"I can't believe I survived Ronalyn for this," Hailey said angrily. She frowned when she looked around at her former schoolmates whose faces were still scarred with fear.
"Ronalyn?" Jerome asked in confusion.
The former secretary looked at the young man with one eyebrow raised. "Co-ronalyn, the bitch."
"O-Oh..." Jerome just nodded. He was about to turn his gaze back to their other companions when what seemed to be a static suddenly echoed from the campus speakers.
"I told you not to disappoint me." Those were the first words of what seemed to be a disappointed but still deep voice.
"It's not their real voice," Ally said as she looked directly at the nearest speaker.
Vince grinned again then nodded. "It doesn't sound far from a man's normal voice, but the distortion gets obvious when the speaker changes their tone."
"So, we're not even sure how many persons are talking to us?" Arkin asked seriously using his naturally cocky expression.
"It could be just one person, it could be two or more," Ally answered.
"I guess, I expected too much from my dear engineers."
"Stop it! Stop this! Just let us go home!" One of the crying women suddenly screamed, again and again. She got everyone's attention, and so, they all saw how she suddenly collapsed on the ground.
The terrified screams of the young people rushing away from the woman who had just fallen echoed again. Only Kingsley's group went in the opposite direction, approaching her body.
"I-Is this a gunshot wound?" Noah asked in disbelief as he checked the woman's body first. He followed the source of the blood that dripped behind her ear and saw the hole where the bullet had pierced through.
"It's near." From slightly squatting to also take a look at the dead woman's body, Ally quickly stood up and turned in the direction of the other graduates.
"What is?" Kingsley asked seriously, his nervousness evident.
Because of what Ally said, Vince quickly approached the corpse and also examined the source of the blood. "There's stippling in the skin surrounding the wound."
"What?" Hailey asked with a perplexed expression.
"Stippling is caused by unburned particles of gunpowder striking the skin," Ally answered while still not taking her eyes off her fellow graduates who were also looking in their direction.
"How close does it have to be for the gunpowder to reach get on target?" Jerome asked.
Vince was about to answer when the person next to him suddenly stood up and looked seriously at their batchmates. "Two feet, isn't it?" Noah asked seriously.
Kingsley, Jerome, and Arkin stilled while Hailey's lips trembled. "T-Then that means…"
"One of us has a gun with a silencer," Ally said with a sigh.
Hailey's eyebrows furrowed again. "Hey! We were together at that time at least ten meters away from this girl. It's one of them, not one of us."
Ally just ignored the complaint of the former secretary of the Student Council and turned to Kingsley. "Someone's armed with a gun—"
"I just told you, dear engineers…I'm disappointed. Disappointment is a negative feeling, and so is anger. Don't make me mad."
Ally frowned a bit when they heard the deep voice again from what she thought had been turned off speakers. She unconsciously turned to Vince and found him looking at her as well, as if they were thinking the same thing.
"To continue our little game, proceed to Louie's Hall. You understand simple instructions, right?"
The graduates could only look at each other. No one dared to say a word.
"I'm giving you a minute," the voice said. "I repeat, don't make me mad."
"I think we need to go," Jerome said slowly and obviously nervous. He looked at Kingsley and waited for his nod before he started running.
It seemed like there was a race because of almost two hundred young people trying their best to go to Louie's Hall as quickly as possible. They found the door of the multi-purpose hall open, which they usually only go to when the university has a program before. They entered in silence, but murmurs began when they saw fifteen cubicles, standing side-by-side at the end of the vast room.
"Welcome to Louie's Hall, dear engineers."
"Can't that voice stop calling us dear?" Hailey said in disgust.
"I want all males to form a line on the right, and the females on the left," the voice from the speaker said excitedly. The graduates just looked at each other again. No one moved. "Do you really want me to shoot someone again?"
"He's saying he's the one who shot that lady?" Noah asked as he turned to Ally.
"He's the one who ordered it, so he's owning it," the young woman answered before starting to walk closer to the line that the other women were making.
Only a few seconds later, everyone was lined up in front of the stage, with their backs turned to the cubicles. The stage curtain opened and two boxes appeared, just opposite the two queues.
"Get one each."
The woman and man at the front of each line approached hesitantly. They were slightly relieved to see that there were only smaller boxes—with numbers written on them. They were light and there was no sound from inside them, but they still didn't dare to open anything out of caution.
A few minutes passed before everyone got a single box. The queue was gone because the graduates were causing a new commotion, wondering what to do.
"The numbers from the girls' boxes are the same as the guys. Each should have a partner."
Even though standing on different sides of the room, Ally and Vince looked at each other again because of what they heard. They both then looked at a young man who was also looking directly at Ally.
"Find your partner. Quick."
Ally lowered her gaze toward the small box she was holding. Before she could even take a step, she saw a pair of shoes stop in front of her. When she looked up, Paul's smile greeted her.
"38?" the young man asked while showing the number written on the box he was holding.
Ally also raised her hand and shook her head sadly.
"That's sad." Paul also smiled sadly. That's all he said and turned his back to look for his partner.
Ally couldn't leave where she stood again when Vince approached her. His hand holding his box was also raised. The young woman showed hers again, and he quickly turned away.
Ally looked around in the middle of the other graduates going back and forth. Some have already found their partners; most are strangers to each other. More than half of them still remain searching.
A soft pat on her shoulder made Ally turn around.
"77?" Noah asked while showing his box.
Ally's lower lip twitched slightly as she couldn't take her eyes off the young man. It was like her hand moved on its own to show him her own box.
Noah smiled. "We're partners then."
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