My Wife Rules The World

Emma got her hand to her knee and felt the damage before she could see it clearly in the dark. The skin had gone, a wide scrape from the kneecap down, the kind that stings immediately and keeps stinging. She pressed her palm against it and tried to stand.

Her leg took the weight for about one second but the pain made its position clear.

Fred crouched beside her, checked the knee, and leaned close to Leon.

"She's not going to be able to move fast," he said, barely above a breath.

The flashlights were still moving through the trees northeast of them. Closer now, the beams cutting lower angles as whoever was holding them started checking the ground rather than scanning ahead.

Emma looked at both of them. "Go," she said. Quiet and direct. "If even one of us reaches the depot the whole team gets the reward. One person losing CPP doesn't cancel that out."

"Emma—"

"It's just the math."

Leon wasn't looking at her. He was listening to something beyond the flashlights — a voice, carrying through the trees at a volume that suggested whoever it belonged to wasn't particularly concerned about being heard.

He knew that voice.

Tall. Sharp features. He'd last seen Rone in a classroom, when he broke Krai’s locket.

"—check over there, that direction—"

Rone was pointing his team left. Toward Emma.

Leon picked up a stone from the ground and threw it hard to the right — a long arc into the undergrowth twenty meters away. It connected with something solid, a clean crack of impact, and the flashlight beams swung toward it immediately. One of Rone's team moved without waiting.

The others also followed the sound. But Rone thought of something and told the others to switch off their flashlights.

The lights went out.

All of them, at once. The forest went back to just dark.

Leon and Fred stayed completely still.

A minute passed. No movement.

Leon turned to Fred. "Take her with you. Keep left of the ridge line." He kept it at almost nothing. "I'll use the stones to keep them occupied here & then join you guys later"

Fred looked at him, then at Emma. Emma already had her hand on his arm.

Fred hesitated for a bit but they moved.

Leon picked up two more stones and turned back toward where the lights had been. He wanted to cover the sound of Fred & Emma’s footsteps by creating distractions.

He threw the first one left, into a patch of dry leaves. Waited. Threw the second at a different angle, further out. As he heard his friend’s footsteps being absorbed in the forest sounds.

He was reaching for a third when a hand grabbed him from behind by the hair.

The ground came up fast. He hit it on his side, the impact driving the air out of him, and the grip didn't release — held him there with his head pulled back at an uncomfortable angle.

"Oh." A pause, the voice directly above him. "Look who's here."

Rone crouched down beside him, holding his hair, and looked at the band on Leon's wrist. The Laughing Kid was displayed on the screen.

He straightened up, pulling Leon partially with him. "Everyone back here."

The flashlights returned. Four of them — team members coming in from different angles. Which meant the darkness had been a repositioning, not a retreat. Leon had been watching the wrong direction.

Rone looked at one of the members to his left. "Get Grovin on the band. Tell him we have one."

The member made the call. A brief exchange, confirmation. One of the team's three report chances being allocated to Rone.

Despite being D3, Rone wasn't the one who decided that. Leon noted it.

Rone's band updated. He raised it, pointed the camera at Leon, and submitted the report.

Leon's band pulsed.

Escaper status confirmed. You have been identified by a registered Seeker team.

Please select one of the following: 1. Surrender 15 CPP directly to the reporting team. 2. Invoke Lucky Draw. The system will assign an action. If completed, the reporting team will be compensated by the system at no CPP cost to you. If the assigned action is not completed, a heavy penalty will be applied.

Selection must be made verbally.

Rone read it over his shoulder. Then he grabbed Leon by the jaw and turned his face toward him.

"Lucky Draw," he said. "Say it to your band."

Leon said nothing.

Rone's grip tightened slightly. "Your options are Lucky Draw, or I put you in a state where you're calling for extraction. And the only ways to call for help out here are forfeiting — which costs you — or that Witness clause, which leaves you considerably worse off than just losing some CPP." He let that sit for a moment. "So."

The four team members stood in a loose arc around them. Nobody spoke.

Leon looked at his band.

"Lucky Draw," he said.

The band registered it. The transfer processed from the system's allocation. A brief loading sequence ran on the screen, then the result appeared.

Action assigned: Betray your teammates. Lead the Seeker team to the current location of your fellow Escapers.

Penalty for non-completion: 50 CPP

Warning: You only have 47 CPP available at stake with 21 locked. Going below what is available at the stake will have consequences.

Rone read it. Then he laughed — short, genuine, the sound of something landing better than expected.

"Perfect." He looked at his team. "We're getting all three." He turned back to Leon. "So. Where did they go."

Leon looked at the band screen.

"I refuse to perform the action," he said. "Apply the penalty."

Rone's expression flattened.