GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

CHAPTER 4

“RULE OF Cards?” Denton asked himself upon listening to the speaker’s statements. He was confused, the players inside where the room he is also are. He looked at the players who are starting to panic inside the room. He could feel his panic uprising too but he is trying his best not to break down at that moment. All of what is happening just do not make sense as if they did not anticipate for it. After all, they have been lured to the game which is against other’s wills.

A woman in her thirty’s approached him. “Sir, do you know where we are?” The woman’s face is covered with confusion and worry. Actually, everyone in that certain room has been panicking except Denton who was rather silent; that is why that woman went near him, asking if he knows something. Denton was rather confused of why did the woman approach him and ask him if he knows something. “Answer me, sir…”

“I actually do not know what is happening here,” Denton replied. “The fact is that the speaker who spoke on that radio sent us a signal that the game will start after the lunch time. I’m guessing that we are inside a game, and that we are forced to do this.” Upon hearing what Denton has said, the other players were covered with fear. “I can say that we are rather forced to join the game because they trapped us on while being on the so-called meeting that happened at the 22nd floor of that building by making us drink the champagne that has something in it. I cannot say that it is a poison because we are still alive, but something that can take our breath away from us temporarily. I haven’t heard something like that either.”

“But, are we the only players of the game? Where are the others? We are supposedly more than hundreds, right?” that one bald guy asked Denton as if he’s an answering machine. Denton scratched his head in confusion. “Are we the only players chosen to do the game? As far as I can remember, every one of us are given a glass of champagne. Why are there only twenty-two of us here?”

Denton looked at that bald guy’s uniform and saw something. “Maybe we are grouped according to something that we have in common,” he muttered, leaving the other players unmoved. “The bald guy was labeled as M-01 written on his uniform and is obviously the first one here. Assuming that there are eleven double decks here, there should be twenty-two players inside this room. I am the last player in this room, as I was labeled as M-22.”

“What do we have in common?” another woman asked Denton who shrugged his shoulders as a response. “Looking at everyone in this room, I can say that every person has a distinctive character, so they did not surely base the groupings in the physical aspect. What do you all think it might be?”

There was a total silence after that last word the woman uttered. Nobody knows how they are grouped but one thing is for sure, each of them are still panicking inside of them. “How about this?” Denton uttered, getting the attention of everyone in front of him. “I think I have an idea. This might be too much of an information but my surname is Mayfly. My idea is that we are grouped based on our surname. Are your surnames also starts with letter M?”

The bald guy nodded. “That is one thing similar between us. My surname is Medina and it starts with letter M too.” He faced the woman in her thirty’s and asked her. The woman just nodded in response. “This woman too.” He faced back at the players who were just listening to their chit-chats and they all nodded too. “That’s it. All of our surnames start with letter M and that’s why we are here in one room, labeled as something with the same letter.”

“Does that mean, if there are twenty-two players here and there are twenty-six alphabets, there might be more than five hundred players?” the woman asked Denton, while he nodded as a response. “That also means, to be able to win the prize money, one must defeat hundreds of other players. How can we even do that?”

Her question was not answered, as some staffs of the WIC Company opened the room and gave them lunchboxes. There are guards behind the staffs as well, all of which are carrying armors, so the players have no choice but to just let the guards deliver the lunchboxes. They put the lunchboxes on the table near the door of the room before leaving without any notice or remarks.

Denton made the initiative to deliver the lunchboxes to the other players who were motionless after seeing the armored guards. “Get one each. There might be something like a deadline even for eating,” he muttered as he gave the lunchboxes to the other players one by one. He finished delivering all the lunchboxes but noticed that there are two lunchboxes left on the table. One is for him and one is for another one who did not stand up to get their own. “So, who hasn’t been given a lunchbox yet?”

He grabbed the lunchbox and carried it while going around the room. “I already have my own,” the bald guy muttered as he was asked by Denton. “It looks like everybody has been given one. Are you sure that there are two lunchboxes left?”

“Well, they will not, for sure, add one lunchbox on purpose,” Denton muttered before walking toward the side-most part of the room. He looked at the deck where his bed is and looked at the lower deck. He noticed that something is bulging and realized that there is someone hiding under the mattress. The mattress is the same color as the mantle of the bed, so he was unable to distinguish it at first. He went near the bed and slowly talked. “Hello. Have you been there hiding under the mattress all along? Here is your lunchbox. Come on, eat… before the game starts.”

The person under the mattress did not give a damn for the first minutes. Denton was then surprised when the person suddenly unveiled the piece of cloth and pointed a pen on him. “Do not go near me.” The girl told him. The girl was labeled as M-13. She is giving some young vibes which shocked Denton as he was expecting only adults to participate in the game. “Tell me, where am I? Who brought me here? Answer me or I will stab you with this pen.”

Denton walked back a few steps, scared for his life. “Wait, let’s talk when you are already calm,” he muttered but the girl with the bob-cut hair was not moved. “You know what, it’s really okay to panic but not in this way. We are all in this game and we are all equally treated. We are all terrified of what the company responsible for this can do after having us drink that champagne and bring us here. We do not know anything as well. We are also confused, miss.”

“Then, why are you talking like you know everything, just minutes ago?” the girl with the bob-cut hair asked. Denton’s face showed a grimace while looking at the girl. The girl was awake, all the time that Denton was talking with the other players, which made the girl doubt. “Are you a spy from that company, Mr. M-22? If not, then stop acting like you know everything. You all should better stop trusting this guy. I can feel something on him.”

The woman who once talked to Denton stood up. “Why should we doubt on Mr. M-22 when it’s him who talked to us, letting the panic in our eyes go away?” The other player also nodded and agreed to her. “It’s not that we are supporting him and trusting him, but aren’t you the one who should be doubted here? Little girl, while we are all talking here, there you are on your bed, covered with the mantle, secretly listening to us.”

Denton stopped the debate earlier. “There’s no sense of fighting here. We are all players here and no one is trusting anyone. After all, we are all opponents trying to vie for the money that we all aim for.” He moved to the girl who has calmed down already and placed the lunchbox on the bed where the girl is also sitting. “You can doubt me, how many times you wanted, but I want to tell this to you. I am also broken and poor. I need money to pay for my kid’s hospital expenses; that is why I joined the game. It is for you to decide whether to believe what I told you or not. Now, just eat the food that was given to you and prepare for the first game.”