Chishiya

I sighed while I turned on my walkie talkie to say something: 'I'm here. Over.' I heard a scream of relief from Kuina: 'oh good! I thought they didn't work! Can everyone say something to test it properly? Arisu? Over.'
Arisu made clear he was there, just like Usagi after him.
'So, Chishiya, did you also give a walkie to our new group member? Over,' Kuina giggled.

She told Arisu and Usagi about this? Well, allright. 'No, they can't use a walkie since that would be too risky,' I said and I looked at Niragi, whose eyes were staring at me while listening to our conversation. I continued: 'but don't worry, I have close contact with them and they will know exactly what to do!'
Niragi grinned and made gestures to emphasize 'close contact'.
I rolled my eyes. 'I will give you more instructions tomorrow afternoon, when Hatter prepares for his game. Over and out,' I said and I put down the walkie.

Niragi started laughing like a madman. 'Haha! Fucking close contact, yes we have! But how did you manage to make them cooperate even though they know I work with you? No fucking way that they are going to help us. They are so dumb!' he screamed.
'Sush, be quiet. I didn't tell them and I will not tell them eather. You will be secretly joining,' I said while pulling out a last walkie. 'We can communicate on channel three. No one else can hear us there,' I went on, handing him the device.
He smirked at me ambiguously but I ignored it. We had to focus now.

I ran over our plan once again with him before making clear we had to split up until tomorrow. I showed him the route to a place where I though a game would happen tonight and told him it would be better if we did different games, so there was a bigger chance on finding different cards. He agreed and we wished each other good luck. I opened the door and looked through it to see if the hallway was clear. 'No one is there, you can go,' I said and Niragi walked past me to leave. While crossing me, he touched my arm and winked at me, licking his lips. A slight shiver went down my spine as I waved him goodbye.

I used the rest of the day to already pack some things. I found a drawstring backpack and put a clean white hoodie, three black shirts and some of my makeshift weapons inside of it. After hiding it underneat the clothes in my closet, I decided to go for dinner in the cafetaria. I didn't take a seat at my regular table since Kuina and Usagi were sitting there and I didn't want to talk with them now. Instead, I took my platter to the pool, which was quiet during this time of the day, and ate my pokébowl there. It was tasty, so I really took my time to enjoy it. After finishing it, I grabbed my earbuds out of my pocket, put them into my ears and I stood up to leave for my game of tonight.

Niragi

After a good meal, I prepared myself for my game. I mentally went over the direction instructions Chishiya gave me and hung my rifle over my shoulder. I was sad I didn't get to play a game with him, but I understood why he decided this. There would come more times to play together once we left the Beach for good.

I smirked and walked to my destination. The nightly air seemed less cold today. Perfect for a game! When I arrived, I saw Aguni and some militants already standing there, together with some unknown people. I smiled at them but didn't bother to say anything. I was nervous about the kind of game, as the place didn't really look like a building, but more like a... funfair or something? I wondered why Chishiya chose this place for me. How could he even know about places becoming game area's? He was so smart...

All of a sudden, I heard a crackling sound coming out of my pocket. I turned around and grabbed the walkie he gave me. 'Hello?' I asked.
'Niragi. Listen to me. Are Aguni and his militants there?' Chishiya's voices asked me.
'Uh-huh,' I nodded.

Chishiya

Good. When I saw this place earlier today, I knew it was going to turn into a game area tonight. When I walked past it with Arisu, I noticed slight differences that made clear they were constructing a game here. My daily walks aren't for nothing. I keep track of every place a game has happened. And this has never been one, until now. Due to the shape of the terrain, I also knew almost for sure that is was going to be a physical one. Something Niragi is very good at. Just like Aguni and the militants.

'Great. This is your chance to make our plan even more impeccable. I want to ask you two things tonight. Promise me you will do both without hesitation. Otherwise, our plan will fail,' I said 'our plan' on purpose to make it look like he was evenly important as I am in my plan. And it seemingly worked.
'Tell me what to do,' he answered.

'First of all, I want you to show you from your best side to Aguni. He needs to see your loyalty so he can report it to Hatter. Try to act like you work together to reach the goal and let him take the card. Understood?' I instructed him. 'Secondly, I want you to get rid of the other militants in a subtle way. Make it seem like some of them perished in the game and others ran away after the game ended to join the lost ones,' I said with a low voice.
He hesitated. 'O... okay. If you say it will help with our plan, I will do it. How did you know...' he got silenced by a sound I heard in the background. 'Oh, the game will start. Good luck!' he said and the walkie made a crackling sound. I put it away and turned to the entrance...

Niragi

I walked towards the entrance of the funfair to hear what the voice was going to say.

'Registration closed. Welcome, players.

This game is called 'beast hunter'.

Level: six of spades.

Players will cooperate to defeat all the predators in the venue. They receive different points, depending on the kind of animal. Refer to the score board to see the point system. The game is cleared when all animals are killed. All weapons are allowed.

There is no time limit.

The game starts now.'

I picked my rifle from my shoulder and looked around to search for a good spot to start the game. I ran towards a food stall and climbed on it to overlook the game area. I saw Aguni and two militants clearing the place together. They shot an eagle while I quickly figured out a strategy. When they walked past the stall, I jumped off the roof and landed in front of them.

'Good evening, comrades!' I yelled. 'Niragi,' Aguni said.
'I found the easiest way to eliminate the predators. Can I tell, boss?' I asked with my sweetest voice.
Aguni nodded.
'We need to split up in groups and devide the animals to kill,' I explained.
Aguni frowned but didn't complain.
I went on: 'you two, take out the eagles and boars. I saw them by the water! You should head there. Aguni and I will eliminate the crows and panthers. We meet again here when we are done, to kill the tiger together.'
The militants looked at Aguni for his approval and he nodded again: 'let's go.'

The militants ran towards the water, just like I said. I looked around and saw an attraction that seemed like a swinging ship. I informed Aguni that I was going in there to get a better shot on the crows and he told me he was going to search a panther to kill. I smiled at him and walked towards the ship.

Chishiya

The game I had to play was an easy diamonds game. I was playing with four others, but it was a solo one so it was allright. I finished it quickly and moved out of the building, into the warm breeze. I put in my earbuds again and sat down against the wall. I grabbed the walkie talkie and pressed the button to talk.

'Niragi, are you there?' I asked and I heard a whistling sound coming from his side before he answered: 'woohoooo! Helloooo, There! How is your game going?'
I frowned. 'Good, how is yours going? Are you succeeding?' I asked.
He giggled and yelled through his walkie: 'yeah! I distracted Aguni and have a clear view on some militants.'

'Great. So you can shoot them from there?' I asked. Besides the whistling sound, it stayed silent on the other side. 'Niragi?' I asked.
Niragi hesitated. 'I... You know it's difficult for me. I know them. They were my comrades during the first weeks of my stay here...' he stuttered.
I smiled. 'Niragi, I never thought you were that sentimental. But we all need to make sacrafices. I won't blame you for this. Just do it,' I said with an influencing voice.
'Okay. I have to hang up,' he said and I put away the walkie, resting my head against the cold bricks.

Niragi

The ship swung from one side to the other. Every time it reached the highest point, I was able to see the whole terrain. I saw some birds and shot them one by one. The ship swung to the other side. I looked over to where I saw Aguni for the last time and saw him some metres further, close to a carousel. He wasn't paying attention to me or the others at all; the only thing his eyes were interested in was the tiger in front of him. So typical of him to ignore the plan and go for the big prize on his own.

The ship swung to the other side. I looked down towards the water and I saw the militants standing close to the edge of the wooden dyke. Boars were running around while they were trying to shoot them, but they didn't succeed. I looked through the eye of my rifle and pointed it towards the head of one of the militants. Could I really do this? Could I really trust Chishiya about this and kill my previous teammates?

Two single shots broke the silent night, followed by two splashing sounds. I fired some more shots towards the night sky and screamed until the attraction stopped. My shoes made a plopping sound when they hit the wooden floor again and I grabbed my walkie to inform Chishiya: 'it happened.' My feet brought me to Aguni while my head couldn't think very clear anymore, but my body knew exactly what to do to succeed in this plan.

We eliminated the rest of the predators and walked towards the food stall to wait. We jumped on it to have a better view and saw some anonymous lifeless bodies scattered across the game area. 'No sign of our team members,' Aguni remarked.
I shrugged and Aguni squinted at me. 'What's wrong, Niragi? Are you still mad at me? You know I just gave you what you deserved. But we're good again now, right?' he told me while punching me in the arm.
I sighed and nodded: 'no, it's not that. I saw the militants escape the game from the moment we killed the last panther. I think they ran off too, just like the last time I played a game. I had no idea...'

Aguni's mouth fell open. His eyes got darker and he jumped off the stall to kick it. He exploded in a fit of rage: 'what?! Again? We have to look for them! Right now! How could you let this happen? How could you not tell me right away? We coul've brought them back to punish them! Why are all these brats becoming unloyal to me?' He kicked the food stall again and I quickly jumped off to prevent me falling off.

Fuck. This didn't go as planned. I knew Aguni well enough to know he'd be even angrier when I tried to calm him down. So the only option was to go and look for them for a while. 'Let's find them!' I yelled while I fired some shots towards the sky. And we went off for a whole night of searching for two people that weren't actually even here anymore...

Chishiya

I stood up and stretched my legs. I heard shots in the distance, so I found it was time for me to return to the Beach. I smirked complacent and started my walk back. Soon, I would be freed from that place.

[End of chapter twenty]

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Hii! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for voting and commenting! And thank you so so much for the 100 votes! It means so much to me that people like my story and vote, it really gives me motivation to write on! :D

Photo from the Alice in Borderland series on Netflix