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Kazumi sighed to herself, the empty street before her stood hauntingly silent, her footfalls echoing against the asphalt.
Five days in this land meant five days of confusion and danger. The four of hearts and two of spades cards in her left pocket and the swiss army knife in her right felt heavy, a mocking reminder that she still drew breath.
One day left and she'd lie as still as the city around her if she did nothing and she'd be damned if she let that happen.
Time for a game.
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Kazumi found her game in front of a large apartment building. She had paced back and forth for nearly fifteen minutes now, closely inspecting the looming building. It stood in an L shape, providing plenty of visibility from each apartment, an encouraging sight. At least she'd be able to see the danger coming, whatever it may be. Stubborn enough to not admit she was hesitating but determined enough to push forward she crossed the threshold, listening to the soft beep of the lasers preventing her from leaving.
Pacing out her breaths she stepped into the lobby, in which a few idle figures stood. She let her eyes intentionally draw over each of them. None of these people stood out to her, she doubted they'd live through this game. Better to not get close.
In the center of the lobby sat a table; several phones lay face up atop it. Kazumi strode over to grab one such phone, moving out of the way to the left side of the room. Glancing down at the newly attained item, the screen lit up displaying 5 minutes remaining until registration ended.
Kazumi felt a spike in her nerves watching the time count down until the game began. Waiting was always the worst part, now was when her anxiety would creep up her spine, threatening to pull her under.
'Breathe.'
She closed her eyes and tilted her head to the ceiling, relaxing her muscles.
'Breathe.'
For a moment she was thrust into the past, staring into a pair of cold gray eyes. The eyes stared back.
Her fist clenched and unclenched, as her face hardened into an unreadable expression, her eyes locked on the table of phones. Her turtleneck felt as if it were choking her but she willed herself to not adjust it, taming her worry from roaring waves into quiet ripples.
The soft beep of the laser and several sets of footfalls turned her eyes to the door, where three new players entered the room.
One skittish looking man with a headband holding his hair back followed a burly man with a buzzed head. Behind both of them walked in a light haired man in a gray zipped up hoodie.
The last man seemed to deliberately watch the few people already in the room, and once he took a phone of his own, quickly broke off from the first two men for a dark corner of the room. Only three minutes left.
More people filed in over the next minutes, entering to the scrutinizing gazes of Kazumi and the withdrawn man. With a minute left the last few stragglers stumbled in, including a lanky man with scraggly hair and his tall bleached blonde haired companion.
The last few seconds left on the time ebbed away before a chime sounded and registration was officially closed. Finally the game revealed itself.
Five of spades. Physical. 'Not the worst. It could have been a team game.' Then Kazumi might have been in trouble.
The screen displaying the card they'd be playing fell away, replaced by the name of the game, echoed by the audible announcement.
Tag, interesting. Kazumi turned to assess the reactions of her fellow players. A greasy looking man had taken to harassing the scraggly haired man and his friend, one girl had begun to stretch, the withdrawn man stood unbothered.
The broadcast spat out the rules of the game, being followed by the display on each phone. '20 minutes to find a safe zone or face death by explosion? Hopefully this won't take long.' Despite her unfazed thoughts she knew for the games of this land it was far too easy, there had to be some other component.
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Kazumi made her way up the stairs to the top floor. From what she saw of the building from her exploration earlier that would be the place with the most visibility. By the time she got there, the trio who entered together were already there, although they looked no more amiable than when they arrived. The man with the headband and the burly man left on their own, leaving the light haired man on his own at the end of the walkway, looking nonchalant.
Witnessing the whole interaction, Kazumi did not hesitate to make her way to the center of the other end of the apartments, away from the remaining man. Looking over the edge she could see the other players on the move. In her careful scan of the apartments she felt a pair of eyes on her, and couldn't help but glance upwards.
Just as she suspected the man with light hair was staring back. Kazumi held his stare, refusing to back down. The easy smile that he wore remained unchanged as he lifted one hand to wave. Kazumi furrowed her brows and frowned in confusion, but was cut off from responding at the sound of gunfire.
Whipping her head back around to the lower floors, the other players had begun to scatter but she still couldn't pinpoint where the shooting originated from. Waiting and watching in anticipation, Kazumi became painfully aware of the other's presence. Her eyes systematically scanned through each floor until the settled on a lone imposing figure in a horse head mask.
They stood a few floors down, gunning down any players that had the poor luck to end up in their path. They didn't seem to be heading for the upper floors, at least for the time being.
"They're finally on the move." Kazumi whispered as she watched some of the players on the lower floors pulled on the doors to the apartments in each of the safe zone, while others simply ran. Trying every door seemed pointless to her, there were very slim chances of finding the correct apartment in time. There had to be some sort of pattern.
On the other side of the building an unfortunate player tripped and was shot through the chest before he was able to regain his footing. The tagger turned towards the other side of the building, where Kazumi stood. Despite the obstructing mask, she could swear they were looking right at her. She paused as they didn't move, just staring. Suddenly the turned for the stairs, but instead of heading up to the top floor, they took the other staircase moving further down the building.
It was odd, for sure. And fairly hard evidence that the apartment they were looking for was nowhere near where she stood. Now she just had to narrow it down.
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