Chapter 9: 9
Unlike the others in her immediate vicinity that were dancing and running around and getting in some early target practice, Yolanda stood there in a peaceful sort of trance, staring out into nothingness. There was a slight, almost rhythmic sway to her stance, and coupled with a lost, dreamy look on her face, any keen observer may reasonably draw the concussion that she suffered from some type of mental illness. They'd be wrong, of course. Unless they actually walked up to her and asked, in which case she would tell them why yes, she did, and that she was perhaps the craziest of them all. Whilst smiling like a maniac.
Truth be told, she was just waiting, like an eager moviegoer waiting to see what the latest film has to offer. She'd dropped at least a hundred times before, but each drop was a new, different experience, each one was its own story. A little over ten minutes later, everyone was aboard the bus and preparing to drop in.
Some contestants started dropping the very instant the bus was over dry land, obviously eager to get geared up before the majority. Yolanda gazed out the window as more and more continued to drop, staring in serendipitous wonder at her upcoming destination: Tilted Towers. She jumped out right over Loot Lake and steered towards the big city. After a few moments of free fall, she pulled her glider and coasted the rest of the way. Yolanda was ready for a fight. All or nothing. If she was going to land at Tilted, she may as well land on the main building too.
She had her eyes on a rare tactical shotgun, but a devastator swooped in before she could land and grabbed it first. It was too late for Yolanda to try to abandon the roof in search of a better landing zone, but she did manage to land on the other side of a group of metal boxes in the middle of the roof. There she found a common revolver. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. Two more contestants landed on the roof as well. One was the previous Solos champion, Whiplash. The other was a tower recon specialist, who was obviously in her element here in the big city. Problem was, there were only two guns on the roof, both taken, and a bundle of bandages.
The tower recon specialist saw the hopelessness of the situation and immediately escaped through one of the archways in the walls serving as the roof's guard railing. It was unclear whether she'd committed suicide or simply dropped down to a lower part of the building. Whiplash decided to rush the next nearest player with her victory lap pickaxe. She got about two good hits in before the devastator backed up and blasted her in the face. Yolanda saw that and fired out of base reaction. She didn't aim. She just pointed and pulled. For an instant the devastator disappeared behind her revolver's muzzle flash, and when she looked up, all that remained was the shotgun and a few spare shells.