Until someone shot at her, Kathryn Pickford believed that hiding in a barn was a perfect idea, but then she found herself wriggling beneath a large person who smelled like they had spent the last week buried in a dumpster. It hadn’t taken more than a second to come to the realization that her day in the game had come to a close, and she was about to meet her violent demise.

Kathryn would have screamed in terror if the man hadn’t clamped his hand around her face and over her mouth. She tried to bite him, but he jammed his other hand around her neck and applied pressure, cutting off her air supply.

“Shhh. Shhh. Just listen to me, K? Please. They’re listening, K? So keep it down, K?”

Kathryn mumbled curses, but from his voice she was able to confirm the person was indeed a he, and that was even worse news for Kathryn, who was sure she would be raped and then murdered on a live stream.

“Shhh. There’s a guy out there and he knows we’re up here, but you already know that. I can help. I’m good at this stuff. At least I used to be good. I’m alive, still, and that counts for something, right?”

The man’s body odor extended into his clothing. Smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in months. Revulsion swept through her as that grimy hand pressed over her mouth.

“Shhh. I’ve been here for a while. K? I’ve done this before. K? I know how it goes. I can help, so just don’t scream. K? Nod if you promise not to scream. But don’t talk because they can hear us. Those body cams have really good microphones, K? I knew you were downstairs, but I thought you might take the bait and then leave. You’re not supposed to know I’m here.” He had a high, reedy voice that squeaked every time he said ‘K?’

Jesus Christ, but this guy rambled on. But what choice did she have? He was heavy and Kathryn was not a large woman. But the second she got on her feet, she was going to make this son of a bitch think twice about ever attempting something like that again. Red-hot rage fueled her to calm as she summoned up her acting skills. It was easy to put men at ease when you looked like her.

Once he relaxed around her, she would scratch his eyes out, cut off his balls, and shove them into his stinking mouth.

The hand slowly released the pressure from her mouth.

“I’ve been here for a year. It’s been a long time since I talked to anyone. I’ve been living on whatever I could find to eat, but lately it’s been a bonanza because they were preparing for a new round of the game. So I knew you were coming. All I wanted to do was hide out, K? I wanted a dark place to wait out the day, but you happened upon me. Guess I fell asleep. Stupid me.”

“What the hell are you saying? You’ve been here since the last game?” Kathryn whispered.

“Keep it down. The body cam,” he said next to her ear.

“It’s downstairs. I left it on my shirt, facing the door. We’re safe for now,” she assured the man.

“You took it off? You can’t do that. They’ll make you pay, K? They’ll zap you.”

“Don’t care,” Kathryn said.

“You will. It sucks worse than a taser. I know. Trust me.”

“So let me up and tell me more about how you’re here. I won’t scream, or run off,” Kathryn said with a sweet smile.

The weight lifted from her back, and she could breathe normally again.

“Yeah. Been hiding and surviving. It’s better than one of the cleanup crew finishing me off. That’s what they do, you know. If they find someone clinging to life, they shoot them in the head. I like my head right where it is.” The stinky man paused to take a breath. “I’ve been in the game, and it was a mistake. The biggest mistake of my life. I thought I’d do well, but then I got hurt real bad. Fell off a house and banged my head, K? Funny thing, though, my harness stopped working so I took it off and threw it in a lake.”

“Wow. That’s ruthless,” Kathryn murmured. “You’re not going to try anything weird, right?”

“It’s not like that. I’ve been celibate for a year, but I’m not a rapist asshole. I’m just me, Carl. They make it sound so infallible. The game. But there’s the technological factor. K? The harnesses we wear are pieces of junk. I don’t know how they lost me. I thought they had GPS tracking in our flesh, but that might have been a load of shit, just like a lot of things in the game. K?”

“That explains the smell. When’s the last time you had a bath?”

The guy rolled to the side, but his hand clamped down on her rifle. He yanked it away from her, and then scooted back away from her, but not before aiming a handgun at her chest.

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“You should go. Just run and don’t come back here, and I won’t kill you. K?”

“I need that weapon.”

“Go find another one. We don’t always get what we want. K?”

Kathryn studied the man’s features. Stringy black hair going to dreadlocks. An unkempt beard streaked with gray hung on his chest. Dirt that coated his cheeks like random facial tattoos.

“Please,” Kathryn pleaded.

“I fought for that gun, and you came along and found it like it was a gift. I got news for you, there are no gifts here. Just death and more death. K? I need you to get your sweet ass down the stairs, out of this building, and out of my life. Go on.” The man waved the gun at her.

“I thought you said you could help.” Kathryn frowned.

“Changed my mind. Now go.”

“But someone out there has a gun.”

“A lot of people have guns.” The man nodded at her watch. “How long do you have left in this zone, anyway? Gotta keep moving, if you want to stay alive. Keep moving and keep in the zones. K?”

“What’s your name again?” Kathryn changed the subject. “I don’t remember hearing about anyone surviving the game and living here for a year.”

“You’re not listening to me. The technology isn’t that great. They make it seem like they have everything under control, but stuff always goes wrong. Too many variables. Now get out of here, go. When you die, I don’t want you taking me with you.”

“What if I survive?”

“You won’t. It takes a special kind of person to finish Chicken Dinner. I thought I had what it took. Lots of people do. But a lot of people here end up dead. Ninety-nine percent, to be exact. I survived because of a fluke.” Carl lifted his shirt and showed his bare chest. “Like I said. No harness.”

Carl pointed the gun at Kathryn again and motioned for her to go.

“Fuck,” Kathryn muttered.

“Hey. What the hell is this?” a voice asked from below. “Hot damn. I’m on camera.”

Some idiot had found her shirt and camera.

The wall to her right exploded and chips of wood flew. Kathryn kissed the floor as Carl scrambled around the stacks of hay. He then fired at the floor below.

“Come out. Come out, wherever you are,” the man said, and then opened fire again.

Rounds smacked into the floor, ceiling, and flew over Kathryn’s head, making her curl up in a ball.

“Not getting me. Not now. Not ever,” Carl muttered.

“I knew you were up there,” a man with a deep voice roared and then fired again.

Carl slithered around to the far side of the upper level and then leaned over and shot at the man below.

Kathryn backed up until her feet touched the wall and then kept her head down.

Carl rolled left and then opened fire again. Three rounds struck the floor below as the gun bellowed in the confined space.

“Just show your face. I’ll make it quick,” the guy below said.

“Doubtful,” Carl whispered, but this time his voice came from a different direction.

Kathryn considered the drop from the window. She could make her escape now, if she were careful. But with all of the bullets flying, there was a very good chance one would find her. She leaned over and studied the ground below through the window. If she lowered herself out, and dangled by her hands, she might cut it to ten feet. Still a long way to fall and hope she not only didn’t break her leg, but also didn’t make any noise.

Then her body froze as electricity coursed from the harness. Her mouth slammed shut and her eyes rolled back in complete and utter shock.

Son of a bitch! Carl wasn’t lying about the jolt.

“Guess I’ll have to come up there and find you,” the man below called out, and then sprayed the room with more rounds. “Ha ha. Kidding!”

Something sailed through the air and landed in front of Kathryn. She gasped, and then realized it was a head. A human fucking head!

“Check out my souvenir. I got it off a guy fifteen or twenty minutes ago. First kill. I didn’t have a gun,” the guy said as he moved around below. “I guess he didn’t really have his head in the game.”

Kathryn would have rolled her eyes if she hadn’t been terrified out of her mind.

“Then I shot another dude a few minutes ago, but I didn’t have time to claim a trophy before I spotted you.”

Good god this guy was chatty. If he and Carl weren’t trying to kill each other they’d have a great first date together.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash, but by the time she spun her head, it was too late. Carl had dropped off the second level and onto the floor. Gunfire sounded, hot and fast. Just as she thought she was going to lose her fucking mind, another shock arrived. After she managed to let go of handfuls of hay, her watch thumped against her arm. Kathryn pulled her sleeve back and found a pulsing message: “On tablet, now!”

Carl screamed in pain, and then a series of gunshots sounded. Someone grunted, and then silence fell.

Kathryn lay in place for another minute before the shock hit her. Her body went as stiff as a board and her teeth clenched together. Then it was gone, and she groaned.

“Assholes,” Kathryn muttered.

She pulled herself to the edge of the upper level and gave the downstairs area a quick look. The body of the man who had stalked her into the barn lay face-down. Blood around a gaping hole covered the back of his head.

Kathryn scrambled to her feet and made for the ladder. As she set her foot on the ground below, she realized that Carl also lay face-down. She dove for her shirt, ripped it off the hook, and quickly dropped the body armor. Then she pulled her shirt over her harnessed upper body, removed the camera, and turned it so that watchers would be able to see her face.

“Happy now, you fucks?”

She carefully repositioned the camera so that it wouldn’t display Carl’s body. With any luck the watchers, and the game runners, had no idea he had been living here.

“See? I just took it off for a minute,” she said.

Kathryn replaced her body armor and attached the camera over her right breast so that it faced out and then removed the tablet from her pouch. She hit the power button, and the map snapped into place. The face of a harried man with thick glasses and a couple days of beard growth met her.

“Don’t take the camera off again. Got it?” he demanded.

She nodded.

“Say you understand, or you’re going to get hit again,” the man said.

“I fucking understand.”

“Good. Now get back in the game.” His hand reached for control, but it hovered for a second before he said, “Oh. Good kill.”

Kathryn put the device back to sleep and slipped it into her side pouch. Then she went to gather up anything she could, and then find a new place to hide out.