Goemon landed on the near side of the wall and hit the deck. He chose a spot with no massive holes nearby. It was a purely defensive move. We would not be able to see any enemies on the other side, but they would not be able to see us either. It did not surprise me that he scoped up facing the Blue, away from the sound of action. We might not be the only ones making a break for it. Though, there were not many others left.
I crouched down next to him and aimed the Para at the Blue Wave of Destruction. No movement, not even from the death cloud itself, but there were only two potential sources of attack on our position. One was the theoretical sole survivor of the battle all the way back on the other side of the bridge, Elly or Nails or the rock sniper boys. If they somehow survived that much time in the Blue they would still be headed out of it any second. The only other exposure point was on the other side of the wall. They could jump through one of the several gaps in an effort to get out of whatever firefight was going on just on the other side, and it would put them right on top of us.
The gunfire ceased, at least for the moment. I checked the scoreboard. Still eight people left. It was probably three duos and two singles if all of our guesses held up right. From the sound of it everyone was tucked away in a safe spot. That would change just as soon as the Safety Circle started its next eviction process.
24
Circle
“Now what do we do?” I whispered.
“We wait,” Goemon said.
Then it was radio silence. And not just for us, either. Every man, woman and child in the server, all of the pack rat looters, the sharpshooters, the tactical geniuses, the just got luckies of the round- all of the survivors- were within shouting distance of each other. It did not matter how we or any of our adversaries got here. This was the final battle, and everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move.
It was in this silence that every ambient noise of PBR made itself known. Listening had never been more important. A single footstep on barracks tile, a reloading magazine, a brushing of denim against a wall would be enough to alert someone to a location. I could hear none of this. Other sounds flew in from every direction. A bird chirped at 65. I kept my composure enough to remain stationary instead of flicking the Para towards it. I had heard plenty of birds but I had never seen a single one in game. Wind rolled through the trees at 120, shaking its branches gently like a slow maraca. The creak of a door groaned at 90, but without any responding gunfire it must have been my imagination. Then there was the constant drone of the Blue Wall of Death. It bore a resemblance to industrial machinery behind a sealed warehouse. It did not assault the ears, but it was also impossible to tune out completely. It was a lovely reminder of our own most likely inescapable and impending demise by way of dry drowning suffocation.
Then I heard something else. Something that was not ambient, but an outsider in the environment. It was nothing more than a slight shuffling sound, maybe fabric rubbing against fabric. But it was close. If my ears were correct, the sound was emitted from just on the other side of our cement cover wall. Someone, or even possibly a duo, was using the other side for cover. Unless they could hear my heartbeat- which, judging by its current tenacity, they might be able to- my gut said they had no clue we were on the opposite side of the wall. We were back to back, with the exception of the foot of cement between us.
I switched over to the auto shotty. At that range, there was simply nothing better. Equipping it into my hands triggered an innate reaction calling for me to leap over the wall to end whoever was there before they got wise to our location. I cast the urge aside. I might get the kill if they were facing the other direction. I mean I definitely would. But I would also guarantee my own death at the hand of Wall Guy’s partner or any of the other players waiting for their opportunity to shoot. Besides, Goemon would never go for that. We still had time on the clock before the Blue rolled in again. Not much time, but there was no need to force our hand at that specific moment.
Goemon and I looked at each other. I nodded. It was a silent attempt to let him know we were both on the same page and I was not going to do anything stupid. His eyes got wide and he shook his head. I nodded harder. It just caused him to shake his head harder. I think we were having some kind of difference in opinion or maybe just a communication breakdown. I tried again. This time I tapped my wrist as if I were wearing a watch and shook two fingers towards the wall. He took a hand off his rifle and placed it on his forehead before bringing it down over his eyes. I was starting to think he did not trust me, but I don’t know how he got that idea. We made it this far. I was being good. Restrained, even.
Before I got the chance to explain with more detailed charades, the player on the other side acted. He had a sniper rifle judging by the whip-crack that shattered my ears. At first I wondered if it was the Rock Sniper from before, and he somehow managed to sneak both around and in front of us without either party knowing. Then I wondered why he still had the sniper rifle equipped at this close quarters of a battle. His shot was not at us, because he was still on the other side of the wall. I had no view or way of knowing whether he landed it, but whoever he aimed at did not return fire. The Wall Guy/Maybe Rock Sniper was prone judging by the sound he made as he retreated backwards along the cement wall. He was crawling across the floor.
There were several items to take away from the lone shot fired. First, this was confirmation that Wall Guy possessed no knowledge of our position. He would not have shot at someone else if he knew we were right behind him. He was also either solo or separated from his duo partner because he was both the only one who fired and the only one still moving around. Judging by the sound of his awkward crawling back into safety and the direction of his shot, he was facing toward the right. There were gaps in the wall on either side, so if we entered on the left he would never be able to turn around in time to defend himself. Finally, the barracks on the other side of both the wall and Wall Guy must have been empty. If a duo were hunkered down inside, they would have annihilated Wall Guy through the window. If they waited, they would have lost any advantage. Sure, we waited, but we had a wall between us and the knowledge we were the furthest duo on the fringes of the battlefield. The only unknown I could figure was why Wall Guy had chosen to remain outside the building if it were unoccupied. Maybe he just had no time when the shooting started.
I wanted to sit down and get Goemon’s detailed opinion on the whole thing. I wanted to see if maybe he had the same reads as me. To see if he thought the best course of action was to jump right over the break in the wall, blow away Wall Guy and take refuge in the empty barracks where we could await our next move. We did not exactly have that luxury.
The Wall Guy decided to try his luck again. He inched along the other side of the barrier like a snake through the grass. I was certain everybody else in the arena had eyes on his position, and they were just waiting for him to peek around the corner of the barracks. It also meant they all had eyes on our position, but hopefully they lacked the intel that we were behind the wall.
Wall Guy reached his sniper spot again and he fired. This time, his target fired back. It sounded like a couple of players did. Poor Wally tried to shuffle back into his cocoon, but he was too slow to make it back in time. The flurry of rifle fire cut him down and knocked the total of players remaining down to seven. He must have been a solo after all, or the Rifle Duo shooters got a clear headshot. Several bullets hit the concrete wall on the other side of my own head, but I remained steadfast. The wall would hold fine, no need to panic yet. Nobody knew we were there, and the last obstacle to the barracks was removed for us.
We did have to hope that Wally had no partner left in the game. For starters, if he still had a living partner it was one more person we had to deal with who might be on the other side of the wall. Worse than that, the Rifle Duo would still be trained on that same location that they took Wally down, which might put us in the line of fire when we made our move.
Unfortunately, the time to pla
y out all the potential scenarios had disappeared. In its place rolled in the Blue Wall of Death. I opened the map to check positioning. We were certainly out of the Safety Circle if we stayed on that side of the wall. The barracks might be inside the protected zone but it was tough to tell for sure. It was going to be close either way.
“Blue’s coming in,” I whispered to Goemon.
“Already?”
“Yeah. It’s the end.” We still had a few seconds before it would envelop us. I suspected Goemon would want to use the big blue hazard as a cover again. It worked for us last time but I still hated the idea of willingly taking damage.
“I think the barracks is clear,” I said.
“How do you know?”
“I didn’t hear anybody, did you?”
“No, but they could be hiding.”
“Yeah but don’t you think they would have killed the guy over the wall?”
“Not if they didn’t have to.”
“Well we gotta do something.”
“Let’s wait for the Blue.”
“Fine. We going over the wall?”
“Yeah, hopefully we can hide behind the building.”
Goemon was more optimistic than I was regarding the size of the Circle. We would find out soon enough. The Blue enveloped us once again, and the two thirds of my health began to dwindle further down in response.
“Let me go first,” I said. After all, I had the auto shotty. If anything was on the other side of that wall, I should be the one to handle it. Goemon was happy to oblige, and I vaulted over the gaping crack in the wall. The Blue would help with the noise of our movement, but I hit the ground hard and anybody nearby would have heard my feet slam into the dirt. I looked left along the wall while I cleared it and found no one there. To the right, just the corpse of Wall Guy. At first glance, nobody else could see us from that angle.
“Clear,” I called. Goemon was already bounding over the wall himself, AK in hand. Unfortunately, the zone between the cement barrier and the barracks was safe only from other players. The Circle was just beyond our position. The Blue continued to chip away at our health. An alternative option was to burn through the remaining first aid as long as we could, but it was not sustainable. Healing would leave us helpless out there, and we would have to get into the Circle eventually anyways.
“We gotta go in,” I said, pointing at the grey metal square of a building. Even if the building was empty it did not guarantee survival. From the map it looked like maybe half of the barracks was within the Safety Circle.
“Yeah, I know,” Goemon said.
“I’ll take the door, you take the window. Ok, go!” I said.
“Whoa whoa-”
It was too late. I was already at the door, which was fortunate enough to be on our side of the building. The window I failed to actually see, but I figured Goemon would make it work if I ended up needing the help. Mostly I thought that the building would be empty and it would not matter.
My footsteps were still obscured by the drone of the Blue Wall of Death. I kicked in the door and instinct took over. If the player residing inside had been smart they would have chosen behind the door as a good hiding place. People behind the door always got me. Instead, he picked a corner right in the view of my auto shotty which I fired from the hip. I unloaded every shot. The tiny one room building was as good as a lab test environment for the weapon. I had no choice but to hit my target. I took a hit or two as well, but even with my lowered health the damage output of the auto shotty was just too high for the other player to overcome. He might as well have brought a knife to the gun fight.
25
Oh Boy
Goemon used the open door instead of the window. And why would he do anything different, considering I cleared the place out already. He closed it behind him and joined me in my humble corner. The rest of the barracks was empty except for the Blue Wall of Death which had swallowed ninety-five percent of the space inside. I could feel it nip at my heels even though it had stopped advancing.
It was good to be out of the open and out of the Blue, even just barely, but I was in rough shape myself. I had lost more health in the exchange than I would have liked. My frag brought the total down to six to go in the round, but it felt more like five and a half the way I looked.
“I’m hurt real bad, Pa,” I said. We were pinned down in the corner of the barracks with no reasonable way out. I began to make peace with the prospect of finishing top six. It had been a long journey, we all grew mentally and emotionally and spiritually, maybe dying was not the worst outcome. Living, winning, was not everything. We tried.
“You’re OK,” Goemon said, healing his own minor environmental injuries. He would survive. For now.
“Maybe it’s not the win. Maybe it’s the friends we made along the way.”
“Shut up and heal.”
“OK.”
Goemon made a convincing argument. I grabbed a first aid kit off of the Barracks Guy and healed up. Maybe there was a way out of this thing after all. We didn’t walk sixteen miles through pure muck to end this thing now. So the Blue Wall of Death was inside our front door. So the other two duos left were already holed up with better positioning. Who cared if I only had enough Para ammo for one more clip. The point was there were only three duos left, and we were one of them.
The Safety Circle had shrunk down from football field to maybe the size of a basketball court. We were all practically on top of each other now. The other two duos had to know we were in the barracks. But as soon as the BWOD moved in again we would die by the hand of the game. We had no choice but to leave.
“Are we going out in the Blue?” I asked. I already knew the answer.
“We can’t go through the window. Won’t even make it out.”
“When do you want to move?” I said and switched back over to the Para. It was more versatile at different ranges than the auto shotty. More importantly, I needed to finish the round in style.
“As soon as the Blue moves, we move, low and slow,” Goemon said.
“Like brisket.”
“Sure.”
The plan sounded good on paper, much like the very paper that wrapped up said barbecued brisket. But I was not the only one cooking up ideas. The stillness of the air made it easy to hear a clink from the direction of one of the other buildings. I knew it was a grenade immediately, but I did not know the variety. Not like it mattered, we would not stick around to find out. Goemon dipped back into the Blue Wall and headed for the door. I bounded after him. There was no glass left on the window to break, so the grenade had no trouble arcing right through empty space and onto the cement floor.
The ground of the barracks erupted in flames. It caught my leg on the way out of the building, but the damage was not enough to knock me. We were fortunate it was a Molotov cocktail, an explosive grenade would have taken me out for sure.
I ran out into the Blue storm to the sound of heavy gunfire. It all materialized from a distance, with nothing coming from Goemon. He moved back behind the barracks. Deeper into the Blue. It was impossible to pin down the source of the assault while staying alive. Cover was the only option. We could hide in the Wall for a few seconds but we would need to move soon or die to the environment. The biggest issue, aside from the choking cloud and lack of health, was where the shots from Grenade Duo were coming from.
The third duo found the answer, and joined in the fray. A full on firefight broke out between the other four surviving players, all of whom instantly forgot about us. It was all about the pressing issue, and Third Duo ripped the belt away from us at the perfect time.
“One’s at 40 I think, the other at 90,” I called. The BWOD choked my health to below half. “Pick a spot and I’ll follow you, we got to go.”
Goemon had a knack for finding the best cover. I picked spots that were too obvious. Anything that looked good to me was a stay away. The guard tower seemed like a great vantage point, one we would immediately get shot in. The barracks looked good to
me too and that ended in the floor becoming molten lava and my socks getting burned off.
The other two duos were busy with each other, so the time to close the distance was now. The duo at 40, Third Duo, had taken refuge in a barracks nearly identical to the one that we just fled. I still did not have eyes on the Grenade Duo. Based on the angle they needed to land that Molotov grenade in our old hiding spot and not get destroyed by Third Duo I figured they had to be in the three-story radio tower.
Meanwhile, the Blue had moved in again. What had to be the final Safety Circle was set. There were two buildings inside of its boundary. Both of them were occupied, neither of them by us. It was a fitting start to the end of the match. Goemon and I were the sole team on the outside looking in.
We had no choice but to use it to our advantage. I crept through the Blue alongside Goemon. We slid over towards Third Duo. They were the closer of the two, so we could get behind them faster. The barracks was also smaller, which was a double edged sword. It would be easier to light them up but also easier to get shot down ourselves. If I had a grenade I would have tossed it in there and cleared it out, easy. I never had any grenades.
We paused a half step outside of the reach of the Blue. I caught sight of one half of Third Duo through a window. He was busy tracking somebody in Grenade Duo through the other window. The building had two: a convenient one for me to see into, even if the angle was funny, and one on the adjacent wall that Third Guy aimed through.
“I got the shot. He’s in the window. Go around,” I said.
Goemon nodded and took a swing pattern to the other side of the barracks, at least as much of a swing pattern as the constrained perimeter allowed. I could wait no longer. I scoped in with the Para and let fly. Something about that funny angle and the position of the scope or the zoom sent the first burst of bullets into the window ledge despite my crosshair being square on the guy’s helmet. I managed to correct, but the surprise was ruined. He took a couple of hits before ducking out of sight.
Project Battle Royale: A Gamelit Survival Book Page 15