Chapter 4

No_Idea found himself standing back on the roof of the building.

He only had a second to register that he had died and restarted back on the rooftop before N3V3RDIE appeared and pushed him to the ground.

“You idiot!” she shouted at him. “Why would you shine a light on them?”

“It was dark, and there was a flashlight,” he said, getting to his feet. “I didn’t mean to. I just thought—”

“You just thought what?” She cut him off. “You just thought you’d get us killed? Now we’ve lost stamina for nothing. Thanks a lot.” She stormed off toward the corner where he’d found the crowbar.

No_Idea looked at the stamina bars floating in his field of vision. She was right. They had lost about 6% of their stamina going down the stairs before they’d died, and they’d have to do it again.

N3V3RDIE grabbed the crowbar and started walking back toward the door. As she passed him, she said, “From now on, don’t do anything without me telling you to do it first.”

No_Idea turned to follow her. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to—”

“I don’t want to hear it. Look, n00b, one of us is going to finish this game, and guess what—I’ve never played a game I couldn’t beat, so it isn’t going to be you.”

“Only one of us is going to win?” he asked. Did the Game Runner say that?

“Yeah,” she said. “And I’m going to do everything possible to make sure it’s me.” She popped the door open and headed down the stairs.

No_Idea tried to follow, but N3V3RDIE was moving quickly, as if she intended to leave him behind. He caught up to her at the open door. She had already gotten the flashlight. He looked at their stamina bars—they’d each lost 12%.

“Here,” she whispered, pushing the crowbar into his hands. “I’ll be in charge of the flashlight.”

“What are we going to do?”

She shrugged. “We could bash them with the crowbar.”

“We’d have to be really close. We could get bitten.”

“Right,” she said, sounding annoyed, as if she’d already considered that. “We’re going to go around them.”

“What if they hear us?” No_Idea asked.

“They’re not going to hear me,” she replied and darted into the office, leaving him behind.