Shades of Wolves

Chapter 8: The sentence

November 11th, 2100.

This is my second day here but Tajina is dead. I'm sure that blind guy killed her. We lived in a poor neighborhood on the edge of the city. The pandemic swept away a lot of people there, my parents and also Tajina's parents. No one took care of us, I was locked in the house because of the virus. But Tajina opened that door and gave me food. Everyone says she's a dirty w***e. But to me, she's my angel.

She's dead now. And I'll find the killer. I have to do everything in my possibility to let her have the peace and rest well in heaven.

I don't know what they'll do with Tajina's memories, but if I win, I'll buy them back anyway.                                                                 

                                                                                                                              Hwang Hee.

November 10th, 2100.

At the cafeteria, 12pm, 19 hours before the first eliminating round…

After the whole event of milk pouring on Sammul's head, the atmosphere became heavy. With the threat from Falcao, everyone was afraid and did not dare to offend him.

Tajina and Hwang Hee's desk was across from Falcao, Ander and Russel's, about two meters apart.

“Hey, what do you do after eating?” Hwang Hee asked.

Tajina used a spoon to cut off one end of the sausage and put it in her mouth. She spoke with a seductive voice.

"Finding someone to have s*x with, of course. The more muscular the better," said Tajina. She said while tasting the tip of the sausage with her tongue. She purposely spoke loudly enough to draw Falcao's attention.

Indeed, it was such a free offer to give that interested Falcao. He skimmed over Tajina's breasts and curves, eyes shining with lust.

Hwang Hee looked at the girl in front of him. He clearly understood why Tajina did it. If they wanted to win this game, the first thing that needed to be done was to find someone to rely on. And was not it clear that Falcao the most powerful one at the moment?

"I’m done. Not gonna eat anymore." Tajina tossed the spoon, then left. On the other side, Falcao smirked with pride. He took the milk box, took a sip and threw it in the trash can.

Tajina was dragged into the room by Falcao. He hurried to undress everything. But just a few seconds later, she realized that something was wrong with the guy.

"Hey, hey. What’s wrong?”

To avoid showing how embarrassed he was, Falcao looked at Tajina and ordered.

"You take a shower first. I want to be clean!"

Tajina said nothing. She went to the bathroom. About five minutes later, she came out and found Falcao on the bed, rubbing his head with his hand.

“Hey, do you still have the strength to do it?” Tajina smiled mockingly at him. Falcao looked exactly like a sick cat right now.

“You are very good at biting p*****s, aren't you? Do it for me!”

Tajina didn't actually give a care about his discomfort, to be honest. She unzipped his pants and did what she was most proficient at. But this guy was clearly having erectile dysfunction. It took him forever, still, he could not be able to get any erection in any time soon.

Tajina got tired of it. She was about to raise her face up to complain about this. Until there was this red liquid splattering her face. It wasn't the filthy liquid that those damned men forced her to swallow. She wished it had been. Maybe it was better than this. Tajina wiped the droplet with her hand just to find out its fishy smell gave her goosebumps.

It was blood! Tajina panicked. She stood up and moved quickly away while Falcao was vomiting in blood. It was viscous and dark red.

“Help… help me”, the voice was weak and unstable.

In the time of panic, Tajina quickly put her clothes back on and ran away. She didn't want to be involved in this case. The memory of being beaten and abused by the police frightened her. Tajina abandoned Falcao, she rushed out in fear. She was rushing towards the exit door, then crouched in a corner of the stairs.

A few dozen of minutes later, when he regained her senses and managed to get herself together, something suddenly hit her in the back of her mind. Tajina stood up. She went to the cafeteria and reached into the trash can to take out an abandoned box of milk.

She poured out the leftover milk. Now, in her hands, there were two red of pill shells. The medicine inside was dissolved somewhere else. Tajina smiled. She washed her hands thoroughly, then close the medicine shells back together. Behind her, the robots began to collect garbage bags and prepared to leave.

She could not stop herself from admiring him in her thoughts. He was very good at timing, in her opinion. Once the garbage was brought to the recycling area, all traces would be erased. It would be as clean as the air they were breathing.

"Something fun?" The unfamiliar voice startled Tajina. She turned her head and saw a rather tall girl. She was beautiful and had impressive purple hair.

“Nah. Nothing”, Tajina replied shortly to leave quickly.

“The name is Nabeya. Nice to meet you”

“I’m Tajina. Hey there”

………………………………..

After leaving the exam room with Mahoney, they went to a bench and sat down. Mahoney was still full of life as usual. Moreover, since the previous exam was too easy, she was even happier.

“I wish the rest of the questions would be the same as today.”

“I can't believe the first question is “how much is 1+1” when I read it, Jeez.” Hoa also joked along with her best friend. However, deep down in her heart, she was aware that it was definitely not that simple.

“Huh, that's not it. I remember the first question is “how much is 10 * 10”. But there's still the 1 +1 sentence, though." Mahoney was confused. Didn't the examiner say their questions were the same?

“I remember it too. There is also a 10*10 question.”

Hoa and Mahoney began to recall the questions. After completing the cross checking, the exam question was indeed the same, they just changed the order.

“Did they change the order to avoid cheating?” Mahoney wondered.

“No way. I don’t think it’s the case. The examiner didn't say that we have to leave the answer sheet behind. Everyone is allowed to take the sheet out. We can absolutely discuss with each other to get the answer, as long as you don't use ink to fill in."

Hoa stood up, she walked around to think but still couldn't think of WIC's intentions. Exactly the same questions, but changed the order. The creators did this to avoid players asking each other, but they allowed players to bring the answers out of the room and left the players a plenty of time to solve those questions.

“So surely the last 20 questions will be the challenge of WIC. Because at that time, it must be completed and submitted immediately. That way no one will be able to ask anyone anymore.” Mahoney voiced her theory.

Hoa knew that it's not wrong. But there was this problem that bothered her a lot. That was, if only the last twenty questions were used to classify, then what's the point of taking the five-day test for. It took a lot of time, didn’t it? Unless… WIC wanted the players to negotiate and made a deal with each other. That's how they s*******r each other to get the answer and reduce the number of people to the next round.

………………..

12 pm at WIC's cafeteria

The atmosphere in the canteen was filled with giggles and lighting chattering voices. Everyone must have been comfortable and relieved since the exam questions were too easy.

After Mahoney and Hoa took their food, they planned to find an empty table to sit at. While struggling, Mahoney chose a place that surprised Hoa. She wanted to sit across from Sammul. He was being treated as a bad luck symbol right now. No one was brave enough to talk to him.

“Can I sit here?” Mahoney asked happily.

But Sammul still ate quietly. He did not really show a piece of care. Hoa pulled her’s friend shirt a bit, signaling her best friend to find another place. But Mahoney insisted on sitting there. She put the tray of food down there, forcing Hoa to follow.

"Aren't you afraid of dying?" Sammul asked, he was still eating calmly.

“I sit here because I want to ask you something. Why is the exam so easy?”

Hoa really had no words to describe Mahoney anymore. She was speechless. Mahoney could not be this innocent. How came someone ask freely and carelessly like that? Surely Sammul would not answer.

“They gave us 100 questions. What makes you’re so sure that the following ones will be easy as well?”

Sammul stopped eating. He moved his sunglasses towards the little girl. And yet he replied. Or maybe he found it fun to make little rabbit in front of him run around and around and around in confusion.

"Makes sense. So do you know who will die next?” Mahoney leaned over and asked quietly. She wanted this to be a secret that only they knew.

"It’s her!" Sammul pointed his fork in Hoa. It looked like Poseidon's trident was about to go through her chest. Hoa momentarily widened her eyes, her felt like it had stopped beating, her spine was cold as well.

Was his statement a death sentence?