The Last Man Standing

Chapter 8

Clio sighs out of frustration and confusion. She looked to Mercy and then to Reneger and then to Eli—he was eyeing the finish line of the track like a hawk. Clio never saw such intense determination.

“What?” Mercy asked with a wide grin, looking at Alice. What they had to do was to pick a color; and see if the color they chose would be the same color that the blinking lights around them would show.

Alice shrugged, nudging Apollo on his right side. “Should we go to red?” pointing at the red line marker on the floor.

Apollo held his twin sister’s hand, looking at the red line. The majority were going to the red marker— that made Clio hesitant. Her gut was telling her that she should not go there but where should she go?

“Knave,” Reneger called.

Clio stared at Reneger then to Summer. “Do you think we should not go to red?” Summer asked, stopping Mercy and the rest of their teammates from moving.

“Knave?”

Clio looked at the red marker then her gaze averted to her teammates. All of them were waiting except for one. She looked for Eli among the crowd. That’s when she saw him walking towards the gold marker. Only few chose that color.

“Eli…” Clio held the locket she was wearing. She then looked at Reneger, “Let’s go to gold.”

“Gold?” Mercy asked in amusement.

“Are you f*****g sure?” Apollo inquired, looking at Clio with doubt.

She did not explain. After nodding, she followed Eli and walked to the golden marker. She could not fathom Reneger's reaction as well as Mercy's. Alice nodded and Summer supported her decision, on the other hand. They followed her and her heart raced because of fear that she might be wrong.

The rest hesitated but when Mercy finally agreed, “True enough. Let’s trust the golden sun,” they proceeded to the gold marker.

The thirty-seven players were scattered to the four colors with the majority clumping with each other on the red marker and the minority on the gold marker.

When the music stopped, silence filled the venue. Clio could not hear anything except the fast beating of her heart. She looked at her teammates— she could not figure out why they followed her. She then looked at Eli—why did she follow him?

The music stopped. The soft voice of the woman from the speaker was heard again, “And the lucky color for today is...”

Clio felt nervous on how direct the game was going. She thought Evolution to be some kind of ‘survival’ game… with unexpected twists and turns.

“Gold and Red!” In an instant, the lights stopped blinking. Gold and red colors filled the whole Heaven.

Clio breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the fairy lights which sparkled with gold and red. Mercy hugged her with glee and Reneger tapped the top of her head. While everyone was cheering, Clio looked at Eli. He was looking straight, no emotion on his face and just did not care.

The woman greeted them on the speaker. While the people on the red and gold marker breathed a sigh of relief. The people who chose blue and green were already begging and crying for help and out of fear.

“They’re scared,” Clio murmured, frowning at the rest of the players who got the color wrong. She noticed the deep fear on their faces and the desperation on their tears.

“They should be,” Summer said, sighing deeply before putting both of her hands on her ears to cover them.

“Summer,” Clio called but Summer bowed her head and closed her eyes.

“Do the same thing, Knave. You will not like the next thing that will happen,” Alice said, tapping her shoulder.

She’s confused and nervous. She did not get it.

“And for the other players standing who chose the wrong colors— I’m so sorry. But you are now eliminated,” the woman said with her robotic soft voice.

Chills ran down Clio’s spine with the next thing she witnessed.

It was fast.

A man who was about to leave the blue marker line fell to the cold floor. Even before his foot finally stepped outside the blue line, a gunshot pierced his forehead.

“Ahhhhh!”

Terrified screams were heard. Then, body after body fell on the cold floor of the venue. Many tried to escape the tragic fate by running away— but the bullet was faster than them.

It was quick and brutal.

Clio stood frozen. Her body trembled with fear and complete shock as her tears fell from her eyes like a mad river. She witnessed how people died even before she could blink her eyes.

“Players stay within your chosen line.”

The formerly white floor was now stained with thick blood and lifeless bodies were scattered all over it. It was an image of brutal catastrophe that no normal person would ever imagine to see in reality.

Guards in their white uniforms entered the room with a wagon in their hands. They walked rigidly. Their steps echoed on the bloody floor as they marched towards the corpses. They picked up the lifeless bodies like a piece of crumpled paper on the floor.

“This is crazy,” Clio was having a hard time breathing. The rusty smell of the blood makes her want to puke. Never in her wildest dream that she thought she would witness a m******e.

“This is not even half the crazy we will experience in the next four days of Evolution, Knave.” Mercy smirked, enjoying the bloody scene in front of her. She had seen such a scene already. It was worse than the one in front of her. "If I were you, get used to this or else... the next thing that would be there, lying dead, is you."