The Next Plan

As we both sauntered further inside the forest, moving towards the supply box.

"Haaa... I can't walk anymore..." I heard a feeble girl's voice so I turned around.

"What? This early?'' She looked so tired that she had to take a knee. She was panting heavily. Was she this week?

By her attitude, I believed that she was more like some type of Yankee but by her looks now I'll have to change that.

"W-wait... for me..." I just wanted to look around to check whether we are near the supply box or not because we have been walking for quite a long time. But she must have interpreted that I was about to leave her.

"Don't worry I won't leave you all alone." instead of decreasing she started panting more frantically.

"*panting-panting*" Yep, that isn't normal at all.

"Hey, Alice, by any chance do you have asthma," I said, "Because you are holding your chest white hardly, furthermore you are panting too much."

"... do you have a problem with that!?"

"You should have told me this earlier." Maybe this is why she was having trouble.

"..."

We decided to stop but moved a little bit back because we might still be inside the 5-meter radius from the machine and our names might not be removed.

"Why don't I look for the supply box alone and you stay here?" I proposed an idea.

Earlier I wouldn't leave her alone but the situation has changed. She is having trouble walking and chances are that she would hardly be able to reach the machine. Before we started looking for a supply box there was a possibility that she might remove my name from the machine but now it's almost impossible. That's why I can look for the supply box for the time being.

"No, you'll take all the leftovers from the supply box." It looks like only her physical condition has been exhausted, her rationality is still filled with a little bit of energy.

"Can you stop me?" but the question is how will she stop me? Physically stopping me is literally impossible for her, in this condition.

"I-I'll..." she only thought halfway.

"So, how about this, you give me 100 points after we reach the supply box and return to our base?"

"Huh? Why would I give you points?"

"I don't think you have much of a choice. Either you pay me 100 points or I am going alone. Ah, also I could remove your name from the machine. I can do both of them in a sprint. I might not look like it but I used to run a few marathons so I have enough stamina."

"..." I feel a little bad. If her physical condition was perfect she might have been able to avoid all this. But this is for my survival so I will do whatever it takes to survive, I can't show sympathy.

"Ah, come on, say something." seeing her sit silently makes me look like a villain here.

"..."

"Alright, how about this. You owe me a big giant favor. I can choose wherever, whenever and you have to return the favor at all cost." I cannot compromise more.

"... okay."

"Look if we want to survive u think we should form a treaty with equal footing. This might be a better option for both of us." The most fearsome thing is getting betrayed by someone who you are close to.

That's why I don't want to get backstabbed by her.

"What do you mean by forming a treaty?" What part did she not understand?

"I'll be straightforward. I don't want to get backstabbed so to decrease that possibility we form a team till the end of Task-2. It will be beneficial for both of us."

"So, what are the rules?"

"Hmm... okay so firstly, no one will remove each other's names from the machine." I proposed the first idea.

"Okay, that makes sense," she replied.

"Second is that... we will have to share everything. Like points awarded, food, water, etc."

"Okay." Alice listened to these rules quite seriously.

"Third... is that we will have to at least know the approximate amount of points we possess. Not the exact amount, just like more than 100 or less than 100, like that.`` This seems a little bit excessive but if she agrees to this I will be able to get an idea about how many points she has right now.

"No, I don't think that is necessary. Also, no one will have points around 100 anymore. The least amount was 350 for the second task." I thought so. She declined it instantly.

"It was just an example, don't take that seriously."

"Is that all?" her attitude became the same as before. She must have recovered from all that exhaust.

"Yes, that's all."

"But how will you make sure that either of us doesn't break the treaty?"

"That's what I need to think. We'll talk about this in much more detail later so shall we move forward now that you look like you have recovered?"

"Alright."

I need to think of something that will make sure that no one backstabs anyone.

...

We moved as the sunlight kept on decreasing.

Alice hasn't said a single word after we started moving again. Maybe she is covering her energy by talking less. The way she talks with such attitude and vigor must be needing a lot of breath and after observing her all this time I could say that it's in her nature so she can't talk normally even if she wants to.

"Alice are you alright?" I wanted to just confirm it.

If her response will be the same as usual then my theory will be right but if she responds normally then I have anticipated wrongly.

"Do I look okay?"

"Yes..."

"Then that's your answer."

Yup, even if she wants to conserve her breath for as long as possible she can't talk normally. Maybe because of her dignity. Who knows, I can never understand what's going on inside a woman's brain...

"Allen, look over there!" she exclaimed as she was pointing towards a certain direction.

"What...?" I peeked towards her way and then towards the direction pointed by her.

I saw something sparkly and some kind of rappers there.

Alice paced towards that thing.

"Argh...!" as she reached.

It was a big small red-colored crate with a tiny opening in front.

"Why did you shout?" I said as I reached the crate as well.

"It's empty."

"Well, we expected that as much so no point in whining now." the probability of the crate being empty was certainly high as compared to the crate having few leftovers.

"..." as I strode my eye around I saw a few silver-colored rappers lying near the crate. What might be those?

I picked it up but nothing was written on it. But...

"It smells like bread." I noticed a faint smell of bread.

"How do you know that?" Alice asked. She was trying to smell it but couldn't figure it out.

"I often used to eat bread late at night so I know the same thing very well." That's true. I would stay up late and I got hungry so I just ate bread with jam or something like that.

"Hmm..."

"But with this, it is confirmed that there is always more than one thing inside the supply box. The number of rappers and the size of the crate proves it," I said, "What do you say?" I turned over to Alice to hear her opinion.

"..." no response came.

"Alice?" I called out to her but she didn't even budge.

"Oi, Alice!"

"Huh? W-what? Why are you shouting?"

"You didn't respond so I had to shout." What happened to her? She was looking at the crate... no she is looking for something besides the crate.

I moved further to see what was lying there and I saw something which I had a gut feeling would be there on the island but I didn't want that to be true. At least not now.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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