"You have no right to question me! It was all your mistake which we are trying to correct. Now go ahead and do the job which is assigned to you. Instead of wasting my time." Akemi replied expressionlessly.
"What is my mistake? It was to save you at that time, I called Simon. And the app killed him." Hastin shouted.
"I never asked you to save me, did I? And to top it off, do not blame others for your own mistakes. His death is on your hands, Hastin, always remember that! I am not like my old version, who was soft on you. The app has upgraded me and given me clear instructions. Now if you don't go back to your room, I would be forced to break your leg for every minute you waste here."
Akemi said and even moved away to bring an iron rod. When Hastin noticed the crowbar on her hands, he moved swiftly upstairs. As the App said he surely fears this crowbar, very useful. She decided to keep it with her all the time.
In a few hour's time, Simon's car looked like a brand new custom-made car inside-out. She made a detailed report to the App about today's happening. After a minute, she received a message,
'Well done, Akemi. I decided to give you a surprise gift. Go down to the server room to collect your present.'
When Akemi went down, she saw the giant snake, Murinus, lying on the floor. She went near and caressed the snake. It hissed and turned to bite her.
"Murinus, how can you behave like this towards me?" She shouted at it and the snake hissed in reply.
Murinus slowly moved towards the server and disappeared. She noticed a few documents lying next to the place where Murinus spiraled its body. She picked it up and saw that they contained her passport, driving license, and other documents that are required for her to live in the United States.
She actually was about to ask the app if she could use any of the cars in the garage for the day to day activities or when she had to go outside. Hiring a taxi is a bit difficult from where they were staying. Today she had to walk about five miles before she could get one. She came out of the basement with a beaming face holding the documents in one hand.
Akemi started to do household chores and it was late evening when Nick knocked on the door to report the status to her.
"Akemi, it's done. Also, I have checked the other cars and they are in workable conditions, just that they might need some tiny repair work. I will come back tomorrow and take care of that. For now, I have fueled the newly fixed car. I even replaced the license plate of that car with one of my old cars. I used my own car parts, so it would be very difficult to find out what this car originally looked like. I hope you are satisfied with my service. I am leaving now and will be back tomorrow to work on other cars."
Nick spoke like he was possessed by something and walked away rigidly towards his van.
Akemi turned around and saw Hastin sneakily watching from upstairs. He really never learned from his lessons. She took the crowbar and threw it at him. It hit the railing and fell down. He immediately jumped up and ran inside the study room while closing the door with a 'bang'.
"What is she doing? Who is that man? Should I try calling the emergency line once again? But what if they kill the people who come here to the rescue? Is there really no way he could escape from this situation?"
So many questions were popping up in his brain but there was no one to answer his questions. Hastin sloped down on the floor and leaned against the door. Each passing day, the App is taking control over his life even more and bringing in more living beings into his world.
He rubbed his face and thought, will he be spending his whole life imprisoned by the App and Akemi in his own house? He needs to do something about it and also very soon. But what? What can he do? He cannot even overcome the strength which Akemi has now, just forget about going head-on with the app. He shivered by thinking about all the animal army which the app had and it made him gulp his saliva in fear.
A message popped out on his mobile screen,
'The next five are ready for harvest. Please choose one of the options below to start our game,
Location: ….'
He stared at the message and the phone slipped down from his hand. Because of the fall, an automatic option was selected and the next five were transported to that specific location without his knowledge.
When the next five people opened their eyes, they saw an almost crumbled building roof above their heads. They screamed in horror which echoed throughout the room. The minute they saw each other's faces, they realized that they all study in the same school. To be precise they attended the same class.
"You are Adan, right? The most handsome guy in our class. And you are Aaron… You both are the class rivals… aren't you?" Zinna shouted in excitement.
Adan and Aaron just ignored her and looked around the place. They tried to open the door but it was blocked by something from the other end. Zinna turned around and saw Ura, the school's beauty queen standing in one corner shivering.
"We are all going to die. We are all going to die…" Ura kept on saying this sentence continuously.
Zinna never liked Ura from the beginning because of all the attention she received from the boys. And now seeing her shiver in terror made her feel slightly excited. She ignored her altogether and ran towards Adan and Aaron.
"How did we all come here? All I remember was reading a new novel which was posted by an unknown author Hastin. Then suddenly everything went dark in front of my eyes. When I regained consciousness once again, I was being locked in the room along with my favorite handsome boys. Ooo… I like this. This is too thrilling." Zinna said excitedly and tried to hold their hands.
Adan and Aaron moved far away from her but both shouted at the same time,
"I was also reading that same novel…"
"We are all going to die…" Ura said once again.
"She is right, we are definitely going to die. We must try to find a way out soon or else…" the boy who was sitting in one corner without much interaction or showing any emotions spoke.
Everyone turned towards him. At that time Zinna asked,
"Who are you? I have never met you before. But you are wearing our school uniform. So are you from our school?"
"..." He just ignored her and started to scribble something on the wall behind him.
"He looks like a mad man. Let us just ignore him." Zinna said while trying to run behind Adan and Aaron once again. They were still trying to figure out a way to escape and her interference disturbed them.
"I used to sit right behind you in our class," Upton said.
"Oh! Really? But why have I never seen you before then? Looks like he is a liar along with being a psycho." Zinna screeched.
"Shut up! I am not a liar…" Upton muttered under his breath.
"He is not lying, he really sits next to Adan. You can ask him if you don't believe us!" Ura said who by now stopped saying, 'We are all going to die'.
"How do you know? You are also crazy just like him. You both should just die." Zinna said while moving towards them with eyes filled with menace.
Aaron pushed her away when she was about to reach Ura. Her head hit the broken bench which was placed on the corner of that room. She had a slight scratch and it started to bleed.
"You touched me! Aaron touched me!" Zinna became thrilled and got up from the floor. Her blood filled face terrorized everyone in that room.
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I just don't want anyone to fight against each other right when we don't know what situation we are in. We need to work together and figure out a solution to escape from this room." Aaron said.
Zinna completely forgot to wipe the blood from her face and went on to hold Aaron's hand. Aaron, who had already started to feel guilty for hurting her, did not push her away this time.
"Fine, then. Let us all go out of this room then," Zinna declared.
"How? It looks like we are all locked inside. I don't even see a window in this room." Adan said who was silent all this time.
"If we can form a human pyramid, then one of us can try to climb out using the hole on the roof." Aaron who analyzed the whole room by now said.