The Adaptive Game

"STICK TO THE TEAM"

- Conner

I feel fine. No stomachache, and the hazelnut spread tastes good.

I'm laughing, with my friends.

The brown haired girl? Her name is Emilia. She's the cashier from before. She's here with me.

Buck is here, too. He needs money as much as I do.

Buck's friend Eddie is here. He's here to win.

An older guy, Fernando knows just about anybody here.

The complaining guy from before is Gavin Grizz, with his pregnant wife Kimmy Coizz who both need money to support their baby, or yeet it.

The kid who just got killed was Tyler. He had not much in his life but put his energy into making others better.

Jarred has a gang of his own with many henchmen backing him up. You might think he prefers brawn over brains, but he has lots of both.

From everyone we have, we could get pretty far in this game without getting killed.

Hopefully.

"Hey, Conner!"

I look up and see.

Oh my god it's Vector.

"Look, I didn't expect to see you here. I don't have any money to pay you, I'll-"

"Shut up. You're here to get money so you can pay me back. Put that aside for now, okay?"

"Right."

"Anyway, this is David, he's in the medical profession."

"Hi." He does a little wave.

"And this is Shaun. He's in the Human Resource Department of Cincinnati Trust Stocks."

"Hey there."

"We're looking for more people because we heard the next challenge is a group challenge. It'll help to have more people."

I cross my arms.

"Alright, I'll let you join MY team. We were just talking about getting more people."

Buck taps on my shoulder.

"Hey, you know it might not be smart to take EVERYONE we find?"

"Don't worry. Vector is a tough guy. Everything helps."

Vector grabs Emilia by the shoulder.

"Why is there a kid here? How old is she, like..."

Emilia turns and shoves him back around 3 metres.

"YOU THOUGHT I WAS A KID?! I'M 23!"

"Wow, holy shit! 23 years old and this short?-"

Emilia draws a backhand, locked and loaded but I stop her before we get another coffin.

"Don't... just keep cool."

Instead of sitting back down, she starts to walk away from the group.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving the group! I don't want any part in this."

"Come on. The next game is going to start. We can still work this out, just stick to the team."