“-and a better system wouldn’t it?” were the only words I heard when I woke up.

There was silence followed, but I could tell that they were both there. After a moment of silence, I thought it was a good time to talk.

I sat up and said, “It’s later. Can I stay or not?”

Leon answered, “For now. You seem to be able to hunt well. But you can’t climb. That’ll be a problem.”

“I can learn. Give me some time. I’ve never been a loner,” I said, looking at my leg. “And thanks. I probably would’ve lost a point… and a lot of blood.” I felt my eyes get huge. “Blood.” 

Leon Froze and I limped to the door. I gasped at the sight of all the zombies at the bottom. Claws, and Fangs, and Lumberers. Oh my.

Leon sprinted to the door. “Oh… my… god.” she said.

“There are so many… when we regenerate, we won’t be able to get back up here,” I whispered, not being able to make my voice go any louder.

“We? You mean you. Lkoffee and I can get back up here with vines and whatnot. We’ll send a rope down for you, and pull you up. Okay?” 

I looked at Leon and groaned. “You’re going to make me into a zombie pinata, aren’t you?”

She smirked. “Now that you gave me the idea, I just might.” 

“Fuck you.”

She laughed. 

Soon later, we were all sitting around, waiting to regenerate.

“So,” asked Lkoffee, “did you guys have boyfriends before this game?” 

“No, not when I was brought in,” I answered. Truth was, I’d never had a boyfriend in my life. I never really thought it necessary then.

“No. I was ten,” Leon said.

I stared at her, my jaw dropping as I quickly did the math in my head. “You’ve been here for four years?” 

“Since the game began. I only have eighty-seven points. I’m going to be here for a while.” 

“Hey!” I heard from above me, “What are you doing?” I looked up to see Leon looking down at me, irritated.

“Following you. I’m curious about where you’re going,” I answered while fighting my way onto a branch.

“Um, no, you’re not. Now go away!” She yelled and when I looked up, she was gone.

I grunted as I finally got onto the branch. “Damn trees… Damn loner… Damn game…”

I began struggling up another branch when my foot slipped and I felt a sharp pain shoot up my leg. My face paled as I felt the slow trickle of blood down my leg. The rock. It was in my pocket. God I’m an idiot.

I finished climbing up the tree, gasping for breathe, and weakly got to my feet on the outside porch of the tree house.

I stumbled through the door and saw Leon and some other dude.

Leon jumped up, some kind of weapon drawn, and said angrily, “I thought I said not to follow me!”

“Please…” I panted. “I slipped on the way up… this rock in my pocket… cut my leg… it’s bleeding badly… please help… me.” I was feeling weaker by the second and I didn’t want to die. I needed to get out of this game as fast as I could.

She must have took pity on me. Next thing I knew, her and the other guy were helping lay me on a pile of leaves that I was assuming was a bed.

They had begun talking, but I tuned them out, trying to focus on minimizing the pounding in my head.

I heard a ripping sound, and felt pressure on my wound. I groaned, trying to say ‘thank you’ but the words not quite making it out of my throat.

I heard the floor boards creak as one of them left, and I tried to go to sleep.

“Hey. What’s your name?” I heard the other guy say.

“Dani.” I mumbled, not opening my eyes.

“Why are you all the way out here? Why aren’t you with your clan?” He continued.

I groaned and said, “I was hunting for Bullet Clan.” Then, a thought hit me and I mumbled, “What if I left them? I hate them anyway. Can I stay here with you guys?”

There was a pause. “We’ll talk about it later. Go back to sleep.”

I grunted and quickly fell asleep.

I woke up gasping from a nightmare and sat straight up on the branch I was on. Oops. The momentum knocked me off balance, and I fell. I braced myself for impact, but ended up hanging in mid-air, the smaller branch still tied around my ankle.

“Ugh…” I groaned as I reached for my ankle. Just then I heard a snap and froze. Next thing I knew, I was falling again, only this time, I landed on the hard floor.

“Ow…” I groaned before opening my eyes to see a Claw running towards me. I screamed and quickly got up, running as fast as I could.

I soon broke out of the tree-line and ran toward a river. I stopped at the rivers edge and turned around to see if I had enough time to jump in before the Claw got to me. I had no time. The Claw had gotten me before I had enough time to scream. I felt the pain and then everything went black.

———————-

I felt myself hit the ground again and quickly opened my eyes, taking in a deep breathe of air. God I hated dying.

I stood up, stretching, when I heard, “Hey Bullet Girl!” I turned to the voice, surprised it wasn’t someone in my own clan, but instead the loner, Leon. “Get killed by a Claw?” she said with a smirk. Kharma’s a bitch.

“Shut up, Leon.” I said with a roll of my eyes. I heard her snicker as I walked away.

I sat down at my tent in Bullet Clan, noticing that our own leader was asleep on my side. I sighed and lightly kicked his head. “Magic!” I yelled in his face. “You’re on my side of the tent again!”

He only turned around and muttered, “Screw off, Dani.”

I sighed and walked over to an empty tent, hoping the owner wasn’t going to return anytime soon. I just laid there, replaying my last death over and over, trying to see if I could fix any mistakes I’d made.

————-

Regenerations passed and I’d gotten to 59, having died a few times.

“Dani!” I heard through the camp.

I stood up from the rock I was sitting on and yelled, “WHAT?!”

Magic walked up to me and said, “Your turn for hunting duty. We need more meat and some of those berries that you find all the time.”

I sighed and said, “Fine, but sleep in my tent one more time and I’ll be going to join Leon.”

“Yeah, okay. Whatever.” he said with a chuckle and left me.

I hurriedly ran off into the woods, hoping to get my task done quickly. I found a large rock that was pointed wickedly and put it in my pocket.

After walking a while, I saw Leon walking toward a tree. I tried to hide quickly, but ended up cracking a twig and alerting her to my presence. I hid behind a nearby tree before she could see me. I waited till I heard her start climbing the larger tree before hurrying over.

I took a deep breathe before I started struggling my way up the tree, wondering how the hell she could do it so easily.

I sighed as I climbed out of my tent from little sleep. I didn’t like sleeping at the clan camp. No one was going to alert you or bother to wake you up if there was a zombie. Hell, you’d be lucky to have your tent trampled in the proccess of the rest of Bullet Clan running away.

I stretched and went over to the small fire with some kind of meat cooking over it. I may hate this clan, but I couldn’t pass up a free meal if I wanted to survive today. The sooner I leave this sick game and this lazy clan, the better. I’d gotten up to 53 points so far, and I got here about 5 months ago.

After I ate and chatted with some clanmates, I went over by the stump to see who I could taunt for having to be regenerated.

Just then, the loner, Leon I think it was, appeared next to the stump and immediately shot up, gasping. I laughed and asked, “Get killed, Leon?”

“What’s it to you?” she said. Well, at least I thought Leon was a girl. I didn’t really have any proof that she was a girl. Her voice was deep-ish, her chest was flat, her hair was short, and she dressed like a boy. There was almost nothing to make anyone think she was a girl. Except, her eyes. I don’t know what it was, but something in her eyes made 99.5% of me think that she was, infact, a she.

“No wonder you’re not in a clan. No one would want someone who gets killed by a Claw!” I never really saw her get killed by a claw. Just the scratch on her arm made me guess it was a claw.

“It was a bunch of claws, mind you. The thing cut my arm. Besides, I should’ve known better than to be in Claw territory, anyway. That’s Zeke’s place.” she said and I rolled my eyes as Zeke came up behind her.

“Yes, it is. Why were you there, Leon?” he said.

“Looking for food.” she answered, looking at his mud-smeared face.

“Like we’ve said before. If you want food, come to us and get it. Don’t try hunting there alone. You don’t have to prove anything to everyone.” He smiled, and cocked his head to the right. “That is what you’re trying to do, right?” 

“I’m not trying to prove anything. I just don’t want anyone’s help. I only want to get out of this game.” she then walked away.

I shrugged and went walking out in the forest. Okay, I know I’ve been bitching a lot about how much I hate my clan, but they were actually the best pick for me when I first got here. I didn’t climb trees like Swamp Clan, I didn’t think I could bear the cold up in the mountains like Ice Clan, and I was too soft back then to take care of myself and be a loner like Leon. I’m fast, like Bullet Clan, and I was scared out of my wits, like Bullet Clan. It was really a no-brainer.

But now, I’d slimmed down, shot up, and gained a lot more muscle than I ever thought I would before coming to this stupid game. Crack. I quickly spun on my heel and highkicked the head of the Fang that tried to sneak up on me. It fell to the ground with a sickening thump.

I shuddered before finding a tree easy enough for me to climb. When I found the tree, I climbed and eventually made it to a branch thick enough for me to nap on. I wrapped a bendable branch around my ankle and quickly fell asleep.