Alice in Borderland

Chapter 50 - The Number Two Game

"From up here you really have a good view of what's going on down there," a voice suddenly says behind me and I winced in shock. Before I can turn around to the person, she steps in front of me and leans over the wall to look down at the gallery. The man who turns out to be number two looks back to me and I watch him carefully. After Chishiya has warned me about him, I prefer to take a step back to gain some distance.

"Maybe", I answer curtly.

"We're playing together today, I'm really curious," he says and I suppress a burp. He adjusts his glasses one more time and looks at me disapprovingly, then strolls down the hall to the stairs. I look at the gallery again and my eyes immediately meet those of Chishiya. He seems to have watched the conversation from afar and while I look at him questioningly, I form the question with my mouth as to whether the two of us are at least also playing together. He nods imperceptibly and gives a short twitch of the corner of his mouth, which is why I relax a little. He jerks his head to the side and I understand immediately. I start moving and leave my vantage point to run down.

I arrive at the stairs in the gallery at the right time when the hatter finishes his speech and Chishiya runs downstairs next to me.

"He's up to something," he says, pointing straight ahead.

"We'll manage that," I just say and run a little faster to end the conversation. I can feel his gaze on my back and can literally see him grinning. I go to the car assigned to me and get in the back on the right. One of the military troops takes the driver's seat and the number two takes the front passenger seat. Chishiya sits down next to me on the other side and when I notice how the number two keeps glancing in the rearview mirror, I just stare out of the window.

I don't know what he's trying to do with it, but I'd better be careful. When I notice that we are driving in the direction of the trailer park, my body tenses and I take a closer look, but fortunately we turn off an exit in front of the road to the caravan. We stop on a dirt road and I can see the neon sign from here.

"Sayuuri," says number two and I can hear a provocative undertone, "Ladys First"

At the last moment I refrain from making a snappy comment and just get out of the car. I follow the few light markings in the green and stop briefly when I see the entrance to the play area.

"I hate mazes," I swear softly and then join the few who have gathered around the table with the cell phones. I take one of the cell phones with a black cover and stand a little way back. I roll my little ball back and forth in my hand because it wouldn't bounce properly in the grass.

The others join in one by one and after six minutes the mechanical voice sounds as usual.

Registration is complete. Number of participants: 9. Game: Labyrinth. Difficulty level: Cross 5. Rules of the game: Put your collar on and find the exit within the next 25 minutes. All weapons are allowed in this game. The game begins as soon as the collars are attached. Much luck.

Each of us takes a collar and I have difficulty putting it on for a moment. I've never worn a thing like this around my neck, I only saw it once at the last game at Chishiya.

My cell phone was lit, which probably means that the twenty-five minutes have started. We run into the labyrinth and I hold myself close enough to Chishiya not to be separated from him in case of danger, but far enough away that the number two could not draw any conclusions from it. We always keep to the left, which will inevitably lead us to the exit at some point. But can we do it in twenty-five minutes?

Everything goes smoothly until we come to a junction roughly in the middle. We from the beach stay in the background and number two switches on.

"We should split into two groups. I would say I go with Chishiya and Masao. Sayuuri, you take the opposite route with the others"

I look at him challengingly and questioningly, but he just grins smugly and twisting his mouth into a disparaging grin. What shoud that? Maybe he just wants to test me or he can't stand me. It can also be that he is after Chishiya, as he saw him last time on the gallery. But we already started the game in Beach, so we have to keep playing it here. I just nod and he turns left with a satisfied expression. The man from the military, who is apparently called Masao, follows him on the heels. The others fold in the right side and I take a deep breath to keep my head calm. Then I feel something on my hand and look next to me at the man in the white vest. Chishiya's hand is next to mine and with his little finger he touches mine very gently. He nods briefly to me and although we are going in different directions, a smile creeps on my lips.

I follow the other players to the right and try to concentrate. I observe my surroundings attentively and take one step behind the others, while I still have to think about the little gesture I just made. I can't deny that the barely there touch gave me goose bumps. I shake off the thought at least for the moment, because judging by Chishiya's gaze he wanted to give me courage and not distract me.

We walk for a while, but I'm getting more and more suspicious. Just to get through a maze without an axman or poisonous gases? My suspicions are immediately confirmed when the foremost of our group is pulled aside. A leopard braces itself on the man and tears him into several shreds. They scream all over the field and we all stop for a second before we start running. There are more and more deadly screams behind me, and I realize that running away from the leopard is useless. My only way out is to climb over one of the hedges to get enough distance from the animal. Nothing was mentioned in the rules so I just pray the collar won't explode. I turn around as I run and realize that the predator's attention is on me and the last of my troops. I indicate to the boy that I want to help him with a robber ladder and he accepts my help. As soon as he's on the other side, I notice that the animal is sprinting towards me. So I jump on a hedge with a swing and climb up as fast as I can. As I swing over the top, I can feel the breeze of the leopard's claws on my leg.

Then I fall down the back of the hedge and land roughly on my stomach side. In the same second a tremendous pain passes through me and I experience a loud scream. I cough and feel something wet on my face. I run the back of my hand over my mouth and see a small trail of blood. The boy comes to me and pulls me to my feet, then we run.

We have gained a head start, but our cell phone flashes. We don't have time to look at it, but the mechanical female voice answers.

30 seconds left.

The boy turns to look at me and seems to slow down, but behind me I can already hear the leopard hissing.

"Come on, run faster," I call out to him and he obeys. He turns right and I hear a click which means that the target grade is not far anymore. I collect all of my remaining reserves and although my ribs are burning, I put in the final spurt. I hear the countdown and turn right. As soon as the voice reaches the number three, I will reach the exit. I hear an explosion behind me and when something hits my back, I fall to the floor and try to roll off.

Bloody remains of the leopard fall on me and I pull my arm upwards in defense. I drain the blood from my face and look to the side. Masao, number two and Chishiya and the boy look at me. I just put my head on the grass and laugh in relief.

Congratulations, you achieved the goal.

I try to get up and get the shreds of skin from the predator off of me. As soon as I stand on both feet, the boy falls around my neck.

"Thank you," he says, and although the hug hurts, I pound his shoulder blade. The others look at us and immediately number two puts an arm around the stranger.

"We have a lift for you."