Guessing that we should know each other if we are going to be the only two on a team while the other 32 people are on teams of 16, I will take that terrifying first step of talking to a women beyond ‘Hello’. It seems that we will be working together so I’ll introduce myself. I begin, “Nice to meet you, my name’s Charlie.” Ffffucckkkk, I went for the typical greeting you give a work colleague!
“My name’s Crystal. Nice weather, right?” Are the gods delivering rain after a long drought? She’s just as terrible as me at talking to the opposite gender!
I motion to wipe away tears at the edges of my eyes, only to receive a strange look from Crystal. We should stop just sitting here mindlessly.
“Yeah, but more importantly we should figure out why we’ve been singled out, right?” This is the best we have of overcoming what might be ahead of us.
“I suppose. Have we done anything differently than everyone else?”
“We both came quite close to the top of the run? No, that wouldn’t be it.”
“Yeah. Maybe it is something to do with the first section of the test?” That’s quite a good idea, we don’t have the test results yet so we can’t check for anything along those lines though.
“It could be, but we haven’t got our results yet so we have no way of knowing.”
“Okay, what about… Did you nickname the big instructor guy?” She was just fishing for reasons now, but, how’d she know?!?
“Yeah, Mr. ‘Shout’, I almost actually said it to him. It was terrifying.”
Pausing for a second I look towards the instructor who seems to be explaining something on a team by team basis, everyone has a painful smile on their face in an attempt to convince the instructor they can actually bear his presence. Wait! “I don’t think that we’re the only ones that nicknamed him, I’m pretty sure everyone did.”
“You’re probably right… We can just ask him when he gets here.” Crystal sighs a little bit as she finishes the sentence. This is really odd, I feel some kind of odd connection with her. It’s like we both think the exact same way. Is this perhaps the first ‘Homo sapien’ I’ve found that possess some higher form of intelligence?
“Oh god, he’s coming. Prepare!” Crystal shrieked as she saw the burly man, which we had come to know as Lucifer’s third cousin, approaching us.
“YOU FESTERING CORPSES, GET OFF THE GROUND, ON YOUR FEET!” Resistance is always futile, Crystal and I know that. On our feet, we look towards the instructor. He’ll begin talking any moment now.
“We will be playing a little something I like to call, Tri-Dodgeball. Can you guess what that means?” He asks in a very narcissistic way. Crystal and I immediately understand why there is 3 teams. Triangles. We must be playing it as a triangle, what I can’t understand is why we didn’t just have 11 people on two teams and 12 on another. It didn’t really matter though, it seemed like he was not one to withhold answers.
“No, the silent kind, huh?” He puts as much emphasis on the ‘huh’ as humanly possible, “Doesn’t matter, can any of you two guess why you are on your own team?” Here we go, it’s about time I get some answers.
“It’s simple, really. You two had the top scores on the test based section out of this group. You’re smart, I think you can manage, right?” It’s evident he doesn’t want an actual answer and more or less just wants to antagonise us.
“Don’t stand so close to us. It’s disgusting.” Crystal said, while intently staring at Mr. ‘Shouty’. What the fuck has she done?!? Will she even live? It’s not my problem, I’ll just take a step back from her, easy. After taking a step back and looking at Mr. ‘Shout’ I notice his face gradually becoming red like a beetroot. His body starts trembling and his face just gets more and more red. Perhaps he is constipated and struggling?
“Hehehaheha.” Mr. ‘Shout’ just begins a muffled and awkward laugh like he can’t actually believe what’s going on, “Hahuaha-” abruptly it just stops. He goes back to complete normal and just walks away back towards the other teams like nothing ever happened.
“Huh?” Unconsciously it just slips through my lips.
“Weak point confirmed.” I hear Crystal whisper while glancing over towards Mr. ‘Shout’. Did she deliberately irritate him?
*CLAP*
Lurching. Oh god. We’re not using the asphalt court?
As the white light of the teleportation fades I notice we are in what might be called a triangular arena of sorts. Crystal beside me, the other teams at their respective sides. There are three walls on each side separated by about thrity-five meters each, the wall itself being eight or so meters long.
At the foot of each wall there is three balls on the side facing away from the center. The balls are black in color, about the size of a mango. Why’d he call it dodgeball? The balls are small and the wrong color, there’s three teams and the entire field is the wrong shape.
Tri-Dodgeball
The aim of Tri-Dodgeball is to be on the last
team standing using any method possible.
You might have noticed that the balls appear
to be a lot smaller than usual dodgeball balls.
This is because they are actually capsules
sealing M67 grenades. The primer and
striker have been removed and instead have
been remade so that when the outside shell
has a powerful collision it sets of the detonator
and finally sending out hundreds of miniature
fragments, lethal within a range of 5 meters
and injury at 15.
Take note that fragmentation grenades are
absolutely useless when there’s a wall
between you and the grenade.
The walls have an approximate life of 3
explosions. They will most likely crumble
after that.
Take care and try not to die now!
WHY THE FUCK IS IT CALLED DODGEBALL IF IT’S A GAME OF HOT POTATO WITH GRENADES!?!? This game is going to turn me into a fucking sadist, isn’t it? Glancing at Crystal I notice she has a solemn look on her face. I don’t blame her, ‘Homo sapiens’ aren’t the bravest of beings. I’m not going to pretend I’m brave either but it’s not like we have a choice, we need to cover each other and somehow make it through. It won’t be as easy as it sounds, I can already tell that much.
“BEGIN!!!” I hear a voice that I recognise from before, “Hahehahhua.” It’s the fucking Instructor and he seems to be enjoying this little game he’s created, a normal game of dodgeball would have been just fine!
Crystal and I jump into action, “We should go to the middle wall, right?!”
“Yeah, that’d be the best idea. If we go to one of the sides we will be closer to the other teams!” Crystal has a worried tone to her voice and she doesn’t seem to like this situation at all, neither do I. We start running to the middle wall. The wall is only about 10 meters away and it was partly curved, like a half-pipe on its side. We crouch behind the wall and pick-up a grenade each. They are surprisingly light, half a kilo at the most. So, we are going to have to throw grenades at people and somehow manage to survive? That sounds terrible. I mean, how am I even suppose to properly do this with one arm? Even after all the therapy I still find it hard to do lots of things, throwing being one of them.
“Crystal, I’ve only got one arm. I don’t think I’ll be much help with the offensive..” I whisper towards her.
“You what? What do you mean one arm?!” She looks puzzled and is staring at me like I’m crazy.
“I lost my arm years ago, this is a prosthetic.” Her eyes widen slightly but then go back to normal.
“That’s not a problem, have you even looked at your arm?” Grabbing my arm she pulls my shirt back to my elbow.
“What do you mean?” Was all I could manage to say before I understood what she was talking about.
“It’s VR, a lost arm is simply replaced.” Looking at my arm I can tell that it is most definitely real, why does it feel odd and stiff though? No different than my prosthetic in a way.
“It doesn’t feel any different though?”
“You probably haven’t used it in a long time and forgot how to! Can we talk about this later, your arm works and we need to focus from now on, okay?” She takes the lead, seemingly already forgetting about my arm, “Everyone else is most likely still confused so we should take advantage of the situation, we’ll each go off to the walls beside the enemy territory and throw a grenade into the group. They should be easy kills and the chance of retaliation is low.” She really is a rational thinker that might rival me in some ways, however, “That would not be a wise idea, rather, we should both go directly into the enemy base together and take them all out before they have a chance to use their own grenades, then we simply move onto enemy wall after wall until we get back to our own walls, sound good?” I had just proposed a better scenario that was low-risk and more likely to win us the game.
“That’s… actually a much better idea..” Crystal is clearly taken back by my strategizing skills, even I am.
Although I hadn’t yet become accustomed to the idea of hurting someone else, I realise that we really don’t have a choice and that we should make the best of the opportunity.
“Charlie, pick a number between 1 and 10.” Huh? What’s she up to?
“Umm, 7?”
“We go left, Odd was left, even was right.” She just eliminated the need to choose what way to go which would have cost us precious time. We are too compatible.
Crystal, speeding over to the lone grenade, begins talking about what we should do if we have someone retaliate, “Charlie, if someone throws a grenade towards us simply hide behind the walls, it doesn’t matter how much health the walls have because we will be moving onto a new wall within moments.” Crouching down she then proceeds to pick-up the grenade and place it in her pocket.
Surprised that she picked up on the defensive strategies I had already thought of, I simply give a nod of confirmation.
“Okay, let’s go.” That was all I needed to say, we had thought of all the basic things we would need to successfully win.
Heading left we arrive at the next wall at the edge of our territory. Three grenades still untouched. I pick up two, one pocket each. Crystal grabs the other one and places it in her empty pocket. “Here goes nothing.” She nods at my statement which just had to be said.
We dash across the gap between the enemy's wall and ours. Immediately I see 4 people, an elderly man, two young men and a middle-aged women.
***Perspective Change***
Just what are we supposed to do? Two people against 32? The odds were overwhelmingly against us. Charlie was a young man which seemed to be relatively calm and quiet, he hadn’t spoken to anyone during the entire run through the forest and then he had suddenly been singled out during the team selections. For some reason he also had silver eyes? Anyway, none of that was important. Right now, him and I had been pitted together and forced into a death battle! I am personally a very shy person and generally only talk if someone talks to me. Yet, for some reason, I keep finding it being the other way around when I talk to him.
We have to somehow win against 32 other people and all we have are our wits and a couple grenades? No thanks, I would never voluntarily take part in this. However, I didn’t have a choice currently, so it didn’t really matter. Charlie had surprised me when he came up with a strategy that far outshined my own; he really was quite intelligent.
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We run across the gap into the enemy territory when we both see 4 members of the other team, they are wearing a blue uniform and this confuses me and seems to also confuse Charlie because we are both still in casual clothes. To prevent friendly fire, perhaps? Yeah, that’d be it. The four people, an old man, two younger men and a lady seem to be thoroughly confused and looking at an invisible book in front of them.
I look towards Charlie and I stare at him with questioning eyes. He nods and this signals me to grab the grenade in my left pocket. Firmly grasping it and raising my hand behind my back and above my head, I swing forward with all my might and release the grenade as my arm flies past my head. The grenade follows along a parabolic arc as it soars through the air. It hits the ground between the two young men and I see an intense flash and feel a warm wind pass through me. Killing really doesn’t feel that bad, after all, it’s just a really realistic game. When you play games you don’t feel any remorse, why would this be any different?
Update!Crystal has killed four people with one grenade!
An amazing achievement!
Confirmed dead:Elenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - BlueFor identification purposes the player’s first
names have been displayed, all last names have
been omitted for confidentiality reasons. Players
will choose a username after the testing phase
of the tutorial has been completed. Keep in mind
that the username has to be an actual name.
Think up some good ones!
It was that easy? Will it even be a challenge at this rate?
***Perspective Change***
I watch as a grenade goes through the air. It goes up at first then eventually gravity overcoming its momentum it falls back down again only to land between the two young men. A blinding flash sears into the back of my eyes as a message window appears in my vision.
Update!
Crystal has killed four people with one grenade!
An amazing achievement!
Confirmed dead:Elenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - Blue
For identification purposes the player’s first
names have been displayed, all last names have
been omitted for confidentiality reasons. Players
will choose a username after the testing phase
of the tutorial has been completed. Keep in mind
that the username has to be an actual name.
Think up some good ones!
Good aim. That’s all I can think.
“Crystal, good job. 16 people on a team, yeah? So that means we have 12 to go.”
“Yeah, 2 walls remaining for this team, 6 people at a time?” she begins speaking happily only to then realise we will have to go up against an absurd 6 people at a time.
“It’s not going to be that easy, everyone would have just heard that grenade. They will most likely be on look-out and everyone just got that notification.” At this point it was safe to say that we were probably screwed. I grab Crystals right hand, to hell with it, we need to get this over with. I lead her as quickly as possible towards the wall.
“H-hey, wait!” She is blushing profusely for some reason unbeknownst to me. Ffffucckk. I sometimes forget simple things like ‘If you grab a girls hand suddenly and start running off with her’, she might be drawn to some terrifying conclusions.
“N-no, we need to collect the grenades and move on now!”
“Oh, why didn’t you say so?!”
“It was clearly faster this way,” we both grab a grenade each, Crystal flings the spare one over the wall as we don’t really have any room to hold it, “Would you have done it differently?”
“U-ummm.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Quick, let’s go.”
*boom*
I hear the explosion coming from the center of the arena as it most have just collided with the ground after Crystal threw it. A soft glow appears from the edge of my vision but I pay it no mind. The gap, finally, “Crystal, we’ll both throw a grenade this time, okay?”
“Yep, 6 people might be too much, they need to be quite close for just a single grenade to work.”
“3, 2, 1, run!” After my quick countdown we both speed forward at a quick pace only befitting the top runners from the ‘race’, as the instructor called it.
7 people, 3 women, 4 males. Beyond that I didn’t exactly have much time to look for any recognisable features. Two round black objects fly through the sky and hit the ground. The moment before they hit one of the men had leapt and rolled off towards the other side of the wall.
A bright flash and the same, but more intense, warm wind remind us that the grenades had worked.
Update!
Crystal and Charlie have banded together and killed six people!
How is this even possible? Teamwork of course!
10 down, 24 remaining. Blue is being decimated!
Confirmed dead:Eric - BlueStephen - BlueJose - BluePaul - BlueDebra - BlueChristina - BlueElenor - BlueRonald - BlueRyan - BlueSamuel - Blue
I grab Crystal and I fling her towards the wall with myself in tow, two grenades are missing and I didn’t hear any extra explosions from the explosion with six people.
“The guy that got away had two grenades Crystal!” I blurted out as quick as possible.
Both of us knowing the seriousness of the situation, we hide against the wall. It was time to actually of some kind of challenge. It wouldn’t be alright if it was all smooth sailing, right?
“What should we do?” Crystal asked, thrill on the edge of her tongue.
“We both need to think rationally and and work together, obviously.”
“I know that! I mean, how should we deal with this guy?” Crystal seems irritated that I dodged the question. I have an idea but she isn’t going to like it.
“I’ve got an idea but it might get both of us killed.” I keep staring at her eyes to look for signs of reluctance. There’s none?
“What is it? I trust your plans.” She already trusts me? What have I done to even prove myself to be an ally yet? Nevermind, the strategy, “He has two grenades. Only two. Without them he’s nothing. How do you suppose we could go about getting rid of them?” I start hinting towards my strategy, it’s better if she comes to the conclusion herself.
“We’re going to bait him?!?” She’s quite good at this, already having figured out my plan.
***Perspective Change***
I jump around the corner of the wall and there he is, a man, 27 at the most. He seems to be in some kind of stance like he expected to have to duck for cover at any moment. His eyes focus on me and he’s shocked. The man had two grenades, one in each hand, he knew it for a fact. Instantly he lifts his arm over his head and backwards then propels his arm forward at a speed that didn’t corelate to his body. He must have been quite strong or well trained in some way.
The grenade soaring through the air, Charlie behind the edge of the wall screamed “Now!!” At this moment I leapt towards the wall again, Charlie having his arms outstretched caught me as he tumbled back behind the cover with me clumsily on top of him.
*boom*
The explosion is disorientating and I know that we would have died if the wall was not between us and the blast. Frag grenades are truly terrifying.
My cheeks redden. I’m currently on top of Charlie and we had stayed like this for a good 4 seconds before I quickly rolled to the side to so that I’m not on top of him. He’s still laying there so he might not have noticed…
My cheeks returning to their normal soft brown glow, I see a newly formed collection of metal spikes impaling all the nearby walls.
“Charlie, get up!” He didn’t move, I try again to get his attention, “He might figure out what we’re doing If we don’t move!” His eyes are completely shut and his body is unmoving. I pull his arm only to find that it’s completely limp. Shhhitttt. How am I supposed to do anything if my team member is out cold!
I quickly grab Charlie’s legs and drag him right up against the wall. Now I need to make sure that the other guy doesn’t discover that Charlie's out of it. Hmm, to hell with strategy. Grabbing the spare grenade that the guy had left at the wall. I run around the wall at a speed similar to, but not the same as, my top speed.
The guy is staring in disbelief at me, he thought I died? Huh? It doesn’t matter. I grab the grenade that I recently picked up out of my right pocket and hurl it in his direction, more as a distraction that an attack. It worked! He took a stomach dive and I watch as the metal fragments go out in all directions a few high speed ones making it even towards myself but ultimately missing, going off further into the distance.
I start circling around him before he has a chance to get up. At this point, we both only have a single grenade left. If one of us miss, the other will surely perish. He brushes off the dust and gets up, staring at me with what can only be described as utter hatred. He expects us to not try our best in a death game that decides how our entire game will play out? It was incredibly fast that I almost didn’t notice it, his left arm brushed past his ear and released a black sphere, his last. My mind losing control and my body taking over I step to the side and see a grenade fly right past my head and continue on behind me.
Pain. A bright flash from behind emanates a warm aura while I feel my feet leave the ground and my body go flying.
***End of Chapter***
Sorry about the delays but it was still within 24 hours! I’m working on the next chapter as I type this and it will explain what happens next. Comment if you have any questions, liked anything, or just enjoyed the chapter overall. Thanks for reading! <3