Game Of Survival

Chapter 22

JAMES

"I'm sure you all must be curious about what kind of offer I'm talking about. Very well then, the first three to qualify shall be given the chance to skip the next stage. They will be given a room and shall be treated as guests in the third Arena."

"Third Arena?" Eve questioned. "Just how many Arenas do these people have?"

"The question should be, what kind of place is the third Arena? And what lies in there for us?" I answered.

"Death." Daniel responded. "No matter what the Arena looks like, it's purpose is simply death."

"Yeah it is, but then again…" My voice trailed off as I looked around the cameras watching us.

"It could give us a chance." I whispered enough for only them to hear.

"You have something in mind?" Dave inched closer to me and I nodded.

"What's it?"

"I don't know yet, let's survive this stage first and then we can only hope my guess is right." I replied.

"What are you thinking James?" Daniel asked and I stared at them for a while. I wasn't entirely sure but it wouldn't be proper if I hid it from them either.

I heaved a light sigh and just as I was about to spill the beans, Mr. E's voice rose again.

"After the time duration elapses, all the remaining contestants left shall be moved to the third Arena." He said.

"Now that I've passed the appropriate instruction and information, this stage will now begin in twenty minutes. Within this time, no contestant is allowed to attack their fellow contestants. I hope you all enjoy yourselves to the fullest." He finished and the screen instantly displayed a twenty minute countdown. Some of the contestants were staring like clueless beings but I needed no soothsayer to tell me this twenty minute was a buffer time to run as far as you can before the show begins.

"We have to go!" Daniel said as the others started making their move towards each door. But I remained in my position, my eyes darting around for a particular person. Gabriel.

"James, what are you waiting for? We need to go!" Eve said.

"Yeah like now!" Dave interjected and it was at that moment I found him. There he was, giving me a hungry look. He was waiting just like me, this guy wasn't joking at all. I was seriously his target.

"Guys we have a problem." I said and they frowned.

"Gabriel is on me, the moment we leave this Arena he's going to tail us." I added.

"That's the guy from earlier, the one in the top three." Dave whispered in a scared tone.

"He's watching you closely James." My brother commented and I nodded.

"I know." I whispered.

"So what are we going to do? This guy looks very dangerous and I doubt we can hold our grounds against him." Eve said.

"We run." I gulped down my saliva trying to allay the anxiety building up in me. "We run as fast as we can till we lose him."

"But he's just going to chase after us." Daniel uttered.

"In the worst case scenario, we would have to face him, this guy doesn't look like someone words work with." I replied.

"I hope we're not forgetting that this guy killed over twenty people." Dave muttered.

"You don't need to be that scared, we have the numbers." I answered.

"Yeah but do we have the wits?" He queried.

"I've made up my mind I'm not going to die in this place. So yeah whether I have wits or not isn't in the question." I retorted and he stammered but no reasonable words came out.

"Either way, I think we should leave now. We have eighteen minutes left." Daniel said and I nodded. And then we trotted to the nearest door by our side. Immediately we stepped outside, I could see several contestants scurrying on the wooden bridges. We quickly made for the one that had about ten on it.

Without further Ado, we ran cautiously on the wooden bridge. I took a glance backwards and I saw Gabriel taking the same route with us.

"That bastard!" I growled.

"He's following us!" Eve pitched and our pace increased till we were off the wooden bridge. The moment we stepped off, we ran like our lives depended on it. The winds felt heavy against me with every step I took but that wasn't going to be enough to stop us. Our lives were basically hanging on a thin line!

We soon entered into the forest and my ears could pick several dashing footsteps besides us. It was apparent there were others which was a good chance for us to lose Gabriel. Soon I was getting breathless, my throat was beginning to hurt and my chest felt like it was being squeezed of the little air it had. Our pace wasn't as fast as it should be and after some minutes we finally decided to stop.

"D-did we lose him?" Dave asked while he panted. We all looked backwards, panting heavily.

"I-i don't know…" I mumbled and the pain in my throat worsened.

"I- I think we did." Eve said. "There's no way he would be able to catch us after all that gap."

"Y-yes. Besides there are others too in the forest, that maniac must have lost track somehow."

Dave pulled down his bag, taking his bottled water out. I did the same too, I recklessly drank my water as if I was going to die. I exhaled deeply as I felt my insides come alive. Although the pain was still there, it had greatly reduced.

Eve and Daniel too did the same thing too.

"Either way, we should keep running." I said after our breaths had finally stabilized. And just as we were about to start, an alarm blared. The same one that rang this morning.

"What does that mean?" Dave asked.

"Apparently, it looks like our twenty minute break is over." I answered and I quickly removed my back.

"What are you doing?" Daniel asked.

"Taking safety measures." I said while I pulled out the gun in my bag. Even though I didn't know how to use one, all I knew was that if that bastard found us by chance, I was going to press the trigger. The rest of them joined me too, pulling their guns out of their bags.

"Ugh, this thing is so heavy…" Dave complained.

"I don't even know how to use it."

"Just don't make the mistake of pressing the trigger around us." Daniel answered while Eve came and joined me by my side.

"What?" She answered to Daniel and Dave's probing looks. "Just to be safe, I don't want to be a victim of your stray bullet."

"You think I can't handle a gun?" Dave chattered.

"You just said you can't." She replied.

"Can you?"

"At least I'm sure I can aim well."

"Pff, you've never even used a gun before."

"Guys!" I raised my voice, glancing at both of them. "This is not the time for us to be arguing. We need to move."

"Do you hear that?" My brother asked. We immediately took a protective stance. Each of us pointing our guns in different directions. The footstep became obvious, it was coming from our back and we immediately focused in that direction. My hands were trembling and sweat was gradually crawling out from my pores. I didn't even know where to aim exactly, all I know, I was ready to press the trigger. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped and we exchanged glances with each other. No doubt this wasn't our imagination, there was definitely someone. And that person was stalling for the right moment. With every tensed second that came, I tried to calm my breaths. Make them as steady and inaudible as possible. Before we knew it, everywhere went so quiet that even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard. My mind began to battle on two options, should we run or do we stay?

First of all, everyone apart from us seems to be a lone wolf and considering the incentive Mr. E talked about, everyone would desperately be trying to be among the first three. So definitely, there was only one person watching us. But then again, this person might be good with the gun. And there was a major possibility at least one of us in my group would get hurt. It could be fatal or not, but it definitely wouldn't be of any advantage to us.

On the other hand, if we chose to run now, the opponent would definitely shoot. And this time, it could be fatal. Even if we were lucky to escape from the bullets there was also another possibility we might fall into another person's trap. No doubt, some of the contestants are lurking amidst the bushes waiting for the right time to strike!

So which one was the safest option? Both of them came with risks and I couldn't decide. The fact that we were at gunpoint made my tension even worse. My mind kept asking, what do we do? What do we do? What do we do?…

"I told you!" The voice blared amidst the bushes and boom, I lost every iota of confidence I built up.

"Once I set eyes on my prey, I make sure to finish them off."

I knew that line! I knew that voice. My eyes widened in horror as realization dawned on me.

"s**t! He found us..." Daniel whispered.

"Oh my god, we're so dead... We're going to die, we're going to die..." Dave started crying while his trembling gun became more obvious.

"What do we do?" Eve asked in a whisper. She looked more composed than the rest of us. At least that was what I wanted to think considering she wasn't trembling at all.

"Thinking of running?!" Gabriel blared. "Well you better think wisely because the moment you take one step, I'm going to scatter that scaredy guy's brains out."

"What?!" Dave almost yelled. Obviously the scaredy guy in question was him.

"Guys I don't want to die.. I don't wanna die here..." He cried.

"I can't tell where he is..." Daniel mumbled.

"Me neither." Eve and I quoted almost at the same time.

"We definitely can't run at this point..." Daniel said.

"He might be bluffing." Eve remarked.

"He's not bluffing! He's not!" Dave whispered with glowering eyes. "One move and I'm dead."

"I doubt he's bluffing too, he's among the top three, he's definitely got eyes on us." I whispered.

"So what do we do then?" Daniel asked in a low voice too.

"Now just be good contestants and drop your weapons." Gabriel said.

"We're obviously not dropping our weapons, are we?" Daniel quoted in a whisper.

"The moment we drop it, we're goners." Eve replied in the same mannerism.

"In that case," I said with my heart racing like a sports car. "We shoot!" I said and we immediately pressed our trigger. Firing bullets aimlessly, with every bullet that came out, I could feel the recoil force pushing me back. By now, he should be dead but he was laughing which meant one thing, we were shooting in the wrong direction!

"Is that all? Is that all you guys got?!" He blared like a madman but we ran out of bullets. There were bullets in our bags but none of us dared to take it because at that moment, anything could happen.

"Since you've all decided to be rebellious, I guess it is my turn!" He yelled and he fired.

"Fucckk!!!!"

"Dave!!!"