As the team begins making their way to the next flight of stairs, Drake begins to hear a subtle whispering of a voice behind him, calling his name gently. Drake turns around and sees Georgie, Jake and Will walking, but none of them talking amongst each other. "What?" Georgie asks.

"Did someone... call my name just now?" Drake asks.

"No" Georgie says.

Drake slowly turns back around as he says "Hm..." as they all continued walking.

"Do you need some rest?" Ziya asks.

"No... I should be fine to keep going" Drake replies. "I want to at least make it close to Floor 40 before we stop".

"... If you say so" Ziya says.

They continued on to the next floor, Floor 42. As they walked through where fights had already taken place, Judy continued searching each and every body for food. Meanwhile, Drake kept hearing subtle whispering calling his name every so often, though he kept trying to ignore it. Putting it off in his mind, he simply passed it off as yet another crazy anomaly that occurs in Pyramid.

After reaching Floor 42, they decided to stop and rest. "I need to take a break" Ziya says. "I feel like I'm getting sick again".

"Is it the bad food?" Will asks.

Ziya stares up at Will, with the same usual emotionless expression. "Something like that" she says. As she, Judy and Drake fall asleep, Drake once again finds himself in a dream much like the one before. He was once again face to face with a reflection of himself. Except this time, the reflection was cracked from head to toe, much like a mirror that was punched where the heart of the reflection would be. The whispering Drake could hear before was slowly growing louder and louder.

"It's too late" the reflection says, "you've already made your choice". Shards of his reflection's body kept falling like before, but now the shards were falling faster. "I think it's only fair to let you know that you've chosen the harder route" the reflection says. "At least before, you could've died with your sanity still mostly in tact". Before giving Drake time to respond, he was quickly cast in a void of darkness. Nothing but endless black, and an intense silence surrounded him.

Eventually, he woke up from his strange dream. He and Judy had woken up, and Judy was waking Ziya up so they could move on to the next floor. It took a little while, but eventually Ziya woke up. They continued dedicating their time to walking. Each floor growing quieter and quieter had given them the opportunity to progress without conflict. Before they could make it to floor 41, Ziya had collapsed again. The team waited for her, although restlessly. She seemed to be getting more and more tired, much more often as they progressed.

Eventually, they continued their efforts until they made it to Floor 40. When there, they could see that there was no longer debris laying around. In addition to knives, the team also found some curved daggers. The floor was clear, however, there were now hills of concrete and pits laying about. There were still concrete walls to hide behind, however, they were smaller. The team couldn't see nearly anybody else on this floor with them. The rest of the competition was likely hiding within the various pits, if not behind the small concrete barriers.

The team decided to rest here. Will, Jake and Georgie all took this time to sleep. As Ziya, Drake and Judy stayed awake, Drake and Judy could see Ziya's eyes were beginning to close as well.

"Do you need to rest again?" Judy asks.

"... Maybe" Ziya says in an exhausted tone.

"Zizi... are you alright?" Drake asks.

"I'll be fine" Ziya says. "I'm just a little... worn out is all".

"Are you sure about that?" Drake asks.

"Alright then" Judy says as she stands up, "Drake, you stay here and watch over Ziya. I'm going to scout around for more food. That cool?".

"Yeah, that should be fine" Drake says. After Judy leaves, Drake looks down at Ziya. "Look, it's obvious that you're sick... is there anything around here that'll help with that?".

"Nah, there isn't anything in Pyramid for that" Ziya says. "There's nothing we can do about it. Just... don't worry about it right now. I'll be alright".

"How can we be so sure about that?" Drake asks. "What if it won't be alright?".

"Well, my Respawn counter hasn't gone down" Ziya says. "So that's one way to know".

"And if it does go down from your illness?" Drake asks. "What if you don't get any better?".

"I'll get better" Ziya says. "You've always worried so much, you know?".

"I do not know" Drake says. "Remember... amnesia?". Ziya laughs a little bit, then Drake says "Get some rest".

"Yeah... alright" Ziya says as she finally closes her eyes.

As the team rests, Judy continues searching around for food. There were a few dead bodies with very little food around. Judy was ready to give up her search for now until she came across a pit with a small package wrapped in brown paper. When she went over to the package and opened it up, it was a full set of rations for one person. She quickly stuffed the rations into her pocket, and ran her way back to her team. When she got back, Drake was eating a little bit of his own food. "Find anything?" Drake asks.

Judy thinks for a moment, then pulls out what little food she found from the dead bodies. Keeping the full set of rations to herself, she only gave up what she took from the other's. "Not much" Judy says.

"Better than nothing" Drake says.

"Yeah..." Judy says. "Anyways, Ziya fall asleep too?".

"Yeah, she's still very sick" Drake says. "I don't really know or care about the other three though".

"No one really cares about them" Judy says.

"That is also true" Drake says. "How should we continue though, with Ziya being sick?".

"Dunno" Judy says. "She'll likely want to keep pushing forward anyways".

"She we stop her?" Drake asks.

"Are you nuts?" Judy asks. "We don't have very much time, and we have a job to do. We can't afford to move at our leisure".

"Ah, I guess that much is true" Drake says.

"I did find this" Judy says as she takes out a large curved dagger, and hands it over to Drake. "It looks like a Kukri blade. I figured with Ziya, our best hope of surviving in this place being kind of out of it, then you'd be the second best choice".

"You're not keeping the dagger?" Drake asks.

"Nah, keep it" Judy says, "it's yours. We'll need one of our teammates with a high amount of lives to have a good weapon".

The team doesn't make it very far before Ziya collapses again, this time vomiting almost entirely just blood. Drake stopped and sat by her side. "Zizi!" He says, "see? You're definitely not fine!".

"Whoa, that's a mess" Will says.

"Shut up" Judy says in an irritated tone. "Ziya, what's going on?".

"Don't worry about-" Ziya begins to say.

"Of course I'm worried about it!" Drake interrupts. "Why is blood coming out of your mouth right now!?".

"Ziya..." Judy asks, "have you not eaten anything?".

Ziya shakes her head, then Drake asks "Have you eaten anything at all since the start of this game?". Once again, Ziya shakes her head. "Then... why don't you eat anything".

"I gave it... to you" Ziya says.

"Gave me... your food?" Drake asks. "I thought you gave me the food that you stole from that man at the start of the game!".

"I never took the time to search him for food" Ziya says. "I gave you... my only rations".

"Why would you do that, you idiot!?" Drake yells.

"Because, I'm supposed to be the one protecting you" Ziya says.

"You can't do that if you die of starvation!" Drake yells. Drake reaches into his pocket and takes out some food, then hands it over to Ziya. "Eat, now!".

"I'm surprised any of us have any food left over" Georgie says.

Judy begins to feel guilty for continuing to hide the rations she found. However, at the thought of Georgie and the others not knowing that she still possesses food, she decides to keep it hidden. She decides to hide it for later, just in case her suspicions about Jake, Will and Georgie were right. Ziya ate the food Drake gave her, although she began eating too fast and started coughing at first. After taking a couple sips of water from her canteen, she finally began to chew her food properly. "Are you going to be okay now?" Drake asks.

"Mhm" Ziya says as she eats.

"We should rest here for a bit until she recovers her health again" Drake says.

"Come on!" Georgie says, "we don't have time to dick around! Get yer shit together!".

"We're resting here so we can get our shit together!" Drake says.

The team took yet another break, as everyone sat in different hiding spots silently, waiting to move again. Each of them have split off into groups of three, with Judy, Drake and Ziya together behind one concrete barrier, and Jake, Will and Georgie behind another. "Why'd you go through all of that trouble for me anyways?" Drake asks.

While looking down, Ziya just replies with "Because you're my friend".

"But I can't even remember you!" Drake says. "How is that fair to you?".

"Well... do you at least believe me now?" Ziya asks. "We've been friends for almost twenty years now. Even if you've lost your memories, I still consider you my closest friend".

Drake pauses for a moment, then says "So... how about that story?".

"Hm?" Ziya asks.

"How'd you end up in Pyramid?" Drake asks.

"Oh... that one" Ziya says. "It all started several weeks ago. My father, who's long since not even been a part of our family died rather recently. You see, my dad left our family when I was fourteen years old. You were there at the time to help me through it, because you never knew your dad".

"Well, I guess that much makes sense" Drake says. "I never met anyone who claimed to be my dad when I woke up at the hospital".

"Well" Ziya continues, "recently, my dad died. He was murdered, and we have never figured out by who. However, when it happened, my own grandmother... my father's mother pointed a finger at my mom. She claimed my mother was behind his murder, even though it's been almost a decade since he was even a part of this family. That small accusation went a long way. Long enough to land my mother into court on charges of murder".

"How did this end up getting you into Pyramid?" Drake asks.

"I'm getting to that" Ziya says. "I showed up at the last court trial for my mother. I knew she had nothing to do with the murder. She'd never do something like that. That's when I met him. Governor Dylan Floyd. He attended the court, in order to oversee the verdict. When they declared that my mom was guilty, I cried out and pleaded as they dragged her away. The governor was personally annoyed, as he ordered guards to take me out of the building. I fought back, out of anger. Trying to get them to release my mother. The governor considered this as good as assault, with me trying to shake out of their grips and run to my own mother. Instead of courting me as well, they decided to take me out to the back of the building, where no one could see. Instead of arresting me, they beat me. That's when they discovered that I had the Respawn ability".

"Did they kill you?" Drake asks.

Ziya silently nods her head. "Governor Floyd saw a chance to add to his game. After that, he had some people blindfold me and take me somewhere. They put this watch on me, then threw me into a cell".

"And that's when you discovered the game called Pyramid?" Drake asks.

"Yeah" Ziya says, "but the story doesn't really end there. It only gets worse from there".

"How much worse?" Drake asks.

"I should be able to answer that" Chris says as he approaches. "Hello again!".

"Who's this guy?" Judy asks.

"Chris..." Ziya says.

"Would you like to tell him this story, or should I?" Chris asks.

Ziya simply continues looking down, without answering. "Zizi?" Drake asks.

"No, I'll tell the story" Ziya says. "If you're going to bother me, the least you can do is fact check the story for me. That way, he will know I'm not lying to him".

"Fact check..." Chris says to himself. "I can do that".

"Great, and then after, you can fuck off" Ziya says.

"No, I don't think I will" Chris says. "I came here, after all, bearing news that will help you".

"You? Help?" Ziya asks.

"I'm telling you" Chris says, "it's about time you've stopped blaming me for this. I will help, you know. All you have to do is ask".

"Why should I believe you?" Ziya asks.

"Because" Cris says as he throws some dry food onto Ziya's lap, "I have confirmed that someone has indeed escaped Pyramid during the last game, and I have details about how to do it".

"Like?" Judy asks.

"For one" Chris says, "the way they did it before, was they tunneled their way out of Floor 18. They had found access to a sewage pipe and used that to make it to the surface. However, it looks like the sewage pipe method has been closed off. Looks like the game masters found out about it rather quickly, as the pipe itself has been removed and the sewage pathway has been rerouted. But that doesn't mean it's impossible".

"How so?" Drake asks.

"If you guys can make it to the top floor" Chris says, "or at least anywhere close to the surface, it looks like the walls grow thin, the closer to the top you reach. With the right tools, you may just be able to break down the wall".

"Thin? Thin walls?" Drake asks. "As in... there's an empty space behind them?".

"Mhm" Chris says. "Likely a space you can use as an exit".

"Then our course of action remains the same" Judy says. "Good to know there's still at least a little hope though".

"No worries" Chris says, "I can help you get there. We just need Ziya here to let go of her grudge against me".

"So... what's the story behind this grudge anyways?" Drake asks.

"Yes, Ziya" Chris says, "the story...".

"Right..." Ziya says. "The game started off with a bloodshed... my first game. I, however, kept running all over the place on the lowest floor. I wanted to hide and stay safe. I had no Respawns, I had no weapons, I had no will to fight... I was terrified and alone. That's when I met two people who told me they would help protect me. Their names were Chris and Mariah".