kyo go on ahead of him and take this unnecessary risk.

Sylvain was keeping quiet, trying to argue with the transfer as little as possible. His self-preservation instincts had at last kicked in, and by taking the line of least resistance, he hoped that she would at least spare him for the time being, until she needed a shield... or a sacrificial lamb.

But he cursed himself for being so weak... even the touch of her arms around his waist caused him to get uncomfortably horny, despite everything he had found out about her. Jesus, he was only human, and he was being dragged along by a couple of armfuls of very warm, very soft girl - the closest he'd ever been to a female of the species.

However, when he came to dig in his pocket for his risperidone bottle, he discovered that it was getting down to the wire. He had one pill left, despite having rationed himself to one at a time instead of his usual two. He took the last pill dry, forcing it down his throat, and knew that time would soon tell what would happen to him when the drug wore off.

For the moment, though, he walked along with the girl holding him tightly around the waist still, his arm loosely draped around her shoulders, his thoughts a jumbled mess and fear turning his limbs to water.

As soon as the three of them saw the low-flying helicopter and its occupants, Reiko saw this as her chance to take out Harvey, at the very least, and try to scupper the game that way... surely the game could not continue to run with its organiser blown to smithereens?

So she instinctively pulled the muzzle of the gun up and shoved a round of bullets in. Unfortunately, because the blades of the chopper were stirring up the sand so much the sandpit looked like a desert storm had hit it, she lost sight of the helicopter and the round just missed the chopper's tail by a few inches at most.

However, the flying sand also meant that when Harvey's trained chimp took a potshot at her, the bullet literally passed through her outspread skirt, not even grazing her. But thinking quickly, she screamed and threw herself face-down into the dune, to make it look like she had been injured in case they decided to have another go.

Ryuji and Jennifer were stunned, fearing the worst: that Reiko had been shot dead. Neither of them noticed the lack of blood, as the swirling sand clogged their half-closed eyelids.

As the helicopter sped away, though, and the noise and sandstorm abated, Reiko sat back up again quickly and said to the pair of them, "It's OK, it's OK - they missed. I didn't want them to have another go, so I pretended they'd hit me..." and she showed them the bullet hole and powderburn in her skirt.

"F**king hell," Ryu muttered, distressed, "I guess the killing's not going quickly enough for Harvey's liking..." He hated to admit it, but he was almost in tears.

Ryuji never cried, but he had feared so much then that Jennifer would be hurt that it took his breath away. He was glad to see that Rei hadn't been injured, but his nerves were shattered.

"Are you sure you're OK, Rei?" he said quietly, trying to get his wobbly voice under control; he realised he was still hanging onto Jen's hand grimly as he had done throughout the event, but took the opportunity to put his arm around her instead, to reassure and protect her - at least, partly for that reason.

"I'm fine, thanks Ryu. I'm pissed that I missed the bastard, though," she replied irritably, shrugging her skinny shoulders, "It just makes me wonder who didn't get so lucky, though - unless he was specifically targeting us because of the gun...?"

As she was talking, however, Ryu spotted a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye: a dark figure running towards the three of them, across the sand, wielding something that looked like a metal bar. It was the fat Russian kid, Svetlana Borimova, and she clearly wanted that gun for her own purposes. Their "prize" was starting to become a bit of a liability.

"Watch out!" Ryu cried, flinging both himself and Jennifer back away from the enraged girl; but Rei showed more presence of mind, and fed another round of bullets into the Gatling. The gun rattled loudly, almost deafening them all, and the bullets tore into the Russian girl, nearly ripping her into pieces. Blood spurted violently out from every bullethole, and she fell silently face-up into the sand, which soaked up the gore which pooled out beneath her shattered body.

At last, Rei thought, with a surprising feeling of satisfaction, My first kill... and it even looked as if it was justified.

However, it was too much for Ryu: he put his hand over Jen's eyes, and whispered "Don't look at her... you don't need to see this," and tried to protect her from the terrible sight of the bleeding corpse in front of them.

Student #2 Svetlana Borimova dead, 19 to go

The brothers had been on their way to the marshes when the helicopter circled round to face them. "Shit! RUN!" Paul yelled and the brothers took flight, unaware of the object thrown out at them.

Immediately they were surrounded by a choking cloud of gas. They both fell. Eyes streaming, coughing helplessly as the inhaled gas poisoned their lungs.

Leon couldn't see, he started to panic. Thinking the helicopter was still in the area, he aimed the Colt up at the sky and rattled off a volley. Of course the helicopter was long gone.

Once the cloud had subsided, the brothers sat side by side in the field. dabbing at their eyes and trying to shake off the effects of the gas.

Paul's voice rasped "That must've been Harvey. That sick f*ck. He's got us playing this f*cking game but he won't even let us get on with it. We gotta keep an eye on the sky man." A series of coughs sent Paul into silence.

Now Leon had his vision back, he was feeling more relaxed. In fact, now he had a plan. He realised long ago, there was never any realistic chance both of them could escape this game, however much Paul liked to think he could come up with a plan. It just wasn't possible. Leon's plan was more realistic and motivated by something pure, revenge

Even if it did sign the death warrants of all the game's participants.

As Hannelore and Ami made their way up New Road towards the town centre, they heard the sound of a vehicle approaching from behind them, coming from the roundabout towards the traffic lights by the town hall. Hannelore seized the moment. Reaching into her bag, she stood in the middle of the road and fired both barrels of her shotgun at the windscreen of the approaching Land Rover. She wanted that car.

The four by four lurched suddenly to the right, just missing a traffic light, before rolling gently up the steps to the video shop and on through the store window, flattening the cardboard posters for the latest Gore Verbinski movie.

Hannelore ran as much as she could towards the now steaming vehicle, reloading her shotgun just in case. Flinging the door open, she saw the lifeless corpse of Marriah Moon spreadeagled across the steering wheel. There was blood everywhere.

"Ami, help me get her out."

Ami, still shocked at Hannelore's ruthlessness, assisted the German in levering the fat, second generation Chinese thief out of the cockpit, letting her bleed all over a pop-up display for "Stuart Little 3: Da Mouse in da House".

"Can you drive? I'm not sure I can operate the pedals with my bad ankle."

Ami agreed, and climbed in, shuddering at the gore splattered all over the dashboard and seats. The blood was soon soaking her school uniform. Hannelore climbed in the back, crying.

"I'm sorry Marriah, I always liked you. How could I have known it was you? How could I have known it was one of my friends? I thought it was a soldier. I'm sorry... so sorry..." She descended into harsh sobs.

Hannelore showed Ami where she wanted them to go: just in the left hand corner of D8, on the corner of The Slades and Abberd Lane, there was a house which was just inside the Group Zone. If they ditched the Land Rover a little way away (taking the keys for use later) they wouldn't be heard and could creep into the back of the house and safety.

Ami had a little problem navigating, but after a few minutes arrived at their destination. Parking around the corner in Penn Hill, Hannelore unhitched the bonnet and took out the distributor cap. This car was for her use only, and without the cap, it was useless.

The two girls made their way into the house, a rather unpleasant looking mid-sixties council dwelling made of a mixture of concrete and Bath stone. Hiding in the back room, they kept their voices to a whisper, timing the ninety minutes they had to be there.

All was quiet. They heard the sound of gunfire, and of a helicopter, but hid well away from the windows and even under a sofa to make sure they weren't spotted.

There was a bleep from Hannelore's bag which made both of them jump. Hannelore knew straightaway it was a message arriving on her PDA: but who the hell could it be? All her friends knew, surely, she was now involved in the BR and a fight to the death.

Hannelore understood the message she received, and what she had to do.

Scheisse!

Student #18 Marriah Moon dead, 18 TO GO

When Reiko fell, Jennifer just wanted to scream. But for some reason she couldn’t. One of her best friends had been shot and all she did was standing there! She really wanted to do something, but her body didn’t obey. The same seemed to go for Ryu, who was standing next to her, holding her hand.
As Reiko sat back up, Jennifer thought her heart would stop beating. Her first thought was that Reiko had awoken from the dead (because of watching too many horror movies late at night), but then she noticed that there was no blood, meaning Reiko hadn’t been hit. She wanted to give both of them a really big hug, but she still couldn’t manage to move. So she stood there, lending her head on Ryu’s shoulder, feeling how she started to somewhat float away from reality. Ryu’s sudden cry did, however, snap her back for a moment. What happened next was all a blur. She remembered seeing a glimpse of someone and moments later hearing gunshots from the gattling gun. Ryu covered her eyes and… it became dark.

Kyo blinked, his first struggles against Park's vice-like grip faltering when he heard the Korean speak. Whipping round he nearly dropped the gun, his free hand grabbing onto Park's arm impulsively, "I wasn't going because of what you said! I'm happy, really happy-- I just wish it was under better circumstances...." His voice trailed off and he let Park's arm drop, blushing furiously.

"Gomenasai." <I'm sorry>

Supporting her pet Delilah rummaged around in her bag as they walked, smiling with satisfaction as she noted they were in the group zone and relatively safe from harm, for now.

The path ahead was clear, unmarred by any decent cover and she gave Sylvain a reassuring squeeze, before continuing to guide him, in search of somewhere to rest.

Devon skidded to a halt as the first volley of gunfire rung out, sure he'd heard the firefight before, but this was much closer and without hesitation he boarded towards it. For all he knew he was wandering towards his death, but maybe there was someone he could help...someone who would reassure him that this was the right approach.

After a short ride he skidded to a halt, hopping off his board and picking it up so he could walk across the sands.

Blinking in surprise at the scene before him, Devon felt physically sick-- a body, almost too ruined to recognize lay sprawled at his feet in a rapidly expanding pool of crimson and just beyond it-- Ryu, Reiko and Jennifer sat huddled together behind a huge gun.

He just stared at them in disbelief-- surely it was self defense? Or would he be shot too??

As Kyo dropped his arm, Park's heartbeat sped up. Could it possibly be true... that all this time, they had had the same kind of feelings about each other? If it really is true, Park thought, Man, I've been such a fool... the first time I actually care about someone, and I was too cowardly to say anything. And now it's almost too late...

"You're... happy about it? I wasn't driving you out?" The baffled Korean tried to get his whirling thoughts into some kind of order, but he was feeling a little faint by now from all the emotional turmoil, and sat down heavily against the wall, his head spinning, knocking one of the barrels over as he half-collapsed. Something metallic fell out with a loud clunk, making both him and Kyo jump.

"What the - ?" Park managed, and crawled over to see what it was. To his astonishment, it was another gun. A great big one, at that: if Park had been any good at identifying firearms (which of course, being a gay seventeen-year-old with no interest in war, the army or even role-playing battle games, he wasn't), he would have known it was a Magnum Desert Eagle handgun, and a pretty fearsome weapon, to boot.

To Park, though, it was just another way he could defend his beloved... except there weren't any bullets for it. He held it up for Kyo to see, and staggered to his feet, checking the insides of the other plastic barrels. In the bottom of one was a box containing 50 rounds of bullets; he upended the barrel, picked up the box and opened it. He loaded the gun, and stowed the rest of the ammo in his backpack.

"Well... at least I can help defend you now," he said quietly, shoving the gun into his pocket, "But you're right... we should probably get moving in a moment. We've done our ninety f**king minutes, time to run again, find another hiding place somewhere..."

But before Kyo could react, Park had gone up the steps ahead of him, gun in hand, and rather incautiously stuck his head out to peer around and see if there was anyone else in the general vicinity.

Unfortunately for him, there was, and he was lucky to spot the girl in question in time, before she spotted him. Anna Morgon, a completely bipolar kid who nobody really liked, was clearly on her way into the zone, later than most others (although there were still a few stragglers who hadn't yet made it there).

And as the top of Park's scruffy-haired head emerged from the stone steps, he saw her ankles in close-up as she passed by the steps, having obviously been thinking about going down them, but changing her mind at the last minute.

But before he had time to duck down again out of the way, she spotted him, and made a lunge for him, a great big kitchen knife in her hand, screaming, "You're in MY hiding place, you f**king faggot, I'm gonna f**king kill you, you dirty little pervert!" swiping at him clumsily with her knife and cutting a long gash across his outstretched palm, held defensively up to obstruct her blow.

Park screamed, partly from pain and partly from fear, nearly falling backwards down the steps and crushing Kyo, but as he stumbled, his fingers tightened on the trigger of the gun and there was a deafening report, which reverberated around the concrete steps. Anna's head was thrown back, and a massive explosion of blood and brains shot out of a huge hole in the back of her skull. Her eyes rolled up white in their sockets and she fell forwards, onto her own knife... but she was dead even before she hit the floor. There was a hole the size of a grapefruit in the back of her head, caused by the blowout of the Magnum's shot.

"Oh F**KING F**K," Park cried, absolutely hysterical at what he'd done, and also knowing that the noise from the gunshot would soon bring even more gay-hating potential murderers to the area. "We gotta run, Kyo," and he half-dragged the other boy up the steps, his right hand full of burning pain from the knife wound. Both of them took off at top speed across the marsh and back towards the shelter of the town, running for twenty minutes solid, this time not encountering another soul on the way, thankfully.

Park was crying all the way, and it would have to be Kyo who was the brave one for the moment. The pair of them broke into a quiet house on Church Street (Kyo shattered the back window with a rock, and they climbed in), and ran upstairs, to the third storey of the Victorian terrace, and Park fell down on the floor in a sweating, panting, weeping mess, unable to believe he'd just killed someone - even if she'd called him a faggot and a pervert, he'd never really believed he could kill anyone...

Student #19 Anna Morgon dead, 17 TO GO

Ryu realised all too quickly that Jennifer had fainted, and now didn't know what to do: he held her limp body tightly, brushing her long golden-orange hair back from her ashen face, both himself and Devon trying to bring her round by tapping her lightly on the face and neck.

But Reiko was far less gentle and tender than either of the two lovesick boys, and offered to pour water over her head to try and wake her up.

"Don't be stupid, Rei, that won't work," Ryuji snapped stressily, eyeballing the anorexic Japanese girl with a new and unpleasant mixture of distaste and suspicion. After all, it had been her who had shot the Russian girl - Ryu would have been quite happy to let Svetlana take the gun.

And he had the feeling that, while Reiko might plead self-defence, he had seen the self-satisfied look in her eyes when the girl's destroyed body hit the sand, and suddenly wasn't quite so sure he trusted her with his beautiful crush.

He didn't want to play this vile game anyway, he just wanted to try and get Jennifer to the border and test whether his theory would work or not: he'd spent hours while the two girls slept poring over the maps, working out where the only possible weak spots in the battle's defence strategies might be, and finally coming to a realisation: there were only really two points of entry, where sabotage might be an option.

One was obvious, the other not quite so... but the first was too dangerous for the young Japanese boy's liking, whereas the second involved a very long trek from their present location. He had already decided to try the second course of action, providing they could keep moving and the next group zone wouldn't be too far from their planned route...

"Sorry Ryu," Rei shrugged, cutting into his thoughts, "Just trying to be helpful, I thought it might bring Princess round a bit," and even Ryuji caught the slightly bitter tone in her voice then; he realised he had neglected the girl who was supposed to be his best friend, and winced.

"No - I'm sorry, Rei. You did your best to protect us from that lunatic Russian, and I shouldn't have snapped at you," he replied neutrally, and tried to put on a sympathetic front, but Rei saw through it instantly.

However, she kept silent, and merely nodded an acknowledgement. That fat Russian asshole had blown her cover, so she had no choice now but to implement her next course of action. But that was for later...

She put down the muzzle of the gun reluctantly, and cut her black, glittering eyes at the unnerved Canadian who was kneeling beside Ryuji.

"Dev," she said, "Why don't you go along with Ryuji and Jennifer and me? Ryu keeps telling us he's got a plan of some sort, but he won't say what... but I believe he knows what he's doing. He might need some extra help..."

The little French boy allowed himself to be led around by the highly dangerous but beautiful Delilah, both of them searching for some kind of cover. He was thinking nothing more than firstly, of how he had managed not to notice at all what kind of girl he had become so instantly infatuated with, and secondly, of what might happen the more his drugs wore off.

It had been such a long time since he had been without medication that he wasn't entirely certain of what he would become without it. All he remembered from Saint-Dizier was the endless, nagging, irritating, frightening voices that whispered commands to him all the time, not even allowing him to sleep properly; and the eternal confusion, trying to do what they told him because he secretly believed they were always right, and yet continually ending up in prison or in hospital.

He voiced none of this, brooding silently as he held on tightly to the girl's slim waist, still hoping pathetically that he'd read the situation all wrong and that she really wasn't as psychotic as she'd appeared, and that she really did have the same kind of desire for him as he did for her... either way, he thought it wouldn't be too long before he found out.

"Where are we going, Delilah?" he mumbled, clinging onto her like a limpet.

Devon shook off his anxieties when Reiko spoke to him and held out a hand to her, a simple gesture that he'd remembered something.

"I'd love to stay, but....well you know how it is...I do have this for you all however..." He unzipped his bag hastily and handed over the bazooka and ammo to a puzzled looking Ryuji; his eyes lingering on each of them in turn, eventhough Jennifer couldn't see the compassion in his gaze.

He smiled and got to his feet again, "Later guys." Picking up his skateboard he turned to leave.

Delilah looked up ahead, glancing between the marsh and the sand pit until she finally spotted a small grove of trees and bushes ahead, enclosed and easy to secrete oneself in until their time was up.

She didn't have a plan for now per-say except for keeping Sylvain and herself alive....and then....once he was hidden away somewhere she could hunt, if only until Harvey called the next group zone.

"Come on sweetie." She replied softly and led him into the relative safety of the foliage. There had been a farm close by on the map that she planned to check out later.

Kyo knelt down infront of Park, still stunned himself, but understanding why Park had killed Anna-- it was self-defense, plain and simple and if he'd been in Park's position he'd have done exactly the same.

The Korean was shaking, his face pale and handsome features contorted into a mask of shock and overwhelming sadness. Each sob that emanated from his raw throat made Kyo's heart ache and slowly he enfolded his friend (Were they even still just friends any more?) in a warm, comforting embrace, hampered only by the kevlar between them.

"Shhh....it's okay now, you...you did the right thing Park-kun...a-arigato." Park's grief made the Japanese want to burst into tears himself, but he knew he had to be strong and so just held Park, rocking them both gently.

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