Page 22 of Now Streaming

“And FlameThrower, good luck in the tournament.”

Her cotton candy mouth smirked and she threw Hayden a wink.

“Thanks, but I won’t need it.”

The panel ended as Hayden threw her a dark smile. Game on.

CHAPTER8

MIN

“Flame, I have to admit. I have a fantasy of killing you.”

“That’s weird, Kevin, because I have zero fantasies about you whatsoever.”

Min smiled at the trash talk. She was deeply embedded in the first round of the Bleeding Sword tournament. She had been randomly assigned in to a group of ten other players, and they had been dropped into a random map for a free-for-all fight. Last player standing in each group would move forward to the second round of the tournament the following day.

There was no way in hell Min was going to be taken out in the first round.

Min had already killed three of the other players herself, the last player’s corpse still at her feet. A quick glance at the vitals board told her there were just two others left. She knew KevinKillsU, had played with him many times before, and therefore wasn’t surprised by his threat. Similar sentiments were often thrown her way during games like this. It was part of the fun.

FlameThrower’s avatar rounded the corner, her sensors out and casting, checking for other players and any NPC zombies that could be nearby. Min knew Kevin was somewhere close, and she wanted to be ready for him. She quickly reloaded her rifle and scanned her surroundings. He was here somewhere, probably lying in wait to snipe her, just like she was doing. Which meant she had two options: wait for the ever-spawning NPC zombies to flush him out of his spot or get creative.

Min loved to get creative.

She turned to the body of BaxterBro, the player she had just taken out, and grabbed it, her avatar throwing it over her shoulders. A voice crackled through her headset.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Heard you had a thing for dead bodies,”she said over her headset.

“Yeah, but it’s not exactly appropriate for a streaming audience, you know?”

She smiled. The players in each group were allowed to chat with each other since part of the game was psyching out your opponents. Plus, the streaming audience loved it. She knew KevinKillsU was gonna be pissed at what she was about to do, but she also knew he’d be impressed, so fuck it. She was winning this tournament.

She walked the body over to the nearby window, scanning. There were a lot of places Kevin could be hiding, but her infrared goggles she had found gave her an edge, so she was able to cross out a lot of those possibilities before settling on the dumpster directly below. The metal would block his heat signature, but with the right equipment, he could still be watching her from there. It’s where she would choose in his position. So she took aim… and threw BaxterBro’s body out the window.

It landed with a faint smash right on top of the dumpster, like she had planned, and she immediately took out her rifle, aiming it at the dumpster. Soon, zombies were flooding the area, drawn by the sound of the body hitting the dumpster, and Min knew it wouldn’t take long for the NPCs to knock it over. At this rate, Kevin would be lucky if she kills him before the zombies.

“You crazy son of a—”

“Temper, Kevin,”she told him.“It’s just a game, right?”

His indignant huff was his only answer, making her smile. Min waited, hearing the telltale sound of some of the zombies making their way up the stairs to her. She wasn’t surprised, but it meant that now she was in a weird race with Kevin below, seeing who would be killed by the zombies first. She could only hope that she had given herself enough distance, but she wasn’t going anywhere. There were no other exits in the room other than the window and the door. She was trapped in a game of chicken. And she refused to lose.

Zombies were everywhere, swarming, but she held still. Gun trained on the dumpster below her. Waiting.

“Come out, come out wherever you are.”

“You first, Flame.”

She huffed a laugh at Kevin’s sass. He was stubborn, probably shitting his pants trying to figure a way out of this instead of accepting his fate. But the AI zombies were already rocking the dumpster. If only they would hurry because she figured she didn’t have a lot of time.

Almost on cue, the sounds of dragging footsteps and moans were sounding closer and closer to her, the zombies making their way up the stairs toward her. Her time was running out.

Finally, the zombies below managed to tip the dumpster over. Kevin’s avatar was already running and dodging the undead attack, scrambling for cover. With an exhale, FlameThrower fired.

Perfect head shot. Kevin went down.

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