2: run.
The dining hall exploded into chaos, and hardly anyone noticed as Kalista sprinted down the side of the room and was gone.
She yanked open the door to the staircase and began to run up them, scaling two at a time. Her heart was pounding and her breaths came short and fast, but her extensive training had paid off, and thankfully, her mind was clear. As she reached the second floor landing, she risked a brief pause at one of the staircase's giant windows and glanced down at the dining hall below. She estimated that about half of the students were left -- the rest must have run, like she had -- and the ones who remained were fighting it out. Some had forks or knives. Some had shards of broken plates. Some, like Kaylee, used only their bare hands.
It was a bloodbath.
The door opened downstairs and Kalista jolted back into motion. The thundering of footsteps echoed from below, yet she didn't pause to look down. Each landing passed in a frantic blur. When she reached the top floor, she burst through the door and sprinted down the hallway.
She knew where to go.
The fifth floor had been her sanctuary for most of her years at the Academy. It was the STEM floor, with labs and greenhouses and even a large aquarium, and she had spent many sleepless nights playing around with the tools in its rooms. Her feet flew fast and steady as she traced her familiar path towards the end of the hall and turned right into the computer lab.
Out of all of the wonders of the Academy, this room was her favorite. Its floor-to-ceiling windows illuminated the space with warm daylight and provided a spectacular view of the lake below. At night, when she came to study frantically for her exams, a single glance to the left would show a velvet sky full of stars. Unlike the conventional computer lab, this one was arranged like a coffee shop, with plush couches behind spacious white desks and some of the most advanced computers that the Collective had to offer. There was even a smoothie station by the door, which had a wide variety of healthy drinks that had gotten Kalista through hundreds of all-nighters.
She hadn't chosen the room for its sentimental value, however.
Careful to listen for any noise in the hallway, she locked the door behind her and immediately climbed up onto a desk. Her fingers were precise and mechanical as she input a code into a crevice above the doorframe and felt a panel pop open.
The security feeds were all monitored from the office, which was on the first floor, but the computer lab housed the interface where those feeds were compiled. Kalista had helped the head security officer with its bugs more than once and knew its programming like the back of her hand. Allowing only a slight grin of victory, she pulled the panel outward to reveal a mess of wires and a small, thin console. Every once in a while, the console would need updating, and she was always the one who was chosen to climb up there and fix it -- small enough to fit inside and smart enough to change it. The space was just big enough for a girl her height to sit in.
Grabbing onto a handle on the ceiling that she had drilled there just for this purpose, she pulled herself up with little effort and slid into the small space. It was slightly claustrophobic, and she knew she would have to climb down every once in a while to stretch her legs. But as of now, it was the safest place to be.
She pulled the panel back inward, but there was no handle on the inside that she could use to shut it. After several seconds of pondering, she grabbed a few of the metal disks beside her and attempted to use them to attract the magnetic latch on the panel's frame. The first one she grabbed attached to the magnet with a clean snap and allowed her to pull the panel inward until it clicked closed.
Done.
Safe in the dark space, Kalista grabbed her phone from her pocket and immediately disabled location services. She was smart, but there were many who were smarter, and she had no doubt that the tech-savvy among them would attempt to use the Academy's phone monitoring to determine the hiding places of their classmates.
The adrenaline in her veins still burned. She felt like she was made for this; like the last seven years of her life had finally come to use. Allowing herself only one breath to rest, she turned her phone on again and began to mess with the console's wires.
Only a few minutes later, she had connected the security feed to her phone. On it, she could see live footage of every room in the school. The video was amazingly high-quality -- she had helped to ensure that with her coding over the years. She clicked first to the cafeteria. From what she could see, there were ten bodies littered on the ground, and five collecting any potential weapons they could find. It seemed that alliances were being formed. Kaylee was one of them, and she showed no remorse as she grabbed Ayesha's phone and hairpin.
Ayesha...
Kalista closed her eyes and gave herself a mental slap. Get it together. She was not going to let some soft sentimentality get in the way of her life goals, not when she had such an amazing opportunity to achieve them. To win Finals, she knew she would have to keep a clear head, and she immediately tossed any thoughts of Ayesha into the depths of her memory.
The next step was to strategize. The 40 students left in the game were some of the brightest and cleverest in the world and had trained for this all their lives. Already, Kalista could see two prominent strategies: one, to team up and go on the offense, and the other, to hide alone like she was. The alliances had mainly formed by cohort. She had no doubt that it was because every student thought that those were the people they least wanted against them -- they knew everything about them, after all.
Her cohort was definitely the most dangerous to her as well. Kaylee, Lex, and Harley had grouped together already, and as far as she could tell, they had killed at least seven with their combined skills.
She doubted that they knew where she was hiding. From the outside, the computer lab looked like a poor choice -- the many windows meant it was well-lit and open, and she didn't think that anyone knew about this small crawl space except for her. Most likely, they would think that she was hiding in one of the simulation rooms or mazes, where there was no shortage of dark crevices to hide. She had considered it... but it was difficult to get out of in an emergency, whereas the computer lab was only a couple of yards away from two different stairwells.
All was quiet as she closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall. There was not a single sound in the hallway. She had rarely heard the school this quiet since--
Bang.
She nearly hit her head on the ceiling as she jumped out of surprise. The sound was coming from just below her -- someone was hacking at the door! Fumbling for her phone, she pulled up the security footage of the hallway outside, cursing herself for not checking sooner. A single figure was punching at the door, and she brought the phone closer and squinted.
It was Peter Welling: a tall, strong kid who she had beaten up at least twenty times in their Martial Arts class. What he had in muscle, he lacked in brains. He was probably the dumbest in their class, actually, but Kalista knew not to underestimate him. He was also the only one who had a chance at bashing open the door with his bare hands.
She felt the bottom of the cabinet shake as he took one final punch, howling in pain as there was a loud crack. Kalista held her breath as she zoomed in on the security feed. His hand seemed to be broken, and he was cradling it, trying to keep his moans as quiet as possible. The door was still intact -- thank god! -- yet it had a huge dent, and he had shortened the work for whoever came next.
He, however, was done for.
A group of five -- she thought it was Cohort 7 -- appeared from the stairway to the left and sprinted down the hallway. They were onto him before he could even react. With one brutal movement, the group's leader snapped Peter's neck.
Kalista barely held in her shout as her phone chimed loudly.
Her heart thrummed against her ribcage as she checked to see if the group had noticed. They were pulling out their own phones, which seemed to have chimed as well. Letting out a silent breath, Kalista turned her phone on silent and opened the text she had just received.
It was from an unknown number. All it said was "Peter Welling: Dead."
Another text came in just moments later.
Welcome to Finals and congratulations on a great start! Click on the link here for the full death list and leaderboard. There will be benefits for the top placers, so don't get too comfortable.
Good luck.
Kalista clicked the link and was directed to the school's webpage. It had been changed and now showed the words "FINALS STATS" at the top. Scrolling downwards, she bit her tongue and read quickly through the two lists.
Current leaderboard:
1. Kaylee Canton: 4 kills
2. Rex McMahon: 3 kills
3. Nina Sarpen: 2 kills
4. Harley Bennett: 1 kill
5. Bruce Harding: 1 kill
Current death list:
Reed Hartner
Patricia Smith
Leon Traney
Gretchen Ni
Maria O'Brien
Winston Chen
Tabitha Dehner
Max Hartner
Ayesha Chari
Alex Franklin
Peter Welling
Kalista forced herself to stare at those names without emotion. She was getting better and better at it -- she no longer shuddered when she thought of Ayesha, and she didn't even react when she saw Leon's name, her second crush and second kiss. It hadn't been a bad kiss; she had even fancied herself in love. That was before they had learned about the frivolity and fruitlessness of relationships during their sophomore year Skills class. After that, they had mutually agreed to cut the ties between them.
She heard the satisfied cackle of Bruce Harding from outside. "Only thirty-eight to go," he said cockily.
And then he moved.
The four others in his group were dead within seconds.
Kalista looked to her phone to see yet another text.
Emily Plinter, Rin Kozia, Alina Treskova, Thomas Lender: Dead.
And she watched with horror as Bruce turned to the computer lab's door.
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