Buster lay on the ground, heaving and panting from the pain in his stab wound.

"Binky..." sobbed Francine, "No...he's dead..."

"Buster! Buster!" hollered Arthur, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine..." whispered Buster, obviously paralysed from the wounds. "I'll be fine."

"Here, have the rest of this water." said Francine, as she gently poured it on Buster's wounds. "It will help with the pain."

"What pain?" scoffed Buster. "I've endured worse pain than..." Buster was about to go for another word when he sank back down with a cry.

Francine and Arthur worked as they gently cleaned as much blood as they could off Buster's stab wounds.

"Have some chocolate." said Arthur. "You'll love it very much. The good thing about it is that it will bring back your energy and reduce panic. Here."

Arthur took a small chunk off the chocolate bar and put it in Buster's mouth.

Buster let the sweetness of the milk chocolate melt in his mouth, grinning in satisfaction.

"It's delicious..." he mumbled with a weak smile.

"We can't kill each other anymore." said Francine. "Let's see if we can get the hell out of this game as soon as possible."

"Hang in there Buster." said Arthur as he placed Buster piggybacking on his shoulders. "We'll be right there. The sun is rising so this will determine our fate. If we die, we'll die altogether, since we are friends."

"We'll rush you to the hospital once we leave this island, Buster." said Francine. "Don't worry."

6 AM

The soldiers were dismissed from the island, as the game was coming to an end.

By 6 AM, the three have already arrived back at the school, where their meeting point was exactly.

"Ok guys." said Francine. "Arthur, Buster, you both fake your deaths, and collapse by the time you arrive in the classroom. We'll work out the plan, we'll leave as a group."

"Okay." the two agreed.

Mr Ratburn watched as Buster, Arthur and Francine entered the classroom, and Buster and Arthur collapsed on the floor.

"Mr Ratburn," said Francine with fake guilt, "I killed them all. What do I do now?"

Mr Ratburn took a long pause at Francine.

"It pains me to see the three of you reduced to this. You three were my favourite students. You three were so sweet to me, did what I told you to do, and never provoked me in anyway. You are much better off than my ex-wife and ex-children, who never treated me like a father. I divorced them for good so that they could get out of my life. I honestly thought that the moment I saw you all, you were all like sons and daughter to me. And for that, if I was to die with someone...it would be you...Francine."

Mr Ratburn went back to the blackboard, which was covered in a thick white cloth.

He pulled off the white cloth, revealing the black board with the school photographs painted in red crosses and crossed out names of students who were killed in the game, whilst on the other side were photographs and the names written on the blackboard of Arthur, Francine and Buster, being the ones who genuinely survived.

He returned to an easel, draped in white cloth and removed in, revealing a gruesome painting of the island, with sixteen of the students using all sorts of weapons to kill off one another, through beheading, chopping, skinning and so on, making blood spurt out their body, whilst in the centre sitting inside a blossomed flower were the smiling figures of Arthur, Francine and Buster all holding hands together.

"If I had to choose to die with two or more people, it would be you guys. I have done what I needed to do, so there is nothing to stop right now. And for that, Francine..." he said whilst deactivating their collars and throwing a gun to Francine, "Go ahead and shoot me. I've lived a shitty life, so I've done everything I could. Go ahead. Shoot me."

Francine grasped the gun, hesitating.

"Oh no, Mr Ratburn," said Francine, sobbing, "I can't do that. I respected you as a teacher, I don't have the heart to do this."

"Come on." said Mr Ratburn. "You can do it. Go ahead and shoot me. By the way, the boat that will take you home is waiting for you by the port, so once you're done, you can go."

Francine stood there, hesitating, whilst Arthur and Buster were still determined to get out of Mr Ratburn's crazy and twisted game, which their lives have been depending on.

Arthur snatched the gun from Francine and shot Mr Ratburn right in the head.

Francine breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you Arthur." she whispered. "We could leave this damned game without feeling hesitant and guilty."

Mr Ratburn's eyelids began to flutter and then close as he whispered his last words.

"I've always thought of you as a daughter, Francine. You were my favourite student in the class and I always wanted to find some sort of solution into getting to know you and have better relationship with you in secret despite my classroom having so many students. I have never genuinely experienced what it was like to be loved back by a child, but now thanks to your participation in this game, I finally got to look at you as if you were my virtual daughter. And for that, I am thankful to you, and for the rest of you, you can go."

Mr Ratburn's mouth eventually shut as he arms and legs fell back flat on the floor.

Feeling much loser, Arthur, Francine and Buster ripped off their electronic collars, now deactivated, and threw it on Mr Ratburn's corpse.

They set out the classroom and walk across the hills.

The sky was cloudless blue, the grass was green and the sun was shining.

Yet it was not long before they found the pier.

They boarded the boat, and stared out the window as they left the island.

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's such a beautiful island." said Francine, "It's such a beautiful island, even though that is where everybody else, including our friends and classmates died."

"Arthur, Francine." said Buster, even more faintly. "I've never had best friends like you."

"I'm glad that we are friends." said Arthur and Francine. "Don't worry, we're proud of you. We're proud that you're so strong and you made it all the way to the end with us. I'm glad that we've have friendship since kindergarten."

"There were a lot of fun times," said Arthur, "Even the silly ones where you guys made fun of me when I wore glasses but gotten over it after watching that Bionic Bunny episode..."

"Oh, we were kids." said Francine, "Kids say the stupidest things sometimes."

Buster looked up at the beautiful sky, and a tear ran down his face, as he felt his eyes shut.

"Francine...Arthur...I'm glad that we've worked altogether as a team."

Arthur sighed in relief, having accomplished Mr Ratburn's twisted game.

GAME OVER

WINNERS - #1 Arthur Read, #2 Francine Frensky, #3 Buster Baxter (deceased)

I'm glad that we've worked altogether as a team. (Buster)

WANTED ON SUSPICION OF MURDER:

Arthur Read, Francine Frensky

Reward: $1,000,000

3 MONTHS LATER:

ARTHUR'S POV

Buster died peacefully on the boat before he could come back home again, however I have reunited with Francine once again. We got extreme makeovers, so that no one would recognise us.

Despite all of this, we are still Arthur and Francine inside. Once we have accomplished all the intensive and complicated documents in order to leave this damned country, we plan to leave, find a better life out this totalitarian state, and hopefully live a good life then, since we are friends, as well as lovers, and it's no secret.

Even if our friends died, they are still with us inside, even after their mourning, even after their funerals.

We still have our axe and knife, but only for emergency cases, if anyone dares to mess with us, then we know exactly what to do.

Hopefully when we leave, we can have a good life then, get married, and have a happy family.

We have no choice but to run and keep moving forward.

I take Francine's hand, and run up north.

No matter what happens, run for all that you're worth. Keep going and never give up.

RUN.