Safe was a very contextual term in this game, as was the word lucky. For example, Ellie was lucky that she only lost a finger. She was safe in an abandoned medical clinic, which was a good four blocks from where the showdown had taken place an hour ago. Crying did nothing for the pain, but neither did anything in the clinic. Some expired pain medication that gave thirty minutes of relief was all that was around. All she could do was keep the wound clean and change the bandage wrapped around the stump. Bitterly, she recalled the fight, wishing that she’d done more than put her hand down the guy’s pants.

It had happened during her hourly move to a new location, to avoid the danger zones. Fifteen minutes into her relocation, a bloodied boy came sprinting towards her. She didn’t recognize him, but even if she did she wouldn’t have stuck around. Swiftly she shrunk into the alleyway between two buildings. A girl came chasing the boy, wildly swinging a baseball bat.

“Darren; you’re not going to beat me with that pig stick!” shrieked the girl, having caught up to the boy.

Darren was cornered, with his only escape down the alley where Ellie hid or past his attacker. Ellie dared not make a sound or move, because if either noticed her, she would become a target.

“That’s pretty big talk for a someone like you Nana” he remarked before spitting up blood.

“You don’t know about me” she hissed back, stalking towards him.

Ellie watched from the gap as the two went at it; baseball bat versus flick knife. Nana had the advantage, but Darren clearly had more agility. Easily he avoided her swings, adding in a few jabs with the knife he had. It only took one hard, accurate blow to knock Darren to the ground though. Nana pinned him to the ground, ripping the knife out of his hand. Triumphantly she raised the blade preparing to plunge it into Darren’s throat as he screamed,

“You! Help me! Please!”

There was no mistaking who that plea was directed at. To Ellie’s horror, Darren glared at her from the ground as did Nana. Had he known she was there the entire time? Well, now both of them did. The two seconds of distraction gave Darren the advantage he needed, drawing out a second weapon; a pistol. Nana’s body immediately crumpled when the shot was fired at her face.

“She’s number 16,” Darren stood up from the ground, tucking the pistol inside his jacket while panting, “Not my partner.”

On the list she had stolen, it had Darren listed as number 7. Assuming that everything there was true, he wasn’t her partner either. There wasn’t any reason for her to stick around then.

“You aren’t mine either” replied Ellie, beginning to creep backwards.

Darren checked out Ellie presumably for her tattoo. It was on her hip though, so he wouldn’t know. His voice faltered as he faked a brave reply,

“Really? That’s too bad. You seem, what’s the word, not stupid.”

What a poor psychological game this fool was playing; Ellie saw right through it. Even with the bleeding wound on his forehead he was handsome, and he obviously knew that. Did he think that if he complimented her enough, that she would come quietly and let him kill her? She wasn’t going to  fall victim to these mind tricks.

“Well, you seem not so stupid yourself, so I’ll be leaving,” retorted Ellie.  

Before she could make a run for it, Darren whipped out his pistol again and aimed it at her. Coldly, he confessed,

“You have something, Ellie, that I need. I ran into Suzy, and she told me about the fire. I know you have the list.”

Ellie knew that of all sassy things to say, “ you” would only get her killed faster. If you want to live, you have to say stuff like “I have a million dollars in my bank account”, or “I give good head”. Those were both complete lies though, so she remained silent as he walked towards her, weapon raised.

“I’m not going to kill you. I just need the list” said Darren, pressing the gun against her chest.

“Then put down the gun” she muttered, not afraid to look him in the eyes.

Seeing this as a reasonable request, he did withdraw the gun. He did, however, replace it with his knife. This was an improvement; kind of. Carefully Darren pressed the blade against her neck, circling back to the bag slung around her body. Inside the bag was the cocktail supplies, not the list, which was underneath her shirt. She would definitely be dead when he discovers that it’s not there. Nervously she gulped as he opened the first zipper, and then the second.

“I have to, or I’m done” she thought, weighing out her one and only plan.

Darren had the compartment almost fully open when she ran her hands down his body. He breathed in her ear as he rummaged through her belongings,

“If you want to work together, you could just as-”

Successfully Ellie had gotten a hold on the pistol. Her hand was still down his pants as she pulled the trigger. Darren jolted backwards with a screech, the bullet having gone through his thigh. When he went to grab his leg in pain, the knife he held against her neck was released, allowing Ellie to run. Angrily, Darren slashed his knife around while staggering through the alley after her. Over her shoulder, Ellie watched as the blood stain on Darren’s pants spread while he yelled at her,  

“You don’t let someone just walkaway, do you?”

He wasn’t going to alive for more than two minutes. She was safe.

“Well, neither do I”

The moment of hope distracted her, Darren having managed to snag her right hand. She yanked it away easily, but not before he slashed at it with the knife. He gave her a sick smile before collapsing. Successfully, he had chopped off one of her fingers.

Pure adrenaline kept Ellie going after that along with multiple pained screams. While she bolted away from the alley, the blood was pouring from where her finger had been, covering her arm in red trails. With and uninjured hand, she managed to rip off a piece of her shirt and then wrap it around the wound. As best as she could, she applied pressure to the area. She wasn't a large girl, so it wouldn't take too much blood loss to make her woozy. The pain though; never had she suffered that much.

She was lucky to have found this place which had some medical supplies left. Though they were expired, they would do just fine for now. It was lucky that he had sliced off a part of the right, because she was left handed. Also, of all fingers to have mutilated, the pinky wasn’t that horrible. Ellie didn’t keep make promises anyways.

“Darren: pistol, knife. Nana: baseball bat” she wrote on her list.

The baseball bat she didn’t want or need. She knew she couldn’t budgen someone to death. As for the pistol, that was still down Darren’s pants. The only thing she had gained was the flick knife. She had stolen it after Darren went unconscious, which was immediately after he cut off her finger.

Should she go back for the pistol? Probably not, because someone else could have taken it by now, and even if it was still there, how much ammunition was left? Pistols only could carry twelve rounds. The second question was if the body would even be there. Did Mai and her backup murderers clean up the dead? Again, probably not. During her mad dash with her bleeding hand, she saw a couple bodies that had clearly been there for more than a few hours. Perhaps this was a part of the strategy to push people to kill, leaving the dead on display for the players. Seeing your dead friend would push most closer to insanity. Luckily, Ellie had no friends or allies in this game.

Usually she would have found a new place to hide in, but she needed the medical supplies if she wanted to avoid infection. How embarrassing would that be, to die of infection in Battle Royale. There was no way to see into the clinic except for the small window in the door. There wasn't much to see anyways, most of the furniture rotting or missing. Six dusty chairs were in the lobby with magazines littering the floor, and in the actual examination rooms the cabinets had barely any supplies left. At least there was only one way in and out of the clinic, and Ellie had rigged a trap there. If the door was opened, it would cause the remaining bottles of gasoline to fall on the person (it also might knock them out), This was as safe as she could be.

“Time for the noon hour report kids!”

Ellie groaned; she hated when Mai would call them kids. Mai didn’t look that much older than any of them, 30 years-old at most. She listened to the announcement of new danger zones, and then of the dead players,

“Leo of VIXX, Mir of MBLAQ, Ren of NU’EST, Nicole of KARA, Nana of Afterschool, Cube trainee Darren, and Eunhyuk of Super Junior. Don’t underestimate what each other are capable of. I was even surprised by who made these kills. That is all. Report again at midnight”.

There was a small click signalling the microphone being turned off. They were so morbid, Mai’s announcements. At the end, she would play music from the dead idol. It was a sick reminder of how life had been a day before. Ellie knew that being an idol was pretty do or die in the sense that only a handful are successful and the rest burn out, but this was literal. Gradually the chorus of a Super Junior song faded out, leaving Ellie to focus on her injury again. This did not last, as the silence was broken by an intruder.

Ellie hadn’t considered what she would do if someone walked into her trap. That all depended who it was and if they had the means to kill her. Ideally, they would be on the ground unconscious and she could just roll them outside. She wasn’t that lucky though, seeing as a gasoline covered CL stood in the doorway, ready to pounce.

“What was in those?” demanded CL, trying to shake off the gasoline like a wet dog

The self proclaimed baddest female didn’t actually look that bad. She was much less intimidating in jeans, sneakers, and pony tail. Ellie noticed the number 14 on her arm as she continued to try and wipe off the liquid.

“Stop moving. I use this, and you are done.” warned Ellie, flicking her lighter on and off

“You’re the one who smoked out those JYP brats? Wow, thanks. That Brooke girl, who Suzy and Yenny picked up was really pissing me off.” lamented CL

With a strong grip Ellie continued to hold the lighter, ready to ignite the place if she had to. Sheepishly, she asked,

“Just to confirm this, you are CL, from 2NE1?”

She nodded while fluttering her lips, sighing

“That’s me unfortunately. Call me Chaerin, or Faith. CL makes me think of chlorine. Who are you; a trainee, some producers daughter, an assassin?”

“I’m Ellie,” slowly she slid into a chair, still in range of attack, “I’m just some girl who listens to Kpop here and there”.

This seemed to puzzle CL, as she contemplated if this was the truth. Well, why lie about if you’re a somebody in this game; you’re going to die regardless. With a sneer, she asked,

“Get to touch your oppas? or at least their corpses?”

“I’m not into that type of thing. Anyways, three ‘oppas’ tried to murder me today” remarked Ellie in a snippy tone.

CL nodded before pointing to Ellie’s left hand. The bandage was almost completely red again as she wondered,

“What happened? Looks pretty nasty.”

“Cube trainee Darren cut my finger off,” casually answered Ellie, still sitting in the chair.

“Found your partner yet?” added CL immediately.

Stiffly Ellie shook her head, lowering her tone to sound more serious,

“No.”

CL sat down on the dirty floor, soaking her pants in even more gasoline. She sighed,

“Are you going to let me leave, or we just going to keep up this small talk.”

This was a rare opportunity, having someone at her disposal. Especially someone who was clearly hiding a potentially useful weapon. Ellie knew by the way CL crossed her arms and attempts to move to conversation away from herself, that she had something she wanted no one else to have. Suspiciously, Ellie eyed CL’s right hand, which had been stuck in her pocket the entire time. The idea that it was a small projectile or even a gun began to worry Ellie the longer she looked. Still wondering what CL could be holding, she commanded in a dry tone,

“Show me your number first.”

“You do know, all the partners are male-female.” stated CL in a condescending way.

Of course Ellie knew. She wanted to know her number to see if she could win this with another person still. That morsel of information could be the difference in life or death for Ellie, so she wasn’t going to pass up the chance to gain insight into how others were playing.

“Just show me.” repeated Ellie.

Hestitantly she answered, avoiding eye contact by letting her bangs fall down,

“I’m number 18.”

Lies. On the list, the female counterpart for 18 was Yenny. Who was the real, male 18, that she was lying about being partners with? Or did that guy even know CL was saying they were partners? That query answered itself, as a third player bust into the medical clinic.

“Go” ordered G-Dragon, grabbing CL's arm and shoving her towards the door.

Obediently she exited, but not before extracting what had been in her pocket; a walkie talkie. G-Dragon held the matching black square in his hand, having probably heard the entire scene between the two girls. He had just been waiting for the right time to step in and save his “partner”.  This would be the time to set them on fire, however, a revolver pointed at Ellie’s head told her otherwise. Quickly, G-Dragon snatched the lighter she had clutched in her palm, rendering her defense mechanism useless. The purpose of the ambush was to get CL, so with the revolver still raised, G-Dragon began to exit as well.

“You’re number 21?”, he motioned to the rip in Ellies shirt, which exposed her tattoo, adding, “Lucky guy.”

G-Dragon was only in the clinic for a minute, two maximum, before sprinting after his self proclaimed partner. If they did become the last two players, would either have the ability to kill the other? Then again, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. This ordeal wasn’t a waste though, Ellie now knew that her partner was still alive, and was apparently a lucky one.