GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

CHAPTER 18

THE DOOR opened and there greeted the guard who was merely looking at the two of them inside the infirmary. “Not done yet?” the guard asked the two of them who were casually doing their jobs. Sandra was there, tidying all the wounds of Denton who was sitting on the bed. “Just go out after you have done, doing the wounds. You two are taking too long. The game head will announce the closing of the lights a little later. Make sure to finish this in a minute.”

The guard was about to close the door when Sandra and Denton stood up and went to the door directly. “No need, we are done.” Sandra muttered as they walked out the room. Denton just looked at Sandra like they had secret errands together. The moment the guard entered, they had just done covering the hole that they made inside the infirmary. The time was very crucial at that time, since any time there, the guard could come in and see what they did. Fortunately, Denton did a quick job on going down the ladder. Sandra, on the other hand, did push the cabinet to cover the hole that was made there. Before even going to make an alibi, she still made sure that it was not visible through a human’s eyes.

The door of the arena opened and there greeted them the faces and eyes of players who were looking at them with doubt. They went directly towards Paul and Jannah, who were also looking at them, but not with doubt. “What did you two do in the infirmary? The people here are thinking two things,” Paul muttered. “Some were thinking about you two doing something explicit there, and some of them think that the game head is giving benefits to you both for having you two out of the arena for long time.”

“First of all, we went there not to do what you think we did. We will not do that, especially thinking about what this scenario is,” Denton explained. He sat on his bed, beside Paul and Jannah who were waiting for his explanation. “Secondly, we lasted a long time there because we realized something was weird inside that room and... we actually made some explorations inside that room. For some reason, we made the room bigger than what it was. I will be telling you two tomorrow morning. The guard said that they would close the lights a little later for bedtime.” He looked at Paul and Sandra, who happened to not be his teammates. “You two had better walk towards your lane already. You two might not make it. You should stay in your lane before they even announce the switching of lights off.”

Paul nodded as he looked towards Denton, who was full of patch on his face. “We will surely do that, since we still want to hear that discovery you and Sandra made,” Paul replied. “Be sure to tell us whatever you discover tomorrow, Denton. We are your teammates, so Jannah and I deserve to know whatever it is too.”

Denton nodded. “I have never thought or it never had passed my brain to think that you two are outcasts. I wanted you two in my team and I will tell you whatever discovery we made tomorrow morning. Just remind me that I have something to tell you tomorrow. I want everyone in my team to hear it together.”

Paul and Sandra walked their way towards their own lane and, just like what Denton said, a little later, the lights went differently, which made the players crazily looking for their lanes. Fortunately, they all did it to their lanes without dying. Denton went to lie on his bed, and a little later, the lights switched off. “You are really a lucky guy,” one player muttered, which woke Denton up. He knew that the owner of that voice was Jannah lying on the bed next to him. “Since the rule is implemented, Hector cannot get here and just kill you directly. The rule was made to protect you, and nobody can tell me otherwise. Can you, at least, give us, your team, luck for us to escape this hell already?”

“I thought you still wanted to win the prize? Are you giving up already?” Denton said in a super low voice, scared to wake up the other players. “Anyway, I do not believe in luck, I only believe that everything happens for a reason.” He paused at the moment and waited for Jannah’s response but she did not respond. “Like what I said, I believe that everything happens for a reason. Maybe, the reason why I met the three of you is for us to create a team that everyone would be jealous of, not because of something else, but because of our teamwork. Maybe we knew each other for the reason that we must help each other escape this hell.”

“You mean complex destiny?” Jannah replied. “You just made it sound more complex, but that is what you are saying, that you believe in destiny, because you think it is cringe-worthy.”

Denton giggled. “Destiny is thinking that everything is already planned. What I am thinking is that everything will happen for a reason and that reason will later be realized by us,” he replied. “And it is not the best place where we should talk about our beliefs in things like destiny or such, Jannah. You should just sleep because we still have a match tomorrow, and you must live. For you to live, you must get enough sleep and energy.”

Denton thought that Jannah was already sleeping because it became silent after he talked, but Jannah again talked after a few minutes of silence. “But, old man...” Denton knew that Jannah was pertaining to him, about the ‘old man’ remark. “What must I do if I cannot still sleep yet? My mind rebels with overthinking. I just cannot sleep knowing that one day in this game, there is a probability that I will die.”

“Do not think that you will die, Jannah. I will keep the promise to keep you all alive and escape this hell. Before you all agreed to be my member, I promised you that I would help you escape this place... and my guilt will probably trip me if I cannot do that.” Jannah just went silent afterwards. “Jannah, please do not lose hope. The Jannah we know is a feisty, proud one, and we might probably want to see that side of you more than this anxious Jannah.”

Jannah left out a smirk. “Denton, are you a Leo? I mean, the zodiac sign, you know?” Jannah explained. Denton just listened. “You are a great leader, I would not deny it. You are also a good listener, but sometimes you can be hardheaded and proud. You do not like to be defeated, and you always keep your promises. You seem like you really are a Leo.”

“Well, fortunately, I am. At first, I do not believe that stars and constellations actually reflect our traits and ideas, but you are horrifyingly correct,” Denton replied to Jannah, who just giggled. “Now, let’s continue this storytelling tomorrow, shall we? We should now rest and get enough sleep for tomorrow’s happenings. Good night, Jannah.”

Jannah stopped her motion when she heard that statement from Denton. “It was the first time someone told me to had a good night and I never expected that to be heart-warming,” Jannah muttered. However, Denton was already sleeping by that time she was about to say... “Good night, too, old man.”

The morning did not go too long for the players as they were greeted with lights getting on inside the arena. Everyone was greeted by guards, giving away food for breakfast. As everyone inside the team expected, Paul and Sandra went towards Denton and Jannah’s lane to eat breakfast and listen to teas the Denton was about to spill to them. “I still have this annoying co-player with the same capital surname letter as mine who thinks that you two are being given benefits by the game head and it bothers me. Now, tell us what took you two so long inside that infirmary.”

Denton looked at Sandra, trying to relay that he wanted Sandra to tell the story, instead of him. Fortunately, Sandra got the message. “So, yeah, just how you know it. The guard guided us towards the infirmary and so, we went there. Denton, however, after I dressed his wounds, suddenly felt the urge to explore the whole place because he felt weird,” Sandra initiated the topic. “And as we noticed, the paintings were actually the same but looking different because the materials used on the right and left walls were actually different from each other.”

Paul raised his eyebrows. “And, what does that mean?”

“Denton discovered that the wall from the left was actually made from a material that was a lot easier to break than on concrete,” Sandra continued on talking. “While we are knocking on the wall, we keep on knocking it until we reached the lowest area. Denton heard that the sound his knocks make on that specific area sounds different and more shallow than how the sounds from the other area was.”

“Yeah, and that became the concrete reason why I pursued on exploring that area. Luckily, we have come up with some incredible explorations,” Denton continued the talk. “Since the material used there was a bit weaker than concrete, it was not really hard to break that off. When I was knocking that part off, I was actually worried that the guard have noticed the noise but fortunately, he did not. I made a hole there and saw that there is a secrey entrance, and I am sure about it since there is also a ladder towards the upside of that way.”