"ATTENTION GUESTS DINNER IS NOW OVER. PLEASE EXIT THE CAFETERIA AND REPORT TO THE SECOND-FLOOR LOUNGE IN A TIMELY MANNER."
Everyone started getting up and throwing things away, just like before except there was more confusion on their faces than the last time. I started throwing away my things as well. I couldn't tell if something was supposed to be going on. Did these people also have a bedtime and decided not to tell me? They were acting like pets who even couldn't make their own decisions.
Just like last time the doors clicked shut after the last person left, we went into the elevator in smaller groups. To my luck, I was in the last group with Priya, Axel, and Arlo. At least the silence on the way up wasn't awkward. The ride was short, just one floor up, but it felt long, when the doors slid open it felt slow. Everyone was there but most of them were against the back wall, behind the couches, and looking in our direction with something in their eyes. Fear.
/What's going on here?/
None of them were moving.
/Why weren't they moving?/
Celeste was crying, tears were running down her face in rapid succession. Her eyes were closed tightly as her hands gripped her shoulders. Gale was holding Sol, one arm held her up while the other was put protectively around her head as to keep her from looking at whatever was next to us.
/Next to us?/
They weren't looking at us. They were all looking next to us. Axel stepped out of the elevator first and it was clear on his face that whatever was there wasn't pleasant. It didn't take long for him to quickly grab Arlo and Priya out of the elevator, shielding them from whatever was on the other side. He then turned back to me, he looked scared. He grabbed me by my arm and pulled me out of the elevator as well, speeding towards the other side of the space. I couldn't help but look behind me. What had turned this group into a bunch of shaking messes? And why didn't the answer involve running away? I couldn't think of anything that could've gotten them all to act like this unless…
It was a woman. They were all looking at a new woman.
/Oh my fucking god./
That shouldn't have been possible right? Where did she come from? Who was she? Didn't they say it was only us in the building? I wanted to feel confused, but I wasn't. My entire body was shaking. There was an obvious answer to all of my questions. I wasn't stupid. This woman was our kidnapper. I couldn't take my eyes off her. The person who had uprooted me from my life was standing in front of me.
She was rather short, dressed in a black suit. She stood behind the wooden desk that now had carefully placed white envelopes with black writing on them. The more I looked at them I could make out a few letters, those envelopes had our names on them.
/What the hell is this?/
Only seconds were passing but it felt like days. She looked at us, we looked at her, we were in a standstill. It took a few more seconds before she started smiling.
/Why was she smiling?/
"Hello everyone. Welcome to The Eden. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
/Pleasure?? Pleasure my ass!/
Her voice was the same as the one on the announcements. I could hear someone behind me scoff but the woman seemed to ignore it as she kept talking.
"My name is Ms. A, which is how I'd prefer you address me. I'm going to be covering a lot of information tonight so it would be best for you to not interrupt me," She then motioned to the envelopes on the desk.
"You've all had a rough few days, we didn't expect the majority of you all to wake up so soon, but here are your individual room keys. I'm sure you all know what these are for and how to use them."
She spoke slowly but didn't leave room for any objections.
"You've all been selected to participate in a social experiment of sorts designed to test an individual's ability to truly put themselves first, nothing too complex. Your job is rather simple actually; be the last person standing."
/What?/
Last person standing?
/Did she think she was running some kind of game?/
"Only one of you is allowed to leave this building alive, plain and simple. Kill or be killed essentially. Of course, it would be unreasonable for us to ask any one of you to specifically kill another one, that's inhumane. However, If you decide that killing your neighbor on your own is too much then you can always come together and vote as a group for who should die instead."
This was sick, /she is sick./ How did I end up in such a twisted situation? My body was refusing to move. The only thing I could do was listen to this woman continue to say such horrendous things with that ugly smile on her face.
"Don't worry about your living conditions during this process, it will truly only get better from here. Our amenities are top-notch here at The Eden, and tomorrow they'll be open for service, so those whose luck isn't that great will truly spend the rest of their life in paradise."
I felt a hand grip my shoulder. It was Axel, was he trying to be reassuring? How? Who thinks about other people at a time like this?
"To keep things from getting too out of hand we do have a small list of rules stating the following:
#1: Hallways are a neutral ground, no actions using excessive force such as assault or murder may take place outside of any and every room.
#2: If an individual does murder another they must send in a notice through one of the one-way buzzers in each room.
#3: Lights out at 11:30 pm and no later, all staff-regulated areas will be closed and will not reopen until 7:40 am.
#4: All guests are valuable individuals, acts of theft or assault will be handled by me if it cannot be resolved within the group.
#5: Personnel doors are locked for a reason, unless the door is open or you are let in, do not enter.
Remember to act tastefully and do your best."
She was being serious, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
She paused and bent down, pulling out a silver bell from inside the desk, placing it on top of the desk before continuing.
"I will come back at the end of this week and every week to check on your progress, as I have a quota to meet. However, if you have any questions or concerns please ring this bell and I'll arrive shortly to aid you in the best way I can."
I couldn't breathe, all at once everything seemed brighter and louder, the buzzing in my ears kept getting louder, no matter what I looked at it was all blurry. It felt like time was stopping. My throat dried out and I couldn't even say anything. I could feel the hand on my shoulder leave only to be replaced with two smaller ones. They gripped my shoulders tightly as if they were telling me to calm down. I closed my eyes and tried to even my breaths.
I needed to reassure myself that I wasn't going to die here, That I hadn't lived this long and done as much as I did just to have my life end here; in a strange building somewhere. I needed a distraction to take away from the crushing reality of the situation. I had to convince myself that there was a way out, that this wasn't my only option, and that there was an alternative exit.
/Oh Lord, I didn't even look for an exit./
I needed to pull myself together, that was the only way I could find a solution. It was the only way I could fix this.
/I need to breathe./
"Ingrid."
/What?/
"Hey, Ingrid! I need you to get it together. Breathe."
It was Priya. I could feel her hands shaking as they kept their grip on my shoulders. She looked almost as bad as I felt, but she was still trying to keep it together. I grabbed her hands and squeezed them tightly, to reassure her. Helping her could be my distraction, helping all of them would be my distraction. I needed to stay distracted to find a solution.
/Breathe in, Breathe out./
The group was in chaos, people were crying, and I could hear something break. It was probably thrown. There was too much going on all at once, but I needed to push forward.
"Are you KIDDING ME, YOU SERIOUSLY EXPECT US TO DO THE SHIT YOU'RE TELLING US TO DO!"
Axel was yelling, slamming his fist down on the desk and waving his hands around to make his point.
"WHAT KIND OF PSYCHO KIDNAPS A BUNCH OF PEOPLE TO PLAY A FUCKING-"
Everything was loud; the lights, the air, the people, but the loudest sound didn't come from them. It came from the tiny click of the gun in that woman's hands. After that everything was quiet.
/Where did she get a gun???/
At some point, Axel had tried to hit the woman, who in response put the gun right in between his eyebrows. Everyone heard it, and everyone stopped immediately. I needed to stop this before the situation got even worse.
"I suggest you think before trying something like that again."
/Breathe in, breathe out./
Even after all of this she still said it with that terrible smile. I couldn't even ask myself why she was smiling, if I were in her position I certainly wouldn't be frowning. I let go of Priya's hands and walked up to Axel. If she was being serious, and only one of us could leave alive, I wasn't going to let one woman with a gun scare me. I grabbed Axel's arm, turning him around to face both myself and the rest of the group.
"You need to calm down," I whispered lowly "At this point, you're only going to make them more scared."
He looked down at me and then at the group before turning around to look at the envelopes. He snatched up the one that had bold black letters spelling 'AXEL' on it before walking up to one of the walls and punching it. He was clearly not in the place to do anything productive so this was my chance to step up.
I started to grab each of the envelopes when another hand reached out to pick some up.
"I'll help." It was the lanky man from earlier.
He had held up an envelope with the name 'MIKA' on it so I could come to my own conclusions. He helped me pass them out. It didn't take a long time given that I knew most of their names but one had stuck out to me. 'STORM'. What kind of name was that? I was pretty sure I knew all of their names by then, but apparently not. As I looked around the group to see if someone didn't have one yet I noticed the empty hands of Knox's angry friend whose name was now apparently Storm.
/Wonderful./
I walked up to him and tried handing it to him, I really did, but he just wouldn't take it. Knox had to take it for him.
/The nerve of this woman./
I turned around to see that the woman was still just standing there watching us. She was even still smiling. There was no way it wasn't forced, surely she wasn't actually getting enjoyment from this. I looked around the area to see that some people had left. I couldn't continue to be bothered by this Storm kid and I noticed the rest of the group was starting to walk towards what I could only assume were their respective rooms, so I too opened my own envelope to see which one was my room.
/Huh, would you look at that, 220./