"Someone actually got eliminated last round."
"Why would he shoot someone?"
"Who did he shoot?"
"That means the blue team have 29 people left."
"Blue team are in last place."
After what happened near the end of the last round, the fifth round started with a lot of discussion. When the announcement happened, it stunned the whole place. Nearly no one knew what happened. Not even the blue team.
That was the first elimination of the challenge, and it wasn't even by an infection.
Teams were taking things more seriously now. Every team apart from the blue team had 30 members. Knowing that gave those teams a mini confidence boost.
Meanwhile, the blue team's discussion continued from the break, inside their zone, into round five. The whole team were clustered outside their zone entrance, still trying to piece together what happened.
All the questions about who he shot, who gave him the gun, who let him shoot were already asked inside. The only things being spoken about outside were repeated questions and complaints.
"My question is why was no one around him when it happened?" Luna asked with her arms crossed. "How does no one on our team know?"
"He was definitely around his friends from other teams," Frank replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a shame we can't talk to him."
Once a player was eliminated, they were removed from the challenge entirely and weren't allowed to return to their team area. Leaving their team completely in the dark. The blue team were left with nothing but speculation and second-hand information.
Destiny teasingly grinned at Frank.
"Frank, you're supposed to be the leader," she said, nudging him "How'd you let that guy take the gun?"
Frank gritted his teeth but had a smile on. "I completely forgot about the gun," he replied, shaking his head, a little annoyed thinking about it. Destiny's teasing worked. "We didn't need it. No one needed to be shot."
"Stop panicking," Destiny calmly said. "We only lost one person. And it wasn't like that guy was going to help us."
A few feet away, Lucas leaned towards Delilah.
"I thought Destiny would be losing her shit," Lucas quietly said.
"She's chill," Delilah replied, looking at Destiny. "We're lucky she had something to eat. She would've been hella hangry if it wasn't for those Takis."
Ray looked at the rest of the team still crowded together.
"What do you think will happen now?" he asked.
"People will be more careful," Lucas simply answered.
"Much more careful," Delilah added. "Teams will actually stick together. Most people won't want to be with people from other teams."
"That won't last," Jason said, forcing himself into the conversation. "They'll make another announcement to force us to mix."
"Like make us all jump in a ball pit again?" Lucas asked, furrowing. "That's done. They won't do that again."
"They'll do something along those lines," Jason confidently said as if he knew. "We're five rounds in and no one has been eliminated by getting infected yet. They want infections. That's what this challenge is all about."
"We predicted that infections last three rounds," Ray said. "So maybe infection elimination will start happening in the next round or two."
"Doubt it," Jason scoffed. "Every infected person has most likely been healed. They gave us too many vaccines at the start."
"Sounds like you hate this challenge," Lucas said, noticing his unimpressed expressions.
"Barely anything has happened in this challenge, and we're five rounds in," Jason replied, holding up his hand showing all his fingers.
"I saw you have fun with Akari a few rounds ago," Delilah said.
"That's natural. I had to have fun and spend time with my girlfriend," Jason replied. "I've had fun. I've had my fun," he emphasised. "But this is a challenge. For all the rules and how this was set up, I want more."
"I see what you're saying. I forgot this was a challenge a few times already," Lucas said. "I'm in the top ten. I wanna stay there."
"Yeah, and I wanna be back in the top ten," Jason said, tapping his chest with his thumb. "I'm pissed as hell at how much I've dropped."
"I'm sure things will pick up soon," Ray said, being positive. "They couldn't make it extreme straight away." He smiled, "Now that one elimination has happened, more will start happening now."
Back a few feet to Destiny's group, the conversation was still going on.
Destiny turned her attention to someone who had barely said anything throughout the challenge.
"What about you? You've been quiet," she asked with her judgmental gaze. "Have you been infecting people?"
Her question was answered with brief silence before getting an actual answer.
"Yeah," Lorenzo said.
Destiny continued to look, waiting. "Is that it?" she asked, expecting more.
"What more do you want me to say?" Lorenzo said, confused, knitting his brows.
"I don't know. Maybeee how you've been infecting people. What you've been doing this whole challenge. That kind of stuff," Destiny replied, like she was explaining to an idiot.
Lorenzo blinked, letting that response slide.
"I've gotten close to people and touched their wristband."
"Yes. That's how you infect people, I know," Destiny replied, shutting her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I want to know how you've done it."
Lorenzo stared at her for a moment before answering. The stare was almost the answer itself.
"I've gotten close to people and touched their wristband," he repeated.
Lorenzo genuinely didn't know what more Destiny wanted from him. What he was telling her was exactly how he was infecting people.
Destiny was just as confused. His explanation of getting close to people and touching their wristband wasn't painting a picture in her head. She was too invested in her own fun, so she didn't know how sneaky Lorenzo was, which was a major reason why it wasn't making sense to her.
Destiny took a deep breath. "Why did we give him the most important role?"
"Destiny, leave him alone," Frank said, stepping in with a little smile. "He's been infecting people. I've seen him. He's infected a lot of people"
"And he hasn't been caught?" Destiny asked, raising her brows.
"I haven't," Lorenzo answered, speaking up.
Destiny side-eyed him quickly.
Frank could sense the sly tension between the two.
"Destiny, he's a good carrier," he said. "Have faith in him. He's doing his job. Didn't you say stop panicking?" he teased, folding his arms.
Destiny bit her lip to stop fully smiling. "I'm not panicking over one useless guy. But he is the main decider if we win or not."
"His name is Lorenzo," Frank politely told her.
"Yeah, Lorenzo," Destiny said with a dismissive nod. She looked back at Lorenzo and faced him properly. "Make sure you don't get caught," she said before walking to Delilah.
Lorenzo watched her walk off. "What's her problem?" he thought.
"Don't worry about her," Luna said, like she heard his thoughts. "Keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great."
"Yeah. Her personality is weird and hard to get used to," Frank added. "But if you prove her wrong, it will shut her up," he smirked with a small nod.
Seeing Frank's appreciation softened Lorenzo's natural harsh expression.
"Yeah."
A smile wasn't on Lorenzo's face, but he was happy. The tension around him slowly lifted.
People other than Ryan were sticking up for him and complimenting him. His efforts weren't going to waste. It felt better than he thought it would. He never knew a little appreciation would make him this happy.
"Why didn't I try to be like this sooner?"
"I'm bored."
Ace wandered aimlessly through the arena with both hands shoved deep inside his pockets. The whole round, he decided to walk around trying to find something to do. He'd grown from jumping in ball pits and bouncing around. He'd done the rock climbing, he'd ridden the carts and scooters, he threw himself off high inflatables, and he'd tried most of the mini challenges. There were a few more things he could still do, but he couldn't be bothered anymore. The excitement had worn off.
He was tired of it. He was tired of the environment. He wasn't physically tired, but after four rounds he wanted to do something else.
As for the actual challenge, he couldn't care less. Ace barely involved himself. He was neither the carrier nor the doctor, so he didn't care. And he wasn't going to go out of his way to identify the other team's carrier or doctor.
"I can't believe I was excited for this challenge."
Ace continued strolling through the arena without any real destination. He had no clue what he was doing or what he was looking for. The occasional glance around wasn't bringing in any luck. It was the same things over and over again.
Until something caught his eye. His footsteps slowed as he stared at it.
A slight gap between two inflatables. The gap looked out of place. Nobody else was in the area, so it was kind of hidden and out of the way.
Curious, he walked towards it. He tried to peek through the gap, but all he could see was darkness.
More curious, he put his hands through the gap, widened the gap, and pushed himself through until he was fully inside.
Ace turned his head left to right. "This would be a 10/10 smoke spot," he said, feeling like he entered a portal.
Inside, it was a narrow space. It was about two people wide, so it wasn't as tight as it first seemed. There was no top covering it, so light was shining inside dimly.
Ace looked down the path and noticed something at the end of it. With nowhere else to go, he walked towards it.
The further he went, the narrower the passage became until only one person could comfortably walk.
When he was close enough, he could see it.
Right at the very end, sitting by itself on a wooden table was an old-fashioned rotary telephone.
"Why's this here?" he muttered.
The telephone looked like it'd been taken straight out of the 1960s. A proper vintage rotary telephone.
As anyone would, Ace picked up the receiver, put it to his ear and spun the dial.
He had a little grin as he forecfully spun the dial.
"Hello, depression speaking."
"Well done, you've found the phone."
Ace yanked the receiver away from his ear and stared at it like the actual receiver was alive. His heart jumped after hearing a voice. He was playing around. There was no way he expected to hear a voice on the other end.
Ace turned around to check behind him.
Nothing. He was still alone.
He checked the walls to see if there were cameras anywhere.
Nothing. The inflatable walls were bare.
"Hello?" the voice faintly said.
Ace fearlessly put the receiver to his ear after the little scare.
"Who's this?"
"It's Mr Gerald. One of the higher-ups."
"Oh... Okay?" Ace flatly said, his eyelids drooping. He wasn't moved at all. "Why are you on the line?" he bluntly asked.
"I'm calling to ask how the challenge is going," Mr Gerald casually said. "How are you finding the challenge?"
"Boring," Ace answered with no hesitation. "You expect us all to bounce on these trampolines the whole time?"
A small chuckle travelled through the receiver.
"So," Mr Gerald said, sounding amused. "You want something to happen?"
"Yes," Ace said, keeping the bluntness. "Is this what this is for? You want feedback."
"Partially."
Ace clicked his tongue loud enough to hear over the line. He was so close to hanging up.
"Say, do you want to be involved?"
Ace frowned. "How? You're going to ask me when should the next announcement happen?"
Mr Gerald's amused breath was loud enough to hear over the line.
"Would you like to put a hit on somebody?"
Ace pulled the receiver away from his ear again and looked at it, confused, like it had a screen.
"What?" he said, like he didn't hear him clearly.
"Say a name," Mr Gerald said. "Tell me a student you want to put a hit on, and I'll announce it."
A grin slowly spread across Ace's face.
Elsewhere.
"Dillon, you're not climbing that rope," Gabriel told him. "You're too big."
"Shut up. I'm going to do it," Dillon shot back, determined, grabbing hold of a thick climbing rope with both hands.
One of the mini challenges was climbing a vertical rope. At the top was an attached vaccine.
Dillon climbed up a few feet.
"He's doing better than last tim-"
BOOM!
Dillon crashed flat onto the thick safety mat beneath him, bouncing slightly before letting out a little groan.
Gabriel had already seen that exact clip a few times, so he stopped laughing at it, but it still produced a smile.
"I'm too big for this," Dillon thought to himself. He didn't want to admit it out loud.
"Damn, he got it first time," Gabriel said.
"Who-".
BEEP!
"This student has a hit on them. If you touch this student's wristband in the next 30 seconds, they will be eliminated from this challenge. The student with the hit on them is Alexander Burrell on the yellow team."
Dillon instinctively turned to Gabriel to see his reaction, but Gabriel wasn't looking at him. He followed his gaze and saw Alexander standing there, holding a vaccine, with a baffled expression.
"I never thought I'd see him make a face like that," Dillon thought.
"GET HIM!"