How I Ruin The Plan

My eyes widened. I was not prepared for this. What if there was more than one person and what if they fired at us before we could fire at them and from what I'd seen of the capabilities of these lasers, I didn't want to be on the receiving. Hell, I wasn't even sure if I wanted anyone else to be on the receiving end.

"Just don't panic. We'll have the situation under control if you just don't speak and get yourself ready to face the enemy." She whispered and tightened her grip on her gun. She still had her hand on my mouth so I nodded to reassure her that I wasn't going to speak and it was safe to get her hand off my mouth.

She removed her hand and slowly walked towards the sound of the footsteps. Meanwhile, my heart was trying to burst out of my chest. I could feel the adventure alright. This truly was an adventure land but I was already sick of it. Kat gestured to follow and started counting, I don't know why.

When I got close to her, she told me to stay put with wild hand gestures but I understood anyway and would've obeyed if I hadn't realized her plan. She was going to put herself in the line of fire to give me the chance to escape. I wasn't going to let her sacrifice herself for me. I had to stop her. The attackers were in the corridor next to ours with just one wall separating us. She was going to step out in the space where the two corridors met. They could easily shoot her from that position but I wasn't going to let it happen. She was about to step forward and reveal herself when I tried to pull her back, which resulted in us both falling forward as her strength was more than mine and she pulled me towards her to prevent me from stopping her. And inertia messed up everything.

I realized that we were exposed. I glanced up at the spot where we had suspected the attackers to be and glimpsed someone running away, disappearing around the corner.

"They ran away. Why?" I was beyond confused, they had the perfect opportunity to shoot at us but they chose to run?

"They must be defenders or slinkers," Kat answered, staring towards the empty corridor.

"Defenders or slinkers? What's that?"

"They're categories — Wait! What were you doing?!" She yelled. Oh God, she was mad.

"I couldn't let you sacrifice yourself."

"Sacrifice?! What sacrifice?!" She was still yelling and we were still on the floor, so I got up, just to get a little distance between us. I didn't want claw marks on my face.

"You were going to put yourself in the line of fire so I could escape," I told her. Why was she so confused about her plan?

"No, I was not! Why would you think that?! I was just peeking!" Okay, she was not the hero I had thought her to be. "I wanted to know how many they were and if they were attackers or belonged to some other category." She closed her eyes and it looked like she was trying to calm down.

"Oh." I had nothing else to say. I wasn't going to say I'm sorry. I didn't want her to think she scared me. I offered my hand to help her up. She took it grudgingly, judging by her expression. "You didn't answer my question though."

She rolled her eyes. "I was going to as I know you won't let it go until you have a satisfactory answer. There are four categories of players in this game — Attackers, Defenders, Both, and Slinkers. Every player chooses what category they wanna go in when they start. If they don't choose, their choice of weapon does automatically."

"I don't understand. Choice of weapon chooses their category, but how?"

"If you let me finish and don't interrupt, you'll know." She rubbed her forehead in exasperation.

"Okay. Finish." I smiled, sheepishly.

"If you only choose a gun, you're an attacker. You can just attack. If you only choose a protection vest, you're a defender. You can only defend yourselves. If you choose both, you're a warrior. We're among the warriors so we can both defend and attack. But if you don't choose anything, you automatically become a slinker. But if you occupy the weapon and stuff while still on the first level, you can change your category."

"Wow. One more question."

She pursed her lips. "Now what?"

"Exactly how much time did you waste in reading the manual?" I laughed.

She scowled. "Don't forget that if I hadn't read the manual, you wouldn't have survived long enough to ask such silly questions."

I straightened my face, trying to look serious. "You're right—" The firing started outside the maze, interrupting me.

"We gotta go! Now!"

After half an hour of stumbling through corridors upon corridors, we finally reached the center of the maze and found..... NOTHING!

"You said we'd find something here that'd help us in the upcoming levels but there's nothing here. Not even another player." She had filled me in with other details of the game as I searched for a way to the center. By now, I knew quite a lot, at least enough to help me survive a little longer in this adventure land.

"Well, there was supposed to be something here. I don't know why there isn't." She frowned. She was as confused as I.

"What if someone took whatever was here before us?"

"No, that can't be possible. Everyone gets whatever's supposed to be here. That's the way it is." She said, not convinced herself. Suddenly, her eyes brightened. "What if—"

Footsteps. Coming in our direction. I braced myself for a fight. Kat did the same, angling her gun towards the entrance from which the person was coming, she took the position.

"Wait right there, whoever you are!" She yelled. What was she doing?! Why was she revealing our location?! I glared at her, conveying my thoughts through my eyes. She gestured for me to wait.

"I come here in peace. I have no intention to engage in a fight." A deep, smooth voice of a guy answered from the other side of the wall where Kat stood.