Alice in Borderland ~ Chishiya

46 - ♠Q

'Kimora.' I can hear Raiden's voice faintly in the distance. 'Take it off.'

Everything starts to spin, but then his face becomes completely clear. 'Take off your backpack. Now.' It all comes back to me now. Is he crazy?! Dropping my backpack means being shot with a laser. But what does it matter? I'm dying anyway, because I can't do those last five push-ups anymore.

'Listen to me carefully,' Raiden says sternly. 'A backpack is attached to each person. If your backpack is put down and as a result reaches a surface, such as a chair or the ground, it's game over for that player,' he quotes the female computer voice who told us the rules. 'If your backpack reaches a surface,' he says. 'Every half hour, each player receives a personal goal that must be achieved by that person.'

Where's he trying to go? 'It has never been said that you have to carry out those challenges with that backpack on your back, only that you can't put it on the surface. So you give it to me.'

He's already trying to take the thing off me, but I suddenly find new strength and I struggle. 'No!' I exclaim. 'No, Raiden! Stop! Stop!' If he's wrong, if this is against the rules and he also violates them, he'll get a laser through his head. I can't let that happen. I can't be the one that makes him die, even if it won't bother me long, because I'll soon follow.

'Each player pulls the trigger once,' he says. 'Each person may turn over eight cards.' His grip on my arm tightens. 'You've saved me so many times before. Please, Kimora, please, let me save you once.' I don't have the strength to explain it to him, but I wish he knew he saved me once before. Thanks to his presence, I wasn't alone. Thanks to him, I managed to hold on here. Just like thanks to him, I'll keep holding on a while longer.

Although it's only five kilos, it makes a world of difference to feel the heavy weight lift off my shoulders and back. I look at Raiden, who takes my backpack from me and carries it with him. He literally has my life in his hands and I can trust him with it. I look at the screen and see I have two minutes left.

With my sudden new strength, I manage to bend myself through my arms. Over and over, until I only need one more. Until I did that one. I look at the screen and see a check mark next to my name. I've achieved my personal goal. I'm not dying here.

I lower myself back to the floor and gasp for air. Then it crosses my mind that Raiden's now carrying twice as much of the burden. I jump to my feet and want to take the backpack from him again, but he takes a step back and leaves me there, liberated.

Nothing has happened. I completed my goal without a backpack on my back and nothing happened. No laser.

I look at Raiden wide-eyed. This means that we can clear the game. I can see in his eyes that he realizes that, too, but he's not concerned with that at all. I can see the relief on his face. His friend is still alive and he took care of that.

'Raiden..' I mumble. 'Thank you.' He curls up the corners of his mouth slightly. Now that the shock is gone, I notice that he's starting to feel the weight. I don't want him to face the same fate that I just thought was going to happen to me, but he's holding on. 'It really is you,' Yuri then spits out, looking at Yumiya. 'The queen of spades.' Yumiya pays no attention to him at all. She looks at me with a radiant look in her eyes. 'I knew,' she says with a smile. 'I knew you'd find a way to do it.'

I look from her to Raiden. I don't know if she realizes it, but he just saved me. 'What kind of sick person are you?' one of the players exclaims to Yumiya. She doesn't respond. She keeps looking at me. Suddenly, I can feel a switch inside me.

'We can make it,' I say. 'All of us.' I look at the four other players and leave out Yumiya. 'We can carry the weight of each other's backpacks while the other carries out his challenge.' Raiden and I don't even have to think about it, but Yuri and the other two boys look at each other suspiciously. It makes sense that they don't trust each other, but they'll have to. It's impossible to gather the remaining 25 points with that miserable thing on your back, while you have to put in the physical effort. Although Yumiya has approached it that way, it's not a game of hearts. We need each other to survive this. Now that we've found this bend in the rules, we have to take advantage of it.