Killing Game Quarter

Chapter 6: The Sleepless and The Broken Part 2

“Soo…” A voice broke through the silence, which was Urkstin’s, who sounded like he was trying his best, “I think we should get to know each other better!”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Mia said, eating her breakfast while looking at the table. “That could just get us attached to each other.”

“Well, if we get to know each other better, wouldn’t that make us not want to hurt each other?” Urkstin retorted.

“Mr. Urkstin raises a good point, perhaps we should go along with this, at least as an experiment to see how we fare against it.” Liam explained, backing up Urkstin’s idea.

“I agree, we should try it out. I need to get to know you guys better.” Akira added on, leaning in on her seat. “What’s the topic Urkstin?”

“Oh, uh… how about our favorite things?” He suggested, “I can start!”

“Go ahead Ark Stine, I’m gonna need to think about mine.” Poppy prompted, rubbing her temples.

“Alright then… my favorite thing, excluding cars obviously, is probably painting! Even as a kid I always loved to paint stuff, and it was a good hobby of mine before I became a full time racer.” Urkstin retold, thinking back to better times.

“What kind of things did you paint?” I asked, interested in his ability.

“Well, the last one I remember making… was this blue and purple bunny that was holding a toy car.” He explained, while we all came up with our own ideas of what it looked like.

“That sounds… really cool looking.” Akira complimented, while Urkstin rubbed his head and laughed.

“Ah geez, it doesn’t look that good, from what I can remember.” He replied modestly, “But painting is my favorite non-talent related thing! Who wants to go next?”

“I may be able to go.” Liam muttered, raising his hand. We all turned to him collectively before he cleared his throat and continued, “I was an attentive collector of the properties of superhero stories.”

“...So you collected comic books?” Urkstin asked, making Liam turn his head away from us before nodding nervously.

“Oh, that’s cool!” Akira complimented, making Liam turn back in surprise, “How much do you have?”

“I…” He said, before returning to his uptight and overly explanatory tone, “I have collected all series in the marvel comic universe ever from 1939 to the present day.” 

“That's impressive! You’ve collected all of that?” Poppy asked, her jaw agape, “Where do ya even keep all of that?”

“I used to have an entire closet dedicated to sorting and holding the comic books that I have collected over the years.” Liam explained, “It was a very useful room.”

“Well that’s not what I expected from you, but I’m glad I know Liam!” Urkstin cheered, smiling at the progress we had made, “Who wants to go next?”

“Well, I-” Risa started, seeming like she wanted to share, but was interrupted by the sound of the Loudspeakers turning on.

“Good Morning Contestants. I am here to announce that the paths leading from the infirmary and library hallways have opened up! You may explore them at your own discretion.” After that, the Loudspeakers shut off.

“Oh boy, more rooms for us to be trapped in.” Mia mocked, rolling her eyes, “If you all want to check it out, I’ll be staying here.”

“Well what about our friendship circle?” Urkstin asked, looking upset.

“We can continue that later Urkstin.” I replied, smiling and patting him on the head, “For now, we need to look for a way out of here.”

“Right!” Poppy said, as everyone stood up, and made their way out of the cafeteria, splitting off in the two different directions. I decided to follow the group going to the infirmary hallway, and caught up with them as they walked.

“What do you think is gonna be down this new hallway?” Akira questioned.

“Hopefully something cool and fun! Like an art room, or a playground.” Urkstin replied, setting his expectations high.

“Why would a prison have a playground?” I asked, snickering at the idea of inmates playing in a jungle gym.

“Well you don’t know, this guy behind this is wild! Who knows what they could throw at us next.” Urkstin retorted, bringing up a good point.

“Well, we’ve yet to see an office, or storage room, or any sort of job area so-” I started, before Akira interjected.

“So the next motive’s gonna be jobs! Obviously!” 

“I…” I tried to respond, but couldn’t be bothered to start thinking about the motives again.

“Think about it though,” Akira continued, “If they like, give us taxing jobs like lugging around logs of wood or something, that would tire us out and stuff!” 

“And you think that would eventually break someone?” Urkstin inquired.

“I dunno, maybe.” She answered, shrugging her shoulders. As we finished our small talk about hypothetical motive jobs, we had reached the cell door past the infirmary, and opened it slowly, following the winding set of hallways towards our newest area unlocked.

“Please be an art room, please be an art room.” Urkstin chanted, crossing his fingers as we walked.

“Please no jobs, please no jobs.” Akira joined in.

“Please stop chanting, please stop chanting.” I finished off our triple chant choir, as we reached an open doorway into a new area, and as we walked in, we all collectively took a gasp of fresh air.

The area in front of us was a courtyard, with a large open field of grass, with fauna like rocks, flowers, and even a tree covering the area. As I looked up in disbelief, I noticed how there was no ceiling! Instead, there was a large open space for the grass and fauna to collect the sunlight they need, alongside water from the rain. 

Unfortunately, there were metal bars covering the length of the sun roof, preventing the idea of escaping through there from coming into my head.

“Yo! Maybe we could get out of here through that sunroof!” Also unfortunately, Akira and Urkstin did not have the same realization as me, as she threw out that idea.

“Ohhh, you’re right! If we get like some rope or a ladder, then-” Urkstin tried to offer help, but I was quick to shut the operation down.

“That won’t work, sadly.”

“How do you know that?” Akira shot back, putting her hands on her hips.

“Well, for one, those bars covering the sunroof are spaced so closely together that we wouldn’t be able to squeeze through if we made it up there,” I started to explain, pointing to the distance between the bars, “Secondly, the roof is like… eighteen feet off the ground, so it’s gonna be pretty hard to get up there in the first place.”

“You… have a point.” Akira muttered, losing her sense of excitement.

“Well, it’s good to have sunlight regardless!” Urkstin responded, keeping his optimism. “Maybe I can get a tan here!”

“Maybe.” I replied, snickering at his playful tone. It was then that I took a moment to look around the field, noticing something. “Hey uh, I think this is the only room over here.” 

“Huh?” Akira and Urkstin both searched around as well after hearing that, also coming up short.

“Well, that’s upsetting,” Akira remarked, “But there is always the other hallway that opened up.”

“Awww, but that’s like all the way on the other side of the prison.” Urkstin complained, letting out a grunt of frustration.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” I assured, patting him on the back, “There might be an art room over there.”

That seemed to get him perked up, as he soon rushed out of the courtyard, leaving Akira and myself to pick up the pace and catch up with him, while he was well on his way towards the library.