Battle Royale: Yet to End

Ni

   Ugh, what happened? Ryo Sasaki (Male Student No. 6) thought. Then he realized, he was still inside the bus. He slowly opened his eyes; his eyelids were too heavy to even see everything. Something flared in his nose as if he inhaled fire. He slowly moved his head to the window to his right to see what was happening outside. It was almost pitch-black. You could only see the treetops above because of the very dim moonlight shining upon those. Not a single star twinkled in the sky. Not even a single streetlight was on the side of the road. And especially, not even a single car passed by. But there clouds everywhere, obstructing the moon. He tried to speak, but his throat was too dry.

   It was dead quiet. You could even hear a needle drop on the floor without difficulty. He tried to run his voice from his throat and out of his mouth again and luckily, something came out. It sounded like a row, raspy voice being constricted by tight rope. He turned his head to his left to check on his seatmate, Takumi Kusashima (Male Student No. 7), but he wasn't there. His seat was empty. He shifted his body to Takumi's seat to look over and find him. He lowered his head towards the floor in the aisle to find him lying there. He had his arms spread to his sides but since there are seats, it formed an angle; his hands drooped like withered flowers and his knees were bended. His mouth was half-opened with saliva leaking out from it.

   He tried not to laugh out loud, and he did, fortunately. He nudged Takumi in the shoulder.

   "Hey... Takumi, wake up." He whispered. Takumi didn't even move.

   Ryo nudged him harder. "Hey, Takumi. Takumi. Ta-ku-mi."

  His eyelids lifted a bit and his lips closed, squeezing some of the saliva in the corner of his mouth. Ryo looked pretty annoyed now so he pinched his nose hard. At once, as if his nose was a wake up button, Takumi suddenly rose from his position. Ryo quickly moved his head back and if he didn't, their heads would have bumped against each other. He looked around and from the looks  of his face, he also realized he was still in the bus, like Ryo did a while ago.

   "W-what?" He wearily said. There he realized his saliva reached down the middle of his neck and wiped it with the sleeve of his white polo uniform. His green tie dangled from his collar.

   Ryo formed a smile and whispered, "Nothing. Just waking you up. Everyone's sleeping right now so you'd better keep it down."

  Takumi lifted his right arm and placed it on the left seat's arm, where Etsuko Lioka (Female Student. No. 3) slept alone by the window. A faint beeping can be heard from her place, possibly her cellphone, an iPhone 2G. Technically, she was out-of-date. When she got the cellphone and brought it to school the first time, she was a target for jokes. 

  "Crap, I didn't remember planning to go to sleep. Everything was weird as dung." He said as he tucked his knees under his right arm.

  "You can say that again." Ryo, upon saying that, felt as if he was hit with a club, minus the pain and doubled the dizziness. His head rocked slowly.

   "What?"

   "Oh... Just some headache..." He put his right hand on his face to support himself.

   "If you say so."

   Ryo cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak, but the lights suddenly turned off and the bus halted to a stop. His voice was cut off by the silence. He looked around but its like his eyes were closed shut. He couldn't see a thing, except the very thin of his hands.

  "What the...?" Takumi whispered, trying to get a glimpse of Ryo. He scurried his hands to Ryo's seat and touched something like his pants.

   Ryo felt his hand and brushd it off his. Takumi was touching Ryo's left hip. "Hey! What're you doing?"

   "Oh sorry. My bad."

  "Did the bus just... stopped? Wait, what time is it already?"

   Takumi held up his wrist, which wore a watch around it, and pressed something. At that instant, the watch's screen glowed a soft green light. The watch read: 11:23 PM.

   "Shoudn't we be there by now?" Ryo said.

   "Yeah... Where are-"

   Takumi couldn't finish his sentence as something awful whiffed under his nostrils. It smelled heavily of weird chemicals. His head began spinning. His hearing began to go deaf, but he heard a soft cough and a thud to his right. He couldn't make out who or what made those sounds nor who or what made that awful smell. He collapsed on his seat with a very soft thud, unconscious. 

   From the front of the bus, a low muffled male voice whispered, "Are they all asleep?"

  A higher muffled male voice answered, "Yes sir. The gas was quickly put into effect."

  A very faint rumbling sound like crashing waves can be heard from the halted bus. "Is the ship ready?"

  "Of course, sire. Mr. Tatsumi is waiting at the lighthouse with Capt. Shirogane. From his latest report, the sea is calm enough for us to reach Sorashima Island."

   "Very good.  Notify the others and ready the trucks at the island."

   "Will do sir."

   The bus' door opened with a slight creak, and the sound of boots going down the stairs can be heard. At the very far distance, the sea spread throughout. At the somehow center stood an island. Three triangular points which looked like mountains, rose from the flat terrain.

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