The Pride Game

Chapter 14

All participants have gathered in the field. The officer, who is the largest, standing in the middle, spoke through the loudspeaker, "Now we will start the first game. The time given is until at five in the afternoon, participants are asked to find a place where the ice melts. When the time for the participants has not arrived, the participants are considered disqualified."

All the former detectives who were there silently listened to the explanations that came from the officers.

When there were no questions from the participants, the officer continued his sentence. "Ahead, there are several caves that will become the path to where the ice will melt. The correct cave will take the participants to the intended place, but the wrong cave will not take the participants to the right place. As said yesterday, the game is called 'The Pride Game'. The winner will get a cash value of seven million dollars, good names are restored, and the house where the participants eat will also be given. The house has a gold value of nine hundred thousand grams--" There was a sound "Wawww !" of the participants; they looked back, saw a luxury house with gold plated. In each other's minds, they wanted to win this game immediately.

Suddenly a woman asked, "Why should we believe you! After all, what kind of game gives so many gifts to strangers!" cried the woman in an angry voice.

The officer waited until the woman who had previously asked finished with her question, but another woman interrupted the first woman, "Can your mouth be schooled! You better shut up and listen to these people's explanations first!" She was standing in front of Gerry, and she was a former colleague who also worked in the same division as Gerry when they were still at CDA.

The first woman did not accept. She had served as chief investigator in the civil division, and she had a lot of experience in her field; getting a rebuke from a child like that young woman was an insult, so she immediately ran to the woman and beat her. "What are you saying! You b***h! You told me to shut up! Aren't you ashamed of what you used your mouth for! Why do I have to cover your mouth while you don't cover your mouth that you used to enjoy male genitalia!" The woman grabbed the woman who was younger than her, causing the young woman to scream in pain, "Aaaa! Damn woman! You think you're still working at CDA so you can treat people like you want!" The younger woman grabbed the woman in front of her. They kicked each other, grabbed and punched each other in the face, and when the opportunity arose, the younger woman bit, the older woman's hand.

"You b***h!" The older woman whimpered, kicking the young woman, causing her to bleed, and she curled up in front of her in pain.

Gerry's eyes lit up with anger, and the young woman had been his woman for one night. He walked quickly to the older woman, tugged at the older woman's clothes until the clothes were about to tear. The older woman was in pain; the back of her neck rubbed against the clothes that Gerry was pulling. "You cheap woman, what did you do to my woman!" Gerry punched the woman in the face, and brutally, he slammed her body, stomping, kicking, and beating the woman who was already helpless beneath him in a rage. "Damn, woman!" When he shouted that, the woman below him had no more resistance, the woman was bleeding profusely, and her eyes were wide open, but her heart had stopped beating.

"She's dead!" exclaimed another in surprise.

"She dies!" shouted the others as they quickly retreated to avoid the bloody corpses beneath them.

"She killed her!" shouted another with a gripping heart.

The participants retreated backward, unwilling to deal with Gerry and the young woman, the scene before them was terrifying.

Jonathan saw the corpse of the woman Gerry had just killed, and the nerves in his face immediately tightened. He was genuinely stricken with extreme horror.

The officers on guard in front of them numbered about fifty people wearing full-faced clothes that didn't show their faces at all, and each guard had a long-barreled firearm in their arms. The large guard who remained on guard at the front raised the microphone and then spoke, "The remaining participants are four hundred and ninety-eight."

As if they knew what they had to do, several other officers immediately walked towards the woman's corpse lying on the ground; they lifted the body into a pickup truck not far from where they were, then left the arena.

A participant with a trembling body asked the officer, "Is it true that if we win this match, we will get as much money as promised?" He glanced at the pickup car that had just passed from them and the fresh blood that the corpse had just left. "And why didn't you fifty of you help that woman at all? You should have been able to stop that madman from destroying that woman's body earlier!" His voice trembled, his legs felt weak, weak, and helpless.

"Yeah, he is right. You guys are heartless! Why are you just looking on and not helping at all!" said the other female participants, horrified by everyone there.

"You are evil creatures!" another throw. His lips ached as the rancid smell lingered in his senses of smell.

"When will this game end! I don't want to see blood all over again!" another shouted.

The officer, with no mercy in his voice, replied, "Yes, the winner who wins the match will get the prize as promised."

Dissatisfied with the response of the officers who did not fully answer their questions, another asked, "Who can guarantee that our good name will be cleared?" He was the youngest of the men, he was tall and well-built, and his face was intelligent, but at this moment, all his charms seemed to vanish, for he was as trembling and frightened as the others. His heart seemed to stop beating when he saw the murder that had just happened.

The officer looked at the youth, then replied, "The player who wins the match will be reinstated and withdrawn from the blocklist in all companies."

"Is that true?" asked the other participants.

"Yes, is that true? We want freedom and independence!"

"Right! We don't want our lives to be trampled on and humiliated like this!"

"Yes! We are humans, and we are not animals!" Another shouted while crying. Tears were running down his face.

The participants screamed at each other, voicing their hearts, the women wept, and the men almost grabbed their hair because of the long-lasting frustration in their lives.

"I want my good name back," said the bespectacled woman; she had taken off her glasses, her face puffy with tears running down her face, "to live in the shadow of the CDA, it's disgusting!"

"Right. I can no longer live with such humiliation. They treated me like a wild boar that they casually chased with spears. I'm not an animal, and I want to live a normal life," another responded.

"I want to live freely and look for work freely, and the CDA shouldn't tell me whether I can be accepted for a job or not. CDA is bullshit!"

"Yes, that's correct! I will follow this game to the end! I want my good name restored! No matter what happens, I will use all my great analysis to beat every game here!" a man shouted excitedly. His face conveyed the glimmer of hope he might still have.

The officer spoke again, and as he said, he pointed towards the North that was in front of him. "Look up ahead! Use all your analysis to find out which cave is the way out to find where the ice is going to melt."

In front of them were several caves, but the guards never told them which cave they had to go through. The place was filled with lush trees, and the remaining participants would be scattered in the forest.