Respawn: Last Man Standing

Chapter V: Game Plan

As the team finally reaches floor 45, they see a more wide open arena. There was a lot less debris, as large chunks of concrete and rebar were a lot less common. It had looked like a few concrete pillars were destroyed and the debris from that were left behind, rather than a concrete complex of debris and rebar. There were still rebar poles and chunks of concrete to use as weapons, however, there also appeared to be Ka-Bar knives laying around. Though it were few and far between, combat knives were beginning to appear on the floors. In addition, there were also tall concrete barriers that one could easily hide behind for cover. This would allow some to sneak past the competition in order to keep the game progressing beyond this point. After a while of trekking through this floor, it was time for Drake, Ziya and Judy to rest as the other three watched out for them. As the three of them slept, Georgie and the others talked about their plan. "We could take on Judy easily while they slept" Jake says, "but the amount of lives the other two have would be the biggest problem".
"That's why we need more people on our team" Will says. "If we have more people, then no matter how many lives they have, we could take 'em down!".
"Correct, but think harder" Georgie says. "The girl says she's been through the game before. Whether or not she lyin', she was right about the floors changin' every five floors. If they added knives on floor 45, think about what we would have access to by floor 25".
"More people with more, and better, weapons" Will says. "At the right moment, we could keep them cornered and wipe them out".
"Right" Georgie says, "as well as buying time 'til then gives us the advantage. We'd have the benefit of the doubt by then. They could come ta slowly trust us".
"Just make sure to hoard all the weapons you can" Jake says. "We'll need them".

"So, why'd you join the team?" Will asks Judy after she, Drake and Ziya wake up.
"Because" Judy says, "when your back's to the wall, there isn't much room for mistakes, as well as not much room to complain when an opportunity is provided. Opportunity seldom shows itself, so when it does, you don't really have a right to complain about it. So here I am, against my better judgement".
"And why is a team against your better judgement?" Will asks.
"Because, I get the achy feeling that I'm not going to like any of you" Judy says.
"Are all ya women like this?" Georgie asks.
"Shut up, I think I hear someone" Drake says as he peeks around a corner. As Drake peeks around the corner, he sees a team of two people walking past the concrete wall they were hiding behind. "Zizi" Drake says, "you take the left, and I'll take the right".
Ziya nods at Drake, then the two run around opposite sides of the wall at the two people. The man Ziya attacked used a knife. As he swung the knife at Ziya, she used a rebar pole to counter. With her pole having a longer reach, she smacked the man's knuckles, breaking several of his fingers. He dropped the knife on the ground, which Ziya then used against him. As the man screamed in pain, holding onto the wrist of his hand with the broken fingers, Ziya drove the knife into his stomach. Causing the man to lean over from the pain of a knife wound, Ziya head-butt the man's nose and knocked him to the ground.
The man Drake attacked used rebar. However, Drake deflected the first attack with a rebar if his own. Using the force of the man's swing, Drake knocked the rebar out of his hands with his own rebar. As he dropped his weapon, Drake tackled him, grabbing onto his throat as holding on as his watch counted from "5" to "0".
As Drake focused on his target, Ziya kept slashing different parts of her target's body. As his watch counted down from "7" to "0", Ziya kept mutilating the man's body. When his watch finally reached "0" and his eyes opened for the last time, Ziya threw her knife right between the man's eyes. As she drops her weapon, Judy shouts "Watch out!" as she runs up to Ziya. A third man ran up to Ziya, but Judy used her shoulder to knock the man out of the air as he tried to jump onto Ziya. Knocking him to the ground, Judy kept stabbing the man in the heart until he stopped reviving.
"Thanks, Judy" Ziya says as she looks over at Judy.
"Don't sweat it" Judy replies, as she proceeded to check all of the pockets of the three dead men. "Tch, they barely had any food at all" Judy says as she checked the final pocket. Suddenly, Judy sits up and throws a little packaged, dry food at Drake. "Here, I don't like owing anybody" she says.
"Great, now our problems grow" Georgie says as he and the others walk out from behind the concrete wall.
"So... to the next floor?" Jake asks.
"Yeah... yeah, that should-" Ziya begins to say before she falls to her knees and vomits.
"Did all of that make you sick?" Will asks.
"No" Ziya says as she quickly throws dust and small rocks over her puddle of vomit, "Don't worry about it".
"Are you sure you're good to move on?" Judy asks.
"No point in waiting" Ziya says as she begins to stand. "Let's go". As she walks away, she takes one quick look at the vomit on the ground. A little bit of redness seeping out from her vomit, from under the small rocks. "Just an ulcer" she says quietly to herself, "you've still got time".