Cady Williams & The Walled Cities: A School to DIE for

Chapter 17: Daredevils and Cheaters

"It's a different city at night, isn't it? I read in some article that in the outer ring, this is the red light district and the black market for a lot of goods. Drugs, sex, gambling and other crimes are rampant in this part." Ronald tells Cady as he is sitting beside her.

"Oh, it must be dangerous outside then." Cady replies.

Not long, everyone in the bus starts to get quiet. The driver turns of his head lights and speeds up to pass a small opening of the gates out of the city. Cady experiences something very different that early morning. She is so use to all the gun shootings and loud noises every time they leave the city, but for this night, there are barely any lights, soldiers are quiet and are wearing some kind of suit with night vision masks, there is just a faint light coming from somewhere to guide the bus out of the city. Some of the soldiers are killing the Decays with short range weapons.

"Decays are a lot more active at night." Ronald tells Cady in a faint voice.

"Why is that?"

"Well, one of my professors told me that decays have a colder blood temperature than us. Thus, they have to be more active at night to get their blood temperature warmer and regulated."

Cady is quiet at this moment. She begins to think about her close encounter with Decays. She tries to compare the Decays she saw during the day and the Decays she saw that night in the girl's dormitory. For a few moments she thinks about it but comes to no conclusion and makes her mind up that Decays are all the same. Cady looks outside the bus and notices that it is still very dark. The only lights they have to guide their way are the beautiful stars up above. Cady begins to look at the front row of the bus because of some conversation Latoya, Michael and Hunter are having with the bus driver. It is not long until Michael stands up and walks in front of the whole group. He begins telling his plan to the them, which is that they would be playing a game which involves killing some Dacays. A few of them react shockingly about this idea but Lotaya intervens stating that Alpha's play this game all the time. She begins to assure them that nothing will go wrong and that the driver is okay with it. Instantly the driver gives a thumbs up. To make things easier for everybody, Michael says that everyone will be paired into a team of two. He points out that the people in the bus who are seat mates are the groups that will be competing. Him and Celery, Cady and Ronald, Hayden and Murdoch, Latoya and Hunter and lastly Kathleen and Jasper would be the teams.

Michael continues that they will be driving to different locations, for each location each team will have to go up to the rooftop and shot as many decays as they can for fifteen minutes. The team with the lowest killings will be the losers and that they will have to stay outside the bus for fifteen minutes. He tells them that they could do anything they want to attract the decays towards the bus except for using the first gunshot as bait as it is a guarantee to attract a lot. If a team uses it in this manner they automatically lose. The first shot must be intentionally used to kill a decay.

Cady, Hayden, Murdoch and Ronald are strongly opposed to this idea however after the peer pressure coming from the cool kids, they reluctantly agree. Already Cady can see the tension in Hayden's and Murdoch's faces. It seems that they are almost ready to attack Michael but are still reluctant to do it. It is very obvious that the groups are now divided. The cool kids on one side versus Cady and her boy friends on the other. Latoya begins to ask Hunter to hand the knapsack to her. She opens it quickly and reveals a huge bottle of wine and a huge bottle of beer. The cool kids begin to scream and shout and start to play some music on Latoya's phone. She begins to take out several shot glasses and passes it around for everyone to drink, she moves to Cady. Cady is a little frustrated and begins to talk some sense to Latoya that their all crazy to play this game. Latoya begins to reassure her that yes, there will be Decay killings but the fifteen minute penalty outside the bus for the losers is just a practical joke for newbies to get scared. Latoya also tells her not to tell any of her companions about this so as not to ruin the prank. Cady is still slightly upset that the cool kids can be so cruel but then again she is also relieved that no one can risk their lives by being outside.