Beyond the Walls

Left Behind

“Why do you still ask when you already know?” Gabrielle asked Xian, who is busy tapping his fingers on the couch as he thinks.

“What do I know?” He asked back.

“You already know about Alexa and Adam’s identity, why do you still have to ask earlier?”

Adam and Alexa are taking a rest on each corner with their weapons in their reach.

“I need to see their reaction…expressions also reveal information.”

Gabrielle frowned. “So how much is an acting and so much is real? Were you just acting scared all this time?”

“I’m afraid, it’s not acting. It’s true that I’ve seen undead many times before. They are all newly turned one…”

“Were you an outlander before?” If that is then it doesn’t make sense he loses his s**t everytime they encounter an undead. He cannot even fight back a Level 1 undead.

“No. I’ve always been inside the walls. My father and mother were cops, they secured a place in the inner walls when it was all just starting.”

“Then how come you could have seen one? Inner wallers have the least of chances of encountering undeads.”

“You are wrong. I’ve seen plenty of undead… There are lots of them inside the walls…”

“...?!”

“I got a gist of what might’ve happened here…but we will need to go down in one of the entrances from the field.” He continued.

“Why?”

“There might be something there that may solidify my theory…”

“Okay, I’ll go get them… You don’t seem to be scared of moving in the dark.” Usually Xian will be giving them a disapproving eye but now, he looks like it was only a simple walk.

“I am scared…It might not be my first time seeing one, but it’s definitely the first time I came face to face on one or maybe too many encounters. Besides I know that there is only a limit on how much an undead can see.”

“That is not general knowledge.”

“You’ll be shocked at how intensive my knowledge about undead is.”

After waking the two they sneak out of the room and go down quietly to one of the entrances below. They took care of the undead nearby and proceeded with caution.

The tunnel-like entrance to the backstage and locker was not spacious enough with lots of broken things all over the place.

Opening a flashlight, they saw an empty hallway.

At the end of the halls they’ve seen a destroyed and unpassable pathway.

“This is on purpose…” Xian said.

“You mean someone blew this up?” Gabrielle asked to stay vigilant since there is no other way they can pass through except the way they came from.

“Yes, It was only recently also.” He said looking at the rough edges of the remains. He knelt down and peek at the bottom where there is still fresh grass bent and twisted underneath the fallen rubbles and stained red mark.

“Let’s go to another one.” He said.

“I am liking this new brave attitude of yours.” Alexa commented.

Arriving at the second destination, they found it in the same situation. The difference is they are all frowning.

“When did they blow this up?”

“Maybe when we are knocked out cold. Literally… Or else where will all these undeads come from?” Adam answered.

“We have to check everything.” Xian said.

“Now I am hating you.”

Xian and Gabrielle secure a room while the other two continue checking the rest. The room is forwarded which makes it impossible for undead to break the window from the outside unless they are three meters in height.

The detective borrowed binoculars and watched outside. He had been quiet all this time except when he told the next steps.

A bit of light was coming up and a slight knock on the door was heard. It was Alexa and Adam.

Xian only then removes himself from the window.

“We found doors on two other exits and the rest can’t be checked, there are far too many undeads for us to handle.” Adam said.

Xian looked down and closed his eyes.

“Have any of you gone to a Casino?” Xian asked when he slowly opened his eyes.

“Before or after the apocalypse?” Alexa playfully asked.

“...After.”

Nobody had answered because with it, it means it exists.

“The Casino… It’s the name of that place… The place where I see undeads. It is located in the innermost walls.”

Adam glared upon hearing it.

“Why would they keep undead?” Alexa questioned.

A serious look on Xian's face was far from any expression he ever made the entire trip.

“For the games. They hold events every now and then and make the audience participate by betting…”

The expression of the listening turned sour as Xian continued. The events at the casino vary upon the requests of the highest bidder. Example the bidder wants a gladiator… The place will come up with an idea where a person will play the role of the gladiator and the undead will be the challenger. The rest can just watch or bet. It can either be how many undead can the player kill or how long til he lasts or whatever the Casino comes up…

“...The game is sick but listening to the audience's cheers is more sickening.’

“How can the Casino handle many undeads?” Gabrielle seemed to be bothered by it but her thinking is logical.

“It depends on the games, if a small scale like when a child turns newly undead and players are their parents….. It can be held in the Casino's arena but large scale games involve more than 10 undeads. They are held outside…the walls… That is at least from what the Casino had said.”

“...!”

Alexa, who is by the window, looked outside. There are hundred if not a thousand of undead out there. “This is all a game?”

“Considering there were cameras involved and … Will you all come here?” He went to the window and pointed at several undead.

“Look at those undead, Can you spot any similarities.”

“...They are all wearing a tag.” Adam said.

“Yes. perhaps the door you’ve seen is key card activated?”

“..Yes.”

“Then I can see what might have happened here and in the last place…”

Xian’s deduction is close if not exactly of how it went down. On the building he deduced that the starting place is rooftop and the goal is to exit maybe with a certain time limit. It explains the state of Veronica Dreadmon and the map she has.

“…She must be looking for the exit but if she didn’t get out within the time limit then it means the original exit must be sealed.”

“The bars…” Gabrielle said.

“As for here, I can’t pinpoint their starting place but I can guess their goal is… to exit on the door below but in order to do that they will have to steal the key cards on those undead…”

“How many players do you think there are?” Alexa also mirrored Xian’s grave look.

“To make sure, the games keep going… and considering the difficulty of the game, If I was the game master, I would probably… make more or less than 200 players.”

“200?! They can’t kidnap 200 residents!”

“I am guessing they weren’t kidnapped; rather, they were employed to participate, just like the Casino had done. Signing a waiver…”

“They were paid…” Gabrielle said.

“Yes. Usually they are paid $1,000 as a down payment. $10,000-$20,000 when they win.”

It was a familiar figure. The missing people had mysteriously received $10,000 before they had gone missing.

“Is the casino controlled by the government?” Adam finally said a word.

Xian nodded and Adam washed his face with his palm. “What for?”

“Entertainment.”

Though they knew deep down that was it but maybe they were hoping that wasn’t really the case and now hearing it loud and clear. It only dawned on them that the government they served is this… corrupted.

They took a moment of silence and only went back to reality after hearing someone knocking on the door. They didn’t open it but then a note slid in from the outside.

[Open it]

“Undead can’t write.” Alexa said as she opened the door.

It was Apollo showing a keycard in his hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

****

*Yawn

“Hey, Let’s go get coffee.” A personnel from the monitoring room said, and took down the papers from her hand as he finished his stretching.

“Yeah, I am getting sleepy too, There’s no event yet.” The big monitor shows the room where the players are and they are divided into unequal groups.

Entering the pantry, they saw officers taking a nap with coffee in their hands.

The personnel whispered to his companion. “I heard the captain of the Renaissance died after poking her nose into the event’s place.”

“Yes, I heard. Too bad. She is a really good help.”

“Ughhh!” The officer woke up and the two personnel said sorry and made their way out.

“Hey! Hey! Let’s go. We will be caught!” He shook the body of his companion.

“Ah. Damn. My neck hurts from sitting too long in front of the computer. s**t my coffee is cold.”

They decided to make another one and carry it to their desk.

“I heard from the external department that the undead were not carried out from the second venue.”

“Hmmm. That? Yeah. I think they did that because of the outsiders.”

“Do they need that much undead? How will they clean up the place in time for the Last Game? There is only 6 hours left.”

“I overheard that they are not using the undead from that place.”

“What? There is not much from the third round… Will the last round be an easy one? I’m kind of disappointed.”

Sipping a sizzling hot coffee made him cough and his throat burned.

“Hahahaha, dude. I don’t think it will be boring…” He said handing a tissue.

“~w,~hat?” His voice is hoarse.

Unmonitored, back in the stadium…

“Do you think … the games done by now? How many rounds were there usually?” Alexa asked as she readied herself to go out.

“I don’t know. There is no pattern to it. Sometimes there’s only one round but sometimes it goes up to three rounds. As the round goes up the difficulty comes up also.” Xian answered.

“Where do you think the next venue would be?”

“Hmmm. I’ll say an enclosed place where players can be monitored at the same time to prevent both the players and undead from escaping… if this is the last round, then this is it. If not, I guess they have a supply of undead to be able to leave this place full of it. Unlike the first round they had swept the building. Was it to hide their tracks or they need the undead? It’s unclear this time…” Xian blab.

*Thud

Gabrielle abruptly stood out, knocking down Adam’s rifle-like gun.

“Hey. Watch it.”

Instead of apologizing, Gabrielle had a worried, then angry expression.

“f**k…”