Death Game: Isolated

Chapter 8

"I've taken revenge for you by eliminating Vincent, Jinnah will be next."

***

"Jayson, how's Jinnah?"

Rona asked when Jayson arrived at the place where the players started to gather.

"She's asleep..."

"What do you want to do with her?" He then asked back.

"What do you mean?" Rona was confused.

"At any time, she might do something unexpected to you."

"Oh... Just let her be." Sha calmly replied.

"Are you serious? What if she is a hunter?"

"If she's a hunter, she should have killed me before. She didn't even properly aim at me when she threw the stone. She will not do anything funny next." Rona thought it was just Jinnah's sudden outrage due to what happened to Vincent which Jinnah thought had something to do with Rona.

After her words, Rona then looked at Fiona who is talking with the other players.

***

*Sigh

"Will anyone believe us when we told them what we experienced here?" Jin released a helpless sigh as he pull his short hair to the side, laying his back against the backrest of the chair.

No one can really tell what the police will say but if it came from the mouths of many, they will surely believe, and that's if they can leave this place before every single one of them gets killed. It's a huge if.

"5 billion, that's a big money. Even if I die of old age, there's still more than enough left for me to live my second life." Kimberly replied.

Kimberly has a curly hair and model-like body, it means she has long legs and an hourglass figure. Who is she? She's studying in University of Santo Thomas, a nursing student.

"Hi-"

"Ouch!" Von wanted to put his hands around her shoulder but instead he received a slap. There was a red palm imprint on his right cheek the moment the slap landed on it.

"So fierce, I like it." The other fellow students found Von's attitude quite funny, some even wished he could become bolder so that he can receive a good beating.

"There are so many girls here, why are you always pestering me?" Kimberly glared at him then her eyes shifted to the group of students not far away from them. Three ladies and two men.

"No no, I know my limits. Even if I find them beautiful, I won't covet the property of others." Von shook his head when he noticed where Kimberly was looking. Although he's not familiar with everyone here, the fact that there is always a group of five students who are always together is well known to everyone.

At this moment, someone approached Von.

"Von." It was Jin. Von's expression became sour. He can't still remove his suspicion that Jin was the one who killed Ronald. If there's a time this suspicion was true, he will not hesitate to end this person's life. Von was one of the players who easily adjusted to their situation but they can't still remove the pain and fear whenever a fellow student was killed every night.

"What?"

"Don't forget to wash your neck." Then he left. No one knew what he's thinking, although Von understood the meaning behind his words, why would he say something like that? It didn't bring him a good feeling.

"Stop! What do you mean? Are you plotting something?"

Jin smiled and looked at his fellow students.

"No, don't you know no one is safe here? The Game Master already told us that there's a lunatic among us, a psychopath to be precise."

"Heh! Do you think I'm afraid of him? If he wants to kill me next, then let's see who's gonna die first."

Von replied. It was an open declaration that he's not afraid of the hunters. Although he has no idea who the hunters are because they're good at hiding themselves among the players, he is very vigilant against everyone in here. If Kimberly is one of the hunters, although beautiful, he will not hesitate to eliminate her first. Preserving his life is his top most priority that's why... He is also willing to kill just to survive. This game is about taking each other's cards after all, taking someone's card also means taking their life away.

"Hmp! Let's see how will you hold on your words."

***

00:10:00

10 minutes left before the game starts. The players don't know when they should take a rest. Although it is a lot safer to take a sleep in the morning, they can't sleep properly due to fear that they will die during their sleep.

Among the 12 players that died, only Ronald was killed inside a room and it was not even in his own room, it was Jin's. The few others who didn't believe Jin about not being the killer of Ronald are starting to distance themselves away from him.

"Ace, should we go now?" Sofia asked him. She is the most anxious among the circle of friends because of her role as a hunter. Ace was also not comfortable without knowing which among Jiel and Darell is a hunter, he just have a premonition that it is most likely Jiel, the King of Diamonds.

"Sofia..." He held Sofia's shoulder and looked at her eyes.

"Give me your card just this time, the other hunters might suspect you if you do not make an appearance."

"No! Why sould I? I will go by myself, you should stay here." She refused on exchanging cards even if it's only this time.She knew Ace's reason but she can't let him do it, what if he gets discovered? It will just make things worse.

"Then you will go, stay with me, I'll protect you."

The two were inside Sofia's room, the door was locked and they also made sure that no one will eavesdrop.

"Here..." She handed him the gun and the knife which Ace immediately accepted.

They were not yet driven to the corner where their only choice is to kill to survive. For now, the only uses of these two weapons are for unexpected dangers. They knew that if the five of them stayed together, their chances of survival will be higher than being alone like the rest.

"Let's go now, they're waiting..."

The two went outside and walked around the building. At the back of the building, three people were waiting, they are Angel, Jiel, and Darell.

The bodies of their fellow players are still in front of the building, no one is brave enough to hold or even touch the mangled bodies.

At this moment, they heard voices from afar.

"Hurry, there's only 3 minutes left."

"Where can we go at this moment? You think we can get far enough with the little given time?"

"Just shut up and run if you don't want to get left behind."

Ace's group can't identify whose voices are those, they just went to the opposite direction where the voices are coming from.

"Where should we go?" Angel asked.

"To somewhere we can clearly observe what's happening but is also safe." Ace answered. He was leading the group to where they hid during the first night of the game.

***

The area was located on a higher ground, it is also very dark because the lights from the streetlights can't reach the place, plus, there were many houses and this area is also the nearest to the walls.

When the lights turned off, the group was only halfway there but they didn't stop and continued on their way. The moment the lights turned back on, they already reached their target place.

Ace and Sofia stayed near the wall of a certain house outside while the other three went inside of it. Jiel made a little opening on the window and peaked to see what's going to happen.

"They're here again..." Angel mumbled after seeing hunters coming from different directions, all of them are approaching the area in front of the tallest building.

Only the figures are discernible. It is also a good news, it is better for them to hide but can see the enemies than to hide without knowing what's happening around them.

"Get inside..." Jiel called Sofia and Ace, the two then entered the house and went to the other window just beside Jiel.

"If we can just hear what they're saying."

***

After a few minutes, when the countdown is at 05:50:00, the hunters started moving.

"What are they planning to do?"

The 6 hunters present approached the corpse of the eliminated players and were planning to take their cards but then, after a few moments, they didn't find anything. It seems like the lunatic who eliminated this four took their cards for himself. He did the work so it's to be expected that he will have the rewards.

Then, they carried the corpses away from the place, who knows where they will bring the dead bodies.

There are only six of them, they can at most carry only the 3 bodies. They needed another 2 hunters to carry the remaining one which is Vincent's.

"Where are they taking them?"

"If they will just throw the bodies, we can find those easier because they will smell and rot but if they decided to burry those four bodies, it is harder to find them but not impossible."

Throw and bury but Jiel thought something about Darell's words.

"There are so many houses here, there are also restaurants. They can also freeze the bodies to prevent it from rotting and releasing an unpleasant smell but in order to do that, they need a huge freezer or a cold room to store the bodies. In addition to that, the place should be not reachable by players."

"That's also possible, but which among the buildings here has that kind of place?"

"Hmm... Maybe the restaurants? The houses are too small to have a cold room but big enough for a huge freezer."

*Silence

The whole town was silent after the hunters carried the three bodies away, at this moment, another two appeared and took Vincent's body away from the place.

39

There was no precursor or such, the player count on the giant monitor suddenly decreased.

Is it by a hunter or a player?

"There are no gunshots." Ace spoke.

The hunters are still nowhere to be seen, why are they taking so long in taking care of the bodies?

"Look..."

From the direction where the only exit and entrance of the town was located, a man is walking in the middle of the street while holding something long in his right hand.

Upon reaching the area where the 4 dead bodies were previously located, he stopped and looked around him.

Jiel didn't even bother to hide and just stood in front of the window, why bother? It is impossible for that person to see him due to the distance and the darkness enveloping him.

'Who is it?' He thought to himself. Although the person already showed his face, he can't identify him. If they can just get closer, it might be possible.

"Is that a player? What's he doing outside?"

"I think he's not, he is just pretending to be one."

After a while, the person brought out something behind his clothes.

It was a mask!

He wore the mask and waved the stick, or to be precise the iron rod he's holding in the air. It caused the fresh blood wrapping the iron rod to drip to the ground.

He stayed in place even after a few minutes until 8 hunters wearing masks arrived in the place.

***

Before the 8 hunters could leave, Ace's group decided to go to a different hiding place.

They maintained a close distance to the walls of the houses.

"Wait..."

*Rustle

The two boys immediately pulled the three girls closer to the walls of a house after hearing some noises ahead of them.

They were not going away from the tallest building, they were just going around and maintaining their safe distance from it.

A shadow can be seen on the ground, it was not moving or anything, it is only standing. Then after a while, the shadow disappeared followed by a sound of something falling.

*Dug!

"Should we see what happened?" Sofia asked. Ace was leading them and the nearest person to him is Sofia.

"What do you think?"

Ace waited for the decision of his friends, especially Jiel who is also contemplating something.

"I'll go..."

Jiel walked slowly and stopped before reaching the other side of the house. He lowered his body and peaked first, he saw nothing but at the house beside them, someone was sitting with his back leaned against the wall of the house. His head was bowed down.

"Did you see anything?"

"It's only one person..." Jiel answered and motioned to Ace to watch his back so that he can see who was it.

The distance from their position to the nearby house is at least 10 meters but Jiel only made 9 wide steps to reach it.

"Hey..." He poked the person's shoulder.

He then raised the person's head only to see a 5-inch long cut from his cheek to his neck.

Jiel looked around him and was about to carry the unconscious person when he heard haste footsteps heading towards them.

He looked at his friends, he wanted to rush towards them but refrained from doing so. He immediately carried the unconscious person and entered the house in front of him.

Upon entering, the owner of the footsteps stopped in a place where this unconscious person was sitting previously.

Once inside, Jiel then put the person on the floor and peaked outside only to see the hunter looking at the direction where his friends are standing previously.

***

"How about Jiel? Let's go back..." Darell gripped the hands of Ace. Angel and Sofia tried calming her down at first but they also felt anxious when they saw a hunter standing in front of the house where Jiel is hiding.

The hunter is holding a baseball bat and is sweeping his gaze around, it seems like he's looking for the person who was carried by Jiel inside the house.

"You've hidden well..." The hunter spoke. The atmosphere around him is so dark but when the light illuminated his mask, one can see the K-Diamond sign on it.

Ace furrowed his brows after seeing it.

'King of Diamonds... But Jiel and Darell are here. Is it possible that Jiel or Darell exchanged their cards to someone?'

When Ace picked a card before, there were only three cards remaining and two of them are face cards. One is the Jack of Clubs which was picked by Sofia and the other one is the King of Diamonds which was picked by either Jiel or Darell. But seeing the hunter standing in front of them, he can't help but to be so confused.

'Ah! Or maybe the signs on their masks can be changed?' He thought that this hunter only has the K-Diamond sign on his mask but had a different card.

Ace saw something on his peripheral vision and when he shifted his attention to it, he saw Jiel telling them to go away.

His action caused his friends to feel more fear, the hunter is just standing in front of him with his back facing him, if he just made even the smallest noise, the hunter will detect that there's someone inside the house.

Ace only nodded his head and stepped back slowly then left.

"Ace, let's go back! What if something happens to him?" Darell was unwilling to go. Ace decided to carry her like a sack of rice and hastily went back to where they were hiding earlier.

It was at this moment that they heard a laughter behind them.

"HAHAHAHAH!" It was a hunter laughing maniacally.

"s**t!" Ace cursed and put down Darell. He pulled her together with Sofia while following Angel to who knows where.

"Turn right..." He then told her upon reaching an alleyway.

"W-what...?" Turn right? If they turn right, they will just go back to the tower. Is he planning on entering it? It is impossible, the moment the game begins, the metal door of the tallest building was already locked.

*Bang!

A gunshot

"Just go!" Luckily, this hunter is not good with his aim.

Ace was already preparing to bring out the gun inserted in his pants.

"Whatever your planning, please tell us..."

Angel cried and turned right but when they passed by a food stall, Ace suddenly stopped.

Angel also stopped and watched what Ace is going to do.

The hunter was still running to them with a smile behind the mask when he saw Ace stopped.

"Hahaha! Are you already tired? Continue running, it makes the game more exciting!"

He aimed his gun at them. Ace moved his hand and reached something on his back which is covered by his clothes.

Darell's eyes widened when she saw a gun inserted in Ace's pants. He didn't even bother to aim, the moment he pointed the gun to the hunter, he immediately pulled the trigger.

*Bang!

"Ugh... Y-you! Why do you have gun!?" The hunter stepped back upon being hit. He stared at Ace with wide eyes. Will he get killed in here? The person in front of him is a hunter and has a gun!

"Ah... I get it, you're also a hunter are you?" He didn't dally any further and raised his gun, then prepared to shoot it.

Ace only managed to hit the hunter's shoulder but before the hunter could speak new words again, three consecutive shots was heard.

*Bangbangbang!

After running for a while after them, the hunter only managed to speak a few words his body fell to the ground. Ace then immediately went to the side of the body then searched it, took the hunter's weapon, and his card.

He wanted to remove the hunter's mask but he refrained from doing so. He didn't even know who will it be so it's no use seeing his face. The only people he knew in here are those who are always with him.

"Let's leave..." Under the dumbfounded gaze of the three girls, he didn't even look back and just left behind the dead hunter laying on the ground with three bullet holes in his chest.