Attack from Tilted Towers

by Devin Hunter

  “Any of you have C4 by chance?” Grey asked over the comms.

  “I wish,” Hazel said.

  “No ’splodes here,” Finn said. He was still holed up in the gray house. They would be coming for him any moment now. “No more time to think. I gotta fight. Back me up.”

  The crack of a shotgun started the fight, and Grey imagined Finn had raced right in. But so far there was no notification that he had been knocked down. Grey peeked out from behind a door in the broken building. Finn had his tommy gun out, and Lam’s squad was using walls to protect from the spray.

  Hazel took a deep breath. “C’mon, Grey. Let’s make sure the others can get a good rank at least.”

  She had a point. While Grey wanted to survive, he was already in the top five. Barely. He needed his friends to keep ranking up—that meant hurting these top three players’ standings. “Okay, let’s go!”

  Hazel led the charge, and Grey followed behind. They focused on the wall that Finn stood in front of, and this time it came down long enough for Finn to get another shot with his shotgun.

  Finn knocked down Trevor.

  “Nice!” Grey cried. But before he could react, Lam and Pilar focused their fire on Finn. His health bar went red immediately.

  Lam knocked down Finn.

  “Thirst Trevor!” Finn yelled. “Don’t worry about me!”

  Grey switched to his shotgun and aimed at Trevor, hoping for once that the nerf to shotguns wouldn’t make his damage too low. He fired and was relieved when Trevor turned into items. Grey spotted the glowing blue big shield potion, which he needed desperately if they survived this fight.

  You eliminated Trevor.

  One of the top three was now eliminated at rank sixty-one, but there were two more who had their aim on Finn. While Grey knew it was okay if Finn went out early, he still didn’t like to watch it happen.

  Lam eliminated Finn by head shot.

  Now it was just Grey and Hazel versus Lam and Pilar. Normally Grey would have been defensive, but he didn’t want to waste mats. Plus, he was angry. “Push them, Hazel!”

  “Flanking!” Hazel called as Grey heard the sound of a bounce pad being used. Hazel flew above him, raining down shots on Lam and Pilar. “Hit both! No shields!”

  “You guys got this!” Finn cheered as he watched from spectator mode.

  Grey ran for Lam and Pilar head-on. They took aim, but he built a ramp not only to protect himself but to climb above them. Lam and Pilar were already boxing themselves in, and as Grey tried to break their roof, he heard the sound of a trap being laid. He backed off, not wanting to fall inside. He didn’t have enough health to survive the dangerous trap spikes.

  “Careful!” Finn said. “You guys are low, too. One explosive and—”

  The suction sound of a clinger made Grey panic, but he didn’t see one by him.

  Hazel groaned. “It’s on me. Backing away to hide.”

  The explosion went off and Hazel fell to her knees.

  Pilar knocked down Hazel.

  As Hazel crawled for cover, Grey turned back to the trap box where Lam and Pilar still stood their ground. Even this early in the game and with hardly any materials, they still loved to box in. It made Grey angry.

  “Shoot at the trap wall,” Finn called. “You got this, Grey. Don’t give them time to heal!”

  Grey equipped his SMG and unloaded the magazine on the box. He broke down one wall, which was when he noticed the ceiling was still open from when they first tried to trap him. Before Lam could replace the wall or the ceiling, Grey threw his own wooden wall up instead. He opened a window and aimed his building tool at the ceiling.

  Lam and Pilar fired at him, and his health went down to ten. But he stood his ground so he could throw a trap on the ceiling. Once it was down, he frantically shut the window right before a fatal shot came his way.

  Shwing.

  The trap spikes came down, and the resulting notifications filled Grey with relief.

  You eliminated Lam.

  You eliminated Pilar.

  “That was sick!” Finn said with a laugh. “If we were in the real world, a video of that play would go viral!”

  “Can we not forget I’m almost dead over here?” Hazel said.

  “Coming!” Grey ran to Hazel before he even looked at the loot from that epic fight. Hazel only had a few ticks of downed health left when Grey began reviving her.

  Hazel let out a sigh of relief when she stood up. “Talk about cutting it close.”

  “It was my bad,” Grey said as he and Hazel went back to pick over the loot. There were bandages and shields to help them heal up, plus a lot of weapons that were better than what they had. “Pleasant Park is a cruddy landing. We probably would have had better luck fighting them right at Junk Junction.”

  “They got lucky with their loot,” Finn pointed out. “Freaking rocket launcher.”

  “But it’s ours now!” Hazel picked up the rocket launcher.

  “I’m taking the tommy gun,” Grey said. Spamming wasn’t the most elegant way to win, but he didn’t care at this point. In a duo, they needed all the rapid fire they could get.

  “Storm’s coming,” Finn said. “Better get moving.”

  And so Grey and Hazel did get moving. The rest of the game was fairly quiet, since they had already taken out two higher-ranked teams. Grey didn’t want to make any more risky moves, and they waited it out until it was just them versus Ben, Tristan, and Kiri.

  Grey and Hazel gave their friends the win, and when they all appeared in the battle warehouse again, Grey’s eyes went right to the rankings board.

  Grey was still in fifth and Hazel was in sixth.

  But now Trevor had fallen to fourth place and Kiri was sitting in third.

  “Ugh!” Trevor glared at Kiri. “Why can’t you go home next season? This is the closest I’ve ever gotten!”

  Kiri tipped her chin up. “Then you can go home next season.”

  “I don’t have Tae Min easy mode to rely on like you do,” Trevor spat back. “You guys all talk about playing fair, but how is this fair? He just picked you because he feels sorry for you—you’re not actually any good. You don’t deserve to go home!”

  That struck a nerve with Kiri, and she began to tear up. Grey knew she never felt like she was very good at the game, even if she was now.

  “She does deserve it!” Grey said.

  “Stop being a sore loser,” Hazel said.

  Trevor rolled his eyes. “Traitors have no right to say that. You were crying about losing your spot just yesterday!”

  Tae Min had fallen down in rank enough that it took him a moment to step into the argument. But once he did, everyone went quiet. “That’s enough. For the record, I pick people with the most talent and the purest hearts. All of them have worked hard long before I came into the picture.”

  Lam was the one who stepped in now. “But you still came to the rescue, and that’s not fair at this point. Why can’t you just go home and stop acting like this game is your own personal kingdom?”

  Tae Min raised an eyebrow. “I thought you wanted that top rank I gave up, but I can take it again if you’d like.”

  “You already are!” Lam threw her hands up. “You’re just putting someone else in it. You think you’re some good guy, but you’re not.”

  “I never said I was the good guy,” Tae Min said.

  Lam looked like she wanted to fight for real, but she held herself back. “Someday, Tae Min, you will want to go home. And if I’m still here I will do everything I can to make sure you don’t, just so you know how it feels. My squad has fought for this for so long! We’ve stuck together. We care about each other. You’ve kept us down this whole time just to help others get out.”

  “If you don’t like it, report me,” Tae Min said. “Again.”

  Grey’s eyes went wide as this fight went deeper and deeper. He often forgot that others in the game had longer histories together. Hearing Lam speak . . . Grey felt bad that Lam hadn’
t been able to go home yet.

  “So the Admin can tell us all that your help is just ‘teamwork’ within a squad?” Lam shook her head. “No, thanks. Come on, guys. He’s never gonna listen.”

  Lam’s squad stomped away, leaving Grey’s crew gathered in their wake. Tae Min smiled at Grey, but it didn’t seem like a happy sort of smile. More like he was trying to hide his real feelings. “You guys pulled it off.”

  “Barely,” Grey admitted.

  “Whatever you did, it put Lam on tilt. That’s hard to do.” Tae Min looked over to where Lam was exiting. “Was your fight close?”

  Grey nodded. “It could have easily gone the other way.”

  Tae Min’s brow pinched with concern. “I see.”

  “Tae Min . . .” Grey was nervous to ask with so many people around, but he had to. “Is what we’re doing really okay? Lam sorta had a point . . .”

  “She’s trying to get in your head. Don’t let her. The end of the season is always like this,” Tae Min said. “There is plenty of blame and anger to go around with so much on the line, but I don’t control any of you. You are all using your own abilities to reach these ranks—don’t let anyone tell you differently.”

  “Okay,” Grey said, though he still felt bad. But he had a feeling that whoever was in the top ranks would be mad about losing them.

  “Now, no more of this. Back to the real battle,” Tae Min said. “Maybe we should reconsider our strategy again? We can’t afford close calls.”

  Finn nodded. “I think we need you there. Just to be sure.”

  “Let’s try it then. No reason to risk it all at this point,” Tae Min said. “Another few wins and we should have Trevor out of top five by the end of the day, then Pilar, then Lam.”

  Hazel looked concerned. “It’ll really take until the last day to knock Lam out of the top five?”

  Tae Min nodded. “She’s got a high average. We’ll have to keep tanking their ranks for all of you to have a chance. The earlier we can find them, the better.”

  “Okay then,” Hazel said. “I’d feel better if we outnumbered them. Even if we all lose out on Tilted Towers loot.”

  “I agree,” Tae Min said.

  The rest of the day went better with Tae Min on the hunting crew. In the second game, Grey’s squad was able to take out Lam’s squad right at landing. They were placed in the nineties that game. The third game, Grey’s squad got Lam’s out in the eighties. And in the last two games, Lam’s squad only made it to the seventies.

  After the last battle, Grey looked at the rankings on the wall. Hazel had jumped back into the fifth rank behind Grey. Kiri had taken second, with Pilar at third now. Ben and Tristan were right behind Trevor. So close, and yet it still felt like it was so far away for all of Grey’s friends to make top five.

  This time it was Pilar breaking down in tears as they all stood there through the Admin’s speech. She ran out right after, her squad mates right behind.

  Grey cringed. “I really hate making people cry.”

  “I know, Pipsqueak,” Hazel said as she patted him on the head. She pointed to her big smile. “But I’m smiling! That balances it out, right?”

  “Yeah . . .” Grey looked over at Ben and Tristan, who still didn’t look too happy. “I’d feel a lot better if we could all smile, though.”

  “We’ll get there. I hope.” Ben tried to grin, but it didn’t quite work. He was ranked right behind Tristan. If anyone was going to lose out, it would be Ben falling into the sixth spot at this rate.

  After all Grey and Ben had been through this season, Grey couldn’t let that happen.

  CHAPTER 9

  The adrenaline coursing through Grey was unbearable as he stood in the ranked line and waited for the Admin to appear. He couldn’t believe it was the last day of the season. For so long it had felt like it would never come, and now that it was here, he wasn’t ready for it.

  But, as Grey feared, Ben was still in the sixth ranked spot. Grey and his friends had managed to knock Lam from the top into fourth place, but they only had five more games to get Ben in and Lam out.

  It didn’t feel like enough.

  Grey would never forgive himself if Ben was marooned here when everyone else got to go home. Maybe Finn and Tae Min could help Ben get top five next season, but Grey didn’t even want to think of that. Ben had been waiting nearly a year to go home. He was the one who helped Grey when no one else would. Ben was a good kid, and he deserved to finally escape this place.

  “Welcome to Day Sixty of Battles!” the Admin said when she appeared. “This is the final day of the season. After the fifth and final battle, all rankings will be final. The top five players will be released from this virtual reality experience and returned to the physical world. For those staying, the patch for the next season will be put in place during your mandatory rest period, and we will welcome five new players tomorrow morning. Good luck in today’s battles!”

  Grey’s vision went dark and then he appeared in the battle bus with the rest of the players. He tried to calm himself, but it didn’t work.

  There were only five more games left.

  He and his friends had to get Lam’s squad out as early as possible every battle, and even that might not be enough for Lam to fall two whole ranks. Grey was still in a squad with Tae Min, Finn, and Hazel. Tae Min had taken over the hunt for Lam’s squad, and it had worked out pretty well.

  “My bet is Lonely Lodge,” Tae Min said, probably looking at the bus path on the map. “What do you think, Hazel?”

  “It’s a good bet,” she replied. “There’s that mansion over there on that side, too, out in the middle of nowhere. Lam likes that spot a lot.”

  “Then it’s settled. Jump right when the doors open,” Tae Min said.

  The timer counted down the seconds, and the moment the back door opened, Grey leaped out into the sky. The first time he had to jump it scared him, but now it felt normal to fall through the air and soar on a glider.

  They all aimed for Lonely Lodge, a remote area on the east side of the island. There was a big cabin there and a few other buildings amid the trees. A river ran through the area. It was like a nice camping ground, but there wasn’t much loot, so people didn’t usually land there.

  But Grey saw three players gliding in the same direction. It was probably Lam’s squad because they began to change direction to the mansion Hazel had mentioned.

  “Looks like we found them again,” Finn said as they all deployed their gliders. “Good way to start the day.”

  “Yeah,” Hazel said. “Let’s hope Kiri, Ben, and Tristan get just as lucky.”

  “I’ll take the lookout tower,” Tae Min said. “They won’t push us; we’ll have to go to them. Gear up.”

  “I’ll go for the big cabin,” Grey said. “Hazel, you come, too.”

  “Alrighty, Pipsqueak.”

  They glided to the roof of the cabin and began to break it down. Finn landed on a smaller building nearby. Tae Min flew onto the top of the giant wooden lookout tower right before Grey and Hazel got into the building.

  Grey worked as fast as he could to loot and gather materials. They didn’t have time to waste when they were on the edge of the island—and they’d have to go right to the cliff where the mansion was if they wanted to find Lam’s squad. If the storm circle was in the west, they’d spend the whole battle running for safety. They had to find healing items otherwise they could be eliminated by the storm.

  “Hurry, ten people are already down,” Tae Min said.

  “Just finished here,” Hazel said as she and Grey grabbed the last of the meager loot. He was happy to have the tommy gun, but his shotgun was trash and the dual pistols weren’t ideal. Hazel took the scar, the grenade launcher, and an LMG. They were lucky enough to at least find healing and shields.

  “Time to find them,” Finn said.

  After a couple days of playing this hunting game, Grey’s current squad had gotten quite good at it. They hardly had to speak about what was next b
ecause it was the same every time. While Lam had been a challenge to Grey, she wasn’t one to Tae Min.

  They found Lam’s squad, took them out, and it all went smoothly from there for that battle. Ben, Tristan, and Kiri took the victory as planned.

  When Grey appeared back in the battle warehouse, he saw that Lam had now fallen to the fifth rank. Tristan had jumped ahead to fourth. Ben was still in sixth.

  “Ugh! I hate you all!” Lam stomped away without any argument this time. By now, there wasn’t time for fighting outside of the battles.

  Grey and his friends gathered together, and he looked at Tae Min. “What are we practicing now?”

  Tae Min shook his head. “No more practice.”

  “What?” Ben looked concerned. “Why not? I’m still sixth!”

  “You all have this down now,” Tae Min said. “There’s nothing more to teach. Today is about not letting the pressure get to us.”

  “And hoping Ben makes it,” Tristan said.

  “About that . . .” Tae Min folded his arms as he thought. “I think it’s time to move Grey to your squad. Just to be sure. We’ve got Lam’s number. Her squad members are starting to give up now that they’ve been knocked out of the top five.”

  That twist of guilt was still hard for Grey to move past. “Don’t you think Hazel might be better? She’s right behind me in rank and she’d be alone once you guys go out.”

  “I can handle myself,” Hazel said. “They need me on the Lam hunting squad.”

  “We do,” Tae Min said. “But also, your ranks are likely close to each other. Hazel held a higher rank than you for a lot of the season, so her taking the fifth spot in battle should be fine.”

  Grey nodded. “Okay, if you think it’s good, then let’s do it. Getting Ben in the top five is what matters right now.”

  “Thanks, guys, for trying so hard,” Ben said as he looked down at his shoes. “Please don’t feel bad if it doesn’t work out, though. I know you gave it your best.”

  “You’re coming with us, I promise,” Grey said. He had to believe it himself if he wanted to stay focused. “Just one more spot.”