by Devin Hunter
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Copyright © 2019 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover art by Amanda Brack
Series design by Brian Peterson
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5107-4348-9
E-book ISBN: 978-1-5107-4349-6
Printed in the United States of America
CHAPTER 1
Retail Row was always an unpredictable place to land, but Grey and his squad had gotten lucky this battle. Even though ten players total landed there, Grey’s squad had already taken out four of them. There were two more, but they were slippery.
“One by taco shop,” Kiri said. “They’re moving to the houses.”
“Chase them,” Grey said. Even if it was a top duo team, he was confident they could take the fight this early on. Grey’s squad would have more gear, and no one had a lot of materials to initiate a build fight.
Taking out a higher-ranking duo early in the battle would only help Grey’s rank.
Grey was tempted to use a bounce pad to get to them faster, but he needed to save them for later. Even having practiced with Lam’s top-ten squad, it was still a challenge to fight against Lam and her late-game building strategies. A full inventory of all the tricks was the bare minimum needed to have a chance against them.
The house area of Retail Row was quiet by the time they got there. Everyone had landed in the stores, so the place appeared untouched. Grey scanned the houses, trying to see any movement or evidence of the players.
“You think they left?” Hazel asked. “They could have bailed.”
“Maybe,” Grey said. “If they’re lower ranked they probably did, but if they’re higher, they’ll probably hide and get a flank on us when the storm comes in.”
“Should we split up?” Finn asked.
“Yeah,” Grey said as he moved past the first gray brick house by the taco place. “Finn, Hazel, you scout behind to see if they ran. Me and Kiri will watch the housefronts for a second.”
“On it.” Hazel headed west to where the next circle would be, and Finn followed her.
Grey and Kiri spread out a little as they looked through windows in hopes of seeing someone. Using walls to give him protection from a possible sniper, Grey also listened to see if he could hear enemy footsteps in the houses. If the players were crouching, they would be too quiet to hear, but they could be rushing to gather more loot. Grey would hear them then.
The quiet moments drove Grey crazy with anticipation. They were almost worse than the chaos of fights. He hated those moments when he didn’t know where the next attack might come from.
“Don’t see anyone out here,” Finn reported.
“In the red brick house!” Kiri said. “I hear footsteps from—no!”
The suction sound of a clinger grenade registered in Grey’s ears, and just as he turned, he saw it explode on Kiri. She was knocked down immediately, and Grey rushed over in hopes to protect her from being eliminated.
He spotted the player on the roof and opened fire with an AR. The shots hit, and the guy backed off for a moment. “Get behind the fence!”
“Going as fast as I can,” Kiri replied as her avatar crawled behind the meager defense.
Grey built a box around them, but the players on the house opened fire. He replaced the walls they broke, but he had no time to revive Kiri. Her knocked-down health slowly dwindled. If he didn’t get her revived soon, she’d be eliminated.
“Keep boxing in,” Hazel said. “We’re coming at them from behind.”
The sound of more shots being fired told Grey that Finn and Hazel were there. He couldn’t tell how the fight was going, but his walls weren’t being destroyed, so he started reviving Kiri.
“Thanks, mate,” Kiri said as her avatar stood back up.
“No prob.” Grey dropped his bandages for her to use, and she also used a couple of small shield potions.
Finn eliminated Yuri.
Finn eliminated Vlad.
“Always taking my elims,” Hazel grumbled.
“We’re a team!” Finn replied. “It doesn’t matter who gets them as long as we’re all alive.”
“Yeah it does—they determine our rank in squad,” Hazel replied. “Even if we win, we all get our own rank in this version.”
“There’s not much difference between rank one and four. They’re all good,” Finn said.
“There is when you want to get home,” Hazel replied.
“Focus, guys,” Grey said. While Finn and Hazel mostly got along, sometimes competitiveness would get the better of them. “We’re coming up there to work out the loot before we move.”
After finding Finn and Hazel on the roof, Grey picked up the purple AR and left the green one he’d first gotten. He glanced at the icons at the top right of his vision to see how many people were still left on the map. It was already down to sixty.
“Not a bad start,” Finn said as he grabbed the med kit to heal himself. Vlad and Yuri had nearly knocked him down in that fight. “Anyone got a big shield?”
“Me.” Hazel dropped the large shield potion for Finn, grabbing the small potions instead. She took the purple rocket launcher from the pile of loot. “All your rocket ammo is mine.”
“Sure, mate. I picked up some.” Kiri handed over the rockets she had, and then it was time to move. The second storm was already moving in, and they were outside the safe zone.
Grey took a deep breath. “On to Dusty Divot. Stay focused.”
Grey didn’t like going to Dusty Divot. It wasn’t nearly as treacherous as Tilted Towers, but it held its own dangers. The terrain was wide open, since the area was a giant crater in the ground. At the bottom of the crater was what looked like some sort of lab for experiments. While the loot was pretty good, Grey always felt like a fish in a barrel when they were down there.
Inevitably, someone would snipe you from the top of the crater.
With the loot they already had, Grey intended to be the squad sniping from the high vantage point rather than going down to loot the lab.
Gunfire could be heard in the distance, but it wasn’t near their location. Grey figured someone was fighting near the border of the safe zone, and he prepared himself for a fight. But as Grey’s squad ran west over the bright green terrain, a loud, unfamiliar sound overtook the pounding of their footsteps and the gunfire.
“What the heck is that?” Finn yelled as he stopped in his tracks.
Grey panicked as he looked for an enemy, but then he saw what Finn was referring to. There was a plume of smoke in the distance that continued to rise into the sky.
“The rocket!
” Kiri said. “The Admin said it would launch soon!”
“I don’t see what the big deal—” Hazel began. But before she could finish speaking, the rocket exploded and started falling back toward the ground.
Grey couldn’t help but watch in fascination, even though part of him worried that they would be attacked while they stood there. He hoped everyone else was equally riveted and watching the rocket.
“What … ?” Finn said as a red laser appeared from the rocket.
“This is weird,” Hazel said. “I don’t think anything like this has happened in the game before.”
A crashing bass sound pounded through the area as a flash of light cracked in the distance. Grey thought it was over Tilted Towers, but he couldn’t tell from their current position. The rocket was gone, but then another flash and it appeared somewhere else on the map, and then somewhere else. Before he could begin to figure out what it meant, the rocket soared back into the air, and a massive explosion shattered the sky.
“Whoaaaaa!” Finn yelled as they all stared at the giant cracks left in the atmosphere.
Grey’s mouth hung open as the cracks shone like broken glass. The island was silent after the whirring bass sound. Everyone had stopped fighting. They were all watching this in shock.
“What do you think it means?” Kiri asked.
“It means changes,” Hazel said. “I don’t know what kind, but it looks bigger than anything I’ve seen before.”
“This is so cool!” Finn’s avatar was jumping up and down in excitement, since Grey had banned him from dancing until after a victory. “I bet that crack is gonna do some cool stuff. The map will change for sure. I can’t wait to see what the developers do.”
Grey was silent. The rocket launch wasn’t exciting for him, but scary. It signaled that the season was soon coming to an end. It said he was running out of time to get to the top five. It only reminded him that he might not get home this season.
CHAPTER 2
Grey’s squad finished in the top fifteen for the battle. When they were teleported back to the warehouse with all the other players, everyone was in a commotion about the rocket. It was only the third battle of the day, so people gathered together to discuss their theories of what the rocket’s explosion locations might mean.
“I hope they get rid of Loot Lake,” Finn said. “I hate that place.”
“The name is completely misleading,” Hazel said. “But I’m for losing Haunted Hills. It’s just so random.”
“It’d be nice if it was Tilted Towers,” Kiri said. “It’s too popular.”
“No!” Finn replied. “Tilted is the best!”
Grey sighed. He didn’t want to talk about the rocket or what might change. He didn’t want to think about the next season of this game. “None of that matters—the fights matter. Let’s go practice.”
Finn frowned. “Maybe it doesn’t matter in fights, but it’s still fun to think about. This is a game. You’re supposed to have fun playing it.”
Grey didn’t reply. Though Finn had some complaints about the game, he was still way happier to be stuck in it than Grey was. Grey tried not to ruin his best friend’s fun, but he also needed Finn to stay on task.
Kiri spoke instead. “I’d have much more fun if I wasn’t stuck here and forced to play, but sure, I can see the fun in the changes.”
“I’d rather see them on the computer screen,” Hazel admitted.
Finn shook his head. “You guys are weird. We’re in a video game! It’s better than any theme park!”
Kiri gave Finn a tight smile before turning to Grey. “What do you want to practice?”
“Editing,” Grey said. “We need to be ready for practice with Lam’s squad tonight.”
Finn groaned. “Editing is so boring.”
“But replacing enemy walls and knowing how to edit yours will save you,” Grey replied. “All of Lam’s squad are great at it. I can’t do it all for us. I might not always be right next to you.”
“I know,” Finn said. “I just wish we could practice close-range fights or something exciting instead.”
“We will—that’s important in build fights, too,” Grey said in hopes of pacifying Finn. “During the next break, okay?”
Finn nodded. “Deal.”
Grey and his squad went to the practice area, which was nearly deserted save the top twenty players. Everyone else had given up for the season, since most people didn’t have a chance to up their average ranking with less than two weeks left in the season. It was only the top twenty who still had the chance to make or stay in the top five.
Tension was in the air as Grey eyed Zach’s full squad, Vlad and Yuri’s duo, and Lam’s trio. Things had calmed down since the Admin banned bounties after Grey had reported Zach. The bounty Zach issued had caused players to hunt down Grey’s squad using the spectator mode after being eliminated. One player would eliminate themselves and then report to their squad on where Grey’s team was. Grey and his team had no chance to win with so many hunting them down. It was cheating, and Grey was proud he’d had the courage to report and put a stop to it. But that didn’t mean the competition wasn’t still fierce. In fact, the top twenty were practicing harder than ever now that it was a fair fight.
Hans’s squad wasn’t in sight, but Grey was sure they were off somewhere practicing. Tae Min never practiced. And the other two in the top twenty, Mason and Josh, a duo who just made it to ranks twenty and nineteen, were also missing.
When Lam spotted Grey, she walked over to him. “Still on for practice later?”
Grey nodded. “We are if you are.”
“Good. I have some ideas I need to test.” Lam might have offered to practice with Grey, but it wasn’t the same sort-of-friendly fighting as it had been with other squads. Lam didn’t play the social games the others did. Grey knew exactly why Lam asked for practice—to make sure she could continue to beat him. And he’d accepted in hopes of figuring out how to beat her.
The practices were rigorous, but Grey loved how challenging they were. He was forced to think harder, to push himself, and that made his whole squad better.
Lam leaned in to whisper, “Meet at the forest past the ghost town this time.”
“Got it.” Grey and Lam had changed up their practice locations, since spying had become a thing. Bounties were gone, but someone had been bribing lower-ranked players to watch practices and report back.
After Grey’s squad loaded up on loot from the practice warehouse, they headed out to the nearest open field. Grey wasn’t as worried about spies for this, since it was more of a timed test than a strategy practice. “Okay, we’ll take turns calling out types of edits, and everyone put them in your walls as fast as you can. First to edit will get a point. You get ten and you get to call the edits.”
“We all know you’ll win,” Finn said.
“And I’ll lose almost every round,” Kiri said.
“It’s not about winning. It’s about getting faster at this so we can all be at our best,” Grey said. “I’ll call first. Build your walls.”
Kiri, Finn, and Hazel placed their walls, waiting with their blueprints out to hear which edit Grey would call. Grey waited a few minutes to build their anticipation. “Mid window.”
They each edited to make a window in the middle of their wall.
“Hazel was first,” Grey announced. “Door.”
The windows disappeared and were replaced by doors. Finn got it first on this round. Grey continued to call out different types of edits for walls—bottom triangles, top arches, windows, doors. Then they moved on to ramp and floor edits. Though it wasn’t exciting training, Grey had seen their improvement. Editing needed to become second nature for all of them.
“That’s good for now,” Grey said as the next battle approached.
They began walking back to the practice warehouse, but before they got there, Grey saw a commotion in front of the building.
It was Zach’s squad.
It looked like they were
arguing. Several groups had gathered to watch. Grey and his squad walked faster to hear what was going on.
“ … can’t do this to us, man!” Tristan yelled.
“Why are you blaming this on us?” Ben asked. “We gave you all our tips—it’s your fault for not coming up with more strategies!”
“Yeah, you relied on the bounty instead!” Tristan said.
“Your tips weren’t even yours, were they? You ran out because Grey taught you everything,” Zach snapped back.
Ben and Tristan didn’t have a reply for that.
“You can blame me if you want,” Zach said as he folded his arms. “But it won’t change the fact that me and Hui Yin can do better without you. You’re just pulling down our ranks at this point ’cause we always have to babysit you.”
“I’m tired of reviving you,” Hui Yin added. “We’ve lost ranks trying to keep you two alive.”
“We revive you all the time!” Ben said. Grey felt bad for Ben, who was the first person to befriend him in the game. He could tell his old friend was trying to hold back his emotions, but it wasn’t working. Was their squad really breaking up when the end of the season was so close? Zach’s squad hovered between top ten and just below, much like Grey’s squad. If they broke up, chances were Grey could get his squad into the top ten.
But Ben and Tristan would be ruined.
They had worked so hard and given up so much to get a chance at the top five. Grey felt genuinely bad for them, but there wasn’t a lot he could do. There were no six-person squads in this game.
“We’re done,” Zach said. “Go find someone else to leech off of.”
Zach and Hui Yin walked away from Grey’s old squad mates. Ben and Tristan tried to hold it together, but it was obvious they were devastated. Tristan balled his fists so tightly that it looked like he might punch something. Ben was already walking off, hiding his face from all the onlookers.
“I feel bad …” Kiri said quietly.
“Serves them right,” Hazel said. “They played dirty, and it’s coming back for them.”
Kiri shot a glare at Hazel. “And you didn’t?”
“What did I do?” Hazel shook her head. “Yeah, I insulted you, but I haven’t lied to you or betrayed you or put bounties on you. If I did leave, I’d tell you straight up. If I didn’t like how stuff was going in this squad, you’d hear it. It just so happens that Grey is way smarter than I predicted.”
