Page 66 of Now Streaming

He fired, killing the dead knight with a head shot just as three more emerged behind him. Hayden quickly had his avatar sprint toward the door, slamming it shut behind him before heading further down the hall. Through his headset, he heard the faint sounds of gunfire.

“Don’t tell me you’re having a party without me.”

“You’re totally invited. In fact, I have a few friends I’d love you to get a bite with.”

Hayden laughed as he searched the next room. His ammo was low for his machine gun, and his Beretta was down to three bullets. His best bet was to locate Min and wait her out, letting her use whatever new item she had found to save herself from the zombies.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck—”

“Min, this is a family stream.”

“The game is rated MA, asshole.”

Hayden reached the end of the hall and slowed to peek around the corner. He wasn’t sure where Min was, but he could hear her emptying her ammo on those zombies. Her weakness was how she always wanted to fight, hated running away, and that had gotten her into more trouble than anything. But right now, it worked in Hayden’s favor because he could tell what room she was in. He readied the grenade launcher as he heard her unloading her gun into the zombies somewhere ahead of him. Slowly, making sure he kept to the walls in the hopes that any heat signature he gave off could be hidden by the zombies around her, he crept closer.

Finally, he approached one of the last doors in the hall. Min had gone silent over her microphone, but her gun was letting off round after round of ammo. She must be surrounded.

Hayden had his avatar reach for the door, slow, knowing he had to be ready to aim and shoot within nanoseconds of it opening. He took a deep breath.

“Always remember,” he said, stepping back. “There’s no shame in being second best.”

The words were barely out before his avatar kicked down the door. The door shattered on impact, and he found himself staring at a mass of zombies. His eyes darted all over the screen, his camera spinning—where was Min?And then he saw it. Her uzi was on the ground. She had found a way to rig it to fire without her.

She had set a fucking trap.

“I’m glad you feel that way, DeathsHead.”

He spun, noting that her avatar was now holding something and wearing a backpack, a weapon Hayden hadn’t seen in the game before. No time to think, Hayden pulled up the grenade launcher and fired… right as Min dropped to the ground. The round went high, flying down the hall and exploding far, far away from Min.

Hayden angled his camera down to look at Min’s avatar where it was crouched, the weird weapon aiming at him and he realized right before she pulled the trigger.

“Is that a fucking flamethrower??”

Within half a second Hayden was showered in flames, his entire avatar engulfed. As she sprayed him, he reeled back, his gun flying up as his arms came up to block the flame. He stumbled back, right into the arms of the zombies that were waiting for him. He was grabbed, bitten, pulled to the ground while on fire, his health meter quickly falling to yellow, then red, then to a flat line. His avatar screamed as the entire room caught fire, and Min’s laugh filtered through Hayden’s headset filled with delight and satisfaction.

“Gotta say, Death, you make a great torch.”

Hayden couldn’t even laugh, couldn’t do much but stare at the screen in shock. “Where the hell did you even find a flamethrower?”

“It’s always in the last place you look.”

CHAPTER22

MIN

The audience was screaming so loud Min’s ears were ringing. She stood from her bay, her hands shaking, her whole body shaking, as she looked up at the screens above her, not believing her eyes.

She had won.

Min looked at the audience, her eyes finding Randall and Brittany and all her friends screaming, cheering, jumping up and down. She waved at them, elation and victory running through her veins. The crowd kept cheering, and then for some reason got even louder. Min scanned the room, the screens, trying to figure it out, and then she saw him.

Hayden had come out onto the floor. His eyes swept the room until he found her, and then he was pushing through the crew to get to her. Her eyes widened as she realized what he was doing—he was in front of cameras, his face on the screens around them, everywhere.

And then she saw what he was wearing.

A FlameThrower shirt. Bright pink, with her logo and a hell of a lot of sparkles, the same shirt she had seen in Randall’s booth. Her mouth dropped. She was certain Hayden didn’t own a single piece of clothing with color on it, yet here he was, basically proclaiming himself a fan, the entire arena and internet watching him stride straight to her.

And then he was there, his hands going to her face, his forehead dropping to hers.

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