I woke up to my mother's screams and it didn't take rocket science to gasp on the situation as I ran out to check what's happening.
"Something will happen to us if we just sit here..why don't you understand, let's just leave this area…noo.. let's just leave the city."
Just after entering I saw mom grabbing onto dad's hands and shouting these words to him. She's desperate, more like she is afraid. And Rian is looking at her. It looks like he's about to cry.
But what's the matter, why mom is acting like this and why dad's not saying a thing. He looks like someone who just survived a near death scenario. This is making me a little terrified of what might have happened.
"What happened? Mom..Dad?"
"Keith, it will all be okay son, don't worry.. we will soon move to a safe place. I'm trying to convince dad for it."
"But…what happened?"
Hearing my voice, and desperation coming along, dad looked at me and finally broke his silence.
"Most of our neighbors, their family members, even infants are missing. It's like they just vanished in thin air. But how is it even possible."
"News.. switch on the T.V" I exclaimed.
'This might be hard to believe but what do you think Jake, how is it even possible?
Like, I said. God is real and he is punishing us. The proof is in front of our eyes. The government was lying to us this whole time. There was no scientific prank, it was the real God. And now like he said, he has erased half of the population from the face of the earth. And we are the culprits behind it.
What do you think about the current situation, what should we do?
I think we all have to apol…'
Listening to all this, the only thing that I can do is just see and believe. I need to collect my thoughts first. It's not an international prank by the government, it's real. Half of the world in a mere night is no more. It's nothing humans are capable of, this is the true essence of someone supreme.
I looked at mom only to find her ready to fall onto her knees and dad stood there deep in thinking. Rian seems to not understand anything after all he's just 7 but he is scared as well.
"There's nowhere to run off to."
Dad said in a low voice, which I barely heard.
"But we have to do something, we can't just sit here doing nothing David."
"What do you want me to do, go fight God?"
"Mom..Dad this is not the time to fight among oursel…"
'Ahem, I hope you lowly humans can hear me.'
It's that voice again, I can recognize it anywhere, he's God.
'As you can see, in order to prove that I am God, erasing half of the population wasn't a big deal to me. Now that you all know that, let's begin our game.'
'So..before we start our game let's set a condition for participation. All those who wish to participate in this game will have to…hmm… lets see, kill a person.'
"Yeah, so in order to participate, all you need to do is kill a person and I will allow your participation in the game. The deadline will be one week from now on. I hope for maximum participation, let's see who survives this game."
As soon as these words bombed on us, we knew the worst has happened. We looked at each other's faces. Of Course there laid no intentions of killing each other,rather the concerned focus on safety.. Dad looked at mom and said.
"Take the kids to the basement, we have to hide right now."
After hearing this, mom quickly grabbed Rian's arm and asked me to follow her.
We swiftly started heading towards the basement but dad wasn't following us.
We entered the basement but dad is nowhere to be found. Did he run away or something?
Mom decided to close the basement's door, but before she could even reach it, we heard someone walking towards the door and that too in a hurry.
"Ok here, i brought us something to eat from the fridge that could last us at least for a few days."
He's my dad, for the first time I'm this happy after seeing him.
"Also we need to be silent, who knows who might show up. We will stay here for a few days and see if things calm down or not."
"Okay dad." I replied.
He's right, we don't know who might show up at our house trying to kill us. Participating in this game will just be pure madness but wait…what would happen to those who didn't participate. If I'm not wrong he didn't mention anything on what would happen to those who don't participate. There's no point in thinking about this now, this will only disturb me more. Firstly, I need to calm down.
Just after an hour we heard a loud noise coming from above. Maybe someone broke into the house. And it seems like they ran above the basement, maybe towards the kitchen. We were trying to stay silent and listen to what was happening above but luckily they started talking in a loud voice.
"Wait…wait… don't kill me, I didn't do anything to you. Why are you trying to kill me."
I can recognize this voice anywhere, it's uncle Josh, I need to go and help him but before I could even move, dad held my hand and whispered into my ears.
"Stop Keith, don't you dare move. I know what you are thinking but by doing that you are just going to throw us all into danger as well…soo stop pleaseee.."
"But…"
++BANG++
It's the sound of a gun, someone just fired a gun.. the sound was enough to make me stop in my tracks. It was enough to send a chill down my spine.. i don't want to die, that's what started going in my head.
"Shhh…stay silent, he still doesn't know that we are here too."
Dad seems to be the only person who is thinking straight at this point.
"Sorry man, it's nothing personal. I wanna participate in the Game and you were the first person i saw. Rest in peace."
And he finally started to leave for the exit.
This is the first time I ever felt that if I move even a bit, it will cost me my life. I'm glad dad stopped me before I did anything foolish.
But I didn't even get a chance to breathe because of a sound, the sound of footsteps coming closer towards us, why didn't he leave or is it someone else.
We looked at each other, mom quickly grabbed Rian and asked him to stay behind her. And dad stood in front of me.
This man is becoming more and more reliable with time. And I think I should also be more open to him now that we are in a situation like this.
Dad quickly grabbed a baseball bat. We silently moved to the corner in hope of avoiding the worst case scenario.
The footsteps stopped after reaching the basement door. And then the door slowly opened. We were in the corner, where it was hard to see because of darkness. But still one can easily tell if we are there after coming closer.
A figure entered through the door, his dard silhouette was all we were able to see because of light coming from behind him but it was easy to identify that there's a gun in his hand. It was enough to terrify us to our cores.
Dad became ready to bash his head with the bat in hope that he would come closer without noticing us.
But the worst happened, he noticed us before dad could even make a move.
"I thought I heard something and it turns out it was you people hiding here haha."
He looked at dad holding the bat and then noticed rian hiding behind mom.
"Don't worry, I won't do anything to you people. I already have my kill and now I can participate. Killing you people will be of no value to me. But I would say you got yourself a nice place to hide but next time make no noise. Not everyone is as generous as I am. Bye, I'm leaving."
And he actually left the house. My small brain is still trying to understand what just happened. While on the other, mom and dad looked like they finally relaxed a bit.
"It's bad."
"What's bad, dad?" I asked.
"Looks like he left us but I don't know if we can really trust him. Maybe he's gone to bring more people. But we can't just leave as it's really dangerous outside."
He's right, we can't just trust someone blindly. But we don't have a choice.
"I think we have to trust him, because it's the only option we have. Lets just hope that he won't break into the house again."
Luckily the electricity is still here and we can ON the bulb because there isn't any window in the basement.
"Kids, you two sleep, I will keep watch tonight."
With all that has happened I feel tired as well, but sleeping in this kind of situation seems impossible but still this tiredness got the better of me.
But again my eyes opened as soon as I felt something dripping onto my face..