Finals

4: bullets of memory

Kalista's heart froze.

Breathing heavily in the oppressive darkness, she rested her head against the wall. Kaylee knew where she was. Kaylee knew what she was doing. Of course she would -- she knew her inside out, after all, just like Kalista could guess at Kaylee's every move.

It didn't matter. It changed nothing. Her plan was still perfect.

For there was one more function that she had control of.

Fingers steady, she turned on her phone and navigated to the security camera's emergency setting. She clicked on the video feed that showed a group of five, all in the same room. They were all some of her strongest competitors -- including Rayna from Cohort 2 and Yasmin from 4. They seemed to be sleeping. Rayna was on watch, twirling a knife idly around her middle finger.

Kalista breathed out, slow and silent.

She only had one chance at this. She had to use it well.

OBLITERATE?

YES.

ARE YOU SURE?

YES.

The resulting pops resounded throughout the school, and her phone buzzed five times.

This was a little-known setting in the school's security system, and she had found it when casually browsing around its programming. The Academy's students held some of the world's greatest secrets, and if the school was ever infiltrated by enemies, there were hidden guns in every room that could kill every occupant in seconds. This was her greatest weapon. She had thought about using it later in the game, but she had no idea if she would still have access to the system, and she couldn't risk letting Kaylee get to it first.

"I found something, Kay," whispered Kalista in the middle of the night.

Kaylee didn't respond.

"Kay..."

"You're nothing to me, remember?" came the muffled voice.

"What is this place?" Kalista murmured. "Kay, there was this thing... in the security system. These hidden machine guns in the walls. What are they for?"

Silence.

"Are... are they going to kill us?"

"Can't have any secrets getting out, even if we're held hostage," Kaylee said crisply. "The Academy knows when to make sacrifices. Just like we do."

Kalista shut her mouth.

For a second, Kalista stopped to relish her name at second place on that leaderboard, and then she burst into action.

There were others who would be questioning. There were others who might suspect, others who might guess when they saw her kill count rise to 7. She couldn't risk those others gathering up to come get her. She had to run while she could.

Not stopping to question her choice, she brought her fist down onto the console, destroying it. She couldn't risk letting her weapon fall into someone else's hands. Then, she jumped out of the cabinet and ran down the hallway.

She had left the two smoothie cups, and all she had on her was her phone, the broken hard drive, and Harper's knife. The hallway was empty, and she ran as silently as possible toward the science labs.

It was time to take care of Tobias Cleary.

As she slowly slid the door open and guided it shut behind her, she caught a glimpse of his project. It was small and complex-looking, consisting of several tubes of bubbly liquid that were connected by cables. One glance at it told her that it wasn't a small one, however. This one could take down the whole school.