So every day, one of these jerks got a super duper shout-out from Daddy Danya for being the best at murder. Nikki didn't get how they figured that, like, what were the parameters, is there a vote, are there speeches, do they write fanfic about their favorite killers, what's the deal? If all he did was say their names, it'd be another Weird Thing on the pile of Weird Things that went into this whole mess, but it turned out it was a lot more than that! They got a ticket into the danger zone! They got weapons! They got real food! All of that for killing one of their classmates real good as defined by a bunch of psychopaths? Nikki was pretty sure that was, legally speaking, Some Bullshit. So she was gonna mess the whole thing up.
Now the obvious question on everybody's mind is, how? Jump whoever is off to collect it first? Nah. Too many places they could get in, the handy dandy map told you that. They had this whole huge area to work with, and maybe they were already in there to start with, Nikki couldn't spend her time hunting them down and doing vaguely defined violence she wasn't comfortable thinking about in detail. She was after the actual factual prize, which triggered its own disbelief. After all, how's she gonna find it somewhere in the bay? It was huge, and her collar would be doing the beep beep dance the whole time. There was no way she could zero in on it before she went pop, right? Right?
The fools.
The morons.
The aBsOlUtE cReTiNs.
They'd made a critical mistake. They told her and everybody else exactly where it was gonna be! Yeah, hunting it down on the whole bay would be a nightmare, but running in and out on the pier? It was like, one of the most recognizable things on the entire map! Nothing could be the pier but that big wooden thing in the bay! It stuck out like a sore thumb and couldn't be that far from the boundary, and where were you gonna hide something there? It's a pier! It's totally flat, ya ding dongs! Why hadn't anyone else thought of this???
Well there was the whole thing about your neck blowing up. That was a mood killer, but Nikki had Theories. Two of them! Both in her favor! Let's break this down: there were two possibilities to how these things blow. It's either a timer, or a person. If it's a timer, it had to be a generous one. What if you fell asleep in the middle of a new danger zone? That had to happen, and she wasn't hearing people getting popped left and right every morning, so it had to have enough time on it for them to be able to haul their way from at least the middle of the danger zone out. She wasn't going near that far! Probably! Like, she wasn't sure exactly where it started, but to the pier and back couldn't be that long, could it? So if it was a timer she was golden, nothing to worry about whatsoever. But what about if it's a person? Somebody who could flip that switch the second she gets out of line? Well Nikki had a little secret weapon to deal with that, folks.
Chutzpah.
Let it marinate. Roll it around in your mouth a little. It's a great word, really oughta use it more, work on that okay? In fact, let's do it one more time for the kids in the back.
Chutzpah.
See the way she figured it, if somebody had their finger on the button they had to be kinda messed up, right? When they first see somebody run straight into one of these places, they probably figure it's a suicide. They wanted to make 'em squirm. No quick one and dones for anyone here, drag that terror out as long as possible, that's how these freaks get off. So she wasn't gonna get popped immediately, nah, they were gonna make her wait. But as they waited together, they were gonna see her purpose. Her urgency. They'd get curious. She'd pull them in with her performance and they'd be entranced. Whoever's behind the camera would follow the same story we would, the story you're about to see right before your very eyes. Strap in, kiddos. It's a bumpy one.
She cut out from behind the big building in the village. Not fast yet, she was conserving her strength for The Big One. From the map she's charted a beeline straight for the pier and she's walking it with determination on her face. Of course somebody noticed it when one of the blips gets close to the border, and their finger slides right to that button once it crossed the line. They switched the feed over to her to see if she'll duck out, but she didn't. She started running harder than any screaming PE teacher ever managed to motivate her, and the show was in full swing. Bobbing, pumping, eyes on the prize, she could smell the salt spray from here. It wouldn't be long until she cleared the tree line and could see structure stretching out to the sea in front of her, and when she does they know they should do it. It was time for her to go, but they can't. What's this girl up to, they wonder? Why wasn't she afraid with the beeping pounding faster and faster, where did she get the mental fortitude to stare straight through the empty eye sockets of Death into the horizon, refusing to acknowledge he's there? Of course it hurt, Nikki hadn't even finished the first leg of the journey and her chest was pounding, her breath came in gasps like daggers in her lungs, her legs felt like jelly, but she wouldn't give up. Not when she saw a black case and tupperware leaning against a post so tantalizingly close now. You ever heard of a second wind? She found one, and another, and another, and another, carried as if by the gods themselves to snatch her target from the pier. She didn't know what was inside and she didn't care, all that was left was to run and the eyes fixed behind the screen couldn't look away, their digits refused to move an inch and cut off her journey prematurely. The road back was an uphill struggle both literally and metaphorically, every step looked like it would be last with the promise that if she falls, when she falls, the bomb will go off because there is nothing left to see, they just have to know how far she will make it. She was staggering. Heaving. Sweating. It was incredible that the girl has her feet at all and though she couldn't possibly know it she was so close to the boundary now, an invisible goal line with the whole control room gathered now screaming for her blood or her victory, there are no other outcomes left and she!
Could!
Go!
All!
The!
Way!!!!!!!!!!
She collapsed.
The room was silent.
A single frame filled with only a finger, and a button. It panned out without a noise. No cheers. No breathing. No beeping.
Nikki lay in a red faced heap wrapped around the case, a mere two inches over the boundary line.
The room erupted.
Holy shit. What a story, am I right or am I right?
Edge of your seat?
You can't believe it?
I mean, that's fair. We mocked it up a little in post.
In the legit version she panicked and biffed it in thirty seconds. Got lost and ran the wrong way trying to get back out like, immediately. It was rough.
G080: NIKKI NELSON-KELLY, DECEASED
That's showbiz, kid.
