He flinched when he heard Sean swear at his computer. It happened at least three times a day, but the volume and anger always caught Michael off-guard. It was always Sean, too; the rest of the office was always very calm. One of his co-workers had told Michael it was because before a season started they didn't really have much to do. Just occasional updates to the website and articles about notable participants to keep the interest up. The hard stuff during a season, however, was their responsibility, and increased workloads and shift hours substantially. Sean hated it when things went wrong even when the office was calm, and since his computer was the worst in the office, things went wrong often. Now that it was happening during the busiest time of the year, his frustration was all the more palpable. Michael had grown accustomed to it, though, because Sean never really yelled at anyone apart from whichever poor IT tech happened to answer the phone. Shaking the distraction off, Michael went back to looking through the roster page.
His eyes skimmed over the page of the recently deceased student. Each roster page was the same: it had a picture, their name, their team, their school, a bio and, most interestingly, their Vegas odds. Everyone in the season had odds, and the combination of bets you could make was unreal—at least, that was what his boss had said. He had mentioned something about someone putting a joke bet on a decapitation one season and winning big because it was supposed to be so unlikely. Michael wouldn't have found it weird if there were people who made all their money off betting on SOTF-TV.
He glanced up from the screen as one of his co-workers walked past with a big grin on her face. He had a good idea where she was walking, too. A few seconds later the sound of light-hearted bragging and laughter told him his suspicions had been correct. The office had a pool every season, with everyone putting in a couple of dollars and getting a slip of paper with a participant's name on it. Whoever ended up with the winner got the entire pot.
The kid Michael had picked was still in the game, and he had a stream of them up in the background. He saved the website and minimized the window so that he could see how they were doing. They were currently just talking, nothing exciting. He sighed again. It didn't look like he had a winner. He pushed his chair out and made his way over to the water machine. The office was stuffy and the only real opportunity he got to cool off was when he went to get a drink. He was about to pour himself a cup when his boss walked over.
"Ah, Michael, there you are," David McNally said, smiling in his typical faux-apologetic way. "Ms. Ghoul wants some coffee for both her and Ms. Soshimoto, although she made the request that the coffee for Ms. Soshimoto also be delivered with a copy of her last album. So I'll need you to go out and buy that first."
Michael nodded and watched his boss walk away before rolling his eyes. He knew for a fact that both Ghoul and "Xylenz" made ridiculous requests for the fun of it. He also knew that Xavier did the same just because he now could. But Michael couldn't do anything about it because he was still just some intern. He went back to his desk to get his jacket when his boss circled back around.
"Actually, Michael, change of plans. Give them the coffee first and tell Ms. Soshimoto that you'll have the CD for her as soon as you can. But there's been two more deaths, so before you do that I need you to update the website." His boss handed him a piece of paper with the two names on it.
With yet another sigh, Michael sat back down, writing down the coffee request on his list of things to do. Updating the site was yet another petty annoyance, even if it only took a few minutes at the most. All he had to do was change a couple of lines of code and the kid would be marked as dead.
He looked at the piece of paper his boss had given him and saw the first name: Erik Lowell. His kid in the sweepstakes. Well, that was just awesome. Michael's day was just getting better and better.
~*~
"Up and at 'em, kidlets. It's me again: your forever loyal hostess, Ritzy Daggers, with the half-daily news. We have some more updates for you all about your fellow competitors, and I know you wouldn't miss out on that.
"Ready or not, here we go!"
Ritzy found a familiar name on the top of the handwritten list. The names she saw both built upon and and deconstructed the idea of there being an actual pattern to the game. You got one girl who made it look like the killers were just going to keep on killing, then you got some other kids who got kills just hours before dying like chumps. It was a fun thing to think about, the orderliness of the proceedings of what should just be hectic teenage rampage.
"Starting off our sloppy second series of slaughtering was Jewel Evans, shooting down Søren Rosendahl without much reservation to score her Turkey at the bowling alley.
"Soon after, Matthew Weiss met his end when caught in the crossfire by his companion, Pia Malone. Don't feel too bad for them; chances are they were going to end up turning on one another eventually anyways..
"Next, Gabriel Munez provided an example of an early killer being an early out, having exhausted himself and not cared for his severe wounds. Keep up your cardio and practice not being a moron, and you guys can avoid a similar death.
"Not so far away, Shadi Williams went for the twofer by beating both Forrest Doe and Sarah Miller to death in fast succession. Not much to say about that, but points for efficiency.
"Lucia del Pirlo then got her second kill by placing a bullet right in Leah Bissard's chest. I'm liking the trend of our girls getting their double kills quickly; keep it up.
"Not one to lay about, Jewel Evans continued her rampage by killing the not-so-innocent bystander Naomi Young followed by inspiring reporter Erik Lowell. It's too bad—in another life, he could have taken this job from me.
"In a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment, Valerie Fitzroy was pushed down a set of stairs by one Gene Steward, landing right on her neck. It was a pretty gnarly lookin' scene.
"Coming up second-to-last yesterday, Riley Parker was gunned down by Pia Malone while trying to beat a hasty escape. It doesn't really matter how fast you guys are—bullets are faster.
"The final death of the night was Señor Ramón Fuentes, shot by Corin Albanesi. Good thing he was the last one, too; I've run out of my seven-in-the-morning material for today.
"And that's all there is to that, children. Oh, before I forget: make sure any of you in The Lānaʻi Hotel or The Palms Spa and Salon get out quick, or else your heads will explode! That's just bad for our ratings. Check ya later."
DAY TWO: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020, 7:00 AM
Weather: It's a little warmer than yesterday this morning. Few clouds are in the sky, and a mild breeze blows all across the resort. Temperatures are higher than expected, with a high of 45F/7C at 3pm. As a result of this, some of the snow melts away during the day, though frost will return overnight.
#1 Gene Steward (RC)
#2 Shawn Thornton (Fenrir)
#3 Eden Bishop (Will)
#4 Jaxon Street (Inky)
#5 Marcus Redder (SansaSaver) Will Brackenrig (SansaSaver, Swap Card used)
#6 Bunny Barlowe (Pippin)
We're back to the regular schedule now. That means three days for card, three days for DZ's, and an extra seven days to finish deaths.