Battle Royale: Protagonist Chapter Three
DAY TWO.
7 PM.
We stormed the Panic Tunnel, the army hadn’t noticed us, we ran with all our might but when we got there Takahashi and four camouflaged lieutenants stopped us.
"That was obvious you’d do that. You three are lucky you’re still alive. I should kill you for being so... what’s the word?"
I finished his sentence; "Human is the word you’re looking for... we only want to live and yet you condone this. You sick bastard." I was expecting rifle fire about now. Put me out of my misery but there was nothing. He smirked. "You’re lucky that you’re still alive. I would have put money on you Ewan Stoles. But your compassion is your downfall... Nakata Noami, Uri Masaki and Oto Yukurin. Those are the names of the children you showed compassion for and now they are dead."
My _expression could have written novels, "By your blood soaked hands. You murderer!"
His retort was quick; "You’re the murderer!"
But mine was quicker; "I’ve only ever been forced into murder. I’ve killed at gunpoint; killed for survival even killed a fucking rapist but I’ve never killed in cold blood... killing is so easy for you. Your technology hides you from the reality of murder; for you it’s like watching television but you need to stare into dead eyes."
His faced was red in anger, surely he would have given the order to kill me by now.
"< Why are you doing this? >" Pleaded Numi.
"< Because I feel justified. >" Was his reply and if I had even known what he had said nothing would have stopped me from ripping his head off.
"So Ewan, your plan? What now? What happens next?" Said Takahashi as he reached into his pocket. He removed a small print out. He read it word for word.
"Numi tell Kiyoko that if she knows a route to the headquarters I’m willing to take that chance, take that bastard Takahashi hostage and have our collars removed. Hell, we might as well try and take the place over. I’m sure those army guys won’t stop us if their co-ordinator is under threat."
I felt so stupid, Takahashi and all the army on the island knew about my plan for insurrection and they knew everything. Surely this was enough for a death sentence.
"The necklaces have microphones in don’t they?" I asked Takahashi. He nodded.
"I suppose you also did us a favour... I bet the whole HQ is a danger zone too." Takahashi nodded again.
"Is Kiyoko a spy?" I said as I stared into his eyes I then looked at Kiyoko. He nodded.
I broke down in tears, I stumbled, threw my shotgun as hard as I could at a near by tree in complete anger.
"You bastards! All of you are bastards!" I cried.
Numi tore her gun out. "< You bitch, Kiyoko, you toyed with Ewan... played him like a fool. Gave him fake affection. I’ll kill you... I’ll kill you for stealing him away from me. >"
Shit! I thought, she was about to shoot Kiyoko, I felt at my collar and without a second thought I shot Numi in the head. She fell down with her face expressionless and so pretty and the only thing tarnishing that was the small black hole in her head. The tree behind her told a different story, blood and skull caked it like a piece of bad artwork and then I saw the mess I made of the back of her head. I looked at the gun, a snub nose revolver with dumdum bullets. I hadn’t used the gun yet and it was so destructive, there was nothing but a husk of her head, her face was like a mask or a broken piece of porcelain doll and she was beautiful. But instead, I stopped her from killing the traitorous bitch Kiyoko who without her I’d be dead. I chose my life over Herito Numi.
Kiyoko smiled and I found it hard not to shoot her. I wanted to die but I didn’t have the guts. Then Takahashi did something so cold hearted. He shot Kiyoko in the legs; her smile turned to cries. "< Why? >" She screamed. Takahashi laughed.
I grabbed Kiyoko and helped her away from the headquarters just as I saw four large transport helicopters land consecutively at the HQ. In total there must have been nearly thirty more school children all clad in the same uniforms as Kiyoko and myself.
What was happening? I thought. The tannoy flared with the voice of Takahashi.
"Ewan Stoles and Susemi Kiyoko have been targeted for this special experiment. You two should be very proud, if this works hopefully my plan for a BR2 act will be instated by the BR Committee."
I dragged a crying Kiyoko through the undergrowth, past corpses, rivers tainted by blood. I witnessed Kiriyama fire several shots at the barrage of the new classmates. He hit one and as he fell down the girl next to him went into hysterics before the bleeping became faster and faster until there was a climax of blood. She fell to the earthen floor.
Like the old _expression, killing two birds with one stone.
I propped Kiyoko next to a tree and gave her a gun.
"Shoot one and two will die!" I shouted. "Fuck this is stupid, you don’t understand a word I’m saying you fucking bitch!"
Her exhausted face looked at me; "I can speak fucking English... I’m a spy... remember." She caught her breath. "It was easier for me if you thought that I couldn’t answer questions. And Numi loved you huh?" She laughed.
"Shut up!" I ordered. "We got to get out of here."
I ran trying desperately to keep hold of Kiyoko, her legs were bleeding like crazy and every time I made a single bound she would scream in agony.
I took a pot shot at two of the attacking classmates. Takahashi had informed us that they were all from a juvenile detention school for trouble children. I witnessed one of the kids shoot at a fellow student. He laughed sadistically.
I asked Kiyoko where her map had gone, she said she had lost it when she was shot. I had lost my bag and my map and I knew that a danger zone was near and without any knowledge of where any of the danger zones were we would have to take our chances, like swimming in sulphur nitrate.
We kept making tracks; Kiyoko was biting on a stick to silence her pain, the short-winded agonising muffles accompanied with my deep exhaustive breathing. But we made a good distance and our necklaces hadn’t gone off yet.
DAY TWO.
9 PM.
It was getting dark now; the sounds of gunfire and battle filled the sky. The BR2 students were fighting the remnants of the other students; they had built up a frenzy considering that they only had one day to kill Kiyoko and myself.
I looked at the traitorous bitch by my side, a girl I had only a few short hours ago been attracted to and now I couldn’t stand to look at her. What made the pain worse was that I didn’t realise how much I liked Numi and now she was dead. I murdered her.
I bandaged Kiyoko’s wounds with strips of my shirt, she had calmed down. I have never or even ever wanted to have been shot. The idea of a small projectile flying at a tremendous speed and hitting me wasn’t exactly pleasant and I was surprised I’d survived this long under all this pressure.
DAY TWO.
10 PM.
Takahashi had made a report; he informed us that there was only seven of the original class left and twelve of the juvenile delinquents.
We had made it to the beach and all was quiet apart from the lapping and crashing waves of the tide. We passed the body of a young girl who had committed suicide from jumping off the cliffs. It seemed that all I ever saw these days were dead people. Kiyoko and me hadn’t spoken for a while.
She looked rough, beaten and exhausted, her make up had ran, her lips were dry and encrusted with dried on saliva and her hair was clumped with mud and blood. Sweat was pouring from her forehead. She was the epitome was ugliness, she wore her insides on the outside. All I could think of was Numi. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Numi and it made my head pound, where was she now? Still lying by that tree, her pretty face in the mud, flies hovering over her lying eggs in her hollow head. I found her screaming and crying for help, when I killed her would be rapist her breasts were exposed. They were pert and perfectly formed; her skin was soft like velvet.
Could I have had a future with her? If we escaped this place.
"So Kiyoko, are you happy?" I asked, her face showed despair. "I mean, Takahashi shot you didn’t he. We’re both wanted dead now... sometimes it doesn’t pay to help some people does it." I said with obvious intention.
"I know what you’re saying... I betrayed you and Takahashi betrayed me..." A single tear draw a line down her face. I had no sympathy for her.
I don’t know why but I suddenly recalled what I asked Takahashi. "I suppose you also did us a favour... I bet the whole HQ is a danger zone too." He nodded once more in my mind.
"Kiyoko? Is the HQ a danger zone?" I asked with incentive while holding cloth around the Mic on the necklace as to dampen any sound I made.
She shook her head. "So if I storm that place myself my necklace won’t go off?"
She shook her head again. "If you’re lying to me, we’re dead... you know that don’t you?"
"Of course... I never wanted to die; I could have been facing life imprisonment if I didn’t agree."
I cut in hastily; "But what’s so important about me?"
She shook her head; her _expression was blank as she stared at the floor.
I forced some more cloth where her Mic was; I didn’t want Takahashi knowing what my plan was.
"It’s suicide, Ewan." She said.
"Not if every round I fire and every person I kill I’ll picture you... I hate you Kiyoko and if I could I’d kill you."
Defensively she shouted; "You couldn’t kill me!"
I nodded and smiled; "You’re immobile, bitch... you’re useless. I’ll just kill everyone at that place, I won’t stop until there’s a river of blood running through this terrible island and when Takahashi is lying on the floor bleeding to death, I’ll heal his wound and torture him, I’ll make him pay for ruining my life." I said coldly.
"What about me?" She asked in concern.
"You’ll only hinder my progress, hide here... I’ll come back for you. I might as well show you compassion because I’m not stooping down to your level."
I was about to leave when Kiyoko grabbed hold of my arm.
"Can we kiss once more... like before?"
I shook my head and in bitter reply I told her; "Nah... you’re too ugly." And with that I set off.
I couldn’t help but muse over what she said. Why would she ask me to kiss her?
DAY TWO
11 PM.
I took my time and I held my shotgun with nervous hands, I couldn’t see anything and I hadn’t a clue where any of the danger zones were. But it didn’t take too long for a pair of BR2 students to attack me.
Hazard a guess what they were saying but it was directed at me. I could see their gunfire so I waited, hiding behind a tree until they passed me. I took them by surprise and I assume I wiped their smiles of their faces. They were both packing serious heat, small agile but deadly automatic rifles. I discarded the shotgun that had kept me alive so far and held the two small rifles in akimbo.
The gunshots would give away my position, the kids were no longer my concern. Though not even three days had passed I already felt like a war veteran, I felt seasoned and older than I was. I saw the kids as enemies when not even 72 hours ago I was feeling sorry for them.
I mused over why the government thought it a good idea to declare such an initiative as the Millennium Education Reform Act AKA BR Act. I bet the people involved, the military, the co-ordinators and all the people working in that headquarter never even thought they were going to be part of that Act as fatalities by my intention.
I bolted towards to the Panic Tunnel. I heard the frenzied footsteps of soldiers running to stop me from entering but before they had a chance to even raise their guns I fired an array of heated death at their direction. I hit the ground and fired again capping them in the shins. They fell to the floor all six of them, they weren’t all dead so I summarily executed them. Stole one of their M-16 rifles and as much ammo as I could carry and headed down the tunnel; guns blazing and killing all and any resistance. Psychosis hit, every time I fired my gun I heard the name Herito Numi pound’ in my head like Chinese water torture. I reached a small annex stairwell and saw the disarrayed guards desperately trying to maintain order within their ranks but I was just too quick for them, bolting up the stairs with gusto firing wildly at any threat that happened to pass me.
And that’s when I hit the nerve centre, the classroom that I had woken up in at the very beginning of the massacre. In such a short space of time so many had died.
But now the classroom had changed, an entire section hidden when I was last there was now exposed and completely full with computer monitors, read outs and Japanese military personnel. I stumbled in hastily and every single one of them was all looking in my direction.
Takahashi stood in the centre of the room, there was no guards just the people seated by the consoles and down below and surrounding the headquarters were all the soldiers.
Takahashi had in his hand the necklace detonator and chuckled as he pointed it at me but before he was able to press the button I plugged him in the shoulder. Swivelling on the spot and loosing his balance he dropped the small remote control device.
Suddenly there was an uproar of cries and inaudible barked orders as I let out a lethal barrage, killing anything with eight pints of blood and that stood between me and the controls I dived out of harms way just as the soldiers broke into the room. Aiming at the door I shot at anything and anyone who entered the room.
Outside Kiriyama watched from the solitary of a bush as the building’s windows flickered like a strobe light to every flare of my rifle.
I kept shooting until there was no one left to enter the room leaving me and Takahashi. He sprawled on the floor nursing his shoulder blade.
I knelt down by his side; sweat was bleeding from his forehead compulsively as the forces he had only a few moments ago commanded had been completely decimated.
"So Takahashi... me and you. I’ve killed all your men. I suppose you should call me a murderer."
"I’d call you a cock-sucker!" He strained to yell so I shot him in the leg. "< Mother fucker! >" He shouted, though I didn’t know what he had said it had obviously not been pleasant so I shot him once more just below the crotch.
I smiled, "Lucky I’m a bad shot huh?"
I saw his eyes fixed on a small plain black box. It appeared to hold a katana and it did, I saw all the small little squiggles of Japanese text of which I could not read. It looked expensive, my financial compensation.
"Leave my sword alone." He bellowed.
I held it above his head. "You think you’re a samurai?"
He nodded, "I’m a descendant... from a samurai family." Takahashi exclaimed.
A thought shot through my mind, "Kill yourself by the sword or I’ll shoot you. Better to die a man than to die a pitiful bag of shit on the floor by a disgruntled teen."
Takahashi’s exhausted voice gave me his reply, "Give me that sword and I’ll kill you with it."
I shook my head maliciously, "Nah... I’d rather fill your body with bullets, every fucking bullet will represent every moment stolen from me, every fucking moment I could have been with Numi!" I shouted.
"Go ahead then!" Was Takahashi’s reply.
So I complied, blood exploded everywhere, up my clothes, on the floor and still more splashed everywhere. I emptied an entire magazine from my rifle, and when it was spent I stocked in another one until nothing resembled the teacher. His body was no longer a body but a mass of abused bone and muscle and when the last casing hit the floor in unison to the silence of a murderous conclusion. I collapsed onto the nearest chair.
I watched for a few minutes, at the computer monitors. Every student who had died was in red and every student still alive was in green. I looked at Susemi Kiyoko’s name and it was red. She had died by the hands of Kiriyama. He stood over her bullet-ridden corpse but I stood over the dead of twenty army personnel and soldiers. Takahashi’s unrecognisable corpse was the centrepiece of my destructive artwork.
I grabbed the microphone for the tannoy system. "Day three, 2am... if you can understand me then good, if you can’t then God help you for you won’t know the extent of what I’ve done. I am Ewan Stoles, the British guy you saw a few days previous but unless you’re those BR2 students then fuck you guys, your necklaces will detonate shortly after my update. Now for the danger zones, from this moment on all the danger zones are cleared. All students from Shimano High School." I counted the names only a small handful was left six in total including Kiriyama. "Your necklaces are now removable." I said.
A few minutes passed, I looked at the blood-strewn room and all the dead. I had in my hand Takahashi’s sword. I walked over to the console and tapped on the names of the BR2 students, ten were left but not for long. I pressed the button and stared out of the window shattered by rifle fire. All at once I heard the distinct explosion accompanied by the flicker of fire bolting from their necks hidden by the tree line. I felt justified but what now? What happens next?