UFSW Survivor/Issue 2

This is the second issue of UFSW Survivor. This issue was written by Kaffe4200.

Issue 2
It had been a week since the meeting with “The Host”, as he called himself. After killing a young girl, he split the 12 remaining survivors up into two teams. In the eastern part of the town, the Red Team were living in a small warehouse, while Green Team were living in the western part of the town in an identical warehouse.

Food was scarce. In fact, there was no food at all to be found in the area around the Red Team’s warehouse. That was why Bobby and Ken had to set up traps to catch rats and raccoons. “Where’d you learn to do that?” Ken asked, kneeling next to Bobby who was setting up a snare with perfection. “Eh...” Bobby said concentrated. “My sister teached me.” During the past week, Bobby had developed a good relationship to most of the people on his team. The only person he didn’t like was Keith. Keith had been rude towards the other people in the group, and he barely contributed with anything. And Bobby wasn’t the only person on the team who disliked Keith. He knew Ken and Peter didn’t care much for him either. Ken and Peter were the two guys that Bobby spent most time with. They were around the same age as himself, and Bobby just felt like he would stand stronger, in this game, with a couple of guys opposed to a couple of girls. Not that he didn’t like Yuri and Gwen. They were nice too. Bobby finished the snare and then looked at Ken. “Want to head back?” Ken nodded, looking impressed at the trap.

It was early in the morning when Liza woke up, the first from her team. She didn’t want to wake the others, so she quietly walked past them. They were all sleeping on jackets or blankets, on the floor of the warehouse. A small bonfire was burning in the middle. Liza moved towards the entrance, still sleepy. She opened the rusty door and closed it again behind her. A small fenced-in yard with a broken gate were what she met. She sat down in the corner of the yard and started to pee. She looked around to get her mind off the zombies moaning on the other site of the fence. She wasn’t scared of them, but she didn’t like them. Well, obviusly. They were dead people walking around. That’s when she saw a note fastened to the door. After finishing, she got up and grabbed the note, quickly reading it for herself before running inside to read it for the others.

In Green Team’s warehouse, they had gotten a note as well. Bobby and Ken spotted it as they returned from setting up traps. They only got two rats and a mouse though. “Meet me at the football stadium at 3 pm.” was all the note said. Keith chuckled as he sat down on a lawn chair by the fire. He was sitting with the note, reading it over and over. “What do you think is gonna happen?” Peter asked the others, also sitting down on one of the lawn chairs. “I don’t know,” Keith said with a dry chuckle. “but it’s bullshit, that’s for sure.” “No matter what, you better participate.” Gwen said, giving Keith a sharp look. Keith kept chuckling for himself while he shaked his head. “Whatever.” He just said and threw the note into the fire.

When Green Team arrived at the stadium, the Red Team were already there. The Host were nowhere to be seen. “So what’s happening here?” Jay asked, looking at some of the people on Red Team. Yuri shrugged, just as a voice could be heard over the speakers. “Welcome to the first game.” The voice of The Host said. “Here we go.” Keith muttered annoyed. Jay looked around. On each end of the football field, a table was located. On the sides of the field, groups of zombies were chained to the railing. He wondered what was going to happen here. Patient, he waited for The Host to continue speaking. He was ready for whatever would come. “Red Team, please choose a table.” The Host said through the speakers. Everyone on the Red Team walked towards the closest table, Keith shaking his head and muttering unhearable words. Green Team went to the other table. “Can you see the groups of zombies? Somewhere behind the zombies, pieces of a puzzle is located. Find them and make the puzzle. First team finishing wins.” The Host explained. “What happens if we lose?” Joel asked loudly to make sure The Host could hear him. There was a moment of silence. Then The Host said: “The losing team has to choose one from their team to die.”

Everyone was quiet as The Host said “Prepare to compete.” through the speakers. Joel quietly instructed the other people on his team to where they should go to get the puzzle finished as quickly as possible. Everyone agreed and had accepted the leader-position Joel had taken on him over the past week.

On Red Team, however, Gwen and Keith was arguing. Keith tried to convince her that he should stay at the table and work on the puzzle. “You can’t be serious.” Gwen said somewhat loud. “You think you’re in charge here?” Keith said with a grin. He looked at Peter. “Do you think she’s in charge here?” Peter hesitated to answer, seeing how angry both Keith and Gwen was. “I don’t think we have a leader, not directly. Maybe we have a...” Peter said, but was cut off by The Host. “Get ready!” “I’ll stay here.” Keith mouthed to Gwen, who just looked away in anger. “Go!”

As soon as the ‘go’ sounded, Lienne ran off to the nearest cluster of zombies. She knew someone was behind her, but she didn’t bother looking. Without a weapon, she just pushed a few of the zombies away, but just as she did that, she felt a zombie’s mouth closing in on her shoulder. Lienne gasped and kicked the zombie on the knee, causing it to fall over. She checked her shoulder to see how bad it was, only to find out she wasn’t bit. Wondering, she quickly looked at the zombies and realized none of them had any teeth. Relieved, she grabbed the green puzzle piece and ran back to the table with it.

“Come on, come on, come on!” Keith yelled at Ken, who was running towards the table with a piece. Keith was just standing by the table. “Couldn’t you help out?” Ken panted, dropping the red, wooden piece on the table. Keith sighed and grabbed the L-shaped piece. It reminded him of the piece from Tetris. “I’m helping out here.” Keith barked. “Go get another piece.” Ken shaked his head as he ran back to get another piece.

Green Team quickly got half the pieces. Jay and Liza were standing by the table, trying to make the puzzle. “When you are done,” The Host said over the speakers. “it has to be a square.” Jay wasn’t great with puzzles, but Liza seemed to be. She quickly figured out how to lay the pieces. Jay just stood there, looking confused. “Hey!” Lienne yelled. Jay looked and saw Lienne with another piece. She threw it and Jay catched it. “How are we doing?” Liza asked, moving the pieces around. Jay looked over to Red Team, who only had 4 out of the ten pieces. “I think we’re doing pretty damn good.” Jay said with a grin.

Gwen had now joined Keith by the table. She hated Keith, but she also knew that Keith was useless. “No, no, no!” Keith said loudly. “You can’t put that there. A square! Do you know what a square looks like?” “Fuck you.” Gwen muttered as she moved the pieces around. Peter and Yuri both dropped pieces, leaving only three pieces left. Gwen took a quick glimpse over to Green Team, seeing all six contestants standing around the table. That could only mean they had all their pieces. “What, I didn’t hear you?” Keith said. Gwen ignored Keith and just continued to assemble the puzzle.

The pieces of the puzzle were shaped just like the ones in Tetris. Liza had spent a lot of time playing Tetris before the outbreak, so she was leading the assembling. Joel and Jay both felt useless and were just standing by the side of the table, watching. “You’re doing a great job, Liza.” Joel cheered in a calm tone.

Bobby was crawling by a cluster of zombies to get the last piece to their puzzle. He kept hearing Keith yelling things like “if you don’t hurry up, it’ll be your fault we lose” and “what are you even good for, kid?” Bobby just bit his lip, ignoring Keith. He could see the piece, but a zombie was standing on it. He tried to move the zombie’s leg, but instead the zombie just fell over him. “For fucks sake!” Keith yelled. “Get that fucking piece!” Bobby tried to push the zombie away, but it was too strong. He wasn’t worried of getting bit, but it still wasn’t nice to have a zombie on top of you. After a few seconds like that, the zombie got kicked away. Bobby looked, seeing Ken. Bobby nodded as thanks, grabbed the piece and ran towards the table.

Green Team were almost done, there were only a minor problem in one end of the puzzle. Liza was beginning to struggle. She knew she might have to change the puzzle entirely, using valuable time. In her hand was an L-shaped piece, and they needed a square one. “Can’t we just...” Hope said, and moved a piece just a few centimeters, giving room for the L-shaped piece. As Hope did that, Liza felt stupid for not realizing how simple it was. She placed the last piece, giving them a green square.

“Congratulations Green Team.” The Host said over the speakers. Keith knew what this meant; they had lost. He hated losing more than anything. “Red Team. You are going to council tomorrow night. Meet me by the lake.” Was the words over the speaker. “Head home, folks, get some rest. Again, congratulations, Green Team.”