Over the Hill

[Dr. Nic†]

[Boy #14 - Alex White. Continued from Rule the World.]

Alex went from hobbling, to limping, and back to hobbling. Most of his map was blacked out, so he was following a path he'd followed once before, and was heading west. And he'd burned through most of the day he had left after staying at the mansion and stopping at the fairgrounds. By now, it was late, and he was exhausted. But still he pushed on. He'd gone from taking one or two pills at a time to taking several, and he neglected to take care of his wounds or change his bandages. He was solely focused on getting back into his groove and finding someone, anyone, to kill. To prove he still had it in him.

To prove he could still win this.

To win, he would need to keep moving. He would need to keep fighting. And he sure as hell would need to keep killing. That was the key to winning this. To make sure that he was the last fucking man standing. He remembered taking inventory before leaving the mansion. He had some thirty bullets for that piddly little handgun. Nearly twenty for the fucking shotgun. And then he had those grenades.

Oh, those grenades.

He so wanted to use them before it all ended. He wanted to make sure they were put to good use before he went home. Maybe he would make good on his threats. Maybe he would shove one far up Teo's ass. Shove the other down someone's throat. Those would be great ways to use the grenades. Great, bloody fucking ways. Like something straight out of a movie.

Straight out of a horror movie, in fact.

He could swear he'd seen it once before. Stuffing a grenade in someone's mouth. Maybe it was a severed head? Who knows. It just seemed familiar. But it didn't really matter now. He just had to keep moving. He had to find someone before he could even think about using the grenades to kill anyone. There had to be someone around here somewhere. Someone on the mountain, maybe. Someone in the woods. Maybe someone in the city. Yeah, they would all be there. They would all be hunkered down in houses there, waiting it out, waiting for everyone else to die so they could go home.

Yeah. That's where they were. Sitting, and waiting, and keeping an eye out for Alex. They would know he was coming. They would be waiting for him. But he wasn't going to let them get the best of him. No, he was going to be the one coming out of this game alive. He was going to end them all. He was going to survive where everyone else had died, and win this game. He was going to rule the world, and get back home.

"What makes you think you'll have a home to go back to?"

And if there was no home for him to go back to, he would make a new one. He would be a survivor. It didn't matter what he did. He would be a survivor. He only did what he had to in order to survive. They told him to kill, they forced him to do it. Yeah. It wasn't his fault, it was Danya's!

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was a monster, but he didn't have to accept the blame alone.

Danya was a far bigger monster.

But the point still stood that to win this, to survive and go home, Alex needed to find everyone else. He needed to find them, and kill them, and make sure he was the last one standing. And all he needed to do to do that was get over this hill.

Just over this hill.

And he could earn his survival.

[Boy #14 - Alex White. Pushing onward in And Through the Woods.