NARES - Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – Now, Sleep

[11:34 – Living Room]
JeffreyRaze and masterplum continued their little chat in the living room.

Plum: A murderous sociopath, eh? Heh, it’s pretty funny when you put it like that. You know, perhaps some people here are blinded by the promised money and some of them are simply fighting for their lives.

Jeff: That’s true. Well, I’m not really in any hurry to get money, but if someone decides to attack me – of course I’ll retaliate, but I’m just not ready to burden the sin of a murder.

Plum: Oh. That’s a shame.

Jeff: Pardon?

Plum: No, I mean...I don’t want to die here. I survived the harsh African deserts and I promised to myself that I will survive until I die of old age. Or some sort of freak accident, but preferably not.

Jeff: So...are you suggesting that we should...you know, begin to hunt people?

Plum: Hunt is a strong word, but I do believe that we should take a more proactive stance.

Jeff: That’s wrong!

Plum: Oh, is it now? So you just want to wait until the old bag decides that he’s had enough and release us? Perhaps take a commemorative photo, shake our hands, and promise to keep in touch?

Jeff: No! But there must be a way out...somewhere...if we kill someone here, it’s probably what he wants! Not to mention that it’ll make us criminals...

Plum: Jeff, my man, it’s truly heartwarming to see that someone like you still exists nowadays. But think it through. If we manage to ki—defeat everyone, we can just burn the mansion and run. It’d be easy.

Jeffrey looked at Plum with obvious fear and worry now. Plum looked back, with the expression of someone who was simply talking about their new job or a family picnic: relaxed and slightly amused.

Jeffrey: That’s just...wrong! We don’t have to kill anyone! No, we mustn’t kill anyone!

Plum: Oh, if only it was that simple, I’d agree with you.

Jeffrey: You-you’re crazy!

Plum: *sigh* I think you’re the one who’s not looking at this logically, Jeff.

As their conversation turned into a debate, a simple jingle was broadcast throughout the mansion.

Raka: Hello, everyone. First of all, I’m really sorry for disturbing your night time rest…
===
[11:45 – Library]

Muddersmilk shook his head, regaining his composure.

Milk: What was I thinking? Catastrophy...Resistance...*sigh*

He reassured himself that it was a honest mistake, something anyone could have done. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel a bit dumb as he was standing by himself in the middle of the partly-destroyed library.

Milk looked around him. Burnt books. Well-kept books. Catastrophy’s exploded body parts. A couple old globes. There was nothing feasible to be used as a weapon, or at least an effective one. For now, he decided to stay with his trusty mop.

He took a look at the map, weighing his options.

Milk: Game Room...Inner Court...well, let’s try the Play Room.

As Milk went down the stairs, he thought he heard someone entering the library, but didn’t pay it any further attention.

The door to the Game Room had a glass pane with the room’s name printed on it, allowing one to peek through. Muddersmilk, however, didn’t stop to see what was inside.

It turned out to be a mistake, as hundreds of tiny legs clicked towards him the moment he closed the door behind him. The tiny, clever Space Invaders robots that had previously wounded edwardsdv a few hours ago began to swarm Milk. Their legs sharp as needle, the mechanical critters stabbed through Milk’s shoes.

Milk: Dammit!

Remembering the parkour tricks he had honed for years, Milk leapt off the floor and onto the billiard table, scattering most of the Space Invaders that had climbed onto his jeans and shoes. They quickly changed their directions and began to climb onto the billiard table, wounding the skilfully polished wooden legs.

Without much time to think, he jumped onto the pinball machine and slipped on the glass surface.

Milk: S***!

Fortunately, he managed to land safely on the carpet. As the mechanical ticking sound of the tiny legs changed their direction once more, he ran for his life and entered the Play Room.
===
[11:46 – In front of Woman’s Bathroom, 1F]

The lone alive woman in the mansion, GenesisSaga, stepped out of her safe haven into the silent hallway. There was nobody there. Well, nobody alive.

She smiled a bit. Despite the inherent danger and anger  of being locked up plus the recent announcement regarding the Danger Zones, she felt pretty good after taking down XIII_rocks. Even though she had been taking a rather defensive approach, she felt courageous, even a bit quixotic.

Genesis made a plan in her head to try her luck in the V.I.P. rooms. Perhaps she would find a real weapon there; at worst, she wouldn’t be caught in the upcoming Death Zone.

Conserving her stamina, she walked casually down the hallway.

“F*** me,” she muttered as the door between the hallway and the living room opened. She only glanced once to identify them.

It was the team of masterplum and JeffreyRaze. Plum entered the hallway first, his golden bland contrasted the modern hallway. From his expression and body, he was obviously calm and prepared. Jeffrey followed closely behind him – compared to Plum, he was much less confident and looked unsure.

Plum: Catch her!

Jeffrey and Plum dashed towards Genesis with all their might. Yet GenesisSaga effortlessly outran them, turning into a blur of color.

The men tried to follow her but when they opened the door to the library, Genesis was already nowhere to be seen.

Jeffrey: That was...fast.

Jeffrey was actually relieved that they didn’t get to...capture GenesisSaga, but he wouldn’t say it out loud, at least not to Plum.

Plum: What is she, an athlete? Well, I guess we can’t just try to catch her without some sort of strategy...
===
[11:47 – Living Room]

Following the announcement which somehow sounded funny in Pirateking2000’s mind, as if thousands birds chirped along, he quickly reassessed his situation. The Mad Hatter was cackling loudly as he made a complicated knot from the March Hare’s ears. The knickknacks on the table rattled in amusement.
Amongst the madness, if one could ignore the dancing tea cups and the laughing cookies, you’d notice that the Dormouse looked somehow out of place, like an actor pasted onto a scene using modern trickery. And when Pirate entered the room, he was the only one to look at him. Their gazes met.

The Dormouse got off his chair and tried to walk away from the living room, keeping his eyes on the confused Pirate.
===
[11:49 – Living Room]
Pirateking lifted his club and threw it at Resistance_pro, who was trying to run out of the living room. Although throwing the heavy-looking club would’ve been an arduous task for anyone else, Pirate did it easily and the sound it made when it hit Resistance’s back was unpleasant.
Resistance could feel his back and ribs shatter.
He fell to the floor like a marionette whose ropes were cut.

However, marionettes weren’t supposed to struggle or shriek in pain. Resistance tried to roll his body and move under the canopy of the table. It was both really painful and challenging for him, but the danger of death forced his body to turn around.

Pirateking2000 looked cautious as he walked across the room, taking few glances at empty chairs as if someone or something was sitting there. He even tried to grab the empty air. But as his hand failed to grasp anything, he seemed to realize something.

Resistance was thankful for whatever was distracting Pirate. He got under the coffee table that had surprisingly spacious space under it. When Resistance saw Pirate’s shoes coming, he had already laid the living chairs he could reach on their side as makeshift obstacles. Both of them knew that it wouldn’t give Resistance a lot of time, but it was an attempt, a pray for a miracle at the last second.

Resistance crawled away from Pirate’s side of the table and crossed the table’s canopy. If only Milk didn’t leave him, it would have been a different story.

Pirateking2000 climbed the table and quickly got to the other side of the table.

Resistance: Milk! Now!!

Pirate was startled and spun around, taking out his concealed dagger. Resistance took the chance to bite Pirate’s right leg as hard as he could. Pirate screamed in pain and kicked upwards, hitting the table with Resistance’s head. The pain made Resistance’s eyes teary and the blow made him let Pirate’s leg go.

Pirate crouched and went under the table. Resistance was still writhing around in agony. Pirate just realized that he let go of his knife when he was bitten by Resistance, but that shouldn’t matter; after all, he had never lost a one-on-one fight against anyone.

Pirate reached for Resistance’s neck, but Resistance resisted and held Pirate’s hands off. During the struggle, Pirate’s eyes looked directly into Resistance’s. For some reason, Resistance looked smug even with the tears in his eyes.

As Resistance was keeping his gaze into Pirate’s eyes, Pirate’s struggle weakened. His eyes turned hazy and unfocused.

Resistance: Now, sleep.

After Resistance said the last word, Pirateking2000 closed his eyes into a deep slumber. Resistance smirked.
===
[11:50 – Hallway in front of Raka’s Room]
Before GenesisSaga stood four doors, each colored differently: purple, white, pink, and black. None of them looked particularly more or less dangerous than the others.

Yet instinctively she knew that each of them must be hiding something different. Which one should she take…?
===
[11:51 – Play Room]
The Play Room looked like something any child would desire – it was filled to the brim with various kinds of toys, anything a kid could dream of. A cheerful and familiar-sounding music was playing. Pasted on the wall – covered with wallpaper depicting surreally colorful flowers and clouds – were six pictures made with crayon.

However, two things spoiled the carefully built atmosphere of the room. First, the giant teddy bear on one corner of the room had fallen and there was a hole on it, white cotton visible from the wound on its brown hide. Below it was bbbtime’s corpse, pale and unmoving.

Still, there was no time to revel in the aura of this weird room for muddersmilk. He inspected the damage on his relatively new shoes – there were small holes, barely visible, but damaging nonetheless.

However, there was no other visible damage on him, and for that muddersmilk was thankful. And as far as he could see, there was nothing that could hurt him here. So he could take a break peacefully, or at least that was what he thought.
===
!Dead!:
21st: Catastrophy – Blown up from a bomb-book while being drunk.
20th: jdizzy – Shot in the forehead by a samurai
19th: bbbtime – Couldn’t bear being suffocated with a giant teddy bear
18th: Orochimaru_Fan – Got caught in a trap that flung him into a coffin and covered him in hot wax.
17th: metalsluggg – Bashed in the head with a blunt weapon, then had his neck slashed
16th: Mega Mana – Stabbed through the chest with Edward’s sword, then eaten alive by a tiger.
15th: Natwaf_akidna – Bashed in the head with a candelabrum
14th: Kirbydamasta – Acid to the face
13th: Emporer_Kazbar – Sword strike followed by a stab with a letter-opener
12th: Cody11533 – Death by strangulation
11th: Bigwig_rah – Tiger food
10th: Niorapth – Clubbed all night long
9th: ImTheMacheteGuy – Literally stabbed in the back. Metaphorically too.
8th: Edwardsdv – Defeated by the power of FRIENDSHIP *sparkles*
7th: XIII_rocks – Neck broken by a shoe to the neck

Status:
Pirateking2000 – Sleep
Jeffrey – Bleeding right hand (bandaged)
Plum – Broken right hand (somewhat treated)
Resistance – Broken back
.
Healthy:
Everybody else.

Whereabouts:
masterplum, Jeffrey_Raze: In front of the restrooms, 1F
resistance_pro, Pirateking2000: Living Room, 1F
GenesisSaga: Hallway in front of Raka’s Room, 2F
Muddersmilk: Play Room, B1