The 8th Escapee

Chapter 5 Memories

=============Rebecca============
Fuck!, is this how it ends? After all that happened? Here in this castle, me helping Drake escape that building... And when i first met those two. ARGH, how can a bullet wound hurt so much? How can I call myself punk if I can't even endure such a small thing? And now you're thinking: "But Rebecca, you took a shot to the chest, it's supposed to hurt." And that's where you're wrong. Ouch, it hurts when I breathe. But that's not the point. Anyway, let me get back to when I first met the 2 most wonderfull people of my life.

I saw them descending the stairs, when that stupid boy dressed in a red shirt and black pants decided to shout that he wanted Drake's pants on the floor. Really, that guy deserved to die... wait, forget that, I'm getting ahead of myself. Drake and his little sister, Stephanie, came down and joined our group, making 13 people on the boat. And at that moment we were told the "rules" would be laid out in 30 minutes.
  "So, 30 minutes until we start?" I said. "This should be fun. Why don't we all tell why we are here?"
  "It would take more than half an hour. I think we should just introduce ourselves." Said a blond girl in a pink dress. "My name is..."
  "Wait!" Shouted a small boy with red hair wearing glasses. "I think we should keep our names a secret. We don't know if anyone among us is a hitman or an assassin."
  "What a stupid idea. What would make you think one of us is an assassin?" Asked a tall woman in black leggings and a deep blue jacket.
  "Because I saw the hidden knife in your boots." Said the boy with glasses.
  "Oh that?" She said taking out her black handle knife, like it was nothing. "I'm a woodcarver. And this knife isn's sharp enough to cut through flesh."
  "Well, I think we should get codenames. I'll be Hunter." Said the man with the aviator coat.
  "Codenames are studip." Said Blondie. "Just follow my orders and tell your names. Mine is Lydia."
  "We have other matters to discuss than names." I reminded them. "Did everyone else get a tablet like this?"
All 13 of us were now holding our tablets.
  "It seems they are out of batteries." Said the guy wearing jeans and a white T-shirt whom later I would call Drake.
  "Does anyone have a charger?" Asked a guy with an extremely beautiful aphro(just kidding, his aphro was... decent?).
  "There's no place for a charger in the tablets. And even if there was, i don't see any plugs in here." Observed the guy who wanted to get in Drake's pants.
  "So, there are 13 of us, each with a battery-less tablet, all locked in a so-far-3-deck ship, waiting for a random person to lay out the rules so we can escape. Is that right?" Resumed a little girl with pigtails.
  "Actually this is a 4 deck ship." Said the other little girl with the white skirt and red shirt(my sweet little Stephanie).
  "Whatever you little brat!" Responded Pigtails.
  "Hey, don't you call her that!" I shouted.
And that's when we all started discussing and calling each other names. While I screamed at a man in a suit, I covered Steph's ears so she wouldn't hear what we said.
*Ding* "Is it working? Oh, hello again participants, please stop arguing and pay attention." The voice from before sprung out of nowhere and said. Surprisingly we did just that.
  "Ahem, as I was saying, your 30 minutes have ended..."
  "Didn't look like it though." Wispered Drake.
  "...and I would like to lay out the rules. The 1st one: You are not allowed to kill anyone and get caught. The 2nd one: you have 13 hours to escape the ship, if you don't do it by then, you won't leave. And finally, in order to progress you'll have to go through numbered doors, like the ones you see in the end of this deck. Only groups of 3,4 or 5 people may enter a numbered door, and 2 groups cannot go through the same numbered door at the same time. Any questions?"
  "Uhh yeah! First: why do we have these tablets? And second: how do we open the numberd doors?" Questioned the boy with glasses.
  "Very well Alexander, I shall answer those questions."
  "WHA.. How do you know my name?!"
  "I know everything about everyone. Now, back to those questions. As you probably know, tablets are handy little devices that hold personal information..." As the voice said this, all tablets turned on at the same time, each displaying info on who held it. "...show where you are on the map..." And the tablets switched screens to a map of the deck, with 13 blinking dots. "...and update with every piece of information you find about your... 'colleagues'. Now, to the numbered doors. To open them, all you have to do is put your tablet near the sensor by the door. It will read any combination of 3 to 5 numbers that the sum equals the number on the door. Is it clearer now?"
  "No, what do you mean 'any combination of 3 to 5 numbers'?" Asked the woodcarver.
  "Ahh Shadow, and here i thought you wouldn't pronounce a single word. Each and everyone of you will recieve a random number between 1 and 13. Only you knows what number you have, unless you decide to tell the others, that is. And every time you pass a numbered door, your numbers will change. I think that's it for now, any questions please refer to the instruction manual in the tablets. See you in 13 hours. Good luck."
And just like that, the voice went silent, so did we. Can you imagine 13 people, baffled enough to not say a single word for 2 whole minutes? It felt like years.
After some time, the tablets made a ping sound. That's when we received our numbers. "User information has been updated." And our info had been updated. That tablet did almost everything, it only lacked the ability to make a cup of coffee.
  "Excuse me miss." Said Steph while approaching me. "What's your name?"
  "Rebecca. My friends call me Beck, or at least they would if I had any."
  "Can I call you Beck?" She asked with puppy eyes.
  "No."
  "Then, we're not friends?"
  "Pretty much."
  "What can i do to become friends with you?"
  "Don't stand in my way and let me to my thing. Now off with you." (My heart almost stopped at the thought of she wanting to be my friend.)
  "Hey, Rebecca right?" Drake said coming near me. "I saw you covering my sister's ears from all that noise. Thanks. Name's Drake." He reached out for a handshake.
  "I just did what I thought was right. Don't expect anything else."
  "Hey, just one more question."
  "What is it now? Didn't o tell your sister to let me do my things?"
  "What's your number?"
I took out the tablet from my bag and checked it. There it was, my profile:
Name: Rebecca Marshal
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Occupation: Hacker
Current Number: 8
  "It says 8."
*Ping* "Participant profile updated."
  "It came from our tablet." Said Stephanie.
  "But not from yours. Why is that?" Asked Drake.
  "Don't look at me, I know as much as you do."
He looked on his tablet, this time there was blinking button that looked like a list, when he pressed it, a list of all 13 people appeared, and my name was blinking. He then pressed my name and a slightly different version of my profile popped up:
Name: Rebecca -
Age: -
Gender: -
Occupation: -
Current Number: 8
Observations: None
I then heard a voice coming from my right.
"It has all of our data. The ones behind this know all about us. And they'll update our tablet when we reveal something."
  "Shadow. Is that your real name?" I asked. "And why would that only show things that the person revealed?"
  "Did you check your rulebook? And while you're at it, check my profile, I want to know how you see me in there."
First I checked her profile:
Name: - - (Shadow)
Age: -
Gender: -
Occupation: - Woodcarver
Current Number: -
Observations: Has a knife
  "Ahh, so it doesn't show my real name? What a shame."
  "You don't sound disappointed." Said Steph.
  "Because I'm not." Grinned Shadow.
And when I found the part about updating the info on people it said:
'The people who created this project know everything about everyone. For the safety of the participants, all information on them will remain hidden until the participant reveals said information. When revealed, the info will be uploaded to the participant's profile on other's tablets. When a participant dies, everything about him/her will be revealed.'
  "Very detailed. But I still don't get it. What did the voice mean when it talked about not being caught killing others?" I asked.
  "I think it meant that..." Shadow was interrupted by screaming at the end of the deck, near the numbered doors.
  "DON'T YOU GET IT?!! THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE WHO WOULD KILL ANY OF US WITHOUT THINKING, JUST TO GET OUT OF HERE!!"
  "YOU SHOULD LOOK WHO'RE TALKING TO! LITTLE BITCH! I'VE BEEN TO ENOUGH BATTLES TO KNOW HOW TO DEFEND MYSELF. NOW SHUT UP AND TELL ME YOUR NUMBER SO WE CAN MOVE ON!"
  "Well" I started. "Those will be some nice memories for after we get out of here."
==========End of Chapter==========