Battle Royale

Chapter 3

Elapsed time: 00:00:13 ~ Time of day: 12:13 p.m. ~ Zone: 8H

Siggi knelt behind the bush by the forest road. Wiping the sweat off his brow He unzipped the backpack and took stock of his supplies. Three loaves of bread, 3 one liter water bottles, a map (which confirmed his location, 8H) and his weapon, a crossbow with lots of extra bolts.

"Thank god," he murmured to himself.

When he'd heard a rattling in his backpack while he was running, and was afraid that he had been given an air pellet gun. Then he looked up. Someone was on the road. He ducked down low and stayed silent, until he recognized who it was. "Roth!" he called, trying to get his attention, but still stay quiet.

Roth turned, startled, and raised the handgun he was carrying. When he saw who it was, he lowered it and ran over to Siggi. Roth wrapped  his friend in a tight hug. "You big idiot." he said as he pulled away. "I almost shot you."

Siggi pulled back and laughed. "Sorry, I was just so happy to have found you that I wasn't really thinking straight..."

Siggi sat back down by his backpack and started putting his supplies back inside. Roth sat cross-legged in front of him. "A crossbow? Nice. I got a Beretta."

Siggi smiled. "I guess we were fairly lucky..." he said as he considered the other possibilities. But in the back of his mind, he was praying desperately that they would never have to use their weapons. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"Yeah, I saw Camille on my way here. She ran away as soon as she saw me though. No one else. Did you see anyone?"

"Nope..." He sighed. I'm really worried about Ragga and Amet, Ragga especially.. If she's found Sairah, she'll be fine, but by herself..."

"It's okay." Roth reassured him. "We'll find them. And then we'll get the hell out of here."

But even so, he wasn't so sure.

Elapsed Time: 00:00:17 ~ Time of day: 12:16 p.m. ~ Zone: 9F

The view from the top of the hill was a good one. It looked out over the forest on the east side of the island towards the water in the distance. Tam Alexander, the boy standing on the hill didn't care. He was preoccupied by the noise from the bushes behind him. He held his weapon, some thin yellow rope by his side. It was time to attack.

Elapsed time: 00:00:41 ~ Time of day: 12:41 p.m. ~ Zone: 8C

Sairah knelt down and splashed her face with the raw, biting stream water. It reminded her that it was all real. The situation that would have seemed impossible 12 hours ago. Even if she was in a situation like this, however, she knew she couldn't hurt anyone, unless they attacked her or Ragga first..

She dried her face with her sleeve and sat back against a tree trunk. Opening the small red bag she'd packed for the trip, her eyes flashed when she saw her cell phone. She picked it up and turned it on. She prepared to dial 911, but before she could do a thing, her phone vibrated. She opened the text message, from a blocked number, but before she could read it, it vibrated again. And again, and again. It was puzzling, she didn't know that a text could be sent from a blocked number... "Molino..." she muttered under her breath. The texts didn't stop. It must have been, she figured, so that she wouldn't be able to use her phone at all to call anyone.

Sighing, Sairah turned of her phone and the vibrating ceased. She then got back to the task at hand, taking her belongings from her overnight bag and putting them in the backpack.

"S-Sairah.."

She looked up. Ragga was standing on the opposite side of the stream. "Ragga."

"Hey." Ragga said as she crossed the stream, water sloshing over her dark blue Converse. "I've been following you since you left the school, but when you started running I couldn't keep up." She smiled slightly and sat down on her heels by Sairah.

"Th-thank you." Sairah said after a slight pause.

Ragga looked up, taking in the silence. The forest was serene, the only sounds were the rushing stream by their side and birdsong in the distance. There were sparse gaps in the cloud cover above, but the sky was mostly gray. Ragga spoke first.

"Will you stay with me? Just for awhile. I'm so scared. I really don't want to have to be alone."

Sairah sat up and wrapped her arms around her friend. "Of course." She pulled away and took a deep breath. "I don't think I could kill anyone, unless if our lives depended on it. You're safe with me."

Ragga smiled and relaxed just a bit. "What'd you get for a weapon?"

"I got this spear that can fold up to fit in my backpack. I'll show you. What do you have?"

"A crowbar." Ragga said. "It's not much, but I guess I could've gotten worse..." She trailed off. "Have you seen Siggi or Roth?"

"No." Sairah said as she took out the spear to show it to her friend. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Really." Ragga said, moving over to sit beside her. "I had already left to follow you before Siggi left the building so I didn't have a chance to meet with him."

Sairah opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. In a choice between Sairah and her own twin brother, Ragga had chosen to follow Sairah. And really, Sairah wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Do you think..." Ragga started. "Do you think we could escape this island?"

"Of course we can." Sairah put her arm around Ragga. "Of course.

Elapsed Time: 00:00:59 ~ Time of Day: 12:59 pm ~ Zone: 9F

Aurelia looked around as she reached the top of the hill. A body lay sprawled out on the hill, a boy with blond hair that reached his shoulders. She ran to him, and immediately recognized him as Tam alexander. She knelt over Tam and felt sobs begin to well up in herchest. There was a spot of blood tangled in his hair.

"Aurelia!"

She jumped to her feet and stepped back. Was that the killer calling her?

She readied her hatchet in her right hand. The sound of cracking branches and twigs filled the quiet air and Xander Todd came running out of the grove of oak trees. He had a hunting rifle in his hands, but he didn't appear ready to shoot anything. 

"Did you kill him?" Aurelia exclaimed, gripping the hatchet by her side.

"Yes...I-I killed Tam, but..." He shifted around, his silver-blue eyes pleading.

"But what? You have a reason for it??" Aurelia was angry. Real angry.

He tossed the gun gently to the ground. She saw a flash of red. There was blood on the stock.

"Aurelia...he ran at me and tried to strangle me with this rope here." He took a rope from." his backpack and tossed down it next to his gun. "I hit Tam with my gun, because I didn't want to kill him. I didn't mean to..."

Aurelia walked over to him and he stopped. She loosened her grip on the hatchet and looked up into his eyes. They were bloodshot and swollen, and she knew he'd been crying.  "Shit." she said, looking back down. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should've trusted you."

"N-No!" Xander stuttered. "I mean, it was only logical right?"

"I guess, but you're my boyfriend for god's sake. I should've known you wouldn't kill Essej."

Xander studied her for a moment. And then he spoke. "I forgive you, Aurelia."

"But..." She began.

"Come on," He stopped her. "Let's go eat some lunch."

They  began to walked towards the shaded grove, and she grabbed his hand in hers.