It was late in the afternoon by the time they reached the camp, if it could even really be called that. Docked conspicuously in the middle of nowhere, their camp was a little town built on top of a dark blue cargo ship.

  Multi-coloured shipping containers littered the deck and people seemed to be living inside of them, almost like they were prefabricated houses. More surprisingly though, was that the ship was still functional.

  They hadn’t spoken much as they travelled together, but Agnes had mentioned that their camp was mobile. As he gazed up at the large cargo ship, John realised that was an understatement.

  As the rumbling engine vibrated between his thighs, John steadily rode his bike towards the edge of the cliff they were approaching. When he pulled up, Agnes reached over and uncoupled the horsebox he’d been towing. They had needed a way to transport all the kids and luckily there were a few horseboxes stored behind the warehouse.

  John shivered at the thought of what the goblins had probably been using them for, but at least they were being put to good use now.

  Before they’d left the camp John had made a point of burning it down in front of the children using a dragon’s breath shell. They’d cheered, as any child would have, but John hoped the symbology would help them to begin to move on. A futile effort, since they’d all be dead in a few days anyway, but still a worthwhile one – or so he hoped.

  After uncoupling the horsebox from the bike, Agnes rolled towards John and produced a small flashlight from one of the satchels that was strapped to her wheelchair.

  She flashed the torch three times in quick succession and a large metal plank was manoeuvred from the boat to the cliffside, creating a walkway which allowed them to access the ship.

  Agnes and the kids crossed first, followed by John and Truffle as he carefully rode their bike across the metal plank.

  “Picked up another stray have you?” A large man said to Agnes, crossing his muscular arms.

  “Oh no deary, not this time,” she replied. “This is John and Truffle; they helped me rescue Charlie and the others.”

  The man walked towards them, strutting like a rooster. He wore military style combat pants, boots and a t-shirt which was obviously a size too small. John knew his type; he was the kind of guy who shopped exclusively at the army and navy stores and had a bomb shelter in his back yard filled with canned goods and AR-15’s.

  A doomsday prepper, John thought. I guess that explains the boat.

  “They call me, The Captain,” the man said, discerningly looking John up and down. “I’m in charge around here. You can come aboard, but I’m keeping my eye on you. Got it?”

  “Why, Captain?” I asked, returning his look. “If you were going to give yourself a fake rank you could have easily made yourself The Admiral.”

  “How about, The Field Marshal,” Truffle added, “that has a cool ring to it, though you’d probably need to grow a moustache if you wanted to pull it off. I wonder what I’d look like with a moustache?”

  “Did that pig just talk?” The Captain recoiled in surprise, “and why is it wearing a bowtie?”

  “Because the end of the world is not an excuse to dress poorly,” Truffle replied haughtily. “Now answer the Boss’ question, No-Tash!”

  “I… what?” He replied, confusion etched into the lines on his weather-beaten face. “It’s Captain because we’re on a ship. An Admiral is in charge of multiple ships and I only have one. Besides, I didn’t grant myself this name you know, it’s what the other residents started calling me. What kind of loser gives himself a nickname?”

  John smiled, offering out his hand. Perhaps he’d misjudged him. “Well Captain, it’s good to meet you. If it’s no trouble, I have a task I could use your help with.”

  “What kinda task?” The Captain said, raising an eyebrow as he skittishly took John’s hand.

  “I want to make a map of all the locations people have been to so we can work out where the next torii gate will be.”

  The Captain smiled slowly, eyes lighting up as he blinked a few times, “come with me.”

  ***

  Hours passed by and soon day turned to night, and then into day once more. With only three days remaining, John was determined to uncover the location of the torii gate. Though his need of a final card never strayed too far from his mind.

  He’d stayed up through the night with The Captain as the two of them methodically spoke to every resident on the ship. Crossing off areas one by one. A large, paper map was spread across a metal table and John leaned over it. They’d taken up residence in the ship’s bridge. Tattered, leather chairs sat discarded around the edges of the room.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “We’ve basically ruled out the north at this point,” he murmured to himself as he poured over the map which was covered in black X’s ruling out possible locations. The more information they added to the map, the more certain John was that the country had been shrunken. From the many locations visited by the members of The Orphans of The Apocalypse, at a guess it would have to be approximately one fifth of its original size. “The southwest has been pretty thoroughly explored too. That leaves the southeast, though Grandma seemed pretty certain that it wasn’t in Canberra.”

  “There’s still Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide,” The Captain said, stifling a yawn with his palm. “No one on board has been to those places, though I’m not sure we have enough time left to properly scout them all.”

  They’d been sailing eastward through the night. He’d explained how they kept the ship moving as much as possible to avoid becoming an easy target for the mobs. Apparently they’d been in some pretty hairy fights, like they were drawn towards the vessel.

  He’d found the ship moored on Barrow Island, which was where his capsule had landed. A small expanse of land off the western coast of northern Australia. Alone, he’d sailed it from there picking up stragglers as he went. Supposedly he and Agnes met up in the first few days and began rescuing children who had been forced into the game.

  That was one of the biggest reason’s John had to suspect just how small the country had been shrunken down to. If Agnes had started in Canberra but met up with The Captain after a mere few days, then there was no way the map was full sized. Even with her rockets, travelling that distance would have been impossible.

  They’d called their little crew, The Orphans of The Apocalypse and for a short while they had been the only two adults. However, more recently they began running into stranded adult contestants as well and in the last few days their group had grown to over thirty people, eleven of those being adults, though only a few of them were carded.

  John had wanted to ask The Captain how he planned to get nineteen, mostly uncarded, children through the gate. The rules were pretty clear after all, but he decided to leave it alone. The Captain seemed like a pretty smart guy, so John was sure that he was well aware of the fate that would likely present itself in three days’ time.

  God I hate this fucking game, he thought.

  “What’s this place?” He asked, pointing at a small island not far from Adelaide.

  “That’s Kangaroo Island, if my memory serves,” The Captain replied. He’d been a sailor in a former life, working on shipping vessels just like the one they were currently on, so his geographical knowledge was quite good. Or at least, it far surpassed John’s.

  “Kangaroo Island?” John replied, rolling his eyes. “It’s like they want people to make fun of them.”

  “It’s no different to how anywhere else is named really,” The Captain replied with a coy smile. “If you look at the etymology of most place names you’ll find that they were named after people, animals, or geographical features like rivers and lakes.”

  “Alright professor, next time I’ll defer to your infinite wisdom before commenting on things.”

  The two laughed and John’s eyes began to droop as he rubbernecked and almost face planted the table.

  “I need some sleep,” he said through a yawn.

  “Me too. I’ve already charted a course for the east so there’s probably not much more we can do right now. We may as well hit the hay. There’s an entrance to the safe rooms below deck. It appeared a few days ago, but from what I can tell the door leads to a different place for some of us. Though Agnes and I go to the same place.”

  “Just so you know, they’re not true safe rooms. Does yours have a dinosaur bartender per chance?” John asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yup, nearly pissed myself the first time I met her. Though she’s been good to me. And I know, I’ve been warned plenty by my manager.”

  “Mine drugged me and threw me into one of the IPSC’s death games the first time I met him. He’s been pretty useful since then though. By the way, I know it’s a long shot, but I still need one more card before I can pass through the gate. You wouldn’t happen to have a line on one would you?”

  The Captain shifted uneasily from foot to foot, his hand twitching as he rested it on the hilt of the machete which hung loosely from his waist. “I might, but there are a lot of people on this ship who also need cards. I like you John, but we’ve only just met.”

  “No need to get antsy, it was just a question,” John replied, holding his hands up casually. “Besides, your little weed whacker isn’t a good match up against me.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” The Captain grinned, “this baby has gotten me out of my fair share of scrapes.”

  “Unless it’s a magic machete, I doubt you’d even have time to draw it before I put you down.” John returned the smile; it was nice to talk to someone who was on a similar wavelength. Though the interaction made him wonder about his buddies from back home.

  I wonder if they’re in the game, he thought. Though a part of him hoped that they weren’t. He was well aware of the eventual fate of all contestants. Battle Royale could only have a single winner after all. He shivered.

  “It’s not from a card if that’s what you’re asking,” The Captain said with an easy smile. “But I’ve killed my fair share of mobs with it back in the early days.”

  Early days, John thought lazily. It really does feel like we’ve been here forever. In reality it’s only been seven days. One week. Fuck.

  “Are you two still up here?” Truffle said, wandering through the open door and yawning.

  “Where have you been?” John asked the pig, moving away from the map table and leaning against the side wall, mostly to stop himself from keeling over with exhaustion.

  “I was exploring the ship!” He replied excitedly, “I spoke to some people, but no sign of the mistress. Maybe her pod landed in a different country? Oh and I also found this cool room below deck, it had all these steel bars and there was someone inside, but I couldn’t get in. Then I took a nap, and now I’m here.”

  “Sounds like a fun time,” John said, ignoring the wide-eyed response from The Captain at Truffle’s mentioning of, what was obviously, a prison cell. “I’m gonna go get some shut eye, hopefully this floating bucket won’t get eaten by any giant shrimp whilst I’m asleep.”

  “Giant shrimp?” The Captain asked, pulling a face that said he was much too tired to be dealing with this shit.

  “Oh yeah,” Truffle said. “I’ll tell you all about it! We were in this city called Perth and this huge shrimp monster…”

  John left the bridge, closing the door behind him and winking at The Captain, who gave him a pleading look which John ignored. The man still seemed utterly terrified of the talking pig. A fact that John found quite amusing.