"The challenge is called infected."
A low murmur spread through the room almost instantly.
"This challenge has a lot of rules, so you have to listen carefully," Mr Gerald said, his voice echoing off the walls. "The rules will also show on the screens in your zones after my explanation, but it's best you understand from me."
"This is gonna be something complex innit," Malakai mumbled, his body language relaxing, tempted to zone off.
"Shh. Malakai, pay attention," Tanisha quietly told him, putting a finger to her lips.
"Ahem," Mr Gerald cleared his throat. Preparing to talk for a long time.
The low murmurs died down as the students braced for the explanation.
"Challenge seven. Infected," he formally began.
"There are five teams. Each team consists of thirty students. This challenge is called infected... so the objective is simple. Have the most surviving members by the end of the challenge."
Malakai and Ash exchanged a quick smirk at the wording.
"Every person will be given a wristband. This wristband will track your status throughout the challenge," Mr Gerald continued. "This wristband can be put on either wrist. However, it has to be visible at all times. You cannot cover it with your sleeve. The wristband isn't anything special. It is a blank wristband that has no other purpose than tracking if you are infected or not."
The speaker went silent for a moment. Mr Gerald gave himself a brief pause.
"Within each team, there are two key roles," he continued. "A carrier and a doctor. Each team must assign one person to each role."
The atmosphere in the room shifted. Eyes started moving to bodies. It was like everyone was judging everyone. Seeing who would be best for the roles, despite not knowing what the roles entailed.
"The carrier is responsible for secretly infecting members of other teams. And the doctor has the ability to heal infected teammates," Mr Gerald simply explained.
"I wanna be the carrier. I'm gonna infect everyone," Ash eagerly whispered to the group.
Sabrina and Malakai side-eyed each other at that comment. Both knowing he wasn't going to be the carrier.
"To get into more details about the roles, I have to explain how this challenge works." Mr Gerald gave himself another little break because he wasn't going to stop the next time he spoke.
"This challenge will have multiple rounds. Each round is 30 minutes with 10-minute breaks in between. During the rounds, you will be released into the arena. In the arena, you will be able to do whatever you want. There are no specific objectives you have to complete. You can walk around the arena, talk to people from other teams or have fun. This is where the carrier is important. The carrier has to secretly infect other people during the rounds. To do this, they have to get their wristband close to another person's wristband. The carrier doesn't have to touch the wristband. They just have to move their wristband close enough. About holding hand distance. The person will only know they've been infected when the round is over, and they're back in their team zone. The text 'infected' will appear on the screen of their wristband. Now this is where the doctor is crucial. Only the doctor can cure the infected with vaccines. Each team starts with 5 vaccines. You can find vaccines that are hidden in random spots in the arena, and you can also gain vaccines through mini challenges around the arena."
"This sounds good," Sabrina said, a small, excited smile tugging her lips.
"Sounds kinda chill, I can't lie," Malakai replied. "It's different from what I thought it would be though."
"The doctor heals the infected by tapping the vaccine onto their wristband. This loads the vaccines on the wristband. Then the doctor taps their wristband on the infected's wristband. This treats the infected teammates. However, if the infected are not treated, they are eliminated, and their infection spreads to a random team member. The infection could last 2 to 4 rounds, depending on various factors, so getting vaccines is important. And to make things more interesting, each team will be given a toy gun with one bullet."
Tanisha immediately turned to Malakai, "You're not having the gun."
Malakai smirked, "I didn't want a toy gun anyway."
"You can probably work out with the gun that you can shoot a person from another team. If you shoot the carrier, you will eliminate them, and their team will not be able to infect other teams, as their carrier is eliminated. If you shoot their doctor, you will eliminate them, and their team will not be able to heal the infected, as their doctor is eliminated. That is why you should keep your roles secret and let only your team know. But beware, if you shoot a person who isn't the doctor or carrier, the shooter gets eliminated. Therefore, you cannot shoot carefree. Like the vaccines, you can get bullets by finding them or gaining them from the mini challenges," Mr Gerald took a breath. "Finally, the points. As I said at the start, the aim is to have the most surviving members. So, the team with the most members at the end will get 1000 points. The team with the second-most surviving members will get 800 points. Third place will get 600 points, fourth place will get 400 points, and last place will get 200 points."
"Exactly like the second challenge," Sabrina noted.
"And that is the challenge," Mr Gerald concluded. "I hope all of you understood that. If not, the rules are on the screens in your zone. There will also be screens around the arena showing the rules, and teachers will be available if you have any questions. The challenge will start soon. Good luck to all of you".
The speaker cut off with a sharp click, leaving everyone staring at each other in awkward silence.
"Now what?" Malakai said, breaking the silence, looking at the people near him.
"We need to pick who's going to be the carrier and the doctor," Tanisha replied.
"And how are we gonna do that?" Malakai asked.
Tanisha looked around at the scattered bodies in the room, chatting away. "Good question."
"Don't worry gang. I've got an idea," Ash confidently said, tapping his chest. He turned to the room and, "Everybody! Come over here! We're gonna decide the roles!"
Malakai let out a little quiet laugh, "I love this guy man," he said, seeing Ash order everyone around.
Surprisingly, Ash's efforts worked. The team loosely formed a group in the middle of the room with Ash, Malakai, Tanisha and Sabrina at the front.
All the eyes landed on Ash. "Why is everybody looking at me?" he asked, frowning.
"You said we were going to decide the roles," Liya said.
"Ah… when I said we, I meant us," Ash replied, gesturing to his group. "And by us, I meant Malakai."
Malakai's head slowly turned to Ash, his brows furrowed.
"Go on homie. You're the leader," Ash said, pushing Malakai's back, shoving him forward.
The eyes transferred to Malakai, who stood awkwardly in front of them, meeting those eyes, not knowing what to say.
He dropped his head and sighed before speaking, "Before I say anything, does anyone want me to be the leader?" he asked with his hands slightly out.
He left that question hanging in the air. It hung in the air and dropped without an answer.
"Nice," Malakai said sarcastically, nodding. "I'm not gonna lie, I didn't want to be the leader anyway. So imma volunteer Sabrina as tribute," he said, stepping back and showcasing her.
"Wha- Are you sure about this?" Sabrina whispered, shooting him a worried look.
"Why not innit," Malakai carelessly shrugged. "Unless someone else wants to be in charge?" he asked everyone.
That question was once again answered with silence.
Malakai smirked, lifting his shoulders, "Looks like you're the leader." He took a step back and let Sabrina soak up the attention.
"Umm. Okay," Sabrina set herself and took a second to compose herself. "I'm going to ask again just in case. Does anyone want to be the leader?"
"It's fine. You can be the leader," Mark quickly but politely spoke up, not letting the silence be reintroduced.
Sabrina scanned at her teammates, "Okay," she said. "You guys heard how important these roles are, so deciding who's going to be what is going to be difficult. Is anyone confident they can do a good job in either of the roles?"
The familiar silence was reintroduced.
"Why don't we let Malakai be the carrier?" Ash said. "He's crazy. He'll infect everyone."
"Picking me will be too bait (obvious)," Malakai replied. "For this challenge imma be a passenger."
"You still have to help out. You can't do nothing," Tanisha told him, feeling like he wasn't going to try.
"Yeah, obviously," Malakai replied. "I'm just saying I can't carry the team innit."
Sabrina was still struggling with the silent crowd. No one was trying to help her out. People were on their phones to avoid eye contact. She had to take control and decide for herself. She stepped forward and walked to another girl.
"Naomi, can you be the doctor, please?"
Naomi blinked at her, "Do I have to?" she asked, sounding like she didn't want to.
"You won't have to do much. You're really chill, you'll stay under the radar. No one will suspect you," Sabrina replied, really encouraging her. "The only thing you'll have to do is heal people when the round is over in here. And make sure no one finds out you're the doctor."
Naomi could see the trust in Sabrina's eyes. She couldn't escape this. "Fine. Only because it's you," she sighed, tilting her head away.
Ash saw who Sabrina was talking to. "Hey, I know her," he pointed at Naomi. "Her friend threw books at me before."
Naomi's head turned to Ash's direction. She narrowed her eyes. "Ew."
Malakai let out a little laugh, "Did she say ew?"
"Yes. She deadass says ew to everyone," Ash replied, getting flashbacks to their first encounter.
"Why did her friend throw books at you?" Tanisha asked, curious about that part.
"Cuz he's a bitch," Ash simply said. "That guy has issues," he continued, swirling his fingers around his temple.
"That doesn't tell me why," Tanisha muttered. She didn't bother trying to ask again. She took out her phone and started texting Maria.
"Okay, now we need a carrier," Sabrina said, gaining confidence. "Do you recommend anyone?" she asked Naomi.
Naomi shook her head, "Give it to someone who'll move around. Give it to one of the boys," she waved her hand dismissively.
"Yo Malakai," Nathan said, lighting hitting his arm. "Isn't that the guy you fought?" he quietly asked, nodding in a direction.
Malakai followed his nod. He had already seen the guy he was talking about earlier, but thought it was best to act like he wasn't there.
"It is," he replied, averting his eyes. "Should I go say sorry to him?"
"Do you want to?" Nathan asked.
"Kinda. I feel bad innit," Malakai said with a shrug. "And I wanna see if he still hates me or not."
"Awwe you wanna be his friend. Friends," Nathan said in a high-pitched voice, making fun of him. Imitating the 'Inbetweeners' joke.
Malakai smirked and lightly hit Nathan's stomach before walking away.
"Yo Fabio," he casually said, approaching him with his hand up.
Fabio's head turned to him, his eyelids shot up. "Hey," he replied, a little surprised, dapping him up.
"You good?" Malakai asked, smiling a little, also dapping up the guy next to him.
"Yeah," Fabio cautiously replied, not blinking.
Malakai paused for a second, going blank about where to take this conversation. "Aryt, um," he said, stumbling on his words, looking away and touching his nose. "I just wanna say sorry for what happened before. We're on the same team now, and I don't want things to be messy innit. I feel bad about what happened as well."
"Oh... Nah, it's all good," Fabio replied, relaxing and dropping his guard. "I started it. You don't have to apologise."
"You sure?" Malakai asked, his eyebrows raising, surprised at how easygoing that was. "You ain't gonna punch me in the back of my head when I'm not looking?" he asked, still cautious.
"Hehe. Nah," Fabio shook his head, amused. "I'm past it. I'm not salty one bit. It happened months ago," he soothed him, putting his hand out.
Malakai shook his hand. "So we're good now?" he asked. Being as paranoid as he was, he had to make sure.
"Yeah, for sure," Fabio replied. "As long as you don't try to kill me," he joked.
"I told you I had it under control innit," Malakai smirked, glancing away. "What you think about the challenge?' he asked, moving the conversation. "You wanna be the carrier?"
"We were just talking about that," Fabio replied, flicking his head to his friend. "I want my friend to be the carrier," he said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Malakai looked at the guy next to him, "You wanna be the carrier?"
"I'm not sure," the guy said. "It's a lot of pressure."
"Nah, there's no pressure," Malakai said, shook his head. "What's your name?"
"Cole," he nodded.
Cole was a plain-looking boy with brown hair and brown eyes. He was around the same height as Fabio at 5'10. The kind of person who would easily blend into a crowd.
"Malakai Junior," he introduced himself, even though he didn't need to and shook Cole's hand. "If you wanna be the carrier, do it innit."
"That's what I told him," Fabio added. "He'll be really good at it. People won't notice him."
"I told you that isn't a compliment," Cole said, smiling, glancing at Fabio.
"It's good for the challenge though," Malakai commented.
"I don't mind doing it, but wouldn't a girl be better?" Cole said. "Someone smaller would be better at sneakily moving around and infecting people."
"True," Malakai said, looking around, paying closer attention to the shorter people. "But no one wants to do it. Everyone's scared."
"It would be stupid to pick you, right?" Fabio asked Malakai.
"Yeah. But imma just gonna act like an idiot and be suspicious anyway," Malakai replied, grinning.
There was something that was bugging Cole. "Are you sure you want someone from 1-E with a role this big?"
"Bro, classes don't mean anything in challenges. Someone from 1-E can beat someone in 1-A," Malakai said. "You friends with Nada?" he randomly asked.
"We haven't spoken," Cole replied.
"I thought she was popular in your class."
"She is. She just has her own friend group."
"Oh. Anyway, this role is important, but it's not like we're relying on you that heavily," Malakai said, like it wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah. You don't even have to infect that many people. Just make sure you don't get caught," Fabio added. "If all of us make sure we don't get infected and get as many vaccines as we can, we'll be fine. You infecting people is just extra."
Hearing that gave Cole a little boost, but,
"I'm still scared about ruining it for everyone," he said. "I don't want to lose points for anyone."
"You'll be fine," Fabio said, putting a hand on his head and ruffling his hair.
Cole moved away from Fabio's hand. "But, you're first," he nodded to Malakai. "If I lose you points, won't that upset you?"
"It is what it is innit" Malakai genuinely said. "As long as you don't purposely sabotage and you actually try. What can I say?" he said, lifting his shoulders. "If we do lose. I'll back you (defend you) if people try say something to you."
After the encouragement, Cole decided,
"I'll do it."
"Yeah?" Malakai asked.
"Yeah," Cole confidently nodded.
"Aryt," Malakai smirked. "Aye Sabrina! Come here," he said, waving at her.
Sabrina's face lit up after hearing Malakai call her. She knew what he was going to tell her. She hastily made her way to talk to Cole.
While that happened, a teacher came into the room and placed a box full of wristbands on the table at the back. They also had an empty box.
"Please place all electronics in here." the teacher said. "You will get your toy gun and 5 vaccines after round 1."
"Maaan, I thought we were gonna keep our phones," Ash moaned.
All the students went over and put their electronics in the empty box.
The box full of wristbands was split into three sections. One big square with a lot of wristbands in it, and two smaller squares with one wristband in each. One section labelled 'carrier', and the other labelled 'doctor'. The wristbands all looked identical. There was no way to tell the difference. It was just a white wristband with a single red strip on it.
"How the fuck we supposed use this?" Ash said, tapping the wristband, wanting it to do something. "It looks like Apple made this."
"We're not," Tanisha replied, connecting the wristband together over her left wrist. "Our only role is to not get infected."
"But the doctor and the carrier's wristband look exactly like ours," Ash said.
"They've probably got some Bluetooth settings on it or something," Nathan replied.
Malakai clicked the wristband over his right wrist and looked at it. Shaking his wrist to make sure it was secured.
"What do you think?" Sabrina asked. "Are we going to win?"
Malakai didn't even notice Sabrina standing next to him.
"I don't know. Everyone has to play their part innit," he replied.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The sudden alarm made half the room jump. Looking at each other wide-eyed with their hearts racing.
BEEP!
"The challenge has started!"