As Drake opens his eyes, he could see Ziya and the others standing in preparation for a fight. However, he couldn't hear a thing. All that he could hear was a loud ringing in his head as the bullet wound in his head healed itself. As he sat up to look at the man who pulled the trigger, he felt a heavy lightheadedness. His hearing was slowly coming back, but at this time, all he could hear were muffled voices and inaudible speech. Drake slowly stood up and walked towards the man with the gun, stumbling from dizziness as he walked. He heard the man say something, but he couldn't understand a word he said. Instead, Drake was greeted by another bullet to the head.
When Drake once again opened his eyes, he saw several of his other teammates laying on the floor as well. Judy, Georgie, Jake, Will, Kyle, Frank and Jon were each shot as well. However, Ziya was now standing in front of the man. The man with the handgun was furiously pulling the trigger as he aimed at Ziya, however, no bullets were coming out. Ziya slowly pulled out her knife, but Drake's head began to ring louder. Drake puts his hands over his ears and closes his eyes in pain as the ringing in his ears became paired with the loud whispering again. By the time it finally went away, and Drake opened his eyes again, Ziya had already finished off the man with the gun.
The rest of the team was already on their feet by the time Drake finally began to get up. Ziya was reaching down for the pistol that the man dropped when he died. However, as Ziya reaches for the gun, another bullet came flying from further in the town. The bullet hit the ground, right next to Ziya's hand, barely missing her. Ziya pulls her arm back, and hides behind the wall that she were right next to. She waited a few seconds, quickly snatched the gun off of the ground, and hid behind the wall again. "They've got a lock on our position" Jake says.
"It was likely because of the first guy here, shooting like a wild jackass" Ziya says. "They must've heard the shots and came to finish us off here".
"Well, you've got a gun now! Do something!" Frank yells.
"Can't" Ziya says. "No more bullets. That guy wasted it all".
"Great" Georgie says sarcastically. "How else are we gonna be fucked in this game!?".
"I told you, it only gets worse" Ziya says. "Grow a pair and do something useful!".
"Yer one ta talk about growing a pair!" Georgie yells. "Look at ya!".
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Ziya yells back.
"You ain't got no titties!" Georgie yells. "Besides, you've got more lives than the rest of us! You do something useful!".
Ziya groans, then yells "Useless! All of you!". Ziya dashes around the corner and charges at the person closest to her. He shoots at her, hitting her in the leg. As the bullet hits, she rolls behind the corner of the alleyway closest to the man who shot at her. Taking a deep breath to prepare herself to endure the pain, she puts all of her weight into her unharmed leg, then swings her hammer around the corner. The hammer hits the man in the face, and she quickly scrambled to grab his gun as well. Ziya managed to grab his gun before he could Respawn, and slipped the magazine out of the pistol and put it into her own gun. Since the two guns were the same model, the magazine fit perfectly. However, as she stood back up, she took a bullet to the back of her heart.
When Ziya collapsed, Drake runs out to attack the man who shot her. Wielding his dagger in hand, he leaps at the man, only to be shot in the shoulder and fall to the ground. Drake got back up, only to take yet another bullet to the brain. As he stood motionless for a second, with a hole in his head, the man who shot him began to reload. However, a bullet flew through the cavity in Drake's head, hitting the man who shot him, in the face. Down the alleyway, was Ziya with her newly loaded pistol, aiming right through Drake's bullet wound. As Drake got up, he tried to finish off the man who shot him. However, Ziya pulled Drake away from the man so they could take cover from the others who are shooting at them. "We've gotta move!" Ziya yells as she grabs his arm and pulls him away. As the others follow Ziya and Drake down the alley, Georgie stops to kill the man who was down as soon as he Respawns. After killing him, Georgie takes the handgun, all of his bullets, searches for food and continues running.
The team runs as gunfire continues behind them. It would appear as if there were several teams fighting each other at the entrance of this Floor. They kept running until they couldn't run anymore. However, even though they felt as if they should be close to the next stairs by now, they didn't make it very far. They were tired, and their hunger only made it harder for them to remain on the move. They hid inside of a nearby building to catch their breath. "That got really out of hand really fast" Jake says.
"Welcome to Floor 25..." Ziya says.
Will lets out a loud groan and says "We're only halfway through this place!".
"Are we starting to get the idea on why I have been telling you to preserve your energy and be more resourceful?" Ziya asks. "If you think it'll get any easier just because the floors are getting smaller, then I'd like to remind you that it only gets worse".
"Still though" Judy says, "guns on the 25th floor... what's next?".
"Bigger guns" Ziya says, "and a more complex maze". The rest of the team stared at Ziya in silence. "You think I'm joking?" Ziya asks. "It may sound like a joke now, but you'll soon wish we were back on Floor 30".
"Not looking forward to any of that..." Drake says.
"Yeah, well" Ziya says, "regardless, we have to keep pushing onward".
"That's true" Judy says. "Staying around and complaining won't get us anywhere".
"Then, are we ready to keep moving?" Drake asks.
"Don't we get any time to rest?" Will asks.
"Do you want to sit here and wait to be shot, or do you want to leave and try to be the first group to get the bigger guns?" Ziya asks.
"Fair enough..." Will says as he stands up.
The team heads out, trying to sneak between the buildings. After a short while of travel, Jon and Will each found a gun of their own, as well as a small amount of bullets. They move on to Floor 24, as they all grow increasingly hungry and tired. Once arriving on Floor 24, they could hear gunshots coming from the center of the town. "I have an idea" Kyle says. "This time, why don't we wait for the fighting to calm down?".
"Oh, so now you want to take my idea of waiting for the enemy to clear out before moving?" Ziya asks.
"I don't like sitting around and waiting" Georgie says.
"Now, hear me out" Kyle says. "Once the gunshots stop, we finally enter the town, and check around where the shots are coming from. Then we can take whatever guns they have".
"Chances are, you'll find nothing" Ziya says. "Whoever is already there, fighting, is going to take all that they can carry".
"We should at least hide in one of these buildings on the outskirts of town" Drake says. "If we stand out in the open, then whoever else is coming up those stairs probably won't take any chances with us".
"Then what should we do about getting some firearms?" Kyle asks.
"Be patient" Ziya says. "Eventually, you'll start finding them more commonly".
"Our safest bet would to probably take the longest route" Judy says. "Go where most people wouldn't usually travel. We'll have a better chance of finding our own equipment, than trying to take the other's equipment".
"Right, and that's why we're moving" Ziya says. "No waiting around this time".
The team moves around the outermost edge of town, moved through many buildings, and slipped through many narrow alleys. They hadn't found much yet, but when they came across a building with a second floor, Kyle began to feel as if something were a bit off with this particular building. Kyle stopped for a moment and looked around, but he couldn't see any stairs to the next floor of this building. "Whatcha stoppin' for?" Georgie asks as he turns around.
"I wanna check something out" Kyle says. "Can someone help give me a lift to the window up to the second floor?".
"Why?" Judy asks.
"There's no stairs, so I'm curious if there's something up there" Kyle says.
"Not a bad idea" Ziya says.
As soon as the team comes outside of this building, Kyle starts trying to climb up the wall. Jon comes over and tries helping, by pushing his feet up from below him. Eventually, Kyle makes it to the window of the second floor of this building. "Anything up there!?" Ziya shouts, however, Kyle was silent for nearly a whole minute. "Hello?".
Suddenly, Kyle pokes his head out of the window and says "You're not going to believe this!".
"Believe what!?" Georgie asks.
Kyle pulls his hands through the large window and shows a 9mm submachine gun. "It takes the same bullets as the pistols do!" Kyle shouts.
"Did you find any ammo up there!?" Georgie asks.
"Just whatever is in this mag!" Kyle says as he pulls the magazine of the gun out. "Looks like... thirty bullets".
"That should turn out handy" Will says.
"Now get down here, we need to keep moving!" Ziya says.
"This is mine, by the way!" Kyle says as he hugs the submachine gun, with an angry look in his eyes.
"Yeah, that's great" Ziya says, "get your ass down here!".
As the team continues trough the floor, they didn't find anything else. However on the next floor, Floor 23, everyone had managed to find a pistol. Everyone except Drake and Judy. However, Drake and Judy did manage to sneak up on a team of two people and attack them without the use of guns. Each of them had gained a few more lives, but only found a couple bullets as well as the water from their canteen. Neither of those two strangers had any food or guns on them. It appeared as if they had only picked up whatever bullets they found on the ground, in hopes of eventually finding a gun. The team continued slowly pressing forward, as their hunger only grew even more. They took as few rests as possible, trying to keep moving in search for food. However, they never came across more food. Their hunger slowly began to take over the team, as their hunger turned into irritation. Then the irritation turned into constant anger. By the time the team finally reached Floor 22, it was clear that starving was too much for most of them to handle. As they finally reached Floor 22, Georgie and Ziya began to argue over food. "Well maybe if ya were better at this game than you say you are!" Georgie claims, "then we'd actually have food!".
"You could be looking for the food too, you know?" Ziya asks.
"Aren't ya supposed to be the smart one?" Georgie asks. "You're rather useless! When it comes down to it, you're nothing but talk! Why don't you make your shit sense of judgment useful and go find me some food, woman!".
"Will you two stop it!?" Judy yells in irritation.
Georgie walks up to Judy and says "Tell me what to do one more time, I dare you".
Judy squints as she stares Georgie directly in the eyes and says "Shut. The. Fuck. Up".
Georgie pushes Judy down onto the floor in anger, but when she lands, he heard a light crushing noise of something in a wrapper. "The hell kinda noise was that?" Georgie asks as he pats Judy's pocket. Once he feels something solid in her pocket, he unzips the pocket and pulls out the rations she's been saving for emergencies. "You've had food all this time!?" Georgie yells. "And you didn't tell any of us because!?".
"Those are emergency rations!" Judy yells as she gets back up. "They're for emergencies!".
"Liar!" Georgie yells. "You were hiding them for yourself!".
"If you'd look at it for one god damn second!" Judy says, "you'd see that I haven't opened it yet! Because I've been saving it for a last resort!".
"Leave her alone!" Ziya protests. "Saving something for the last moment is a good strategy! If you-".
"Silence, wench!" Georgie exclaims. Georgie pauses for a moment then says "oh... I get it. You were in on this, weren't ya? Yer all tryin' to hide food from us!? All three of you little sneaks!?".
"Wait, what?" Drake asks. "But I didn't know that-".
"You little bitch!" Georgie says as he looks at Judy and pulls out his machete.
"Whoa! Calm down" Drake says as he begins to walk towards them. Suddenly, the rest beside Georgie pulled out their guns and aim them at Ziya and Drake. "The hell is going on?" Drake asks.
"Working together was never an option" Jon says. "It's either us or them... and I'd prefer it to be us that wins this game".
"You can't win!" Ziya says. "There is no winning!".
"And there is no getting out of here either" Kyle says as he cocks his submachine gun. "Nothing too personal, but we're cutting you three off from the team as of now".
"Drake, get behind me" Ziya says as she walks up next to Drake. Ziya pulls Drake behind her, then says "I really hate it when I'm right about trusting people".
"It really was a bad idea ta form a team" Georgie says. "Well, that ends today".