Classes went by as they usually do in the morning; Kelly was depressed since he didn't have his computer over the weekend. I don't want to know what he does on there anyway. Austin made it to school, we couldn't figure out his truck problem, and he'd all but resigned to moving into my place after school.
I left a note for Mr. Radek before chemistry class started.
It said:
"Couldn't find info, shit happened." I thought it was good enough.
Emma was shy during chemistry class, and instead of being loud and flirty, was distant and quiet. Maybe she likes the idea of flirting loudly, but since we have our weird, implied relationship, she doesn't know how to act now. It's cute. She sat with her friend Carly.
When I'd gone to Ms. Simmons' afternoon class, she announced that she wasn't able to attend work due to her expecting a little human and needing to miss work due to her morning sickness, she thought she had caught a fly.
Good for her, Anna and Claire thought I'd be reacting poorly, as though I'd be betrayed by her taking a lover beside me like it's some unforgivable act for my teacher to be living a life she finds to be successful.
I told them I was growing up.
It's been a week since I got my memories back now, almost exactly 1 week. Last Tuesday I was freaking the fuck out and having a panic attack in the bathroom.
I'm waiting outside my math class right now on the bottom floor, this teacher never leaves his door open during recess or breaks. As I was sitting here quietly minding my own business, a familiar face made its way to me.
"Danny!" He comes running to me.
"Hey, you haven't been to the club all week, or messaged any of us back, you doing alright?" Charlie asks while stopping in front of me.
His blonde short hair is immediately noticeable, but another thing that's noticeable is that he's wearing glasses today.
"I'm alright, when did you get glasses? Trying to be more like Claire?" I ask jokingly.
"Hah, if only it were that easy. Are you gonna come by tomorrow? We all miss having you around, Anna's been asking about you too." He says while trying to recover from my low blow.
Charlie looks anxious today, he's rubbing his head and looking around.
"I think I'll have time to stop by tomorrow, yeah," I reply back to him.
"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow. And hey, I was thinking of asking out Claire today... I'm not sure how it will go, but you know... I'll let you know how things turn out. I can't let you get too far ahead of me, you're dating Emma now, right?" His expression tells me he needs some support, his green eyes downcast at the tile of the school floor.
"You got this man, give it your all, and be romantic. Maybe tell her you can't wait to flirt after class? Emma always said stupid things like that to me. Actually, don't say that."
I'm not good at giving advice, I don't know why Emma liked me to begin with.
"I'll figure it out, see you around then." He says before wandering off upstairs to his next class.
I follow behind him, for the hyuck of it.
He looks back and sees me on his tail, he laughs and waits for me at the top of the staircase.
We wander through the empty halls to his next class, I don't even know what class this is, I'm not familiar with their teacher.
Josh and Claire are here talking to each other. There's the aroma of coffee filling the air, whenever Claire is around, there seems to be coffee left in her wake.
"Claire, there were some ants sitting near the sugar. You still want it, or should we throw it out." He says while carrying a cup of sugar.
"...What did you do when you saw the ants, Josh?" Claire asks hesitantly.
Claire is wearing a Nyancat hairpin today, it's on the side of her face keeping her poofy curls out of her eyes.
"Squished em'," Josh says while shrugging his shoulders.
"What's wrong with you? They were just trying to live their lives, and you go and squish them? How would you feel if someone just came by and squished you, huh?"
It's weird for her to be so sentimental about insects, considering she feeds her frogs and spiders crickets every day. But I guess it's different when Josh is the one to kill them.
Josh stares blankly at Claire for a few seconds. Claire stares back, angrily.
"...Well?" Claire shakes her in disbelief.
"You know when I was a kid, I found some ants in my room."
Claire is staring blankly at his anecdote.
"You wanna know what I did with them?"
"I ate them. One by one, they pissed me off, they ruined my apple juice."
Claire's eyes widen in surprise.
"Yeah, one by one. That's right, you heard me. And I made their little ant buddies watch." His face reveals that he doesn't care, for one single second of the ants.
"Ants are awful little scavengers and I hate them. And ate them." He stares downwards at the desk Claire is sitting at. His blue eyes becoming piercing, he's almost menacingly quiet, as though he's figured out a longstanding mystery.
"Oh look, there's one right there." Josh slams his hands into the table.
Claire has an exasperated look on her face, defeated, lost, angry even.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" She stands up from her desk and moves Josh's hand.
Josh lifts his hand upwards to his face, and smiles softly, before licking the palm of his hand.
Claire places her hands on the desk while she's standing up, probably preparing to slap the shit out of Josh.
"Well look at you, you hate ants just as much as me," Josh says while pointing to Claire's hand.
Claire looks at her palm, there's nothing there. There's nothing on Josh's hand after he reveals the card up his sleeve. It was all a ruse.
"Just kidding, I just like messing with you, there were no ants to begin with." He lets out a villainous laugh before walking back to the coffee pot with the sugar in hand.
"You're a butt, Joshua," Claire says quietly.
"Don't you ever call me by my government name again," Josh replies sharply.
Ahh, I missed these guys. We spent so much time together, they're missing Kelly and Anna, but the energy they all have together, I needed to see this.
Me and Charlie are standing at the doorway, he laughs before walking over to comfort Claire, I head back downstairs after saying my hellos and goodbyes.
I return to my spot outside the math class.
As I'm still standing in the hall, I get a text from Mr. Radek.
"About what you said to me in class, we can discuss it further after school, thanks for the hard work, Dan."
He probably wants to act professional in case someone ever sees our texts, he doesn't often communicate through phone.
As I'm standing outside the class alone, I notice footsteps coming closer.
When I look up, there's a tall, curly-haired boy and his girlfriend approaching me.
The boy is wearing a black sweater with his hood up, I can see his short brunette curly hair escaping from the tips of his hood, he's tall and burly, his hands are swaying at his side, one holding his girlfriend's hand, the other free. There are cuts and bruises along his knuckles, he's wearing boots and black jeans. He carries himself confidently, and when he walks, his girlfriend needs to catch up to his pace, they both walk in silence.
It's Spencer and Carly.
They stand together on the opposite side of the door from me, we're separated by just a few feet.
I feel the sudden pressure and tension in the air, my hands begin to feel shaky, I remember the "in-vicinity" signal is up in full swing, with a potential player right in front of me.
Let's just calm down, Mr. Radek didn't want to tell me, just in case I became emotional, right? Let's try and start a conversation and not seem suspicious.
"Math sucks, doesn't it?" I say lightheartedly, before looking to my left to gauge his reaction.
Nothing.
He's glaring at me, quietly, he doesn't say a word. He just stares, like he's looking through me. This guy's fucking weird. Maybe he's trying to assert dominance or something in front of his girlfriend, he seems like one of those freaky guys.
Let's just chalk it up as a blatant jealousy, maybe he isn't a part of the game after all. Maybe Carly told him about me and Emma and he's angry about it, after all, if he didn't hit on her in the back of the school, I'd have never met Emma, to begin with. I don't know what goes on in this dude's head. And if he is a part of the game, maybe he views it as coming back in time to live out his regrets, maybe he's a social outcast or some shit. Well, he is, but I don't know. I'm thinking too much now.
Could be that he just doesn't want to talk to me. I don't know him.
I slide my phone in my pocket as the bell rings, the math teacher emerges from the staff room after a minute or two.
He stumbles his way to the door and unlocks it for me, all the while breathing heavily like he'd just been punched in the gut or eaten way too much at one time. His gut hangs over his belt buckle, he's a bigger man.
I've got to be the bigger man too, and not make fun of his weight in my monolog.
We enter behind the teacher and get ready for class. I sit in the back of the class alone. Austin should be at school today, maybe he's skipping out on the last period.
The class itself is incredibly boring, the teacher doesn't try to engage with us at all, he lets us read slides or gives us assignments and expects us to learn to do math on our own.
The class goes on in silence, the teacher only seems like he's here to babysit us, rather than teach us.
Austin eventually shows up, high as fuck. He's got a goofy smile on his face; his eyes are bloodshot and he's jittery when he sits down.
The teacher doesn't say anything besides:
"Austin, you're late, I'm marking you late." And that was it.
Austin doesn't seem to care. He grabs an assignment on the teacher's desk and begins talking to me like he'd been here the whole time.
"Bro, clue me in, what the fuck is a slope-line formula, and why do I care about it?" He asks while slumped over in his chair.
"I don't know, taking a few points on a line to make the mx+b formula, using those points to find the slope? That doesn't mean I know what it's useful for in real life. Maybe we can find the slope of your decreasing brain activity before and after getting high." I reply to him.
He narrows his eyes.
"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but I feel like it was an insult, help me out with this you shifty-eyed bitch." He says while looking blankly at his assignment he'd plopped in front of him.
Why is this dude so loud? The class is practically empty though, no one likes being here. It's way too damn quiet, I don't want to be here either.
We spent most of the class going back and forth with the worksheet before Austin eventually burned out from his high and nearly crashed out on the desk.
Good, only 5 minutes left of class. I can't wait to see Emma.
Man, ever since the first day I've gotten my memories and became a part of this whole thing, it's been nothing but stress after stress. There's the constant "in-vicinity" in my eyes, along with the fear that I'll be marked for death, or that someone could find out who I am. The paranoia is fucking with my head. Maybe that whole thing with Emma was just me trying to find a sense of normalcy in the chaos. Mr. Radek at least has his wife, I've been isolating myself from the people who are important to me, I have no one to talk to, no one to rely on besides Mr. Radek. He probably feels the same way, needing to protect his family, that's why he keeps them far away from himself and doesn't let them know the real dangers of what we're going through.
Maybe I should rely on Mr. Radek to talk about this, it won't be good to keep it all inside, I'll eventually burst apart.
This isn't the time to hesitate, I still need to follow through with things, the game's rules are clear-cut. We need to kill others, it would be easier to spend my time with Emma until I eventually die, but then I'll never be able to spend another day with her, and if my identity is found out, she could be hurt after I'm gone. These are the times when I feel truly tested when I'm alone with my thoughts.
It makes me want to use it again, to get high. But that isn't logical, and I'll have wasted all the effort Mr. Radek put into me, he probably wants to run away too.
This isn't fair. I got to see my mom laugh and smile again, and to love me. I got what I needed so desperately in the past.
I must be resolved to live a better life, and the journey to make it there means others need to be trampled, I need to kill others, it takes true resolve.
I'll talk to Mr. Radek after classes, he can help me to start thinking straight again.
Bell's about to ring.
I take one last look into my binder to make sure I have everything and wrote down my notes well enough.
Claire and Anna wrote down something stupid in it, it says:
"Find the derivative of 6x^70"
She explained the joke to me because I'm stupid, apparently, you use something called the power rule and find the answer is 420x^69... All I could think of was, nice.
As I close my binder and begin to get ready to head to Mr. Radek's class.
The same robotic voice I've become accustomed to finally lets out another message to me.
"You have been marked."
I stop dead in my tracks, feeling unable to move, hovering over my desk, my mind begins to race.
I look around the room, the same math class that I've always taken, with the dull shades of white and brown along the interior of the walls, the same teacher mindlessly sifting through his computer, and Austin sitting beside me. I look up and immediately begin scanning the room. It's got to be a mistake. I turn to face Spencer; he's looking directly at me.
Glaring at me like before. His eyes are glued to me.
Time feels as though it's stopped. From my perspective, all I see is Spencer, I've got tunnel vision. The only thing that exists right now is me and him.
My heartbeat begins to rise, and blood flows through my body, preparing for battle.
My vision begins to zone in on Spencer, blackness begins to encapsulate the outer ring of my eyesight.
A student is asking a question to the teacher just within my peripherals, but I don't hear them, all noise fades away.
"Mark," I speak in my mind.
"Target has been marked."
In my eyes, appears a new set of words.
"Target is Nearby." This is what it says under the words: "In-vicinity."
We continue to stare at each other. I'm dumbfounded, why here? Why now? What's his plan? Is he going to attack me, right here right now?
We're not allowed to be seen killing. What will he do about the others in the class? Will he attack me here and run? Is he planning on getting me after school?
My hands are shaking, my fingers can't keep still. I begin trembling. I'm going to have to kill Spencer. Today.
Right here? I don't have anything on me, my bag is here, but my pistol is at home, the knife that Mr. Radek attacked me with is with him, I only have my fists, do we have a fistfight and if I beat him to death, do I explain it to the police as us having gone too far? What then? Others will see us in the school.
Am I sure he's alone?
I can't fight him here, there will be a third party, I'd have to kill everyone in this room.
Where do I go? What do I do? Mr. Radek is on the second floor; he doesn't know what's going on right now. I need to make it to him.
Calm down, Daniel. Excuse yourself from class, the bell didn't ring but the teacher won't give a fuck anyway.
I stand up and confidently walk to the door, it's as though all my senses are enhanced, I hear every small sound throughout the room, and each step I take feels like time has slowed, his eyes remain on me, and so do mine. His girlfriend catches onto us, and she stares at me as well. The sounds of students passing by are masked by the sound of my heartbeat in my chest. He isn't moving, his head is turned my way.
He breaks the glare that he'd been staring at me with, and smirks. He turns his body from me and looks at Carly who's sitting on his right and puts his arm over her shoulder and says something I can't make out.
I look forward to the classroom door, I can't make a scene here.
Thoughts rush through my head of what to do right now, how can I attack him. I gloss over hundreds of scenarios in my head, as I'm rushing through the halls, I bump into a student and apologize before making my way to Mr. Radek's class.
I'm walking up the staircase, I don't look at anyone I've passed by, I'm in the middle of a panic attack. My walk turns to a jog, then a run, I push myself up the staircase, almost falling down while I make my way up the stairs. Mr. Radek's doorway is open, I can see students gathering to leave. I make it to the door, I hear Mr. Radek yell out to the students.
"Okay, you can all leave early today, I've got to get ready and begin marking assignments, you all have a good night." His deep voice is thundering, and the echoes reverberate throughout the dead silent hallways. There are no students out in the halls yet, the bell has yet to ring.
I walk past all the students leaving, and silently make my way towards Mr. Radek's desk.
After everyone leaves the classroom, I had to close the door behind them and lock the door.
Mr. Radek is sitting at his desk. His hands are folded into one another and he's staring directly ahead at nothing. His blue eyes are sharp, and his hand is trembling as he's sitting silently.
"This wasn't the plan, Daniel." He says in a low and angry voice.
The classroom is empty, the sound of students through the door is muffled.
"We've got to go. Now. We're making getting to the car our priority and leaving right now." He says while hastily grabbing his coat from the coat hanger on his door. He's left a mess on his desk, and the whiteboard has the notes from the last class's lecture.
He opens the door in a jolting motion, walking quickly down the stairs, he barely manages to put on his coat correctly, I close the door behind me on Mr. Radek's class and check to see if it's locked, it is.
I follow behind Mr. Radek, watching his back move quicker and quicker toward the entranceway of the school. The students look at him in fear as he's walking quickly, he looks like he's about to explode with anger at any second.
He's moving with purpose and looking in all directions around us.
The normally calm figure of Mr. Radek has reverted to the day when he'd almost shot me in the classroom. I continue following him, my bag feels like it's slipping from my shoulder as I press my legs forward as quickly as I can without causing a scene. Us walking together like this is a big red flag if we're going to be spotted by another player, but neither of us is thinking right now.
As we leave the front entrance, Mr. Radek immediately bolts to his vehicle, I jog behind him to catch up. It's cold outside, the clouds in the grey sky move quickly and silently above us, students are leaving in droves and a row of buses are situated in the front of the school, waiting to pick up students. Mr. Radek's jacket floats behind him as he runs, I run to catch up.
When we make it to his car, our breaths are mixing with the sudden cool air outside, each time we breathe, it leaves a visible indication in the air.
"Dan, check under the car, check the brakes. Make sure they're intact." Mr. Radek speaks quickly and loudly.
He doesn't pause before speaking again.
"Hurry up, we don't have time."
I fumble for a second, staring at his vehicle.
"I don't know where they are," I say in confusion.
"God dammit, you're fucking useless right now." Mr. Radek gets down on his knees and checks himself.
"Check our surroundings and each tire." Mr. Radek is pressing and almost sounds like a shout.
I run along the car, checking the tire pressure to make sure they haven't been slashed or flattened. They're all good.
Mr. Radek unlocks the vehicle and opens his driver seat and yells for me to get in after I'm done.
I quickly hop into the passenger side door as quickly as I can while looking around the school, checking each window of the brick building, and looking for anyone who could be watching us from afar. I can't see Spencer or anyone else.
Mr. Radek starts his vehicle, the engine begins to rumble; he doesn't give it a second to warm up, he immediately begins to peel out of the driveway, blocking the nearby school bus from leaving. There's the honking of horns behind us, but he doesn't care. His hands are on the steering wheel and he's quiet.
His usual calm demeanor has become obstructed by the sudden shift in circumstances.
As we're driving, the text from when I'd marked Spencer begins to change. It had changed from:
"Target is: Nearby" to "Target within 100m" and changes the further we get from the school. It continues increasing in 100m intervals.
200m, 300m, 400m. The distance between us begins to rise.
"What the fuck happened to the plan, Daniel." Mr. Radek says to me while still looking ahead, watching incoming traffic.
"I don't know, I didn't do anything differently. I'd gone to class as I normally would, what if Spencer used the weekend to group together with others and make his own plan to attack us!" I yell out, I feel like my legs are trembling.
"I got a message in my head that you were marked a few minutes ago." Mr. Radek's face is contorted in anger, he's going red in the face.
"It wasn't my fucking fault, oka-"He stops me from talking by slamming his hand into the dashboard of the vehicle.
"Shut the fuck up! You had one fucking job, first, you couldn't get information, then you spent the weekend trying to get fucking laid, that's all you fucking did, didn't you? We should've been preparing for this; fuck I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with this." Mr. Radek stops at a red light just up ahead.
"It wasn't my fucking fault, okay? Spencer must have a team of his own, you're the one who said there were too many unknowns. He must've figured that I was in the game. Or someone with him." I say while grabbing my bag and looking through it.
Fuck, my pistol is at home.
"God dammit. What the fuck are we supposed to do now." Mr. Radek is gripping the steering wheel. There are a few cars beside us, they've all encircled us, the traffic is increased since school being over aligns with work ending for most people.
Mr. Radek takes out his phone in a hurry, nearly dropping it while he begins making a phone call. He changes his tone of voice as best he can when the call is answered. He's still speaking quickly. He's not acting like himself.
"Hey, my dear, I need you to do something for me. Can you head to a hotel or your parents for the night? I found a bed bug in the house when I went home for lunch, and I forgot to mention it to you. It's been such a busy day, I already called exterminators to check on the house and they'll be heading over there soon."
His wife says something to him, but I can't hear it from where I'm sitting.
"Yes, I know. I'm sorry, I was just so distracted today, I might've been the one who brought it home too, you know how I've been busy with my students, I have one with me right now, say "Hello" Dan." He points the phone at me.
"Hello, Mrs. Radek," I say meekly.
Mr. Radek brings the phone back to his ear.
"I'm actually just going with Dan to check his house for any bed bugs, this little rascal's been keeping me busy, and we need to make sure he doesn't have an infestation."
"I know."
"I know." Mr. Radek is listening to what his wife is saying.
The red light turns green, and we begin driving in the direction of my house.
"I know, I shouldn't do this on such short notice, but I'm driving now my love, text me and let me know where you're going to go, you still have my credit card right? If you don't, I'll text you the card number and everything, let me know which hotel you go to, I'll be there as quick as I can. Okay, okay. I love you too. Sorry about this, maybe we don't even have an infestation and can head home tonight, but better safe than sorry. I'll meet the exterminators at the house when I'm done with Danny."
He hangs up the phone.
"I gotta make sure my family is safe and as far away as possible." He says before checking the time on his phone. We're making our way to my place now.
As we arrive, I still don't register my surroundings very well, I'm in full fight or flight mode. Everything is moving so quickly.
We're stopped in the back alley behind my house, the light is on in the kitchen, and I can see Mom moving around inside.
"Run inside, grab anything you need. We'll be leaving somewhere safe where we can think. We don't know anything about the other players right now." Mr. Radek says, and I hurriedly run inside.
After turning the doorknob and entering the house, Mom says something to me, but I don't hear it. I can't focus on her right now.
I run up the stairs and enter my room, gotta grab the pistol. I pull the box from my closet and remove the pistol along with the bullets and throw them into my backpack.
"Check for anything you need." He says...
There's nothing I can think of immediately, besides a jacket and new socks, I throw both of them into my bag and run back downstairs.
My shoes soaking with wet mud and sand, the outside parking lot is damp, and I was tracking in the dirt as I ran up the stairs.
As I'm running for the back door, Mom yells at me.
"Don't wear your fucking shoes in my house." She says in an angry tone.
"Why are you all in a rush, what's going on?" She asks as I look at her with a blank stare.
"Gotta make it to Emma's place," I say at the moment.
I notice the lighter I gave her the other night sitting on the edge of the table, I grab it and tell her.
"I'm gonna need this, me and Emma are going to "Camping" as she calls it." I smile at Mom and head out the door.
She says something unintelligible as I shut the door behind me, and sprint towards Mr. Radek's car.
As soon I close the passenger door, he begins driving again. I fall back a bit into the seat as I wasn't prepared for the forward momentum from the acceleration.
"Got everything?" Mr. Radek asks.
"I couldn't think of what I needed besides the pistol," I say back to him.
He looks like he's had a second to breathe and calm down.
"Okay, you remember the abandoned buildings by the highway? There was a house there with two stories and no one's living in it, I checked it out on Saturday." He says while making a beeline through the empty streets around my house.
"We'll go there for now, it's isolated enough. There's not much traffic heading out of town on a Monday. We can talk there." He says while pulling a cigarette from his jacket.
I hand him my lighter, his mouth is in a neutral position, and his eyes are still darting around while he's thinking.
"We don't know anything about Spencer right now." He says and lights the smoke and hands me back the lighter. His hands are cold and clammy.
"There's no way to tell if he has any teammates with him right now, Danny. Is there any difference you've noticed after you marked Spencer?" He asks me.
I feel a bit confused; doesn't he see the sensor that says "Target within 1 km".
I reiterate what the voice told me a few minutes ago, and the secondary sensor in my vision after marking Spencer.
"I don't have that. I don't see any changes in my vision, and I don't know his location." Mr. Radek says while we drive, he thinks quietly until we pull up on what I assume is his place.
"I'll be quick." Mr. Radek jumps out of the vehicle, leaving the keys in the ignition.
Okay, fuck. So, Spencer marked me, we don't know if he's with other people, maybe his girlfriend Carly is in the game? Who could be with him? There must be someone, someone who knows about me, did they know about Mr. Radek too? Or was it just me?
As I'm thinking, Mr. Radek comes out of his front door carrying a duffle bag and places them in the trunk of the vehicle.
"Alright, let's go." Mr. Radek begins driving towards the highway.
Mr. Radek continues asking me how far away Spencer is, and I tell him. It seems like the sensor only changes in 100m intervals when they're within 1 km distance of me. When they're further away, they change in 1km intervals.
We've both gotten a chance to calm down at this point.
As we're pulling up on the abandoned house, Mr. Radek asks me again how far Spencer is.
"3 km now, he might be further or closer, I'm not sure, within the 3km range anyway."
"Does it tell you what direction he's coming from?"
"No, it's similar to the generic sensor."
Mr. Radek drives to the side of the house but doesn't park in the driveway of the home. Instead, we park about 100m to the right of it, along the side of the road where there's tree coverage to hide the vehicle.
"We have to park a bit away from the house, they know our location, we can't have them destroy our only way of escape." He says and haphazardly parks his vehicle.
"Danny, there's 2 guns in the trunk, grab the bag and follow me to the house." He says while stepping out of the vehicle and begins speed walking towards the building.
He opened the trunk door as he left the car.
I run to the trunk and almost slipped on some rocks. I'm still not thinking straight, my mind and body can't keep up with my racing thoughts. I grab the duffle bag and shut the trunk behind me before following Mr. Radek.
The house in front of him is a blue and dilapidated building. It's a two-story home with a porch deck in the front of the house. The porch has screens for windows, but they're boarded up. Most of the windows are boarded up, including the living room. One of the front windows has an open view to the front of the house. The paint is scraped and scratched all along the home, it doesn't look structurally sound.
I gotta catch up with him. I begin running after Mr. Radek.
He makes his way towards the backyard of the house, turning the corner where I lose track of him. The front yard is full of weeds and sticks, and jagged rusted edges from splintered steel, maybe piping or old car parts or something.
Turning the corner, Mr. Radek is nowhere in sight, and I run to the back of the house.
When I approach the back of the house, Mr. Radek is standing in the backyard, his eyes glance downwards. There are shards of glass just under a window, it looks recently smashed.
I feel a shiver run down my spine; the building looks menacing. The window that Mr. Radek is looking at is small and covered in grime, Mr. Radek gets into a prone position and crawls his way backward into the home. He enters, and he calls to me to throw him the bag.
I listen and toss the bag, there's the sound metal of clunking together, then he disappears out of sight, and I hear him walking up some steps.
I enter behind him, and immediately I'm met with a musty smell that hits my nose, and I can feel the dampness in the air. There's no light in the basement, besides the broken window. The basement is cluttered with old furniture and cobwebs, and I can see the stairs leading up to the main floor are partly collapsed.
I make my way up the stairs, careful not to step on any loose boards. As I reach the main floor, I can hear the creaking of old wooden floorboards under my weight. The kitchen area is illuminated, but there's no board on the back window. The air is thick with dust, and I can feel it clinging to my skin and clothes. Mr. Radek's footsteps upstairs are making a similar noise.
The living room is dark, and the windows are boarded, I can see that this house must've been much grander when it was first conceived, with high ceilings and a large fireplace. But now it's in shambles, with broken furniture and debris scattered everywhere. The wallpaper is peeling, and the paint is chipping off the walls.
As I make my way to the second floor, the air feels colder, and I can hear the wind whistling through the broken windows. The bedrooms are small and cramped, with mold growing on the walls and ceilings. Mr. Radek is standing in one of the empty rooms, the window is overlooking the front yard.
He's kneeled over, with the duffle bag, there are two rifles inside the bag. It looks like he's assembling them, let's walk over and help.
After getting closer, I can clearly see the rifle, it's got a wooden stock with a metal frame and barrel. There are two of them, there's one scope and two sling attachments in the bag.
"Danny, we're going to stay here and wait for Spencer. There's a brush of trees in the back of the house and an open view of the highway and any nearby buildings, we'll be able to attack from here. With our current location, we're in the prime area to counterattack with high ground." Mr. Radek's voice is shaking and his hands are trembling as he assembles the rifle.
"If anyone walks by, or if any vehicle stops, we're going to mark them, and we're going to kill them." Mr. Radek hands me a rifle.
It feels heavy, and unfamiliar, like when we were at the gun range.
"We need to prepare, watch what I do, and follow my lead. This is how you reload the rifle, you already know what a trigger is, I don't have two scopes, I'm more familiar with the weapon so you'll use the iron sights." Mr. Radek stands up and takes the sling of the weapon and tucks the rifle behind him.
I follow Mr. Radek's lead and begin loading the rifle with a 30-08 bullet. When I'm done, place the rifle on the old floorboards.
"We're going to assume Spencer isn't working on his own, there had to be more people with him. It doesn't matter who they are right now, we're going to have to kill each of them."
My stomach drops as he says that. Mr. Radek must've felt my sudden silence.
"Don't tense up on me now, you know this is how things had to happen. This was the condition for us coming back. Everyone who is participating in the game understands the contract we agreed to. If you ease up now, we're going to die. I'm scared too, for Maria, for my wife. And for you." Mr. Radek looks out the window.
He's right, I'm scared, my hands are trembling too. Is Spencer feeling this way too? Could anyone enjoy this? That fucking thing that brought us into this must be enjoying itself...
"You're right, I know, I'll think about any consequences later if we survive," I reply back to Mr. Radek before taking out my backpack and removing the pistol and begin filling it with bullets.
I'm more accustomed to the pistol, but I'm not a marksman by any means.
"Where are they, Danny?" Mr. Radek is tensed up, his rifle is in his hands, and it looks like he's prepared to fire at a moment's notice.
"They're still 3km away."
"Good, that gives us time to talk. Tell me what happened." Mr. Radek stops to breathe.
His eyes are darting between the room and the road. His figure is tall and burly, or muscular. He looks like a real soldier, a hardened veteran even. But he said he was scared too, maybe he just needs to show confidence, so I don't lose face either.
I tell him in better detail what happened in the classroom. Mr. Radek doesn't interject during my speech; he listens quietly and soundly while taking in the information.
"He may have been planning to attack you immediately after school, maybe he'd follow you home and get you like that. I was only notified when it happened. But I wasn't notified that you marked him back." Mr. Radek looks at me with his electric blue eyes, staring intensely, but with a spec of empathy in his stare.
"It wasn't your fault, Danny. We'll get out of this alive, I'm sorry for how I acted. I shouldn't have been yelling at you in the car." He says while he walks to me and pats me on the back.
"It all happened so suddenly, I didn't know what to make of the situation. Now, I need you to grab something from the car. My second pistol and knife are under the seat of the driver's side." He says lightheartedly but with authority.
Mr. Radek pulls out his keys and tosses them my way.
I catch the keys, nearly dropping them on the floor.
"I'll watch your back;" he says and turns to the window again.
I nod in agreement and begin to make my way to the car.
I decided to jump out of the kitchen window rather than go through the basement again.
As I land my feet on the ground outside, the grass is damp and reaches just past my thighs. I didn't notice before, but my pants are starting to become soaked. Stupid condensation.
While running to the car, a thought crosses my mind.
"What if Radek wanted to kill me? Isn't he in the perfect position to do so?"
I turn back to the house, Radek is still looking out the window, but he isn't pointing his rifle at me.
Wouldn't it solve all his problems though, shoot me in the back and make an escape for home? That entity said that betrayal is allowed, even encouraged. The mark left on me would disappear, he wouldn't need to rely on me for anything.
No. no. no. Let's not make assumptions about Radek. We're friends now, we're going to look out for each other. I slap my cheeks with both of my hands to bring myself back into the moment.
It hurts.
My breath is warm and leaving puffs of air that swing and twirl past my head as I walk to the car.
Let's unlock the door... I tap the unlock button on the key fob twice and hear the automatic doors' lock unhinge open.
I get down on the ground and grab the knife and pistol from underneath Mr. Radek's driver seat. The knife is sheathed in a leather casing.
After locking the doors again, I begin making my way back to the house. The sky is becoming grey, we might be here all night. Just waiting... I take a look up to the window and see Mr. Radek isn't in the window anymore.
In my vision, there's a change to the meters of the target.
"2 km." Fuck.
I run back to the house, ignoring my surroundings, I cling to the pistol and knife and jump into the basement window and up the old staircase.
Running as fast as I can up them, I yell upwards to Mr. Radek.
"Jason! They're 2 KM away!" I clutch the pistol tighter while running through the dark basement and past the two staircases.
"They're how far away!?" Mr. Radek yells back to me.
"2 Kilometers. No... wait, they're 1 km now." I feel the sudden burst of adrenaline course it's way through me.
Mr. Radek begins loading the chamber of the rifle.
"Dan, get ready, pass me my pistol, and keep that knife on you. I think it's better suited for you than me." Mr. Radek puts his back to the wall on the right side of the window. He takes the butt of his gun and smashes the right side window.
"You know how to fire this right? Right?" Mr. Radek yells to me.
"Yes, I followed your instructions, I can watch your back too!" I yell back while grabbing the rifle from the floor and attaching the sling around my back.
"Okay, tell me whenever the sensor goes down. You need to keep me in the loop, every single meter that drops, you need to tell me."
I nod.
"1 km....900m....800m." I keep repeating the distance Spencer is from us.
"500m..." Radek continues asking me in intervals how far they are.
We're both tensed up beside the window, I've gotten everything ready, my pistol is loaded, my rifle is loaded, the knife is sheathed, and I hook it to my belt.
We're both silent in anticipation, trying to control our breathing.
Mr. Radek continues asking me how far they are.
They've been at 500m for roughly 3 minutes now.
"400M... wait, it went back to 500m the next instant," I tell Mr. Radek.
"Fuck, what are they planning." He's listening out the window for any sound.
I look out the window and see the road ahead of us, but the trees to the right side of the window are concealing the rest of the road. The dark grey clouds above overhead rush and float around uncaringly.
"Jason, should we be the ones attacking?" I ask him.
"I'm not sure, I don't know the best course of action right now. This is my first time in this situation." He's breathing manually through his nose and mouth to keep himself calm.
He can't see the sensor like I am.
After what felt like an eternity, the sensor still hasn't changed. It's remained at a constant 500m.
"Still no change, huh? Are they hesitating, or is it something else?"
"Maybe they're preparing something, or they're waiting for all of the members in their team."
"If that's the case... then we should be splitting up within the house. You'll watch the back side and I'll watch the front." Mr. Radek points to the door of the room and says:
"I've got a bad feeling. In the room opposite of this one, there's a view of the backyard. You'll need to take off the boards that are on the windows. I came to this place this weekend and started ripping off boards just in case we'd ever have to come here. But I didn't finish."
"Alright, I'll get it done," I say to him and rush my way through the empty halls, the floorboards feel like they're ready to fall out from under us.
I'm still holding my rifle on my back and pistol. Each step I take echoes through the dark hallways.
If there were anyone coming in, we would hear them.
After walking into the room opposite Mr. Radek, I look at the board on the window.
It's dark in the room, even darker than the hallway. The faint light that slips through makes it difficult to see, my eyes haven't adjusted to the darkness.
I can tell the room is empty, so there's no chance that I'll be tripping over anything besides my feet.
Placing my pistol on the floor, I stand in front of the window. I'll see if I can remove the board if I start from the corner of the plywood. I dig my fingers into the wood, it's hard to get a good grip on it. I remove my backpack and set it on the floor and grab the knife from its sheath.
If I can slip the blade between the crack of the wood and the wall; I could probably use the leverage of my body in conjunction with the knife.
Sliding the blade through the board, I pull with a hefty heave, I can feel my palms are sweaty and slipping off the knife's hilt. Just a little more.
I slip open a crack between the wood and the window, and it's large enough to get my fingers between the wood and the window frame. I place the knife back into its sheathe and firmly begin pulling away at the wood.
When I'm doing this, there's a sudden thudding noise that I heard coming from downstairs.
Could they be entering?
What was it? It sounded too small to be a person. It sounds like something was thrown, the force of the object hit the ground floor of the home and rattled against the wood, moving about downstairs. In what room?
Radek screams at me from the next room.
"Dan! Was that you?" He asks in a concerned and heightened tone.
Before I can reply, there's a sudden burst of noise that erupts from downstairs. It's loud enough to momentarily make my ears ring. It echoes through the halls; I immediately keel over from the sound and squat down covering my ears. It shook the entire home, dust that was settled along the roof came down all at once, and there was a new layer of sawdust along the floor that wasn't there before.
A bomb? The only thing I can think of is that it's a bomb, fuck.
My hearing is shot, I can't make out what's happening. I begin running to Mr. Radek.
In my vision, the meterage of the target is still at 500 meters. I run through the dark hallway, trying to recover from the sudden shock of the explosion. Mr. Radek is sitting beside the wall adjacent to the window. Wasn't he just standing?
He was looking outside the window, what happened? His back is against the wall, and his rifle is held firmly in his hand.
His hearing must be fucked up from the explosion too. He might've walked towards the hallway after the sudden noise from downstairs.
I begin making my way across the room to check the window, half of the window was smashed by Mr. Radek earlier, and the left side still remains intact.
My body feels light, I'm not thinking, an explosion. We're under attack, I should be running to the back of the house, right? What should I do, Mr. Radek?
The steps I make across the floor don't register for me; my hearing is slowly recovering but the ringing still persists.
As I make it to the window, the November sky has begun to darken, the trees are flowing from side to side in the breeze. I attempted to find any figure of a person that I can see outside. Looking for the perpetrator. No good, the road is empty, there's no one outside, if there is, I can't see them.
Mr. Radek sounds like he's yelling at me, I still can't hear. I turn to face him to read his lips.
What is he saying? He's talking too quickly, he looks panicked.
"Get out of the way!" My hearing comes back.
Get out of the way of what?
As I turn to face the window, it's immediately shot out. Time feels like it's come to a halting stop. It feels as though I can see every fragment of glass shatter. The geometry of the conchoidal fracture of glass begins to take shape, fractals of light reflect me and Mr. Radek, and the shards fall to the floor in a sudden burst.
I duck down with the falling glass. I feel my body all around, looking for any signs of trauma. I run my hands across my face and neck, looking for a bullet wound.
There's nothing. I'm still conscious, I must not have been struck by the bullet. I don't see the vague remnants of the white silhouette in our dream either. I drop against the floor and place my back against the wall. There's a bullet hole in the wall across from the window.
I'm still alive.
Everything is happening so fast.
My legs are trembling and buckling. I don't feel like I can stand up. The fear is setting in, I feel like I'm freezing in place. Mr. Radek rises from his spot against the wall and ducks down. He moves towards me and yells something, but my emotions are rising and falling too quickly, I can't make out what he's saying again. I'm panicking, I can feel my heartbeat race, my hands are balled in a fist, I can feel my clenching tighten, it feels like my nails are digging deep enough to draw blood.
Mr. Radek grabs my collar. As he does, there's another explosion.
It rattles the house, glass is shattering all around us, and the walls feel like they're creepily nonparallel to the floor anymore, are they collapsing? Is the house collapsing?
I almost feel like slipping into the fetal position.
After Mr. Radek recovers from the sudden blast, he grabs my collar once more and slaps me across the face. I get shot back into the moment as he does.
"Get up! You're going to die! If you lie here. You're going to die! We have to get out of here!" Mr. Radek screams, and spit is ejected from his mouth as he yells at me. His salt-and-pepper beard and bright blue eyes are directly against my face.
He lets go of my collar and turns away from me.
Mr. Radek leaves the room and begins running downstairs.
He's right, I need to move, I need to follow him, I need to get up, I can't stay here, I'm going to die if I do.
I dropped my pistol; I don't have time to grab it. The senses of my body are coming back to me. We've got to get out of here.
My eyes begin to focus once more.
There's another crash coming from downstairs, this time it isn't an overbearing sound of an explosion. It sounds like the glass that just broke, are they running in right now? Are they making their way to us? We don't know.
Mr. Radek is standing at the top of the staircase, he takes his elbow and places it over his mouth, I do the same.
I grip the sling of the rifle and cover my mouth and nose. When I see Mr. Radek's face, it's grim, but with determination, and determination to survive.
As we make it downstairs, there's another crash from above. Another explosion. It rumbles through the house and echoes. In front of us, we see the origin point of a fire. The kitchen window that wasn't boarded up was where they threw their bombs, and what looks like a Molotov cocktail. Flames begin to quickly engulf the kitchen. Lighting the room and showing us where we need to go.
The flames' heat is immediately felt by both of us, I can feel sweat begin to drench my forehead and brows. Mr. Radek takes the first step forward through the hall and into the living room.
There's a large hole in the floor of the kitchen, and the walls look ready to fall.
I quickly follow behind, still panicked.
When we make it to the living room, there are the sounds of talking coming from outside from our attackers, but we don't have time to figure out what's going on.
The heat of the fire at our back washes over us, my eyes begin to water from the smoke of the flames. We can't escape through the back door, we'll be shot and killed by the attackers, and we don't know if they've surrounded the building.
The front door is the only way out for us, and it's the only path we can take to escape. Mr. Radek runs ahead of me, and turns the door knob to the front door, revealing the front of the home is boarded up.
It's kept the house safe but entombed us.
The ceiling of the second floor crashes down in the hallway, sending debris and smoke billowing out of the house, we've barely managed to dodge the falling debris.
Mr. Radek begins to push his weight against the board, his shoulder bracing the impact against the wood. He doesn't break it in one, two, three attempts. I run beside Mr. Radek and begin synchronizing movements together with him against the wood.
The smoke is starting to make me lightheaded, the light from the fire is dancing all around the kitchen, inching its way toward us quicker and quicker by the second.
We both take a step back and charge at the door with all our might, using our bodies as battering rams to break it down.
The sound of splintering wood is deafening as we crash through the door, stumbling out into the porch, It's dark in here. The boards are obscuring the light, aside from one window that was vandalized and left open.
The first breath of fresh air hits my lungs, and the black smoke from the fire confined by the entranceway begins to rise out of the door frame, then to the roof of the porch. After the smoke makes its way past all obstacles, it moves toward the open window.
Mr. Radek runs towards the opening first and jumps through the window. I didn't see how he landed but I saw his body rise and begin running for the car. I follow behind him. I remove my rifle, throw it through the opening, and jump out behind him. I roll into the grass and grab the rifle against the dirt.
Mr. Radek's already running towards the car.
The grass of the lawn is tall, I keep a low profile and follow behind him. I begin tracing Mr. Radek's pathway through the grass, as I'm doing so, the sudden whizzing of a bullet passes by me.
I turn to the house and see a bullet hole in the chipped paint, they're still watching us.
"Danny! Shoot! Do something!" Mr. Radek yells to me as he runs for the car, he escapes into the nearby bushes for cover and puts his hood up.
I lift the hood of my sweater up as well.
I grip my rifle and aim toward our attackers, they're still 500m. I wouldn't even be able to see them if I tried. I turn back towards the house that's now on fire, it's embers escaping through the air in a dazzling light show.
From around the corner, a body emerges from the corner of the house. I aim my rifle toward them and fire. The bullet misses and flies into the nearby forest.
They immediately squat down in a panic and hide, showing me their face. It's a young girl, I don't know her, her black hair flows in the wind and her glasses reflect the light of the fire. The lingering scent of smoke is still in my nostrils, and I can taste the air.
"Mark," I speak in my mind.
She hears the sound of the mark in her mind, and when she does, looks to me, I turn away from her and run after Mr. Radek.
A third sensor appears in my vision that says "Target: Nearby."
I jump through the woods and make my way to Jason, he's squatted down and looking through the pockets of his pants and coat, fuck. I still have the keys.
I reach into my pocket and unlock the door. Mr. Radek notices the door has become unlocked and jumps into the driver seat, I throw him the keys to the car. They jingle about in his hands as he catches them, and then he starts the engine.
I run along the gravel road to the passenger side of the car, Jason is ducked down in the driver seat, to evade any bullets that could be shot through the back window of the car.
I hide away from the direction of the bullets and Mr. Radek starts the vehicle and immediately accelerates out of the parking space.
I turn back, to see the house crumble in flames, it's eclipsed by the brush of trees as we drive further and further away. The dual sensors in my vision begin to rise.
"Fuck, they got us! I don't know how they did it, they manipulated the range of the sensor. How the fuck did they make that sort of decision in such a short time. Spencer has a team, there has to be someone who's capable of thinking beyond the immediate threat of being marked. Who the fuck is it!" Mr. Radek slams his fist into the dash of the car as he's driving, keeping one hand on the steering wheel.
"They fuckin figured us out, how did they do it. Fuck!" His hands are tightly gripping the wheel of the car, and his knuckles have gone white.
"Yes, they got us. Now please, for the love of God just drive normally, we still need to escape." I say while trying to comfort him.
Mr. Radek stays silent, before undoing the sling around his arm and placing the rifle into the backseat of the car, I do the same. The cops will probably be here soon, along with the fire department.
Fuck, I left my pistol in the house. I lost my pistol; it has my fingerprints on it. Oh fuck.
Mr. Radek seems to be as calm as he can be, before saying:
"Right, right. You're right Danny." He looks my way and tries to give a fake smile to comfort me.
"Did you kill one of them? I heard the rifle go off." Mr. Radek asks.
"I marked one, she was a young girl, and she looked to be my age. My bullet missed." I say back to him.
He looks disappointed.
"You did a good job making that judgment, thank you. She didn't mark you or else I'd have heard it. We need to have as many cards up our sleeves as we can." Mr. Radek begins driving towards the campsite.
"We can't go home, not right now. We can't run away due to the sensor and mark placed on you, so we can't skip town. We'll be removed from the game, and you'll die if we don't kill Spencer. Fuck sake." Mr. Radek hands me his jacket.
"Take out a smoke for me, I need to calm down."
I do it and remove one for myself, and hand him his lighter.
It's a steel lighter, the kind that stays on after you flick the spark wheel.
He takes both in hand and lights the smoke.
"We're going to go to our camp. It's the only thing I can think of." Mr. Radek slows the car down, we were speeding.
Spencer seems like an aggressive person, not the type to attack with such a well-thought-out plan.
There has to be someone on his team who knows me, and is smart enough to have this type of clairvoyance for such an attack. They're a team, we need to figure out who they are.
No, that doesn't matter.
They're enemies.
"That little fucker, Spencer stayed 500m away. He shot at us from there, he kept low, the other teammates snuck around the house and ambushed us. They're working together, we don't know how many there are. It could be 3, 4, or even the theoretical maximum of players already. It's just you and me." His hands are trembling, and so are mine. All my extremities feel cold, my hands specifically.
Mr. Radek is pale, moving around in his seat restlessly, we're both drenched in sweat from the heat of the fire and the shock of their ambush.
"All we can do is plan to get them back." I same calmly while trying to reassure him we'll be okay.
The headlights of the vehicle illuminate the road ahead. There isn't much daylight left that we could see, it's quickly becoming dark.
As we're driving, the meterage on the sensor begins to rise higher and higher.