same pov
"Colin, can I borrow one of your guns?" I ask.
Colin ignores me. Rude. Lol.
"Okay. I guess not." I wince. We follow Colin through the woods, and we don't stop until we're standing outside a small white building. Eva's regained her composure, but there's still a hint of anxiety in her voice.
"I feel like something is about to go down," she announces to no one in particular. Joey bites his lip.
"There's...there's the lab."
"We have to get in there," Eva gasps.
"All right." Colin forces his rifle into my hands.
"Take this." Sick. Colin's gun. Colin's actual real life World War gun. This thing's probably worth a ton in 2016...and Colin, somehow, trusts me enough to let me have a crack at it. Maybe ol' Ghosty Studmuffin isn't so bad after all. Okay. Okay.
"Ready?" Colin asks. Lele nods. Oli shakes his head, but no one seems to notice except me. Colin ignores them both and grabs a shovel.
"This is the old Army key," he remarks offhandedly before using the shovel to pry open the door.
"All right. There it is. Let's go." Joey enters the lab. Oli's a little hesitant, but another "let's go" from Colin is all it takes for him to follow Joey inside. But then, before Colin or anyone else can join Joey and Oli in the lab, the door slams shut in front of us.
Colin grabs his "Army key" and tries to reopen the door. No luck.
"Go around," he orders.
"Look for another way inside." Someone's screaming.
Oli?
Oli...
"Keep your eyes peeled," Colin warns them as they walk.
"There's things hiding in the bushes." Lele nods. I tighten my grip on the gun. Our group's quest to rescue Joey and Oli has somehow devolved into a game of Hunting.
"Oh gosh, shoot them, shoot them, shoot!" screams Eva, her bad-ass girl calm all but gone by now. Me and Colin obey, and one by one, the attacking soldiers fall like zombies.
In an event of fight or flight, killing should come naturally right?
No, it doesn't.
I don't like this.
But I have to do it anyway, i'm regretting asking for the gun. I fire bullet after bullet, picking the soldiers off like sitting ducks, all the while wondering how on earth he's gonna explain this to david when I get home.
One of the soldiers (who somehow survived the barrage of bullets from Colin and I) pulls himself to his feet and lunges for Eva. She runs, her shouts, echoing through the air, and Colin immediately leaps to her defense. The enemy falls. But Colin isn't done yet. Suddenly, he's on top of the man's bloody corpse, using his hatchet to beat the shit out of him. There's a maniacal side to him.
"He's bludgeoning him!" There's a heavy dose of shock in Eva's voice.
"Oh god, he is dead, you don't need to do that, oh God." her voice shakes. Christ. But...damn. Colin. He's a good soldier.
"Grab it!" I can hear Eva's voice, shouting at them inside.
"Grab it before he comes back! Grab it!" she's jumping up and down.
"Okay!" barks Lele, who's joined Eva at the window.
"They're coming out!"
I smile at Tim. See? It's fine. They're okay. I wouldn't admit it out loud, but I was getting worried. Oli's out first. Joey's right on his heels, clutching a giant box to his chest, gasping.
"We got something..." as if they hadn't already noticed. He places the box on the ground.
"Let's open it."
"Oh ok," is all Oli has to say. They open the box and are immediately confronted with a barrage of steam, I hand the gun back to Colin and go up to hug Oli. He hugs back and i pat his back.
"Glad your alive."
"Thank i am too." he smiles at me, and i look to Joey, who's brushing dirt off his coat.
I go up and tap his shoulder, he turns to look at me like i've startled him. I smile and hols out my arms, we embrace and I tear up, this night is freaking frustrating.
"I'm glad you're ok, really i am." His grip tightens, i chuckle.
"I heard you kicked ass." we let go of the hug and smile at each other.
"I hope i did." he laughs and we join the group where i see Tim frown.
"What is this?"
"It's dry ice," Eva explains. Oh. Okay.
"Don't touch it!" she'd snap.
"It's dangerous. It'll burn your skin clean off. And I'd rather not pay anyone's hospital bills." Lele—crazy Lele—grabs Colin's shovel and starts whacking the ice like a goddamn lumberjack. Eva screams. Joey jumps back. Once she's smashed the dry ice away, there is a key and a note. Lele reads the letter aloud to the group.
"It's going to be a brutal war to get the gold. The two best soldiers must be selected by the vote of the group to go inside the east side guest house and battle for glory. Good luck."
Colin's mouth bursts into an almost scary smile.
"That's it!" he cheers.
"That's where the gold is! It's in the house!" he points like a child at a gift.
"What are you talking about?" asks Joey.
"My gold. It's in the east side guest house." So it's come to this. Of course it has. Two of us innocents will be "sent into battle," whatever the hell that means.
"Oh, no," moans Joey, his posture drooping, an overtone of panicked desperation in his voice.
"Guys...I don't wanna do this anymore!" he looks at me as Eva sighs.
"Colin. Listen. Six of us are already dead. Can't we just—" she tries to plead, key word, tries.
"No." he's stern.
Look on the bright side, I tell myself, trying not to think about everyone we've lost.
At least we'll be one step closer to 2016.
---------
Voting Time....
"We are going to vote on the two people who are going to fight in the Great War." Arthur speaks to us hesitantly. Eva takes the seat next to Lele and I.
"Timothy and Oli have gone up against each other," she hisses, "and Oli... well that image of Oli being dunked into the dunk tank keeps crossing my mind, an- No. Not again. He's going to live."
"But, Oli didn't really hold his own. But I'm kind of sketched out by Timothy still." That's a lie. I like Tim. But we can't save everyone. Can I? Lele nods.
'"Okay. So I think Timothy is one of them."
"What about Joey?" asks Eva.
"Do you think he's involved in all of this? Like...the house?"
"He wants the deed," Lele points out.
"I know." I agree, but It's Joey, hanging ou with him, doing the Make-up challenges, or hunger games parodies, i can't kill him.
However It's Joey's house. He killed GloZell, and his vote almost killed Oli, so of course he's at the top of Eva and Lele suspect list. But I'm still not fully committed to voting for him just yet...because, despite everything, he's still my friend. They're all my friends.
"I wish it was easier like..." She sighs.
"I'm just tired of this game."
But Is it even a game?
"I'm going to tell you straight up. Joey wants you to go in." Oli says pulling up a chair to us 3 girls, Lele excuses herself and runs to the boys speaking privately.
"Really?" we both ask. He nods, with a sorrowful smile.
"Yeah. He wants you to go in, cause...he feels you haven't done..." She nods.
At least Oli is thinking we can't lose her. If Eva dies, they're all as good as dead.
"Oli." Her voice is depressingly soft.
"I'm not...I don't want to..." he nods, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"You're not. Listen. I'm voting for Joey. He voted for me to go into the circus, so—"
"I know." She smiles.
"I'm gonna vote for Joey, too."
It's possible there's more he wants to say. The look in his eyes god you can tell, There's so much more he wants to say (stay alive, I need you, don't leave me), but maybe i just ship them but Arthur's voice cuts through.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to vote!" Joey's freaking out.
"I just want to say," he stammers, his hands shaking,
"that...like...I feel like...we've gone through so much together...and I really like you guys...and..."
"Yeah," Lele agrees.
"All the hate was on Matt. I like you guys. I just hated Matt." I freeze when i hear his name, god it feels like so long since I saw him die, since Shane, Justine, god it's only been like a couple hours.
"It sucks that we have to do this," Joey sighs. It's his turn at the hat. Then Oli, Lele, Tim, me (i vote for Tim) and then Eva. The tension in the room is too thick for even a knife to cut. Joey cringes. Lele squirms. Oli's got his head in his hands. I press my lips into a thin line. Tim's clutching Colin's gun like it's a one-way ticket to safety. And Eva...Eva stares straight ahead, her brain attempting to calm herself.
"Don't forget," says Oli morosely, "someone's gonna die."
"Or not," Tim retorts.
"Or they are." I speak up. As Arthur picks a name, my mind wanders back to Joey's decision to go for her- i feel bad but it does make sense; after all, her life has yet to be on the line. She's only helped other people whose lives were on the line. So, really, it was only a matter of time before—
"It's Eva." my eyes shoot up.
"What?" snaps Oli looking at her, but she nods taking it like a champ.
"The second person..."
"Timothy." i gasp.
"Son of a bitch!" He slams Colin's gun against the ground, not giving a shit if it breaks or cracks or goes off. Goddamn it. Oli shouts
"Who voted for Eva?" and Lele stares at the floor, trying not to draw attention to herself.
"I can't fight!" complains Eva.
"You threw a grenade!" Joey insists, as if it takes a super soldier to throw a freakin' grenade.
"You're gonna do great." That's all Eva needs to hear.
"I know you voted for me, Joey." Lele bites her bottom lip so hard it almost bleeds.
You're the smartest one here. You can beat Timothy. You can beat anyone. You're gonna survive. You'd better.
Oli looks sick. So either they're going to lose Eva Gutowski, the girl with a knack for getting them out of puzzling situations, or they're going to lose our optimist Timothy DeLaGhetto. Neither option sounds appealing.
"Do you think these are soldier arms?" Eva snarls, showing off her biceps. Joey nods, and Oli grips the couch not to unload a barrage of righteous fury on him.
"Those are quite nice, actually," is all Tim has to say about it. I nod in agreement.
"I'm gonna do this." Eva slips back into her jacket, a layer of venom underneath her disturbingly quiet voice.
"And I'm gonna come out alive. And then I'm gonna come for you, Joey." she points at him.