===Rafferty Bucke===

The black ashy air stung my lungs, and I let out another ugly cough. Recovering from the impact, I shouted. "Judumai! I got frozen!"

I panted from the heat which only drew in more ashy air, and my clothes were now completely soaked in sweat. My entire body was sprawled out, my arms layed out in front of me.

Bracing myself, I shouted again. "Judumai! Ju-" A bout of coughing interrupted my scream for help. I paused, shutting my eyes tight and taking a deep breath in. "JUDU-" but it only transitioned into another frenzy of coughs, with me trying to stabilize my body from shaking too much from the convulsions.

'Is this it? At this rate I might die from smoke inhalation before the time limit. But... I'm on the ground! There should be the least smoke here, so why is the air so bad?'

Moving my gaze without turning my head, I gazed at my surroundings, which didn't prove to be too helpful as my head was mostly facing down. But it was there, not too far away from me: a vent on the floor with a plume of coal-black smoke billowing from it.

'Okay, the odds are likely that Judumai is looking for me. He'll likely find me eventually, so what do I do in the meantime?'

I tilted my head further down towards the carpet. 'When you're exhausted you start panting, but isn't it better to breathe through your nose instead? Nose hairs filter out debris, so maybe it'll prevent ash from entering my lungs.'

I slowed my breathing down, squeezing my eyes shut from the burn as snot dripped ran down my chin, dripping onto the carpet. At the very least, the discomfort I was currently in was dulling the effects from the scorpion sting.

Slowing down my breathing, I stayed in this position as the room continued to get hotter, the sweat now pouring out of my clothing puddling onto the carpet.

Then, a thundering explosion, the ripple shaking my body and causing a wave of small trembles from all surrounding furniture. A shower of dusty debris fell from the ceiling, including a dislodged ceiling tile that crashed into my thigh, earning a pained yelp from me as it shattered.

'What was that?'

In that small moment of clarity, every sensation of pain around my body engulfed me as echoes of pain relentlessly beat down on me from my throat, lungs, thigh, and hip. "Judumai." I croaked. "Judum-" I stopped, knowing it would be for no avail.

My bracelet buzzed, and by straining my eyes I saw that the last person had died. Only Judumai remained.

"Five minutes remaining."

'I need to do something. I need to let him know I'm still frozen, but what can I do?'

My body tensed as I racked through my mind, thinking of something, anything, in the rules that could help me out. 'Moving when frozen results in electrocution. From the bracelet. But what if I took it off? How would I do that? Well, what would I do if I hypothetically took it off? Then I'd take off my shoes and run.'

But then the question remains... How could I possibly remove my bracelet?

'Chop my arm off? I'd be dead meat in all future Spades games. But if the bracelets are electric... if I somehow stuffed layers of an insulator between it and my skin, then the shock will have no effect! To do that, I'd have to suffer through a shock, but...

'But... It would take too long to do, I'd have to take off my shorts and stuff it through, but that'll be ten full seconds of electrocution already at a generous underestimation.'

I have no realistic way of getting to Judumai, but what if I get Judumai to me? How could I make noise without using my mouth?

'Well, realistically I set off a rifle, maybe repeatedly. If Judumai was able to escape the fire, maybe I can. No, that's too risky especially when I'm being electrocuted. Then maybe I throw something at it? Will it even be heavy enough? And on top of that, I don't even have anything in my pockets.

'But Kiwa, she has her purse with her. What did she have in there? Hmm, there were...'

Then, a shout. "RAFFERTY!"

My eyes shot open.

"RAFFERTY!?"

"I'm here—" The sound of his frantic footsteps shook the floor. "Please h-hear me, I'm right here." My voice was beyond a whisper, but not by much.

"RAFFERTY, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, AND YOU'RE NOT FROZEN, MEET ME AT THE EAST STAIRWELL WHEN THREE MINUTES REMAIN. IF YOU'RE FROZEN, TRY TO SHOUT AS LOUD AS YOU CAN WHERE YOU ARE."

His shadow came into view. But he was just off in the distance, thrashing his head around looking for me.

"Judumai." I breathed in, harnessing all the strength I had left. "Judumai!" But the yell, while louder, was a mumble at best.

I couldn't blame him, the entire floor looks the exact same. But thinking back, there's too many holes in my plan. To get an item from Kiwa's bag and throw it, I'd have to suffer countless shocks and there's the fact that it might not even be heavy enough. So then that means—

Wait.

Kiwa's bag.

"Okay, okay, um..." She opened it and dug through its contents. "I have my wallet, my phone, which unfortunately doesn't work since I've arrived, an alarm keychain, pepper spray, but that's pretty much it."

An alarm keychain.

"Three minutes remaining."

I found the answer.

Wasting no time, I sprung out from my location and leaped towards her body, but the bracelet immediately reacted and plunged my body into a fury of electricity, and I didn't even have the breath to scream so I endured the sensation of my skin melting, the feeling doing little to slow me down as I finally made the final step and collapsed, my arms dropping into her purse.

I was a puddle–a sweating, panting mess as I wove my finger by only millimeters, trying to feel for the keychain.

'Where is it!?'

My entire body pounded alongside my heart, and the pain bore down on me like a truck. My arms were gelatin, and I couldn't even tell one texture from the other. I think I heard the noise of a door opening, but I wasn't even sure anymore. My finger grazed on something cold, something hard.

Was this it? Over the next several seconds, I ran my finger across its surface and felt a small indentation. 'This has got to be it!' I pressed on it, and the siren went off, pounding into my ears as I breathed a sigh of relief.

"One minute left."

Now, it was all up to Judumai.

===Judumai Waka===

A sound.

Not a natural one arising from the ambience of the building turning into ruins, but something of a siren. I gasped. "RAFFERTY!" I had been scrambling across the fifth floor for the past thirty seconds, and somehow it seemed that time had slowed despite the inevitable ticking of the clock.

"One minute left."

"RAFFERTY, I HEAR YOU!" I bolted down the hall, but the sound began fading away. I rested my arm against a wall to take a second to catch my breath. Drawing a shaky breath, I continue to run, the exhaustion in my chest aching with pulses of pain that flashed with each breath I took.

I turned a corner, turning my head and scanning for any signs of him. The sound was imminent; I had to be close. The smoke scraped ash against my lungs and nose, and my eyes teared up against the burning haze.

Walking down a series of cubicles, I glanced down at my bracelet to see only forty-five seconds remaining. Letting out a sudden cough, I pushed forward, the smoke leaving me in a light spell of dizziness.

Turning down a final corner, I yelled as I saw a corpse; it was Kiwa's body with her head completely macerated with bullets. Glancing further down the hall, I saw him.

"Rafferty!"

And just at that moment, the tagger turned the other corner.

I ducked behind a desk as he shot at me, taking a quick peek at my watch to see only thirty seconds remained. "Just give me some time, Rafferty! The tagger is right down the hall!".

I saw a folded table across the hall, with the legs tucked in and the tabletop folded in half, propped against the wall. Bracing myself, I charged forward and grabbed onto the table in the time he was reloading.

"Open!" I yelled, digging my fingers through the legs trying to pry the top open. I heard the clink of his gun, and swung the unopened table in front of me, stumbling as I moved forward and a bullet bounced off one of the legs with a clink.

Instead of reloading, the tagger dug out another gun from his jacket and aimed at me. With a final heave I clicked the tabletop open, the folded half popping up in the nick of time to deflect a bullet, leaving a large dent in the plastic.

"Ten. Nine. Eight."

Grabbing a hold of the table legs, I sprinted forward, the pressure alleviating all pain and burns as my body focused on nothing else other than carrying me forward.

"Seven. Six."

The tagger shot simultaneously with both his guns, the impact leaving a slight dip in speed and not breaking my run. Out of options, the tagger charged forward, and soon, Rafferty's body was within reach of both of us.

"Five. Four."

He was faster. He leaped over Rafferty's body and lunged at my face, and I raised the table, staying behind it but launching myself and all my weight against it.

I felt the impact as it collided with the tagger as it stumbled.

"Three. Two."

I jumped forward, feeling the slight, final desperate graze of the tagger's finger against my shirt.

"One."

I landed on my stomach, my fingertip making contact with Rafferty's hand, without a centimeter to spare.

Rafferty slowly curled up his fingers, as I silently absorbed the pain from the landing impact, gritting my teeth but knowing he had it worse than me.

Groaning, he raised himself with shaky arms and used a nearby table to finally stand. And despite everything, he offered me an arm. I took it, and he helped me up.

"Congratulations to the two survivors! Your tenacity and grit carried you through the game. The lobby is now unlocked, so please make your way downstairs to exit the venue safely."

The tagger slowly emerged in a daze.

"L-Let's go..." Rafferty turned the other way and slowly walked on, and I limped after him, flinching at the sound of the explosion behind us.

We made the arduous descent down the stairwell. Fresh air never tasted so sweet, and I greedily gulped deep breaths of the clear, ashless air.

Upon entering the lobby, our shoes and bracelet beeped, with the latter loosening.

You may now remove the accessories needed for this game.

I slipped the bracelet off, letting it fall to the ground, before bending over and taking off the shoes.

I heard miniscule whirs, and against the wall was the printer pushing out the two playing cards, with Rafferty taking his, but leaving the Visa in its slot.

"Will you be okay?" I asked.

"I'll b-be fine. You have a l-limp though, how about you?"

"Oh, um..." I looked down at the shard of glass embedded in my leg. "I can take care of this in my own time. Really, that's the only injury I got. Are you sure you'll be fine?"

"I just h-have a bruise from the bullet, and the scorpion bite. And a cut on my l-leg from when some rubble fell. I-I'll be okay, really."

I sighed. "This was pretty brutal for only Six of Clubs."

"Yeah, this p-place is pretty unforgiving. I feel bad a-about Kiwa though."

"Those things happen. There's nothing we can do. You're already good for trying to help her out. Most wouldn't have, you know."

He smiled. "Thanks."

Looking up, I said, "this place isn't safe, we should probably leave."

"That's p-probably for the b-best."

We walked through the glass doors and were met with the endless sea of nighttime ambience: chirping crickets, whistling wind, and rustling leaves.

"Well, it's been nice to know you, Rafferty. Maybe we'll see each other again soon."

"Yeah. It's b-been nice to know you too. Bye."

"Bye." I waved as he walked away, unable to fight the feeling that there was something strange about him. Like fate had somehow led to us meeting. Or that there was something he was hiding.

But regardless, this was the Borderlands. I just had to focus on my next game.

With that, I turned around, and walked into the night.

Words: 2179