The pain shot up in her arms like fire.
She cringed.
It made her dizzy. It made her reel. The pain was like some needles that had been dipped in alcohol and that got jammed through her skin. It was so bad that she didn't even scream. It happened so fast that I think she was more shocked than in pain. She was groaning. Like a zombie.
The woman then disappeared in a flash like the way we came in this place. She reappeared in the quarter of the audience zone that looked empty. Then it seemed that what happened finally hit her.
She shrieked; a sudden, sharp noise that cut through the air.
The 999 people in the arena quickly understood that this wasn't a normal game.
It had consequences.
People started to talk.
"We should all search a way to get out of here.", they all said.
After 5 minutes of a real fun period of debates and useless wall touching, people started getting mad.
Real mad.
That plus the fact that they were all teenagers full of hormones created nothing good.
"Let's get rid of the weak first!", some random guy yelled.
"That's villain-like in any situation. Kill him!", another replied to the first random guy.
It continued for another 5 minutes.
Then it started,
a small guy had a panic attack and some kid took that opportunity to choke him. They fought and injured themselves until the guy with the panic attack got knocked out cold with a brutal punch.
Then some guy saw it and killed the kid in retribution saying he was some crazy guy filled with malice.
The cycle continued until it reached everywhere.
There were fights every 10 meters and screams in the audience every 10 seconds too.
Then a fight finally reached David.
I guess being in the middle saved him for a bit.
Some guy got hit with a huge uppercut that made his nose and mouth bleed.
Probably very close to unconscious.
And he landed just in front of David asking to be finished with ease.
The guy that hit him was occupied because he was getting attacked by the so called friends of the dude in front of David.
"How do you become friends in 5 minutes." was one of the questions ringing in the head of our homeless friend.
So David thought, for 3 seconds probably.
And stepped on the face of the injured guy.
He didn't die, so that meant it was fine in the eyes of David.
I mean who would refuse a god given elimination.
The truth was: David was treating this as a game.
He was imagining the same people that ignored Jim and him while they begged on rainy days.
The pain of being burned alive was a good defense. He felt that there was no way he would get in trouble for trying to not feel horrible pain.
He hoped it was the case.
it's kinda self defence.
Then David got two notifications on that same virtual window.
[You made your needed elimination for the first 15 minutes.]
[You have 2,50 minutes before your next cooldown of 15 minutes for your next needed elimination.]
So he ran until he was in one of the arena's corner.
To not end up like his first victim.
And then he saw him.
You know. The kid that was energetic and looked healthy compared to him and the others. Yeah, the kid that looked 10. (barely)
Truth was, David was overjoyed.
He was not crazy. He just felt like it was needed and all that. And it bugged hi, that they considered his skill the same way they considered his.
In short, a part of David still thought it was a game.
So he did something that David is not proud of. He went and tried to grab him by surprise.
The kid was not expecting that and was probably tired from all the other crazy guys or just malicious people that tried to get him like that too. So David managed to get him in a chokehold.
David felt a lot of emotions at that moment.
Mostly shame because he was 14 and the kid 10. (barely)
"Not that big of a difference, right?" he thought.
It took time before the kid ended up unconscious.
He tried to tap out on David's arms multiple times as if it was a ufc match.
David was not close to an angel. The streets formed him into somebody that didn't feel pity.
Another notification,
[You made your needed elimination for the second 15 minutes.]
[You have 13,06 minutes before your next needed elimination.]
For some dark reason, david felt pretty good.
That ego of his was finally satiated.
he then sat and waited until his 13 minute break time was over.