13 people left. If you take away Crystal and I, that leaves just 11 people. Two on blue, nine on red. Crystal was beginning to get giddy with excitement, she really must want to do well at this physical examination. Although I didn't want to die, I really didn't have a reason to try so hard but I would feel bad if I left it all to Crystal.

"Charlie, let's go and take out red before they get blue!"

"Why?" I'm puzzled at her proposition.

"A two Vs. two sounds fun, doesn't it?

"I guess..."

"Why so gloomy? You were only just coming out of your shell earlier."

"Not gloomy, tired."

"Tired?"

"Yeah, I haven't slept in god knows how long.” I really didn’t know how long it had been but I still didn’t feel like asking the ghastly help menu. Don’t get me wrong, it was helpful but the damn snarky comments really get me on the edge. “This game really messes with my perception of time."

"If you're finding it this bad now, I can only imagine the look on your face when you log off and the sky doesn't correlate with your perception of time. Major jet-lag."

"Oh god, you're right." I basically collapse at this point. I never heard a single negative thing about this game before trying it, but it really was terrible if you stop and think about it. I have to be missing something that caused so many people to play this damn game 24/7.

"Let's save blue." I continue our conversation topic from earlier, I can't stay unmotivated forever.

******

“Crystal, almost there!”

“I’m not blind, Charlie!” She had been getting more and more confident lately. I didn’t necessarily dislike it but it was still funny to watch her complain and bicker at me.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure you can see with those slit-like Asian eyes?” I jokingly say. She’s clearly not impressed but she can’t stay mad at me as I watch her mouth quiver at the corners and quickly turn into a smile.

“Yeah yeah, you idiot.”

“That hurts my feelings.” I motion to wipe away a tear at the corner of my eye only to realise I was using my left hand. I freak out for a second, jumping up a little bit. I could have sworn this was reality and my arm had actually came back for a second. Crystal is just looking at me and laughing like a maniac as we both continue running towards red.

“Charlie, won’t they be expecting us from the outside?”

“You’re right, it didn’t even occur to me.” She beats me again with her wits,

“Why don’t we come from the one place they won’t be expecting us to come from?”

“And where would that be, Crystal?”

“The middle!” She’s right! The middle of all the teams might sound like a bad idea but it really wasn’t. Everyone was simply going around the outsides of the triangle. The center might actually be even safer than the outside.

“You can be really smart sometimes.”

“What do you mean sometimes?” I can almost feel the killing intent roll of her tongue. I should honestly never attempt a stupid joke like that ever again, I won’t live to 20 if I keep it up.

“Erm, nothing.” I shut up at this point as we both turn left halfway through the gap to the middle red wall and we run through the center territory. It truly was no man's land.

After running for about a minute we still haven’t seen signs of anyone and it was really quite refreshing. I felt a lot safer in the middle of everything than the outside where everyone was.

“Charlie, that’s the middle red wall there!”

“Alright, is it going to be me or you that checks for the enemy?”

“You of course.”

“Oh. Well, okay.” I didn’t think she’d be so quick to delegate the task to someone else. We both stop running and Crystal grabs a grenade from her pocket, our last grenade might I add. If this plan goes to shit we’re screwed.

Peering around the wall trying to remain undetected I mentally begin crying. 6 people, they all have a goddamn grenade each and they are in a hexagonal shape of sorts. What the fuck are we supposed to do? Quickly hiding back behind the wall I turn to Crystal with a serious face.

“Put simply, 6 people, separated so one grenade can’t take them out and lastly they all have a damn grenade.” Crystal immediately gets what I was getting at.

“I thought it was odd that Howard and Marcus didn’t have a grenade on them.” What does she mean?

“They must freaked out when we saw them not because they didn’t have grenades but because they were planning on leading us back here into a death trap!” Now that she mentions it, it makes complete sense, “We appeared on the side they were planning to run back on, they had no choice but to blindly run away from us towards the blue base.”

“I guess the red team wasn’t a bunch of idiots in the end, right?”

“Yeah, It’s surprising that they came up with a semi-decent plan.” I nod my head at Crystals statement, she is basically parroting my thoughts. We need to somehow overcome this hexagon while not being discovered.

“Crystal, we somehow need to trick the reds into getting close enough that our last grenade can disable or hopefully, take them all out. Any ideas?”

“None in particular, we can try baiting again if we can’t come up with anything.”

“I don’t necessarily like the whole bait plan to begin with but if we have to, I suppose.” It was really how I felt, I didn’t want a repeat of the whole ‘Crystal three quarters dead on the ground’ scenario.

We had settled on the bait plan… It wasn’t exactly how I planned though. I was the fucking bait this time! It will be me three quarters dead on the ground! I don’t even know why I bothered worrying about her, any other man would have noticed this would happen a while back.

“Charlie, listen carefully. Do not go out in the opening, simply make noises then hide back behind the wall. They’ll be confused and check it out while I approach from the other side and take them out. Without formation, they’re nothing!”

“Crystal, I really don’t think this is going to work. They’re not NPC’s. They won’t just investigate the noises and lose formation. I can’t really argue with you though, we don’t have anything else.” Crystal really was getting the hang of strategy and it was quite impressive, really, I just didn’t feel so confident with her plan.

“Too bad, deal with it.” She was really getting overly confident lately.

With her tiny hands she motions to move out and with that, the plan begins.

***Perspective Change***

“Leaf, how many grenades do we have left?!” We were well and truly fucked.

“Elizabeth, we only have two!”

“Shit. Pass me one, there has to be at least five people at the red wall across the gap!”

“How the fuck did that Charlie kid and Crystal take out our entire fucking team?!” Leaf was right, it really was hard to believe, maybe they were both some kind of Game Master or something.

“I don’t know, Leaf. It doesn’t matter though because unless a miracle happens we’re fucking dead anyway.”

“You’re right, cover me. We’ll head further into our territory so that they can’t take us by surprise.”

“Alright, I hope this works…”

It was Leaf and Elizabeth, the last two sole survivors of the blue team. Elizabeth previously took out Scott and John when they got too close to the wall. It was quite simple really, Scott had a grenade, John had two. Scott threw the grenade taking out Riley, Zach and Tiffany. Riley, Zach and Tiffany were with Leaf and Elizabeth at the time but they didn’t dive for cover as the grenade soared over the wall. The only thing wrong was that they were only on the offensive not focusing on defense.

As soon as John threw his last grenade they had no grenades left and Elizabeth simply threw one of her two grenades over the wall, taking them out. Leaf hardly even had time to relax afterwards because they didn’t know if more reds were on their way.

It was really quite terrifying if you think about it, a game with only grenades. The only things you can hope for are a quick sweet death without even seeing it coming or to not encounter anyone else at all.

“Leaf, let’s go.” Elizabeth began, “Before we can’t…”

Leaf and Elizabeth began a steady sprint towards the middle of the blue territory. This was truly their last hope. 11 Vs. 2, just how would anyone expect them to last any longer?

“Elizabeth, we need to hurry up!” Leaf began, he was really starting to get on my nerves, “Red could send people over any moment!”

“I’m running as fast as I can, Leaf!”

“It’s not fast enough!”

“Shut it, before I shut you.” Dammit, In my anger I made a threat that didn’t even make sense. I consider taking it back or correcting it but it would make me seem less serious. Leaf’s red eyes were eyeing me with what appeared to be a mocking taunt, making fun of my anger fueled mistake of a sentence. He really was an asshole and I’d pay him back as soon as I didn’t need him. Sadly, that wasn’t now.

Having crossed the gap and arrived at the next wall we prepared for an onslaught from Red’s side. Nothing,

“This is odd.” I silently agree with Leaf, he may be an asshole but at least he’s perceptive.

“Maybe they thought it was better to take out the nameless team? They might not consider us a threat.” I voice my internal thoughts just in case Leaf might have anything to add, he doesn’t. Leaf just silently nodded after I had finished the sentence. Alright then, what should we do? Maybe Leaf knows?

“Leaf, any idea what we should do?”

“Not a clue, we could just wait it out?” He paused for a second before continuing, “Someone will find us eventually.”

“You’re right!” I realised what we could do at this point, “It would be much more advantageous if we stayed still and made the others come to us, right?”

“Wow, Elizabeth. That’s really unexpected coming from you,” Leaf appeared to consider against finishing his sentence, “I mean, you’re blonde after all.” Leaf starts giggling like a schoolgirl. Time to teach this bastard some manners and how to treat a lady.

*Slap*

“Ouch, that fucking hurt.” Leaf whined like a little bitch.

“Good. It was supposed to.”

“You’re more manly than me and it’s not even a compliment.”

*Slap*

“Two for two.” Nothing more needed to be said. We both sat down against the wall, still both having a grenade each. “Leaf, why do you have red eyes anyway?” It was really starting to bug me.

“Why do you have purple eyes, Elizabeth?”

“Because they’re fucking cute and you know it.” I begin, “Many stronger willed men have tried to resist me and failed.”

“Why would I need to even attempt to resist a manly pig?”

*slap counter 3*

“That one really hurt, besides, red eyes look fucking bad-ass. Does anything more need to be said?”

“Why would a schoolgir- guy like you need to look bad-ass?”

“School what?”

“Nothing, it’s not important.” He doesn’t need to know about his little nickname just yet.

“Elizabeth, we should really focus on th-” Leaf was cut off abruptly.

“Annalise, look, they’re fighting like a loving couple.”

“Wow! You’re right, so cute!”

“Calm down guys, we’ll settle this properly.”

Before Leaf and Elizabeth stood a man with short blonde hair, muscly arms and legs, and an obnoxious smirk. He looked like he belonged in the military. This young man was known as Max and he came first in the run overall. Beside him was a girl in her early 20’s which Max had referred to as Annalise. Nothing really stood out about her in particular except she seemed to have a royal air and put everyone below her, put simply, a fucking bitch. I disliked her kind the most more than the arrogant sporty kind Max most likely was. Lastly, the person that had attempted to calm down the two, was known as Rex. Rex was an overly mysterious person. He had only said a few words during the entire run and had steered clear of mostly everyone, except these two jackasses though. Rex was tall and had blue hair for some odd reason, just because you can alter your appearance doesn’t mean you should do something like make your hair blue. He was probably the only one out of this group of reds that I didn’t have a solid reason to outright hate.

Leaf and I had jumped to our feet as soon as they appeared and got into a position to run but knew better than to start running when the opponent had grenades that exploded on contact. Leaf and I had no idea how Charlie, or whatever his name was, even managed to return a grenade that had been thrown at him as it should have exploded on his hand.

*booom*

I just heard a faint boom in the distance.

Update!

Crystal just killed a distracted enemy!

Clever!

23 down, 11 remaining. Red has 7 members left!

Confirmed dead:April - RedEthan - RedMarcus - RedHoward - RedJustin - RedHayden - RedMatthew - RedScott - RedJohn - RedZach - BlueRiley - BlueTiffany - BlueCameron - BlueEric - BlueStephen - BlueJose - BluePaul - BlueDebra - BlueChristina - BlueElenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - Blue

The three reds seem a bit confused but it passes quickly. Only a few moments later,

*boooom*

Another soft boom from the distance.

Update!

Crystal just killed more distracted enemies!

How does this even work?

27 down, 7 remaining. Red has 3 members left!

Confirmed dead:Victoria - RedHaylee - RedMichael - RedJade - RedApril - RedEthan - RedMarcus - RedHoward - RedJustin - RedHayden - RedMatthew - RedScott - RedJohn - RedZach - BlueRiley - BlueTiffany - BlueCameron - BlueEric - BlueStephen - BlueJose - BluePaul - BlueDebra - BlueChristina - BlueElenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - Blue

Max, Rex and Annalise all sigh, like they had expected as much. They were literally the last three people on their team but they didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.

If only Leaf and I hadn’t distracted each other before, we could have prevented running into them and the rest of the shit about to go down, from happening. Blue really had no chance of surviving unless we got lucky. Maybe we should just do a suicide attack? No, I don’t even have the guts for something like that. I didn’t even need to mention that Princess Leaf absolutely didn’t.

***Perspective Change: A little bit back in time.***

“April, what the fuck do we do?” I was beginning to feel incredibly nervous. Marcus and Howard had met an unpleasant end at the hands of Charlie and Crystal, the salients. No one was really sure what to do at this point and we had all turned to April as she was basically next in command after Howard and Marcus.

“I’m not entirely sure, Ethan.” She looked a bit stressed out that we were all falling back on her. She wiped some sweat off her forehead onto her arm before continuing, “Victoria, Michael, Jade and Haylee. Don’t move and stay in formation. Ethan and I are going to quickly discuss a plan.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got this.”

“Easy.”

“Alright.”

“Just don’t get us killed…”

They all seemed to have mixed views but I didn’t blame them.

Leaving the formation I head over towards April as she does the exact same thing. Meeting about halfway she starts explaining her thoughts.

“Alright, Ethan. Here’s what I’m thinking,” She begins before sighing slightly, “We should just stick with the original plan, if we stay in the hexagon formation then no one will be able to take us out in one go.”

“April! Don’t tell me that you mean that we should sacrifice one or two of us?!?”

“We don’t have a choice, Ethan. With Howard and Marcus gone we don’t have any way of leading people into the hexagon. They’ll see us first and we’ll lose one or two people but we’ll still win in the end.” I am slightly upset that I can’t counter her proposal and just nod with an upset expression.

“Alright, let’s do this.” She’s finished with me and we begin walking back to our respective positions.

“Everyone,” April announces, “We will continue to stay in formation and wait for their approach, understood?” Everyone seems unsure of her decision, I decide to step in and help her.

“Guys, we have no other choice. This is the only way we can win.” It’s probably for the best we left the sacrifice part out.

“Fine.”

“If you really think so…”

“I get it.”

“We’ll be fine, right?”

I was satisfied because everyone finally agreed.

“Cacawww”

Hmm? What was that noise?

“Did anyone else hear that?” I ask out loud.

“Hear what?” April replied, seemingly annoyed. I wasn’t making a joke.

“Cacawwwww”

There it was again! “Surely you heard it this time, right?”

“Yeah, what was it?” It was Jade that had replied.

“I don’t know, are there even crows in here?” Victoria answered while creating another question.

“I don’t think so, one could have flown in from the surrounding forest, probably.” Michael stated, I did agree with him that one could have flown in but why hadn’t we seen any bird up until this point?

“I’ll go check it out.” And with that, Haylee started walking towards the bird noises coming from the other side of the wall. The others looked around at April and me and then back at Haylee and then seemingly decided that they’d rather be with her than us.

“”Wait for us!””

April face-palms as she realises just like that, the formation collapsed because of a damn bird. I’m a bit relieved that the tension had started fading but also a bit worried about the future implications it might have. The formation’s destroyed anyway so I head over to April, “We’re hopeless, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, It’s just a game though. Who cares?” Silently agreeing with her I stare at the others, watching them walk around the wall. All of the sudden, I feel a warm wind go over my body.

You have died!

There’s no birds in the arena! It was a trap!

Because you have died during the tutorial,

no penalties will be applied. However, you

may not re-spawn yet as the physical

testing phase is still in progress. When

it is complete you may re-spawn with

the rest of your group and receive your

results and resume.

Ffffuccckkk.

***Perspective Change***

*booom*

Update!

Crystal just killed a distracted enemy!

Clever!

23 down, 11 remaining. Red has 7 members left!

Confirmed dead:April - RedEthan - RedMarcus - RedHoward - RedJustin - RedHayden - RedMatthew - RedScott - RedJohn - RedZach - BlueRiley - BlueTiffany - BlueCameron - BlueEric - BlueStephen - BlueJose - BluePaul - BlueDebra - BlueChristina - BlueElenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - Blue

“April! Ethan!” They’re gone! What am I supposed to do now? Who’s suppose to lead us?

“What happened?!” Michael spoke up, confused.

"A trap? What do you think, Jade?" Haylee asked. I wasn't quite sure but...

"Maybe it's something to do with him?" I say. Everyone turning to the person of interest, they all have shocked expressions.

"Who? Me? No, it couldn't be." The young man had brown hair and silver eyes. They looked really cool.

"Who the fuck is that?!" This time it was Victoria, she seemed quite confused by this boy's sudden appearance.

"I could say the same..." Was all that he said. He smiled nonchalantly and then started walking away. We were all too shocked to do anything. A warm fuzzy feeling goes through my body as my vision fades.

You have died!

Why didn't you fight back?! He wasn't even armed!

Because you have died during the tutorial,

no penalties will be applied. However, you

may not re-spawn yet as the physical

testing phase is still in progress. When

it is complete you may re-spawn with

the rest of your group and receive your

results and resume.

Huh? What just happened? Where am I?

I died? How? He didn't have a grenade though...

***perspective change***

*boooom*

"Too easy, Crystal."

"I know. It's kind of odd."

Update!

Crystal just killed more distracted enemies!

How does this even work?

27 down, 7 remaining. Red has 3 members left!

Confirmed dead:Victoria - RedHaylee - RedMichael - RedJade - RedApril - RedEthan - RedMarcus - RedHoward - RedJustin - RedHayden - RedMatthew - RedScott - RedJohn - RedZach - BlueRiley - BlueTiffany - BlueCameron - BlueEric - BlueStephen - BlueJose - BluePaul - BlueDebra - BlueChristina - BlueElenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - Blue

"You're wrong, Charlie."

"Huh? About what?"

"NPC's, these guys were easier."

"You're lucky they're already dead, they'd want to die again if they heard that!"

***End of Chapter!***

I'm sorry guys! I was planning on wrapping it up this chapter but I decided to focus more on the other characters so that their parts later on make more sense. I hope you still enjoyed it though! See you all later!!! <3