Henry Allcott
It never really made sense as to why Isaac always called us 'Actors', but now I understood. The enormous display that stretched to each corner was now displaying Jacob and his fight against the first beast. The angles that were being shown changed regularly as if under orders from a skilled director, ensuring to capture each of Jacob's efforts and the eventual corpse that had exploded. It felt all too unrealistic, if anyone was just shown this without context, they would easily believe it to come from a movie or television show. That thought scared me. I looked back on Isaac who was watching the screen intently, his fingers dancing on the railing in a rhythmic beat. I looked to Jacob then, watching him turn away and drown himself in beer that never seemed to lessen, even as he drank enough to make him pass out, being the lightweight that he was. Harold was off playing in the games corner, weird that they had one, but it wouldn't be healthy to relive this trauma at that age. Mira watched on, impressed and horrified at the same time. She stole quick glances at Jacob, a plethora of emotions on that beautiful face of hers. The screen played out the rest of the encounter, the same editing on the remainder, after the final large attack from Jacob, causing him to be sent flying backwards, the screen went black. The next screen showed Levin and it took all of my strength to not throw up. I saw his body tear and shred into multiple pieces, his bones crushed into powder. In the span of twenty minutes, he had seemingly died hundreds of times. I turned away from the screen, the gore too much, only Mira and Isaac kept watching. Levin had gone off to get himself a drink, like Jacob, he tried to take his mind off of the situation as best as possible.
"Wow, that was something intense." I turned back to the screen which showed a figure in an elegant suit. The word, celebrity, came to mind when I saw him. Chiseled physique, hair that seemed to defy gravity, a voice that would make the men watching jealous. "We have an unprecedented two candidates for the best actor nomination," he gestured to his left, showing the video of Jacob, "Jacob Malnew's stellar performance during the encore, saving his two friends and then sacrificing himself so that they can get away, I'm touched by your loyalty." He then gestured to his right, bringing up the video of Levin. "And Levin Hussain's nail biting tale of no surrender. Ouch, seems painful. But now we need to announce the victor." I looked over to Jacob who had now started paying attention to the screen, unsure of what is going on. "The victor is-" he paused for a long time, before the video of Jacob suddenly enlarged, "Jacob Malnew."
"What the fuck?" I said aloud as I saw Jacob disappear from his seat.
"He's fine," Isaac muttered nonchalantly, dismissing the disappearance as if it was expected. Jacob reappeared a few moments later though, a grin on his face. "See."
"And now, for the next part of the agenda," the man stated, before the screen started showing new footage.
"Oh fuck," Isaac muttered, "why now, why this early?"
Isaac Woodman
T1 2030 - "ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE!" Levin shouted, anger becoming manifest. "THAT, THAT THEATRE IS SOMETHING ELSE, AND THE WORST PART IS, IT'S TECHNICALLY NOT THAT CHALLENGING."
"Hey Levin, calm down man, we need to think up a strategy. We've all seen the footage." I stated, getting a nod of approval from the others in the meeting.
"Isaac is right, we need to be calm, I get that we shouldn't have let those thousand people in, but at least they became useful to us in the end." Jason stated, his left hand continuously shuffling a deck of cards while his right flipped and played with a sharp blade, all whilst his attention was on Levin and the rest of us.
"You didn't just say that!" Levin replied, advancing on Jason who slammed the knife down on the table.
"Jason, why did you have to word it in such a way," Fiona stated, her thick French accent still causing me some issues when trying to catch the words.
"Well, he is right though," Ashlea muttered, "their deaths have now given us a clue, and now we need to find out how to use that clue, and I would prefer we do that without you two dickheads getting into another pointless argument. One or one thousand, the number doesn't matter, we just need to make sure to clear it."
"Ok, ok, how do you expect to accomplish that then," Jason muttered. "You saw how many people tried to fight that monster, I don't think anyone here can fight, let alone kill it."
"We need four people to figure out each riddle, then make it back alive, so let's double that to two per riddle, and then we need bait," I stated, before looking at Levin, "which has to be you." Levin nodded, used to being the bait at this point. "You will need to keep the attention of the monster so that the people doing the riddle can get there and back without being impeded. So we need, at the very least, nine people." I counted on my hands, putting down a finger for each name, "Jason, Levin, Fiona, Ashlea, Harold. We need five others to properly tackle this, but the number doesn't really matter."
"What are you suggesting Isaac ?" Harold muttered after not inputting any thought into the overall discussion until now.
"We have two methods of succeeding, one with a much higher chance than the other. Firstly, you go in as an elite team of nine or more. Or, we find canon fodder."
"You did not just say that." Levin muttered, anger in his words once more.
"You might not like it, but with the addition of a single person, our chances increase." I stated, Levin was still angry but Jason nodded in agreement. "Levin, you need to ask yourself whether you can keep the attention of that beast for an hour, if not, then the others here will not make it out. Or, if this drags on longer than an hour, then you will be in danger instead, and then the others will die alongside you. How confident are all of you ?" I could see their expressions and they all screamed doubt, Levin was the most unsure of himself, my words seemed to make sense to him, but his feelings were getting in the way of the truth.
"As much as I hate to admit it, Isaac is right. We all may not like it, but I think this is the best way to clear this Theatre." Harold said, breaking the uneasy tension that had grown in the room.
"We all need to make a decision." Fiona stated, standing from her seat at the table, "we either go in with an elite team, and that is depending on whether those who we would like to come with us, decide to actually do so. Or," she looked at me and Levin in turn, her expression grim, "we find people who, would like to-" she didn't finish her sentence, we all knew the implication, many had given up and were too scared to outright end it, and we would be giving them a guiding hand.
"You guys are aware of my thoughts on the situation," Jason stood, placing his long blade back in its sheath, "so come get me when you have decided." He turned, leaving the room.
Two days passed, and the survivors finally exited the Theatre. Jason, Levin, Fiona, Harold and Ashlea. Out of two hundred, five remained and from their broken smiles, they had changed.