After Chris catches back up with the rest of the team, he begins to take the lead, guiding the rest throughout the town. After a while of silence, Chris reaches into his right pocket while saying "Oh yeah, you three might need these". He pulls out a handful of bullets from his pocket and says "I won't be needing these".
"Where'd you get all of these?" Ziya asks.
"Are you kidding?" Chris asks. "I stayed on the higher floors before the game even began. I only came down after the game started, even then I scouted up ahead of you guys a while back... did you not remember that?".
"What about you? Won't you need it too?" Drake asks.
"Oh, no I won't be using these at all" Chris says. "These are nine millimeter bullets, or more properly known as "9x19 Parabellum" rounds. The guns I have now can't fit that type of ammunition. I have a ".357" revolver and a ".338" sniper rifle". After that, Chris pulls out a small revolver and shows it to them. "Take all of the nine millimeter ammo you want, I can't use it" He says.
"Well, we're almost to the next set of stairs" Ziya says. "We can take a short rest and work on loading our magazines with the ammo then. It'll be a little difficult trying to put the bullets into a mag one at a time while walking".
"Having only one magazine kinda makes using these in difficult situations more... difficult" Judy says.
Ziya looks over her shoulder at Judy. "Catch..." she says as she throws an empty pistol magazine at Judy, then throws another one at Drake.
"Keeping empty mags from the dead guys?" Chris asks. "Not bad, Ziya... not bad at all".
"It'll be easier that way, won't it?" Ziya asks. "Survival is all about resourcefulness. If we keep the empty magazines, then we can keep them for later, fill them up with ammo, and when we run out of bullets in our current weapon, we can just swap it for the other mag to stay in the fight".
After they find a spot to rest, everyone began slowly loading their ammo into their magazines for their weapons. As they did this, Chris began to explain the usage for their guns. "Also, make sure you hold onto your pistols for the rest of the game" Chris says to Drake and Judy. "They may seem less effective against the other guns, but since that same pistol is the only gun available on the first five floors with firearms, then it's more common to find parts for your gun, or a replacement gun altogether".
"Do the other magazines not fit in this pistol, even if they're also a nine millimeter pistol?" Judy asks.
"No" Chris says. "The magazines you have now fit because they're designed for that gun in specific. The weapons you've been finding so far, with the exception of that MP5 that Ziya has, are all called the P226 and none of their parts will be interchangeable. Since you've already collected magazines for those weapons, that alone can make your pistols versatile enough to survive any fight".
"Also, I've noticed Zizi is putting the same ammo we use into her submachine gun" Drake says. "Does that take the same ammunition?".
"Yes" Chris says. "That submachine gun also uses the 9x19 Parabellum rounds".
"And if the pistols are so versatile, then why aren't you using one?" Judy asks.
"Ah, good question" Chris says. "You see, I've found this revolver. Revolvers don't use a magazine, they use a revolving chamber. When I need to reload, I just pop this open here..." Chris then opens up the revolving chamber, with the spinning chamber sticking out of the side of the gun. It had four empty spaces out of six total spaces in the chamber, so Chris took out four bullets and loaded them into the chamber. "I just do this, and it's ready to go. However, it's kind of hard to find the bullets I need for this revolver, so I try not to use it too often... I just love the way it feels though". Chris then began to giggle quietly to himself.
"That's-uh... neat" Judy says, staring in concern at Chris.
"Moving on" Ziya says, "we all now have a backup magazine. Does everyone have full ammo for both mags?".
"Yeah, as much as I could fit in here" Judy says.
"I'm full here as well" Drake says.
"One more thing" Chris says as he hands two more bullets to each of them. "The one in the chamber rule. Watch this". Chris takes Drake's pistol, puts in one magazine, then loads it. After that, he puts the safety switch on, and takes the magazine back out. After that, he puts one more bullet in the magazine and hands it back to Drake, with the magazine still outside of the pistol. "If you load the gun, it'll take a bullet out of the mag. After that, you can load one more bullet in the magazine, which will increase your capacity by one. Also, one more thing... don't put the magazine in or take off the safety switch, and for the love of god, do not put your finger anywhere near the trigger unless you're absolutely ready to shoot. Okay?".
"Y-Yeah... alright" Drake says.
"Good" Chris says. "Ready to move out now?".
"I'm not going to be shot in the face as soon as we go up the next flight of stairs, am I?" Drake asks.
As the team makes it up the stairs, finally arriving on Floor 20, they see a total change in the floors layout. Or rather, they couldn't see the entire floor at all, because of what they were met with. The floors went from a maze-like ghost town, to an actual maze. The walls of the maze went all the way up to the ceiling of the floor. The walls were thick, and they could see many different splitting paths. Beyond that, they could not tell what lays beyond those walls or corners. "You've got to be kidding me..." Drake says.
"Out of the frying pan, into the fire" Ziya says. "I told you-".
"It only gets worse. Yeah, we know" Judy interrupts. "But... this!? This is just... awful!".
"Question" Drake says. "Chris, are there cameras throughout the maze? Because how the hell did you avoid appearing on the cameras in a place like this?".
"There are cameras" Chris says. "However, they're avoidable. Throughout the maze, there are wide open areas, presumably put there for people to fight in a wide open space. Every now and then, there will be these open spaces with a camera in one of the corners. However, not all of the spaces have perfectly angled cameras to watch the whole open area. They aimed the cameras to capture where all of the action is. Because of that, you will sometimes be able to sneak around the outermost edge of these spaces and remain out of their view".
"However, we're not taking the time to tiptoe around that right now" Ziya says. "So it doesn't matter anymore".
"But what about-" Drake begins to ask.
"Come on, we're moving" Ziya interrupts.
The team begins moving through this maze. They couldn't hear anyone near them, nor could they tell which way they were going. There were so many twists and turns, that they found themselves being lost. Eventually, Chris stops the group and says "We've been here before".
"You mean, during the first game?" Drake asks.
"No, I mean just now" Chris says. "We're going in circles".
"Haven't you already ran through this maze a couple times?" Judy asks.
"Yes, but I haven't exactly been keeping a map on me" Chris says.
"How do you know we've gone in circles?" Drake asks. "This whole place looks the same as every other corridor in this maze".
"It's just a feeling..." Chris says, "but this feels way too familiar".
"Maybe you're just being paranoid" Judy says. "It might feel familiar because you've already been through this a couple times".
"Maybe..." Chris says. "Ziya, can I use your hammer for a second?".
"Why?" Ziya asks.
"I just want to use it really quickly" Chris says. Ziya hands the hammer over to Chris, then Chris smashes the hammer into the wall. Some of the concrete broke off, but the walls were too thick to break in one swing. In fact, even if Chris had tried, he wouldn't be able to break through the walls ever. Behind the concrete walls were rebar to keep the walls supported. The rebar also kept them from being able to break through the walls. Chris then hands the hammer back to Ziya and says "Thanks, that should be helpful enough".
"What was that for?" Ziya asks.
"It's a mark" Chris says. "If we come across this wall again, we'll know because of the chunk of concrete missing, and the rebar exposed".
"Right..." Drake says, "so which way should we go for now?".
"Follow me" Chris says. Chris leads them down many more paths. They kept going around corners all day until they got exhausted. "I swear this was easier before!" Chris says. "Why is this taking so long now!?".
"I've been meaning to ask" Drake says, "what's the farthest floor you've made it to so far?".
"Floor 16" Chris says. "I didn't really have much of a reason to go further than that".
"Then that means we can likely start finding the same weapons you have around these floors?" Drake asks.
"Well, yes and no" Chris says. "You'll be able to find the same revolver as me, but I doubt you'll be able to find another sniper rifle".
"Why's that?" Judy asks.
"Well, you see..." Chris says as he thinks, "I've noticed that some weapons are rarely ever found in this game. Weapons like this sniper rifle, that submachine gun, that sledgehammer, or that kukri knife that Drake has... those are all a rare weapons that no one else really ever seems to find. It's possible that there's only one of those weapons in each game".
"So... we're just incredibly lucky?" Judy asks.
"Doubtful" Chris says. "I will admit that while your weapons that you've found are good ones, there is almost undoubtedly much better ones that the others have found. I wouldn't start feeling too confident if I were you".
As the team turned one more corner, Ziya interrupts their talk. "Uh... guys?" She says as she points at a wall. "You're not going to like this".
"What's wrong?" Chris asks as he looks ahead of them. Up ahead, was the wall with a chunk of concrete missing from when Chris hit it with the sledgehammer. "Aw, Hell!" Chris pouts.
"Guess I was wrong" Judy says. "We really are going in circles here".
"Yeah" Chris says in a condescending tone, "that's not a good thing!".
"Screw it" Ziya says as she sits down, "I'm taking a rest".
"Yeah, maybe that isn't such a bad idea after all" Chris says as he sits down.
The rest of the team decides to rest with them, and as they sit down, Drake says "So it looks like we'll have to come up with a solid game plan here. How do you think we should go on about walking through this maze".
"Well, leaving a mark was helpful" Ziya says, "but we can't exactly just keep smashing walls with hammers. It makes too much noise and could draw people near us".
"Speaking of which, I'm surprised we haven't run into anybody in this maze yet" Drake says.
"They all might've already progressed ahead of us by now" Chris says. "You guys have been moving awfully slow...".
"Wait!" Ziya says, "I have an idea!". Ziya walks over to the wall that was smashed, picks up a chunk of concrete from the ground, and walks back. "We can mark where we've already gone before with this!" Ziya says to the other three. "If we use this piece of concrete like chalk, we can draw arrows showing which direction we've already gone through! That way, if we come across the same turn, we can see which way the arrow is pointing. That way, we'll know which way not to go!".
"Not a bad idea" Chris says.
"We'll start after a short rest though" Judy says. "I'm really tired, and we all need a break".
"Yeah... alright" Ziya says.