by David Clark
Mary crawled like Spiderman across the platform to the middle ladder. Scurrying down the ladder and into the top center square, completing a column of three players for their team. They won. Across from Robert, the members of the other team were trapped in their squares looking back at him with emotionless expressions. In the squares they could not see where their own members are, but they had a ring-side seat to watch Mary win the game for them. The woman who made the fatal mistake sat on the floor of her square, holding her head in her hands crying and screaming, but she was the only one that will hear her pain.
A click behind Robert freed him and allowed the sounds of the cheering crowd to invade the once quiet square.
Thier master of ceremonies announced, “Well, we have a winner. Well played. Well played. Remember to claim a winning ticket you need both the winning team and the number of moves and it was, seven. Seven total moves. Congratulations and well done. Come on down the ladders to the ground. Come on.”
Robert walked out of his square to the ladder and looked up. The swinging blade had disappeared, and the remaining members of his team were descending the ladders. He descended as well. Doug and Michelle were there to meet him; Mary soon joined them. There were no congratulatory high-fives, just a small shared feeling of relief as they were safe on the ground, still wrapped in darkness; but there was no immediate danger in sight.
Looking back up at the opposing team’s grid, the squares were still closed, trapping members inside. The ladders had been removed leaving no escape for those up on the platform. They were waiting, waiting for a way down that will never arrive. Those trapped in the squares banged on the glass and created a rumble like a big bass drum.
Doug tapped Robert on the shoulder and pointed out an illuminated door in front of them. The others noticed Robert and Doug looking and turned to see it as well. Robert was not sure if that door was for them to go through or if someone would come out, so he waited. Jill and Mary didn’t wait, they took off in that direction.
A few moments later, Christopher provided the confirmation Robert was waiting on, “Congratulations again for a game well played. Please proceed to the door. It is now time for us to say goodbye to the losing team. It was a good attempt, but not good enough. Thank you for your sacrifice.”
They walked out as a team, a victorious team, toward a door framed in the bright white rope lights. With only ten feet left to reach the door, a flash of towering flames exploded up through vents in the floor under the opponent’s grid and shattered the darkness in the room. In a matter of seconds, the wall of flames roared upwards through the grid and engulfed the platform above it. The plexiglass walls from the grid and the platform focused the flames into a blow torch-like heat. The view of the individuals on the platform was lost in the wall of flames. Each square became its own encapsulated death chamber. They saw the occasional thrashing around of a charred appendage as it involuntarily slammed into the plexiglass. The plexiglass held the sound in, not that you would hear them screaming over the roar of the fire and the cheering of the crowd. A large ball of fire fell from the platform, interrupting the vertical eruption of flame for a few seconds until it hit the floor in an explosion of flame. Robert assumed that was someone falling through one of the openings in the floor where the ladders once stood.
Robert was frozen by the sight of horror happening in front of his eyes. The intense heat seared the side of his face while the images in front of him were scorched into his soul. The thought of watching someone die in front of him causes a visceral response deep inside. His thought about what those in the grid were going through as the flames burned the flesh away from their bones; it was a pain he could not fathom. Just the thought and caused him to feel physically ill. As much as they wanted to turn away and not watch, he and the rest of his team found themselves in a trance watching the horrific deaths of six people they will never know. The inferno hammered home that perilous nature of their situation; that could have been them. Finally he forced himself to break the stare at the macabre exhibit and he walked through the illuminated door trying to leave it behind him but the fear of what is left to come haunted him. Are they done and free to escape now, or does another challenge await them? Robert felt it in his soul, this is not over by a long shot.
10
Hurrying through the illuminated door, they escaped the heat and light from the scene from hell, each witnessed something they would never forget. It changed each of them from that moment forward. Inside the doorway they stood in a circle facing in, looking at one another, but no one said anything. They didn’t have to, the looks on their faces and body language said everything. Kevin was bent over with his hands braced on his knees. He alternated between looking at the floor and looking at the others. Jill leaned back against the wall, physically shaken. Doug stood still, looking into the darkness in front of them. Mary sat on the ground with her head in her hands. Bob and Michelle were close to the center of the room looking back at the others, the door was in their line of sight, but they did everything they could to not look at it.
Robert was on his knees, lost in thought, trying to absorb everything going on. He wondered if any of them would survive, would he ever see Amy again, or his family? Was this how someone felt when they face the executioner, emotionally bouncing back and forth between the complete despair of resigning oneself to dying to the ultimate rebellion of looking for any opportunity to survive. He focused on his breathing to calm his thoughts, taking in the brisk coolness this dark room presented. It was peaceful and quiet. He wanted to clear his mind to help him focus, but he can’t move the questions or the horror of the last few minutes out of his consciousness.
Exacerbated, Doug asked, “What the hell is happening to us?”
Michelle was the only one to respond as she turned around to survey the room they were in, “I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.” She moved farther from the rest of the group to look around the room when several spotlights invaded the cold and quiet tranquility they were recovering in. One light shone on them while the other pointed out a door at the end of the room.
The crowd cheered the appearance of the door and Christopher announced, “Welcome fans to round two.” Music played under the cheer of approval and welcomed the arrival of the second round.
As the deafening roar dissolved into an echo in the rafters, the English accented master of ceremonies continued, “That was a great round and well played everyone. well played! Now it is time for our next game. It is one of your favorites making its return. You know it, you love it, I call it Sinking Feeling!” A chorus of “Ooos," and “Ahs”, replaced the normal cheering that followed his announcements. “Yep. Yep. You all know what it is. Let’s not waste any time. If our players will now proceed through the door.”
Robert absorbed the words Christopher just said. The way he said it hit him a certain way, but before he could make sense of it, he felt a pain run from his feet and up his legs. It stopped to only hit him again a few seconds later, but this time stronger. The sensation caused his knees to give in response, but he felt the muscles in his thighs and calves tighten uncontrollably.
“Come on. Don’t make me turn up the electricity!”
No one moved until Jill jumped, letting out a shriek.
“Oh, come now. Don’t make me turn up the electrified plate you are all standing on. That was only the first few clicks on the dial I have in my hand; it has twenty clicks. Shall I jump to ten? What do you think everyone?” The crowd starts chanting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Robert remembered this guy just burned people alive, nothing stopped him from inflicting intense pain on them for the enjoyment of others. Whether it was logic kicking in or a survival move, Robert headed for the door. “Come on everyone. I don’t want to wait to see what level ten feels like.” The crowd approved of their action and cheered again.
In a few seconds they arrived at a turnstile door. Robert went through first and exited into another semi-dark smaller room. He looked around whil
e waiting for the others to join him. One detail stuck out. The door he went through was in the middle of a wall. When he came out, it was in the corner of the room with a wall to its right. The door continued to spin, but no one else emerged yet. He started to worry if he was going to be alone in there, but Kevin came through followed by Michelle and Jill.
Several rows of blue lights turned on overhead revealing what looked like a pool taking up most of the room. The pool walls consisted of multiple squares of metal with a single metal cross piece all joined together. The center of each frame was plexiglass, allowing them to see straight through to the other side. Which gave them a view of a structure in the pool itself, but they could not see it clearly. The spotlights danced around the structure to the crowds delight.
From an overhead speaker, “We have our teams. Now we need our rules.” The voice paused while they projected a grid four squares high and four squares wide up on the wall to their right. “Each of you will climb up on the pool deck and then make your way across the bridges to one of the floating squares. The grids on the wall represent the grids you will find in your pools, but the grid you see is not your grid, it is the grid for the other team’s pool. We identify each square in the grid by two numbers: the column number followed by the row number. For example, if you want to pick the third square from the top in the first row, you will call out three-one. Do you see how this works?”
Christopher waited for a response, but none arrived. “The teams will take turns, calling out one square at a time where they believe someone on the opposing team stands. If someone from the opposing team is standing in that square, they are eliminated from the game. The first team to eliminate all the opponents wins. Those are the rules of the game. Now shall we get this game started? All bets in. No more betting.”
The floor below the four of them jerked and started rising. It continued moving silently until it was even with the pool deck where that edge appeared to lock in. The edge of the floor furthest from the pool kept moving up, higher and higher, creating an increasingly sharp tilt toward the pool. Trying to stay upright on your feet became an exercise in futility as the floor approached an insane angle that made Robert feel like he was looking straight down at the pool. Standing with his right leg extended and leaning into the incline with his bent left leg he felt both feet slide. He reached down with his left hand for anything to grab hold of, but the floor was completely smooth and slick.
The floor finally reached an angle that caused gravity to overcome friction, sending everyone sliding down the floor and across a clear surface that covered the pool. The surface was individual squares of plexiglass with rows of holes drilled in them. Each team member came to rest on a single square. A second or so later the unused squares dropped to the bottom, sending mini-explosions of water towering through each now-open square.
The structure they saw earlier in the pool became clearer now. The entire grid was plexiglass boxes that extended from the water line to the bottom of the pool. Metal strips that also served as elevator risers to raise and lower the top piece reinforced the corners.
The four of them made it to their feet, standing up on their squares. Jill asked what no one else in the room had realized yet: There were seven of them when they started through the door, “Where is everyone else?”
Robert hadn’t taken the time to wonder about this yet, but it only took him a second to reach the only answer there was: “Jill, I think they’re the other team.”
“But wait, there are only three of them and there are four of us.”
Kevin pointed out, “That could be considered both an advantage and a disadvantage. We have a larger team, so there are more people for them to eliminate, but we also have more targets for them to hit; not as many empty spots.”
The voice from overhead started the game, “Now that everyone is in place. Let’s begin. Doug, your team goes first again.”
After a period of complete silence a small explosion of water erupted from the square in front of Robert. They missed.
“Jill, it is now your team’s turn.”
Jill screamed as loud as she can, “I don’t want to pick!”
“Jill, you don’t have to. It is our team’s pick.” Kevin looked at everyone, waiting for someone else to say something. No one did, so he picked. “One–three.” A square of pool water replaced the square in the first column, third row in the projected grid.
Both teams missed, and the crowd showered them in “Boo!”
Jill screamed as her square fell to the bottom of the pool. She struggled to orientate herself and swim back up to the top. Her right hand breached the top of the water and searched for the edge of her box. Finally finding it, she pulled herself up, raising her head above the water; hanging on for her life.
Kevin yelled over to her, “Are you okay?”
Jill didn’t say anything. Even if she wasn’t, there was nothing they could do. Several cubes of water separated them from her.
Michelle turned back to the grid, pissed off, and called out, “Three–four!”
The bottom square in the third column was replaced by the image of Doug falling into the water.
“That’s one there, two left. Let’s end this thing.” Michelle had a look of determination Robert had never seen. “I want to see my kids again. I’m not going to die.” She turned to face the back of the room where we assume the crowd was and screamed, “DO YOU HEAR ME? I AM NOT GOING TO DIE IN HERE!”
During her protest the water in the square to Kevin’s right splashed. Another miss.
Robert made eye contact with Michelle and announced, “Two–two.”
The second square in the second column on the grid flickered to show Mary falling into the water. Michelle pumped her fist at the sight of it. Robert recognized this was where everything changed: yes, they were their friends, but they were also in the way of their own survival. He wanted to see Amy again; Michelle wanted to see her kids again; Jill and Kevin wanted to get out of here alive to rejoin their lives as well. It was us or them, and they must do everything possible to make sure it was not them. He found his feelings about this rather surprising, having never been faced with a life or death decision before. He did not expect to be able to throw away the consideration of a friend’s life over his own without any ill-feelings of guilt.
While Robert pondered on this, Kevin made another pick that missed. The other team missed too, picking the square three squares away from Michelle.
“Michelle, you pick next. There is only one of them left. Look up at the board and end this.” She studied the board and selected, “Three–one.”
All four sets of eyes focused on the wall, waiting for the response. The first square in the third column flickers and showed an empty square of water. Robert dropped his head a little. They missed. The shower of boos and cheers of “You suck!” came from the crowd.
The plexiglass floor below Kevin dropped and dumped him into the cube of water below him. Robert watched as Kevin hit the bottom of the cube and then kicked back to the top of his cube. He grabbed the top edge and pulled himself up above the surface of the water. As soon as his head cleared the water, he yelled above the cheering crowd, “I am okay. End this!”
Robert announced, “Four -two.” He did not look at the grid, He just listened for the crowd’s reaction. The cheers told him what he needed to here, Bob fell into the water, ending the game.
The squares below Jill and Bob moved up from the bottom of the pool, slowly reaching their feet and continued to lift them back to the top of their cube. Kevin stood strong on his square, but Jill collapsed in a pool of flesh on hers. The remaining squares returned to the top of the pool as well, creating a solid floor across the pool. The grid on the wall changed to show the entire pool containing their friends, now all in the water in the plexiglass cubes that make up the grid.
The speaker overhead crackled to life, “Bravo! Bravo! Congratulations on another well-played game.”
Robert remembered a time when
he used to enjoy talking to Christopher, now he wished he would just shut up. His wish didn’t come true.
“Now I thought it would take longer, what about you? Did you guess the correct team and number of moves? Let me see.” He sounded more like the ring master of a circus as he played to the crowd. “Someone did. You know what that means. Ticket one-three-eight-seven needs to step forward.” The cheering stopped, but a murmur circulated throughout the crowd as they searched for the lucky ticket holder. Moments later they were located.
“Well congratulations. What is your name?” The entire crowd laughed. “Sorry about that, we don’t use names here. So, for picking the right team and number of moves you get to press the button to dispose of the losing team.”
A panicked look came over Robert, Jill, and Kevin. Robert knew what happened in the last game. It was horrible enough to watch when it happened to people he didn’t know and had never met, but these were his friends. As much as he pushed away the thought of them behind his need to survive earlier, he still couldn’t handle the thought of something happening to them and he absolutely couldn’t watch.
Michelle put her head down and walked toward a door on the opposite wall. She didn’t look at the image projected.
The crowd chanted, “Now! Now! Now!”
Robert and Jill followed Michelle. They focused on the door and tuned out the crowd and the image on the wall. Kevin stayed fixated on the image of their friends.
The chant changed to a cheer; Robert could only assume the lucky winner pressed the button. He didn’t want to think about what happened. The three of them reached the door, but Kevin hadn’t moved. He stood where he did for the game, locked on the image projected on the wall. Robert saw tears rolling down his cheeks. “Kevin, come on now. Let’s get through this together.”
Kevin took a few sideways steps toward the door, stumbling while he kept his focus on the screen. He stumbled again but recovered, this time he turned and ran to the door. He did not stop until he was inside the next room.