Two Stones, No Bird

"Shit".

The thing Ryan saw that made him freeze was Malakai. Malakai staring straight at him with a paintball gun in his right hand and two plastic balls in his left. As soon as Ryan came out of his room, Malakai came out of a room further down the corridor. Ryan wasn't the only one who stopped. Malakai also stopped. He didn't expect to see Ryan during this round. Ryan stopped because he was scared, but Malakai stopped because he was confused.

Ryan made the first move. He made a break for it. No thought was needed. He dashed in the opposite direction. All he needed to see was Malakai holding a paintball gun so his legs could move as fast as they could. Fight or flight kicked in.

He wasn't the only one who moved without thinking. Malakai took chase.

"Mally, what are you doing!?" David worriedly asked him. "Forget him. You don't need to go after him!".

Malakai didn't listen. He continued to run. Malakai didn't even hear what David said. He was focused. Too focused.

Ryan was ahead of Malakai by a few meters, but Malakai would catch him despite the headstart. Malakai could shoot right now, but it was unlikely the shot would land. Ryan was an average runner. He wasn't the quickest, but not the slowest. While Malakai was rapid. It was a mismatch. If Ryan continued to run straight, it would be a problem. Luckily, he didn't have to because he had reached the stairs. Ryan took a left, grabbed hold of the railing and descended the stairs at some pace.

Malakai saw Ryan take a left and go out of view in the distance. He knew he was going down a floor. There was no way he was going up some stairs in a chase. Malakai was grinning ear to ear. He knew he was catching him. He had complete confidence. Stairs weren't going to slow him down. Malakai kept up the high pace when reaching the stairs.

Cling! Cling! Cling!

Malakai heard the sound of metal hitting the floor. He reached the staircase and saw an object at the bottom of the landing from the top of the stairs. He didn't know what it was until,

FFFFFFFSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

"the fuck".

Smoke was coming out of the object at an alarming rate.

"A smoke grenade?" Malakai said in awe.

Yes. A smoke grenade was on the stair landing, and smoke was escaping from the body of the grenade. White and grey smoke was filling the staircase rapidly.

Let's see what happened a few moments before.

Ryan was rushing down the stairs. While he descended the stairs, he took out a smoke grenade from his cargo pants and pulled the pin while still keeping ahold of two plastic balls. He threw and left the grenade on the landing. In the previous rounds, Ryan had found some great items. This was one of them.

Now we're back to speed. Ryan reached the floor below. But now, he had a choice to make. To keep going down the stairs or stay on the floor he was at now.

Ryan got out of the staircase and ran down the corridor. He chose to stay.

The reasoning behind why is pretty simple. He didn't have much time to think. He thought if he continued down the stairs, he would get caught, and he couldn't be sneaky going down the stairs. So he had a plan. He would stay on this floor and let off another smoke grenade. Ryan had two smoke grenades. He had already used one, and he was going to use another to lose Malakai for good.

Ryan pulled out the second smoke grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin, dropped the grenade on the floor behind him and dashed down the corridor. He kept running and was about to reach the second staircase. Each floor had two sets of staircases, so there wasn't only one way to get to different floors. Ryan's pace wasn't constant. He was slowing down gradually. He had to start jogging to catch his breath. As soon as he thought he was far enough, Ryan turned around to check. All he saw was smoke. Just smoke. Smoke everywhere. The smoke was quite far away as he dropped the grenade far back, but the smoke was creeping up the corridor.

Ryan was breathing heavily. Ever since the chase, Ryan has been stuck in his own head. If Owen had been saying anything in his ear, he wouldn't have heard it. Ryan was just thinking about not getting shot. This was the first time in a long time his heart was racing like this. Ryan was genuinely terrified. It was like a wild lion was chasing him. This wasn't a friendly game of tag. Malakai wanted to catch him and harm him. Knowing someone is chasing you to hurt you is scary, and this was how Ryan found out.

"Ryan, I think you lost him", Owen told him, seeing the smoke engulf everything from the screen.

"yeah", Ryan quietly replied.

He kept his eyes locked on the smoke in front of him. The smoke wasn't disappearing. It was like a giant cloud was filling the corridor.

It was silent. Ryan couldn't hear anything. No footsteps. No running. Nothing. He'd lost him. He was in the clear. Ryan's body relaxed. His heart that was racing, relaxed. His eyes that were fixated on the smoke relaxed. Everything relaxed.

Until he saw a ghost.

One second, a dark human figure was shaped in the smoke. The next second, Malakai emerged from the smoke. Malakai locked eyes with Ryan immediately after coming out of the smoke. His pinpoint pupils and maniacal smile jump scared Ryan. Ryan's body jolted at the sight. Smoke was escaping Malakai's smiling mouth while the rest of the smoke was dripping off his body. Ryan couldn't move. His legs were stuck, but they weren't stuck on anything. He just couldn't move. Malakai raised his arm. Took aim.

BANG!

He missed.

Ryan didn't know where the shot landed, and he didn't want to find out. That shot woke his body up. His fight or flight response was kicking again. I say fight or flight, it was just flight. There was no way Ryan was fighting.

Ryan took his eyes off Malakai and descended the stairs beside him. He had no more smoke grenades. He had no items that could deter Malakai away from him. All he could do was run and hide.

"Why is he still chasing him?" Owen rhetorically asked under his breath. "Actually, Ryan has two plastic balls. Taking them from him would be quicker than searching rooms. It's still weird how he's chasing him, though. I would've given up after the first smoke grenade".

Owen was making sense of the situation in his head. He came to the conclusion that Malakai was chasing Ryan because of the plastic balls. That was the logical conclusion. It's a shame he's wrong, though.

"Malakai's going all out", Christina said, leaning back in her chair.

"I know. He really doesn't like Ryan", Chris replied.

The twins were in the class watching. The two had searched for map pieces in the last round, so they couldn't search this round.

"Luckily, some of those girls are not here", Chris said, referring to Ryan's fangirls. "They would lose their shit seeing this".

"They'll hear about it for sure when they're back", Christina replied, seeing half the class chatting about what was happening on screen. "I hope Ryan doesn't get caught. If he does, that's bad news for us".

"Yeah. Akari has three balls right now. If Ryan can keep his balls, that'll be a solid round. Five in total for the round. If he loses them, it will hurt a lot", Chris said. "I don't know how Malakai ran through all that smoke and still managed to find Ryan. That shouldn't be possible".

"He's not normal", Christina replied. "Every challenge, he does something unusual. We should be getting used to it".

"Getting used to it is crazy. He ran through smoke at full speed and found Ryan. I bet even his best friends are questioning how he did that", Chris said.

"I guess".

"I want to see his POV because I wanna know how he ran down some stairs and through a corridor in strong smoke and found Ryan. We saw from Ryan's angle everything was white and grey", Chris said, repeating himself dumbfounded.

"You should ask him the next time you see him", Christina told him.

"I will, but I haven't talked to him in a while", Chris said. "I hope he's still cool with me".

Ryan was on the floor below. Again, he chose not to continue going down the stairs. He'd hoped he'd see someone else. Then he could've used them to distract Malakai, but no one was around. It was a bare corridor. There was only one option for him.

Run.

But he couldn't keep running. He was much slower than he was before. If he continued to run, he was getting caught. He had to hide. The only problem was there were no good places to hide. Maybe he could've found a good spot if he had time, but he had no time.

Ryan was using the last of his stamina to run down the corridor, looking at rooms left and right, but none of them appealed to him. They all look like death traps to him. It was looking bad until he decided to make a right turn into the restrooms. He opened the door to one of the restrooms, went inside and hurriedly went to the stall at the end. All the stalls were shut, so if Malakai came in, he'd had to open all of them. Ryan went into the last stall and locked the door. He trapped himself. Now, he was praying Malakai didn't see him enter the restroom.

Malakai jumped down the last steps and was on the floor Ryan was on.

"Cough! Cough!"

Malakai inhaled some of the smoke while he charged through it. He found it harder to breathe, and his throat felt weird. But he didn't care. He was too high on adrenaline. It didn't affect his speed. He would feel the repercussions later, but right now, the adrenaline is acting as anaesthesia.

"Cough! Cough!"

"M_ _aka_! g_ ba_k to _he s_fe zon_e! Sto_ ch_si_g _i_ y_u _uckin_ idiot!"

Malakai could hear muffled mumbling in his ear again. He heard parts of the words but no complete words. He wasn't paying attention to the voice because he saw Ryan take a right.

Malakai sprinted down the corridor and kept his eyes on the right side. He knew where Ryan took a right. He just about saw it. He saw his dangling leg as he disappeared. Malakai kept moving until he found where Ryan had gone.

The restrooms.

Malakai smiled and went into a restroom. When he entered, he saw that all the five stalls on the right-hand side were closed. He knew what he had to do. Malakai went to the first stall door.

BANG!

Malakai kicked it open with his right foot. It was empty. Malakai went to the next one.

BANG!

The stall was empty.

Ryan could hear the doors being kicked down. The sound was coming closer and closer. It was only a matter of time.

"Heh".

Malakai let out a little laugh. It was like a scary movie, and he was the killer. He moved to the next stall.

BANG!

Empty.

The fourth stall.

BANG!

Empty.

There was one stall left. Malakai couldn't contain his smile. It was written for Ryan to be hiding in the last stall. Malakai stood in front of it, raised his arm and aimed at where Ryan would be standing and,

BANG!

...Empty.

Malakai's smile dissipated. No one was there. He chose wrong.

Malakai rushed out of the women's restroom and went into the men's restroom, which was opposite it. He pushed the door open and scanned the room. All the stalls were closed except for the one at the end. Malakai dashed to look inside the stall.

Empty.

Ryan was here. Malakai chose the wrong restroom. He jetted out of the restroom to find out where he went.

Again, let's rewind a little bit to see Ryan's POV.

Ryan ran to the restroom area. He had two options. The men's restroom or the female's restroom. He chose to go into the male restroom. You wanna know why? The answer isn't some 1000 IQ play. It's just because he instinctively saw the male symbol and went inside. Ryan had no theory, mind games or thinking behind his decision. He naturally saw the male symbol, and his brain thought that's where we belong. I would've loved to tell you it was an unbelievable double bluff, and he knew Malakai would go into the women's restroom, but unfortunately, it wasn't. Ryan's brain was finished. He was panicking and wanted a place to hide. No thinking was going on. The only thought in his head was to survive.

After Ryan had entered the restroom, he went to the last stall. Again, on instinct. The stall furthest from the door. When he was inside, he was dead silent. He even silenced his heavy breathing. He didn't want to make the slightest sound. A few seconds later, Ryan realised how screwed he was. He trapped himself. He thought it was over but,

bang!

He heard a muffled noise. A faint bang.

bang!

He heard it again, a little better this time as he was more focused. He collected his thoughts and realised.

bang!

Malakai went into the wrong restroom. Ryan quickly unlocked the stall and quietly scurried out of the male restroom.

bang!

He heard Malakai kicking down the stall doors more clearly when he was outside. A smile appeared on Ryan's face as he snuck away from the scene. The job wasn't finished yet. He still had to get to a different floor, and when I say a different floor, I mean a couple of floors away from Malakai. Ryan knew exactly how to do that.

Ryan went down the corridor, stopped in front of a door and pressed a button. He was going to use the elevator. Ryan had an elevator pass. He found it in the previous rounds. He might not have found a lot of plastic balls, but he found good items.

Ding!

The elevator doors opened. Ryan was safe... or was he?

He felt a chill down his spine. Ryan turned his head to the left in the direction of the restroom.

He saw Malakai staring at him with pinpoint pupils, but he wasn't smiling this time. He was wide-eyed and straight face.

Ryan rushed into the elevator and frantically pressed the button to the fifteenth floor. The top floor was where his safe zone was. He mashed the button many times. Ryan wanted the doors to close ASAP.

Malakai saw Ryan enter the lift. Malakai was nowhere near tired. He still had some adrenaline left in the tank. Malakai had to shoot him. He chased him all this time. If he didn't land a shot, it was a failure.

Malakai sprinted to the elevator. Gripping his gun tightly. The tightest he held it. He was determined to land this shot. As he got closer from the angle he was at, he could see the doors were about to close. He was so close, but not close enough to put an arm out and stop them from closing. His legs kept going. The doors kept closing. It looked like the doors were going to close before he could shoot, but he made it. He made it to an angle where he could fit a shot through.

Ryan's body jumped after seeing Malakai through the gap of the elevator doors closing. Ryan froze again. He couldn't move. He was helpless. He was going to get shot. He was a still target.

Malakai raised his arm and pointed it at Ryan.

BANG!

The bullet weaved through the gap of the elevator doors like a thread through a needle. The last thing Malakai saw before the elevator doors closed was Ryan's terrified expression with a splatter of yellow on the wall to the left of his head.

He missed.

Ryan heard the bullet whistle past his left ear and explode on the wall behind him. A little bit of yellow paint splattered onto him as a result of the bullet bursting on the wall behind him. The last thing Ryan saw before the elevator doors closed was Malakai, with his pupils back to their normal shape and his mouth a little open. He looked stunned he missed. The elevator doors closed, and the elevator went up. Leaving Malakai alone.

"FUCK!!!" Malakai shouted.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Malakai could feel his breathing getting heavier. He was finding it hard to breathe. His chest was heavy, too.

"MALAKAI! GET BACK TO THE SAFE ZONE! YOU HAVE LIKE A MINUTE LEFT!" David shouted in his ear.

Malakai could hear David clearly now. He was back to reality. He looked down at his hands. He had his paintball gun in his right hand and one plastic ball in his left.

"Huh? Where's the other ball?" Malakai questioned in his head. He looked around and saw nothing. "Fuck, I must've dropped it earlier in the smoke or something"."Cough! Cough!"

Malakai was getting lightheaded. His vision was getting blurry.

"Shit. I inhaled some of the smoke", he thought.

"Cough!"

Malakai was stumbling on his feet a little. He couldn't stand straight. His head was all over the place.

"Malakai! What're you doing!" David frustratedly told him. "Go!"

Malakai didn't like the shouting in his ear, but he couldn't respond. It felt like no words would come out if he tried to talk. If he tried to talk, a cough would come out instead.

"I need to go. Shit, what floor am I on?" Malakai thought, looking around.

He had no clue where he was. He tried to think back before the chase, but his head was hurting. He couldn't think. He couldn't remember. He was a mess.

"Cough! Cough!"

"You're on the fifth floor!"

Malakai heard a voice he weirdly recognised.

"Ali?" Malakai hoarsely said.

"Quick, go up the stairs! I'll tell you when you reach the ninth floor", Ali told him.

Malakai got instructions and listened. He sprinted to the stairs. His adrenaline wore off, but he wasn't tired. He could still run. Malakai continued to ascend the stairs at a rapid pace. His head was hurting, but his mind was burning. The only thing he could think about was his two misses. He was pissed. He couldn't remember half of the chase. It was like he was possessed or something. He couldn't even remember shooting the first shot. He definitely remembered his second shot. He saw that shot miss in 4K. He couldn't believe it missed.

"Malakai, hurry!" David told him.

Malakai was going as fast as he could. Going upstairs quickly was a challenging task. Especially if you have been running the whole time before. Malakai didn't know how much time was left for the round. He didn't know what was going on anymore. He was feeling a lot of familiar horrible emotions. He wasn't even that bothered about losing one of the plastic balls he had. All his mind could think about was those two shots.

"Cough! Cough!"

Two shots, no hits.

Two stones, no bird.