All For A Few Cards ➺ Alice in Borderland

episode 10 || a true friend takes a bullet

It was Arisu who had warned me. He was a floor ontop of me, pointing down at the tagger.

The taggers gun began to go off. I groaned in annoyance. I took one last breath of my cigarette before putting it off and turning it around. I lit the opposite end of the cigarette. It lit on fire.

I waited a few more seconds. If I didn't get this at the perfect timing, I was fucked. I looked down. In just a few seconds, I could barely see the tagger's huge jacket. Now.

But before I could throw my cigarette at the taggers jackets, he started shooting again. I ducked down from the bullets and swore loudly. I had no other choice but to throw the cigarette at his boots instead. I did that and ran to the end of the railing.

The shooter began to shoot his bullets with no direction. His boots had caught on fire. I stood onto the railing, facing the tagger and jumped as far as I could. My hand barely reached the railing to the sixth floor. I pulled myself up and jumped onto the floor.

I heard loud ass stomping coming from the tagger. I made my way to the corner of the sixth floor and looked down at the tagger. He was stomping on the fire, trying to get it away. But before it caught onto his pants, he took his jacket off and blew the fire away.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. If that bitch Arisu didn't interfere, then my plan would've worked. Yes, I was trying to burn the tagger alive. Cruel and wicked, but clever.

The inside of the taggers jacket was made of wool. Wool catches fire easier than anything. If I got the fire to start there, it would spread insanely and surround him. He wouldn't have an escape. But because I couldn't throw the cigarette into his jacket, I had to throw it at his boots. I was trying to avoid doing that because his boots are made of some leather material, which means fire doesn't catch on them as easy.

I didn't have any other backup plan to take out the tagger. If Arisu hadn't had 'warned' me, the plan would have worked. I wasn't going to try to commit the same plan twice in a row. That's stupid. Now I have to watch. I guess the right door is the only way out now.

I watched the tagger. He killed a few more people. Arisu had earlier made a plan to locate the tagger and tell each other where he was to find the door. It was clever. The only other person who participated in the genuine plan was Usagi.

The tagger was making his way to the sixth floor—where I was. He went across, not realizing I was on the same floor, but I wasn't running. He slowly turned to face me. I looked down at the fourth floor. The new guy was down there. The shooter pointed his gun at me.

I looked back at the guy. He reached to open a door. The shooter suddenly turned his gun in the other direction and started shooting at the guy instead. Room 406. Bingo.

Without the tagger noticing, I jumped down from the railing and got onto the fifth floor. I checked my phone. There was nine minutes left. There's still time. Let's see if someone else has noticed too. I walked over to the corner and stood there.

Arisu and Karube helped the new guy. The tagger walked off. I didn't have the patience anymore. I made my way down the stairs onto the fourth floor. I kept my eye opened for the tagger. I should've tracked him down before I got here.

Whatever. I'm here anyways. I walked to the door. But then I heard thuds coming down the stairs. I rolled my eyes. Great. Think. What now? I glanced behind me. The tagger stood there, his gun pointing directly to me.

I was about to charge at him. I was going to kick his feet. He would stumble back a bit. That would be my chance to push him back. I would get the gun from him and shoot him. It's bad, I know. But I came up with it in two seconds. I was going to die anyways, so why not at least try?

I was about to proceed, but then somone jumped onto the taggers back and started attacking. "Go, Aria! Run!" It was Arisu. The tagger shot his gun. Bullets flew everywhere. "OW!" I hissed out. A sudden pain shot through my leg.

Blood was pouring down my leg uncontrollably. I tried moving it, but pain was aching all around the area. The gun somehow flew out of the taggers hands. I tried running to it. But I couldn't. The more I moved, the more blood ran.

I tried anyways. But the tagger kicked the gun away. I groaned. He threw Arisu off him. He fell onto the floor but immediately got up. The tagger walked over to collect his gun. Arisu put his arm around me and we both ran as fast as we could with my injured leg.

Bullets started going off again. The tagger led us to a dead end. We stopped at the wall and looked back at the tagger. He pointed his gun at us and reloaded. Arisu squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Hs weeped. "Shut up!" I said frantically. This was not how I was going to die. I tried to think of something.

What, though? We were at a dead end. The tagger was in front of us. We could jump off the railing and catch onto the third floors railing. It wasn't going to work, though. Blood was gushing from my leg at this point. I started to feel faint.

There was no time left. We had to do it. "Jump—the railing," I tried saying, pointing at the end of the floor, but everything started spinning. I started feeling dizzy. "No—no, we can't! You can't!" Arisu said. "Do it!" I shouted with the voice I had left. "You won't make it!" Arisu tried saying.

"Yes I will! Jump!" I ordered him. But before we could move, bullets started shooting at us again. I shoved Arisu to the side. He hit the railing. I moved to the left so I wouldn't get hit myself. "JUMP!" I shouted. He didn't. That stupid bitch.

He ran to me. A bullet shot through his arm. He winced. It would've hit my chest if he hadn't had came. The shooter reloaded within seconds. He started shooting again. I pushed Arisus legs over with all the force of mine. But he took me with him as he rolled over. He was ontop of me now, his arms holding him up. "Get off, you idiot!" I shouted frantically.

But then we heard a loud buzz. Like a taser. We both tuned our heads. The tagger suddenly fell to the floor. Chishiya came from behind. My vision began to get blurry. I saw Arisu get off me. "Room 406." I said softly, my breath getting hitched. "Aria? Oh shit, your leg!"

I grabbed his arm. "It's room 406. Help me later. Clear the game before we all die." I ordered. "Aria! No, no!" Arisu looked panicked. "Aria!" I heard someone say. The last thing I saw was Chishiya running over to us.

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❝ [ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ] ❞

𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦? 𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦...

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