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Chapter ??? - Groan.

Chapter ??? - Groan.

Walking. Just more walking. Endless walking. Will it ever end? Will I ever be able to sit down? It's hard to think these guys are gamers. They just have so much... energy. Where do they get it from? Why are they so damn happy? They just laugh together, not seeming to care that we're definitely not going to survive. Elliot. Why's he so cheerful? I don't understand..

Then I remembered studying 'Journey's End' in English Literature. My teacher said something about Trotter, the fat guy, I think, and how he'd use humour - I think it was 'black humour' - to take his mind off the fact he was almost certainly going to die. Maybe that's what Elliot is doing. What they all are doing, to keep their spirits high.

I don't remember the ending of that book.

"Hey, Kieran, why so down?" Elliot nudged me with his elbow. "You look like you're gunna cry."

I sighed. "I am."

"Huh? Why?" He asked, widening his eyes a little and peering into my face.

My eyes drooped as I yawned. "I'm tired. I ache. My friends ditched me. Everything's sh*t. We're gunna die."

"You're not gunna die, Kieran. You seem really strong. Chris told me that you took down that huge skeleton. And the level two boss, too. With that axe of yours." He said, taking it out of my holder. "Where'd you get it?"

"Found it." I mumbled. "It hardly ever fails me. I need to get better at not getting it stuck, though."

"Yeah, I can see why that'd be a problem." He said, swinging it down as if he were battling something. His lean arms tensed as he swung the heavy axe. "You'd have to follow all the way through, or just do some quick, shallow moves to defeat them."

"Yeah, I suppose." I stretched. "I've got some daggers, too, just in case."

"That's a good idea." Elliot replied. "Derren only has his arrows, and won't use anything for backup. Swords are too heavy for him, and he ends up accidentally cutting himself with daggers. It's gotten him in a lot of trouble in the past, and if we were all to.. you know, I'm not sure how he'd survive with his ranged attacks, and by that time, he'd be too inexperienced in combat, in too high a level for him to cope with. He'd die for sure."

I took the axe off Elliot and held it by the end of its handle, letting it swing by my legs and scrape against the floor at points. "He should get stronger. He's really good with ranged attacks, but he sucks at close combat."

"What're you guys talking about?" Chris said darkly, looking forward as he walked.

"Nothi-" I started, but was cut off by Elliot before I could finish.

"Your boyfriend."

Chris turned his head to glance back at us, raising an eyebrow. "What about him?"

Oh f*ck. Here we go.

"He needs to get stronger, or he'll.." Elliot trailed off.

"Die?" Chris finished.

"Yeah." Elliot crossed his dark arms, making his bodywarmer rustle. It looks old. Not many people nowadays would wear something like that.

"He won't. I'll protect him." Chris said determinedly.

"You can't protect him forever. We're almost at level five. Sh*t's gunna get pretty real, soon." Elliot said.

"He's my f*cking-" He paused, thinking. "Responsibility. I'll die before he does."

"Unless he has a heart attack."

"Elliot!" Karcsi looked at him, narrowing her eyes. Everyone sort of came to a halt.

"He's not going to have a f*cking heart attack, Elliot." The dark swordsman said through gritted teeth.

"It's a possibility." He said. "Look, dude, I'm trying to think of all of the things that can happen. You need to start thinking about the entire group, rather than just Derren. You love the guy, I get it. But you'll probably need to make sure he can do a few close combat moves incase he gets into trouble."

"He can't fight. He has a weak heart. He can't do much, I know that. So we need to f*cking find him, instead of standing here fighting like children." Chris spun on his heel and started walking again, the rest of us trailing behind him.

"Wow, smooth." I said, rolling my eyes at them. This is why I enjoyed being alone. Staying in level two isn't even that bad.

No. Shut up, Kieran. You're getting out of here, you're gunna save Sophia and Sadie, and you're gunna go home and play some video games.

Hell yeah. 

Chris started coughing as Elliot sighed. "Well, you could've backed me up there, buddy."

I looked at him, pulling a face. "He almost killed me when I first met him, I wanna stay on his good side."

"Classic tough guy act." He scoffed, looking at the dented metal wall on our left. I raised an eyebrow.

"So, do you like him or what? You guys are like the girls in my school. B*tch, b*tch, b*tch." I grumbled. I hate drama, it just gets petty and annoying.

"He's a member of the team, but if anyone rubs him the wrong way, he just snaps. He probably wants to be leader or something, but he'd suck at it because all he cares about is Derren." He said, fiddling with his bracelet.

"Aw, you jealous?" I said patronisingly. God, I wanna sleep. Shut up so I can sleep, let's just stop walking.

"Course not. He just p*sses me off." He said coolly.

"Well then-" I started, getting cut off with my own giant yawn. "Go have an emotional talk. I dunno. Hug it out, kiss and make up, paint each others' nails."

Elliot laughed. "All right, all right. No need for that."

"Sorry." I sighed. "I'm f*cking tired."

"When did you last-"

"Derren!" The dark swordsman ran off.

"Huh?" Elliot said, tensing up as Karcsi ran after him. Shouts started coming from down the corridor, echoing off the shiny walls, thuds and clinking. The sounds of a bunch of horny angry teenagers getting p*ssy at each other. 

"Get off him!"

"Stand the f*ck back!"

"Everyone calm down!"

Thud. Tshhhhhhhhhhh. Thud. Tshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

"Aw, sh*t!" Elliot said, starting to run over to the scuffle. His knives jingled as he ran. "Come on, Kieran!"

I groaned, picking up the pace to follow. Let them sort it out themselves! They can deal with it. They're just freaking thirteen year olds. What're they gunna do? Stab you?

Ha, probably.

God, I'm tired. The floor looks like a good place to sleep on now.

Suddenly my foot hit something and my stomach knotted as I lost my balance. Pain shot through my forearms as I landed on the cold ground.

"Come on, Kieran!" Elliot called, as the yelling became more frantic and loud.

Thud. Thud. Tshhhhhh. Tshhhhhhhh. Thud. Thud. Tshhhhhhhh. Tshhhhhhh.

"F*ck! Two?!"

"Come on, Kieran." Evan said, in Spanish. I felt hands gripping my upper arm and tugging me. But my limbs are just so heavy, and the weight from my bag just pinned me to the ground. "Get up, we've got to go."

Grunting, I tried to make myself move. But it was no use. My brain was already in sleep mode, and my limbs felt like lead. The shouting blurred together into white noise, as the world around me faded.