Are You The Complete Player?

2/2 WE WERE ON TV THE WHOLE TIME?

“I have exciting news for you, as always. At the end of this game, some of you will be eliminated. Isn’t it so thrilling?”

           Nobody responded to it. It was as if everyone had suddenly forgotten how to breathe.

           “Team A is led and chosen by Adela Horackova of Czech Republic. Please come up on the stage, players, as I call your name.”

           Suddenly, a game show stage, complete with decors and three podiums with buzzers and microphones on it, appeared out of thin air. 

           “Give it up for our Team A players: Joanna, Hana, Lucija, Adam, Miroslav, Carmella, Jihan, Aksel, Basil and Luis.”

           The players who were called looked confused about the announcement. When did Adela Horackova choose the members of her team? 

           Carmella’s feet remained planted where she stood. The announcement of group members made her think of something horrible.  Krystupas wasn’t chosen by Adela to be in their group. That meant they were going to be opponents.

           “I meant cute, not corny,” she blurted out to him as she joined the others in her group. There was no guarantee one or both of them would still be alive after the game. It needed to be said.

           He looked so confused as he watched her come up on the stage. 

           What was cute but not corny? He wondered inwardly, and scratched his head for not getting what she meant. But he was right that Adela was up to something. He wished he had figured it out sooner so he could ask her to pick him in their group, too. Carmella being in another group made him feel so nervous. How could he go all out fighting for his survival when it could possibly be at her expense?

           “Adela, girl,” Luis whispered. “Are you on a suicide mission? Why did you pick me to be on your team to die with you, losers?” 

Adela ignored his shade.

           “Team B is headed and picked by Gavro Nikolic of Serbia. Team members, come up on stage as I call your name. Dragan, Artem, Mira, Grace, Keavy, Galyna, Francois, Jules, Drew and Maxim…”

           The guys looked glad to be in Gavro’s team but they were all wondering why Marek was not picked to be with them. Meanwhile, Keavy was confused why Adela didn’t pick her on her team, but she figured Gavro’s team wasn’t so bad anyway. She walked over to her team as Grace high-fived her with a grin as if they weren’t competing for their lives.

           “And finally, Team C, chosen by Crina Aldea of Romania. Krystupas, Mia, Akira, Marco, Aimilie, Estere, Daniela, Marek, Chloe, and Borysko.”

           Krystupas looked over at Carmella. He was not liking how this competition was turning. He realised Crina went over to his bunk to pick him somehow, but she didn’t bother with Carmella. Why was she asking about Will’s middle name anyway?

           “Line up, everyone. You’ll all get your turn to answer. This game is called Name The Country. All you have to do is… name the country that is being asked,” the voice said with a chuckle. “Here are the rules. First of all, only the player in the podium who presses the buzzer first after the question is asked is allowed to answer. No one else is allowed to shout the answer or say the answer when it’s not their turn. The team with the highest number of correct answers at the end of 11 rounds shall win. The losing team will be the one with the least points. In case of a tie for the lowest, group leaders will play for tiebreaker. Is everyone ready?”

           Adela was relieved upon hearing the rules of the game. Maybe her team had the edge after all. Gavro’s face was ashen the entire time the rules and mechanics were being announced. 

“Dead,” he whispered to himself, hoping he was wrong. 

Crina shot Krystupas a look as if saying “you got this” but he was looking over at Team A wondering what order Carmella was in the queue. He didn’t want to battle against her.

           “First up, Lucija Babic of Croatia, Drew Martin of Canada, and Borysko Adamovich of Ukraine… Name the country which is the last in Europe to convert to Christianity. Basketball is a very popular sport in this country.”

           Drew Martin pressed the buzzer first. He didn’t seem nervous at all. “Lithuania?” he said, sounding more unsure as if he were reading an answer from a prompt rather than actually knowing it. A fake applause played through the speakers. Team B already scored 1 point.

           “You know, WIC, if we knew we were just going to be quizzed here, I bet you anything, none of us would want to be tennis players. Who cares about history?” Luis complained.

           “It’s geography, man,” Basil whispered behind him. Luis glared at him, but Basil was unsure whether it was because he corrected him or because he called him ‘man’.

           It was Adela, Maxim, and Estere’s turn to battle next.

           “Name the country that is home to the largest ancient castle in the world,” WIC asked.

           “Czech Republic,” Adela said thoughtlessly. It was her home country and she automatically answered without pressing the buzzer.

           WIC decided to nullify the point. Estere pressed the buzzer and simply repeated Adela’s answer to get a point. Team A members complained but weren’t heard. Rules were rules.

           Artem answered the third question about France naturally, as it was his home country. All teams were tied at 1 point apiece after the first three questions.

           Luis answered the next question correctly despite constantly complaining about the game. The question was which country has the language in which the word ‘vampire’ was derived from. He knew it from watching too many vampire-themed shows. He knew that the word vampir is Serbian.

           Marco, Krystupas, and Daniela were able to answer questions on their turn. Francois and Galyna also added two more points for their team.

           As a result, Team B and C tied for 4 points, while Team A ended up with only 3 points, with Carmella and Aksel answering their questions correctly, too, aside from Luis.

           Krystupas clenched his fist nervously. He regretted beating Basil on question #8, if only to give Carmella’s team one more point. Why did Crina not pick her on their team? Was it just because Adela chose Carmella first, or she really left her out?

           WIC instructed the players from the two winning teams to leave the game show stage to make way for the losing team.

           He hesitated to leave with his team, even though Borysko was already pulling him to the stairs.

           “WIC is going to kill them all. I have to do something. I just have to. Carmella is counting on me,” he said.

           Borysko tried his best to remove him from the stage, but he was fighting him hard. Finally, WIC noticed they were still at the stage despite being not from the losing team. Borysko suddenly ran down the stage leaving Krystupas alone by himself. Whatever punishment WIC had in mind, he wanted none of it.

           “I’d like to… steal the place of Carmella Cortez in the losing team,” he said. His heart was beating so fast at the thought of dying helplessly but he couldn’t stand the thought of her being executed. At least if he died it was going to be a painless death. Maybe he deserved it for being ruthless in picking Selene.

           “Very well. Carmella Cortez, go down the stage. Someone is willing to steal your losers’ place,” the voice said, sounding very much amused.

           “What? How is that allowed?” Crina shouted in disbelief. She glared at Krystupas who looked like he was not ready to die anyway. 

           Carmella who was crying together with the other members of Team A glanced at Krystupas. She couldn’t believe he was really taking her place and WIC was allowing it. She walked towards him with a rush of gratitude in her heart and wished she could do something for him, too.

           “Go,” he whispered to her. She was inconsolable when Krystupas stepped in to where she was just standing a few moments ago to await her fate.

           Chloe held her and told her Krystupas was not going to die, but it still felt like that to Carmella no matter what Chloe said. WIC never held back in killing people.

           “Wasn’t that exciting, folks?” WIC asked in its gamemaster voice. “Hello to all our televiewers all over the world watching this WIC TV broadcast of our first edition of “Are You The Complete Player?” For the first time in this competition, I’m leaving the choice to you, our dear viewers. Who do you want to save among this bunch? You have one minute to email the name of your choice. One vote per person only, no cheating. Email your choice to areyouthecompleteplayer@wic.com.”

           The players who weren’t on the losing team were all stunned. WIC abducted them all against their will to play in this sick contest on international TV? But why? Why would someone do this? And more importantly, how could they possibly do it? Were the people all over the world already trying to find them? Would they be located before they were all murdered one by one?

           “This is freaking sick!” Mira said angrily. 

           “We were on TV the whole time?” Francois whispered nervously to Jules. Jules wouldn’t meet his eyes. He had been having s****l relations with Francois who was a few years younger than him and had been his doubles partner for a while now, but he had a wife and children. They couldn’t possibly know this secret.

           Everyone was suddenly on edge. Marek was already thinking of another escape plan. He would try whatever password to try to escape this place.  If this was all done for television entertainment, maybe there was hope all along for everyone to get out alive.

           “Well, well, well, the results are in…” WIC announced. “Players, when I call your name, step right up.”

           Most of the girls on the losing team were already crying their hearts out. Hana was confident her fans would at least save her from elimination. She was the best tennis player in Japan, that should count for something. Joanna tried holding her hand, but she rejected it. 

           “Basil Andino, Adam Evans, Miroslav Petrovic, Aksel Olsen, Krystupas Pavlis, Jihan Jung… step right up, players.”

           The guys nervously stepped into the spotlight. Aksel was consoling Jihan who couldn’t control her tears anymore. Adam’s lips quivered. Miroslav stood lost in thought. His fans all over the world would e-mail to save him, right? Krystupas hugged himself nervously. He randomly remembered the last words Carmella said to him. ‘I meant cute, not corny’. He smiled despite the tears starting to form in his eyes. Carmella meant him. Carmella called him cute. He closed his eyes and couldn’t bear to steal one more glance at her. He didn’t want his last memory of her be that of her grief-stricken face. He remembered her smiling at him mocking his tennis attire while they were dancing. There were already a lot of times that she returned his smile, and it was that image of her that he wanted to be his last memory if this was going to be the last day of his life.

“Players… you are going to continue to be a part of our competition…” the voice continued.

           Basil clenched his fist in relief. Miroslav sighed. Aksel and Jihan pulled each other in a hug. Krystupas bit back a sob of relief. Adam remained stone-faced.

 “Joanna Kaminska, Lucija Babic, Hana Watanabe, Adela Horackova and Luis Rojaz Navarro, I am so, so sad for you…” WIC announced.

           “Wait…” Adam cut off. Time seemed to stop, as he made an abrupt decision he knew Kathy would be proud of.

“I’m… I’m taking Joanna Kaminska’s place. She deserves to continue… she has shown compassion when everyone else was just out for themselves. She gave me the push to keep going. She deserves my place. She is the complete player… And if you are watching this broadcast in the comfort of your homes, please find us. Please hurry and save – ”

But Adam wasn’t able to finish his speech. He dropped dead to the ground; brains blown off. WIC seemed to have cut off the broadcast.

Joanna couldn’t stop crying witnessing Adam’s brutal death yelling his name over and over again. She wanted to run towards his dead body and cry forever. He chose to die for her. She felt an unexplainable grief in her heart. They were supposed to get out of this hell alive. They were supposed to spend more time reading books together which they discovered lately that they both enjoyed. This was all so cruel. This was not happening. Adam Evans was not dead. He couldn’t be. They were going to escape this place together, and dance and read and talk more. She felt her vision blurred by the tears that wouldn’t stop falling down her cheeks. 

Adam, Adam, Adam, her heart was shouting his name over and over. There were many things she hadn’t told him. She thought they still had a lot of time to get to know each other better. She felt her consciousness already slipping away. There seemed to be a gaping hole in her heart now and she was struggling to hold herself together

Suddenly, she felt Adela and Lucija’s presence beside her. They were speaking to her so fast but she couldn’t hear their words clearly. She could still hear Adam’s last words instead.

           “We’re going to escape, now!” Lucija shouted in Joanna’s face. Joanna finally understood what was happening. Lucija and Adela weren’t going to accept WIC’s elimination. They were going to try to escape. She saw Luis already pushing past other players and running as fast as he could, followed by Hana Watanabe. Even the players that weren’t part of the losing team started running. 

           “To the black door!” shouted Marek. It was impossible to distinguish players from each other anymore because everyone was running and bumping against each other in a blur.

           The last image Joanna saw was Hana Watanabe’s brains blown off before the lights suddenly went out in the whole place and everything went pitch black…