Eliminated 411
It's only after driving away Exqua and the excitement dies down, that we start to feel it again. The hunger and fatigue of living in a hole for a few days starts to catch up, and the heavy realism of our predicament sets in.
When I first woke up in the pit, it had admittedly felt… unreal. As though this were just a temporary experience, like a camping trip or something, and soon I'd just be back home, taking a warm shower and chatting with Caesar. But now, now that we've escaped the pit only to just dive headfirst into another cave, it really starts setting in, y'know? No idea where we are. No idea how deep we are. No idea who's watching us, laughing at us, moving us around on invisible strings.
I feel small, like I'm being toyed with by some primordial demon, like this is all just a stupid, twisted game.
I am cold, exhausted and starving, my clothes are sticking to my skin because of all the dried blood and dirt, my hair's plastered to my forehead with sweat and I'm filthy.
I feel like dying, I feel like I just want to fall down and split my head open and then float away.
But there are two things that are keeping me on my feet.
I still have to get back to my little sister, who's coming home soon. The thought of her stepping off the trans-continental train to an empty station terrifies me. Second, the people walking beside me right now. All of them are going through the same thing. I'm sure all of them have left something behind to get tossed down here, and have tons of emotions clashing inside. But they're standing up straight, moving forward, so I've gotta do the same.
***
A couple days have passed. There are people everywhere now. Pairs or individuals are breaking down their doors every day, and the number of survivors is going up. But as it does, the number of people falling into despair, breaking down and crying, increases with it.
There are fights and scuffles, as well as groups coming together for safety in numbers, and that includes us - we've grown to over ten people.
A now familiar pang of pain collectively shoots through everyone's heads.
"Two weeks have passed."
"Congratulations, you have cleared the first objective. The number of survivors is 589. Proceed to the exit."
Exit…?
I turn to Artee.
"That hole we found last time," I tell him, and he nods.
A couple days ago, while exploring the passageways, we'd found a single tunnel that didn't loop back to the pits. Artee and Elemental had fearlessly gone down it to confirm.
"Proceed to the exit."
"Proceed to the exit."
"Shut up already," I say aloud. "We get it."
"Proceed to the exit."
"Proceed to the exit."
"Proceed to the exit."
"Proceed to the exit."
"No, something's wrong," Neo grabs my sleeve.
"It's getting faster and faster," a survivor in our group called Kard says. "Like…"
"A countdown." I finish.
We look at each other with wide eyes.
"Run," I say. "RUN!!"
We peel through the passages, yelling at people to get a move on, and then nearly six hundred bodies are cramming into the exit passageway, swarming through it.
Dammit legs, move!!
"STAY CLOSE!!" Artee yells above the shouting and jostling.
I clench my jaw for fear of biting my tongue in half, and keep pushing forwards. Luckily, our group's near the front, so we don't meet as much resistance as those behind us might've.
"Proceed to the exit."
"Proceed to the exit."
"Proceed to the-"
"Pro-"
"Pro-"
"Pro-"
It becomes a long, bone-chilling, high-pitched drone. My legs are screaming in pain as I barrel through the dark tunnel, heels knocking against someone's shins. Sweat is rolling down my face and my ears are full of shouting and screaming. I can't shake the cold feeling creeping up my neck as the countdown follows me.
"Countdown over. 411 applicants have failed. Proceeding with elimination."
Elimina-?
A tremendous, deafening, jarring boom echoes through the cave, hurling me to the ground. The screams and cries of the other survivors are drowned outby more explosions, and rocks begin to rain down around me.
"Get up!"
Someone pulls me roughly to my feet. It's Elemental. I reach out into the rising dust and collapsing pebbles, catching his sleeve, and, shielding my eyes with my other arm, we race through the hail of rocks. Someone grabs at me, and summoning the strength in my reinforced muscles, I heave them onto my shoulder and keep running. Something catches my cheek and I feel the stinging pain of a cut.
"RUUN!!" Neo yells somewhere in front of me.
And then, all of a sudden, we spill out into a wide area and it's all over. I collapse face first on the rock as feet pound past my face.
I am safe. Or am I?
Pushing myself back to my feet, wheezing for breath, I turn, and a sickening, terrifying, horrifying sight greets me. I feel like I want to scream, vomit, cry and run all at the same time, but my legs are frozen, anchored in place with fear.
Beyond the corridor we've just exploded out from, a straight shot down, past the sea of heads still streaming out of it, there's nothing. Nothing but the thunderous roar of a waterfall, a waterfall of boulders, racing down past the exit tunnel. Dust is leaking down from above us and the ground is trembling.
The onslaught continues, burying 411 people in their stone tombs.
***
The rumbling, tremoring and exploding continues for a full fifteen minutes as five hundred pits are filled with thousands of tons of rock. It's finally concluded by the escape passage collapsing. A boulder crashes down in the exit, sealing it forever.
After it dies down, a deathly silence follows. I never knew six hundred people could be so quiet.
Four hundred and eleven people have just died in front of my eyes. Four hundred and eleven families and friend groups will never see them again.
I feel sick, and unstable on my feet.
Neo, Artee, Ronin and the rest of the group re-gather but I can barely bring myself to acknowledge their presence.
"…let's go," Neo says eventually, laying a hand on my shoulder.
I don't hear him.
"007," Elemental says. "Those people are dead, they're gone and buried. You're not. Snap out of it, or you can die right there."
I look at him, he's right.
"Let's go," he says.
I nod.
"…yeah."
We're in a huge cavern, the ceiling stretching hundreds of feet above our heads like a subterranean city. All around us, bioluminescent fungi cast an eery blue glow across the stony walls, and countless huge stalagmites and stalactites, tens of feet in height, lead on into the dark like a forest of rock. The gentle tinkling of underground streams rich in chrona minerals reaches my ears. Like moths to a flame, we fall on the fresh groundwater, lapping up the cold, sweet water gratefully, splashing it in our faces and throwing it at each other. It could be poisoned, but I couldn't care less. It tastes too good.
Eventually the excitement calms down, and the survivors disperse across the area of the cave just outside the exit passage - a rough semicircle surrounded by the stream, as if it's a naturally marked safe zone.
Natural. Safe?
The quite droning chatter, the small smiles that are slowly appearing.
No. It's not possible. Not after the bullshit 'first objective'.
I consult the others, and they agree.
"If there's a first, there's gotta be a second," a girl with cyan hair called Celeste suggests.
"It feels off," Artee agrees. "But this is probably the only chance we'll have to get some rest…"
"We can take turns taking watch?" Kard suggests. "If something does happen, we'll wake everyone up."
"Right," a girl about the same age as me called Mist says. "I don't think we should leave the safe zone either. It's better to stick with the bulk."
She jerks her head over at the crowd of people milling around close by, in groups ranging from twos and threes to up to fifty or more.
"And you are?" I ask, not remembering her being with us.
"050 Mist," she says, extending a hand. "I saw you guys, and you seem pretty normal and friendly. I hope you don't mind me tagging along."
"What's your skills?" Elemental asks.
"I have a good arm," she grins.
We all raise an eyebrow.
"As in?"
"Exactly as it sounds like."
"It's fine," Ronin says, giving us a big smile. "She can definitely pull her weight."
"How do you know?"
"Just trust me."
He shuffles closer to Mist, leans in slightly, and whispers something. I barely catch it-
"Big fan."
She looks slightly embarrassed, but Elemental gives him and says she can stay. Afterwards, we agree to hit the hay and take turns keeping watch. I gratefully collapse on the cold stones.
Finally, some rest. It's nothing like a warm bed at home, but… I'm too tired to care, and almost as soon as I lay my head down I black out.
***
I have a nightmare. I'm standing knee-deep in black water, and when I look around I'm still in the cavern, but Above me, dangling from strings leading up to the endless shadows, are hundreds of people. Artee. Ronin. Kard. Mist. Elemental. Neo. Every second, one of the strings snap, and someone falls into the dark water, consumed in seconds by the inky waves, and a scream echoes before crackling out into static. Then pulses ripple out around me, and one by one, pale eyes open beneath the surface, staring up at me, like light shining through oil.
You cannot escape, they whisper, we are always watching.
I look up again, and suddenly I realize I too am dangling on a string. It stretches taught, and snaps.
I fling myself awake in a cold sweat.
"Sword?" Kard says, groggy and startled.
I'm panting and sweating.
"What happened?"
"No-nothing," I mutter. "…want me to take next watch?"
"Oh, sure," he says. "Thanks. You sure you all right?"
"Yeah."
I stand up, still shaky, glancing over at Kard, and instantly cold fear grips me. My body freezes. It must've shown in my face because he asks me, confused,
"What's wrong?"
"R… r-r-run," I whisper hoarsely. "KARD, RUN!!!!"
Kard whirls around, but it's too late. The shadow that had appeared behind him slams him across the head with a glistening steel bat.