Hour 15: 14:00 – 14:59 EDT, Day 1, Fri 13th June 2014

As soon as Leah Smith (Female #18) had finished saying her piece, it felt as though all the sound had been sucked from the area. The teenagers in the clearing capable of turning to face her immediately did so, making hardly a sound between them. The birds in the surrounding pine trees had also seemed to stop chirping, leaving the afternoon sun's hot rays to silently beat down on the five living girls and the one dead boy. It was eventually Mallory Derwent (Female #4) who broke the silence.

"What do you mean, "Corey didn't choke"?" she asked, looking directly at the face of the brunette who had just alerted them of her suspicions.

"He had an allergic reaction," Leah answered, looking back down at Corey O'Donoghue's (Male #14) still red and swollen face. "I just tasted peanuts in his food, try it if you don't believe me."

"W-what are you trying to say?" Tamsin Forrest (Female #8) timidly asked from behind everyone, wiping some vomit from her chin.

"I'm saying someone purposefully killed him," Leah grimly replied as Mallory walked forward from next to Kirsty Nichols (Female #14) to test some of the broth that hadn't spilled out over the grass. "Everyone knew he was allergic to nuts. Whoever added them knew it was going to kill him."

Mallory gingerly tasted some of the soup for herself. She could just barely taste the peanuts Leah had been going on about, so faint that if she hadn't have been told there was any beforehand, she probably would have missed it. "She's right, there're nuts in here," Mallory confirmed.

"That settles it. Tamsin or Kirsty must've put peanuts into the food to trigger his allergy," Imani Velasquez (Female #21) quickly claimed from behind her. Kirsty immediately gave her a look of indignation and Tamsin looked even more horrified at her accusations.

"How the hell did you work that one out?" Kirsty retorted rather angrily. "We only put the noodles, soup and veg in the pot. We didn't put any nuts in there! For all we know, you could have done it yourself when you went to serve him. I should've known your generosity was all an act!"

"Shut up, God!" Mallory cut in. "I don't see any proof that the others did it, Imani, and the same goes for you two as well," she said, addressing Kirsty and Tamsin.

"We should check inside, maybe we'll find something," Leah put forward, walking to the main door of the diner, carrying her daypack over her shoulder while Mallory followed her. They walked through the main dining area and into the kitchen where the pot sat on the stove. There was some talking from outside, Mallory sighing and choosing to ignore it. No doubt Imani was still trying to point the finger at either Kirsty or Tamsin, or possibly both.

Leah approached the large silver vessel and dipped her finger into the warm stew and brought it back out. There was a slight hesitation before she popped it into her mouth, and was greeted by the familiar nutty taste she found in Corey's bowl.

"There's definitely peanuts in here," Leah announced, wiping her damp finger on her white skirt. Mallory tried a bit as well, wanting to taste it for herself.

"I didn't taste any in my portion though," Mallory said. "So someone put them in after we all got served. That means..." She paused while she came up with a list of suspects in her head, and then eliminated herself and Leah from it. "That means it could have been Imani, Kirsty or-"

"You little bitch!" The pair in the diner instantly recognized the sudden cry as Imani's furious voice.

"What the fuck now?" Mallory asked to herself in an annoyed tone, running to the nearest open window to see what the commotion outside was all about. Poking their heads out, both girls saw Imani had been yelling at an intimidated Tamsin. "Imani, what the hell's going on?" Mallory yelled out.

"I found our little murderess," she replied, opening her hand to show the others what she was clutching within. It was a shiny gold-color packet, specifically one that had previously been holding peanuts. "I saw her pulling this out of her pocket. So come on, Tam. Explain to them what you were doing with it!" Tamsin barely managed an audible squeak, which pissed Imani off further. "There's a gun in one of those bags. I could show you what we do to murdering bitches!"

"I d-didn't p-put any nuts in his f-food," Tamsin stammered, her voice choked from holding back tears of fright.

"Look, Tamsin ate those peanuts as soon as she arrived here," Kirsty quickly explained. "But she finished off the whole packet by the time Mallory walked in on us, there's no way she could have added them to the food if she didn't have any left!"

"So what? There were two packets, what stopped you from eating one and using the other to kill him?" Imani asked, putting her face real close to Tamsin's, so close their noses were almost touching.

"T-two packets? I-I only s-saw one there," Tamsin gibbered as she backed away from Imani, her face as red as Corey's. "I t-took the only one there."

"There were two when I saw them last," Kirsty said, looking confused as she thought back. "I saw both of them on the counter at least a couple of minutes before Imani came in to check on… me…"

It suddenly hit Kirsty like a ton of bricks. Before Imani could object, she approached her and started patting her hands up and down the sides of her torso, searching for something on Imani's person. Imani immediately voiced her outrage.

"What the hell, Kirsty? Get the fuck off of-"

Imani's anger faded into nothingness when a quiet rustling sound emerged from the pocket of her cardigan. Kirsty immediately delved into the pocket the noise had come from. When her hand emerged, it was holding a half-empty gold packet, exactly like the one Imani had found in Tamsin's possession just a few minutes prior.

"I think you need to explain yourself," Kirsty spat, a look of pure disgust now plastered on her face. "It was you all along, wasn't it? Wasn't it?"

'Game's up,' Imani thought, initially looking flustered, but quickly regained her composure. "It was Corey, for God's sake," she said, thinking it was a rational explanation. "He tried to kill me, he would have killed all of us. Do you really think he deserved to live after what he tried to do?"

"You already shot him in the shoulder, then we immobilized him so he wasn't going to be a danger anymore. There was no need to fucking kill him!" Mallory yelled at her. "That wasn't self-defense, Imani, that was fucking murder!"

"And you were going to blame it on Tamsin," Kirsty said next. "What the hell did she do to you? Was it because she conveniently had another packet?"

"Pretty much," Imani replied with next to no remorse in her voice. "I would have planted mine in her bag sooner or later."

"Then what? Were you going to kill her next and say she deserved it?" Kirsty asked, Tamsin stifling a scream behind her.

There was a short pause, before Imani smirked at Kirsty. "Yeah, I guess I would have." There was another, much longer, pause as all the girls around her digested this shocking piece of information. One of the people they had been friends with, someone they thought they trusted, would have killed an innocent girl just to cover her murderous tracks. Unsurprisingly, Tamsin took the news very badly, much more so than the others, and collapsed onto her backside out of shock.

"Get out of here," Mallory finally hissed, glaring at Imani from the diner. "Get the hell out of my sight and don't even think about coming back, or I'll-"

"Or what, you'll kill me?" Imani sneered. "Gee, Mallory. Lashing out at me for killing Corey but when I refuse to leave you're more than happy to kill me. You're such a hypocritical bitch."

"Unlike you, I wasn't going to kill someone innocent," Mallory said, her voice rising as her temper was being stretched to breaking point. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, which do you prefer?"

"How about neither?" Imani stated, quickly shoving Kirsty over onto her rear and running to one of the bags. "I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't kill you three, but I'm inclined to change my mind abo-"

There was a sudden soft PYOOT noise, and a water bottle in the bag suddenly burst open, a damp darkness seeping across the khaki material from a neat round hole in the fabric. 'What the hell?' Imani wondered, jumping up and looking all around her. Tamsin and Kirsty were still on their backsides, looking as shocked as she was, and Corey was still lying there, like a corpse should. Mallory was still at the diner window, but Imani noticed the girl standing beside her, holding the silenced Colt M1911 in her trembling hands.

"T-that was just a warning shot," Leah said, trying hard to keep her voice and hands steady while leaning as far out of the window as possible without losing her balance. She was shaking so much that if she wanted to go one step further and actually shoot Imani, she probably would have missed by a mile. Imani didn't want to risk hanging around to find out if Leah had the guts to pull the trigger a second time, or if the next shot would be a fatal one. Without wasting a second, Imani sprinted towards the safety of the surrounding trees, deftly scooping up the bag closest to her.

Leah did have in her to fire the gun at Imani again, though it was more out of instinct than anything. Another suppressed PYOOT from her gun and the side of a pine tree disintegrated, spewing shreds of bark and minute blobs of sap over the half-Spaniard as she ran past it. And then she was out of sight, enveloped by the flexible pine branches and the shadows that they cast. Drops of water from the split bottle in the bag marked out the path she took, a path that none of them wanted to follow.

"God DAMN that bitch!" Mallory screamed, climbing out of the window and running towards the edge of the forest, fully intent on chasing Imani down. Oh she was livid, she was furious at Imani for betraying them like that, and furious with herself for not spotting the girl's intentions sooner.

"Wait! Mallory! She might have one of our weapons!" Leah shouted out, causing the head cheerleader to stop in her tracks.

"Fuck..." Mallory spoke under her breath. She was completely unarmed, and if Imani had indeed snatched one of the better weapons, going off to find her would just be playing right into her hands. "Let's check what we have left, just so we know what she took," she said as Leah climbed out and jumped from the window sill, nearly twisting her ankle in doing so.

Kirsty got to her feet and rubbed the base of her spine, easing a small twinge where she'd fallen right on her coccyx. She looked through one of the three remaining bags and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, my katana's still in here," she said.

"Good, that's a promising start," Mallory replied, sounding somewhat relieved. Tamsin watched silently from the sidelines, already familiar with what it felt like to have her bag and weapon stolen. Mallory moved on to another bag and saw it had her grenades. It left a fifty-fifty chance that Imani had picked up a gun, and that statistic was making her worry. Leah had a look in the final bag, hoping that those statistics were in the group's favor.

"We don't have to worry so much now," she said as she pulled the Glock 17 from what turned out to be Imani's pack.

Once she thought she was a safe distance from the clearing, Imani slowed down to a rest and plopped herself down at the base of a tree. She brushed out some stray bark chips, stuck to her dark hair by blobs of extra sticky sap. 'Gross, just fucking gross,' she mentally cursed, though she was lucky it was only sap sticking in her hair and not chunks of her brain. 'Goddamnit! That plan could have gone a lot better!'

It should have been so simple. She'd snatched an inconspicuous packet of nuts and added them in the food when , leading to Corey's death. She was then going to plant the packet in Tamsin's bag while no one noticed, and then later search through the bag and 'discover' it. Tamsin would be killed (by Imani, obviously) and subsequently take the blame for Corey's death with her. But things hadn't gone to plan.

'A disaster, that's what it was,' she thought. 'Stupid Kirsty, stupid Tamsin, why did you two have to go and ruin it all?'

Thanks to Tamsin and Kirsty's observations, that little packet of peanuts wasn't so inconspicuous after all, which led to her cover being blown and her downfall.

She did however grab some form of a consolation prize. The duffel bags had all been lying down close to her, so when she made her 'tactical retreat', she picked one up. In her haste though, she'd picked the bag that Leah had shot, which on closer inspection left her with a burst bottle of water, a map which was reduced to an undecipherable soggy mesh, and some damp bread rolls. However, with the assortment of weapons that the four cheerleaders had been given, the odds that she got one of the better ones were good.

'Let's see what I got…' she thought, delving into the bag.

Sadly for Imani, the odds were not in her favor. Instead of the gun, sword or grenades she was hoping for, she pulled out the stuffed toy.

The scream of fury that the four remaining girls could hear sent shivers down all of their backs. Even though it was faint, it still filled their minds with the same worrying thought; 'Is she going to come back?' It was quite a few minutes later before they finally took their guards down, certain that she wasn't going to return. Imani may have turned out to be a murdering psycho, but she wasn't stupid. Without a weapon, marching right back to their camp was more or less akin to suicide.

"That was too close," Mallory sighed, sitting down against the side of the diner. Imani was a lost cause now; the girl could have gone in any direction now and it was pointless to try and look for her. Mallory's heart pounded in her chest like a kettledrum, and after what they'd all gone through, it was safe to say that her heart wasn't the only one. It was all too much for one of the girls though.

"I'm going," Tamsin announced, quite out of the blue, as she shakily got back to her feet. "I'm leaving this place, now, and I'm going to find Toni."

In all the chaos that had followed Corey's untimely death, Mallory and the others had completely forgotten that Tamsin was going to go off on her own to try and locate her step-sister. And after the events spanning the last twenty minutes, Tamsin just wanted to get away as soon as possible.

"I'm leaving too," Kirsty said.

"Kirsty?" Mallory asked, getting to her feet as well. "Why are you going as well?"

"I am not staying here, it's not safe anymore," Kirsty replied.

"In case you didn't know, Imani is out there. The whole class is out there," Mallory argued. "People are killing each other-"

"Yeah, and another person in our class was killed right under our noses!" Kirsty said, raising her voice as she pointed to Corey's prone body. "What do you think would happen if Imani got her hands on a dangerous weapon? She'd come right back here like a guided missile to kill us all. I'm not prepared to take that risk."

"I still think you're going to get killed out there," Mallory sighed. "But it's going to be useless trying to get you to change your mind, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Kirsty replied, walking over to her pack and picking it up, as well as helping herself to some rolls from the other bags for Tamsin to eat.

"Wait, Kirsty, if you really are set on going, take this with you," Leah called out, walking up to her and placing the Glock 17 in her hand. "That katana isn't going to be much help, and I know I said last year's winner started out with one of those, but he did get most of his kills using a gun. A Berreta 92FS to be exact… or was it an M92F?"

"Thank-"

"And we'll be fine, I still have Corey's gun and Mallory has her grenades," Leah continued before Kirsty could get a word in edgeways. "So don't worry about our safety, we'll be fine."

"Leah?" Kirsty asked.

"Yes?"

"Stop talking so I can say thank you."

"Oh, sure, sorry," Leah said, realizing she'd gone on rambling about statistics again.

"Okay, Tamsin, let's get going. We have Toni to find," Kirsty said, checking the Glock's safety was on and tucking it barrel-first into the pocket of her shorts.

"S-sure thing," Tamsin timidly replied, still feeling shaken up.

As they started to walk away from the diner in the opposite direction to Imani, Kirsty gave Leah and Mallory one final glance. "Take care you two," she said, then both she and Tamsin left the clearing.

As they left, Mallory and Leah both had a horrible feeling that despite giving their friend a good enough weapon to go with, they would not see her ever again.

Zachary Reilly (Male #16) had been completely unaware he'd come within 700 meters of a murder. Throughout the duration of the game, there had been a very unfortunate coincidence; whenever there was a death or a dead body, Zachary seemed to be close by. He'd stumbled across Tristan's body lying in the dirt three hours after his death, then after that he'd fled the scene of Mark's fight with Rachel. And judging from the announcement nearly three hours ago, Mark didn't survive the encounter. 'That could have been me on the list,' Zachary somberly thought. Rachel killed Mark, he had killed Mark. If he'd tried to stop Rachel instead of running away like a coward, perhaps Mark would still be alive. Or they'd both be dead, who knew?

Then there was that scream from somewhere to his south, that horrible female hollering that nearly made him jump out of his skin. It urged Zachary to sprint faster through the forest, ducking and dodging through branches and between trunks. A particularly sharp twig was poking out, and as Zachary run past it, it scratched deeply into his cheek. Hissing out and slowing down to a stop, Zachary put a hand up to his face and felt the wound. It stung to the touch, and bringing his hand back, he could see fresh blood on his fingertips where blood had been drawn.

'There's a light at the end of the tunnel, every cloud has a silver lining… not here there isn't…' he thought, continuing the aimless wandering to the west. Then after a while, the literal light at the end of the dense leafy tunnel came into view. The thick forest gave way to a grassy expanse that stretched out before him for fifty or so meters, before abruptly ending at the top of a cliff. And in between him and the sheer drop ahead of him sat a girl, a girl he recognized right off the bat. A girl he thought he could trust. With a smile, he started sprinting towards her.

"Natalie!"

Natalie Ellis (Female #6) was feeling ever so frustrated. She had only just settled into A4 after having been forced to move when her previous residence (A5) had become a danger zone. In addition, the pen she was issued with to write down danger zones and cross names off had already stopped working. Unbeknownst to her, it was the result of a handicap by the game makers to further scupper or improve certain students' chances. And bag #12, the one she had been given, was randomly chosen to contain a pen that had nearly run dry.

"Work, dang it!" Natalie cried out, then hurled the useless writing implement as far as she could. Even though she was sitting a good distance away from the cliff, the pen sailed effortlessly over the edge and disappeared out of sight. Moaning quietly in aggravation, Natalie put her hands up to her slightly sunburned forehead and massaged her temples with her thumbs. 'God, I've never felt this stressed before, what's happening to me?'

"Natalie!"

Natalie gasped when she heard the male voice and instantly made a grab for the tranquilizer gun. She turned her head and saw someone approaching. He was caked virtually from head to toe in sprayed dried blood with some small trickles of brighter red coming from small cuts and scrapes. She instantly opened her mouth to scream at the grisly sight, pulled the gun from her bag and fired it at the intruder.

Zachary stopped running towards Natalie when he saw her pull the gun out, and before he could fathom what was going on, the gun had fired and something sharp struck him in the leg. It hurt at the initial impact, but the pain quickly went away. Looking down, he could see a tiny cannister with colorful feathers sticking out from the front of his thigh. 'A dart? That doesn't look good,' he thought. The girl sitting in front of him suddenly gave a scream and covered her mouth, finally recognizing who she had shot.

"Zach! Oh my God!" she cried out, looking at the bloodied boy who was reaching down to pluck the dart out of his leg. "I-I didn't know it was you, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay, it's okay," Zach replied. He could kind of sympathize with her. If he had a mirror and looked into it with all the blood and gore coating his face, he probably wouldn't recognize himself either. Hell, he looked like he just butchered one of his classmates. "W-what did you shoot me with?" he asked.

"A tranquilizer dart," Natalie nervously replied.

"Oh," Zach merely replied, the dull ache in his arm seeming to be fading away as the sedative started to numb the pain. 'Guess it must be taking effect already, at least it wasn't poison darts she had, that's something to be happy about at least,' he thought. He stumbled towards her some more, his walking becoming lopsided.

Natalie noticed how limp Zach's left arm was hanging as he approached her, whereas his right arm was swinging back and forth like normal. "What happened to your arm?" she asked.

"R-Rachel… she got me good with a metal bat," Zachary said, already starting to feel drowsy as the powerful chemicals circulated around in his bloodstream. He got next to Natalie and collapsed onto his knees, his body feeling a lot heavier. "I think… I'm certain she was the one who killed Mark."

"Rachel…?" Natalie repeated quietly, thinking back to the start when everyone was in the classroom. She remembered seeing Rachel get up to leave, the terrifying grin on her face and the demented laugh coming out her mouth. Clearly it wasn't a façade after all. "What on Earth happened to her? She was the last person I'd expect to take part in this."

"S-shame 'ere…" Zach groggily said, his speech slurring as the drowsiness got worse all the while. It was similar to the time he went to the dentist to have his wisdom teeth taken out, and the anesthetic put him to sleep before he could even count to ten. 'How long ago was I shot? Thirty seconds, or was it a minute?' he thought, finding it difficult to remember as his mind clouded over. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, mere minutes, probably just mere seconds away from passing out completely. "Na'alie…?"

"Yes?" she asked.

"You… knock meee… ouuu'…" And with that, Zach's eyes closed and he fell into a deep drug-induced sleep, his body leaning against Natalie's. If it wasn't for the collar flashing its green light every second, and the steady rising and falling of his chest, Natalie would have thought he'd died there and then. As she gently moved Zachary into a comfortable lying position (and being careful not to disturb his broken arm in the process), she recalled the tranq gun's manual and how the target would be knocked out for around two hours. It would be quite some time until Zachary came to again, but after being all by herself for hours on end, she was willing to wait that long.

End of Hour 15

Hours Remaining: 57
Students Eliminated in Hour 15: None
Students Remaining: 36

A/N: Wow, that took a lot longer than I was hoping for. I apologise for the delay on uploading, since I've been heavily preoccupied with chapter rewriting, work and the like.