After leaving the building they were hiding in, the team continues trying to slip past the vast array of a turret infested town. They only made it around the corner and to the entrance of the next alley before running into more trouble. Immediately as they tried to run around the corner of the building, another turret opened fire at them. They quickly pulled back behind the corner of the building, as bullet wizzed past violently, destroying the concrete floor and taking off large chunks of the building. "God dammit!" Chris yells. "Just can't catch a break on this floor! Please tell me this doesn't go on for the last five floors!".
"Alright... it doesn't go on for the last five floors" Ziya says in a tired and unenthusiastic tone.
"Wait, really?" Chris asks.
"Dude, I have no freaking clue!" Ziya shouts. "Do you seriously think I've been this far!?".
Judy sighs, then says "Think we can make a run for it, or do you want to risk shooting it?".
"We're likely going to have to go for the latter" Gerald says. "It's most likely to turn out the best results".
"Well, I don't have many sniper rounds left" Chris says.
"Oh for god's sake" Gerald says as he pushes Chris and Ziya our of his way. "Move, I'll take care of this". Gerald walks out into the open with his revolver in hand and shoots at the turret. He misses the first two shots, but the third one hit the turret's camera and shut it down. However, he didn't shut it down before also getting hit. When Gerald revives, he stands up and says "Well, are we moving, or are we going to stand here like a buncha idiots all day?".
"R-right..." Chris says. "Thanks for the... suicidal attempt?".
"Don't mention it" Gerald says as Ziya starts walking ahead of the group. Before following behind Ziya, Gerald puts one hand on Chris's left shoulder and says "ever... don't mention it ever. I mean it".
"Who's going to care?" Chris asks in confusion. "Everyone else in Pyramid is already dead!".
"We don't know that for sure" Gerald says. "But mostly, I need you guys to get your shit together... honestly, it was fun looking down on you for a while... but get your shit together!". Gerald pats Chris's shoulder, then follows behind Ziya.
"What an asshole..." Chris says to himself as he shakes his head, then follows Ziya as well. Chris catches up to the rest. As they all walk down the alley, Chris says "I think we need to chill on the suicidal plans...".
"Agreed" Ziya says.
"I mean..." Chris says, "I'm glad someone agrees... but these turrets don't have lives".
"Yeah, so?" Gerald asks.
"So?" Chris repeats. "We won't gain anything from destroying them! We won't get our lives back, and we don't have an infinite amount of revives!".
"Sounds like a personal problem..." Gerald says.
"You're a personal problem!" Chris yells in frustration.
"Look" Gerald says, "the plan is simple. We run through, and keep moving at full speed until we're out of this ghost town. The frequent alleys and corners will give us cover, and if we run into more of those turrets in the alleys, then we have a better chance to shoot them. With them being so close, it shouldn't be too hard. Think you can wrap your brain around that?".
"Of course I can!" Chris yells. "The problem is-".
"Chris, shut it" Ziya says. "And Gerald, I don't remember asking you for any plans. We move swiftly, avoiding as much combat as possible. You never know if they've added additional traps here. The game masters have likely already anticipated the likelihood of people trying to speed run this floor due to its small size. What we need, is to make sure we don't fall for their traps, hook, line and sinker".
"Fine, do what you want..." Gerald says.
The team roamed for a while, running through buildings, and occasionally jumping from the rooftop of one building, and onto the rooftop of another. Eventually, they saw it, the stairs appeared in front of them. However, they were still on the second floor of a building right next to the walls that create the end of the town. They decided to hop over this short wall from the height of this building. Drake was the first to volunteer, however, he had a bad feeling about this. "There's no way they'd use only turrets this far in Pyramid, with what we've seen so far" Drake thinks to himself. Drake gets a running start, and prepares himself for the jump. After he jumps over the wall, he sees a field of land mines just outside of the main exit of the town. The walls had one open section, leading from the main road through the center of town. Just outside of that gap in the wall was a field of land mines, surely waiting for anyone in a rush. "Hey guys, get a load of this!" Drake yells at the others.
The rest of the team follows behind Drake and looks at the field of mine. "Looks like Ziya made the right call" Chris says. "Rushing trough the town would've ended badly as we thought".
"Don't you patronize me" Gerald scoffs.
"Ladies, calm down" Ziya says. "Come on, we're moving".
As they walk, Judy quietly whispers to Ziya "Wow, you really don't take anyone's shit, do ya?".
"Mm?" Ziya says with a shrug.
When the team arrives in Floor 4, they've come across yet another ghost town, full of turret. Only this time, many of the buildings were dilapidated and in ruins, leaving them open to the view of the turrets mounted of the tops of buildings surrounding the area. "This... is bullshit" Chris says.
"Save the complaining for when we're being shot at" Drake says.
"Oh, it's gonna happen" Chris argues. "I don't see a way around this without being shot at, at least once!".
Upon entering the town through the gap in the wall, the team spots two flamethrower turrets on either side behind the walls, aimed at the entrance. The team pulls back around the corner and hides from the turrets before being burned alive. "What's the plan for this one?" Judy asks.
"Duh, we shoot 'em" Gerald says as he pulls out his revolver. He turns the corner and hits the first turret on the right, in the gas tank. The tank explodes, but a chain reaction of explosions also go off. The building to their right collapses and dust flies into the air. The dust was thick, and created a cloud that was hard to see through beyond a few meters.
"Gerald, what the hell!?" Chris asks.
"No wait!" Ziya shouts. "They've definitely planted explosives throughout this town, so it'll likely be more dangerous to take refuge in the buildings this time. However, if we can kick up a strong enough explosion and take down most of this town, that'll also take care of most of the turrets for us".
"Depending on how many buildings that requires us to take down" Judy says, "that might also create such a thick dust cloud here that we won't be able to breathe".
"Breathe into your jumpsuit" Ziya says. "The cloud might also eventually start messing with their sensors, if we can make the dust cloud thick enough".
"So, destroy the other turret then?" Gerald asks.
"Please..." Ziya says.
Gerald smirks, then says "With pleasure". Gerald quickly takes out the turret on the left, and another chain reaction of explosions go off. More buildings on the left then crumbled, as the team pulled the collar of their jumpsuits over their faces and began to run. As they ran through the cloud, bullets flew through the air at them. The turrets could see them, but their reaction time seemed to be slowed down.
"It ain't working!" Chris yells.
"It's working!" Ziya yells backs, "just keep moving!". The team runs until the found yet another building to hide behind. They entered the door, but heard a subtle beeping noise as soon as they entered. "Shit!" Ziya shouts as she tries to push everyone back outside. Some more explosives go off in this building, instantly killing the whole team. When the team woke back up, they were surrounded by debris, and the dust cloud was very thick. There was a wide hole they could climb out of luckily, but half of Ziya's team was low on Respawns. Ziya and Chris have no idea how many Respawns they have, but Drake's watch showed "3" as Judy's showed only "1" now. "Come on" Ziya says in a hoarse voice, "we've gotta keep moving".
"Zizi, hold on..." Drake says in a weak voice. "I've gotta... I gotta rest a minute. That explosion was... too much, y'know?".
Ziya sighs, then picks up Drake on her back and begins to carry him. "The rest of you coming or not?" She asks.
"Zizi..." Drake says as he seems to be slowly falling asleep on her back, "sorry to do this... to ya".
As Drake falls asleep on Ziya's back, the rest rush towards the exit of this town. There were more flamethrower turrets by the exit, and another field of mines. As they ran, most of them took out a weapon and fired at the turrets until another large explosion went off. The explosion destroyed the entire wall of the exit of this town, and they rushed past the rest of this floor and up the stairs to Floor 3. Meanwhile, in his sleep, Drake isn't met with the reflection this time. This time, he's met with some of his fond childhood memories. Memories of times when he and Ziya were young. They were always close, and Drake was always trying to take care of Ziya.
One day, Drake approached Ziya outside of their middle school. Ziya was sitting in the courtyard, lightly sobbing. "What's up, Zizi?" Drake asks.
"Those mean boys were picking on me again in class" Ziya says between sobs. "I don't even know what I did this time to make them hate me!".
"Hey hey!" Drake says as he gently pays her on the back. "Relax, it's not that bad. One day, we'll graduate middle school, and we'll never have to see those losers again!".
"Mhm..." Ziya remarks with skepticism.
"Look, I know it's tough" Drake says, "but bear with it for now... and hey, you never know! Maybe a miracle could happen, and they'll leave you alone!".
Ziya tried not to laugh, but then says "If only life were that easy".
"At least try to cheer up, okay?" Drake asks. Drake then stands up and says "I'll be right back! I've gotta go grab something from one of the teachers, then we can walk home together, alright?".
"Mhm" Ziya says with a nod of her head.
Drake walks away, and turns around the corner outside of the school. He comes across a group of three boys who were hanging out after school. "So I hear you've been bullying my friend lately" Drake says.
"Bullying who?" One boy asks.
"You ain't got the proof!" Another boy says.
"I guess we're doing this the hard way..." Drake says as he picks up a large stick. Drake begins hitting the boys over the head with the stick until it finally breaks over one of their heads. The three boys ran away crying, and Drake drop his broken stick and goes back to where Ziya was waiting. "Alright, you ready to go?" Drake asks.
In another memory, when the two of them were older, they were talking about the future. "What do you think life will be like after high school?" Ziya asks.
"I dunno" Drake says. "Some things that are good will happen, some things bad... we've just gotta roll with the punches".
"Yeah, that's what you've been trying to reach me, at least" Ziya says. Ziya then giggles and says "Sometimes I feel like I learn more from my best friend, than I do from school...".
"Ehhhh... you hold too high of a standard for me" Drake says then laughs. "Don't sweat it, it's what friends are for".
"Mhm!" Ziya says. "At least we'll always be friends".
Drake pats Ziya on the head and says "I'll make sure of it!".
Suddenly, Drake wakes up laying on the floor in Pyramid, by Ziya's side. "Where are we?" Drake asks. Drake quickly tries to sit up, but his head was in an immense pain. "Ah- geez!" Drake shouts as he presses his hands on both sides of his head. "Damn, my head hurts".
"Did that explosion take that much out of you?" Chris asks.
"Ah, no" Drake replies. "My grad has this intense pressure, and these... these-".
"It's alright" Ziya says. "Just take you time. What's wrong?".
"I think some of my memories are coming back" Drake says.
"Really!?" Ziya panics.
"Not... a whole lot of them though" Drake says. "Just... bits and pieces".
"Hey, don't force it" Ziya says. "Take it one step at a time, and try to bear with it".
"Yeah... alright" Drake says as he lowers his hands off of his head. Suddenly, he gets another sharp pain in his head, and he raises his hands back up. After waiting a while, Drake eventually asks "So... where are we?".
"Welcome to Floor 3" Gerald says as he gestured his arm down towards a corridor.
When Drake looks, he's sees yet another maze on Floor 3. One like the floors before, with the concrete walls stretching all the way up to the ceiling, with many twists and turns. "Seeing as how the last few floors went..." Chris says, "this'll probably be a lot of fun... if you're a masochist".
"Shit..." Drake says as his arms drop to his sides.