Cross My Mind

SURVIVAL

Mila, Garba and Lucy have just gathered the loot from the defeated players that attacked Lucy, they gathered four ropes and an additional service knife. Garba took two ropes, with his own rope making his items a total of three ropes; he had Lucy take a rope and have Mila take the second service knife.

“you need to be able to protect yourselves when I am occupied so take the knives, I have a feeling we’ll come across a third knife soon, we will eventually run into other players that will want to turn us into pixel dust and take our supplies and equipment” Garba mentioned.

“I was walking as we agreed to survey the area and meet back at the marked point on the mini map, I was being very careful but ran into a large salt water alligator. I maintained my distance so it didn’t chase me, alligators are fast only if you are within their reach so I was carefully retracting my steps back to the forest area as the alligator slowly follows me as well”.

“Where is it now ?” Garba asked

“It should be around there feasting on two of the friends of those guys we fought just now” Lucy said pointing at a natural pond not too far from where they are standing, the pond is covered with green algal bloom and weed so much that it may be mistaken for plain land covered by green pasture.

As the three of them examine the pond more intently they were shocked at what they saw, there are about as many giant alligators as they can see. Garba turns his eyes to look at Lucy, she met his eyes and nodded with a serious look on her face and said.

“no one will survive or even be able to escape this many alligators in one place, from what I can see they hardly leave the pond because it is a perfect trap, most players wont even notice what they are walking into until it is too late”.

Lucy turns to Mila to ask if she has encountered anyone in her survey but was frozen in complete silence when she saw the look on Mila’s face. Utter horror and dread has become visible in her expression and she has fallen to her knees shaking and clenching her jaws.

“Mila!” Lucy shouted and ran towards her as fast as she could. Garba quickly noticed and ran over to them as well.

“what is wrong with her? Why is she suddenly like this, just a moment ago she was doing okay” Garba said.

“Mila can you hear me? Talk to me, tell me what is wrong” Lucy said while using her hands to feel Mila’s forehead in an effort to see if she has fever or something else, in truth Lucy doesn’t know what to do as well as she is confused too.

In the Middle of the confusion, Garba saw feint flash of the evening sun reflection from the direction of the forest and immediately he realized, the only spawn instrument capable of making such a reflection is the spawn knife some players get randomly as they enter the game. The moment he finished processing the thought he realized that it must be other players.

“We need to move now, other players are in the area and we cant fight like this with Mila zoning out and looking dread” Garba said and as soon as Lucy heard him, she knew it was time to retreat. The two carried Mila, each with her arm around their shoulders; they walked as fast as they could, went round the alligators pond twice before they disappeared into the forest on the other edge of the beach.

About five hundred meters behind them, the seven players dressed in military camouflage have been tracking their footsteps approaching them slowly. A few minutes later they finally start to see multiple footsteps and signs that there were more than two people.

“Boss, I think they fought here, there are signs indicating at least seven people were here”

The bulky man among them walked forward and observed the scene. He walked a few steps around the area before finally coming to a stop at the place that Mila dragged the guy that was about to stab Lucy from behind earlier.

“I agree, there were people here and they fought just a few moments before we arrived. I also suspect two more things. Either they are still around observing us or have fled before we arrived. Spread out and look for more clues, when we have a simple trial that we can use to track them we will move out at once”. The bulky man said.

All the men including the bulky one leading the group scattered around the scene to look for clues.

One of the men in particular started walking toward the layer of green pasture, with no apparent situational awareness, he walked straight into a pond full of alligators and only realized it when he felt his boots fill up with water.

The bulky man had been tracking three footsteps that led him In a full circle that keeps closing towards the center, it took him a while to realized that whoever was there walked in circles to lure whoever comes in their pursuit either into a dead end or a trap. Just as this thought is developing in his mind, the beach area echoed with an agonizing scream that made all the rest of the men run in the direction the scream came from.

“I knew it must be a trap, I had a bad feeling about this circular foot trial. Tell the rest to not rush and be watchful of their surroundings” the bulky man shouted to the man running in front of him

Four of the men were already holding their knives out and ready for a fight, the rest of the two which were the bulky one who is their leader and the man running in front of him were shouting “don’t rush, slowdown and understand what is going on first”.

Unfortunately, one of the men is already inside the green weed and algae covered natural pond. A reddish color is slowly surfacing and an arm of the first player that was dragged in floated up right in front of him, he panicked, moved even deeper into the pond, the rest of the men watched as a nine feet long alligator rose up from the green water and dragged their fellow player into the green pond.

“Don’t step any further forward, we are in the middle of a pond filled with alligators and I can already see seven of them. Unless you want to be turned into pixel dust, I suggest you all slowly move backwards from where you are standing” the bulky man said.

The rest of the five men walked backwards slowly holding their knives until they were all significantly away from the pond and no alligator was in their pursuit.

“whoever was here before us must have seen the alligators blending in the pond and used their footsteps to lure us into the pond. We are either dealing with an intelligent and meticulous psychopath, or someone with topnotch military training and experience” the bulky man added.

“we better watch our step from now on, we are going to find a good place and set up camp to spend the night, we should not recklessly move about if we don’t want a repeat of this kind of incident” one of the men added. The men walked back into the forest.

“what should I call you, there are only five of us here, we should at least have codes we will call ourselves. I am Alpha, you will be Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omega” the bulky man said while pointing at them one at a time.

“understood” they all shouted in synergy.

“Now Beta, you and I are going to keep an eye out for wild life and other players, Gamma, Delta and Omega gather wood lets start a camp fire to sleep near” Alpha said and they all stood and began their assigned duties.

On the edge of the forest where the river flows into the ocean, Garba Mila and Lucy have sneaked back while avoiding contact with other players. Garba’s plan is that the Boa constrictor will be their wall against any player on the opposite end of the forest since it wont just let anyone pass through the middle of the forest which is it’s territory. While for the military guys whose carelessness both exposed them to Garba and led to the demise of two of them, Garba knows they will never expect that someone has sneaked right behind them.

“although this place is relatively confirmed to be safe, we should at least take precautions to avoid exposure of our location” Mila said

“what do you have in mind” Lucy asked

“I believe most groups of players will try to start a fire, we should not do that because it will expose our location. What we should do is take five hours rotation of keeping watch and sleeping among ourselves to be sure we are not completely exposed” Mila said and they agreed.

Garba and Mila would sleep first leaving Lucy to keep an eye out for them.

Garba and Mila cleared a small area between trees, using their backpacks as pillows.

"what was the deal with you back there, you suddenly froze and i could see you were terrified by the sight of the alligators in the pond" Garba said.

"it is a long story, i almost died in an alligator attack a few years ago, the injury it dealt me put me in the ICU for two weeks. i still have scars and nightmares about it" Mila responded.

"I wont press any further, we should sleep now". Garba said and they went to sleep leaving Lucy to keep the first watch.

Lucy kept her watch for the next five hours and woke Garba up, he was still sleepy when he first woke up and had to pour cold water on his face from the bank of the river. Just before Lucy went to sleep to switch shift to Garba, a loud scream reverberated in the forest and woke even Mila who was sleeping.

“we should go and see what is making that sound” Lucy suggested but Garba quickly objected by saying

“I know exactly what is going on in the middle of this forest, you were not the only one who had company during the area survey we did when we first arrived. What I encountered was much more dangerous than fighting off five players at once”

“what is worse than facing five enemies at once Garba?” Mila asked with disbelief in her voice

“a giant snake Mila, a Boa constrictor. I was lucky enough another guy became the boa’s lunch or I would not be here right now. I am telling you that once you are face to face with the snake, you cannot escape, it is as big as coconut tree but as fast as any one of us” Garba said.

Garba, Mila and Lucy stayed awake the whole night in battle mode and ready to blend and hide in case anyone was running from the giant boa and lured it towards their end of the forest. A few hours later, it was the break of dawn and a giant massage window has appeared in the sky making it visible from all parts of the island, even under the canopy of the thick forest, it could still be seen and it reads:

‘time remaining till end of game is one hour fifty minutes, there are only seven players remaining and everyone’s location can be viewed on the mini map. Defeat all players to be the last man standing’

Mila quickly picked up her backpack and pulled her knife out, getting ready for combat as soon as she finished reading the massage window.

“we need to need to attack the last four guys before they attack us, it is an all out battle now” se said

Lucy followed after Mila by putting her bag on her back with her rope within an arm reaching length from her hip and her dagger at hand.

“can we slow down and see how many of the last four are a team and where they are? I am suspecting most players were finished off by the boa or other wildlife last night so if the last few can see where we are on the map, we can also see where they are.

No need to go rushing in blindly without a proper plan”

Mila and Lucy double tap their mini map and they both enlarged.

“The last four players are not a team, only two of them are and the last two are single players currently going in opposite directions. The two who are a team are just a few hundred meters away from us, two hundred or three hundred meters in my estimates” Mila suddenly said.

“you have such mastery of area topography and don’t seem to struggle with maps, how have you been hiding this from us all along?” Garba asked

“there area lot of things you don’t know about me Garba, I am guessing the same goes for you. I don’t really know much about you two either so it is fair” she responded

“What should we do then, go after the two guys or hunt the singles one by one?” Lucy asked

“There is no need to, the single player at the other edge of the forest is already on the move toward us, I am guessing he wants to pick us out one by one as well. I have a plan; we will lure all the players to the center of the forest by pretending as if we are scattered but maintaining close enough distance to whistle each other back for help”. Garba mentioned.

The three of them agreed to lure the rest of the players into the territory of the Boa without letting it see them but maintaining close enough distance to shout for help to let the others know if any of them has encountered the other players. Garba would shout the word “help twice” to let Mila and Lucy know which direction he is, while Mila and Lucy stayed close enough to each other in case any of them encountered another player.

About twenty six minutes into Garba’s plan, he has successfully tracked the constrictor to the very center of the forest, at this point the first guy that has been tracking them has followed Garba who looks more isolated then the rest of the players.

Unfortunately for him, he walked straight into the line of sight of the boa and almost instantly as he came out of the bushes, the boa got him while Garba used the opportunity to quietly run back to Mila and Lucy.

“one down three more to go” he said to the two of them stare at him in disbelief.

Mila looked at the map one more time and saw the other single player disappear around the top of the volcano region.

“Guys, it is us against the last team of two guys, the other single player just died in the volcano area”

Right before Mila could close her mouth, the island shook and all of them fell on their feet, a loud bang followed by the sight of smoke filling the sky instantly and all of them knew at once that the volcano just erupted.

“the game is about to end, we need to find the last players and take them out to win” Lucy said in a haste and bolted in the direction of the beach where the last two players currently are on the mini map.

Garba and Mila charged after her as fast as the could. By the time they were out of the thick forest canopy, Lucy was already being chased by the two players who were both dressed in Military camouflage and instantly Garba and Mila realized it too; these are the last survivors of the seven players in military camouflage they saw teaming up in the waiting hall just before the game began.

Garba raised his head up to check how much time they have left to defeat the last two guys and he was surprised to see they have just two minutes.

He removed his rope and from the bag, placed it on his hip and snatched Mila’s dagger from her hand before she could even realize what was going on, Garba has rushed towards the two guys chasing Lucy in a circle.

With an almost precise motion, he pulled back his left hand holding the rope and yanked it round in a circle a few times before letting one end go forward towards the two guys while holding the other end, the Bulky man managed to dodge the rope just a few seconds before it hit him in the face. The rope passes and with great force and hit the second guy with so much force it sent him tumbling.

Mila wo was chasing right after Garba quickly finished the second player on the floor by picking up his knife and stabbing him right in the face and instantly turning him to pixel dust.

Garba keeps chasing the other guy who in turn seems to be focused on finishing off Lucy who has been running like her life depended on it because it actually does.

Garba, having been unable to catch up with the Bulky guy held his knife in his right hand and for a brief moment just aimed at the general direction of the bulky guy who has finally caught up with Lucy holding her hand and about to stab her with his knife. Without a moment of hesitation, Garba threw Mila’s knife with all his strength and might.

The knife glowed a bit of blue light and started generating electric sparks around itself just a few millisecond before Garba let go of it and it boosted out of his hand with a sonic boom that made the bulky military player turn around by instinct.

The very second he turned around, he saw a streak of blue light zooming towards him like an arrow and tried to jump to the left to avoid it but Lucy held his right arm and the knife zoom right passed In between the two.

Lucy quickly realized that she is holding a severed arm and threw it out. The Bulky military player was wailing in the sand due to the pain and just at this moment, a tsunami of raging lava swallowed the entire forest and racing towards the beach. Just when the lava was about to swallow all of them, it froze. a million confetti shreds started raining down on them with the countdown on the large window having reached zero and the game has ended.