Chapter 6: Game
Together, Ted and Viv wrested the pistols from Johanna’s hands. Forcing her to her feet, she and Aster were once again marched back to camp by Amy and Viv, while Ted looked after the wounded Marc and Bella. Marc was lying face-down on the ground, clenching his fists, groaning at the pain his bullet wound gave him. Bella had lost consciousness altogether, having finally given into the nausea and headache she had been suffering from all morning. She had stayed silent so as not to become a burden on the others, but when Aster had been standing over her threatening her with a syringe, she had passed out completely.
‘You two really are something,’ Viv said as they walked. ‘To turn a five-on-two situation into a three-on-two so quickly is incredible. I don’t even know what you did to poor Bella.’
Back at the camp, Viv stripped Aster and Jo of their equipment once more and they were forced back into the hole.
‘Jo, Aster!’ Kasumi called as they landed among the others. ‘Are you alright?’
‘Pretty much,’ Jo replied. ‘Did you get the message?’
‘Of course! We didn’t eat any of the marked fruit.’
‘Good, all we can do now is wait then.’
1st May
6.30am - Final Day
4 days, 12 hours since the start of the exam
12 hours remaining
‘Wake up, wake up!’ The yell came from Viv. ‘Rise and shine, you’re nearly free!’ It was indeed the time he had promised to free them. They were assisted out of the hole, but Viv’s pistol still threatened them. Jo breathed a huge sigh of relief as she breathed fresh air again. The last two days had been awful for her, even more so than for the others.
With little explanation, they were led through the forest for about half an hour. All of Viv’s troupe was there; Bella had recovered after a days rest, and Marc’s thick hide combined with a whole lot of luck meant he could already walk again, though he now had two serious injuries that were hindering his movement.
Eventually they came to a large clearing, about ten meters in width and double that in length. The grass there was far less overgrown than on the rest of the island, and there were few other shrubs and plants. There was also the much more obvious observation of that, embedded into the ground and rising straight up in the air some ten feet, were close to a hundred wooden poles.
‘Don’t tell me you do this?’ Aster asked as they all stared up at them.
‘No way,’ Ted replied. ‘We found them here. Must have been set up by the guild.’
Each pole had deep grooves etched into their sides, running all the way up, by which one could easily climb to the top. There they could sit or stand on top of the pole, whose diameter was wide enough to accommodate one person at a time. With enough daring one could jump the gap of around two meters from the top of one to one of the others surrounding it.
Viv turned to them all and began explaining, finally, the reason for his actions.
‘Y’see, Marc here is a gambler. He said it might be fun to gamble away all our time on the island save twelve hours. The gamble would be whether we could still make it in time. To make it more fun, he also suggested a game against a rival team. Bella agreed, saying that it would be interesting to see if a group of individually skilled strangers, when forced together in extreme circumstances, could adapt quickly enough to beat us, a team that has worked together for several years. To that end, we came up with this game when we found this site. Then we found you, and decided you’d be perfect.’
Ted and Amy lay down the equipment belonging to Jo, Aster, Lucian, Damian and Kasumi carefully on the grass, taking each piece gingerly from its wrappings. Out of respect, they didn’t man-handle any of it too much, in particular Kasumi’s swords which they didn’t touch at all. It was odd that they had gone from being rude and violent to being so respectful so quickly, even Amy seemed subdued.
‘We tried not to hurt you too much, and we apologise for the inconvenience we caused you.’ Viv bowed his head humbly, holstering the pistol. ‘But, to explain the game, which we hope you will agree to play, but which we will not force you to. If you win, we will direct you to the beach, which is close by here, and not pursue you. We have checked this morning, and one boat still remains.
If we win, we will aim for the last boat ourselves, though of course, if you are still in any fit shape to beat us there yourselves, you will be free to try. If you do not agree to play, we will treat you as ordinary enemies and do everything in our power to take the last boat for ourselves.’
Without waiting for a response, Viv went on to detail the rules. ‘Simply put, it is last man standing. We will each take our place atop one of the poles. The aim is to knock all the opposing team’s members to the ground. If you touch the ground with any part of your body, you are disqualified. The team who forces all their opponents’ team to the ground first wins. You may use any weapons or tactics you wish. Any questions?’
No one answered. ‘Very well, then I will ask you all – will you agree to this competition?’
(OOC: Sorry for the rather crappy explanation, it was the only reason I could think of to delay the characters getting to the island til the last day.
If there are any questions regarding this game, please say so and I'll edit the last part of my post. I also would have had this up last night, but my stupid computer messed it up. Stupid laptops! ><)
