Don’t break anyone’s heart, they only have one. Break their bones, they have 206

[EllisWilson]

And there’s the other shoe. Ray had been nodding along with Arkadi up to that point, but that question made him really, and I mean really look at the kid. What was he expecting him to say? Yes? No? Was he expecting a no so he could do him like he did Julia?

Unconsciously, his hand slid up to his neck. He rubbed it as his other hand grabbed his bag, dragging it to his side.

“Fuck, dude, are you?”

[CardboardAirplane]

He said nothing, the slightest hint of conflict stuck in his eyes. For a couple of moments, he looked this way and that, towards many different directions. Random tree, a door, the greenhouse.

He held his pack in his hands and started to rummage through the contents. His attention turned back and forth between the boy down on the floor, and the insides of the bag. Whatever he was doing, there seemed to be no hostility in his gaze.

It was only then he pulled out the first-aid kit. Now, to answer that question with another question:

"We've got loads of hackers in this class. And there's been some amazing shit done, not gonna lie. Do you think they'll be able to beat the system and get us all out of here?"

[AnimeNerd]

No movement.

Barely breathing.

Still no fight, only talking.

Blue blob brought out a white, rectangular blob.

Realization struck.

"Is he for real?"

Just barely audible.

Tension left her body, if only a little bit.

[EllisWilson]

Ray looked around, brow thoroughly creased.

Did he hear something?

Yeah, Arkadi asking you a question, pick it up numbnuts.

“Uh, well they’re all not dead yet, so…”

Ray looked at his feet for a moment (Christ that ankle is fucked) before continuing. “The CyberJocks are probably all gonna work together. Fucking… Boddicker too, maybe? Wait…”

A short gasp. “Wait! He’s related to that rich tech guy, right? Zeke Boddicker or something? He could be breaking us out right now, right? Family helping family, right?”

Ray let his mind race with fantasies of the endless glass walls melting away into a hospital bed, where his mom and dad would be waiting to welcome him back, take him home, and never have to deal with any of this again. He entertained the idea of national tv interviews, of people giving him money to write about how fucked up this all was. Hollywood, even? He could win an Oscar. He could win ten!

Ray, not consciously, had started up a squirming sort of bounce that caused his flipping ankle, still fully encased in skin, to scrape against the rest of the bone. He hissed through his teeth as he settled down.

[CardboardAirplane]

While he was standing here, Ilya realised he had absolutely no idea how to use anything in this first-aid kit. Bandages, maybe..? But this was clearly not a bandage scenario. Just looking at it got a confused creak out of him. Whoopsies, forgive him for being stupid.

“Everyone’s gonna be helping. Mmmmm, we’re being watched, hueh? That’s what he said. There's livestreams, and news reports, and everything.”

Of course, that also meant everyone saw him stab someone in cold blood. That thought got a tense chuckle out of him.

So, looking at those numbers, when now it’s essentially the whole world vs whatever they called themselves, Initiative Earth? There was certainly an imbalance.

“They also said they won’t hesitate to kill every single one of us in a heartbeat. Any interference, we’re gone. I don't think they're lying.”

[AnimeNerd]

A breath came in.

She peaked out of the doorway.

Blobs became boys once more.

The breath came out.

Panic over nothing, they hadn't seen her yet.

Still wouldn't - she wasn't giving them a reason to do so.

Not until she could strike without fear.

[EllisWilson]

Ray knew fuck all about computers, even less about how Cyber Reality worked aside from, like, the bare minimum so he didn't keep logging himself out by accident. He'd already seen how this fuck ass system worked (Mr. Franklins head exploded) so he knew Arkadi had a point.

But...

But......

"They aren't everywhere though, right? Fucking... there's only so many eyes they can have. It can't be that big a fucking op, only sickos would agree to do this." Ray was speaking quickly. He could feel that bit of hope sliding downhill, and he need to keep pace so he didn't slide with it. "They aren't fucking God. They can't make us do shit; we can do whatever we want. I... I can.... We... I'm not gonna fucking die for them Arkadi! Not today, not tomorrow, not ever!"

His voice was rising. He was going. He couldn't keep pace with his thoughts. He was sliding down, and he knew it, but he wouldn't be stopping until he reached the botton of that hill.

"If Boddicker and the rest... If him and Zimmerman and Castillo and Zinn and Angel and fucking Patrick are gonna work together to try and get us out... If Zorins dad is gonna call up the fucking national guard to storm Zephs compound and rip his fucking little NUTS off, I'll be happy! We're not gonna get that though, are we? You said it yourself, it's a fucking hostage situation. Fucking guns to our heads even with our parents next to us! Four people are fucking dead already Ilya, and we know who did it! EVERYONE FUCKING KNOWS DUDE! Even if all the fucking spergs in our class got together to fight back, they'll already be dead, right?! If that didn't happen, what do you think would be their first things first?!"

He went to rub his scalp, but the stupid fucking hat was in the way, so he grabbed it and grabbed it and chucked it off some place. He didn't care. It was all fake except for the parts that mattered.

"We're public enemy number fucking one! They're gonna kill us cuz they think they can get away with it! Cuz they're gonna be fucking terrified the second they see us. Or pissed! I haven't even seen most of the people I just mentioned. Fucking Peyton could have a sniper rifle trained on us right now!"

That one did it. That was the idea that got Ray trying to get up, even as he couldn't stand due to his bum fucking leg. He tried though, his eyes going wild and his breathing fast and his body not moving the way he wanted it too and oh dear god he was fucked he was so fucked

[CardboardAirplane]

He opened his mouth to say something, but then waited for him to finish his sentence. Then again. Then the next sentence. At this point he might as well wait till the whole ramble was over.

Ilya watched, unmoving; he was trying to block off the desperate yelling and tried to focus on the core idea of the ramble. It helped when it was a problem he was trying to solve himself, but it wasn't that easy to grow numb to it all, someone letting out those fears and worries were still going to get to you. At least this time, he wasn't kicking himself for feeling pity.

Think. He needed an idea. Because... It wasn't like they could stop. Like it or not, there was only one way out of here so there was no hiding and playing it safe, as tempting as that idea still sounded.

"What if..." He started up, forced neutrality in his voice badly hiding the thinly veiled unease. "Okay, we did what we did, and that's a crime, that's bad, yeah?"

No shit.

"Myehhhhh, you know that other person in Kirsten's video? That was me." A beat. "But it got me thinking. Before she shot herself, she told me to follow in her example, and die. If things could be framed under that idea, that what we did was to get people out of the simulation, that could save face a little. Just enough to, make, them, *not* wanna kill us? Because I ain't gonna lie man, what you did doesn't look much like an accident. But... I think most of these people aren't gonna shoot first, ask questions later."

He (badly) snapped his fingers, setting the grenade launcher in the ammo bag for a moment. Playing idiot. It was like what he did in class, except like, raise the stakes a lot and now it's a lot darker.

"How smart are you? Actually, mmm, nah, different question. How smart does everyone think you are?"

[AnimeNerd]

Eyebrows raised.

Was he having a mental breakdown? Did someone forget this was being live-streamed?

Did that matter, in the grand scheme of the shitshow they starred in?

Suddenly, her breath hitched, as the mistake was finally made.

It did matter.

She stood quickly, and spoke softly to herself.

"Watch and learn, chat."

Without a second more of delay, she ran out of the green house and began firing at the murderers.

[EllisWilson]

Ok, Ray wasn’t getting anywhere, so he just sat back on his ass. If they were gonna get shot it would have happened already, probably. That did nothing at all for his heart rate.

"Okay, we did what we did, and that's a crime, that's bad, yeah?"

He looked up at Arkadi. “Sure?” Personally, Ray felt like he was perfectly justified doing what he did (honest) but that doesn’t—

"Myehhhhh, you know that other person in Kirsten's video? That was me."

He blinked slowly. “Okay?” What was he getting at?

Ray actually paid attention to what Arkadi was saying now. It wasn’t a foreign concept, sort of. Ray started the game thinking how Kirsten did, and he should probably be more grateful he didn’t decide to stick his own gun in his own mouth. The idea could have legs, maybe. He wasn’t sure about his classmates not shooting him on sight, but Lowry was probably just some lunatic like Daniel, just with less luck— or skill in his own case (it was a hell of a shot, he thought).

“Uh, the others probably think—”

GUNFIRE!

SNIPER RIFLE!

PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER FUCKING ONE!

Ray let out a shriek so high it might have killed any dogs in the area as bullets sailed at him. It wasn’t a matter of the long term anymore, only the present tense. Ray mustered himself up with his bag in one hand and the other trying reaching blindly for Arkadi. Blindly because Ray had sprung up to his one good foot and was whirling around on it like some fucked up looking top. He saw a girl he barely knew charging him with a revolver, and—

Blood burst out of the side of his head and he collapsed, twisting onto his side. His backpack, draped over him, spilled its contents on the side he was facing.

[CardboardAirplane]

Ilya might as well have been dragged down along with him. Not that he was shot, but instinctively being told to get down because of gunfire mixed with Ray pulling on the fake tail for a moment or two made it pretty hard for him to stay up (would’ve been embarrassing if he died because of that. Species disadvantage much?).

He didn’t bother trying to see who it was, just noticed the figure and took note of what direction they were in.

First he tried to reach for the grenade launcher; the split second he took to try and get a good grip on it already made him think that was a bad idea so he did the next best thing, hiding around the pillar that he saw Paris standing nearby earlier. Some bullets spilled out as he ran.

“U-Uhhhh..!” He yelled out, trying to think of something to say. He found no words.

Shit, Ray. What happened to him? He didn’t dare peek out to check though.

[AnimeNerd]

One shot. A second. The third.

Blood splattered like a horror movie effect.

Her blood turned to ice in that moment.

Only a second, but enough for the boy in blue to run.

Shot number four rang out as he hid behind the pillar.

Two left. Then she'd need to reload.

She kept running, right towards the weapon he left behind.

[EllisWilson]

Lying on his side, Ray felt the part of his head where he felt… something different.

It was wet. Warm too, and, when he fingers prodded at the oddly flat space where his ear was supposed to be, he could feel that same warm and wet sensation jetting over the back of his hand.

He was shot.

Ears ringing, he saw feet hurrying past him. Now he recognized the girl. Marnie Cross.

She shot him.

In an instant, he was up on three good limbs. His brain was fogged with enough pain and hate that he lunged off both his good foot and his bad, sagging ankle toward her as she went past, trying to wrap his spider arms around her.

“GRAAAGGH!”

[CardboardAirplane]

Okay! This was no issue. (This was totally an issue.) He's just gotta go and—

Oh yeah, he dropped the gun.

"Haha, ahh." The noises poured out of him, the stress of the situation forcing them out of his throat. He still had his backpack; what else was there to use? He had...

...

Lunchboxes?

"Oooooh god." He was fucked. Haha. Funny how that happened. He's literally got a knife in a gunfight.

Hastily pulling out one of the boxes from his daypack before circling the other side of the pillar and chucking it in the attacker's direction.

[AnimeNerd]

"JESUS SHIT-"

The shriek spilled from her lips like water out of a fallen glass.

She had the gun, but he had the element of surprise and half a foot on her.

Bullet number five was wasted, the sound of glass shattering background noise in the moment as she fell on her ass.

Last one - need to make it count.

Gun barrel jammed in the bald boy's face - and maybe roughly poking him while doing so - she screamed once more.

"Don't-FUCKING MOVE, or I WILL SHOOT YOU, you FUCKING-FUCKER!"

If she were still standing, the lunchbox probably would've hit her.

But she wasn't. So it didn't.