Mark's POV
We had gotten up early this morning, not wanting to waste any time with waiting for someone to come and find us. We were ready to go, and despite our injuries, we had an upbeat aura about us. Bob had suffered from a heat stroke yesterday afternoon, and we bagged it and called it a night there. This allowed us to get up early when no one was moving around yet, and gave us the element of freedom. Yami remained unharmed, although sore from our pace set yesterday, and Wade had a long scratch up his arm that was ugly looking, but neither infected nor getting worse. It was wrapped up now, and Yami had done the job of setting the wound excellently. My eyes wandered over to Jack as he walked next to me, eyes up and alert, ready to jump at the smallest notion of danger. It was a surprise that we kept our quick pace from yesterday, despite his leg injury, and he was still at it today. He refused to slow us down, even if that meant his leg went numb and his limp making him move like a zombie. He had twisted his ankle, throwing himself at me to move us out of the way of a throwing knife when I had tried to go for the middle. No matter how often I thanked him, he only brushed it off with a friendly smile.
As of now, we were moving again, our pace still quick and Jack still waving away our offers to slow. He even traveled up front with me, carrying a bow, some arrows, and two knives. He had gathered a whole bag of just knives at the beginning, and he handed them out to us as well, still having some for himself. Bob walked just behind us with Wade, both keeping up small talk and holding most of the items we had in a bag, and Yami took up the rear with a watchful eye and a large sword. None of us really said much, as mostly we were listening, but after things calmed down from yesterday, it seemed we were more relaxed after a while.
What I was taking in was the scenery around us. I had to constantly remind myself that this was just a game, and the fact that the large leafy plants around us felt just as waxy as they looked, and the moss underfoot was a soft as the packed dirt was firm, it made it all the more to marvel over. For realism, this was something rather intense. The sun seemed to affect us with actual heat, something we learned the hard way yesterday, and we could feel the wind rather than just seeing it blow through the treetops. The water that we had found yesterday was just as cold as one would expect, and tasted crystal clear. It was mind boggling that something like this had been created, it was close to a second reality.
"Do you think Felix will really come after me?" Jack asked suddenly, and I looked over at him as he limped alongside me. He caught my glance, flashing me a grin and chuckling. "Don't think I'm joking here, I'm actually curious. Do you think he will?"
"No, Jack. I don't think that he will." I told him, keeping in my laughter but not hiding my smile. "He said so himself that his goal was to keep Marzia alive, and I think he intends to keep it that way. Besides, we're the largest group here. If he was going to try to, I have a feeling that he wouldn't make it very far."
"You would kill him to protect me?" Jack asked, his voice quiet now. I stopped, having to consider this. It was just a game, after all. A game meant for killing, and if I was going to protect my friends, then maybe killing is what I would have to do.
"I don't see why it would be a problem." I said uneasily, knowing full well that it would be a problem for me. I wasn't the type for killing let alone injuring another person with the intent to do so.
"Because, you heard what Wade said." Jack told me. "The killing here is more realistic than you might think, and I doubt that you would do something like that." I remembered back to the night before, when we were setting up camp and getting ready to sleep. Wade had spoken about being in the center area, going for the bunker. No one seemed to remember what YouTuber it was, but someone immediately turned and started attacking people. The blood, pain, all the injuries the group had obtained, this game was maybe a bit too realistic, but it's not like we could back out now, no matter how much of a killer I was or wasn't.
"Look." I told Jack matter-of-factly. "We're a group, we're going to stick together. We will defend one another, and if that means I have to kill to protect, then I will kill to protect. I'm not letting any of you die on my watch." I didn't add the last part where I didn't think that I would be able to keep my sanity if I had to watch them die, but I kept it to myself.
"What happens if we're all together at the end?" Jack said quietly, and I stiffened at this. I myself had been avoiding this thought for some time, and I hadn't wanted it to be brought back up, and it certainly didn't need to be discussed early on. That would only make us fear it, and things seemed scary enough early on as it was. We needed to focus more on moving away from people and surviving.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." I offered, and Jack nodded, biting his lower lip. I didn't want him to worry, but he did have a point. If we were all so prepared to protect one another, what was going to happen when we were all stuck as the last ones left? The thought was haunting, because I knew that we were willing to risk one another for one another, and if it came down to it, what would we do? What could we do? None of us would hurt the other, and all of these men were good friends of mine. It made me sick to even think of intentionally hurting them. I glanced over at Jack again, then back at the group behind me. I didn't want to do something to harm any of them, ever. This may have been a bad idea, grouping up like this, but I thought about it some more. The idea of running into them face to face, alone, in the woods with nothing to do but attack them, that was more terrifying. Even scarier than that, the thought of one of them being the last ones to survive with me. I shuddered, not wanting to think about it, before looking up and gasping.
We had come out to a set of cliffs, but it was something much more elaborate than that. It was like a large bowl, and down below was a lake with clear water. To our right, there was a large stream that fed into it, the mist spraying us as the wind moved it our way. I grinned, looking down at how pretty it was was, filtering out into a river on the other side of the 'bowl'. As we looked down, the rest of the group caught up and stared too, and we gaped at just how beautiful this was, and once more I had to remind myself that this was a game.
Suddenly, the undergrowth on the other side of the bowl began rustling wildly, and we watched as two men emerged. They were obviously other YouTubers, and I recognized one as the man who'd been wearing the Mario hat just yesterday, standing next to another curly haired man. They stood on the edge of the cliff, and for a split second they looked at one another before conjoining hands and launching themselves from the cliff face. We watched as they sailed down into the water, landing with a loud splash that sent water spraying everywhere, and the current from the river dragged them through the arch and downstream. I smirked at what had just happened, as it had been rather odd.
"What the hell?" Yami asked, frowning. "Why would they just do that? They weren't cliff diving were they? That would be redundant."
"Nope, but they might have been running from that." Wade offered, pointing to the brush where a large grizzly bear emerged, standing on the cliff's edge and snarling down below. It let out a loud roar before turning and angrily returning to the woods. We gaped, watching it rumble away, and then I glanced back at the water.
"I don't remember there being bears in the Hunger Games." Bob said, fixing his glasses and looking at us.
"Should we go make sure those guys are okay?" Jack asked, leaning forward a bit to see further down the river, but he leaned too close to the edge and I grabbed him, yanking him back. I wasn't risking it.
"No, this is the Hunger Games." I reminded him and the rest of the group. "For all we know, they could be the ones who killed everyone on night one, and just got unlucky. We should shy away from people as much as we can." Bob and Wade nodded, Jack looking at his feet sheepishly as Yami glared down at the water.
"If you think about it, this spot wouldn't be too bad a place to stay at," he said, crouching down for a better look. "There are caves along the walls, plenty of water. We have food and if we set up a stable spot and a good source of purification, we could camp down there."
"Yami, that's not a good idea." Wade said, and Yami turned to him, confused. "Think about it, this place is huge, and beautiful. Its a landmark. Who wouldn't stay here? We'd be sitting ducks if anyone has another bow, and we're easily trapped in those caves. People will return to familiar places, and we're probably not the only ones to have seen this place." I snapped my fingers, pointing at Wade.
"He has a valid point. Although its a nice thought, I think we should only camp in the night for rest. Otherwise, moving and staying mobile is going to be our friend. Speaking of which, we should get moving. There's no sense in sitting together on the edge of a cliff where someone could run up and push us off." We all turned to the trees in unison, half expecting someone to jump out and do just that, but we were rewarded with silence save for birds chirping and the roar of the water behind us. I shot my friends all a glance, a warning one, and I gave them a nod.
We really did need to keep moving.
~~~
?'s POV
I worked my way through the foliage, finding myself rather uncomfortable with the leaves brushing at my legs and the bugs buzzing around me. If I could, I'd find an open area and claim it for myself. The night was fading away, and I yawned, still trying to wake myself up. I had been tracking this pair for sometime, and I was hoping they'd make an appearance by now.
My hopes were shortly answered.
I found them, walking side by side. I recognized them, from the night before. I couldn't say that I knew them particularly well, but I did know who they were. I walked forward, making my steps light and my movements quick as I caught up to them. I shoved the dark haired one to the side, making him trip into the foliage as I attacked his dark skinned friend. My tomahawk was quick, the blade sharp as ever, and I made quick work of him, pushing his body away as it crumpled. I turned back to his friend as he drew a small knife, slashing at me. I grabbed his wrist, and he gasped as he looked at me, seeing my face for the first time. I flashed him a quick grin before lashing out with my blade, catching him effectively in the throat and kicking him from me. I waited, forcing myself not to look as they both bled out. Some part of me was screaming at myself, the other part was reminding me that this was a game.
It would take a toll on me either way.
I removed their things from them, going through their items as their bodies pixelated and faded away from this world. I reminded myself that they were going back to the real world, or so I hoped, and I found none of their items useful to me. Taking them, I walked to the stream that I had found not so far back and dumped it there. Taking my things, I heard the cannons fire and looked upstream. If I was going to continue this slaughtering, the water was a good place to stay near. Surely people would be looking for some, I would just have to frequent this place.
Hiking my bag over my shoulder, I started upstream.
~~~
Hurt me later, but I had to kill them off for the story :(
On a much brighter note, anyone have an idea who our murderer is yet?? ;D
I hope you all have a frantastic week! I'll see you all on Tuesday!
~Jay