Part 8 - Day Two, 06:00 to 12:00

Time to rise from your slumbers, my little sleepy heads!

That's if you can, that is, and you're not dead. But wait... <chuckles>

Just the one death this game period. Hannelore, my dear, cast an eye over to your left. Try to rouse Hans, will you? Humour me a minute.

<pauses, hums chirpy little tune to self whilst waiting for Hannelore to check on Hans>

Oh dear. Poor old Hansie is very, very dead. But hardly a surprise - you don't shoot smack for life expectancy. Calm down Hannelore, it's hardly the first time you've seen a dead body is it? Well, maybe the first time you've seen a dead body the morning after you've f*cked him. But this time you weren't responsible - it's not as though you've screwed him so well his heart stopped, is it, so you can't take the credit for this one, you little slag. No, Hans died doing what he loved best - shooting up.

<sigh> Danger Zones this period: F9, I9, C8. And G2, H2 and I2 have been removed, for reasons I'll explain now.

There is a Group Zone this period. However, because I can, I'm changing the rules. The Zone will commence in G2, H2 and I2 at 10am prompt. You will be there before that, or you will be dead. The gates will open at 08:00 for you to make your way in. Once there, you will stay until 12:00, which is the end of the Zone. I shall say no more... but suffice it to say, there won't be many of you walking away from this one. If four aren't eliminated by twelve... well, let's say I am going to be very, very cross.

... and Delonge? Don't think I've forgotten what you said to me last night. I'll be waiting with my little surprise for you.

<click>

Devon rolled over and fell straight off the bed with a loud thud. Groaning softly he raised his head just in time to hear Harvey's ominous warning.

"..Whu-whatever...man...like I care." He muttered darkly and sat up, rubbing his reddened eyes to try and wake himself up enough to even stand. Although the scant rest he'd managed to gather combined with his usual meds had given him some of his former vitality, he still felt drained.

And the drugs weren't exactly helpnig him focus either.

Cautiously he got to his feet and found he could actually walk, a slight smile quirked at the corners of his lips and he went to pack up his scattered belongings. Dev wasn't sure why he'd chosen now to start being neat, especially seen as he'd probably be dead within a few hours, but it gave him something else to concentrate on at least.

Un-wedging the chair from under his door he walked out into the hall and began knocking on doors, "Anyone awake?? What did that bastard Harvey have to say?"

Kyo had gotten little sleep himself and it came as no surprise when Harvey's oily voice piped up on their radios. He roused Park gently as they listened to the announcement, noting down the danger zone/group zone with grim efficiency.

It wasn't until their former principal remarked on the amount of deaths for the period that the Japanese paled sharply, his hand trembling so much that he dropped the pen he'd been holding and tried to discreetly pick it up again.

"...f-four...?"

With Hans gone there were nine left....that meant only five would survive until the next period.

And aside from the transfer and Hannelore they had all been at least aquaintences...no one he'd wish death on.

Harvey's final warning only served to scare him even more, if not for himself, but Park.... it seemed since his out burst Harvey had a grudge against Devon...

Kyo shivered and glanced nervously at his koibito.

<trumpet fanfare>

Listen up you worms,

in my haste to get rid of you a few minutes ago you made me forget something.

DO NOT ENTER THE GROUP ZONE UNTIL I MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT IT IS OPEN.

Your collar will be automatically activated if you do not comply with this direct order. That includes you Delonge - I realise dying in a pool of your own shit might be a blessed relief in comparison to what I've got planned for you, but nevertheless, you've earned better.

<click>

As they marked off the danger zones assiduously, it became horribly apparent to Park that something was very, very wrong here: the Group Zone was clearly designed for one thing and one thing only - to get the maximum death toll. Something was ringing very loud alarm bells inside the Korean's head as he stared at the map, but he couldn't for the life of him put his finger on quite what was causing the deep anxiety he was feeling.

For a start, he was shocked by Harvey's matter-of-fact revelation that Hans Krueger had died from a heroin overdose. As far as he had been aware, Hans had quit all that a long time ago, forced into rehab before he had committed... what? Manslaughter, or murder? And whether it was true that Hannelore had been involved with him the night before he'd died... Park was starting to wonder whether anyone else had noticed that people had a tendency of dying unpleasant deaths around Hannelore Wolfsberg-Schmidt; he was also wondering whether Ami Hodges hadn't somehow been implicated in things she had never been involved with... due to her friendship with Hannelore.

But this was all idle speculation, and he dismissed it from his mind temporarily. Now Devon, that's who he was really worrying about - apart from his lover, of course. He wished to God Dev had never, ever phoned him last night; it had achieved nothing but slight burns for him and seemingly serious threats against his close friend's life. And he knew Harvey would carry those threats through this time, and there was little he could do to prevent it happening...

There was no danger zone planned for the map square they were currently residing in: however, they only had a limited choice of access paths to get to the Zone, either via the main road (Chilvester Hill), or cross-country following the path of the River Marden, joining a small country lane just after passing the old disused mill.

Certainly the latter was the more attractive option of the two, as he and Kyo would be on foot: he knew that Rei's old gang would no doubt be taking the main road, as they would be driving to the Group Zone in their stolen car.

Add to that the fact that the GZ was surrounded by danger zones, and that all the students had to be in the Zone at a specified time, it meant that there was very, very little chance that there would be anywhere to hide. They would probably even meet each other on the way in... but what if they met with the wrong people? And the Zone itself was blatantly designed for maximum carnage... there were going to be precious few places to hide around Bowood Lake and its sloping, exposed banks.

Park shuddered involuntarily, mentally cursing Harvey to hell, and reaching out his arm for his koi. He knew that so far they had managed to avoid combat by running and hiding, but that now there was going to be no way they could successfully avoid it any longer.

For the moment, he comforted Kyo, holding him tightly and cradling his koi's head against his strong shoulder.

"It'll be all right. You'll be fine, I promise you. No matter what happens, I will protect you until the end, no matter who I might have to shoot in order to do it. But promise me one thing, Kyo-kun..."

The Japanese boy looked up at his lover, his expression mingled worry and puzzlement.

"Just promise me you'll stay away from Hannelore Wolfsberg-Schmidt. You heard yourself that Hans died of an overdose last night. But the way I understand it, the guy hadn't touched smack in a long while after his rehab stay. I dunno... I just have a bad feeling about her. Too many people have died around her for my liking, and it's not as though I even liked her in the first place," the Korean said quietly. "For now, though, I better try and find myself something to wear. I'm not putting that... thing back on," he finished, pointing with disgust at the tattered school shirt lying on the floor, dyed crimson with Lora and Gordon's blood from the night before.

So he got out of bed, dropping a loving kiss on his boyfriend's forehead, putting on his body armour and the rest of his clothes, before searching the closets and finding a clean, oversized, blue business shirt which would do to at least keep him a little warm.

When his koi was also dressed, they grabbed some food from the kitchen - a little stale bread and some crisps, filled their empty bottles with water, and prepared to make their way across to the killing field Harvey was preparing for them.

When the transistor radio crackled into life, blasting out Harvey's announcements, it pulled Sylvain out of a deep, deep sleep. He had been so exhausted that when he woke, he barely had any idea of where he was. Delilah was still sleeping - nothing had managed to rouse her yet - so he took both his own map and hers, and marked the new zones off on them.

When he listened to Harvey mouthing off about Devon Delonge, he wondered what had happened last night to bring the principal's ire down on the little slut's head. Maybe he had turned the principal down for a date or something, Sylvain thought ironically, but woke Delilah gently with a kiss, so as not to make her angry.

"I think some things have happened overnight... Harvey says that Hans Krueger is dead, something is really strange about the next Group Zone - we can't go there until Harvey says so, and we all have to be there between 10 and 12.... and he said that he's going to do something bad to Devon Delonge... "

"Maybe we should find a TV and see what's been going on," he said softly, still too sleepy to really take the news of Hans' death on board properly right now.

Hannelore was wakened by the sound of trumpets. Christ, she thought, has he deliberately designed it so that it's as grating as possible?

"Hannelore, look to your left..." he'd said, and she did. Hans was turned on his left side, facing the wall, left arm presumably still poking out of the sheets, just as she'd left him. Well, she thought, that's fair enough; she had pumped him with enough heroin to knock him out for a long time. And, as Harvey asked (and she dared not, even still, disobey him: the potential consequences were far too dire) she approached the bed to check on him.

When Harvey announced he was dead, she checked his pulse, and screamed. Screamed for effect, and screamed because she was genuinely shocked. His face had gained a grey pallor,and the foundation looked a vivid orange on his throat. It was obvious what had happened; he'd died during the night. She had to work fast, before the others arrived.

Taking a tissue from the box next to the bed, she spat on it and rubbed off as much of the foundation as she could. The bruises had faded, and were certainly less conspicuous than the foundation, and Hannelore was reasonably certain what was there she could hide, if it was even noticeable in the first place. She pulled the covers up to Hans's chin and turned him over on his front.

Not a moment too soon, it appeared, as there was a knock on the door. Hannelore unlocked it and Devon's head poked round the door. "Hanne... what did Harvey have to say?"

Hannelore seized the moment and flung herself at Devon. "Oh Devon, did you not hear...it's true..." she sobbed, holding on to the Canadian as hard as she could. "It's Hans... he's... he's... it's awful... we... last night... well... did it... and I wake up this morning... and... and... and... HE'S DEAD!"

For a moment, she was inconsoleable. Slowly, she gathered herself together, and continued.

"Harvey told me to go check on him, and I did, and I found him like that... arm out, needle on the floor... oh the poor darling!" she sniffled, descending into racked sobs by the end.

While Park got them both ready Kyo sat down at the kitchen table and ate as much as he believed he could stomach, which was hardly even a few crisps and a slice of bread as he studied the map.

His boyfriend was right, the arrangement of the danger and group zones alluded to a much more aggresive approach to the battle. No doubt harvey wasn't able to get his rocks off if they weren't killing regularly and his impatience had gotten the better of him.

Eventhough he was still scared, more so for Park than himself a quiet acceptance of what lay ahead had dawned on the young Asian and he remained quiet and calm.

Park was worried enough without him descending into hysterics again. He could see the depth of his love's concern for Devon in the automatic way he went about preparing. There was a distant pain reflected on his face that came from the knowledge that one of his closest friends would most likely be dead soon.

When Kyo could stand it no longer he pushed his chair back and walked over to Park, hugging him from behind, "Devon can take care of himself. It'll take more than that bastard Harvey to..." Kyo couldn't bring himself to say any more so he simply held Park close a little longer and then let him go, heading for the door.

Delilah cursed herself for falling asleep. It was her duty, her mission to keep watch over her pet and she'd failed atleast in some small way. Forcing the last vestiges of slumber from her body she sat up properly and regarded him with interest.

So another of their enemies was dead...a shame, she'd really wanted to kill as many of the little idiots as possible herself, but oh well...

As for the unusual zoning this period, well she'd always known Harvey was twisted, not unlike herself... it came as no surprise.

"Alright darling, " She replied, punctuating her words with a brief, but passionate kiss. "Let's go see." As he got to his feet she gathered up her bag and pulled the uzi out once more. Now that there was a new destination the other players would be mobile and possibly looking to pick them off before they were all confined together.

In silence she led Sylvain outside once more.

Devon patted Hannelore on the back tokenly and then discarded her like a broken toy. He'd never had any emotions for the girl past apathy. She was attractive sure, but he could see past the pretty packaging to the ruthless girl beneath and even before they'd been forced into this game he wasn't overly keen on her.

Making sure not to display the nerves that were currently making his heart race Dev approached the bed warily and leant over, eyeing Hans corpse.

This wasn't the first body he'd seen and he knew it wouldn't be the last...

He'd never really bothered to get to know Hans either, beyond the odd exchanged smile and small talk. Something did however strike him as strange about the whole overdose thing... was Hannelore so immersed in sleep that she never noticed? He doubted she of all people was taking this situation lightly enough to risk resting.

For now however, he kept quiet and returned to the hall, surely now with Hanne's scream someone else would have woken up.

"Hey..." Park said hastily as his boyfriend headed for the exit, obeying every instinct in his body that was telling him to hang back, stay safe... or maybe even not go at all. "Don't go yet..."

He knew it was pathetic, cowardly and really stupid - after all, he had been living with the concept of his own mortality thrown into sharp relief for the last two days, with his friends dropping dead all around him - shit, he had even killed someone himself - but he couldn't explain the way he was feeling right now.

He just knew that by the end of the day, he would be joining the death list... and the understanding that he had less than 24 hours to live froze his blood. He wanted to stay here, in someone else's house, stay in the warm bed, stay in his lover's arms with his face hidden in the Japanese boy's smooth chest.

He didn't want to go out into no-man's-land and die... even if he knew he had to. He had made a true, unbreakable promise to the one person who mattered more to him than his own life, and he wouldn't run away... not now, not ever.

Kyo stopped, turned around and gave the Korean a quizzical look.

"I'm sorry... I'm just too scared to go right now," Park muttered, and when he lifted his fingers to press on his raw eyelids, he realised his hands were trembling so much he nearly poked his own eyes out. "I'm just being s-stupid... give me a moment to pull my shit together..."

Uncomplaining, Sylvain followed his lover outside into the freezing morning air. The sun was shining in a perfect, smooth, cloudless blue sky, the bitter chill wind making the weather feel even colder than it actually was.

Silently, he huddled closer to the catlike girl by his side, holding her hand for extra warmth, and allowed her to lead him to what he considered was the most dangerous thing they had done to date in this death game: the new Group Zone.

Sylvain had the funny feeling that Harvey had something supremely horrible up his sleeve this time around: after listening to his usual offensive and abusive showboating speech, the bad feelings he had been harbouring were growing stronger and stronger. The last time the principal had made allusions to 'surprises', he had sprung a helicopter attack on them.

"Cherie... je m'inquiete*... Harvey said in his speech, something about a surprise for Devon Delonge... but the last time we had a surprise, he tried to shoot us from a chopper..." Sylvain mumbled, "You didn't hear the announcement, mais... il etait absolument enerve avec Devon **... I worry about what he will do to us this time..."

-------------

Trans:
* I'm worried
** He was totally furious with Devon

Ami removed her stare from the ceiling, leaned over and placed her chopstick back in her bag. Ignoring Harvey, she took her walkman out, put the earphones in her ears, and pressed play. She didn't care what he had to say. As she routed through her bag, and found her notebook, pencil case and purse. Opening her purse she found the picture of her sisters. 'I hope they ain't watching' she thought, another tear staining her face, 'but then I still want to say goodbye.' After taking a pen out of her pencil case, she threw the pencil case across the room, causing it to hit the wall, then flicked to the back of her notebook and began to write.

*To my sisters,

I hope you get this, I don't know if you will but I have to write this just incase.* Hannelore screamed, ' something must have happened' she thought turning her music up *Don't ever follow my path, do well in school, try hard, and obey the rules. Even if the rules seem stupid, follow to stay alive. I can't tell you it won't hurt or corrupt you 'cause it will. But it will keep you alive and probably keep you out of a place like this. Tell mum and dad I love them* tears dripped onto the paper, making the ink run and become blurred like her vision. * and thank them for all I've become, this was my path and I cannot chage that, and I probably can't change yours. But try, please try to keep inline. I know this is against anything I have ever told you but this is my final wish. I love you and will watch over yu everyday*

She placed the picture in the back of the book, put the book back in her bag. She stood up and ripped the earphones from her ears, threw the walkman across the room. It landed next to the pencil case, open with the cd spinning in the middle. She knew it would never work again. She walked over to the door, looked over at Jen, then opened it looking at Devon and Hannelore. Her eyes drifted over to Hans, and she knew. She closed her eyes thinking 'soon there'll only be one left'

"and it won't be me" she whispered.

Jennifer frowned while marking the new danger zones and group zone. Hans was gone. Why did he have to get a relapse tonight? They could have used his help, big time, and… wait a second… Harvey did say something about him sleeping with Hannelore. She couldn’t have… could she? Considering what she did to Ryuji it was very likely that she’d take out Hans too. But why? “Helvete,”* she mumbled. She had to do something about Hannelore, making sure she didn’t get to the others in the little group.

At the moment, she didn’t care that Ami left the room. Hannelore wouldn’t try something, as she was to busy “crying” at the moment. And if she did try something, Jennifer would know it was her and she would… what would she do? Hannelore had said that the game was fixed, sort of, and Jennifer was to be the winner. Would she really want to risk getting out of here in one piece by doing something to Hanne?

Jennifer decided to ignore that thought and studied the new group zone. Something was very wrong with it. Harvey definitely had something special in mind this time. She didn’t want to find out what, but at the same time, she didn’t want anyone else to die. She put her map back in her backpack, and headed out to the others.

------------------
*translation: hell/damn

Kyo swore softly and walked back over to his boyfriend, gathering him up in his arms for a reassuring hug, that seemed for now to soothe a little of Park's fretting.

Eventhough his heart was racing and a cold sweat had broken out over his unblemished forehead almost from the moment he accepted their inevitable path Kyo knew he had to be strong and in turn lend Park some of his strength. The hours ahead were going to try them more than anything before, with the claustrophobic conditions and numerous lethal players still roaming around of that he was certain.

The Japanese boy stroked his hair tenderly and whispered, "I'm as scared as you are...don't worry, we'll see this through together okay?"

He offered Park a warm smile, "I think we can stay a little while longer if you want."

"Sweetheart." Delilah entoned with a hint of amusement as she ground to a halt on the path leading towards the zone.

"Our dear principal can do whatever he likes to 'Devon' As long as he keeps his grubby mitts off of you I'll have no problem."

She sent a cheerful grin his way and resumed their progress, only coming to a halt as they neared the edge of the zone. "We're going to be just fine sweetie! I'll kill anyone who comes near. And I know you love me enough to do the same hmm?" She looked at him expectantly, batting her eyelashes in faux-coquettishness, a little joke between them to lighten the somber mood.

<trumpet fanfare>

It's eight o'clock, my little superstars!

You can now start coming to the Group Zone. Remember, you need to be through the gates by 10, and stay until 12. And there's going to be a couple of special rules, which I'll announce at 10. But the only way in is via the gatehouse I've built in G2 - you'll find it.

Chop chop! Get your lazy little arses over here, and find exactly what we've been planning all this time, especially for you.

<click>

For a mile either side of the new Group Zone, a twenty-foot high fence had been erected, clearly electrocuted from the hum it was making. At the north end of the lake, a razor-wired gate stood, manned by three guards in an armoured turret, ready to admit the nine players still living into the zone on Harvey’s command. At 8am precisely, the gates swung open.

Lining the sloping banks of the lake on three sides, within the Danger Zones, giant grandstands had been erected packed with banner-waving, screaming Battle-fans. People were wearing Ryuji T-shirts, waving Courtney posters and yelling support for their favourites and abuse for the rest. No weapons were allowed in; all those who had bought tickets for this spectator spectacular had been strip-searched before being entered into the arena. Vendors were flogging kebabs and hot-dogs, and bookmakers were taking bets on who would be the first to fall and who would emerge the victor.

Between two small buildings in square H2 a temporary floating bridge had been constructed to allow the players to cross the lake easily. However, a couple of treehouses had been built in trees either side of the lake with a clear view of the new bridge. Everywhere the stench of cheap off-cuts of burned meat and boiled onions permeated the expectant atmosphere. Giant TV screens had been raised so that the audience could view the action in loving close-up; a PA system was currently blaring martial music whilst waiting for the stars of the show to arrive. Occasionally, Harvey warmed up the crowd, running from grandstand to grandstand, microphone in hand, his gold lamé suit shimmering in the morning air, whipping the crowd into a frenzy of bloodlust.

Above, cranes cradled TV cameras, piping the action into millions upon millions of homes in a live worldwide satellite link-up. Flash-bulbs from the global press, all desperate to scoop the exclusives as they happened, exploded continually.

And, in a special enclosure, well away from the public, stood the families of the players, handcuffed to a guard, shielded from each other by wave after wave of minders.
------
Map of Group Zone

As the Group Zone appeared over the horizon, Paul's jaw dropped. He had been hearing the crowd noise several metres back along the track, but he had never imagined a spectacle like this!

Peering back along the track through his red-rimmed eyes, he saw he was alone. He had intended to be among the first here and it seems he had suceeded. But what would happen now? Would his early arrival prompt Harvey to use him as "warm-up entertainment" to the excitable crowd.

It was a little late to worry about this anyway, the guards at the gate had obviously seen him by now and were probably under orders to fire if he tried to run.

"Ah, f*ck it" Paul said aloud to himself, "If I'm gonna go, may as well go with a smile"

Paul snapped his crudely-bandaged arm in a mock salute to the guards as he aproached the gate. The energy the cheering crowd was giving off seemed to be infectious. Paul was surprised to find himself laughing as he tugged the chainsaw's ripcord. Making the rusting beast roar along with the crowd, signalling his entrance.

Hiding his shamefully blushing tear-streaked face in the warmth of the shoulder of Kyo's school sweater, Park sighed a ragged, heavy sigh of resignation, wishing he could stay like this forever, his lover's fingers stroking his hair so tenderly it made him shiver.

"I love you Kyo, I love you so much," he mumbled, making a gargantuan effort to pull himself together. "We... better go, I suppose. Don't wanna be the last ones there this time or Harvey will probably pull the plugs on us just for fun..."

But just as he was about to kiss his koibito before they gathered themselves to leave, the radios in their backpacks blared into life and Harvey's grating, oily voice oozed out, slightly muffled at the bottom of their bags, summoning them to what Park was already perceiving as the site of his own death. The two boys exchanged a look of dread, but nevertheless hoisted their bags reluctantly over their shoulders, and made the short cross-country walk along the river, hands tightly gripped together, eyes locked together, cherishing every last moment they could share.

The Korean no longer cared about who saw his forlorn tears: in the deepest chambers of his heart, he felt like he was walking to his own execution. He prayed, for the first time for many, many years, that even if he was to die in the next few hours, his death would not be in vain: that at least he could save the love of his life, even for just a short while, from following him into oblivion.

As they approached the Group Zone, they became uncomfortably aware that there was, for the first time in a long time, the sound of other people, of strangers. And it wasn't a normal sound: it sounded like a furious lynch mob rather than just the public at large. In complete confusion, the two lovers approached the enormous gatehouse... and what they saw when they got inside made Park's legs turn to water, and he staggered sideways, in utter and total shock.

They had an audience this time. A live audience. A screaming, yelling, maddened audience, being goaded and encouraged by their erstwhile principal dressed in some completely tarty and obviously camp gold suit.

"What in the motherf**king name of God is this f**king shit???" Park cried in complete panic, looking in sheer distress and confusion at his boyfriend, as if he had any better answers.

The little blond tried to raise a smile of some kind, wishing he felt more reassured by Delilah's bizarre declaration of love. "Hein... bien entendu. If anyone tries to hurt you cherie, I'll shoot the f**ker," he mumbled, almost feeling a wave of excitement now he was armed and no longer as vulnerable and defenceless as he had been.

In fact, the heft of the weapon in his hands was making him feel totally horny. A new surge of power filled his head, making him feel almost as though he was invincible. He was no longer someone in fear, he was someone to be feared... and it appealed to his psychosis, his hunger for dominion instead of being treated like a doormat by all and sundry.

Well... they probably had a short while left before the rest arrived, and wasn't it fashionable to arrive late to the party anyway? He grabbed hold of his new girlfriend, his pale blue eyes alight, pushing his grubby blond locks behind his ears and shoving her unceremoniously into a small copse, and up against a tree, to which she responded in like manner, grabbing him just as hard and hungrily, almost biting his lips in her eagerness.

Power and bloodthirst were such an aphrodisiac combination for them.

"What in the motherf**king name of God is this f**king shit???" Park cried in complete panic, looking in sheer distress and confusion at his boyfriend, as if he had any better answers.

Kyo's hand clenched reflexively round Park's and he took a step back.

This wasn't real...

Of course he'd accepted that there would be some sick weirdos that enjoyed watching their struggle for a second chance at life, but not this many... They were hungry for blood, a cheering, screaming mass of 'normal' people who had probably followed them throughout the game--- watching their television sets raptly as yet another player fell victim or was triumphant.

It made him want to puke his guts out.

Taking a deep, calming breath he squeezed Park's hand. No matter what he had to be strong for the Korean whose love he'd discovered only through this twisted game.

"Don't let it phase you....I won't let you down." He replied firmly and coaxed his love towards the gate.

Making sure to catch their Principal's eye as he looked on, delighted to find that some more of his pathetic pupils had made it into his playground, Kyo gave him a dark, ferocious glare and dragged his koi behind him to find some cover in case some one had gotten there first anf hoped to pick them off at the entrance.

The couple, genuinely shocked to the core at what they were seeing, stumbled into the Zone together. Luckily, it didn't appear that very many of the others had arrived yet - they didn't know if they were the first in, but they hadn't yet spotted anyone else around. That was not to say, however, that there weren't others already hiding in the rough, light cover there.

As they ran swiftly across the lush grass dotted with pretty buttercups, running around the edge of the lake trying desperately to block out the booming noise of the PA broadcasting the shrieking crowds who were waving banners with their own faces on them and shouting unintelligible messages to them, Park suddenly stopped dead, facing the bottom grandstand, and blinked, then his jaw dropped open.

"That's... that's my f**king father down there behind that fence," he exclaimed, black eyes alight with rage and his face even more pale than before, "I should have known the asshole would pull some kind of sick bastard stunt like this!!!" and he ran, ill-advisedly, towards the fence at the bottom of the zone, pulling Kyo, who was begging him to calm down, along behind him, yelling at his father who sat, motionless and emotionless, in the family enclosure, staring at his son with obvious loathing.

"I hate you... I hate you so much, how could you let them do this to us... you spineless shithead!!! It should be YOU who's dying here, not us!!! How could you SIT there and watch your only son get killed, you f**ker!!! I hope you die an even more horrible death than I do!!!" Park screamed, blind with pain and fury, before being pulled away by his lover, in floods of tears, half-paralysed with utter hatred, the pair of them stumbling back and away from the guarded fence.

The crowd reaction to Park's speech was utterly terrifying: they were screaming an animalistic, feral mixture of abuse and support, some of the more lunatic element throwing fireworks over the fence, clearly trying to hit the two boys if they could, before they were themselves dragged out of the thronging mass by the guards. Apparently it was against the rules for the audience to take any action against the star players.

On the big screens, before they ran, Park caught a glimpse of Paul Courtney, armed with a chainsaw, hiding out himself, and guessed that he was also somewhere in the zone already, which chilled his blood and made the need to conceal their whereabouts even more pressing than it already was.

However, as the pair of them attempted to find somewhere to hide and finally sank together into the tree cover at the right-hand bottom of the zone, Park realised that what he'd said had been amplified by the massive video walls which were showing all the action in close-up for the benefit of those at the back of the grandstands... and a hasty plan began to form itself in his sharp mind.

OK, so he would be giving his own position away, compromising himself and his love, but they could always move around and find another hiding place if anyone was here to find out where they were lurking...

Taking a deep breath and thinking to himself, If Paul Courtney has a gun, I'm a dead man... ah f**k it, I'm a dead man anyway - Harvey won't let me live either now, Park looked at his beautiful boyfriend tenderly, trembling with combined terror and love, and gently leaned across to give him an adoring kiss, hoping it wouldn't be their last. Exhausted, terrified tears poured down his face: he remembered Ryu's assassination, and Rei's noble self-sacrifice, and he knew he would soon be joining them... but at least, he could try to go with the same kind of honour and nobility they had shown instead of getting mown down in vain.

Then he took all his courage in his heart, and stood up, reappearing among the trees. He knew he was now completely exposed and vulnerable to attack... but he also knew he had to do this, that he had no choice but to try and take some kind of revenge stand against the bastard who had threatened his koi and his best friend... not to mention the fact that he was behind all the killing in the first place.

"Paul Courtney, listen to me. This is Park Lee-soo, and it's important," he screamed, hearing his own voice ricocheting clearly out of the gigantic speaker systems set up all round the zone. He wiped the tears and snot from his face with the back of his shirt sleeve, his heart thumping in his thin chest like a jackhammer, his entire body trembling like a fragile leaf in the wind.

"Your brother Leon was raped by our principal, Mr Harvey. Not just once, but over and over and OVER again. Everyone in the gay community at the Institute knew it. That's the truth, and that's why Leon was so scared of him... and why he hated the gay kids so much."

"Are you listening to me? HARVEY IS GAY AND HAS BEEN RAPING MALE STUDENTS FOR YEARS. Including Leon. If you don't believe me, that's fine. But if it's true, I guarantee you Harvey will kill me for telling you. C'mon Harvey, activate my f**king necklace. You took it all out on the kids 'cos you were too gutless to admit you were homosexual 'cos you'd lose your job, you f**king serial rapist c**t. DO IT!!! KILL ME!!!"

The Korean stood and waited, shaking and openly weeping, for the axe to fall.

<click, whine of feedback, expectant hush from the crowd>

Lee-soo, how crushingly predictable. What a pathetically transparent and ill-thought-out plot for you to have invented to try and get rid of me! Do you really think you'll have a chance of escaping if you sic Paul Courtney on me or something? Is that what's going through your single brain cell?

I'm hardly going to kill you for lying about me, but I hope you understand that by trying to humiliate me in public with barefaced LIES, in front of my wonderful audience here today -

- means I can hardly let you live, now, can I?

Or.... maybe it's not you I'll be going after, you sick, twisted, diseased, brown-hatting little verminous f**ker.

Perhaps I'll take out your little ass-bandit special friend instead. Yes... I'll give your friends a chance to take him out first, but if Natsume isn't dead by 11.30, I'll have to deal with the matter myself. I just can't wait to see the look on your face, once you realise you are personally responsible for his tragic, messy death.

<click>

As their principal returned to further inciting the crowd Kyo got to his feet rather unsteadily and wrapped his arms round Park's waist, hugging him hard from behind. He buried his face in the strangely clean material of the shirt Park had taken from the house they'd last stayed in and for a while all he could do was attempt to calm the uncontrolable trembling he felt running through them both.

11:30, now at least he had a time for his execution.

However, he would be damned if Harvey would get to pull the plug on his life.

"M'going to stay with you until.."

His plan couldn't find a voice, it was determined from the very moment Harvey's curse-laden threat blasted out over the airwaves and roused the crowds to a higher state of euphoric blood-lust. But, for now Park need not know.

It had taken so much determination and sheer guts to stand up and tell Paul what everyone else had been aware of for too long, but felt helpless to prevent and he was so proud of his boyfriend Kyo's heart ached.

And now, there was one less chance that his love would be on the death list for this period. It was enough to make him smile, through his tears.

Paul slumped back against the tree. Park's words echoing in his brain. Harvey's pathetic attempt to deny them was clearly bullsh*t. Paul was remembering the day they had arrived at the institute.

Harvey had held a mock "parade" which gave him an opportunity to insult his new conscripts. Walking around behind the pair, he had backhanded Leon across the head..

Bam! It had only taken a second, but Leon had spun around 180 degrees and delivered a swift jab to Harvey's face, breaking his nose. The guards jumped all over Leon like monkeys. Two of them held Paul back so he could only watch open-mouthed as Harvey geefully joined in with the guards kicking and punching his brother. Once he was unconscious, the guards dragged him away, his blood glistened on the concrete.

Paul didn't see Leon for another 24 hours and even when he did come back, he refused to mention a single thing that Harvey had done to him.

Paul should have known. Harvey's sick, satisfied smirk as they dragged Leon away should have told him.

Paul felt sick with rage. he glared up at the principal. He was grinning smugly having given out his threats. Standing tall in his faggoty suit.
Paul wanted to rip him apart with his bare hands! He was literally shaking with anger.

He was too far away. Not even a well-aimed Molotov could take care of him....yet.

However, Paul suddenly felt a twinge of hope as he remembered Harvey's threat. If Natsume wasn't dead by 11.30, he would take care of it personally.

If Paul could somehow make sure Natsume survived, he had a chance of taking Harvey.

Paul pulled the bayonet from his belt. The blade was dull and unwashed. Paul's own congealed blood still stained it. As he turned the bayonet over in his hand, Paul hissed "When you die you pervert f*ck, the blood of a Courtney will be in your veins, the name of Leon Courtney will be on your lips. I'll see to it you demented bastard!"

Paul stared up at the sky as he returned the bayonet to his belt. Then, taking the chainsaw in his left hand, he stood up and moved away from the tree.

He knew where Lee-Soo and Natsume were hiding. he faced that direction. He figured he probably didn't have anything to fear from the pair, in fact this may have been what they were intending. And hell, if he couldn't take these two out, what hope would he have against Harvey anyway?

Paul called out loudly, his voice amplified by the speakers. "Hey Natsume. guess you're in deep shit! You guys need a bodyguard?"

Paul waited for a response. The best case scenario would see him teaming up with the person who was clearly public enemy number 1 for this period. But that suited Paul just fine, it might even give him an opportunity to deal with the other person on his revenge list.

When Harvey had finished spouting his all-too-real threats against Bukiyo, Park's legs finally buckled under him and he sat heavily down in the long grass, gasping with agony at the very concept of Harvey taking Kyo's life to spite Park's actions.

Stupid, stupid, stupid F**KING moron, his mind shrieked over and over, You should have known he would pull something like this... you should have known better... all because you wanted to be the big hero this time, you asshole...

He felt Kyo's wet face pressed against his back, sticking to the clean material of his shirt, and heard his love whisper, "M'going to stay with you until.."

"Nothing. NOTHING. Is going to happen to you. NOTHING. Over my dead body. I mean it. He won't touch a single hair on your head. Once I'm dead, he won't have a reason to chase you, he only wants to hurt me for selling his secret out to Courtney," Park muttered emptily, seizing his koi in a dark, deep embrace, almost tearing Kyo's shirt in his passion, the two boys clinging to each other, knowing that in only a short while, one of them would be dead... and Park wanted it to be him. He knew he couldn't live without Kyo, now that he had found the only love of his life.

"I'm sorry, my darling... I had to do it. I had to. He's gonna kill Devon too, you know," Park mumbled into Kyo's shoulder, the tears flowing freely down his face, "I couldn't take it any longer. I want that c**t dead. I don't care that I have to die to make sure he goes too. All I care about is that you get away safe. That's all I want from this..."

And he was more than ready to die: in front of his evil, homophobic father, at the hands of a gay man who was beneath their contempt, he would protect his lover at the cost of his life. And more than this - he was tired, utterly sick and tired to the depths of his soul at what he'd seen in the last 48 hours.

But when he heard Paul Courtney's massively amplified cry "Hey Natsume. guess you're in deep shit! You guys need a bodyguard?", he jumped in Kyo's strong embrace, both of them looking up like a couple of startled meerkats.

"What the f**k do you want from us, Courtney? What more? I've told you the truth, and now Harvey's going to kill one of us for it. It was suicide for me even to tell you. So just leave us the f**k alone, at least let us have this last bit of time together before we die, for God's sake," Park shouted back, his voice cracking with exhausted strain and fear and anger all combined.

"Jesus f*cking Christ" Paul hissed through his teeth. "I shoulda guessed this'd happen." But he wasn't gonna let his shot at Harvey slip so easily. He'd give 'em another try. If they still wouldn't go for it, f*ck 'em! He'd just have to go back to the drawing board.

"F*cking listen to yourself!" Paul yelled "You're already dead in your own mind aren't you? You and your little boyfriend there.

You honestly would rather sit there hugging and sobbing your little eyes out while some f*cker kills the pair of you? I'm offering you a chance to survive this f*cking thing, nothing more. I realise I'm hardly the most trustworthy guy around. But you can either take a chance and trust me. Or I guarantee you're gonna be cut down where you lie. Hell I don't even give you till 11!"

Paul stepped back behind the tree. It was a long shot and frankly Paul didn't give a shit either way, he was already making other plans for this zone.

He scooped up his rucksack and got ready to move.

Hannelore's crocodile tears for Hans soon faded. Devon was clearly not taken in by the whole thing, and Hannelore had the feeling that Ami was not buying the whole deal. She would have to be very careful from now on - the last thing she wanted was for those two to have an inkling that she would be the one potentially sealing their fate.

And Jen...? Was she still onboard? Surely she must realise, Hannelore thought, that if she was to survive, covert methods would have to be used to ensure that? Hannelore somehow doubted Harvey's decision - Jen seemed devious at best, hardly the ideal Model Good Citizen... but then again, his decision may just as easily have been made on the toss of a coin, just to screw with everyone's heads.

She looked at her watch. It was nearly half-past nine, and they needed to get moving if they were to get to the Group Zone on time. She rounded up Ami, Devon and a slightly surly Jen and led them to the Landrover parked in the hotel's rear covered carpark.

The journey to the Group Zone was not long. As soon as they left the vehicle they could hear the maniacal cheers of... what? It sounded like a football crowd. As soon as they entered the area they realised what was going on - and, not least, that there was very little cover to protect them. As Harvey greeted them by name they sprinted down the western bank of the lake towards the bridge, crossed it and went north, hiding in the copsing on the eastern side of the lake. Hannelore was plainly aware that between them they had very few weapons of use - she still had her and Hans's syringes, of course, Jen had the shotgun, and Devon and Ami nothing at all. Maybe they could hide here for a couple of hours... but Hannelore had a feeling Harvey had something better planned.

The Korean swiftly weighed up the options being presented to himself and Kyo. He had a pretty good idea that Paul Courtney intended to use them to get to Harvey, after he had already been threatened by the principal. So if Courtney did indeed kill Harvey, as he clearly intended to attempt, then surely he and Kyo would suddenly become not merely dispensable, but might as well paint targets on their foreheads and have done...?

After all, it had already been proved that the Courtney brothers - or more accurately, the one remaining Courtney brother now - would stop at nothing to survive and win. He most definitely wouldn't bat an eyelash at slaying the gay couple who had actually tried to help him, and endangered themselves into the bargain.

At the same time, he realised that they actually had the advantage here as far as weaponry went: they had no idea whether anyone else was carrying guns, but certainly Courtney wasn't - all he appeared to have was a rusty old chainsaw. Park and Bukiyo were both kitted out in bulletproof body armour, and each had a handgun. So if their mad classmate made any attempt to engage them in close-quarter combat, they would at least be able to defend themselves.

Besides, the look on Kyo's face was enough to tell Park exactly how he felt about the situation as it stood. The Korean boy raised his eyebrows anxiously: and the Japanese shook his head slowly, his expression full of distrust and distaste.

"Forget it Courtney. We've done you enough favours already, and put our lives on the line to get the truth about your brother to you," Park shouted back, "We'll take our chances on our own."

Finally with their passions sated for the moment at least Delilah made both her and her lover presentable and led him towards Harvey's latest group zone. Her keen hearing picked up on the sounds of hundreds of voices mingling to form one solid wall of noise long before she caught sight of the stands.

An audience, her deeds would be recognized by not only millions of unseen voyeurs, but an actual, physically present crowd that could share in the beauty of the destruction she planned to wreak.

A soft, gleeful sound escaped her lips and then quirked into a delighted smile. "Darling, we have company."

At first the young French teen stared back at her cluelessly, but as they drew nearer he too was witness to the unbridled ferocity of human nature and Harvey's lurid display.

As they strode confidently into the group zone and Delilah took a moment to note the lack of cover a huge chorus of sound rose to greet them. The brunette girl raised the hand that was not holding onto Sylvain's tightly and gave them a small, nonchalant wave. Then, capturing Harvey's attention she smiled coquettishly and blew him a kiss.

Let the man believe his delusions.

When they finally ground to a halt Devon found himself breathless and overly hot. Well so much for the drugs being a cure-all. Harvey's newest gimic didn't surprise him in the slightest. The man was a sick, twisted f**k and he only wished he could get the chance to avange at least some of what he'd done to their class, his friends before the end.

He grabbed Hannelore's arm and wrenched her over to him, seen as she seemed, much to his distaste to have taken over as leader for now.

"I'm leaving. Harvey has something planned and I don't want you gettin' caught up in it." Although his words were aimed at Hannelore his gaze strayed to Jennifer almost immediatly and even to Ami for a brief moment.

For all he cared Hannelore could rot, but if she was going to take care of Jen and Ami and allow them even a scant few more hours of life it would be more than nothing.

Kyo heaved a tiny sigh of relief. He knew they'd done the right thing. Paul and Leon had never treated them with anything but contempt in the time before this nightmare began and somehow he couldn't see a sudden and rather miraculous change of heart occuring at such a convinient time as being anything but feigned.

For now he just sat and kept a watch on the almost completely open areas around them, drawing his handgun covertly just incase. Afterall, not only did they have Paul to contend with now, but wasn't that transfer still out there somewhere?

<click, whine of feedback, expectant hush from crowd>

Are we having fun yet?

<cheers, laughter>

Well, my little friends, you're all in here! And lookey, it's now 10 am. It's time to...

Let! The Killing! BEGIN!

However, before you become too deeply embroiled in the heat of battle, let me just tell you before you came into the group zone this morning, we held a raffle! Look at the screens, my little ones.

And first prize to you, Ms Hannelore, is...

wait for it...

an M16A4 rifle with 30 rounds magazine and a 40mm M203 grenade launcher attached, plus extra magazines and five grenades! You lucky girl! Come on down to the bottom of the zone with your comrades if you want, and claim your prize!

I'm sending a soldier escort for you so nobody will be able to take a potshot at you. Anyone shooting at the soldiers will have their collars activated.

Let's all give Hannelore a big hand!

<click>

Paul threw his rucksack over his shoulder and sprinted to another tree further to the back of the zone. He decided not to waste any more time with the gay couple. Let 'em rot, he had bigger fish to fry.

He had just made it behind the tree when Harvey gave his surprise announcement. His lip curled with distaste when he heard what Hannelore's "prize" was going to be.

"Shit, I could've done with that! Bet that asshole fixed it for that German slut too!" he spat. Still, he was thankful that at least that bitch transfer wasn't given it. She already had more long range weapons than Paul, a fact that tugged at in the back of his mind like an annoying splinter.

Stooping down he unzipped his rucksack and removed a bottle of diesel and a torn rag from his old shirt which he had twisted into a makeshift fuse.

His new shirt was one he had stolen from the house he had stayed the previous night. Its sky-blue cleanliness would stick out like a sore thumb against the dark green of the tree cover, so Paul stripped it off and thrust it into the rucksack. His tattered jeans and running vest were both dark and would provide much better camouflage.

This done, he squatted to his haunches and twisted the rag into the bottle. Leaving the bottle upright on the grass, he held his box of matches in his right hand and waited.

He hadn't moved too far away from Natsume and Lee-Soo, they may not have taken him up on his more than generous offer, but they'd still make good bait.

Just as Devon said he was leaving Harvey's announcement ricocheted around the arena. Well, thought Hannelore to herself, at least she'd be protected for a little while whilst the soldiers escorted her the half mile or so down to the bottom of the zone, and once there she'd have a huge weapon to help protect her and Jen.

"Devon, you heard what Harvey just said. You haven't got any sort of a weapon and, really, no chance of getting one. Fine" and she sighed irritably "if you want to back out now and leave us alone, then just fu*k off."

She turned her back on him and started marching south, anticipating that the soldiers would meet her midway. Reluctantly, Ami followed, and Jen tailed a little way behind her. They left Devon in the trees, alone and unprotected.

Meeting the soldiers just after the bridge, the group were escorted to an area just in front of the family enclosure. All around them, the crowd equally cheered and bayed for their blood. Hannelore resisted a strange urge she had to wave to them, and chose to stoically ignore them as she approached Harvey, who was standing in an opening in the fence, and beckoning to Hannelore.

Hannelore approached the opening. Ami and Jen started to follow, but were grasped by three soldiers each and restrained as Hannelore was handed her prize by the headmaster.

"Congratulations Hannelore - you lucky lady! Use this wisely, and you will survive. A big hand for our happy winner!"

The crowd erupted. Hannelore tried to look nonchalant, as if she really didn't care what was happening, although deep down she realised Harvey was doing this to further increase his hold on the game. Meanwhile, Harvey caught the eye of a technician on his side of the fence and drew his hand across his throat. Initially, Hannelore feared that she'd finally been double crossed, but actually he was ordering the PA sound to be cut momentarily.

"Agent Wolfsberg-Schmidt" he said quietly, leaning across to her, "your orders are hereby revised. You are still to protect at all costs Pupil Nilsson. Also, you must eliminate with immediate effect Pupil Natsume. To aid your protection, enclosed in this bag is a key to the northern bridgehouse."

Hannelore nodded. There wasn't much she could do to argue, and knew that any resistance would be met with lethal force. She smiled and kissed Harvey on the cheek to maintain the pretence, even though it sickened her to do so. She could see a bulge in his trousers, and wondered whether he was getting off on leching over her, but thought it more likely to be the prospect of major bloodshed and crowd adulation. After all, she'd known for some time that the rumours surrounding Harvey were certainly true - she'd seen video footage in the Agent's School of exactly how Harvey had tortured and raped Leon.

She could see the families close to in their enclosure. She scanned to see if she could spy her family; she was sure they were there, but in the few seconds available to her she failed, although she did see two familiar faces from Agent's School making their way slowly towards the gap.

As the soldiers released Jen and Ami, she grabbed the Swede as firmly as she could and headed west towards the high wooded area in the south-west corner of the zone. As she did so, she saw Kyo and Park appear on the video screens - they were in the opposite south-eastern corner, but the moment seemed right and they not only suspected nothing but she had a clear shot too.

She stopped, faced towards them, shoved an unpinned grenade in the barrel, and fired with devastating accuracy. Knowing they were both armed, at that point she ran as fast and hard as she could, almost pulling a shocked Jennifer off her feet and leaving Ami still standing in front of the family enclosure. She headed north for the bridge house, opened the door with the key, and collapsed, drained and exhausted, with Jennifer on the floor. Thinking on her feet, she crawled to the door and locked it from the inside, pushed herself against the wall, smashed a window with the gun butt and poked the muzzle gently out, awaiting company.

Quietly, and unseen by either the guards or Harvey in the excitement, the two black clad Japanese agents slipped through the gap in the fence. One male and one female, they were trusted by their masters to not interfere with the game. But their masters had not taken into consideration one major factor: their surname was Tsutsuno, and, although for sixteen years they had been living under the pseudonym of Ishibashi, and had served the Regime well, they had not forgotten their lineage.

And now they were looking for revenge.

Just as Kyo was about to thank the Korean for getting rid of their most pressing threat, Paul Courtney, both of them with their nerves on full alert and in shreds, listening to the events unfolding with the German girl at the furthest southern end of the zone, they both heard a strange sound, like a muffled boom, accompanied by a whistling sound both of them associated with the dropping of a bomb... or a shell.

And before either of them could react as the sound increased alarmingly in their direction, there was a gigantic explosion, the impact of which threw Bukiyo's unwary body backwards, slamming him physically into a tree, shockwaves radiating through the shaking ground and echoes of the roar of the exploding grenade projecting a hollow sonic boom throughout the entire zone.

Park saw or felt none of this. His vision was completely engulfed by the brightest white light he had ever seen, cutting through the cold blue of the winter sky, and he had been temporarily deafened by the noise of the explosion; and when his sight and hearing returned, his entire lower body seemed to be filled with a radiating heat, although he felt chilled to the bone. He couldn't stop shaking, completely bewildered at what had happened, shock cutting off any sense of pain he should have been experiencing.

The grenade had hit and exploded right at the slender Korean's feet, blowing off his left leg entirely and severing his right up to the thigh. Slowly he toppled backwards into the long grass, his head pillowed by the pretty yellow flowers which carpeted the lush grass. His gaze focused on the tree canopy above as his hot arterial blood flowed steadily into the ground.

As if in a dream, the face of the only person he had ever loved appeared above him, his dark eyes wide and wet. Bukiyo was weeping wordlessly, cradling his koi's broken body in his violently trembling arms, and Park realised that he only had a short moment left to him... that he was dying. Now the pain was knocking the air out of his lungs, growing until it was almost intolerable.. until he wished he would die, just to make it go away.

But he had to be brave: he would not scream: he would not endanger his beautiful lover's life any further, particularly since he had saved it - by accident, but had nevertheless done the only thing that seemed right to him since the beginning of this evil game.

"K...kyo," he whispered with difficulty, trying to focus his dark gaze and take in every detail of his love's face while there was still time, weeping himself so hard he could barely see, "I... kept my promise... protected you... please don't forget me when I'm gone... run, save yourself, run, go now before..."

His frail body, increasingly chilled by the hard winter ground and the loss of his rivers of warm blood that pooled around the sobbing couple and poured from his lips and nostrils, shook convulsively as the cold of death began to invade him. He felt his lover's wet kisses only faintly now, and finally gathered the last air from his failing lungs to murmur "I love you... love you forever... wait for you and watch over you..."

And quietly, he lost the very last of his strength and fell back against his koibito, his black eyes glazed and fixed on the gaze of his lover for the very last time.

Student #16 Park Lee-soo dead - 8 to go

Completely oblivious to events which had just taken place, the French blond was beginning to find Delilah's own showboating, mirroring Harvey's repellent her irrepressible sense of confidence bordering on invincibility, and her good humour in this strangest of all situations somewhat... infectious.

Now he had a gun, he himself was beginning to feel almost powerful, and despite having already enjoyed his lover's attentions this morning, something about having an audience was bringing out the latent exhibitionist in him. He no longer felt like the most cowardly and disliked kid in class... he could make his classmates suffer for his unpopularity. Well, the last ones left alive, anyway...

And if anyone even dreamt of attacking his pretty girlfriend, well... he would shoot them without even thinking twice about it.

Sylvain bared his teeth like a dog without even realising he was doing it.

Everything transpired so quickly that by the time Bukiyo actually began to feel any pain of his own the last breath had long been wrenched from Park's body.

It was nothing in comparison to the aching void in his chest. It felt as if someone had ripped his heart out and offered the still beating and bloody organ to him. Bruises that had begun to blossom down his pale back and across one cheek, peppered with tiny splinters and thin scratches were numbed to almost nothing.

Even the ferocious roar of the audience and Harvey's gleeful ramblings couldn't reach the delicate Japanese now. Every wall he'd ever erected around his heart had built up once more within a matter of moments. And somewhere in between something fundamental deep within his mind cracked and shattered like a fallen mirror.

A thin silvery trail of tears still flowed unfettered down his cheeks, but he didn't even feel them. There was only the broken, beautiful shell he still clung to and the cooling wetness of blood that was not his own.

//koibito...// <lover>

With fingers that no longer trembled Kyo reached out and reverantly closed his lover's eyes. But, as he opened his mouth to whisper the words he'd been reserving for his own final breath a voice crept into his tangled, feverishly random thoughts.

"...f**k no.."

Without even looking up he snatched the gun from Park's waistband and fired blindly.

//Leave us alone//

"Kyo!" The red-head laid Park down and turned, training the gun upon whoever had disturbed them. The voice had sounded familiar, but of course no one could be trusted.

"Kyo, s'me.." Devon staggered to his feet once more and stared with barely controlled horror at the scene laid out before him. His bestfriend--- now only a tattered mess. The whole clearing smouldered and everywhere he looked splatters of crimson stained the foliage.

And in the centre of it all sat Kyo, bloodied and shaking. His faintly tanned Asian skin was pale and glossy with perspiration and a cold, resolute expression almost dispelled all Dev's memories of his fragile good-nature.

The boy said nothing and didn't lower his weapon even a fraction.

//You'll wake him..//

" K-kyo...look I'm unarmed n' you got me already....jus..I'm sorry about Park...f**k he was my bestfriend...he'd want---"

"Urusai bakayarou." <Shut up you idiot> Kyo retorted sharply.

Dev searched his face, wincing a little at the stinging pain in his upper arm where the bullet had grazed him. "You know I don't understand...please Kyo."

A distant glassiness in Kyo's eyes told him the little Japanese wasn't even listening anymore and he watched in silent misery as Kyo turned back to Park's body and muttered a few words in his native language, before looking back to him.

"Hyaku." <Run>

The Canadian blinked, but Kyo's next words hit home, "Run, go now. Park said it's okay." As if it were the most natural thing in the world Kyo nodded to him and gestured with his gun.

"Hyaku..."

Dev hesitated, but he knew it was only a matter of time before Harvey came for him. Park was dead...and there was no way he'd betray his friend by being the cause of Bukiyo's death. With a strained smile he turned on his heel and sprinted away.

Bukiyo leant over his lost love and stroked his cheek tenderly, "Neru <sleep>....I'll wait for you." A wavering smile spread over his lips and eventually he found the strength to draw back and get to his feet.

It was all going to be fine, afterall this clearing seemed safe enough to allow Park a few more minutes rest and he would be back soon enough to wake him.He tucked Park's gun into the waistband of his pants and drew his own.

//Neru koibito// <sleep my love>

With a renewed sense of purpose Bukiyo walked to the edge of their cover and surveyed the land, looking for potential threats to him and his boyfriend. For now he would just watch and wait.

Ami stared after Hannelore and Jen, She hoped Hannelore would get her comeuppance, she really did. As the grenade exploded, she forced herself to watch the hot shrapnels tear into Park's flesh. It hurt her eyes, behind which tears were swelling. She turned her head to the video screen and dropped her bag. Now Park was gone too.

A hand clamped over her mouth, silencing any scream that wished to form. The tears that had threatened to fall with grief now fell with fear. As the world faded into utter darkness around her, unconsciousness set in.

She opened her eyes, or at least she thought she had. Around her it was pitch black. The pain was unbearable. Her cheeks were covered in a warm, sticky liquid. 'Blood!' she thought her mind racing, 'what's happened?' "Hello is anyone there?" she managed to croak out. Fear was starting to take over all of her senses. Why couldn't she see? She tried to move her arms but found that they were bound behind her back, her feet were also tied. She could feel the cold hard floor beneath her, adding to her pain. "Hello.....somebody....anybody! Help." she called out again hoping someone could hear her. She didn't know where she was; just that she had to be in the group zone or she'd be dead by now. "Hell....."

She felt the hand clamp over her mouth once more, she hadn't even heard them walk up to her. "Hello, Ami is it." it was not a question but a statement. This man knew who she was. Ami's response was muffled by his hand. "Sssshhhhh!" she heard soothingly from her right, it wasn't the man "It'll hurt more if you struggle." Ami tried to turn her head to the sound, causing the man to tighten his grip. Catching her off guard and breatheless. He let go, leaving her limp body lying on the ground gasping for air. "Do you know who we are?" the man asked Ami.

"No...." she rasped, her fear apparent in her voice. She hadn't moved since he let go of her.

"Does the name Tsutsuno ring any bells"

"Ryu!" Ami gasped. She tried to sit up, but finding that she couldn't decided to plead her case from where she lay. "I didn't kill him I swear. Please believe me, I was asleep when he was murdered. I was.....please. i didn't do it. Ryu was one of my friends, why would I kill him? I DIDN'T...." His hand was back over the hysterical girl's mouth.

"Shut the f*ck up!" he whispered into her ear, as his sister laughed, "I know that you murdered my brother your pleading will make no difference. So, will you be quiet now?" Ami nodded weakly afraid any sudden movement would cause him to choke her. She sobbed as he pushed her into a sitting position, so that her back was against the wall. He pulled on a pair of thick leather gloves and nodded to his sister who took out some piano wire out of a sports bag that was lying next to her. She handed the piano wire to her brother. Ami could hear Hitomi coming closer, and began to tremble uncontrollably. Her heart pounded so hard that she was sure that it would break out of her chest, as Hitomi first undid the ropes around her feet and then sat on her lap so that Ami's legs would have to stay straight.

"What...what are you doing to me?"

"Nothing much." the girl on Ami's lap said, pushing the hair out of Ami's face, "Nothing much at all". Ami could feel the fear rising uncontrollably within her. She'd never known a voice to instill so much fear. "Its cos its dark", she whispered to no one in particular, Hitomi shot a glance to Yuurei, who shook his head as he wrapped the piano wire around her foot and pulled it tight. Ami screamed in pure agony. The flesh gave way easily, tender skin never troubled wires; bones were harder. Only the strong leather on Yuurei's gloves stoped the wire cutting his own skin under the immense force. Nonetheless the bone didn't take so long. Suddenly her foot came off and landed with a sickening thud behind him. It was still attached to Ami via the tendon which can never be cut; its flexibility helping its way. Yuurei pulled out his knife and severed the last link and Ami's scream ended in a coughing fit. The moment Hitomi stood up the small treackle of blood burst out of her ankle in rythm with her heart's pounding. Blood had drained from her now discoloured face. She could feel the blood gushing out onto the floor, could hear it leaving her body.

"Please stop, Please!" her voice quiet and hoarse. She could barely take it anymore. 'This is what you wanted' a voice told her. "No I didn't want this. I didn't kill him. I didn't do it. Please believe me. Please just kill me. Just kill me. please." she carried on begging for the two to kill her as Yuurei gave a handful of needles to Hitomi who proceeded to stick them into Ami. Starting with her chest and finishing with her lower abdomen, she placed them in the position of every vital organ besides the heart, so that if Ami was to land on her stomach it would kill her. But it wasn't time for that yet. Hitomi stood up, Yuurei holding Ami's legs so that she couldn't curl her self up into a ball. Though really, Ami had no control of her legs after the tendon was cut.

They stood her up, untied her hands and pushed her back against the wall. She didn't resist when they each took one of her hands and pinned them against the wall. Using the knife she'd picked up while her brother had untied Ami, Hitomi began chopping each of the digits on her right hand off one by one at the knuckle. Ami tried to scream, but found that her voice was starting to give up on her. Hitomi wasn't an experienced butcher which was worse for Ami since each digit took her more slices than one to dismember. Her mouth felt dry and cold, but she felt like she was drowning. Hitomi let go of her arm and began tidying up all the stuff that they had used. She wiped the blood off of the knife and the piano wire using a thick cloth, placed them both inside the bag and burned the cloth using two lighters, one to release fuel and the other to light it. "Let's go" she said to Yuurei, he nodded letting go of Ami's left arm as Hitomi held her up against the wall. He took off his leather gloves and placed them in the sports bag, he then slung it over his shoulder. He took hold of Ami's left shoulder, and they dragged her out and threw her onto the grass. At least it felt like grass. As her body hit the ground a series of needles were pushed into her body. Piercing holes into her organs and causing internal bleeding. Those in the kidneys would have caused real pain had the lack of oxygen to Ami's brain not have made her unaware of pain. Hitomi placed the gasping girl's eyeballs into her uninjured hand and smiled, "Thought you might want to keep them." The two then sneaked away, found their way into the family enclosure, making sure not to be caught. They automatically went to the bathroom to clean themselves up, washing all trace of the dying girl from themselves.

Ami lay on the ground, her body painless, blood pouring from both her open wounds, her mouth and nose and eventually her ears. 'So this is it' she thought, 'the end of the road' She had neither the energy nor the inclination to move. "Please forgive me...." she whispered with what was left in her lungs, her voice dying like the rest of her now mutilated body.

For not being a better friend

Student #12 Ami Hodges dead - 7 TO GO

Yuurei and Hitomi thought they'd got away with it. Granted, what they'd done was done pretty much in full view of the audience, who had remained strangely quiet throughout the whole episode. What hadn't been immediately visible to the cameras on cranes had been relayed via Ami's collar, not to mention the small remotely controlled camera carts, about two feet long by a foot wide and two feet high with caterpillar tracks, which had been deployed in the area.

In the VIP enclosure toilets, Yuurei hugged Hitomi. "For Ryu... justice, at last." They stripped down to their underwear and washed in the stainless steel basins, Ami's blood rolling down their faces from their hair. Drying themselves, they dressed and returned to the family enclosure, hoping they hadn't been missed.

As they exited, they were grabbed from behind by Harvey's lackeys Harbud, Olley, Bathe, Gilbert and Thomas, and dragged to the puppet master.

<click, whine of feedback, expectant hush from crowd>

Well well well, what have we here?

Two interlopers trying to corrupt MY game?

And to think I thought you were above reproach. To think I trusted you. TO THINK I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOOD CITIZENS.

You have betrayed yourselves and the Regime. In your search for justice, so-called justice, you have sullied your name, as well as the name of your Agent's School. I spit on you, Yuurei and Hitomi Ishibashi-Tsutsuno.

You are hereby dismissed from the Regime special intelligence unit. You are also sentenced to death.

Listen carefully, my pupils!

Whoever sweeps up either or both of these two pieces of disgusting trash will be allowed into any danger zone in the next game period, once the group zone ends. Remember their brother's escape plan? Well, you might have a shot at it if you kill them. Then again, you might not. But well fought so far, my little maggots! You're providing first class entertainment. Who knows? I may even win a Bafta for this!

Oh, and one more thing you two - you were wrong. Ami didn't kill Ryuji. It was me - I ordered it. One of my lackeys did the deed for me. So much for your justice.

Send them into the zone. And let Ami's friends wipe them off the face of the planet, for her "justice".

<click>

Delilah glanced back and happened to notice the delightfully agressive and almost feral expression on her love's face. She bit back a little girlish giggle of elation and merely smiled warmly, giving his hand a little squeeze.

"Darl--"

Harvey's announcement rang out over the group zone and her head snapped up immediatly, so another one of the pathetic children was dead; she didn't recognize the name or care to find out who had been slain.

Her priority was on Sylvain's (and her own) safety and nothing - not even the vivid explosion that sounded to her knowledgable mind like a grenade, some minutes ago would distract the young woman from her duty.

"Whoever sweeps up either or both of these two pieces of disgusting trash will be allowed into any danger zone in the next game period, once the group zone ends. Remember their brother's escape plan? Well, you might have a shot at it if you kill them."

To be perfectly honest with herself Delilah had no intention of taking a cowards way out of this war. It was win or lose - no grey area in between was even comprehendable.

But the chance to add a couple more names to her reaper's list, well that was another story - especially if these toys were unarmed.

With a wide, joyful smile she tugged Sylvain hard and dragged him off in the direction of her prey, or at least where they should be if Harvey had just turfed them from the stands.

Sylvain looked across at his beautiful girlfriend, barely even taking in the announcements about Park, Ami and the rest. The only thing which had entered his fevered brain during all the shit Harvey had spouted was that anyone who caught and killed the Tsutsuno twins would be allowed free rein in the next game period... and armed with something like that, he and Delilah would easily be able to wipe the floor with the last diehard kids and claim their freedom...

... or at least, Delilah would be able to claim her freedom. Sylvain wasn't so naive as to expect that his lover would allow him to walk free... but what would happen if they were the last players left in the game?

As he exchanged a look with Delilah that both of them understood, and take off to find the ex-agents, he caught sight of Devon Delonge fleeing the scene of carnage left from Park's bloody and horrible death, and lifted his gun to try and take a wild potshot at the running skater: however, he realised all too quickly that doing so would give their position away, and he looked at Delilah grimly, and lowered his gun.

"I guess Harvey can take care of Delonge. We've got better prizes to aim for," he said in a strange, flat way, disappointed at not being able to take the opportunity to pick off yet another unfortunate victim to please and appease his new girlfriend.

Stumbling forward with almost intolerable shock and dazed horror, both at having been found out and having tortured an innocent girl to death in the most sadistic way imaginable, thanks to Harvey and the Battle Committee section of the Regime's disgusting deception tactics, Ryuji's hapless brother and sister were collared and forcibly ejected into the Zone to fight for their lives with all the other survivors.

"What did he mean, Yuurei-chan???? What did he MEAN?????? That girl... that poor girl...!"

Hitomi screamed at her brother in Japanese, tearing off her blood-stained black mask, burning tears flooding down her face,"NO! No, I don't believe what he said - it must have been her, it must, it must, it must-"

Her hysterics were cut dead by a resounding slap. Her trembling twin brother shook her hard by the arms, only just this side of tears himself. "Get a hold of yourself, Hitomi-chan," he hissed, ashen-faced, his agent training kicking in and pulling her to the ground so they could try to crawl into hiding, "You heard what Harvey said - if any of those kids see us, we're dead. We're their ticket to a safe zone so if we get spotted, that's it. We don't even have any guns. So keep your f**king head down and let's get out of here!"

His only answer was his sister's soft, racked sobbing as she remembered how Ami had died, alone on the floor, blinded and mutilated - and it had been her who had relished the revenge the most, so sure that she was avenging her beloved little brother's assassination and protecting her family honour.

Heading north out of the enclosure on their bellies, despite being completely exposed - there was no available tree cover close enough to reach from the media enclosure - the ex-agents crawled furiously, keeping as low as possible. But they were completely ignorant of the fact that they were heading almost directly towards where Delilah and Sylvain were preparing themselves to search for them.

Only one consideration remained though, and on this they pinned their one slim hope for safety: if any of the kids were foolish enough to try and take them out here, then not only would they have to contend with the ex-agents' excellent combat training, but also with the fact that they would terminally compromise their position, if they were hidden, and expose themselves to attacks from their classmates in the same area...

Delilah put a slender finger to her lips and shushed at him, a slow and intensely pleasurable smile spreading across her lips as she scanned the area ahead for any sign of the fresh meat.

Of course if these new targets had been clever enough to sneak in, negating Harvey's seemingly impenetrable network of defence for anything that might compromise his grand event then they must've been well trained which gave her a newfound sense of wariness which she'd never felt regarding all the lambs who'd wandered across her path just asking to be cut down if only to end the suffering of their ultimately pointless existences.

"Hmm.." she whispered back to him, her eyes still flickering across the worryingly open terrain beyond, "Be on your guard love, these aren't your ordinary playmates." She carried on as she glanced down to check the Uzi, rambling on to herself in an almost dreamy tone, "No...special prizes deserve special deaths love...keep our distance...if it brings those children running then we'll end them too."

Silently, slowly she advanced; all the while her senses on high alert for even the slightest movement, if a blade of grass so much as twitched she'd pepper the ground beneath it with bullets without a second thought. [/b]

As Delilah happily rambled on to herself in a low, husky voice that sent shivers down the French boy's spine, Sylvain was beginning to come to the difficult understanding that she was becoming more and more detached from reality by the moment, and that at least one of them needed to remain grounded... he knew his own mind was becoming slowly untethered again like a balloon drifting off into the sky, and he was powerless to stop it.

Like a lovesick puppy, he desperately wanted to earn his mistress's approval. He wanted a kill all of his own, he wanted to please her with more than his body. No... he wanted to please her with a blood sacrifice. In his confused mindstate which was spiralling back into schizophrenic surreality, she was becoming less of a girlfriend and more of a wrathful Goddess, to be worshipped... and appeased. His white, bony hands, covered with mingled blood and dirt, shakily raised to his aching eyes and pressed down hard on his raw eyelids.

Something was puzzling him... had been puzzling him for a short while now. It had been a vague, unformed thought, but suddenly his circling mind had gotten a grip on what had been troubling him. Considering 19 kids had been killed in one way or another, there should have been piles of corpses all over the place. But Sylvain hadn't even seen one, apart from those his psycho princess had despatched, and those only in the timezone in which they were killed.

It seemed somehow... strange, suspicious. Did Harvey have operatives clearing bodies out of the safe zones, even while they were hunting? And if so, wouldn't that leave the militia vulnerable to attack, if, against all odds, they culled the two Tsutsunos and won their prize, being able to invade the danger zones in the next game period? What kind of weapons, what kind of advantage could they gain from that information? He decided to ask his girlfriend: surely, despite her random lunacy at the moment, she would know how best to use this information for their own ends.

He gave his eyes one final rub, before beginning, "Delilah... what do you think is happening to the bodies-" before opening his eyes and turning just in time to catch sight of a black-clad leg dragging along the ground some metres behind them, out in the exposed grassland. Almost impossibly, the agents had almost passed them by, out of sheer luck on their part, as the couple had had their backs to them. Their movements were so silent that if Sylvain hadn't chosen that immediate moment to glance behind, they would have made it away without ever having been noticed.

Sylvain was overjoyed. At last he had a chance to prove his worth to Delilah; he felt nothing but an immediate shock of bloodlust as he raised his Colt assault rifle, without a word to her, his hands shaking with a combination of fear and excitement, and took a potshot at the retreating leg. The sound of the gun didn't even make Delilah jump as the booming report echoed through the still air; she was that calm and collected. But the possibility that she would be angry at him for giving away their position hadn't even crossed his mind: he had just reacted, and he hoped he could give her the prize she so hungrily desired.

Delilah wasn't particularly surprised by her pet's little display of trigger happiness. She found his desperation to please her quite endearing, if utterly misplaced; and rather dangerous considering who they were going up against.

Even minimally armed as it appeared they were she had no desire to fall at the hands of these new players; it would be almost as humiliating to die at the hands of one of the remaining children.

Plus the prize for despatching them was far too tempting to pass up in favour of death. For now she put all thoughts of Sylvain's question out of her mind and concentrated on the job at hand.

When his shot went wide, tearing up a clump of grass, scant inches from where that defenseless leg had been a second ago she sighed and reached over to ruffle his hair sympathetically and then advanced.

Their cover was blown and no doubt soon the other survivors would decide to come and investigate; if they still clung to competativeness as stubbornly as herself which now Delilah was beginning to doubt. However, she still wanted this over and done with quickly;

And when the saboteurs came into view she raised her Uzi and fired without a second thought or even a drop of guilt in her black, twisted heart.

The first shot that was fired at Yuurei missed him by some inches, but the thunderous noise of the report unfortunately surprised him so much that he stopped dead in mid-crawl, allowing Delilah a clear shot with her Uzi.

One moment later, a shocking, burning agony tore through his neck. Delilah's shot had been slightly inaccurate: where she was almost certainly aiming for a headshot, her bullet had entered through the nape of his neck and exited through his throat, missing the important veins and arteries, but shredding his windpipe and gullet, leaving an inch-wide, ragged hole from which hot blood was already gushing sloppily down.

In absolute disbelief, he stared and stared for several seconds at the gore splashing all over his thick leather gloves, barely even hearing his sister's screams of horror and grief. His face turned pale blue as less and less air got into his lungs, and he began to claw wildly at his chest, emitting gurgling squawks of mingled panic and horror, until he simply lay down in the crimson-drenched grass, managed with his last breath to hiss "Run, Hitomi...", and died - a twisting, agonising death, his face blue, his tongue black and lolling from his wide-open mouth.

Hitomi, at that moment, simply never thought twice about her own safety: ignoring her brother's last plea, she lunged wildly at Delilah with her knife, hoping to at least maim the evil little bitch who had slaughtered her twin in cold blood. However, it was Sylvain who stepped in front of his girlfriend, knowing that this was all because he had let his lover down by missing his prey...

Student #28 Yuurei Ishibashi-Tsutsuno, ex-Regime agent, dead - 7 to go

The French blond instinctively moved to protect his girlfriend when he saw the wailing ex-agent tense herself up like a spring, ready to try and kill Delilah in revenge for her brother's horrible death.

He simply never had time to raise his Colt and take another shot: the rifle was pressed against his chest and was probably the only thing that saved his life when she lunged forward and raised and lowered her big butcher's knife again and again, spraying his blood everywhere, the razor sharpness of the blade easily separating muscle and bone.

He was not even aware he was screaming, his blond locks dripping with sticky scarlet, holding the gun up and eventually managing to use it as a lever to fling Hitomi, weeping and shaking convulsively, to the ground, where she stumbled over the body of her brother, only just keeping her feet on the floor.

He would have shot her then, only he'd lost several pints of blood, was on the verge of unconsciousness... and didn't even realise his left hand was only hanging on his body by a few tendons. Hitomi had all but cut it right off his arm as he gripped his gun and held her away from him with it.

Faint from blood loss, he stumbled blindly down, his legs losing their power all at once, and sank gracefully into the grass on his knees.

Delilah watched with a mixture of horror and sheer delight as the Japanese agent almost severed her lover's hand. The vivid colour of the blood and his tortured screams made her skin crawl, a faint tingle that clawed at her insides and compelled her, in that instant to finish them both.

But then she remembered; he had defended her --- played his role as the loyal servant and lost a part of himself in the process. It merited an equal display of violence. However, she was far more rational and calculating -- her reckless, impulsive side reined in with barely a thought.

She stepped past where Sylvain sat, bleeding and quiet on the blood splattered grass and eyed the girl; keeping her distance and yet getting close enough to feel the intimacy of her impending death.

The cleaver still lay within her bag, just begging to taste more blood, spoil more flesh, but she ignored its pleas and instead simply raised her Uzi once more at Hitomi and pulled the trigger.

Hitomi's extensive agent training should have told her that attacking the kids who had just murdered her brother was a poor idea at best: but the overwhelming grief and rage she had felt as he lay dying in front of her had blinded her mind to all else but attacking the guilty party.

She just wanted to cut the grinning psycho in front of her to shreds... slice all the flesh off her bones with her scalpel-sharp knife, like a butcher boning a lamb carcass, if she could. But her dopey-looking boyfriend had decided to play the gallant gentleman... or willing self-sacrifice. No matter: Hitomi hoped that watching her own loved one die horribly might hurt Delilah the same way she was hurting.

A single shot through the head was enough to put Hitomi's attack to rest. Her brains shattered, exiting through a three-inch wide hole in the back of her skull, mingling with the pools of gore Sylvain and Yuurei had already shed on the lush grass, and she went to join her brother in the chill of death.

As for Sylvain... well, he realised that Delilah wouldn't want an injured cripple around cramping her style. His eyes were squeezed shut, his one good hand trying to pressurise his spurting wrist as a kind of makeshift tourniquet... like a lamb to the slaughter, he could not raise his gaze from the ground and meet her eyes...

...because he was afraid of what he would see in them.

Student #27 Hitomi Ishibashi-Tsutsuno, ex-Regime agent, dead - 6 to go

Delilah drew her foot back and slammed it into the girl's side. She knew she was dead and naturally couldn't hear the sickening crack as her ribs gave way or feel that intense flare of agony Delilah knew would have overtaken her. It was a shame really, but in a hazy moment of pure rage she'd done away with what could have been a rather interesting toy.

Leaning over she lifted the Japanese' ruined head and studied her work as blood stained her fingers, clutching tightly at black hair matted with gore.

*sigh*

Eventually she let the empty shell drop once more, arranged so prettily upon the crimson painted grass and turned back to Sylvain. He was pale, trembling from still being in her mere presence she imagined with a very faint smile. And the blood flowing freely down his arm gave her the same thrill of that of the two anonymous agents as she slaughtered them without regret.

She approached him slowly and knelt down, tearing a wide strip off her skirt which exposed yet more of her milky thighs and the tiny splatters of scarlet which marred them.

"Oh darling she made such a mess of you...." Delilah remarked, a note of sympathy seeping into her voice as she prised his arm from where he held it close to his chest and set about bandaging it as best she could.

"We did it though...hmm, showed them and now the reward is ours."

She couldn't help but grin, her eyes focusing rather too intently upon his wound and mind filled with thoughts of how beautiful it was.

The wait in the bridgehouse was really ticking Hannelore off. Jen had quietly dozed off to sleep, leaving Hannelore on sole guard duty, the muzzle of her weapon just barely poking out from one of the windows in case one of the enemy should drop by. The door was firmly locked - no-one could get in, but Hannelore was taking no chances.

Jen started to snore. Jesus Christ, thought Hannelore, this is meant to be the future of our young people? A girl so laid back as to fall asleep when carnage is breaking out in our immediate vicinity? She was half tempted to leave her there and go after Harvey, re-write the script - after all, she'd never forget what the soldiers did to her back at the HQ and scarred her pretty face.

From her vantage point beneath the window she could just see one of the giant video screens. She'd seen Park's gory death, and Ami's slow agonising one. Nothing, of course, either of them hadn't deserved, though for Ami's death she did feel a slight twinge of... regret? Maybe not, that was probably too strong a word, but surely no-one deserved to die like that. But then, Hannelore had been getting away with murder for, well, years now, so much so that she felt impervious, and maybe a chase for the ultimate prize, Harvey, was now possible...

But for now, she sat and waited, stagnating and desperate to get into some action. It surely couldn't be long until the GZ was over now, and then it could be back to business...

The Group Zone is now over!

Excellent work, my little chums. But before you go, it's just occurred to me that I haven't played any tricks on you in, ooh, about twenty minutes, and this one is so good...

I just got wood...

A couple of my operatives will soon be visiting you... and I might come along for the ride. Olley! Harbud! Bathe! With me.

The gates are still shut and electrified. You cannot leave until I've had my fun... except for you, Haddington - you can leave, but without your little froggy friend.

From the northern end of the zone, a convoy of three amphibious Russian Army PT-76 tanks rumbled in through the gates, which were shut behind them by the heavily-armed goons guarding them. Harvey led them, standing out of the turret waving a rocket launcher with gusto.

"Onward!" he yelled, indulging in his secret Shakespearean fantasy, "The game's afoot: Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge cry God for Harvey, The Regime, and the Great Leader! Let's go skullf*ck some f*ckers!"

Harvey's slimy voice, amplified over the tanoy caused Paul's head to jerk itself alert. He had started to doze while keeping an eye on his bait. A short while had passed since the explosion, and now Natsume was looking frustratingly alert. Paul had decided to keep his distance, he could still keep an eye on the little Jap, and he was fairly sure Natsume was unaware of his presence.

"A couple of my operatives will soon be visiting you... and I might come along for the ride. Olley! Harbud! Bathe! With me."

Paul's lips curled into a smirk, payday. Hopefully Natsume would keep Harvey's pet hounds busy long enough for Paul to ram his bayonet up Harvey's sickening ass.

The ground beneath his feet rumbled. Paul looked around, confused. He eventually spied the convoy of heavy tanks making their way into the compound. His face turned deathly white. The f*cker could quite easily wipe out all the survivors in that thing without picking up a scratch. Paul was really missing not getting that grenade launcher now, he doubted a molotov would even chip the paint off one of those monstrosities.

He saw Harvey sitting on top of the lead tank, grinning like an idiot and screaming some utter b*llocks at the top of his lungs. If he stays up there, and Natsume keeps him distracted, a molotov might take the c*nt. It seemed to be Paul's only chance to get vengeance against the slimy bastard. For now, he just had to bide his time and see how Harvey decided to make good on his promise for Natsume.

As he heard Harvey's over-excited announcement and the growling rumble of the tanks, Sylvain's eyes bugged almost out of his skull.

Because Delilah had killed the agents and won the Grand Prize, she could go... but without him. If he tried to leave, his necklace would be activated.

His mind was in a whirl, partially from blood loss, but mainly in a tidal wave of new anguish. His breath caught in his chest and he could barely breathe at all, his lungs rattling in the cage of his ribs. All he could think was "She's going without me... she's going to leave me behind, I'm no use to her any more with my injured hand, and I can't even go into the Danger Zones with her... that's the end of me, she'll probably just kill me right now and have done with it..."

Hot, bitter tears welled up in his eyes and he couldn't stop shaking. He gently moved out of her embrace, arms around himself with his damaged hand pressed to his chest, and thought he might welcome death right now... rather than the alternative, which would be that Delilah and he would have to go after each other after all...

Delilah's grubby hand shot out and her fingers curled round Sylvain's collar, wrenching him back into her arms before he could even begin to form a protest in his addled mind.

He tone was stuck somewhere between petulant and furious, loaded with an unhealthy dose of regret for the decision she was now forced to make.

"...sweetheart...you'll understand hm?...it has to be done."

Her arms around him were tightly wound, like the grip of a horrible serpent who still contemplated whether to play with it's prey or just end the suffering right now.

"Would you rather it were someone else who finished the job?" She asked softly, lowering her lips to brush over his cheek in vile mockery of the intimate moments they'd shared.

"Or should the one who loves you share her gift...she promises it will not hurt."

Her answer came as no surprise to the French boy. She was an utter monster. If Sylvain himself had psychotic tendencies, she was a complete psychopath. He had been a fool to credit her with any kind of human emotionality whatsoever.

He allowed himself a few moments to gather the remaining threads of his composure. He felt lucky that he had not been under any illusions about what the outcome of Harvey's announcement would be, otherwise the resulting shock could well have shattered his fragile psyche beyond repair.

Sylvain pressed his injured hand to his chest, placed his good hand on the small of her back, and closed his eyes briefly, the tears drying before they even had a chance to escape. Consumed with utter rage and betrayed fury, he murmured sweetly, "T'es un mauvais, mauvais monstre... c'est a chier. Je prendrai mes chances avec les soldats foutus. Connasse, je vais te voir a l'enfer*.

Then, with the last of his remaining strength, he appeared to embrace her, but he gave himself the best chance of escape that he could. Using his hand on her back as leverage, he kneed her as hard as he could in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her hard enough to be able to fling her on the ground.

Before she could have a chance to react, he ran away as fast as he could... but he wouldn't have been surprised if she had taken a pot-shot at his retreating figure and tried to add her ex-slave to her death toll. Shooting people in the back would be very much her style. She was amoral, inhuman, and didn't care how she won - so long as she won.

His breath burned in his chest, and he knew he didn't have the strength to make it very far if she came after him... but he would rather die quietly from blood loss than have her sacrifice him so she could survive.

(* translation: "You are an evil, evil monster.... I don't give a shit any more. I'm gonna take my chances with the f**king soldiers. I'll see you in hell, bitch.")

"Delonge! Watch out! I'm coming to get you first!"

Harvey's voice boomed around the arena, as if it had been amplified one hundred times over. A strange hush grabbed the crowd, and all that could be heard was the principal's voice still echoing through the hills above the roaring of three tank engines.

As the phalanx approached Devon's position, Harvey ordered six of his footsoldiers out of the tanks, two to protect him and another four to do his dirty work. Although by this stage Devon was running, still the soldiers managed to surround him, the GPS tracking doing its job.

"Now, Delonge, what am I going to do with you then?"

The Canadian's pace slowed from a desperate sprint to a dejected shuffle in the space of a few seconds and when he realised he was completely surrounded he stopped completely.

So they'd caught him, on the verge of collapsing from sheer exhaustion as the high of that cocktail of drugs he'd pumped himself full of in the hotel scant hours ago wore off. But in a way at least this was a small victory.

All the time he'd been running it was in the opposite direction to where he knew Bukiyo still sat huddled by the body of his dead lover waiting in vain for him to wake up and lead them to some kind of salvation. Maybe their former principal...the monster that he was would still find Kyo, but now he had bought the little Japanese boy a few extra minutes.

Holding up his skateboard in surrender he called out, "Whatever the f**k you like I guess. You know I'm unarmed....easy pickings sir. So just get it over with cos I'm not going to give you a good show."

With a muted thud he sat down and crossed his legs, resting his precious skateboard upon his knees and watched the dead-eyed, uncaring circle of men close in.

"Bit of a boring end to all this if you ask me sir...I mean if you finish us all off right now then who's that bitch of yours gonna kill?"

He punctuated his words with a yawn and waited for Harvey's inevitably sarcastic response.

"Olley, Harbud... bring him to me."

The two roughnecks grabbed Devon from behind, locking his arms behind his back and lifted him bodliy towards Harvey, dragging his feet on the ground behind him. Dev put up a token struggle, but in reality knew what was coming and thought there was really little point in fighting the inevitable.

"For those of you using our interactive service and watching Devcam, I'm afraid service is about to be broken. Please retune to another stream - that one, for example" Harvey intoned, pointing at a camera crew that had appeared from the second tank. "Switch off his collar cam, please, Mr Director."

As Devon drew closer to Harvey, he was pushed onto his knees and was dumped, still being held, at Harvey's feet. Harvey gave Delonge a sneering, contemptuous look of ultimate power and cruelty.

"It's a shame, in a way Delonge, that it's come to this. I always thought you were far too... good-looking... to be involved in an exercise like this. But remember, as far as you’re concerned, I’m God. I can allow you the gift of life, or I can take that gift away."

Devon shuddered. The end must be close now if Harvey was saying his catchphrase.

"You thought you could out me on national TV? Try to humiliate me in front of my adoring public? Look at them! They know I'm queer as f**k - they don't care! I'm so powerful, I'm allowed to be queer. And if I'm queer, I think you should pay me the proper respect."

Harvey slowly unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned and unzipped his lame trousers and allowed them to fall to his feet. Then he seized Devon by the hair and thrust his face into his naked groin, allowing the now struggling but still restrained Canadian to smell the disgusting rank odour of sweat, piss and talcum powder.

"If you don't suck me off right now, Delonge, I'm going to piss all over you before I kill you."

Devon tried to struggle, retching while Harvey's cock was pressed against his face.

"No...? Oh well. It's not like I didn't warn you."

A warm stream of yellow liquid fountained over Devon's face. Simultaneously, Harvey made a signal to the lead tank and, as he was thrown to the ground by Harvey, Devon heard the familiar click-hiss as the needle in his collar punctured his jugular.

As he felt a chill run through his body, unco-operative limbs rapidly being intoxicated with the coying numbness of the lethal fluid now coursing through his veins Devon raised his head from the yielding soil beneath him.

Harvey's fetid stench dripped from his pallid features, already suffused into his pores despite the scant moments since his barbaric act. The only true regret he had was not for himself, but the others who'd died by this monster's hand and for the ones who still played his game willingly or not.

Especially Bukiyo and Jennifer whom in his own small way he'd wanted to protect, yet ended up failing them both because of his uncontrollable emotions. He never thought he'd thank the drugs for anything, but at least they'd reined in what eventually proved to be his undoing.

Now he could only hope that the end came swiftly or not at all for them both.

With monumental effort he managed to pull himself into a sitting position, the urge to vomit brought on by Harvey's foul ministrations having all but passed in a strangely calming acceptance that now was his time. And no amount of shouting, running or placing blame would change that fact.

Pushing his sodden, stinking bangs back from his forehead he gave their former principal an almost rueful smile. Not that it would matter or invoke the man's compassion if he had any left at all, but Devon was far beyond caring what Harvey or anyone thought of him right now.

"You're right sir I am too good-looking for this crap, but I gave it my best shot..."

The corners of his vision wavered, fading almost entirely to darkness and he shook his head, a wave of rank droplets splattering the grass.

Each word was a struggle now, but they had to be said, even if no one was really listening.

"...I'm just sad...I...I..couldn't be there to see Courtney rip you to shreds..."

With a final choked exhalation he slumped backwards, staring sightlessly up at the sky and caught somewhere between glad and disappointed for the release death granted.

Student #10 Devon Delonge dead - 6 to go.

Sometimes, when a man's got to go, he's got to go...

Listen up, maggots!

The zone's nearly done... Delonge is done now, I've just got one more disgusting piece of toilet paper to wipe my arse on.

Natsume, are you listening?

You'd better get ready to suck dick. I mean, the point of killing you now is a bit moot, seeing your boyfriend - always the moral equivalent of a used condom - has been snuffed out.

Actually, I feel like I might need a number two quite soon... I'd get your toothbrush ready if I were you, Natsume!

To the tanks, men! Let's find that slag!

Paul's lip curled in distaste at Devon's death. He hadn't liked the kid, but using the collar like that was so damn cowardly. The fact Harvey had the same power over Paul didn't give him any comfort.

The rumbling sinalled the tanks were on the move again. Paul had positioned himself a few feet directly behind Natsume and the tanks were now headed in this direction.

Harvey was in the lead, his hatch was open and he was once again grinning like an idiot and waving his rocket launcher like a lucky lotto ticket. The rumbling increased, they were getting closer.

Paul sighed, now was a good a time as any. He gripped the match between sweat-soaked fingers and ignited it against the box. His face was lit by a hellish glow as the homemade rag-fuse was lit. Taking a final deep breath, he broke cover and ran for the tank.

He had covered a fair distance before Harvey saw him, too busy showboating to the crowd. With an inhuman screech, Paul wound his arm back and hurled the molotov.

Harvey fumbled with his rocket launcher. His mocking grin was replaced by a frown. For all his showing off, the dumb b*stard had forgotten to take the safety off.

Paul laughed as the bottle decended towards the open hatch, a bright orange trail following the graceful arc.

Harvey didn't see the petrol bomb until it was almost too late. That damned rocket launcher - he was much better with close quarters weapons - always had been since Good Citizen Training Camp back when he was 12 - he should've known there was a f*cking safety on it.

He watched as the bottle approached, in slow motion. He was like a rabbit in headlights, alarmed but unable to move, right up until the last minute when instinct kicked in. As he ducked down and tried to swing the turret door shut behind him, the molotov hit him square on the top of the head. Screaming in pain - not from the fire, but from the substantial thwack the thing gave to his head as it shattered, instinct kicked in again as he leapt out from the tank, at once trying to bat out the flames on his head without realising that the petrol had covered his entire lower body, engulfing it in flame.

Jumping to the ground, Harvey realised he was in serious trouble. He dropped and rolled on the grass, desperately trying to extinguish the blaze, just like his training told him. The pain was starting to get bad now. His hair had gone, he wasn't sure how well his eyes were working and his skin had melted from his face, leaving a raw, oozing blackened mush. His clothes had been burned off, showing a lean but now charred, blistered and reddening torso underneath. His left arm felt like it wasn't fully functional. His gold lame trousers had simply melted into his flesh, making his decision not to put on underpants this morning a poor one.

As he lay writhing on the floor, he could feel the soldiers around him panicking. They'd always been used to him as invulnerable, unimpeachable, impervious, invincible, but to see their leader there, half-dead, on the carefully manicured lawns of Bowood was something they had not been prepared for. With a gargantuan effort, he tried to pull himself to his feet to give them instructions for what to do now, not least to stick around and defend him.

"You come back here or I'll have your f*cking balls, and I'll eat them cold off a f*cking plate in front of you!" His voice was a horrible, bubbling growl as the smoke from the fire of his own body destroyed his voicebox.

The frightened soldiers simply bolted in all directions, some not even getting back into the tanks. The tank drivers simply drove away, leaving the stragglers scattering into the undergrowth. As Gilbert, Farmer and their comrades disappeared into the trees, Harvey, with what little eyesight he had left, could see Paul Courtney coming towards him at speed.

"I'll f*cking kill you! I'll f*cking kill you! I'll f*cking kill you! I'll f*cking kill you! I'll f*cking kill you! I'LL F*CKING KILL YOU!" he screamed, all semblance of control now gone. But the fire had taken too much, and the strength gifted to him by his psychotic fury now faded all at once, and he collapsed to his knees in front of the grinning teenager.

The bayonet was already drawn by the time Paul reached the charred mess that the principal had become. Without breaking stride, Paul kicked him in the face, making him land heavily on his back. Paul crouched, the bayonet was thrust at ground level, lightly skimming the grass before stabbing upwards just below Harvey's blistered scrotum.

Dark arterial blood spat up Paul's forearm. Harvey's screams drowned out by his own hysterical laughter. Adrenaline surged through Paul's body. He didn't feel a thing as Harvey's wild thrashing managed to leave scratchmarks down his face. Crimson streaks opened up on Paul's left cheek. One missing his eye by a centimetre, he was past caring. He wrenched the bayonet out as quickly as it had gone in, Harvey's hands instinctively reaching down to cover the mess beneath. Paul took the opening and once again plunged the blade, this time down toward the principal's abdomen.

Both of Paul's hands gripped the hilt as he pulled the sharp steel through the thick meat of Harvey's stomach, warm blood covered his hands and forearms, Harvey's screams hit fever pitch and then subsided into short ragged breaths. His hands reaching upwards to try and stop his guts spilling out.

Paul dragged the blade free. He was breathing heavily, the sight of the principal in this ruined state brought on a fresh giggling fit.

Out of the corner of his eye, Paul noticed somethig glinting. Leaving Harvey bleeding on the grass, he went for a closer look. It was a sharp piece of glass from the molotov. He had an idea, glancing back at the pathetic principal, Paul grinned and picked up the glass.

"You are a f*cking mess aint ya faggot?" Paul sneered as he made his way back to Harvey. "You can try keeping your insides in all day if you like, I don't think this low rent f*cking show can afford good enough doctors to sort your sh*t out now!" Paul's speech was practically unintelligable through the maniacal giggling that accompanied it. "Hurts though, don't it? It'll prbably take you the rest of the day for your sorry ass to expire if i just leave you like this." He dropped the glass onto Harvey's charred chest, somewhat disappointed that it didn't stick in. His face straightened, the laughter stopped. "If you've got the balls, you can make it a bit quicker with that." Paul crouched down, his words scarcely above a whisper. "Don't get me wrong though you sick f*ckin' faggot, this aint mercy, your pain is far from over. Leon will be waiting for you."

With that, Paul stood up and faced the hushed crowd "Nobody f*cks with the Courtneys, lesson learned" He yelled. "Game over f*ckwads, p*ss off!" He snapped them a mock salute and walked off to recover his bag.

With the principal's death, the game may well be over, but there was still some hunting to be done.

Paul's attack on Harvey had whipped the crowd into a still deeper frenzy. In the stands, the noise had almost become intolerable and the stewards tried in vain to keep people in their seats. People were climbing over each other to get closer to the action, to get down to the fence. In the family enclosure, Park's father saw an opportunity. He grabbed the microphone Harvey had used to address the crowd with when he gave Hannelore the M-16, switched it on, and addressed the crowd.

"Listen to me! Harvey's dead! Our hero is dead! They killed him, the little c***'s killed him! Let's get them! Kill them! Kill the traitors!"

A massive cheer went up and the torrent of bodies flowing towards the fence became even stronger. Someone, somewhere got in the way and there was a massive bang and arc of electricity in the sky as the fence fused. The smell of fried pig got stronger for a second, and then, slowly, the fence started to sway as the weight of people against it reached critical mass. Once one section, in the middle of the western side, had fallen, the domino effect meant that within a minute the entire fence had gone. A tsunami of angry, vengeful spectators flooded into the arena, determined to find the contestants and rip them limb from limb for what they did to their idol.

Over the tannoy, a stoic voice made an announcement. "Execute scenario Elephant Sweep. I repeat, execute scenario Elephant Sweep".

The soldiers - the ones that were staying loyal, anyway, knew what this meant. They had to evacuate the contestants from the arena as swiftly as possible. In the chaos, this would be difficult, but for the GPS devices and tranquilizer guns each carried. Hannelore, of course, knew what the command meant, or at least had a good idea.

"Jen" she said "wait here. You'll be safe here. Don't worry about me, you'll see me in a bit. Use the rifle if you need to - but I need to take the M16." She kissed her on the cheek. "Stay safe, hon. And remember - on no account leave this guardhouse, and make sure you stay out of view. Lock the door behind me."

As Hannelore exited the gatehouse she could see spectators spilling out form the sides of the arena, running around rather aimlessly, looking for their prey. She had to move fast. She could guess where Harvey was, she'd had a message on her PDA to get there fast, and she needed to make her move swiftly. Keeping low, she sprinted down the zone. Around half-way down, a rabid, screaming spectator stood in her way, determined to not let her past. It was clear from the look in his eyes he wanted more than just to stop her, too.

"Oh just f*ck off, will you?" she sighed boredly as she aimed the rifle and fired, still running. As the spectator fell, she jumped over him, his life too cheap to stop her in her pursuit of Harvey.

She found Harvey roughly where she thought he was. He wasn't dead yet by any means, but had the glass shard in his hand.

"Do it, you bitch." His voice was all but destroyed, coming out in a rasping hiss from his charred lungs.

"Shut the f*ck up Harvey. Just shut up." She aimed the M16 matter-of-factly at his head, and fired. His head exploded as though he had a bomb in his skull, through the sheer force of the firepower. The charge had set light to his skin again, and his melted fat stank and dripped into the grass. Calmly, Hannelore reached into an inside pocket, grabbed a cigarette, and lit it from Harvey's flaming torso.

Hannelore sat, and waited. She knew the soldiers would get to her before the spectators. As she felt the tranquilizer dart enter her neck, she knew the same fate would befall all the students, and that they, at least, would be safe.

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