Eric woke up from his chair. Wendy and Yun-Yeong were still asleep in theirs. Huang was lying on the metal floor of the smoking area, looking pleased as he slept, and Vanessa and Micah were standing up, mumbling to each other about nothing. He checked his watch. 6AM on day three. Twelve hours until voting started, probably.
"Yo, birdgirl, good job." Eric gave her a quick high five as she passed out in the chair.
"How long until I get to go to sleep?" Micah asked.
"Until Wendy wakes up." Eric replied. "I'll get you a coffee if you need it."
"Sir, I am begging you for a coffee." Micah slumped forward before jerking upright and leaning against the wall. "I can't take much more of this."
"Whatever you say, nails."
Eric went down the steps of the club, the speaker playing the loud music having exploded and no longer playing anything. He made his way to the coffee shop, using the black coffee machine to make himself an Expresso, and Micah…got a mocha. It rhymed, so it was probably the best choice.
As he headed out, he was greeted by somebody slamming headfirst into him. The two coffees flew into the air, and Eric managed to grab one with his water. A shot of metal tried to get the other coffee, but the cardboard cup it was made from exploded on impact, leaving a mass of hot liquid on the ground. Eric checked the inside of the coffee cup, and it was Micah's that was intact.
"Oh, god damn it." He groaned. "Hey, you better pay up for that." He looked to see who it was that caused this, and it was Valentina on the ground.
"Sorry about the coffee." She replied quickly, panting as her metal arm came back to her.
Eric took a look at her, her face red and tear stained, and how she was breathing heavily.
"Are you…doing okay, Valentina?"
"No!" Valentina replied, grabbing Eric by the shoulders. "Have you seen Cyrus or Odebode anywhere?"
"Lady, personal space." Eric replied, before he was let go. "Anyway, I got people on lookout up there, so if anything happened, they'll know about it."
The two of them went to the top of the Black Halo, where Micah was standing surrounded by sleeping people, on the verge of passing out.
"Yo, Nails, I got your coffee." Eric called, handing it to him.
"What's the government lady doing here?" He asked, sipping his coffee.
"Have you seen Cyrus or Odebode. Either of them?" Valentina yelled, causing Wendy to open her eyes.
"I haven't, no." Micah replied. "But they might be in the Brasshead."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Eric mumbled, checking his watch. "Shit, is it locked down?"
"It's what?" Valentina yelled.
"Yep, locked down until somebody dies." Micah continued calmly.
"Look, I got this." Eric added, closing Valentina's mouth before she could scream anything else. "It's a government building from a couple decades ago. Most of those have escape exits and entrances built into them."
"Really?" Valentina replied, muffled, as Eric's hand was still over his mouth.
"Look, I'll show you how to find it."
"Mind if I come?" Micah asked, gulping down the rest of his coffee.
"You wanna go in?" Eric asked wearily.
"What if someone is injured in there?" He asked.
"Alright, fine." Eric sighed. "Now, how far away is it?"
Once the three of them got to the Brasshead, it was naturally locked down, gates hiding the building with everything and everyone in it. The gates had spikes on the top, and electrocution. Great.
"So, Val. You able to force it open?" Eric asked calmly.
"Would there be a security system nearby?" She asked back.
"Nah, that's all on the inside. This whole thing is probably hooked to wires underneath the building. So our only option is that arm of yours. Now do your thing."
"Sure. But I'll need both of you to grab one of my shoulders."
Eric and Micah did as instructed, Valentina took a breath, and allowed her arm to melt, with the metal moving into the middle of the electric gate. Once it covered, Eric was taking the shock. Not well, but holding on, while Micah looked like he was barely clinging to life. The metal crushed the middle of the fence, and the electricity stopped. Eric shook his hands vigorously to get the electricity out, and Micah fell onto his back.
"Could you not get Wendy to do that?" He asked, spluttering afterwards.
"Nah, she doesn't need to get involved in this." Eric replied, getting a shiver down his back. "Let's just get in there and get her team out."
The three approached the door, and Eric looked around the walls of the building for a few minutes.
"Let's see…how old would this building be, do you know?" Eric asked, tracing his fingers across the building.
"Can't really tell, sorry." Valentina sighed, shaking any excess metal out of her arm
"Whatever, it'll just take a little…hey, I think I got it!"
He pointed to a small metal panel near the bottom of the wall, on the left-hand side. To Micah and Valentina, it looked like any other panel on the wall.
"What's going on, exactly?" Micah asked.
"When these types of things are built, the metal plates are reinforced from the inside of the building. Except for one panel done from the outside. This is meant to be an escape hatch in case anything goes down."
Micah looked at the panel, and it was a shade lighter than the others, with bolts on each corner.
"So anyway, Val. We'll need you to break these for us."
Valentina put her hand against the panel, melting it instantly, and beginning to crawl in. Eric followed her, and then Micah. Once the three of them made their way in, they entered a small room, and opened it to be let into the main hall, where Cyrus was drinking a neon blue can of Head Spinner energy drink, sitting across a table from Odebode.
"Cyrus! Cyrus, how are you doing?"
"Minus this drink being terrible, decent enough." He replied calmly, wincing as he took another sip.
"Good, good. Any reason why you ended up here?"
"We just wanted to do a supply run!" Odebode yelled quickly. "We heard there was equipment here, but it was a trap, and we ended up stuck here."
"But we're all good now, right?" Eric asked. "So we can get out of here?"
"Well, Eric…could you maybe help me see if anyone needs help?" Micah asked.
"Oh yeah, you wanna help people, I forgot." Eric replied with a heavy sigh.
"Can I come too?" Odebode asked out of nowhere.
"E…Excuse me?" Micah asked. "You tried to kill me like, two days ago."
"I am very aware!" Odebode yelled from the top of his lungs, starting to sweat, walking right up to Micah.
"I have acted out of fear and malice!" He yelled, stretching a hand out. "Actions like that are unbecoming of a self-proclaimed protector! I ask for your forgiveness, and my assurance that I will no longer exhibit such actions!"
"Since when did you call yourself a protector?" Eric mumbled to himself.
Micah reacted with silence at first. A few misplaced syllables fired out of his mouth, before ending on a simple "Hell no."
"U-Understandable!" Odebode replied, backing away.
"So, can we go do…whatever it is you're trying to do?" Eric sighed, turning to Micah.
The two of them made their way through the place, not seeing anything suspicious for the most part, except for Silvia and Seeta.
"Yo, either of you see Lloyd?" Silvia yelled out.
"Nope." Eric yelled back.
"Alright, just checking!"
Once on the third floor, the two of them made their way to the bloodstained hallway.
"What the hell?" Micah whispered to himself.
"Oh shit, that's disgusting!" Eric yelled out, looking at the left-handed side, dried blood all along it like the city's worst attempt at abstract art. Eric wrapped his jacket across his face to avoid the smell, and kept walking, seeing three people in a room. Eric slowly opened the door, entering to Ulrich, Amber, and Aurora.
"Nah, you can't really notice it." Ulrich said calmly as he entered the room. "Besides, it's the eye you covered anyway."
"I swear, dear, that reacher bastard is gonna pay." Aurora muttered, tossing her hair around her head.
"Reacher?" Eric asked. "Something happen?"
"Did something…Dear, have you seen the bloodbath outside?! That bone guy attacked my Amber out of nowhere!" She yelled, accidentally pulling Amber's hair as she did so, and immediately letting it go.
"Bone guy…so Cyrus?" Micah asked.
"Yeah, him." Ulrich replied.
"Right." Micah nodded, looking at Eric from the corner of his eye. "So, mind if I take a look at Amber, see what I can do later?"
"Anything happens to her, and your excuse for eyeballs will be hanging from a do not disturb sign." Aurora replied.
"It's just a check-up, miss, relax." Micah lifted Amber's hair up and seized up at what he saw. He didn't exactly know what to expect, but wow, it wasn't this. The entirety of her face was bloodstained, and her eye looked like it was awkwardly shoved back into place, with the inside looking extremely cloudy.
"Can you…see anything out of that?" He asked. Eric looked away from what he was seeing, focusing on the chair closest to him. Pretty decent metalwork, getting a closer look.
"I can see colours, and that's basically it." Amber replied, covering her eye back up.
"I see." Micah replied. "I think the lens in your left eye was destroyed."
"That's fixable, right?" Ulrich asked, wincing.
"Maybe where you come from, but I haven't seen anything like that here." Micah sighed. "Think the most we can do know is get some disinfectant."
"Well, that settles who I'm voting for." Aurora mumbled angrily.
"Oh yeah, you know who you're voting off?" Ulrich asked.
"Haven't decided yet." Eric responded, scratching his neck.
"I'm thinking Lloyd." Ulrich replied calmly.
"Oh, I see. Look, I don't do well with blood and junk, so I'm going to step out for a while." Eric sighed. "See you later."
Eric stepped into the hallway, wrapped his jacket over his nose, and made his way through the hallway, looking at the ceiling to avoid having to look at the blood. There was still blood on the ceiling, so it didn't really help. He made his way back through the hallways, hearing some kind of noise through the hallways. It sounded like the snores of someone overdosing on drugs of some kind. He made his way closer to it, not knowing what it was. As he got closer, Silvia and Seeta appeared behind him.
"You know what that noise is?" Seeta asked.
"I have no idea." Eric replied shakily.
"Whatever it is, I don't like it!" Silvia whispered loudly. "So let's find it!"
The three of them traced the source of the noise towards a room with an open door. Seeta readied her axe before going in, entering steadily with a mighty swing, just in case. Nothing happened. Silvia slowly walked into the room, with her and Seeta both seeing Andrei's body lying face down on the floor. Silvia ran over to him, flipping him face up with Seeta. A small trail of vomit was leaving his mouth, which Silvia wiped away.
"Come on, big guy. Don't die on me now." Silvia muttered. He couldn't die now; she was so close to the endgame.
"Uh, do any of you guys see that?" Eric asked, pointing to a small trail of blood underneath the table. Seeta slowly looked underneath, seeing what lay underneath.
The body of Gemma Honeycutt, with a steel knife through her neck.
Kill number 4.