CYPHER

Playah Killah...

It was one of two .

Either Trevor had decided to ignore Dean and still follow them around or Jade had given them the go ahead to follow them .

Dean did not really care which of the two cases it was as he had decided to just ignore them all together .

He and Blade were paying more attention to figuring out the right way to where they were headed .

" Maybe we should have woken May to tell her where we would be going ".

Dean shook his head at Blade's statement , he had thought about it and decided against it .

She would not agree to staying back and would have Insisted on coming along as well , regardless of her health situation which would have been a huge liability for them .

And then , if Dean had mentioned that she might be a liability , she would do everything possible to prove she was not , including putting herself in danger.

Dean had thought of it all very well.

" It was not necessary , she was fast asleep and I did not want to wake her ".

Blade turned to Dean , taking his eyes off the way Dean had told him to keep an eye on .

Trevor's appearance had reminded Dean that there were a lot of players that would be satisfied with robbing other players all the while they were here, completely forgetting the pyramid that came on every morning .

" But , what if she wakes up and does not find any one of us and not even a note ? What if she thinks we have been taken off somewhere and annihilated ? What if she is thrown into such misery that she kills herself a few moments before we arrive ? "

Dean had to pause briefly to shake his head in disapproval at Blade , man seemed to be having watching too many dramas , that was the only explanation .

" She is not as brain dead as you are , If May wakes up and finds us gone and our weapons too , she will know we left of our own volition . And she will probably go around punching the church's walls in a fit of rage over being left behind and please , do not stop in the middle of the road , it is really annoying ".

Blade rolled his eyes at Dean and held his gun higher as he continued with his sweep of the streets as they moved .

Dean watched him move forward for a few seconds suddenly struck by an epiphany , he turned to observe the people behind and saw Trevor holding a hand gun that he seemed to know how to use well .

Jade too was holding Dean's former pistol and moving point guard .

Nelly was holding a baton and Tara was holding what looked a lot like a hook or was it a sickle ?

No , on closer inspection it was definitely a hook .

Dean watched them all approach with their Kevlar vests and varying weapons , they looked like soldiers during an apocalypse .

None of them could have imagined that they would be moving around with rifles a week ago and now they were doing just that.

Dean wished the game rules had stated that whoever made it to the Seventh day could leave because if it was truly only one winner that they would have , it could be anyone or no one .

Jade and Trevor's team caught up with him but Jade avoided Dean's eyes and moved ahead , followed by Trevor's teammates while Trevor lingered around by Dean .

Dean turned around to glare at him when he would not leave .

" What do you want ?! "

Trevor backed up slowly, his eyes wide as he stared at Dean .

Dean sighed and turned around and began to walk after the party .

" I was just wondering why you were standing behind ".

Dean nodded slowly .

" I was originally supposed to watch the rear so I am just returning to do just that , someone has to do that ".

Trevor nodded , humming softly and they continued to walk in silence .

" Your bow is not here , did it get broken or better still stolen ? "

Dean scoffed quietly , he really was not in the mood for a question and answer session with Trevor or any one to be honest .

" You would love for it to get stolen , wouldn't you ? "

" I did not bring it along because I am almost out of arrows ".

Trevor nodded again , adding a long "Hmm" to it .

Dean did not recognize anywhere around here and since there was no mention of it on the map , then both Blade and Jade had no idea about this place too .

Dean's thoughts were once again interrupted by Trevor who was clearing his throat noisily and very close to Dean's ears .

Dean turned , swinging the gun with him and glared at Trevor .

" I just wanted to say that I am sorry about her , She seemed like a nice friend. I heard about the gauntlet but we actually thought she had survived it but now that she is not here ......".

" What are you talking about ? "

Trevor gave him another pitiful glance , one that someone that was also stuck in this game had no business giving someone else .

" Your friend , the pretty Asian from when we met , I heard that she challenged Martha yesterday and killed her , we were all wondering how she could have killed Martha but it seems she died too ".

Dean's head blanked and slowly cleared as he tried to piece the story together .

" Wait...how did you know that it was May in the fight , you don't seem to have been there last night and what do you mean killed Martha ? "

Trevor blinked , he seemed surprised by something and then realization set in .

It seemed Dean did not know just how popular his team was .

" Everyone knows who May is and who you are ".

" What ?? How is that possible ? "

Trevor put his hand under his chin to think for a while before answering the question .

" Well , your team is kind of popular. May broke into Top dog's fight and then , you broke into the fight too and beat up the most popular Gauntlet fighter and then May challenged the only other more popular Gauntlet fighter and killed her , it is all everyone is talking about now ".

" Why do you keep saying May killed her ? May had nothing to do with Martha's death ".

Trevor stared at Dean following his announcement .

" But , that is what everyone is saying . They are calling her a player killer ".

Dean turned away from Trevor and continued moving slowly , they would take care of this issue later .

For now , they had to really focus because they were almost at the mall .

Blade stopped walking up ahead and raised one of his fist into the air and they all stopped walking too , except for Dean who strode forward to see what the issue was .

" Blade , are we good ? "

Blade's eyes were closed and he lifted a finger to his lips for Dean to follow too .

Dean kept quiet and tried to listen for whatever it was that Blade had heard .

His eyes were closed for almost two minutes before he heard it , the distinctive hum that came from the steels but this hum was distorted and scratchy to Dean's ears .

He opened his eyes to find Blade's eyes already open and staring at him .

" Did you hear how distorted the droning was ? "

Dean nodded at this .

" What do you think could have been making such a distorted droning ? O don't think we have come across one that sounds like this , do you think it might be another steel like the one we encountered yesterday morning ? "

Blade lifted his gun and smiled at Dean .

" There is only one way to find out ".

Dean frowned as he followed Blade , what was with the cliche line ?

They walked to the end of the street and peeked over the walls before they eventually turned the corner .

The street had been closed off , blocked by a pile of damaged cars stacked above each other .

Dean and Blade exchanged looks before heading towards the high stack of cars .

" What in the hell is this ? "

Dean had no answer either so he tried to find a way to look beyond the Cars and eventually found it through a convertible .

He carefully got in the convertible and peeked through the open roof at what was on the other side of the street .

The street ended with a large mall that was surrounded by Steels doing different things .

There were over Twenty of them and staying close to other steels made it easier for Dean to spot the differences between them .

How were they going to get through without getting incinerated ?

Dean carefully slipped out of the car and found Blade already waiting for him , he gestured for Blade to get into the car and look at what he had seen .

Blade came out of the convertible after a couple of minutes , he was smiling .

He dusted his clothes when he got out of the car and looked at Dean .

" What do you think about this ? "

Blade's smile grew larger .

" It is pretty obvious what I think , No ? "

" I think we are quite f****d ".