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Some people love reality shows. I could live without them.

Especially the current one I was unwillingly participating in after having been kidnapped and dropped on a remote island with a bunch of other professional killers.

We'd been told when we arrived that we had two choices - kill or be killed - and I had chosen the former over the latter. Unfortunately so had my competition.

This next section of the island was full of small boulders and rocks, and a meandering series of streams and creeks which fed outwards from the heart of the island.

The impression I got was that the center of the island had once been a great mountain, but it had been hollowed out and blasted with dynamite until it was only a fraction of its original size - the pieces of granite and rock which had once comprised the goliath now repurposed to create the monstrous skyscraper which towered over everything.

Who could be capable of something like that? It was like something Lex Luthor or Dr. Evil would do. Some James Bond villain of unrealistic proportions.

Before I could give it any more thought, the sound of approaching footsteps broke me from my observations. I spun around just in time to see a young woman with a spear running towards me, the business end of the thing sticking out in my direction, ready to impale me. She began to howl a warcry of some sort when she saw me notice her, and picked up her pace even more. I saw she had dark mud spread on her face like warpaint - streaks beneath her eyes and vertical lines running down her cheeks.

Luckily she was still a good ten yards away, so I drew my pistol and had it pointed at her face a second later.

Normally that would have been that. I would have squeezed the trigger and she would have been dead. But I paused for a split second.

I don’t really know why. Maybe it was that asshole sniper. The fact that he hadn’t killed me was really sticking in my craw.

Did he think he was better than me? Was that it?

And that was enough time for the woman to throw her spear at me.

The tip of its blade went directly into the barrel of my gun, (BULLSEYE!) sending it flying backwards out of my hand and really fucking up my index finger in the process, since it was stuck in the trigger guard.

The pistol leapt from my grip and crashed into a rock nearby, completely and utterly destroyed by the pressure of the impact against the boulder.

And then the woman was on me. Her face was full of rage as spittle flew from her mouth and she hissed and punched me, trying to get her legs around my neck into a chokehold of some sort.

She quickly managed to do so, and I heard myself making gurgling, strangled noises as she squeezed tighter and tighter, my head trapped between her thighs.

The world started fading to black as I considered my options.

"Y'know, I could split it with you," I gasped. "Fifty fifty."

She didn't look convinced. Maybe it was the fact that my face was turning purple and she had the upper hand.

I managed to surprise her and with a quick move I ended up on top of her. My forearm was down on her neck and I heard her gasping for air, although her thighs were still wrapped around my neck in a triangle choke.

I realized for the first time that the woman was beautiful. Her black hair flecked with dirt, her face smeared with grime, the slightest hint of a rosy hue playing on her cheeks.

Although that might have been due to lack of oxygen.

"Fifty million is still a lot of money…" she wheezed through her strangled trachea, as I continued cutting off her air supply.

"It is…" I managed to cough, through my own narrowed windpipe.

"Does that offer still stand? Fifty fifty?" she asked, releasing the pressure on my neck slightly.

I let up on her neck and she breathed in a raspy intake of air.

“Yeah. You got it,” I said, letting go completely. She did the same.

"Thanks," she said, panting. "I'm Tia. Tia Terrabalo."

It took me a few seconds to get my wind back, but when I did, I couldn’t help but gush. What can I say, I’m a fan.

"Holy shit. Tia the terrible? You're fucking famous! Didn't you kill that Al Qaeda dude? The general, right?"

She looked surprised.

"You know about that? Damn. Nothing stays classified anymore, does it? If you know about it, I'd hate to think what those pricks are gonna do when they find out. Maybe I'm better off dead on this island."

"Hey, I've got better sources than most foreign intelligence agencies. Trust me, you're good. I'm just better."

"Cocky too, I see."

"Well, you don't become the number one hitman in the world by being meek. It doesn't really translate in this business."

I helped her up to her feet and we both looked at each other for a second, then back up at the tower in the distance.

“Fifty fifty, right?” she said nervously.

“Fifty fifty.”

The two of us walked for a while, and eventually the tower began to look a little bit closer. I could make out the details of its entrance and saw there was only one door with arrows pointing to it from every direction, like a department store advertising a big sale.

I knew a trap when I saw one.

“Hurry up, children. Round two is almost finished!” the host called from the sky, his grinning face appearing to leer down at us once again. “Only three of you left! If you don’t want to die, you’d better get inside!”

There had been several loud gunshots which we’d heard as we walked towards the tower, each time ducking down instinctively at the sound of it. But none of the bullets were destined for us. Every one of them found its mark, though, as the countdown of dead bodies continued being announced from above.

Now we had other concerns, as the blue force-field dome surrounding us was shrinking again. The past hour had gone by quickly, and we were once again in danger of not making it into the new safezone.

The two of us ran as fast as we could as the static buzz of electricity grew louder in my ears once again.

“We’re not gonna make it,” Tia shouted, looking back at the wall of blue closing in. The tower was still a ways off, and it would definitely be close.

Once again, I saw the sniper was keeping pace, running parallel with us towards the entrance of the tower. I knew if he arrived first, he would have the upper hand. We needed to beat him there.

“We’ll make it,” I said back, with more confidence than I felt. “But we’ve got company!”

Tia looked over and saw the sniper - Triggs - and her eyes widened.

“Oh shit. You know who that is, right?”

“Yeah. Triggs. The favorite. Come on, gut it out! We need to get there first!”

Tia threw on the afterburners as her face turned into a grimace of pain. She pumped her legs up and down forcefully as she ran, now outpacing me and making me look like an amateur next to an olympic sprinter.

“You mean like this?” she asked, looking back and gritting a smile at me through her teeth.

“Shit…” I muttered, trying to run faster to catch up. Instead she just gained more of a lead.

Putting my head down again, staring at my feet, I ran until my legs burned and my belly was a cramp from top to bottom.

And just as the blue wall of the dome was about to overtake me, I dove inside through the open door of the tower - surprised at how close it was now. Tia was inside a moment before me. And the sniper had gotten there thirty seconds before her.

Once again, I was caught off guard. Triggs was gone. It was just me and Tia staring down a long dark hallway which led into a white light.

“Ready?” I asked, looking at her.

I was surprised to see she was scared. And I realized I too was terrified.

“I don’t know. I have a really bad feeling about this. I’ve worked with Triggs. I can’t beat him on my own.”

I tried to calm my nerves and speak without sounding as nervous as I felt.

“Together we can stop him. The two of us. We’ve got this. Fifty-fifty.”

“If you say so.”

“Come on, let’s kill this guy and get off this island. When we get back to civilization I’ll buy you a drink.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything, and didn’t look any more confident, as we began to walk down the long tunnel into the light.

We emerged from the dark tunnel into a crowded stadium, lights glaring down at us from above. A crowd roared and rose to their feet all around, the sound of their applause deafening.

“LET’S WELCOME OUR TOP THREE CONTESTANTS!” a voice boomed, and I looked up to see a giant screen mounted to one wall. The smiling face of the grey-haired host was looking down at us.

“BUT THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE WINNER!” he shouted. “And I know who my money is on!”

A second later there was the loud crack of a sniper rifle shot going off, and I heard it whiz past my face. For a moment I was relieved, thinking maybe the famous sniper wasn’t as good as he thought. He had missed.

But then I heard the gurgling sounds from behind me and realized he hadn’t missed. He just hadn’t been aiming for me first. He was aiming for Tia.

I spun around to see her clutching her throat - a fountain of blood spurting from a hole in her neck. Her face turned pale as she gagged and coughed, then reached out to take my hand in her own blood-stained grip.

But then hers slipped away and she fell to the floor, lifeless and dead.

And I looked up to see the glint of a sniper scope, reflecting the light, trained on me and ready to fire.

As soon as I saw that reflection bouncing off the lens of the rifle’s scope, I dropped to the ground and lay prone on my belly. I did it without thinking, the death of my only friend in this game more than enough proof of what would happen if I delayed.

My instincts saved my life, and not for the first time, as the bullet whizzed over my head a millisecond after dropping down. I actually felt it whistle through my hair, like a very narrow breeze.

“TWO CONTESTANTS LEFT! WOW! THAT WAS ALMOST THE FINEST DOUBLE-KILL WE’VE EVER SEEN! GIVE IT UP FOR OUR FINALISTS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!”

The crowd erupted in applause as I lay on the floor, terrified out of my mind. Blood was spreading from Tia’s head, and was touching my hand and creeping towards my face.

That decided it for me. I couldn’t stay there any longer. I needed to move.

It’s hopeless, a voice in my mind said. The world’s most deadly sniper with a bolt action rifle in his hands against an assassin with a knife and a canteen.

Not only that, but losing Tia had affected me more than I’d thought possible. I had imagined us leaving this place together as winners - sailing off on a private yacht and retiring from homicide together. I had pictured us on a beach, drinking mimosas and laughing, reminiscing about the old days, and that time we’d been caught on that island and almost died.

But now it was just me again. And I was alone, just like I had always been, and just like I would always be.

A hundred million dollars will buy you a lot of friends, another voice in my mind said, the counterpoint of the previous one. A hundred million dollars will buy you all the friends in the world.

But they won’t be real friends, you know that, said the twin voice, the sensible, no-nonsense one.

So, what do we do? A third voice asked, and I realized I was either completely losing my mind, or I was as sharp as I’d ever been. I decided to believe it was the latter.

We do what we’ve always done, all three voices said in unison. We kill or we get killed.

This whole time I had been instinctively moving towards the spot where I had seen the reflection on Triggs’ riflescope.

He had beat us to the tower and he had staked out a prime spot for camping once again. But every soldier has a weakness. And my real talent, I’ve come to realize over the years, is in finding those weaknesses and exploiting them.

Triggs’ weakness was that he knew he was the best. Even the host had said it on numerous occasions.

My money is on you, Mr. Triggs, he’d announced from the beginning.

Triggs knew he was the best, and he believed it so strongly that he had stopped thinking anyone else could beat him.

When he’d left me unconscious at the base of the cliff where we had fallen, it wasn’t because he was a good sport, it was because he had such little respect for my abilities, he thought I was beneath him. He wanted to kill me when I was standing up. When I was fighting back. Not because that was the right thing to do, but because he wanted to showboat.

Now, with a hundred million dollars on the line, he thought so little of me that even after killing my friend and taking a shot at me, he’d stayed in the same spot, believing me incapable of finding him. Thinking I wouldn’t see the reflection of his riflescope.

Triggs got cocky, and stayed right where he was, believing himself invincible.

I actually felt a little guilty for the guy as I crept up on him, silent as a wolf stalking a rabbit in the forest.

And slipped the knife under his chin just as he gasped and began to turn.

But it was too late. Blood spurted and sprayed, staining his well-oiled rifle red.

They don’t call me the best assassin in the world for nothing. And Triggs had vastly underestimated me.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WE HAVE A NEW CHAMPION!” the host announced loudly.

But there was no applause. Only shocked silence. And then a few loud boos.

“You really caught them off guard out there,” the host said from behind his desk.

We were up in his office, on the very top floor of the tower, after an extremely long and unpleasant elevator ride, during which my ears had popped so violently I had almost thrown up.

I was still chewing the stick of gum the guards had offered me to help alleviate the pressure - it was the only thing that had gotten me through it.

“They weren’t expecting the underdog to win it all, that’s for sure,” he stood up and looked out the window, resting his hands on the sill.

I took in his office, the walls stark white and gleaming. The view was incredible, I had to give him that. It looked out over the entire island, now missing the blue dome which I had become so accustomed to. Past the jungle and beaches, I could see water, and a giant yacht which looked to be heading towards a dock.

“I knew you were going to win from the beginning, though. That’s why I put my money on you.”

This caught me off guard.

“I thought you were betting on Triggs. You said so yourself.”

He turned to look at me and smiled.

“Triggs was getting far too cocky. He thought he was untouchable - and that’s when someone like you always comes to knock the knight from his horse.”

“So… You?”

“Yes. I’m the one who gave you the knife and the bandages, the canteen and the shoes. I’m your benefactor.”

“Why not give me a gun and some body armor?”

“Well, I knew you’d do best if you were given a challenge. If you were underestimated. I’ve been watching you for a long time, after all. I know you better than you know yourself by this point.”

That really pissed me off. And suddenly I wanted to prove him wrong.

I stood up and began to race towards him, intent on strangling the bastard to death with my bare hands. Just to prove he didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.

But halfway there my legs gave out, and I collapsed, my eyelids growing heavy and my face feeling numb.

“How’s that gum tasting, champ? It’s a little concoction I like to call ‘spearmint sedative.’ Pops the ears on the elevator ride and sends you straight to sleep, just as your urge to kill begins to rise again. Ta, ta. See you next year.”

I woke up back in my apartment. In my bed. A pounding headache filling the space between my ears with pressure and pain.

A hundred million dollars now sat inside my bank account. Untraceable.

There was no reason for me to ever need to kill again now. I was set for the rest of my life. I could live comfortably and never have to take another contract.

But I wasn’t going to get off that easily.

A letter was sitting on my coffee table which I found right after seeing my bank account balance. I opened it up and read the handwritten note inside, which promptly burst into flames after I had finished reading it, like a letter from the devil.

The Deadliest Game will resume next year at the same date and time. Be prepared to defend your title, as you will be expected to compete once again.

Congratulations, new champion!

See you next year.

- RAMSAY

Part 1

Part 2

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JG

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