Everyone walks over to the 3rd door, the 3rd stage of the obstacle course. After they finish this stage, they will be halfway done.

"Chase, if you may?" says X.

"Yeah yeah, I know," says Chase as he walks over to the door and opens it.

Once he opens the door a look of confusion overtakes the players.

Inside the door was a playground. It looked completely normal too, nothing looked off-putting or unusual, it was just your average playground. Swings, see-saws, balance beams, rock-climbing wall, slides, and a sandbox.

"A playground..?" says Joseph.

"X, what is the meaning of this?" says Ana.

"It's exactly what it looks like, a playground. What, you guys don't like playgrounds?" says X.

"We know it's a playground, what kind of 'deadly' stage can we do in a playground?" says Joseph.

"I wouldn't underestimate the playground, Joseph," says X, "since you guys seem to not understand, I'll start explaining. In this stage, you will be playing the very famous game, Tag!"

"Excuse me?" says Chase.

"Yup! All of you are going to play Tag! Let me begin with the rules of this game! This stage is pretty similar to your average Tag game, but there are a few differences. I will be choosing a 'tagger,' this tagger will need to tag everyone and if not, they will be losing half of their lives," says X.

"How exactly are planning to choose?" says Blake.

"The same way your roles from the past games were decided, randomly."

As if on cue, a role picker was on everyone's head, just like when the games from before first started. The only difference was that there were only 2 roles, tagger, and runner.

"Not again," says Carly.

5 seconds pass and the role pickers are done spinning.

"I assume that you all have gotten your roles for this stage, I would like all of you to look up and see what you've gotten. Also, I want the tagger to raise their hand, they can go into the playground first for 2 minutes to look around," says X.

Everyone hesitantly looks up, but only one person among them has a shocked face.

"It's me, I'm tagger," she says while raising her hand.

"Lexi?? You're tagger?" says Rachel.

"That's correct," says Lexi as she steps up.

"Ooo! Now that I think about it, that actually works out quite well," says X.

"What are you talking about?" says Lexi.

"Well, playgrounds are like your expertise, after all, you are in elementary school. You do something like Tag almost every day," says X.

"Oh... actually, you're right, X," says Lexi.

"Exactly! Be careful guys, you're gonna lose half of your lives to a 10-year-old! Ha!" Says X.

"Be quiet, X. Tell us what the rest of the rules are," says Rachel.

"Well, I don't see why not since you asked so nicely," says X with sarcasm in his voice, "if you guys get tagged, you will lose half of your lives. You will need to wait inside the sandbox after you're tagged and wait for the stage to finish."

"Is that all? Or can we go into the playground now?" says Chase.

"Hold on! Lexi still needs to go in for 2 minutes before you guys go in," says X, "go ahead, Lexi. You have 2 minutes in that playground by yourself, when you're done, I'll send everyone else in."

"Ok..." says Lexi as she walks in the direction of the playground.

"Oh, and Lexi? says X.

"Yes..?"

"Don't even think about holding back with this game. If I even think that you're not trying your best to tag everyone, I'll take off all of your lives."

A chill goes down Lexi's spine.

"WHAT?" says Carly.

"You can't do that!" says Ana.

"Yes, I can. This is my game and if my rules aren't followed, I'll do as I please."

Lexi goes into the playground and shuts the door.

"I don't get it. Why does Lexi get to go in 2 minutes before us just because she's tagger?" says Blake.

"That's exactly the reason why. She's tagger. It's best if she looks around the playground, that way, if she can't find anyone, she knows where all the hiding spots are," says X.

"How long is this stage?" says Ana.

"10 minutes. This gives you guys more of an advantage which is exactly why I gave Lexi the advantage of going in first," says X.

A timer starts beeping.

"Oh! That's the 2-minute timer, Lexi's time in there by herself is over. Now now, everyone go in!" says X.

Everyone walks to the door. Chase opens it and they all head into the playground, shutting the door behind them.

"I haven't seen a playground like this in forever, it's a shame that this is how it had reappear," says Joseph.

As a few of the adults reminisce the whole setting, Lexi starts to speak.

"Guys... I wanna say something before the game starts," says Lexi.

"What's wrong?" says Carly.

Lexi lets out a sigh, "I wanna apologize in advance. I would've been ok with losing half of my lives as long as you guys were able to keep the same amount of lives, but, then X said that. I don't wanna do this! I don't wanna make you guys lose any lives."

"Lexi, it's ok, we understand," says Rachel.

"Yeah, I agree with Rachel, do what you have to do," says Blake.

"We won't get mad, there are no hard feelings," says Joseph.

"What a touching moment! But, you know, we really should get started with the 3rd stage!" says X.

"Of course, count us down, X," says Ana.

"At least someone knows how to get down to business. I will now start the countdown."

"5..."

The runners are all in one horizontal line together, looking for places to run.

"4..."

Lexi is staring straight at them, trying to look at their feet to see if their placements will give away anything.

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"NOW!"

Lexi sprints toward everyone as they all disperse in different directions. She first decides to go for Blake.

"I'm gonna get you, Blake!"

"We'll see about that!" says Blake as he picks up speed. He jumps over the see-saw and takes off. Lexi finds a shortcut and goes for it. She goes up to higher ground where the slides are. Blake is still on ground level while Lexi can see him from above. She jumps and reaches her arm out. She's able to tag Blake.

"Shit!"

"Sorry!"

"Don't worry, Lexi, you did good!" says Blake as he walks over to the sandbox.

"Blake: 3.5 lives left," says a robotic voice.

"Not that voice again!" says Blake.

Lexi stops. Before she starts running again, she starts to look for someone else she could try and tag. There's no one in sight, they're most likely all hiding.

"You've gotta be kidding me," says Lexi.

Lexi runs to the first hiding spot she thought of. Under the slides. As she gets closer, she slides under the slide. She ends up scratching her knee on accident but deals with the pain. Under the slide is one person. Rachel. Rachel doesn't realize that Lexi has found her, she's looking in another direction, most likely trying to look for Lexi. Ironic.

"Sorry, Rachel!" says Lexi as she reaches her arm out to tag Rachel.

As Lexi tags her, Rachel looks back and smiles at her, "It's alright, I'm gonna be fine."

Rachel walks to the sandbox as the robotic voice comes back.

"Rachel: 4 lives."

"Hey, Blake! You were the first one out, right?" says Rachel as she steps into the sandbox.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm kinda surprised at how good Lexi is at this."

"Yeah, she's really going all in, I think what X said really scared her," says Rachel as she watches Lexi run around the playground.

"Well, it makes sense, it would scare any of us."

"Yeah, I suppose."

Lexi is looking around the swings to see if anyone was hiding in the area. As she changes her focus to another area of a playground, she hears movement behind her. She turns her head and sees Chase. Chase and Lexi lock eyes and Chase takes off in the opposite direction. Lexi runs after him. Chase takes a few shortcuts to try and throw Lexi off. He goes in zig-zags and in any direction possible.

"You aren't gonna get me!" says Chase.

"We'll see about that!" says Lexi as she picks up speed.

After a few seconds of Lexi running after Chase, you can hear him start to breathe heavier. He's starting to slow down and the look of panic and exhaust on his face starts to increase.

Lexi puts out her arm, "Gotcha!" She tags Chase.

"Chase: 3.5 lives."

"Good game, Lexi," says Chase as he walks to the sandbox.

As Chase walks over, he realizes Rachel is there, "*you've gotta be kidding me,*" he thinks to himself.

Blake sees Chase walking over and gets annoyed, "*I hope they've resolved whatever was going on between them.*"

"Hi, Chase!" says Rachel.

"Hey."

"Let's talk for a bit, after all, there's still around 6 minutes left," says Rachel.

"No thanks, I'll just watch Lexi tag everyone," says Chase with a smile on his face.

Rachel is a bit taken aback, "uh, alright! No problem at all!"

"*That's what I get for being an ass,*" Rachel thinks to herself.

The focus goes back to Lexi. She has 3 more people to get. She looks around per usual but doesn't see anyone, they're trying to make it hard for her.

"5 minutes left! We're at the halfway mark!" says X.

Lexi goes back to the swings to look for anyone that she might've missed. She is able to find someone despite their efforts in hiding. Carly.

Lexi starts running to Carly to tag her, but as she starts running, someone gets out of their hiding spot and presents themselves. Ana.

"Hey, Lexi! Over here!" says Ana.

Lexi turns her head out of curiosity, "Ana? Why did you reveal yourself?"

"I have my reasons, so are you gonna run after me or not?"

Lexi turns her body away from Carly and starts going toward Ana. She picks up speed and starts running. Ana starts running, the chase is on.

"Over here, Lexi!" says Ana as she runs in random directions around the playground.

"I'm gonna get you, Ana!"

"I'm sure you will!" says Ana running behind the slides.

Lexi takes a shortcut and is met face to face with Ana. Lexi moves closer but Ana stays still. Lexi puts her arm out to tag her, but still no reaction from Ana. Lexi tags her.

"Ana: 4 lives."

As Ana starts to walk to the sandbox, Lexi says something.

"Ana, how come you did that? Why did you give up your hiding spot?"

"Simple. It was for her," says Ana as she continues her walk to the sandbox.

Lexi has a look of surprise on her face, "for Carly..? But that doesn't make sense, why would you waste your own lives for Carly?" she says to herself as she turns to look for the last 2 players.

As Lexi turns around, she sees Joseph running across the playground. It seemed like he was trying to find somewhere to hide while Lexi was still focused on Ana.

Lexi runs after him, "I see you, Joseph!"

As Joseph hears Lexi, he picks up speed.

"You can't run from me!" says Lexi picking up speed to match Joseph's energy.

"I'm going to win!" says Joseph.

"We'll see about that!"

"Give up, Lexi! You're not gonna get me!"

"Yes, I will!"

Lexi stops running. A plan comes to mind. She looks to where Joseph is running, he's too focused on his running that he can't even tell that Lexi has stopped running after him. She notices that he's running toward the slides, she follows after him but she slowly walks, she plans to catch him off-guard.

Once Joseph gets to the other side of the slides, he stops.

"I lost her, thank god," says Joseph as he sits down and tries to catch his breath.

Lexi goes under the slides and she sees Joseph, she treads carefully. She's just a few inches away from him and he suspects nothing. She puts her arm out and tags him.

"Joseph: 3 lives."

"What the?" says Joseph as he turns around, "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

"Gotcha," says Lexi with a smile on her face.

"Well played," says Joseph as he walks to the sandbox.

1 more person. Carly.

"2 minutes left! Good luck!" says X.

"*Ana got tagged for me, I can't let her down,*," thinks Carly.

Lexi walks back to the swings, she hopes that Carly is still there. After a few seconds of looking around, she realizes that Carly is in a new hiding spot.

She scans the playground for what seems like the best hiding spot. She's not in hiding in the swings, the slides are too obvious, it's where everyone else hid. For the most part, there are barely any places. But, Lexi realizes where she could be hiding, behind the rock climbing wall.

Lexi walks slowly toward the wall, she doesn't want to give off any clues as to where she is. Once she reaches the wall, she goes to the opposite side and is met with Carly's eyes.

The two of them lock eyes. Carly is met with surprise at first but brushes it away almost immediately. She stands up and takes off running in the opposite direction. Lexi runs after her.

"Get back here!" says Lexi.

"Never!"

As Lexi runs after Carly, cheering erupts from everyone in the sandbox.

"You got this, Carly!! You only have a minute and a half left!" says Ana.

"Go, Lexi!! She's the last person you need!" says Rachel.

Carly picks up speed, and so does Lexi, she's right on her trail.

Carly circles around the perimeter in hopes that Lexi will lose her, but Lexi follows right after.

Carly runs around in zig-zags, maintaining the same speed she's had since the start of the chase. Lexi kept her same speed as well.

"1 minute left, players!" says X.

"You got this, Carly! You just have to keep running for a minute!!" says Ana.

"C'mon, Lexi! You're so close to winning!" says Chase.

Carly starts to feel a slight decrease in her speed, "*shit!*"

Lexi can see the difference in Carly's speed, it causes Lexi to speed up. Carly can hear Lexi's footsteps becoming closer. Carly decides to find another place to hide, just for the few seconds left in the game, but just as she made the idea, it got shut down.

Carly stops as she feels a slight touch on her arm, she turns around and sees Lexi looking right at her with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Gotcha," says Lexi.

"Carly: 4 lives."

"Amazing game, my players! Lexi is our winner for this game! Congratulations, kid!" says X.

"Nice job, Lexi. I've rarely ever been outrun but you were able to," says Carly.

"All of you have completed stage 3, regardless of whether you lost a life or not. There's an exit door you guys can go through, once all of you guys are out of the playground, you'll have a 10-minute break before you can start stage 4," says X.

Chase finds the exit door and holds the door open for everyone so they can leave the playground.

As they come back from the playground, another door has formed right next to the 3rd stage door, per usual.

"X, is there a first-aid kit anywhere?" says Joseph.

"Yeah, it's near the lights, why do you ask?"

"While I was getting chased by Lexi, I noticed she had injured herself," says Joseph grabbing the first-aid kit.

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. When I slid under the slides, I ended up scratching my knee," says Lexi.

"Sit down, Lexi. I'm gonna put a band-aid on you and after that, I want you to get some water before the next stage, you're probably really tired," says Joseph pulling band-aids out of the kit.

"I am pretty tired," says Lexi.

Joseph puts the band-aid on Lexi, "Thanks, Joseph."

"No need to thank me, just go get some water."

"Alright!" says Lexi as she leaves to go to the kitchen.

The 10 minutes end.

"Alrighty! Who wants to start the 4th stage?" says X.

"Not like we have much of a choice," says Blake.

X chuckles, "I'll take that as a yes."