The scene changed before our eyes and we were in what looked like a run down part of town. Empty and lifeless grey buildings surrounded us. The place needed major renovation, the windows were broken and I safely guess that they had no electricity either.

"Find the antidote but be sure not to touch it directly!" said a man urgently. I noted that it must have been the narrator, and this was our first task.

We all quickly started to look around. The man hadn't told us where to look (which would have been helpful) so we all started in the abandoned buildings near us. There weren't that many, so we looked in groups. Duncan and I started on the left while Amberline and Victoria went right. Parker hadn't decided to run after us until we were already searching the building. Part of me was glad he chose to look with us. I felt like Victoria wouldn't have been an easy person to work with. Not long after parting I realized that in this particular competition I couldn't hear Amberline and Victoria. I noted that they either weren't talking or the people in charge cut us off from those who weren't near to us.

Parker and I started looking at the second floor because Duncan insisted that he'd search the first one. I started lifting up dusty tarps and under one there was a couch. I put the tarp in the bag the people in charge had gifted us. I started patting the dusty sofa for anything useful, "Where do you think the antidote is hidden?" I asked, genuinely curious.

It took a moment for him to reply. I saw that he had chosen a broken down book shelf. "The better question is what does it look like," Parker mused. He deemed the shelf useless then moved to a dresser.

"That is a good question," I commented, lifting a cushion off of the couch before concluding that it wasn't there either. It would help if we at least knew the size of what we were looking for. "They didn't give us much information this time, did they?"

Before he had the chance to reply, we heard grunts downstairs and the firing of a weapon. Both Parker and I rushed downstairs to see a wave of zombies nearing Duncan. We quickly got our weapons and started helping him out.

"The first floor is clear," said Duncan. "I think they want us looking in buildings, because it's not here."

"Amberline and Victoria are covering the buildings still, I guess we could search outside," agreed Parker. They both looked at me, as if I had held the answer. It felt like if I said I didn't want to look outside, we wouldn't. I couldn't believe that they'd trust my decision like that after our last competition.

"I guess. I wouldn't want to be trapped by the zombies." They nodded and we were then off to search the outsides. It was all dusty and it was scorching hot. I was desperate for air conditioning and a bottle of water, but tried not to let that disrupt our search.

We searched for a good five minutes, going further and further, hoping we were on the right side. We occasionally asked each other questions, mostly regarding the other teams. We often had run ins with the zombies, which severely slowed us down.

"Found it!" Exclaimed Duncan. Joy welled within me as Parker and I rushed to him. All I could think of was how nice it would be in the lobby... comfortable and normal.

"Don't touch it," warned Parker. I was glad he was here because I wouldn't have remembered that tiny detail, and from the looks of it, Duncan hadn't either.

"How are we supposed to get it then?" Duncan asked. He stared at the orb as if just looking at it alone would give him the answers. Fitting the theme tonight, the orb was a light green. It wasn't anything like the others I'd learned about.

"Oh!" I said, remembering what I had pocketed earlier. They looked at me with a great curiosity as I took off my backpack. As I pulled out the tarp I asked, "would this work?"

"Most likely," said Parker, grabbing it. "Only one way to find out," he unraveled the tarp and began to wrap the orb in a way that wouldn't allow any of us to touch it.

"When did you get that?" Asked Duncan in amazement.

I shrugged, instead thinking of how I had never thought of Parker to be so proactive. I would have thought him to think something out thoroughly before acting on something that could ruin the game.

The narrator from earlier started talking just then. "Good, now before I can give you all directions you need to meet up. Hurry, get to the red light!"

Instantly, we saw an area illuminated red before us. It was closer to the buildings, we ran towards it together and saw that the other two got there before us.

"You weren't in the buildings?" Asked Victoria in anger. "We agreed to look in the buildings!"

"Well, I'm glad we didn't because it wasn't there," argued Duncan. "I found it, not you."

Before more arguing could take place, the man continued, "Go to the abandoned lab and find Doctor Landorts room. It's located on a map for you if you look up." I was glad no more arguing happened just then, but worried the anger might build up and be released later.

We all looked up in sync, then started running in the general direction of the building. Once we got there we were all exhausted. I regretted choosing the nausea reducing armor, obviously some of the others would have been more helpful.

"I'll read the map," insisted Amberline when she realized how much time was wasted with everyone constantly stopping to look up. "Turn left," she instructed.

All of us quickly made the turn and Duncan waited to follow us. Victoria aggressively pushed passed him, muttering angry words. This happened a few more times and Victoria was quick to turn on him."What are you doing? Stop slowing us down!" She yelled as we all ran through the maze of hallways. Duncan hadn't replied to any of her taunts and instead he just tried to keep up with us.

"We should be here!" Exclaimed Amberline and after stopping we saw the crowd of zombies from the flashback. Instantly, we spread out and started shooting. Some of the zombies started approaching us and the voice that had been helping reminded us to be careful.

A zombie reached Parker and bit him, after realizing how close that zombie was I killed it. These things were definitely hard to kill. Parker looked dizzy, but after getting himself together he started helping us again. He muttered a few times how sick he felt, to which Victoria replied by telling him to suck it up. I winced because of how I imagined her harshness would affect him. After giving a quick glance to their numbers, I was in the best condition. Amberline and Victoria got the most damage, however, and I assumed it was because they had decided to stay in the houses. Trapped in a limited space not only killing the zombies but trying to look for a mystery object... it made sense that they'd take a bit of damage.

Anguish filled me when I saw the rest of the zombies break open the door. I almost dropped my weapon but had refused to give up. We all pushed in. The man from the flashback tripped and we watched him be transformed into a zombie. The voice guiding us warned us not to harm the doctor, even if he tried to attack us. The last of the zombies were quickly approaching and we -after much hardship- managed to kill all the zombies accept the doctor. We knew it was him because he was much less green and wasn't harmed yet.

"Great, now throw the orb at him, be careful not to touch it yourselves," Instructed the voice. Parker quickly and carefully unwrapped the orb after taking it from his bag, throwing it and the tarp at the zombie. We waited for what seemed like hours as it had hit the doctor. The orb dissolved as the tarp dropped to the floor. I started to doubt that we did it right, that maybe we somehow had the wrong zombie or that Parker hadn't thrown the orb hard enough. Suddenly everything turned black and I found myself in our cubicle again. I rushed out, not bothering to steady myself with milk before running into the lobby.

D3 had already finished. I wanted to scream, but found myself unable to move. My team soon followed to see and had the same response as I had. They all halted behind me. Jasper was the one who'd broken the silence by saying, "Aww, were you hoping to beat us?"

I looked around and saw that we were only the second team to finish. I tried reassuring myself by saying that being second wouldn't be detrimental to our score, that there were plenty more teams that scored less than we had. Jasper dismissed us and started chatting with his team, though the conversation looked pretty one sided.

"If it weren't for you, Duncan, we could have been faster!" Yelled Victoria, not seeming to realize how much attention she'd drawn in the room. Sure there weren't many teams done. In fact it was just D3. But it showed D3 we weren't as great as I wanted them to think, and the cameras started nearing us. Only one group of cameras stayed with D3 to see their reaction to us. The rest rushed to different angles to rightfully capture the moment.