Spending some of the shards he’d been rewarded from The Emperor Strikes Back quest, John bought the upgrade for his interface. He could now join or create a party, form an alliance, and send messages to people in his contacts book via the interface.

  The contact book was already populated. It seemed he had access to everyone he’d met so far in the game, that included Buck. However, there were certain intricacies. Firstly, any contestant who didn’t have the upgrade was greyed out and unclickable, limiting his current working contacts to Truffle, Buck, The Captain, Agnes, and the remaining kids from their group.

  Secondly, anyone who he knew was dead had a line through their name with a little skull next to it. These were also unclickable. And finally, there was a tab for blocked contestants and contestants who had blocked him. This section was currently empty, but John found it interesting that a game as sadistic as this one had included the option at all. It seemed a little off brand for the alien despots.

  “I can’t believe you got spat out like some kind of bad food,” The Captain said, making no attempt to hide his amusement.

  “It’s no different from you falling off a cliff because it gave you a nasty look,” John replied, “talk about dramatic.”

  The two laughed, though it was a laughter which was underpinned with a quiet, almost invisible, but still present despair.

  They sat around a trashcan fire, all of them. John, Truffle, Agnes, The Captain, and all the remaining kids. It was just outside the door which led John to The Outback Sleep Shack and The Orphans of the Apocalypse to whatever location they had.

  The Captain had already explained to them that they were the only ones who had survived. Apparently, you could check on the status of party members in real time and everyone else in theirs was dead. When John had first arrived on their ship there were thirty people in their party. Now that had more than halved with only twelve of them remaining.

  Sombrely they sat, most of them silent, lamenting the deaths of dozens of children and the few adults who had stayed with them until the very end.

  This isn’t a game for kids, John thought, his eyes stinging from the looping black smoke which drifted out of the trashcan. This isn’t a game for humans.

  He pushed away the thoughts as he continued his conversation. He’d already told them about the interface upgrades he and Truffle has received. His views had gone up marginally, but it was nothing to write home about. Nothing he really cared about anyway. He knew views were going to be important in the long run, but at that moment in time it was the last thing he cared about.

  Truffle, on the other hand, was ecstatic as he bounced around the group happily telling everyone that he had more followers than John. His current view count was over twelve billion, which was significantly less than John’s thanks to his time in the tournament. However, his follower count was over one billion whilst John’s was at a paltry twenty-two million. As far as ratings were concerned, the pig was firmly in the lead out of the two of them.

  “How do you have so many?” Charlie asked, looking at Truffle with the wonderous eyes of a child.

  “It must be because I’m so awesome!” He proclaimed boldly, “see, I told you that the end of the world was no excuse to let one’s dress standards slip. Now that I have this awesome hat and my bowtie, I look stylish as can be. I wonder if there are pinups of me on people’s walls already?”

  John cracked a slight smile as he listened to the light-hearted conversation they were having. Though he knew it was likely the eye before the storm, the end of the round was imminent. He also had his own ideas about why Truffle had so many followers and most of them had something to do with the mysterious O.R.C company that had tried to recruit him. Their whole organisation was likely following him.

  Suddenly he found himself thinking back to Kesh, the orc they’d met during the tournament. He wondered how she was doing and if they’d ever meet again.

  You’ll never meet anyone again if you don’t survive tomorrow’s shit show.

  His intrusive thoughts seemed to be getting worse. He’d always had them, niggling at the back of his mind, but recently they were louder and there was more of them. Oddly, it didn’t even sound like his own voice anymore. Or rather, it was, but it was deeper, more cynical and twisted. His supervillain counterpart.

  “John?” The Captain said and he turned towards him with a start, eyes refocusing on the burly man. “I was just asking if you wanted to form an alliance with us.”

  “An alliance? I thought we already were one after all we’ve been through the past few days.”

  “Well yeah, but I mean officially. Using the interface. You know, now you’ve got it upgraded it would be beneficial to use it to its fullest don’t you think?”

  John starred back at the man for a moment, his eyes furrowing slightly as he delved into his interface and into the party tab. After a moment of searching he found it, an unpopulated slot entitled alliances.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “I can see it,” he mumbled. “What are the benefits?”

  “Well, from what our dinosaur told us, it’s basically like having an extended party. So you’ll be able to see all of us on there and check we’re alive. But it also creates a group chat for the alliance so we can send out messages to everyone in it simultaneously. Most importantly though, members in an alliance can’t accidentally damage each other when they use AOE attacks. We can still attack one another if the intention is there, but it should prevent accidental collateral damage.”

  Buck had told John something similar about how parties worked before. It had been a great boon for him because it meant that Truffle could use his Pig Squeal attack without it making John’s ears bleed. That had become a bit of a problem recently and one he was glad to have solved.

  If they could extend that same protection to The Orphans then all the better. Especially if it meant that Agnes’ spinning cannons of death wouldn’t accidently pepper him.

  “That sounds acceptable,” John said, holding out his hand. “We accept.”

  The Captain took his hand with a smile and a new notification popped up in John’s interface.

  The Captain has requested to form an alliance with your party.

  Do you want to accept?

  Y/N

  John mentally asserted yes and another notification appeared followed by a third.

  You have formed an alliance with The Orphans of the Apocalypse. Alliance benefits will come into effect immediately. You can sever this arrangement at any time via the party interface.

  Contestant Truffle has changed the alliance’s name to: The Super Best Friends Murder Squad Alliance.

  “That’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it?” The Captain laughed, “also, I love your party name. Should I call you Boss now too?”

  Earlier that day when Truffle and John had first officially become a party the pig had named it The Piggy Pose. He’d also renamed John in the party interface so that his name showed up as Boss. John had no idea that it would also show up that way in their alliance interface.

  “Shut up, it’s better than The Captain. You don’t even have a ship anymore,” he replied, shaking his head and placing his hand on his face. Turning towards the pig he added, “Truffle, you can’t name an alliance full of kids a murder squad.”

  “Why not? It sounds fierce, like we’re a force to be reckoned with.”

  “It sounds like were a group of deranged killers,” he replied. “Just think about how bad that might look if we meet other contestants. Some of them might attack us on the spot rather than taking the risk.”

  “Anyone who attacks a group of kids deserves to be dealt with by the full force of The Super Best Friends Murder Squad Alliance,” Truffle said in a pouty voice. “Besides, you can’t change the name once it’s been entered in.”

  “What?!” Both John and The Captain shouted in unison.

  “Are you trying to tell me you chose our alliances name, permanently, without consulting anyone else?” The Captain continued, he was practically on his feet and his jovial demeanour had devolved into outrage.

  “Oh cool your jets Beverly, dear,” Agnes slurred in her elderly voice, a bottle of vodka hanging loosely in her hand. “He meant no harm, he’s only a baby.”

  “Yeah… ok, sorry Truffle,” The Captain sat back down sheepishly as a number of the children, and Truffle, began to laugh.

  He is only a baby, John thought sadly. He’s barely a year old. I need to remember that when we’re fighting, he must be terrified.

  After that the mood lightened considerably and John grabbed some drinks from inside. Buck wasn’t too happy about lending out his booze to people he wasn’t connected to, but he relented in the end and the outdoor gathering kicked off in earnest.

  Truffle played games with the kids, letting the livelier among them chase him around. Many of them still bore hollowed out faces and unfocused eyes, but it was the first time most of them had smiled since John had met them.

  Good for them, no matter what happens tomorrow at least they got to spend today acting like children.

  Whilst Truffle entertained the little ones, the adults got to talking. Huddled around the trashcan fire, their conversation turned serious.

  “It’s gonna go down at midnight,” The Captain said quietly. “I’m sure you already know this, but Grandma is the only one in our group eligible to enter the gate. I’m still lacking two cards, but more importantly, most of the kids are completely uncarded. Thankfully none of them have had to kill anyone yet. I don’t think any of them have killed mobs either, at least not since they’ve been with us..”

  “I can’t even imagine the mental damage they’d take if they did,” John replied grimly. “Asking a child to take a life is ridiculous.”

  “This whole game is ridiculous,” The Captain sighed, taking a swig from a bottle of rum John had pilfered. “I keep hoping it’s all just a bad dream, you know? Like I’m gonna wake up at any moment in my bed and my boy would come running in and…” He trailed off and John didn’t push him for more, though he felt like he understood the man’s motivations a little more.

  “It’s not too late, deary,” Agnes said, reaching over from her wheelchair and placing her bony, liver spotted hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find a way to save them.”

  “Yeah…” he replied solemnly. “Our dino said that once they reach E rank they’ll become teenagers, like immediately. Apparently that’s how the levelling system works on kids. It’s a failsafe designed to keep them alive longer, make the show more interesting.” He spat on the floor violently. “A fucking TV show… all this misery for a TV show. It’s sick.”

  I am going to burn it all down.

  “I’ll cheers to that,” John said, raising his bottle of bourbon and taking a long swig. He never used to drink this much, but when you find yourself at the end of world with the threat of imminent death your only friend, a little liver damage didn’t mean much.

  “I know it’s selfish of me to ask, but will you help us? Get them carded and through the gate I mean,” The Captain asked, eyes glistening as he determinedly looked into John’s.

  “I can’t make any promises,” he said, feeling guilty almost immediately after the words passed his lips. “But I’ll do what I can. The first step should be to come up with a plan.”

  “How can we plan when we don’t really know what’ll happen?”

  “We use what we already know and adapt the rest as it comes,” John shrugged. “For example, we know about Agnes’ gatling guns. It’s a bit fucked up… well completely fucked up if I’m being honest, but there might be something we can do.”