Age of Serial Synot

First Act (4)

The tension in the room was so thick that one could almost touch. Everyone was trying to wrap their heads around the situation and figure out what to do.

Some had already resigned to their fate warily gazing at others, trying to determine which of the other participants could be the biggest threat. 

The diverse reactions among the people represented the different attitudes and convictions that they had cultivated throughout their lives; the die hard, the quick to give in, those who lost it entirely.

Among the sixteen people in the warehouse, most could be said to already have given up on getting out of this alive, after all, fiction may be made up, but it is based on real life events most of the time.

James slumped down and took a deep breath. The thought of his grandmother suffering even for a minute hurt him. 

She could barely walk as it is, her one feature that spelled out loud that she was alive, being her eternally yammering mouth.

She suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and with her old age it kept getting worse.

She had a rough life growing up, her parents divorcing, forcing her and mother to barely manage to scrap through life each day. She had to drop out of school and work multiple jobs to help her mother make ends meet, especially after her younger brother was born.

The stress of having so much responsibility as a teenager had driven her to start smoking which was her bubble to think and try to relax. 

Even as she worked her butt off to build a better life, get married and have her own children, the habit never died, causing damage to her lungs.

Life was unforgiving. No matter how tragic your back story, all the finer details in life always found the means to catch up to you, even when you're almost 70.

James needed to constantly provide her with her medication. Her condition couldn't be cured, but the effects could be minimised with constant treatment. The young man felt he owed it to her to make her life a little easier as she grew older. 

James looked to his side and saw the young lady trembling as she bit her thumb. 

"Hey," he said.

Katie looked at him for a second and then looked down.

"Hie," she replied.

James smuggled himself to her side and sat by her.

"You don't seem to be holding up so well," he said in a light sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, well. It's my first time being involved with a super. You?" she asked with a sad smile.

"I guess I could say the same, in a way," James replied.

Both of them sighed, the terror in their eyes barely concealed.

"I really need to get out of here as soon as possible. Frankly, I'd prefer we get this over with, than having to wait," he said as he looked at Katie.

Katie looked at him with an uncertain gaze.

"I can't even bring myself to be calm in a situation like this, much less play some messed up game," she said.

A man walked up to them and knelt with one knee and held James' shoulder.

"Did I hear you right, son? You don't want to have to wait for 24 hours right?" the man asked.

James looked at him quizzically, recalling him to be the man in the office shirt who had been the first to speak out.

"Y...yeah. You too?" he asked.

"Of course!" the man said, sitting beside James.

He had light auburn hair that was made to look less magnificent by his receding hairline. Brown almond shaped eyes were perked on his face with a straight nose in the middle.

"I can't afford to waste so much time. I have a pregnant wife with the baby merely days away from birth. I can't guarantee anyone will help her if she had another one of those contractions when I'm absent. Then there's my daughter who's studying outside the country. I can't respond if anything happens when I'm stuck here goddammit!" 

James and Katie looked at him with sympathy. Katie even more so.

Between the three of them, she seemed to be the one with the lesser motivation. Quite frankly, she felt like she needed more time to prepare herself, but at the same time it felt selfish when there were people who had so much at stake.

"Did this bastard really look into our lives and choose such a time to make us play this game on purpose?" James pointed out, his face twisting in rage.

The man in the office shirt scowled at that thought. This was very low. Even for a villain.

"I would probably understand if there were at least tens more of us here, but even if the worst happened, this matter wouldn't blow up enough for him to get famous. Why is he doing this?" The man in the shirt said.

Katie suddenly recalled a detail she had wondered about and decided to ask.

"Umm, did you guys also meet a strange man with a peculiar face?" she asked.

The two jolted when they heard this and faced Katie.

"Now that you mention it.. yes. Yes I did! I saw him at work, in the elevator! He had weird face. I blanked out right after parting ways with him," the man in the office shirt said in realisation, his eyes widening as he remembered.

"Wait," James said as he faced Katie. "Did you... did you ..get the sudden impulse to- "

"To turn my head and look at him?!" Katie said while freaking out.

"Yes," said James, his face showing a very worried visage.

"It freaked me out. It happened twice in a  roll. I thought I was losing it," said Katie.

"Twice. It happened to me three times," said James with an even more unsettled expression.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" The man in the office shirt said with confusion as he looked at them.

Out of nowhere, amidst the conversing groups and wallowing individuals, the burly man suddenly shouted to get everyone's attention.

"Hey!" he called, making everyone turn to him. Because of the nature of the place they were in, his voice was clearly heard. "I don't know about you but I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. I say we vote for the this so called game to happen right now."

The woman who had tried to exit the warehouse earlier suddenly stood with a shocked expression, her hands trembling as she looked at the man.

"N..no! Please let's wait a bit longer! We need to think about this!" she shrieked.

"What the hell do we have to think about? We know nothing about this shit. Didn't you say you had children? The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can get to your family," the burly man said.

"I know..but.... if this is a death game.." she stammered.

"I agree with her," said a rather short man who wore a beige cardigan. He was heavily built and wore glasses. Contrary to his figure, he wore a placid gaze, the colour of his skin and beads of sweat being the only indicator that he wasn't as fearless as his gaze signified.

"If we run into this without even considering our options, then we might as well die. Can't we at least try to analyse the rules we were given and find loopholes?" 

"Buddy, you're really gonna take that guy's word for it? If anything, those could have been a farce to give us false hope!" a curvy lady with straight caramel hair that reached her chin said.

Others began chiming in, offering their opinions until it became a full blown argument where some looked like they would start punching each other.

"SHUT UP, FATASS! You're just too scared to play the game!"

"You're hurrying us to our deaths! At least lemme get enough time to make a last prayer!"

"If you don't have anything waiting for you outside there then shut your mouth, I'm not wasting precious time because of cowards like you!"

The insane argument went on, the deluge of saliva falling to the floor and the different reddened eyes glaring at each other making the scene all the more tragic.

James and the others watched the loud debate. 

Time for him was running faster than everyone else's. He was a pessimist and he trusted in the worst case scenarios being as much of a possibility as their better counterparts.

"ENOUGH!!" he suddenly yelled, his voice interrupting the chaos.

Everyone looked at him with different expressions.

Under the gazes, James momentarily faltered but took a deep breath and spoke his mind.

"You can quarrel all day,  but it won't make a difference. At the end of the day, we're the ones who stand to lose. I for one would rather get this game started, even if I'm just as scared as you," he said as he raised his hand. 

He indeed was scared for his life. But he was already missing home, the thought of his grandmother being alone eating him inside.

The man in the white shirt looked at James and also raised his hand.

Realising that the voting was already in the process, all those in favour of getting the game to start raised their hands including the burly man.

Eight hands were raised, causing the situation to reach a momentary stalemate that caused those who had been in favour of waiting, to sigh in relief.

Katie was deliberating. She had really wanted more time, but she realised that she did have something to lose.

Her job. 

She could easily be replaced and the prospect of losing her job and starting from scratch again opened her eyes. She already had a lot to answer to and wasting time didn't seem all that attractive anymore. That, paired with the relentless phone calls that her mother was likely to assault her phone with, only to find her unreachable.

She raised her hand a moment later, much to the horror of the others who wished the opposite.

The woman and the heavily built man who were in favour of waiting for the 24 hours had looks of disappointment. The woman even glared at Katie with thinly veiled hatred.

As soon as the vote went in favour of beginning the game, the man in the mask appeared in room mysteriously.

A cigarette was still plastered in the smile hole of his mask, smoke softly swirling into the air.

"The majority of the participants have decided to begin the game. So it shall be," he said.

"Please wait! We need more time!" the woman from the door incident pleaded as she fell to her knees, but was completely disregarded.

Suddenly, the floor started to change. 

Grid boxes began to appear. Large grid boxes.

Some were light, being pristine and clear as well as the atmosphere in them from the ground up.

Some however, were dark. So dark that all the way from the floor to the ceiling, which had been replaced with a replica of the floor, one couldn't see anything but black. 

They were set in an alternating manner.

The space seemed to have been expanded, all the participants within one large white and clear grid box as they stared at this place in awe and fear.

"The game will begin momentarily. The name of this game is....." the man in the mask paused momentarily.

"....COn CHeSs."