Chapter 17

"Hey, did you kill all these skull masked people?" I asked. The receptionist guy shook his head. "Nope! A young lady with black and blue eyes, quite like yourself, burst through the doors and shot them. They were keeping my hostage." The receptionist guy said cheerfully.

Seriously, this guy is weird. Wait... I reached into my back pocket and grabbed a photo of Eliza. I showed it to him and he nodded. "That's her." He said. I smiled. "Where is she now? Do you know?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Unfortunately, the last thing she said was that she has to find her sister. She ran off." He replied. I frowned, my heart sinking. "Which direction did she run?" I asked.

He thought about it for a moment. "I believe... hm, she ran towards the tower." He replied. I nodded and, despite the pain from my gunshot wound, began racing in the direction of the tower. "Be careful Farah. There are a lot of infected and skull masked people. Not to mention, you were shot an hour ago." TJ said, running beside me. "I know, I just... I have to find my sister." I replied.

TJ nodded. The six of us raced down the street until finally, the tower loomed before us. "We're here." I breathed. "Yes, we are." Arthur said. He stared at the tower in wonder. "The receptionist guy said your sister headrd towards the tower. She probably went inside. I believe we should do the same." Arthur said, looking at me.

I nodded. We stepped closer to the tower. "Stop moving and turn around slowly." A deep voice from behind me said. I froze. "I wasn't asking. Turn around, put your hands up, and get on your knees. Otherwise, I'm going to blast a hole through your head." The voice said again.

We all turned around and got on our knees, our hands up. Before us stood about eleven men and woman in skull masks. There veichles were parked behind them and the all carried large guns. The man in front who has spoken took off his skull mask and tossed it to the side.

"You know, when I heard my brother had been stabbed in the neck with a knife in the restaurant, you can imagine how pissed I got. Then, I heard that you all escaped. That just made me angrier." He said, he strapped his assault rifle to his back and grabbed his pistol.

"All we wanted was your mayor and this town. That's it. But no, instead you had to go and kill my brother. So now, I'll kill that damn mayor. After all, you killed my brother to protect him so it's only right I complete my brothers mission." He said.

A gunshot fired. "I suggest you back off. You see, I don't take to kindly to people pointing a gun at my sister or her friends." A very familiar voice said behind me. Eliza. Suddenly, a small cylinder container rolled in front of us and I smiled. Smoke bomb.

Smoke began filling the air all around us and we immediately stood and ran in the direction of the tower. "Eliza!" I shouted. She smiled at me, tears filling her eyes. I ran at her and lifted her up into a bear hug. "Oh, Jesus Christ! Don't squeeze me to death!" She shouted. I laughed and set her down.

"We have to run, the smoke will dissipate soon." Eliza said. I nodded. "Run into the tower!" I shouted to the others. TJ went to my side instead. "Let's go." TJ said. I nodded. "Ah!" A scream sounded behind me. I looked back to see Stephanie on the ground holding her ankle in pain.

Arthur ran to her side. A shot sounded and Arthur fell to the ground beside her, a bullet hole in his head. Stephanie screamed again. I ran forward but TJ and Eliza grabbed me from behind, pulling me away. "We have to help Stephanie!" I shouted.

"We have to go, now!" TJ shouted back. Stephanie stared at me. She reached her hand out, begging me to help her. Another shot fired. Another body hit the ground. Another friend dead. Tears streamed down my cheeks as TJ and Eliza continued to pull me backwards.

Suddenly, everything went black as they shoved me through the entrance of the tower. "Hello! Welcome to the Tower! You are now an official player! I will now scan your memories and your personality and assign a class based off of the data!" A woman's voice said. Around me was only darkness.

Suddenly, my head started pounding. Tears continued to stream down my cheeks as I thought of Arthur and Stephanie. "Done! Congratulations Farah Daine! After examing the data I have assigned you to the Character Class. You will now enter the first floor of the Tower! Have fun!" The woman's voice said again.

Suddenly, everything around me became bright again and I had to blink a few times so my eyes could adjust to the sudden brightness. "She's awake!" Mike said. He crouched beside me as I sat up. "Are you okay? Where are Arthur and Stephanie?"

He asked. Grace crouched on the other side of me. I shook my head. "That skull bastard shot them both in the head. Their dead." I replied. Despite not really knowing them, Mike and Grace seemed sad. I didn't know them well, but I had already considered them friends.

I swear, I will be the one to end that bastards life if it's the last thing I do. "I'm sorry Farah." TJ said. I glared at her and stood. "Farah!" Eliza shouted. She ran into my arms and hugged me tightly. I hugged her back. "Anyone else get assigned a class?" I asked. They all nodded. I pulled out of Eliza's hug. "Well, we might as well figure this out. What did everyone get?" I asked.

"I got assigned the Guardian Class." Mike said. I nodded. "I got assigned the Priestess Class." Grace said. I nodded. "I got the Dead Eye Class." Eliza said. "I got the Rogue Class." TJ said. I scoffed. "No surprise there." I muttered. "I got the Character Class, whatever that is." I told them.

"Hm..." Mike said. "You know something?" I asked him. He looked unsure before answerkng. "It's kind of stupid but I played a lot of video games before the tower appeared. Usually, hm... Status Window!" He said. Suddenly, he gasped. "Holy crap!" He said. I stared at him, confused.

"What?" I asked, confused. He looked at me. "Say 'Status Window'." He replied. I rolled my eyes saying that aloud sounded embarrassing as hell. "Status Window." I said. Suddenly, a large blue screen appeared in front of me.

I jumped back in surprise. "What's wrong?" TJ asked. "Just do what Mike said." I replied. I viewed the screen before me. In the top left corner was my name and beneath that, my class. Below, that were my attributes.

&______________________________________&

Name: Farah Daine

Class: Character

Points: 3

Potential: -----

Strength: 6

Stamina: 7

Speed: 7

Endurance:6

Luck: 8

Wisdom: 3

Mana: 0

Skills:

Steal (Lv 1)

Gift (Lv 1)

&______________________________________&

"Huh?" I said aloud as I looked at my skills. What do they do? Also, why the hell is this tower like a video game? "Something wrong?" TJ asked. I shook my head. I waved my hand and the screen disappeared. I smiled and clenched my fist.

First, I'm going to kill that skull mask bastard and then I'm going to destroy this tower with the powers it gave me. I grinned. "So, what now?" Grace asked. I shook my head and surveryedour surroundings. We were in a dark, damp stone tunnel with torches on the walls.

I could faintly hear screaming down the hallway. "I think we should sit down and rest. We'll wait for a bit and try to get a handle on our skills and what they can do." I said. They nodded. We all sat down in a circle, with Eliza beside me.

"So, how do we activate our skills?" Eliza asked. "Maybe we just say the name of the skill?" Mike answered, unsure. "Steal." I said. TJ gasped. "What?" I asked. "One of my skills just disappeared!" She said, frantic. I checked my status window and smiled.

"Does the skill happens to be named cloak?" I asked. She nodded. "How did you know?" She asked. Then, her eyes widened. "It's seems that my skill can take other people's skills. That gives me an idea about what my other skill can do." I said, looking at TJ.

"Give." I said. She smiled. "I have my skill back." She said. I grinned widely. Grace smiled. "Does anyone have a knife?" She asked. I slid my knife to her. She pricked her finger with the knife. "Goddess, heed my call and heal this unworthy soul." She said.

The blood disappeared from her finger and it was healed. "Awesome." I said. Mike nodded. In agreement. "Silencer." Eliza said. Nothing happened. "Eliza, look at your gun!" Mike said. We all looked at where Eliza's fun was sheathed and saw the end of the gun was glowing blue.

She pulled the gun out and aimed it down the tunnel. When she pulled the trigger, we hard nothing until the bullet slammed into the wall as the tunnel curves to the left. "Amazing!" I said.

She nodded with a proud smile on her face as she admired her gun. "Projectile assist." TJ said. She threw her knife down the tunnel but it turned around mid air and hit the wall just above her head. She grinned. "I threw it in the wrong direction but I wanted it to land just above my head. This skill is awesome!" She said.

We all turned to Mike. He looked embarrassed. "Boulder smash." He muttered. His fist began glowing a dark orange and he slammed his fist into he concrete. The concrete cracked and broke apart. "Holy shit." I said. "I have two skills, what about all of you?" I asked. "I have two skills as well." Eliza replied. "Same here." TJ said.

"Yup." Mike said. "Same." Grace said. "Then-" I began but was interrupted by the ground beginning to shake. "What's happening?!" TJ shouted over the noise. "I don't know!" I shouted back. Then, the ground cracked and opened up, swallowing all of us.