Chapter Twenty-Six: One Last Guess

Chapter Twenty-Six: One Last Guess

“...single penetrating wound to the abdomen...”

” ...bleeding has stopped...”

“...prepping for transport...”

I came to as I was being placed on a stretcher. The pain in my abdomen echoed all over my body. I was thirsty and even just moving my muscles hurt from fatigue. A paramedic was holding a wad of blood-soaked fabric against my wound.

My shirt was ripped open. My hoodie was gone. Sunglasses missing.

The first thing I noticed before looking around was my status on the red wallpaper:

Unscathed

Hobbled

Mutilated (Flickering)

Dead

Written Off (Flickering)

Chase Scene

Planning

Unconscious

Infected

Incapacitated

(Flickering)

Captured

Off-Screen (Lit)

Fight Scene

Exploring

Several lights were turning off and on. Mutilated. Incapacitated. Written off.

Written off?

Was I done? Had I been taken out of the story? It couldn't be over.

I looked around. I was outside of the stadium. A crowd of NPCs had gathered around to watch as the paramedics and police tried to sort out the situation. Flashing lights from the ambulance and the police cruisers colored the night red and blue.Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.

There was a murmur among the crowd as they watched. I imagine that many of these were the same NPCs that had seen me publicly accused. Now it was their job to cry and watch as I got loaded into the back of an ambulance.

In the distance, I saw Officer Ricky. He had blood on his hands. He sat on a curb near his parked police golf cart on the edge of the parking lot. His hands were shaking, and his eyes were fixated forward, staring, lost in a dark thought.

Was that blood mine? Had Officer Ricky been the one to find me?

It was strange to see that the NPCs still put in so much effort when they were off-screen. Not only were we off-screen, but I was about to be written off. I knew only the basics of what that status condition meant but the gist was it took you out of the story. Effectively it was like dying except you don't die.

You go to jail. You get hospitalized. Your death is left ambiguous. Several things could get you counted as written off. Whatever the case, if you are written off, you could not complete the story. If your team lost, you lost.

The status was flickering though. Did that mean I had a choice?

I could hear a familiar voice sharper than the blade that had cut me.

Detective Blackwood.

I didn't know where he was, I think he was on the other side of the ambulance talking to some other police officers. But I did hear what he said.

“We must have missed something.”

It was Evan.

I didn't want it to be him. I was hoping it had been Mark or Nathan. I thought Evan would be Ranger Danger. So many things in the story seemed to point to him, how could he not be the killer?

The paramedics started to pull me back toward the ambulance. I didn't give them a fight.

Evan had been the one to notice that Ruck was missing.

Evan had known Ruck was dead just from seeing a hulking figure under a sheet being loaded in an ambulance.

Nelly Birch took business classes. Evan was trying to get his Master of Business Administration. Maybe they had classes together? A stronger connection never appeared.

Evan’s girlfriend had broken up with him because of a rumor of cheating. Ruck had started a rumor that Amber had slept with a bunch of guys. I was certain that I would eventually find that those two facts were related but I never did.

Most suspicious of all, Evan somehow knew that I was at the house when everyone else had left. If he wasn't Ranger Danger that meant that the real killer had told him. We had tried to ask him. Alas, that knowledge died with him.

Evan was a red herring. He was too perfect in every way except the ones that mattered. He had no motive and all we knew about the killer is that Ranger Danger did have a motive.

I thought back to what Detective Blackwood had said.

Someone was trying to cover their tracks.

Why didn’t I see it before?

The paramedics got me back to the stretcher but before they could load me, I struggled forward and caught myself against the ambulance door before pivoting away and running again. I would never be able to keep away from them for long even with my higher Hustle. Incapacitation would kill that advantage eventually.

The finale had been going on for a while in my absence. It was nearly time for the final battle. I had a hunch about where it was going to be. We were going back to where this whole thing started: Delta Epsilon Delta.

The reason is kind of funny. I’ll give you a chance to guess before I tell you.

But how did I get back there?

No matter what I did, I would eventually become Incapacitated, and they would catch me because of that. There wouldn't be cars that I could hold myself up on like there were in this parking lot. And I was losing energy. Endurance is determined by Grit. I had none.

How could I escape?

My eyes scanned the area and I saw Officer Ricky again.

Ricky was having a very hard time with what he had seen that day. He was a gentle soul anyone could see it. I almost felt bad for what I was about to do but I had a feeling he would forget about it by morning.

Behind Officer Ricky was the police golf cart that he drove. It was designed to be driven around campus.

An idea formed in my mind of how I could get away from the paramedics.

My Hustle stat increased by 1. Escape Artist had activated again. That was all the confirmation I needed.

I booked it.

I had to make it to the golf cart all on one breath or else Incapacitation would take over and I would face-plant it onto the concrete.

I raced over to the parking lot and jumped the curb barely catching myself against the cart as I finally took a breath.

Officer Ricky was more shell-shocked than I expected because he barely even registered that I had run past him.

I jumped into the seat of his cart and reached down under the seat to where the ignition switch was. I flicked it on.

My foot found the gas and I was immediately shocked by how much giddy-up this thing had. It was enough that just the shift of my body weight triggered my Incapacitation, but it didn't matter because I was sitting down, and the golf cart kept going even if I couldn't.

I circled the parking lot. The paramedics had no chance of catching me on this thing, not unless they wanted to hop in their ambulance and follow.

By all means, let them. We were probably going to need them.

I raced back toward the Delta Epsilon Delta house.

As I drove, I saw Detective Blackwood. I swear, he had an amused smirk on his face.

There was only one person who had a motive not only to kill Ruck but then to kill Camden and Evan to try and cover it up.

And I knew who it was.