"And Xaawo's team all survived!"
That was the message that rang in the ear of the remaining four players, looking around the outskirts of Ritzrub, around a few smaller artisanal and smaller scale stores. Blair was inspecting the contents of a thrift store, rapidly searching every pocket of every jacket for anything that could be a treasure. But out of the corner of her eyes, a light was seen outside the store. She rushed out to see what it could be, two lights had opened from the sky, each with something small falling from them, twinkling in the night sky like stars. Blair stepped out, and before she could even think of rushing towards them, she saw Gabriela dash towards it with intense speed she couldn't hope to catch up with. She was running towards one straight ahead of them, so her only hope at this point was to find the other one, slightly on the left. She ran towards it, flipping through her sketchbook for anything to defend herself with. As she ran to the left, she noticed Gabriela bend down to pick something up, but crucially, an announcement wasn't made. This meant two things. The first was that the gods were waiting until the very last minute to announce who was dying. The second was that getting the treasure wasn't the end of the challenge. If she had to, she could take it off another player. She looked down at her sketchbook, and the knife drawing was staring back at her. The mere thought sickened her, but she prepared for a reason. She briefly thought of attacking Gabriela from the back, but didn't want to actually kill anyone unless it was crucial to her own survival, and maybe she could avoid it.
So she continued left. Before her was a patch of untamed grass, and beyond that was a little more before a desert. She knew of smaller towns a few miles away, but whether or not she could actually reach them was another story. And besides, it probably wouldn't be hard for the gods to penalize her for attempting it. So she looked around. The dry grass went up to her waist, so she might have to look harder for anything. She noticed some rustling in the grass and panicked for a second wondering what it could be, almost letting out a scream. But a second later a small rodent brushed against her shoes. That would be enough for her to panic in any other scenario, but she guessed she learned to stop fearing minor things. So with that out of the way, she kept searching, pushing apart each blade of crunchy dry grass to find the treasure, each pushed blade bringing her a little closer. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw another figure approach the grass. She glanced to see the figure, big and imposing, and wearing an orange jersey.
Terrence.
She ducked down into the grass before he could notice her. His movements were like hers, panicked and erratic, and his breathing even more so. She kept looking herself while trying her best to stay unnoticed. Through the grass was nothing but newly blooming desert flowers and several more small rodents, several of which brushed past her.
Until she heard a sigh of relief.
It was masculine. It came from Terrence, it so clearly came from him. He had moved on. But the game wasn't over yet, which meant Tedros didn't find anything. He was probably still looking around the city, and he could be only a minute away from the treasure. She tried not to vomit at the most sensible answer, but it was right in front of her.
She took the knife from her book with a raise of her hand, crawling on her knees and elbows towards him. He started running, probably to help someone else. She got up from her crawl, running behind him. He didn't notice her, even if she was running as fast as she could just to catch up to the star athlete. When she thought she could make the jump, she leapt forward and plunged the knife into Terrence's left leg. He screamed out in pain, swiping his hand across when he turned around, his other fist tightly clenched. Blair was still on her stomach, putting the knife into the fresh cut in an attempt to get him to stop running. Terrence used his good leg to stomp her back, repeating until Blair could roll away and stand to her feet. She tried dodging it, the tips of his fingers only landing on her collar.
The weight around her collar intensified until it started choking her. She was fighting to keep her head up, and every attempt at sound was replaced with an enraged splutter. Terrence himself looked panicked, his breathing was more panicked than before he had a treasure. He didn't want to land a killing blow, so turned and tried to run, but tripped and fell. He kept his fist clenched tightly, to the point it was turning red. Blair saw him laid on his stomach while trying to get up. She steadied her knife, jamming it into his wrist. His hand finally opened up, and a small ring with a black gemstone fell out. Blair finally collected her treasure, and the weight around her neck vanished. Terrence scrambled to get up, but his leg was in too bad a state to get up. He started screaming out for help, in a final act of desperation.
"Tedros! Tedros, you gotta help me! Tedros!"
Gabriela appeared by Blair's side, not saying anything. Just observing what Blair got up to.
But a mere few seconds after his cry, the voices began in their heads.
"And the final three treasures were collected! Blair, Gabriela, and Tedros move onto the next round!"
A portal opened up in front of Terrence, and Blair quickly turned around. She put the knife back in her sketchbook and tried closing her eyes to shut out the light that suddenly appeared.
"Terrence Nash. Sixth eliminated." Kwaku announced calmly. The sound of a weapon tearing flesh was heard, and then footsteps against crunchy grass. And then the light was gone.
Blair fell to her knees, trying to process the last few minutes in her mind.
"Gabriela." She finally managed to say after a few seconds. "You understand, right?"
A few more seconds passed. Gabriela was turned around from Blair, staring directly at Terrence's corpse.
"I can't say you were wrong." Gabriela finally said. Her tone seemed to indicate a sort of disbelief from her own words, however. But before Blair could follow up, the light teleported into her room. Her body instantly caught up with what her mind thought of her actions, and she threw up all over her old lamp. Instead of cleaning that, she opened the window to air the smell out, and then flopped onto her bed.
She wasn't a bad person.
She was just playing the game.
A game she didn't sign up for.