CH3: Revelations

After the announcement, some of us are feeling uneasy.

“Ah! Whatever! I want those damn bitches out of this game! Can we go deal with them already?!" The red head complains: "We just have to get our asses to the gym and shoot them! They fucking got Sofie!” Vinora shouts and we look at her as she’s still pacing back and forth. “Gym? Uh… well, we could take the tunnel there. I was thinking of eliminating them too…” Arleth mutters and I am still not entirely sure about her.

“How can we trust you? Why shouldn’t we just shoot you now?” Tatiana says sternly and the girl looks a little hurt and fixes her posture: “I saved you.” Tatiana squints her eyes and turns to Vinora and goes comfort her. Arleth turns to me and shrugs: “I was thinking we could join forces. You lost a member, so I thought it would be appropriate.” She is right, Sofie is gone. We are one girl short. But her sudden appearance was a little too weird.

“Fine, but… W-what was the tunnel you mentioned?” I ask and she walks over to a door and opens it which seems to lead to a basement. “Here.” The three of us follow her carefully and the basement is creepy and dark. There’s no cool neon lights here in the old building. It’s just unnerving. We move to a wall and Arleth points at a spot where there’s a keycard reader. It’s red, a level 5 door. Only we see no door. Before we get to question it further, she takes her bracelet to the door and the wall slides to the side, opening a passageway.

“Wow… ok, that’s kinda cool.” Vinora says while looking at the secret door. Tatiana rolls her eyes and puts her hands on her hips: “Ok, so this leads to the gym, huh? Where exactly?” Arleth looks at us and clears her throat: “Under the stage I'd say. It will be easy to surprise them there.” I am not sure about this idea. But we move into the tunnel with Arleth’s lead. She is taller than the rest of us and doesn’t say a word as we follow her. We start hearing sounds coming from over us and hear footsteps. We are under the gym and soon see light. Arleth crawls out of the tunnel first and we follow, trying to not make any sound.

It’s true, the tunnel leads straight to the gym and under the stage. From here we can peek at the Recreationists buzzing around. I can see Calliope enter the room enraged while Esme tries to comfort her and the two girls sit together and hug: “I’m so sorry, Calli. I wanted to stay but…” Calliope hugs her teammate and swipes her forehead and claps her hands: “Everyone! We got one of them. We got Sofie. But… we have to talk!” The others walk in and Tatiana gasps as she sees Korina with her bandaged eye. I see Grace and even Catherine with her new large sniper rifle. The gun is just as impressive as the LMG we found. Arleth seems interested to watch too and we all observe.

“I will not allow **** like that! Not here! Not like this! Grace!” She points at Grace who looks at her angrily: “Sorry boss…” She mutters and Calliope goes up to her and stares her down. Calliope is much taller than Grace and looks down at her. “Why?!” She asks and Grace looks away and pouts: “Cuz we are supposed to eliminate them, right? I ran out of ammo. What do you want me to do?” Calliope sighs deep and fixes her hair and turns away: “You do not get it! You… I don’t want us to use ****! That’s not how the game works! No, I just want everyone on the same page here! I want it to be fair for everyone.” She sits down and holds her head and the others seem as confused as I am. Calliope is tall and intimidating with her big gun and the protective vest she wears, but now she seems somehow smaller than I remember.

Calliope raises her head and although her expression hasn’t changed there’s a certain hint of tears in her voice: “I-I can’t believe Hope is gone… I-I just wanted a fair game. I wanted everyone to agree to do this the fair way… but look where we are at now! Catherine, tell them.” She holds her face and the silent black haired one speaks out: “We were thinking an organized game would be fairer. We were thinking of enforcing an arena battle once all the participants were gathered. Alas, some did not want to join. A well organized arena-type of system would ensure the most capable win in a fair way. This would also ensure that as many as possible get the ultimate reward.”

Others gasp and I can’t believe what I am hearing. I look at my friends and they seem confused too. “Yeah… that was the plan… a pistol each, level playing field. And we stop at 3. Get it over with. The best ones make it. Others lose. No backstabbing and sneaking around! Dammit! And no ****! This… this is awful! I hate this! This tribal war we are having!” She looks at the floor and Grace looks shocked and looks away regretfully. I see Esme sit next to Calliope and hug her. I can’t believe these are our enemy. The same Calliope I thought was a monster for shooting Wicky. Maybe also for taking Grace from me.

I hear Arleth’s voice next to me and turn to her: “They are now all together. I couldn’t help but notice you have a grenade on you.” She points at my waist. It’s true, I still have that bomb I found from the rec room on me – no, but that’s not right. “B-but… I don’t know… Her plan. It’s not horrible. Maybe there’s a chance we could talk about it. We don’t have to go to war again.” I look at Tatiana who is staring at Korina and doesn’t seem to be even listening and Vinora has an angry expression: “Listen! They eliminated two of my friends! I… I don’t want them to have a chance at surviving! It’s just us three now. We will survive! Not them, no one else!” I frown back at her and feel Arleth’s hand trying to get the grenade sneakily but I turn to her and she pulls away.

“W-what? Did you not hear them? They don’t really want to eliminate us! We just have to talk with them. It’s… fair that way.” I whisper and Tatiana finally turns to me: “You just want for Grace to not get eliminated, don’t you? That grenade will take all of them out. Including her. You still want her to survive after what she did? I… I am ready to part with Korina. She didn’t spare me outside. She just kept shooting. She is not right in this. We have to use this chance!”

I feel cold sweat on my forehead and feel Arleth takes the grenade. “H-hey!” I try but the girl prepares it and chucks it in through a gap on the stage platform.