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Chance's icon on the tracker turned grey. Which usually wouldn't really be anything to worry about, if it weren't for the fact that there were only two survivors alive.
Noob pulled the grey cheeseburger out of their hoodie and began to chew the disgusting cold beef patty, doing it the way they had practised to not make a single sound. As their yellow skin turned translucent, the multicoloured plastic balls underneath them becoming visible through themselves, they heard a set of heavy but uneven footsteps padding towards the ballpit.
"Guest!" Noob called out softly. They pushed their way out of the ballpit carefully - one wrong move, and they would all clatter together, ruining the undetectability their Ghostburger had given them.
Noob exited the ballpit and gasped, quickly covering their mouth to muffle the sound. At the bottom of the ramp, Guest 1337 - the strongest, the most selfless person Noob had ever met - swayed slightly, as if he was about to fall over at any second. There was blood all over his uniform, his hair, his face - far too much blood for it to be all his. His bruised fist was clenched around a scrap of gold fabric with black runes and red stains. His eyes, usually warm and calm, looked hollow and afraid.
He tried to smile at them, but then winced, clutching his stomach.
"Oh nononononono..." Noob rushed down the ramp, stumbling to the bottom just in time to break Guest's fall. They nearly fell over themselves, Guest being far taller and heavier. Noob grabbed his forearm in an attempt to steady both of them and nearly dropped him when they unexpectedly felt exposed, peeling skin. His sleeve must've torn at some point when he was blocking. Their stomach fluttered - no, now was not the time to be thinking about that.
Gradually, Guest managed to muster up the strength to stand on his feet again. Noob let go of him, half relieved, half disappointed. "I...shouldn't have left Chance and Taph..." He coughed, hard, spitting blood onto the fuzzy arcade carpet. "Slasher nearly had me...but Taph threw a tripmine to let me get away...I was only going to...get a medkit and get right back in there." He looked around the room, his eyes frantic. "But I couldn't find one before..."
"Only one spawned and I - I gave it to Elliot earlier," Noob said, their voice teetering as if they were about to cry. Their throat tightened and in response their breath quickened. "W-we're so screwed..."
"Hey, don't panic. We'll get through this...somehow..." Guest burst into a coughing fit again, spewing out more blood over the front of his uniform. "We won't have to survive for much longer before..." he trailed off, seeing Noob staring in horror at the timer on the tracker. It read 2:31. Just underneath it, the blood red text on Guest's icon read 4%.
As if in answer to their thoughts, something metallic and synthesised echoed from the other side of the map. Noob's blood ran cold as they instantly recognised it as the Raging Pace sound effect. It had to be Guest's location highlighted to Slasher, since Noob had undetectability at the minute. They silently cursed themselves - if only it was them that was highlighted, then they could have lured him away. But Slasher was relentless once he had a target, especially since that target was Guest. Once he had his eyes locked on you, he didn't stop until you were dead.
Guest's gaze stiffened. "Listen, we don't have much time. There's no way the two of us can survive two and a half minutes, not with Slasher onto me." He tried to smile again, but his eyes were so pained that it seemed more like a grimace. "I'll go and loop him around that table in the kitchen. I've had loads of practice so I'll distract him for as long as I can...maybe a minute or so...and then you'll have the chance to survive Last Man Standing." He nodded while staring into space, like he was trying to convince himself rather than Noob. "You'll be able to eat your Ghostburger again by then, won't you? You're good at Last Man Standing, really good. You'll make it."
"But you won't!" Noob whispered horrifiedly. "No, I- let me distract Slasher! You hide here and I'll keep him busy - I can loop pretty well too-"
"Noob, neither of us can loop for two minutes straight," Guest gently cut Noob off. His legs shook again and Noob nearly leapt forwards, bracing to bear his weight again, but Guest steadied himself. "If you die there's no way I'll survive Last Man Standing...not in this shape." He exhaled, his entire chest shuddering. "Besides, he sees my aura. It's me he's after now. The only reason I got away from him in the first place is because I got lucky."
Noob shook their head. A part of them was saying that he was right: it was better that they survived instead of both of them getting killed, Guest would be a goner with one hit, the most he'd be able to do would be to distract Slasher for a while. Why were they so agonised over letting Guest die now, when they'd seen him die a million times before? Crushed by Noli's Void Rush, slowly burning to death from c00lkidd's fiery flingbrick, run through with John Doe's spike arm - it was all old hat.
Maybe it was because they'd seen the dishevelled locks of bacon hair slip out from under the mask when he plunged the rusty chainsaw into Elliot's chest. They'd seen the almost primal fear in his eyes, the same kind when someone came up behind him or slammed a door too loudly.
Or maybe it was because they were an idiot who still couldn't accept that dying was routine now. An idiot who couldn't accept that love wasn't something that this place cared about.
"If I force myself in front of him, he'll have no choice but to go for me instead! I-I just have to time my Slateskin and Bloxy uses right and loop properly and we'll both survive..." They thought of Slasher's machete arcing towards their neck, steel scraping against slate. They shook a little, involuntarily.
"Noob, if you die and leave me in Last Man Standing with him, I won't be able to bear it." He looked so vulnerable in a way that they had rarely ever seen. "If I die now distracting him, then at least you have a chance to survive. But if I die alone, to him..." His voice trailed off. Guest 1337 almost always did the right thing without hesitation, and Noob used to believe that he did it because it was just in his blood. Times like this, when he was too beaten down to act like this was second nature for him, terrified them and somehow made them fall harder for him at the same time. "Okay." Their voice came out quieter but also somehow firmer than they thought it would. "I-I'll do it for you."
Padded footsteps, soft but unmistakable, crept across the colourful carpet. "Go, Noob," Guest hissed in pain as he readied his fists. "Quickly, we've run out of time!"
Noob ran like the wind - ran because it was the only thing they were good at doing, the only thing they could do. As they slipped through the doorway into the party room, Guest screamed behind them, followed by the sickening crack of his charge landing on Slasher.
Guest is going to lure him to the kitchen with the big table... where should I go? That room is basically dead in the middle of the map since this map is so small.
Noob stumbled through all of the stupidly decorated rooms, barely noticing where they were going, relying on pure instinct from having been chased down in this place so any times. Their hair was beginning to loosen, and they hated the feeling of an unravelling ponytail but there was no time to try and tighten it. Their face felt wet and they weren't completely sure whether it was blood, sweat or tears. Above it all, the florescent lights that barely lit up the corridor hummed an old familiar song about decay and constant fear.
Noob slowed down and exhaled as the thud of the wooden floor changed into the soft crunch of dead grass under their feet. Walking to the far side of the field, they crouched behind one of the scattered brick walls - not that the covering would help at all during Last Man Standing, but it made them feel less exposed.
Trying to breathe as deeply but as softly as they could, they opened their tracker again. The timer read 1:57 and Guest's health was still at 4%. They glanced at their own health, 85%, and felt a rush of guilt. They'd been hiding and running the entire round while Guest had been trying his best to save everyone else. And even now that it was just the two of them that was still what was happening.
They had to win this Last Man Standing. If not then Guest would have died for nothing, because even though he wasn't dead yet he didn't stand a chance. While Slasher had no ranged attack making him easy to loop, with how low Guest's health was one little mistake would be the end of him. It was only a matter of time before he didn't quite cut the corner enough, or let his stamina get a little too low, or misjudged how close Slasher's machete was.
Something on their face ran into their mouth. It tasted salty, and Noob tried to tell themselves it was sweat but they knew better.
There was nothing to do except wait. Waiting for Guest to die.
1:50...1:45...1:42...1:41...
It felt like hours of waiting before they dared to check the timer, so why where the seconds going by so slowly? They tugged at their hair.
1:38...1:34...1:31..1:30...
Please, just let this be over with- no, that's a horrible thing to think! Do you want Guest to die?!
1:25...1:23...1:21...
The feeling never got any less horrible no matter how many times they were in this exact situation - hiding it out while the other doomed survivor struggled against the killer, and some cursed kind of intuition telling them that they needed to eat their Ghostburger.
1:20...1:15.
Their chest shuddered as if Slasher had pierced them with his blade rather than Guest's.
A part of them wanted to run, but they knew it was better to sit and wait for a bit, to let Slasher get confused by the lack of aura highlight for a while.
They waited, their entire body tense like an elastic band about to snap, hoping that he would waste his Raging Pace trying to find them, but the sound effect didn't play. Damnit, he's learning.
Their skin became yellow again and they felt in their pocket for a Bloxy. They pulled it out just as they heard the harsh metallic sound of Raging Pace triggering. As the monstrous masked man stomped into the field, Noob deftly flicked the tab open and then downed the entire can. It was lukewarm and flat, having been warmed by body heat, but it still did the job - almost immediately every fiber in them tingled with fresh energy.
Noob turned and sprinted into the other hallway, weaving through the zombie arms that would grab at their ankles if they so much as brushed up against them. They couldn't afford to make any mistakes like that.
They ran through the room with the nausea inducing green and black wallpaper, then into the play area and back towards the ballpit. Typically for a Last Man Standing on this map they would've gone for the kitchen, but they couldn't go in there and retrace Guest's limping footsteps around the table, race past his broken body staining the white tiles with red.
Noob imagined the way that they'd seen Guest hit back against Slasher in previous rounds, fighting until his very last breath. They must've gotten distracted, because the next thing they knew a searing pain was tearing their back open.
Noob yelped as they ran up the steps to the ballpit. Their legs were beginning to weaken, their footsteps becoming lopsided instead of the strong steady rhythm from earlier when they were still under the influence of their Bloxy. There was no time to check the tracker but they knew they had to be at less than half HP.
Down the ramp, around the ballpit, back up the steps, through the ballpit, slow down, start running, walk a few steps, speed up.
Slasher managed to get another hit in, and Noob cried out, hurtling more than running towards the theatre room.
They glanced back, even though they knew it was a bad idea. The brute's eye glowed with a hateful, bloody red.
I have to survive for Guest.
Their lungs burned and their muscles begged for mercy. They were nearly out of stamina. They weren't going to survive the next hit. They couldn't check the timer.
I have to survive for Guest.
There was only one thing they could do. Noob prayed to the admins (knowing they were stuck and powerless just like them, but old habits die hard) that there was little enough time left and stuck their hand in their pocket for their last resort.
I have to survive for Guest!
Noob gulped down the last foul drop of potion and fell to the ground, their entire body aching as flesh turned into stone and the whirring of the chainsaw became a horrific grating sound, like fingernails on a chalkboard except far worse. Slasher's foot came down on their back and they could feel the pure venom and frustration in it, but not the pain, and despite everything they were smiling, because they'd done it. They'd won, and Slasher could slash all he wanted but it wouldn't matter, because in three seconds they were going to wake up at the table beside the chalkboard with everyone's doodles and notes on it, and Chance would be there saying "That was a brutal round, huh?" and Taph would be there signing frantic apologies for letting their stamina drop to zero, and Elliot would be there offering a slice of pizza and a shaky smile--
But most importantly, Guest would be there, standing whole and healthy again, and even if he would never love them quite the way they wanted him to, he would love them, and maybe one day that could be enough for them.
Their skin turned yellow again, Slasher raised his machete one last time, and then everything went black.