GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

OBSERVANT EYES

“Not yet,” Paul answered Denton, who suddenly asked about the escaping game that is about to start, even before he woke up. “Why did you ask?”

“Nothing, just...” Denton was stopped when he saw Hector’s eyes still looking at him. “I mean, we want to escape this game by using the escaping match, right? We need to see how these game heads are disseminating escaping match like this. If we want to leave this game, we must take note on how these players will play the escaping game. We must see and put ourselves in their shoes, think about something that we will probably do if we are on their position. Think that as your own tactic, guys. Let us, at least, do something even though it’s not yet our time.”

Paul nodded. Sandra was just plain listening. Jannah was on her own bed, doing her own things. The group’s bond is not that strong, but they proved their cooperation in the game that just passed. Even though they just made their team one day before the game, they still managed to be cooperative with each other, most unexpectedly Jannah, who, performed a great job. “Why did you do that, Sandra?” Paul asked Sandra did was surprised to hear her name out of Paul’s mouth. “Why did you pull that guy’s collar?”

“Are you talking to me?” Sandra asked. Paul just nodded. Sandra giggled because she thought Paul was too shy to talk to her. “Why did I do that? Of course, to save your life. I have no other thought but to pull his goddamn collar or you’ll die. Why? Did you not like what I did?”

“It is not that I did not like it, but I thought you could have did something better. Killing him is just too... brutal, I say?” Paul talked. “Anyway, I should thank you for doing so. You saved my life, whichever way you could have used.”

“It’s not as if you haven’t killed someone in this game yet, Paul. I have been here since the first day and I saw you killing that guard in the first game,” Sandra replied. Paul lost his confidence and started look the other way. He was wrong of talking to Sandra like that, Sandra is savage on her own ways. “Let us just be honest. The only way to survive in this hell is to kill people. Why? Because as much as there are people here, there is also the low probability of us not surviving. Think about yourself before you think about others, Paul. Be thankful that I, at least, considered thinking about saving you.”

Denton interrupted the hot talk between the two. “I don’t think Paul meant it that way, Sandra,” he muttered. “I understand both of your sentiments, but I think you missed the point of each other. Sandra made that to save you, Paul. Her aim is to save you, not kill people. Also, Paul did not kill him on purpose. He did that for his own sake.”

“Yes, I understand,” Sandra replied and smiled. “We both killed someone, yes, but the difference is that he killed for his own sake and I killed for the other’s sake. Fortunately, cutting off those people’s lives benefited you, Paul. Be grateful enough.”

“The fifth escaping match will now start,” the speaker muttered after showing up the happenings on the battlefield. The ten escaping players are already there. Some of them are tense and nervous but there are some of them, just sitting coolly. The other players are also praying. The players inside the arena shouted in joy after seeing that the escaping match was about to start. They treat this as something to feast about, not knowing some of them are going to undergo this too. “The fifth escaping match will be inspired by the main match it conceded to. The fifth escaping match includes the necessity of the number seven. There will be nine rounds. On the first round, there will be ten cards that will be put on the table; as the round started on getting higher, the lower the cards that will be put on the table. They are going to choose from those cards and the lucky one who will be getting the number seven cards will be eliminated. Be careful, there are snipers on the back! The last one to survive will get to escape from the game.”

“If only games like this would be played on the escaping match and not strength games, I could have been volunteered to play this game,” Sandra muttered. “I will be honest that some women are weaker than the guys, which is why playing strength games is disadvantageous to us.”

“That’s right,” Denton answered. “The game in this escaping match is a probability-type of game. No one knows who will get to escape, neither do God. It is also equal, since no ability could surpass the probability.”

Jannah yawned. “There is,” she muttered. “ If you are observant, you can see that these cards do have similar features but some of them has something that makes it unique from the others. Looking at the monitor, something is really off from one of the cards placed on the table. I must assume that, whichever was different is the seven.” Jannah paused for a second before she continued talking. “However, I do not know if my assumption was right.”

“I can see it,” Paul exclaimed. “There is really something different. The screen is big, so the cards are also big in our vision. If you look closely, some of them differ in colors. Although they are of the same colors, some had lighter or darker complexity.” He looked at Denton who was nodding. “However, if we are there, live, playing the game. We might not see it, since the card is just really tiny on person. Only people with excellent observation would probably know the difference of the two. You can actually win this escaping match, Jannah.”

“I am observant but not that really observant. I must still learn observing things that are really tiny to win that match. But, if I was chosen, of course, I’d still do my best to win,” Jannah replied. “The game is now starting.”

Denton nodded. “Let’s see how they play this game and learn on their rights and wrongs,” he said. As a leader, Denton leads his team, in the right way which makes them a great team, despite just knowing each other a little time ago only. “The cards they are using is not that far from the cards we have, guys. You can take a look at those cards of yours.”

The round one has started with peace. The players inside the arena focused their attention to the escaping game that was happening live at the battlefield. Ten cards are placed on the table and they are told to choose only one from those cards. The thrill is that the cards will be shown to the audience and not the players. It’s like the players are just waiting for the gun to sound and get deep inside their body. “That one woman was unfortunate,” Paul annotated upon seeing the cards that were shown on the screen. The cards were just a combination of random numbers and a seven, there really is an assurance that someone will going to die each round. “She chose the wrong card.”

The sniper started on shooting the woman and the woman has no other choice but to lay on the ground, lifeless. The game continued on airing after one of the players was eliminated. The guards, again, started putting nine cards on the table, and started telling the players to choose the cards immediately, as if they have something to go to after. The cards were all shown to the camera and the audience gasped just after seeing the cards. “It’s obvious that, that card is the seven, why did he choose that,” Jannah muttered. “Now, he’s dead.”

The sound of gunshots covered the whole battlefield and is still audible up to the arena, which is a closed area inside the game space. The game continued on airing and as the round continued on increasing, the players who are playing on the battlefield are doing the opposite thing. Some of them are rooting for people that they know who were playing in the escaping match. As the game slowly reaches its end, the more the ambience gets tense on the battlefield and even on the arena.

“There are only two players left on the battlefield,” Denton noted. “They are both fierce. And I know that one guy between the two was a minion of Hector.” He turned and gazed at Hector but the latter was unexpectedly still looking at him. “The jerk is still looking at me. How is he not blinking while looking at me? I was just stunned to see that guy there. I really thought that they were dumb.”

The players were asked to choose between the two cards that were placed on the table. The whole arena went quiet when there were only two players left. The two left players chose the cards nearest to them and started on placing it on the podium on the table without peeking at it. The table was doing its own job on showing what the cards were. As the event reached the climax, the cards were shown to the audience and they all gasped after seeing one of the two of the players slowly lying down on the ground. Hector’s minion has lost the game. “Player K-12 has won the escaping game. He will be awarded with an escape pass with one usage. Congratulations.”