High School Royale

13〛Hostages

Jesse Mercado - 8:58AM
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Brandon and Albert came into the main gym from the back, spools of rope hung around their shoulders.

"What have y'all been doing this whole time?" Jesse asked, not looking up from his project.

"Just some barriers," Albert responded.

Maria raised an eyebrow as she continued duct-taping layers of ceramic tiles they had excavated from the bathroom onto the insides of life jackets to make bulletproof vests.

"Here," Aaron said, dropping off a pile of metal sheets. Jesse took one, duct-taping it to the inside of his life jacket.

"Gotta say Maria, this was a pretty sweet idea of yours," Aiden said, taking a sip of lemonade.

She smiled and shrugged. "I do what I do."

Jesse took a wet towel he had laid by him and wiped the sweat on his face. "Yo, is there any way we can turn the AC lower?"

"We checked," Aiden said, his mouth pressed flat. "Needs passcode."

"Have we checked the office?"

"Aaron and I searched through it top to bottom earlier. Nothing."

"They have large fans in the back storage, probably for airing out this place after class when it reeks of sweat and body spray," Maria said, screwing her nose. "Check it out and bring some up front."

"Alright," Jesse said, rising from his spot, ruffling Maria's hair as he walked past.

Thomas was breaking apart the tiles in the bathroom, while Eddie and Brian talked in the office. When Jesse entered the storage, Aaron was hunched over on the table, fan blowing towards him, suturing the hole in his shirt.

"Aaron?"

"I think I fixed it, look." With a smile, he held up the shirt with his good arm, the sleeve a mess of stitches in yellow thread.

The stitching was so poor that the entire right side of the shirt was tugged upwards, and the sleeve itself was shortened by half.

With only one hand, he took off his shirt, struggling to pull it off. Jesse came forth and helped him, and put on the old band tee. Aaron did a quick spin. "Good as new."

Jesse pressed his mouth flat, before letting a slight smile. "That's great, Aaron. Um, but I thought we were all supposed to be helping with fortifications and materials?"

"... Actually. About that. I heard something concerning. Something kind of scary."

"What?"

"I..." he hesitated, his voice dropping. "Jesse, this is serious. I think Albert wants to kill people. To earn the secret prize."

"Huh?"

He put his jacket back on. "I eavesdropped on their conversation. They want to start getting kills to have Albert kill them all for the secret prize. Farm kills like a frickin' video game. I think they said they were gonna announce it to the rest of us soon."

"Huh? What the hell?" Jesse's world all of a sudden spun, and he grabbed onto a chair, running his hand through his hair. What? Farm kills?

"Maybe you misheard? Maybe–"

"I mean, I really doubt it. I didn't want to believe it but... Shit. I think it's true. I wanted to tell you sooner but you were outside. I didn't know how to bring it up."

"Okay, okay, wait–" he grabbed onto the table, taking a deep breath. "Shit. That's fucked up. Okay–I told Maria I was going to get some fans for the heat. Let's do that first, then we'll find Albert and ask about what the hell he means."