Game Of Survival

Chapter 30

MR E.

"Six hours have passed and you haven't found him yet! Are the guards at the Third Arena that incompetent?!" I yelled, almost banging the screen before me.

"We're trying our best Mr. E." The lady answered behind me and I glared at her immediately.

"Your best?!" I growled. "Just one person. One person! Yet you incompetent fools can't find him."

She trembled before returning her gaze to the laptop on her desk. My insides were currently burning like brimstone fire. At first, It was exciting seeing James Hendrix break out of his room. But now, It wasn't funny anymore. It's been six hours and no one has had eyes on him yet. If this pace kept going, who knows what unfortunate incident might happen.

"He's not invincible for goodness sake!" I grumbled but none of them dared to say a word.

"If this continues to go on Mr. E, we might have to cancel tomorrow's match." Grace said as she approached me with a worried expression.

"No. We definitely can't do that." I vehemently denied it.

"But we can't tell what he's up to. This might look like a simple matter but this guy in question, is not someone to be underestimated. You said it yourself." She answered.

"If we cancel tomorrow's fixture then it will cause suspicions from our superiors and you and I definitely do not want that." I replied and she went mute.

"Besides, all this is still a speculation. It might take a while but I'm sure we'll find him before tomorrow dawns."

"And if he doesn't?" She asked and I stared at the screen, looking at Eve Finley's room in particular.

"Then we'll just have to checkmate him. He thinks he's smart, I wonder what he'll do when he finds out Eve is going to face a monster tomorrow." I shot her a knowing glance and she smiled for a brief moment.

"He'll definitely try to save her."

"And that's when we act. There's nothing to worry about." I said. Trying to convince both her and myself. I didn't know why, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable even though we still had the upper hand.

**

JAMES

"What's your plan?" I asked and he smiled.

"I'll take that as a yes?" He said and my expression was enough to answer that.

"Good. In that case, let's begin by removing the burden." He said and slipped out a remote from his suit jacket pocket. He clicked on a button and the room instantly brightened with white lights. I could finally see things clearly. On the walls were several blueprints of the Arena. And truth be told, it was much larger than I expected. It's shape was like a stadium and I had chills just looking at it in a way.

There were lockers at each side of the door and I didn't even want to begin to query what was inside. Just one glance and I knew it would be nothing but weapons or anything deadly. He strode towards the desk back and he pulled one of it's drawers. He brought out a small black machine which looked like a taser.

"Turn around." He asked and I frowned.

"Why?" I naturally asked.

"We have to deactivate the device implanted in your head." He said.

"What device?" I asked in a foolish manner when I clearly understood what he meant.

"You know, the device that makes your head go boom." He answered while I faced my back against him.

"Is it going to hurt?" I asked while he pressed the device against the lower part closer to my neck.

"Just a little." He chirped and I felt a wave of electrical current course through me. Making me tremble a bit.

"You said it wouldn't hurt much!" I lamented while he returned to the desk. He then focused on the system on his desk.

"Sorry." He chirped.

"Wait, so that's it?" I sported a quizzical look and he nodded.

"Aren't you going to remove the device? Isn't it safer that way?"

"First of all, I'm not a surgeon unless you want to be my lab rat which wouldn't end up good for both of us. Secondly, The machine I used just now sent a Electromagnetic pulse making the device completely dormant. So you're safe. At least you don't have to worry about your head being blown off now." He explained and I nodded before looking around again. I decided to tour around.

"I must really say you're lucky. The moment you escaped, I expected that they would have your head blown but it looks like some of the higher ups are interested in you." He said and I stared at him with a confused expression.

"Interested in me? So far so good, I have only killed one person and that was because I had no choice. Apart from that, I don't think there's anything that makes me standout."

He locked gazes with me as a smile crept to his face.

"That's it. The fact that you and your group have chosen not to kill and are planning to find a way out of this show makes you intriguing to watch. Not to mention, you're quite smart to some extent."

"Wait, how do you know about my group?" I asked and he arched his eyebrows upwards.

"Are you seriously asking that question?"

I gulped down my saliva realizing they had cameras everywhere and he must have probably watched my footage. Another moment of realization struck and I gasped.

"My brother!" I exclaimed, getting restless all of a sudden.

"Relax, he made it out alive. With some injuries at least." He answered nonchalantly.

"I don't believe you..." I remarked.

"Over there." He pointed to my right where a large TV was. The screen instantly brightened and it showed footages of my brother's fight. It broke me seeing him sustain those injuries but what hurt more was the painful expression on his face as he ended his opponent's life. It reminded me of how I had acted when I had killed Jason. And I wondered how he was faring, if he was getting over it or still consumed by the trauma.

"Satisfied?" Hugh's voice jolted me from my thoughts but I still kept my gaze on the screen even though the video had stopped playing. Of course I was glad he made it but it wasn't enough to completely relieve me.

"No." I answered, staring at him. "I need to know if the others are okay. Eve and Dave." I added.

"Eve Finley is doing just fine. She's locked up in her room just like the rest and Dave Manchester is currently in the clinic. Due to his injury, he'll be staying there for two weeks." He answered and I frowned again.

"How do you know that?"

"Hello, I work in the IT department. Accessing this kind of information is easy peasy." He answered nonchalantly again and I finally heaved a sigh of relief.

He scoffed all of a sudden as his gaze fell on the laptop again.

"You're really lucky James Hendrix, it appears your Tracker has been faulty. If not they would have found you." He paused as his gaze fell on me.

"Which gives me all the more relief. Now then, are you ready to hear the plan?"

I glanced at the screen again. They were all safe. At least for now.

"Yes." I nodded and a tiny smile lifted the corner of his lips.

"As you can see," he gestured towards the screen which had suddenly changed from the video to the blueprint of the Arena. "This is the Arena and it solely runs most of it's operation electrically. The plan is to shut down operations of the Third Arena completely and save every contestant. And to do this, it requires a series of operations. Some complicated, and others easy."

I heaved a heavy sigh.

"I bet the easy ones wouldn't be so easy as you claim."

He smiled and then focused on the screen back. He clicked a button on the remote in his hand and the image enlarged, displaying a special portion of the Arena.

"This is our goal point." He pointed but I could barely understand any part of the image.

"This area is the lower supply room. The Arena works on three generators and an EMP generator."

"An EMP?" I queried and he nodded.

"Although it hasn't been used once, but it's just there as a standby for days when the unprecedented happens." He explained and I nodded.

"That EMP is our means of shutting the entire Arena down. It's powerful enough to do that and even extend a few miles beyond the Arena." He said and I nodded again.

"So how do we activate this EMP?" I asked and he sighed.

"Now that's where the complicated process comes in. The power supply area is heavily guarded and it is only accessible to the supervisor in charge of this Arena and few others. Every Friday, the engineers are allowed to do some routine checkups and that's the only time the area is accessible."

"Meaning that's the only time we can infiltrate the room." I started and he nodded.

"Infiltrating alone is going to be quite troublesome but we can discuss that part later."

"Okay. So let's assume Infiltration is successful, what happens next?" I asked.

"That's another complicated process." He replied.

"Once we've entered, you'll easily find the three generators and the EMP. They're closely rooted beside each other. Now before the EMP is activated, there are three blue levers on each of the generators. Each of them must be trained off at every three minute interval."

"Why?"

"You probably won't be able to understand if I explain but unless you want to go kaboom before activating the EMP, don't do that." He answered and I gulped down my saliva.

"Once the EMP is activated, within two seconds, everything is going to be shut down immediately. Including the device implanted in all the contestants' heads." He explained.

"Okay, hold on." I cut him off. "I'm no guru in your science stuff but I do know that once the EMP is activated, the doors of each contestant will remain locked."

"I already have that part covered." He responded. "The moment the power supply room has been infiltrated, I'll need to hack into the Arena's system to unlock all doors and stop the cameras. Although I can only do that for ten seconds maximum. The EMP has to be activated within that time frame or else, everything is going into s**t hole."

My heart skipped a bit hearing those words.

"After that, all contestants are freed and escape to wherever they can. The rest of their survival is up to them." He said and I frowned.

"Wait, that's it?"

"Yes. Were you expecting more?"

"So what's going to happen after everyone escapes. They'll still hunt after us. Isn't there a way out of this Island?"

"Yes but unfortunately, I don't know myself." He answered in a depressed tone.

"You've been working for these people for five years now and you don't know the escape route out of this Island?"

"You think it's easy to understand this Island? Breaking out of this Arena alone is going to cost lives, let alone out of this Island." He replied. "Besides, How they brought me here I wasn't really aware. I don't even know what area we are on the geographical map." He explained and I frowned.

"So you've never left ever since you began working for them?" I asked and he sighed.

"Nope. You're bound under a contract and till that contract expires, you can't leave."

"So," I asked. "How long is your contract?"

"Ten. Ten years." He answered and my jaw dropped. The fact that he'll be isolated from the rest of the world for ten years was frightening enough.

"That's horrible." I remarked in a whisper.

"It's not that bad. Of course you get to have your own apartment and whatever else you need in the residential areas on this Island."

"Wait so there are residential areas here?"

"Yeah. For the workers." He replied. He was about to say something when an alarm blared from the TV. Although it wasn't as loud as the usual ones my ears have gotten accustomed to, it still grounded fear in my heart. I looked at Hugh and he had a frown just like me.

"We might have a problem."