Hermes glanced around to gauge the reactions of the other players, to see if they were happy or sad about their roles.
But, to no one's surprise, only one or two people were actually checking their phones.
For the most part everyone was terrified, visibly shaken or trying to help the man who had lost his arm.
Hermes shook his head. Waiting around wouldn't help anyone.
Turning around, he noticed that Slim had already left the gymnasium and headed towards the bath house.
Glancing back once, he looked at the others and then left the gymnasium too.
Walking down the hallway in the opposite direction to Slim, Hermes walked into the Cafeteria and looked around.
He saw rows of tables and chairs, some having food placed on them, some empty.
Something did catch his eye though, he saw someone wearing what looked like a hospital gown rush into the kitchen part of the cafeteria.
He squinted, but decided that he wouldn't want to get involved with someone like that and turned around to leave.
Back in the hallway, he curiously checked one of the cabinets and…
There was nothing inside.
Scoffing, he continued walking down the hallway before checking the Gymnasium once more.
And now, there was no one inside.
Humming to himself, he stepped back in and decided to explore.
Looking up, he tried to see what exactly fired that attack on the man with pink shades.
"Could it be some sort of high density energy beam? If that cat was able to give everyone an ability then something like that shouldn't be too far fetched." He muttered to himself, looking around the gymnasium, glancing behind benches for any weapons or any clues to getting the hell out of this place.
If someone were to find an exit, he'd be able to tell and follow them out. He didn't want to be the first to leave just in case it was some kind of trap that would eviscerate him the moment he stepped out of the school.
With a sigh, he turned his sights to the stage that Meaka had been standing atop.
Grumbling to himself, he walked over and pushed himself up onto the stage, then through the back into the backside of the gymnasium.
When he entered the backcourt he immediately saw a few crates, two large pipes, a stairway down and a ladder.
He glanced over at the stairway, but decided to climb up the ladder first.
Easily pulling himself up and after about twenty seconds of steady climbing, he managed to climb his way up.
The upstairs part of the gymnasium was just as barren as the back of the stage. The walls were dark and dusty while there were a few mats and equipment strung across the place in an unorganised fashion.
After looking around for a few minutes, he decided that it wasn't worth his time and descended back down the ladder.
As he got down, he noticed someone else also exploring the back side of the stage.
It was a tall and slender man wearing a neat tuxedo and a matching black top hat. But… those were not the most interesting of his features. Covering his face was a white bird mask similar to what the doctors would've worn back during the black plague.
The man glanced over at Hermes and turned away just as quickly.
This made Hermes squint and continue down into the stairway, walking beside the unreasonably dapper man.
After a few seconds of walking, he noticed a sign atop a doorway that read 'Electrical' and nodded.
Further down, he entered a very strange room.
The room itself was dark, the floor was grey and lined with many wires and pipes only made visible by the light blue lights that came from the computer systems.
On each corner of the room were cobwebs, showing that no one had done any sort of cleaning as opposed to the rest of the school.
Inside the room, he saw a familiar person.
Noobie stood near a lever on the wall, studying it with all that he could manage.
Hermes approached him and asked. "Hey, you alright?"
Noobie flinched and spun around quickly to face him.
Noticing that it was just Hermes, he sighed and relaxed a little. "Hi… hi Hermes. I uhh, I was just looking at this lever. But… it won't work unless you have a weapon, I am unable to make it work. But I think it is supposed to cause a blackout or something." He responded, voice a bit timid.
Hermes' eyes narrowed and he shifted his gaze to the lever.
He reached out to put his hand on the lever, hoping to maybe try to pull it down, but… Noobie was correct. It would not work without a weapon.
"How… how did you know that?" Hermes asked, genuinely curious.
Noobie looked around awkwardly, glancing once at the man wearing a top hat and then at his chest at the name tag that read…
—
Name - Reaper
Ultimate -
—
Reaper waved his hand. "Don't worry, I won't freak out." He said very calmly, almost too calmly.
But it was thanks to this calmness that Noobie felt comfortable enough to explain.
"I-it's my ability… I am the Ultimate Engineer. I am able to understand the inner workings of anything involving technology. I managed to turn on that computer, but all it tells me is that I am not qualified to view anything. So, all I can see is how this lever works and what it does." He said, a lot more confidence in his tone, which made Hermes assume he was telling the truth.
And well, everyone would know that this was the truth now.
Because at the instant that he had told Hermes his role, his nametag changed.
It now read.
—
Name - Noobie
Ultimate - Engineer
—
His eyes widened in horror and he checked his nametag following Hermes' gaze.
"O-oh no! What happened!? I didn't want that to… oh no…" he said in genuine panic, making Hermes feel a little guilty for being the cause of this.
Waving his hands to calm the guy down, Hermes said in a quiet tone. "Don't worry, I'm sure this just means that no one will kill you. You have a helpful ability that could help us escape without having to kill each other, okay?" He suggested.
Thankfully, this seemed to calm Noobie down.
He sighed in relief and gave Hermes a polite smile. "Thank you." He said, nodding at Hermes.
As for Hermes, he glanced between Reaper and Noobie and nodded once before walking back up the stairs in hopes to find a way out… or maybe even a weapon.
Leaving from the opposite direction that he had entered, he found himself in a different corridor.
He walked down the corridor, making sure to check in every single cabinet and drawer before he reached the room labelled 'CLASS 1-A' and peered inside.
To his disappointment, the windows were still covered by metal plating.
But, different to the other classroom, the chairs and desks were organised with school equipment neatly placed on some, others being empty.
Entering the classroom, he checked under all the desks as well as checking the cupboards and drawers.
Nothing.
He found nothing.
Sighing again, he accepted that finding a weapon would be far harder than he had anticipated and decided to leave the classroom.
But as he did, he noticed Reaper walking relatively quickly out of the gymnasium in the opposite direction to himself.
His eyes narrowed slightly, suspicion clear, but he simply shrugged and continued down the corridor to his right.
Halfway through the corridor, he found a turning that led to a large hall where two large staircases lead to a large doorway.
Beneath the two staircases was yet another doorway but this one's doors were open.
Above the doorway there was a label.
'DORMITORIES'
Hermes nodded in thought. It made sense for there to be dorms, especially if they were expected to stay here until there were only three of them left.
But at that exact moment, everything turned dark.
Hermes' pupils dilated as he quickly tried to make out his surroundings.
"Shit! Don't tell me…" he muttered aloud, immediately thinking back to what Noobie had told him about the lever.
It would only activate if someone is in possession of a weapon.
That means…
"Noobie!" Hermes quickly realised in horror, trying to trace his steps back to the gymnasium.
It wasn't difficult, he hadn't gone far and just because the lights were out didn't mean that he was completely blind.
Crashing into a few cabinets on the way, he finally stumbled back into the gymnasium and felt his way to the stage and forced himself up and over until he had finally entered the back stage.
He could see now, thanks to the illumination of the computer lights from the electrical, he could see enough to not fall down the stairs.
Rushing down the stairs, his heart pounding in his chest, expecting to see the young man he had met at the very beginning of this mess dead on the floor.
And when he got down there…
"I-I'm sorry… I'm… so sorry… I…"
He saw Noobie, curled up on the floor, a gun in his hands with the lever pulled all the way down.
Hermes' gaze narrowed, turning from fear into confusion.
"N-Noobie?" He asked in a quiet tone, trying not to frighten the young man.
The boy immediately snapped his head in Hermes' direction, staring at him with bloodshot eyes.
His eyes widened. "H-Hermes?! Y…you." He said, gritting his teeth and clutching his head. "Please… forgive me! Please, please… don't blame me… I'm sorry…" he pleaded.
Hermes made a disgusted expression and took a step back, glancing once at the loaded gun in the very obviously disturbed young man's grip.
Not wanting to deal with this, he quickly tried to turn around and walk up the stairs.
As he did, he heard a pained scream come from behind. "N-NO! Hermes… please don't leave! Stick with me, I'm begging you! I'm scared… I'm scared I don't want to end up like Joseph… I just want to go home!" He pleaded.
Hermes shook his head. "What a weirdo!" He said with bated breath as he sprinted up the stairs and out from behind the back stage.
And at that moment… the lights came back on.
Breathing heavily, Hermes looked around the gymnasium and quickly stepped off of the stage.
"Where the hell did he get a weapon from? There weren't any cabinets down there and I assume he stayed there the whole time, not to mention why the hell that freak decided to turn off the lights. What happened in that short time that I had left? Could it be why Reaper was so quick to leave? Did he also see that Noobie had a weapon and felt threatened?"
Hermes had so many questions, but the main thing on his mind was…
"Someone has to be dead. If Noobie had managed to find a weapon… someone else must've and used the opportunity of the lights being out to attack another." He muttered inwardly, too stunned at the thought of someone losing their life so suddenly and so quickly.
They had only been in this strange school for just over an hour, yet so much had already happened. Hermes was doubtful that he'd get out of this alive.
He sighed again, glanced back to see that Noobie was not following him and pushed open the exit to the gymnasium.
When he left the gymnasium, he bumped into a girl who was running in the hallway.
They both stumbled backward and glanced at each other.
Hermes looked at her nametag.
—
Name - Molly
Ultimate -
—
He squinted, looking at her.
She was an average looking woman with mono lidded eyes, long black hair and a worried expression.
She was wearing a white shirt, black jacket and black shorts.
However, she did not seem to have any interest in him.
She seemed preoccupied, rambling on about something. Something was definitely on her mind.
"I heard it… I can hear everything… I heard a stab… I heard blood… I heard a breath leaving a body… I heard it all…" she said, panting heavily as she suddenly looked past him and her eyes widened in horror.
She screamed, making Hermes flinch before he followed her gaze and saw it too.
He saw a body.
A body laying in a pool of dark red blood.
There was an obviously female corpse laying on the ground, wearing a cheap white dress with short white hair, both stained dark red from the amount of blood that had accumulated beneath her.
Hermes' eyes widened in horror.
Because he recognized her.
Rage, the first person that he had talked to in this place, had been killed right here in the corridor just outside of the gymnasium.