Survive pt.4

As Adrian reached the top floor, he collapsed atop the group in a gasping heap. Slowly, a puddle of sweat pooled around him while his legs occasionally spasmed and twitched.

*Thud.*

"Groan…" Randy fell beside him in much the same condition as himself, if not slightly worse.

"…"

As they laid there, panting for breath, they waited.

"…"

And waited…

"…"

And waited…

*THUD*

Finally, in a state far worse than the other two, Phineas reached the top. His mental fortitude had always been worse than the average, leading to a lack of exercise and subsequent obesity back in reality, so this climb had really hit him hard.

"Never *pant* again," he spluttered weakly. "Never… again."

"Heh," Adrian choked out a laugh. "You say that now, but when we get those Pods I bet you'll change your tune real quick."

"Yeah," Randy chimed in. "I heard the exercise you do in VR can translate to reality. If you want to-"

"SCREEEE!"

His words were cut off by a scream coming from down the stairwell, causing all three men to grimace at both the noise, and the knowledge that they had to get up.

They were getting closer.

"Crap," Phineas whined. "I hoped they were still clogged at the 25th floor…"

Adrian slowly got to his feet while rolling his eyes, "Those vending machines weren't going to keep them blocked forever. If they can knock down houses, they were going to get through them eventually."

"Plus your fat ass took too long," Randy piped in from the side.

"Hmph," Phineas snorted indignantly, weakly getting up as well. "Do I look fat to you? You're just giving me a bad rep to all the viewers."

At those words, Adrian turned to look at one of the many billboards out the nearby window, his eyes widening to the size of saucers after reading what was written.

"Only four of us left…" he whispered, his body trembling in shock.

Phineas' and Randy's heads snapped to the window at the news, their eyes comically following suit shortly after.

""Holy shit…"" they muttered in synch.

"But there's only three of us… who else is there?" Phineas thought aloud, terrified at the notion of someone hiding away and lasting long enough to outlive them.

"I think I know who," Adrian replied, his voice suddenly hard as steel.

Confused, the other two turned to look in his direction, only to see one other person sharing the same rooftop as themselves. Both their gazes hardened as well as they all glanced at each other, sharing a silent conversation that every viewer could discern the meaning of.

There were no allies to be made by this point in the tournament. Everyone was an enemy, human and infected players alike.

It didn't help that, after they saw this person's state, flames of anger arose from deep within their chests. Here they were, fighting for their lives across the whole of New York City while this guy was just sitting up here, drinking the day away with not a care in the world.

It felt that all their struggles were being mocked.

They knew he hadn't come the same way they had either, the untouched ammo cache had been a clear indication that no one had passed through the lobby all day. No sane person would've just left that lying around.

It was with these thoughts that the trio marched towards the man with fire in their eyes. Just like they'd expected, they didn't recognize the man. Almost no one used their real face when you could be pretty much anyone. Hell, they'd crossed at least 15 copies of Tony Stark today.

So, with this guy hiding his username, only the viewers watching the official livestream would know who he was.

They didn't think of the consequences of their actions either, the prize was so enticing that they'd even eliminate their own families to win. Had they not come to an agreement to equally share the profits of selling the blueprints beforehand, there'd be no way their existing partnership would've lasted till this point.

As they approached the drunkard, he stirred, spinning his wobbling head to watch them.

"Heey~," he slurred. "Who're you? How'd you *hic* into me casa?"

The trio didn't respond as they stopped and loomed over him. They weren't trying to do so, it was just that the man couldn't get up. He'd tried multiple times, but just kept falling over, and over, and over.

"Hey, boss," Randy leaned over and whispered into Adrian's ear. "We don't even need to push this guy. If we just wait a little bit, he'll fall off the edge himself."

Adrian looked down and smiled at the thought. Even though this was just a game, he didn't want to look like the bad guy here. After all, who knows what those viewers are thinking about right now. This guy could just be some poor bum out of luck and he'd look like a real heartless bastard if he literally kicked him while he's down.

Little did the trio know however, that the stream chat was going wild at the moment...

[Holy shitt! Look how wasted Tony Stark is! LMAOOO!]

[PUSH HIM OFF!!!! This bastard's been drinking up there all day!!]

[Push him the FUCK OFF! Stark's got enough money he doesn't need anymore!!]

[PUSH]

[PUSH!]

[PUSH THE BASTARD!!]

"Randy's right, boss," Phineas whispered in the other ear. "Hell, if we just stand over by the other edge the 'fected will take care of him even if he doesn't fall by himself. We just gotta wait it out."

Adrian thought it over. On one hand, he really wanted to punt this guy off a building. His entire attitude was just screaming 'kick me! kick me!' and Adrian was finding it increasingly harder to resist the urge as the seconds past. On the other, he didn't want to know what his daughter would think of him if he did…

[KICK HIM OFF DAD! I'LL BE KNOWN AS THE GIRL WHO'S DAD PUNTED TONY STARK OFF HIS OWN ROOF!!]

Alas, when he pictured her looking up at him with those big, disappointed eyes, he just couldn't bring himself to do it and with a sigh, he turned away.

[NOOOOO!!]

[FUCKKAHDSJ! Why is there no justice in this world?!?]

[So it's true… Good guys die, while villains live forever…]

Randy and Phineas nodded in acceptance and the trio moved over to occupy the other ledge, readying their rifles and pointing them at the door. As they'd agreed on earlier, they were going to have one last stand against the tide.

As they prepared, the man across from them stumbled about as he watched them with curiosity. Sometimes he asked them questions, while at others he just slurred random nonsense, but they ignored him all the same.

He couldn't apparently get up to his feet anyways, so they weren't worried about him coming over and trying to push them off. Hell, the man probably didn't even know where he was considering he kept telling them to, 'get out of his house if they weren't going to bring him another bottle of booze'.

The trio was starting to get tired of his ramblings. There was just so much a man can take and he just wouldn't. shut. up. Thankfully, they were spared from his presence by the most unlikeliest of heroes.

""SCREEEEEE!""

They'd finally caught up.

"WHHHEEEEEEeeeeeee!"

And the drunkard fell.