Respawn: Last Man Standing

Chapter IX: Priorities

After Drake and the others wake up, they begin to head out towards the next floor. Ziya, Drake and Judy got ready to head out, as they began to head out first ahead of the other six in the group. As Jon, Kyle and Frank got ready to follow behind the rest, Georgie, Will and Jake get ready to move for a while before trying to think about resting. However, their efforts are quickly halted once they finally get outside of their small safe house. Waiting outside of the small building was a group of eight people, each of them with more than twenty Respawns. "Think any of them have any food left, Gerald?" One of them asks.
The man in the front, Gerald, whose watch showed "42" Respawns simply replies "I wouldn't count on it".
"With such a large group" another one says, "they're bound to be constantly struggling for food".
"That's why it's better to kill off the other groups as soon as possible" Gerald says. "We may have a large group, but if there's less people in this arena, then there's less mouths to feed". Gerald then looks down at Drake and says "Nothing personal" as he waves one hand forward. At his command, the other seven people in his group immediately charge forward.
One of the men try to grab at Ziya's hammer that was held by her jumpsuit. "I'll be taking that!" He says as he tries to pull on it. However, before he could grab the hammer, someone tackled him to the ground from above.
As Ziya looked down, she could see Jon on top of this man, pinning him to the ground. When they looked up, they could see Kyle and Frank still standing at the second floor, sticking their heads out of the window of this small concrete building they were just in. "Yo!" Kyle says, "I thought I smelled trouble!".
"Tch- they had more hiding" Gerald says.
"Hey!" Ziya says as she runs up to Gerald with the hammer in her hand, "you might wanna brace yourself for this one!". Ziya swings the hammer upwards, hitting Gerald in the chin and sending him flying upwards. After he hits the ground, Ziya swings her hammer much like how someone would swing a golf club, breaking Gerald's neck when it hits the side of his head.
"Move on ahead!" Jake shouts at Ziya. When Ziya turns to look at Jake, he continues to say "we'll hold them back! Secure us a route out of here! We'll be doomed if we get caught by another team!".
Ziya nods her head and runs forward. Drake follows behind her, and the two find a long pathway that leads in the direction of the exit for this floor. When the two run back, everyone was still fighting, though they looked to be at a stalemate. "Come on!" Ziya shouts at them, "I found a way to get out of here!".
"A little busy!" Georgie yells back.
"Forget about them!" Ziya says, "we don't have to finish off every group we come across! They'll take too long to fight, we need to get out of here!".
"We don't have the time nor the energy to waste here!" Drake yells. "Come on!".
Soon after, Judy manages to get her distance from her foe. Taking the advantage of the situation, she runs over towards Ziya and Drake, and right past Gerald who didn't seem to even bother trying to stop her. The man she was fighting chased after her, but suddenly, Gerald put his arm in the way and stopped him. "Hold on" he says, "let them go".
"Boss, what about-" the man begins to ask.
"We've got other business" Gerald says as he points down the alley in the opposite direction of Ziya. When the man looks, he sees another team of ten people approaching, each wielding a machete. "Prioritize your targets, preserve your energy" Gerald says.
"But why let them go?" The man asks.
"Did you see the girl's Respawn counter?" Gerald asks. "After killing me, she now has one-hundred and one Respawns. We'll worry about the first group when we can afford to worry about them".
The other man nods his head and then shouts "Get the other group first! Let the first group pass!". The rest of this man's group looked back at him and Gerald in confusion, as did Georgie and the rest. Their group eventually charged right past Georgie and the others and began to fight with the new group that showed up.
"Well?" Ziya asks, "what are you waiting for!?".
"Come on" Jon says as he begins to walk towards Ziya, lightly hitting Georgie on the shoulder.
As the rest of the team walks past Gerald, Gerald slowly turns around and stares at them with contempt as they pass him. "Hey, girly" He says to Ziya, "What's your name?".
"What business is it of yours?" Ziya asks.
"I would like to know how to address you the next time we meet" Gerald says. "For a proper fight...".
Ziya smirks and says "The name's Ziya".
"I'm Gerald" he replies, "and I'll be looking forward to our next meeting".