Battle for Loot Lake Read online

  “On your mark!” Ben yelled. “Get set! Go!”

  Grey immediately threw up a wall between him and Ben, only to find Ben had done the same thing. The walls began to build themselves plank by plank, and Grey’s mind was already stressed about what to do next.

  He used a ramp to connect to the wall that he’d made—he could shoot Ben from above if he got up there fast enough. But Ben had made a ramp, too, and he’d done it faster than Grey. A shot flew into Grey’s shoulder, and his body blinked red to indicate he’d been hit even though in practice he didn’t take damage.

  “One!” Ben called.

  Grey put another wall in the way, this time as a roof above the ramp he’d made. Ben’s shots damaged it but didn’t hit Grey. Moving around to the other side of Ben’s wall, Grey put down two ramps to get a height advantage on his squad mate. He pulled out the AR he had and took a shot.

  Ben blinked red.

  “One back!” Grey smiled.

  Ben used a wall to block Grey’s view of him, and Grey had to switch back to build mode to put in more height. Now he’d created a floor above Ben, and as he went to the edge he was able to hit him two more times before Ben ran for cover.

  Grey lost track of Ben for too much time after that. He couldn’t tell if Ben had boxed himself in below or if he was building something else. As he peeked over the ledge, he got his answer in the form of a shot to the face.

  “Two! Three!” Ben called.

  Grey stood there for a second longer, taking another shot, because he was surprised to see what Ben had done—his squad mate had edited the roof to make a small opening to shoot from. It would be harder for Grey to get an angle on him.

  It was a good move Grey hadn’t thought about.

  He needed to get more comfortable in editing walls after he made them. That was what slowed him down the most.

  “Five!” Ben called after another successful shot.

  Grey moved out of the way, trying to gather his thoughts for a move to counter this. Even though he had the high ground, he wasn’t at an advantageous angle. Maybe if he built higher and destroyed that wall with the window …

  He used a few ramps to get higher, but Ben shot at them and Grey came crashing down to the ground. If it weren’t for practice mode, Grey would have been eliminated right there from fall damage.

  Ben fired at Grey from another window he’d made, and in a quick five shots the match was over. Ben jumped out of the window with a smile. “I win!”

  Grey nodded. “Yeah, you did. Those editing skills.”

  “I won, too,” Tristan said as he and Kiri joined them.

  “Shocking, I know,” Kiri said.

  “But that was fun!” Ben jumped around, hyped up on adrenaline. “I think that’s a good way to practice! It’s like what the top squads do against each other, but solo.”

  “Yes,” Tristan said. “It will help us learn how to react to an enemy build. Let’s do it again. I will fight Ben this time.”

  “Cool, me versus Kiri then,” Grey said with a smile. They liked his idea, and he had a feeling this is what Tae Min could have meant. Building wasn’t just about speed or good sniper angles. It was like a chess match to see who could outfox the other. And maybe if they could master that, they could make a bid for those top five spots.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Grey and his squad had practiced as much as they could to prepare for the next day. While he didn’t expect to be a million times better already, he did feel like he had more tools to use than just building fast. Building against Tristan, Kiri, and Ben helped Grey to improvise and think smarter, and he was sure that was the missing ingredient Tae Min had been hinting at.

  As Grey entered the battle warehouse to begin the day’s fights, he said, “Let’s get some good build battles today.”

  “That means lots more mats,” Tristan said.

  “What about the shipping container yard then?” Ben said. “Those pallets give a lot of wood.”

  Tristan nodded. “It has a lot of loot, though more spread out.”

  “Sounds good,” Kiri said.

  “What was that? The shipping yard?” a familiar voice cut in. Grey turned to find Hazel and her squad. Even though they had proven they weren’t a bottom squad, Hazel still made sure to troll his squad as much as possible. “Hey guys! Wanna go shipping yard?”

  “Yeah!” Jamar said with a mean smile. “Good place for mats.”

  “Totally.” Hazel folded her arms as she looked over them. “Let’s outbuild these baby noobs and make sure they’re homesick for another season.”

  “Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we can’t beat you,” Kiri said.

  Hazel laughed. “A few lucky battles don’t mean you’ll beat us, kiddo.”

  “C’mon, Kiri,” Grey said as he nudged her to keep walking. “It’s not worth it. There’s only one way to shut her up—proving her wrong.”

  “Good luck on that!” Hazel said as Grey’s squad moved to the opposite side of the battle warehouse.

  They sat in front of the rankings board, and Grey looked up at the list. If he would’ve ranked in the high forties after three weeks of playing in the real world, he would’ve been beyond proud of that. But in this virtual world, it didn’t feel like enough. He stared at the names just above him—Hazel’s squad, plus a few solo and duo players. There were so many above that, but right now those closer names were the ones they needed to climb over in the ranks.

  They all leaned in to whisper. There were only a few minutes before the Admin showed up to start the day’s battles.

  “Guess we’re not going to the shipping yard,” Tristan said. “They will definitely be there.”

  “Let’s just go anyway. We gotta learn how to beat them,” Grey insisted.

  “And how do we do that?” Ben’s voice carried his frustration. “Me and Tristan have been stuck at this rank forever. I wanna beat them, too, but I got nothing.”

  “I don’t know,” Grey admitted. “But we can’t just keep running away. How will we get better if we avoid really fighting?”

  Kiri shook her head. “They’ll just kill us, and our rank will drop.”

  “It doesn’t matter if we’re ranked in the nineties or in the fifties, does it?” Grey could hear the desperation in his voice as images of home filled his mind. “There are only five ranks that actually matter. How will we get closer to them if we’re afraid of the people holding them?”

  Grey’s squad sat silent. Maybe he’d gone too far. When he thought about what he was saying, it did sound crazy. Desperate. But he didn’t know what else to try and he really wanted to go home.

  Finally, Tristan let out a long sigh. “He sort of has a point. If we keep telling ourselves we can’t compete, they already have us beat mentally.”

  Kiri nodded. “My netball coach would say you gotta believe you can win. You can’t give up before you even start.”

  “We’ve been playing scared,” Grey said. “I mean, Hazel’s super mean, but she never plays scared. Ever. She goes in believing she’ll beat us and everyone.”

  Ben had stayed quiet through this, but he nodded as Grey spoke. “You’re not wrong … The truth is I am scared. I wanna go back home, too, Grey. And maybe being reckless will teach us something, but it might set us back in ranks more than we could ever catch up. I don’t know if I want to take that risk.”

  Grey could feel the fear as he looked at each person. No one wanted to lose rank—he didn’t either—but he had a feeling that fear would hold them back more than anything else. He’d have to try a subtler approach. “Just one battle then. What about that? We go all out with no fear on the first one today, and then we can avoid Hazel and whoever else you want.”

  The squad looked at each other for a moment as they thought it over. Tristan spoke first, “I can agree to that if Ben can.”

  Ben pursed his lips. “Well, we always have at least one bad game anyway … May as well.”

  “Sweet as,” Kiri said with a smil
e.

  Battles will begin in thirty seconds!

  Grey prepared himself. Even though they were already in the battle warehouse, they’d still be teleported to the ranking line that started and ended every day. In the blink of an eye, Grey stood in the line and the Admin appeared for her usual announcements.

  “Welcome to Day Twenty-Two of battles!” the Admin said in her overly cheery tone. “To report on the state of the game—all items remain the same, and there are no changes to the map. No glitches have been reported, and no patches will be forthcoming for the time being. I wish you luck.”

  The Admin disappeared, and the countdown for the first battle began. Grey took a deep breath in an attempt to steady himself.

  Grey and the rest of the players were transported to the Battle Bus, and he immediately checked its route. It would be flying over the northern part of the map, on a horizontal course from left to right. They’d go right over the shipping containers where they’d originally planned to land. Sometimes the route would be vertical or at a diagonal, and the path usually changed where people decided to land.

  “Still good on the shipping containers?” Grey asked.

  “May as well,” Ben said. He didn’t sound very convinced. “Could be a fast game.”

  “Or a fast one for them,” Grey replied. Positive thinking. He was determined to try it. Maybe he’d never brag like Hazel did, but there had to be a balance between confidence and humility.

  “You should take the lead, Grey,” Tristan said. “Since it’s your plan.”

  “Okay.” Grey had never taken the lead before. It made him nervous, but he reminded himself that his squad didn’t expect much from this game anyway. “Three, two, one—and jump!”

  Grey was the first of them out of the bus, and his heart raced as he flew toward the shipping containers. It was an unlabeled section of the map, between Tomato Town and Retail Row, and Grey worried he might miss it on the mini-map if he wasn’t careful. They had visited the area several times in their battles but had never landed there first. Everything looked a little different from the sky.

  Luckily, he spotted it with no trouble, thanks to the brightly colored containers that filled the area. The place was a maze with the containers acting as tall walls that created narrow paths.

  It would be tricky to navigate. He wasn’t about to pretend he knew where to land. “Tristan, can you help me out with loot locations? I don’t know them.”

  “Start inside the containers,” Tristan replied. “Go into an open one.”

  “Got it.” Grey guided his glider into an opening in the nearest orange shipping container, and sure enough, there was a gold box in there. They opened it to find a sniper for Kiri and a blue-colored shotgun. “Ben, grab the shotgun.”

  “Aye, aye, captain,” Ben said as he picked it up with its accompanying ammo.

  Grey gave the shield to Kiri and the bandages to Tristan, and they moved on to the next open container as quickly as they could. He was surprised to find there was actually a lot of loot in the area. Though some of it was spread out, they broke down pallets for wood material on their way.

  By the time they’d entered their fifth container and found a giant llama piñata, they were already sitting pretty with decent weapons and enough ammo, shield, and bandages to face a good fight.

  “Okay, this place is so underrated,” Ben said as they opened the llama. There were sticky grenades in there along with a few traps and more ammo. The best part was the 500 wood, brick, and metal that added to their stockpile of building materials. “So much loot!”

  “But it took longer to get …” Kiri eyed the door. “And where’s Hazel’s squad? I haven’t heard anything.”

  “Guess they lied,” Grey said. “Or they assumed we’d chicken out if we knew they were coming here.”

  “Mayb—” The sound of pickaxes on metal echoed through their container, alerting them that they were not alone anymore. Kiri peeked out the door. “There they are. I saw Hazel’s skin.”

  While many people liked to change up their skins—Grey was currently wearing the newest one he’d earned, a guy in a dino suit—Hazel always wore the same green-haired girl skin so everyone would know it was her.

  “They must be coming from Tomato Town or Retail Row.” Ben’s voice was laced with fear. “They’ll be stocked up.”

  “But we are, too,” Grey pointed out. Luckily, his squad wasn’t at the bottom of the yard but in one of the containers closer to the top. They had some height advantage. Grey gathered his courage. “Follow me, okay? No playing scared this battle.”

  Grey pulled out his building materials. He already had almost max wood thanks to the llama, so he built a ramp right out of the shipping container to get them to even higher ground. “Ben! Build walls behind if they shoot!”

  “Got it!”

  Grey kept laying down ramps and supporting walls until he got a good view of the shipping yard from above. He heard shots being fired, but he counted on Ben to take care of their protection from behind. Grey had to make sure the structure didn’t collapse on them from all the fired shots.

  Kiri took her own shots as they moved up the tower Grey built. “I got one low!”

  “Focusing!” Tristan added his fire to Kiri’s. “Downed!”

  “They’re boxing up,” Kiri reported.

  Boxing up meant their team was trying to heal the downed player in the protection of walls. Grey stopped building and pulled out his AR. “Everyone, focus on them!”

  Their shots brought down the protective walls, and someone on the enemy squad kept trying to rebuild. Another enemy shot their way, and Grey almost lost all of his shield. He moved back to build mode to put up their own wall, but he didn’t want to let them revive the downed player.

  “We’re pushing,” he said.

  “Are you crazy?” Ben asked.

  “For this game, yes.” Grey built a ramp and then more floors so they could get closer to Hazel’s squad. “Who’s got sticky grenades?”

  “Me. Throwing.” Ben, despite his fear, threw the grenade now that they were in range. It blew open the protective box, and now that all the walls were down, they had a wide-open shot on Hazel’s squad. And the high ground to boot.

  Grey switched to his weapon and opened fire with the rest of his squad.

  Kiri eliminated Sandhya.

  That must have been the downed player. The other three were on the move, but one fell just as Hazel threw up a wall to protect them yet again.

  “Get that downed!” Grey called out.

  Ben tossed another grenade and it stuck to the wall. Once they blew it open, Grey’s screen read: Ben eliminated Jamar.

  But Hazel and her remaining squad mate, Guang, had disappeared behind a few walls. Grey wanted to chase them, but then Tristan said, “Grey, storm’s coming.”

  Grey glanced at the map—the next safe zone was past Tomato Town, and they were even farther outside that. They only had thirty seconds … and that wasn’t enough. At least, it wasn’t until Grey spotted something among Sandhya’s loot. “Get that launch pad and let’s get out. We’ll have to get Hazel and Guang later.”

  “They’ll be behind us trying to get into the eye, too,” Kiri said as they grabbed the launch pad.

  They left the shipping yard behind, and Grey kept glancing back, waiting to see Hazel and Guang. The storm was closing in fast, and he imagined Hazel and Guang might already be taking damage from it. If his squad used the launch pad, anyone else who saw it would be able to use it, too. Grey had a feeling Hazel would be out for revenge after what happened in the shipping yard. She’d still be confident she could eliminate all of them even with only half a squad.

  Maybe confidence wasn’t always a good thing.

  But Grey could count on Hazel’s confidence, and he could use it to his advantage. Once they got to a higher hill, he said, “Use the launch pad now.”

  “Hazel and Guang will see it,” Ben said.

  “But we’ll land first,” Grey
said. “We can get them.”

  “Putting it down,” Tristan said as the storm consumed them.

  Grey began to take one tick of damage a second, since it was only the first storm. He jumped onto the launch pad and flew into the air. The option to open his glider came up, and he did so. He and his squad soared faster toward the eye of the storm, where they would be safe from the purple haze’s damage.

  He hoped there’d be no one waiting for them on the safe side, because he wanted to focus on the enemies behind them. “See anyone else?”

  “Not so far,” Ben replied as they glided into the eye of the storm. The damage stopped, but Grey had already lost a third of his health.

  “Hazel and Guang are airborne!” Kiri announced as she let a few shots fly. They made a loud, echoing noise that anyone in the area would hear. “Ugh, missed.”

  “Don’t waste your ammo,” Grey said. They would need that for future fights, and he had an idea of how they could eliminate these two players in a worse way. His avatar pulled out the blueprint and pencil to indicate Grey was in build mode.

  “You wouldn’t …” Tristan said. “That’s so mean.”

  “I’m sending a message.” Grey began to use the extra metal he got from the llama to build a wall right on the edge of the storm. He made it two stories high and then added a ramp and flooring so he could get up higher and make it even taller. He could see Hazel and Guang turning to the right in attempts to avoid his barricade, but other than that they were helpless, floating in the air. “Build more on the right! They’re turning.”

  “Got it!” Tristan said.

  Grey moved that direction as well, adding walls on top of Tristan’s. Maybe it was a waste of materials, but it was satisfying to see Hazel and Guang smack into the barricade while still taking damage on the other side of the storm.

  They shot frantically to break down the wall, and Grey got another idea. “Anyone have a bouncer?”

  “I do!” Kiri said.