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He hurried down the hall, the sound of his boots hitting the metal floor echoing down the hall and in his ears. For a while, that’s all he could hear, even drowning out the sound of his heart pounding away in his chest. He didn’t know how he was going to get away with this. He doubted he would. He’d be found out before long and everything would be over.
He can’t explain what happened, one moment things were fine, the next there was a body on the ground and when he looked up,he locked eyes with Andrew. It was for a split second, but it felt like years. Neither of them moved, staring each other down the hallway. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t explain. He was so screwed.
He took a half step forward, to take care of this, one way or another.
EMERGENCY MEETING
There was silence for a moment, as everyone loaded into the discussion part of the game, and Neil, shoulders tense, glanced upwards, surveying the room. Kevin was slumped back in his beanbag, scowl on his face, staring at his phone as Nicky laughed victoriously, looking up to the other upperclassmen. Neil slowly pulled out his earbud to hear.
“Why’d you call the meeting?” Matt asked and Neil kept quiet, eyes sliding over to Andrew briefly, to see what he’d do. Andrew hadn’t moved, instead, looking at his phone, typing out what looked to be accusations in the chat. He hadn’t said a word yet.
“You were following me around that entire round! I didn’t see you do any tasks!” Nicky accused, throwing a sharp look towards Matt whose jaw dropped at that. “We were buddies, man! You wouldn’t follow me to medbay what was I supposed to do?” Nicky shook his head at Matt’s explanation and went off, talking about how sus Matt was for following him around. Dan had piped in, coming to Matt’s defense as Nicky tried to further his case. Time was ticking by. It was as if they didn’t even notice what Neil had gotten away with.
“Kevin’s dead.” Renee spoke up, silencing the argument if just for a moment. Nicky looked over to Matt, the smile on his face dropping just a little as he scrutinized him. “You know what?”He said, confidently “Matt’s soft cleared, for now.” As if that was enough to fully convince the rest of them. Neil tapped the message board to read Andrew’s spam of messages, heart pounding in his chest as he read them.
AM: this game is ******* stupid
AM: you all sound like idiots
There was more, but none of them made mention to Neil killing Kevin in the hallway. Andrew hadn’t said anything. Some of the tension slipped from his shoulders, for now. He still had five more of the foxes to kill to win.
Time was running out now for the discussion, twenty seconds and counting, it seemed like nobody else was that worried about it. “Nei-“ Aaron’s accusation was cut off with Dan butting in with a “Are we voting or skipping?”
Andrew’s tab popped up with the ‘I voted’ sticker and everyone else soon followed with a quiet, quick murmur of “skip, skip.”
Time ran out and six greyed out characters sat next to the skip button. One sat up next to Neil’s name.
“Oh”
The room fell back into silence as Neil slid his earbud back in.
He needed to be careful about this, he needed to find someone alone or pin someone with his crimes.
He turned to the right, heading over towards oxygen to pretend to mess with some leaves, even going as far as to pretend to drag his fingers over the screen, just in case there were any prying eyes. He flipped the lights off and the map was plunged into darkness. He hurried down the hall, to shields, where he caught Nicky alone, headed most likely towards lights, before venting back up to navigation. He popped out of the vents as soon as the lights came back on.
Andrew was right there. Waiting at the vent. As if he knew where Neil was going to go.
BODY REPORTED
They loaded in again and Nicky gasped and moaned, saying “I can’t believe it was you!” And leaning back dramatically against the couch, arm flung over his eyes.
It took everything in Neil’s being not to crack a smile at that. He could see why everybody liked this game. It was entertaining.
“I know it looks suspicious, but I had just left Nicky alone to go fix the lights. “ Matt blurted and Dan gave him a look, as if trying to find any sign on his face that he was lying.
“Andrew and Neil are being quiet.” Aaron said quickly, and all the eyes turned to the two of them. “So are you,” Neil shot right back, frown on his face. “What tasks were you doing this round?” Aaron hesitated, for just a moment, trying to remember what he’d done. “Wires” He said confidently and Allison snorted. “Bullshit, you stood there for like, a second before leaving. There’s no way you did it that quickly.”
“Where’s the body? I fixed lights with Renee.” Dan asked and Matt gave a sigh and answered. Shields. “There’s wiring near shields.” Allison mused, looking over to Aaron, smile on her face. Aaron scowled at her. “I didn’t do it.”
“Well you didn’t provide enough evidence that you didn’t. All you did was point fingers.” She shrugged, leaning back.
“Aaron as a point,”Renee said softly and Andrew sighed then, catching the attention of all players.
Shit.
Game over.
“Neil was with me the whole time, I saw him do asteroids. He’s hard cleared. “
Silence.
Time was running out and everyone murmured amongst themselves.
“I’m voting Aaron.” Allison said finally, her sticker popping up.
Ten seconds.
Quickly, everybody’s stickers popped up and Neil hurried to vote on Aaron.
The round ended with Aaron’s body flying through space.
Aaron was not the Imposter
Tension fell amongst the foxes as the new round started. Things were getting difficult now. He noticed how Dan and Renee were sticking close together. Allison and Matt were relatively close together too.
He didn’t know how he managed to get two of them in one round.
He’d shut off the power again, plunging the rest of the foxes in darkness and vented through to electrical, finding Matt there first trying to fix it, he’d killed him then ran back to the vent, going back to security. It was still dark. Who was going to fix it? He slowly crept back to electric, finding Andrew there in front of the body. Why didn’t he report yet?
Andrew turned around and walked away, back towards reactor. Dan and Renee had gotten separated that round too, by some stroke of luck for Neil. Dan came in first and Neil pounced, striking her down before retreating back to the vent.
The bodies were called shortly after he’d gotten in safely.
Fingers were pointed towards Andrew, then Neil, then to Allison.
It went round and round, Andrew and Allison accusing one another, voicing their accusations and theories while Neil and Renee listened on. Sometimes they each put in something to rile the other parties up.
It surprised Neil that Andrew was actually participating, defending him. As if he hadn’t seen him kill his friends and family right in front of him.
Andrew didn’t care about the game.
He seemed to find some sort of entertainment though, bending the rules.
Time ran out and Allison, among the other dead foxes groaned. They didn’t vote, Neil was free to continue his killing spree.
He didn’t waste any time, setting off the reactors as soon as he could, watching Renee and Allison sprint towards it as fast as their character’s stubby legs could go. Andrew went clear off to the right, doing his own thing.
Maybe he could make this work.
Time was running out on the reactor and Neil was close on Allison’s feet, he followed her up to the top button, and eliminated her swiftly. He took just a second before reporting the body.
“Andrew. “ He spoke for the first time in a while, bringing his eyes up to meet the blonde’s. “Renee killed Allison in front of me. “
Andrew was quiet for a moment as Renee laughed and shook her head, calmly explaining what had happened. “I saw it, Andrew. “
He voted on Renee.
While Andrew’s face generally looked bored, he actually looked torn, between Neil and Renee. Though from an outsiders point of view, Andrew looked as in enthused and bored as ever.
Andrew voted.
Renee voted.
The screen went black for just a moment before turning red.
IMPOSTERS WIN
“Andrew!” Nicky yelled, eyes wide, his hands in the air, his phone all but forgotten for the moment. The rest of the foxes groaned as Andrew shrugged, turning his off. Done for the night.
“You’re a cheater.” Nicky continued and Andrew rolled his eyes. “I made it interesting. “ And Neil grinned then.
Game over.