As long as you are breathing

Escorted

“No, what's WIC?” asked Kalil.

“Well, from what I know, they are a company arranging a game with the winning prize being a whopping five million dollars!” answered Zahed.

“That doesn’t sound too believable. Rather it kinda sounds suspicious if you ask me,” said Kalil, “A company arranging a game with the winning of five million dollars ought to be a famous one. Yet I don’t recall ever hearing its name. Have you heard that name before?”

“Umm… no, not really,” replied Zahed, “But for some reason, I feel like I did.”

“I don’t think we should place our bet on your feelings,” said Kalil.

“Hey man, we should never let the good chance slip by. I believe the secret to being successful is taking advantage of every chance you get,” exhorted Zahed.

“Well I guess we can at least go check what it’s all about,” said Kalil.

Soon enough Zahed took Kalil to a stadium in a nearby city that Kalil never noticed.

“Zahed? How long has this stadium been here,” asked Kalil with a bit of shock, “I visited this city just a few months ago. I am not sure if I remember this stadium being here. A stadium takes years to build doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been to this city before. I was told that the game would take place here. So I brought you here,” replied Zahed.

“Hmm… Wait,” said Kalil and went to stop a passer-by on the road, “Excuse me but when was this stadium made?”

“Huh? It’s been here forever. I have been seeing it since I was born.”

“Oh! Thanks,” replied Kalil. Then he whispered to himself, “I could have sworn this stadium didn’t exist just a few months ago. How can I not notice such a big stadium?”

“Come on, Kalil. Stop wasting so much time,” said Zahed.

They both entered the stadium together. A black-coated gentleman received them.

“For the WIC event?” he asked.

“Yes,” Zahed answered.

“Is it true that the prize money is 4 million US dollars?” asked Kalil while walking as the gentleman escorted them.

“Of course,” he answered.

“Wait, I thought it was 5 million,” exclaimed Zahed.

“It is,” he answered.

Kalil, despite being suspicious of the event, for some reason didn’t want to ask why he showed inconsistency about the answer with him and Zahed. He also didn’t want to question the trustability of the prize.

But he forced himself to ask, “Hey, can we really trust the WIC company? Are they actually going to give us the prize money?”

“Yes,” the gentleman answered.

That answer gave abnormally made Kalil trust them.

 “And last question, what is this game going to be about?” asked Kalil.

“You will learn that just before the game starts,” he answered.

“I get that but wouldn’t we be able to prepare ourselves better if we know what this is about?” Kalil followed up with another question.

“That won’t be unfair since none of the participants know about the game either,” he replied. Then he grinned and said, “But I can guarantee that it won’t be like any game you played in your life.”

They were taken to a locker room where they both sat down to relax for a minute. They were given a specific uniform to wear. It was a white jumper with two broad red lines coming from the shoulders to the navel area like a triangle. A similar pattern was on the backside too.

After about an hour, the life-talks they initiated in the locker room were interrupted by a sudden earthquake accompanied by violent engine noise. Both Kalil and Zahed rushed to the gate as soon as they could only to find it locked. They tried to pull it aggressively to make sure they aren’t mistaken.

“Move!” said Zahed as he took a karate stance.

He shot a traditional straight punch at the door. He immediately retracted the fist and shouted in pain.

“Don’t try to be the hero when you can’t, you fool,” said Kalil.

“I did break it.”

“Huh?”

Then Kalil observed the hole that Zahed’s punch created on the door.  Seems there was a metal door behind.

“Umm, Kalil?” said Zahed while pointing towards the window. The locker room was flying.

“Is this supposed to be a part of the game?” asked Kalil.

“I don’t know. I guess the only thing to do is to just wait and see what happens?” replied Zahed.

After a few minutes, they heard some weird mechanical sound. They heard a kind of spraying sound before their door finally opened.

A human figure wearing a full-white skin-tight cloth with a black helmet entered.  He carried a gun or at least a weapon that seems like a gun.

“Follow me,” he said. His voice had no emotion in it.

“Where are we?” asked Kalil.

“Shut up!” he threatened.

Kalil didn’t dare retaliate seeing the weapon with him. They were taken through a sci-fi-looking spaceship where a few more soldiers wearing the same dress like the ones guiding them marched around. Space could be seen from the window.

At last, they were taken to a room with 3-4 soldiers talking among themselves. There was a map in the room. But it didn’t resemble any part of the spaceship. It looked more like that of a natural place from a satellite.

The soldier gave Kalil and Zahed a dart each.

“Shoot!” the soldier said.

“At the map?” Kalil asked.

The soldier nodded his head in affirmation.

“Here goes, I guess,” said Kalil and threw the dart.

It landed on a forest-like area of the map. Zahed threw and landed almost on the same spot.

“Follow!” said the soldier again and they started walking again. Finally, they reached a door, opening which they found a huge landscape inside the ship. It seems like they opened the door to a kind of balcony.

A vehicle was waiting for them. It was floating like a helicopter but it had no wings. Neither did it made much noise.

“Enter!”