Gwen rolled her eyes towards Jackson but her mask obscured it completely.
"I'll take that as a yes." Jackson said and stood up straight, "So, I guess it's planning time. What do you guys want to do? As far as I can tell we have two options: stay here and work for these people, or break the collars at the first opportunity and dip."
"What are the benefits?" Auclair asked since Jackson was more experienced when it came to the Hex Trials. Since he was in Auclair's bracket, either he was unskilled or new, but since Jackson admitted to only recently getting in, Auclair thought it was best to get his opinion.
Some experience was better than next-to-none.
"Well, staying with them will probably give us more clues and send us on a straight shot towards the end of the trial. Considering the state of this place though, I expect we'll be little more than cannon fodder. As for the other option, we'll know less and get less clues, but we'll probably be safer. That is if you're comfortable being hunted down by an entire city. Either way, its up to you boss man."
Norman looked at Jackson in confusion, "Boss man? What if I wanted to be the boss?"
"Do you?" Jackson asked while placing his hands under his chin.
"No, but shouldn't you at least ask the rest of us?"
"Nope!" Jackson said immediately before adding an addendum, "I don't want to be the boss, and I doubt any one wants her to be." Jackson pointed at Gwen and whispered, "She's a meany."
"What are you five?" Norman asked.
"What? I can't try to lighten up the mood? Do you even see the world we're on or the literal pit of death we're stuck in?"
"Fair enough." Norman groaned out.
"Why can't I be the boss?" Connie asked.
"You're not old enough." Auclair cut in before the group got any further off track. He stood up from the ground and spoke, "I'm not that knowledgeable about these collar things. How hard would they be to safely get off?"
"Well, how hard can it be? It's pretty primitive. Hell, spitting on it might do the trick." Jackson answered while scratching his head.
"I can get them off." Norman answered, "I'm confident about it too."
"Ah, you're not so worthless after all!" Jackson exclaimed.
"You're really started to get on my nerves." Norman replied with a displeased face.
"Tone it down." Auclair told Jackson.
"Sure boss, as the gods as my witness. May they strike me down otherwise." He said playfully, making Norman unsure of how seriously he was taking the whole ordeal. Especially when he mentioned the gods.
The two began to bicker but every time another vicious battle of the words occurred, Norman ended up loosing to Jackson. Auclair ignored the two while considering their options. Like Jackson said, they had two considerably different paths before them, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
So he got the two to stop bickering and consulted with Jackson who had actual experience and Norman who had seen the games played.
"I didn't watch the Hex Trials all that much though. It was my family and friends instead, I focused more on college." He paused for a moment, "But… generally contestants hate being shackled down and prefer to go their own way. I mean, you saw that in the tutorial. They rounded up the contestants and got massacred."
"I agree. Most absolutely hate it." Jackson concurred.
Auclair looked at the two and asked, "What would you two prefer though?"
"I think we should investigate this side first. The soldiers and guards probably have the most information to learn in this world." Norman gave his opinion, then Jackson gave his.
"I personally think we should break the collars and get out quickly. I expect most contestants think the same, so there will probably be a moment where there's a massive prison break."
Auclair started thinking when Gwen suddenly spoke up in a begrudging tone.
"We could always start on this side and then escape if things get bad."
Before Auclair could reply to her, the alarms above their pit began blaring out a loud siren. The contestants looked up with alert eyes, prepared to do whatever it would take to survive.
"We are at an H4 risk level. Repeat, we are at an H4 risk level. All available personal report to the warden at this time for further instructions."
The announcer on the alarm said with a dreary voice, seemingly unfazed by what they had to report.
"It seems it's your lucky day." The interrogator who appeared atop the pit spoke as she abruptly appeared. "I'll be able to put you all to use quickly. The front lines are currently in combat at the moment with a new wave from the hive, you lot are to be backup until you learn the ropes."
The interrogator walked away without explaining further and an incredible amount of soldiers and guards replaced her.
Their guns were aiming at the contestants as someone began operating the lift, rising the bottom of the pit and bringing it to them, along with all the contestants stood on it.
The interrogator looked at them from a far distance as she was surrounded by a personal outfit of guards.
"Your weapons will be returned momentarily for those of you who had them. Don't expect to keep them long, especially if you plan on doing something nefarious. I must remind you about the state-of-the-art bomb collars wrapped around your necks."
Norman bit his cheeks to stifle an insolent laugh. A few other contestants had to do something similar.
"We'll be placing your cuffs on and taking you to the front lines. Once there, you'll be unshackled and commanded by the captains along the wall."
The interrogator was the first to leave and the guards and soldiers rapidly got to work.
An hour later they were taken to the wall and were getting uncuffed. Auclair peered over the edge at the undead pressing their bodies against the wall crazily. The undead had contorted faces that made them seem to be crying out in pain as blood flowed out from their pitch black eyes.
"When you all arrived, the threat level was H3, a level worse than this. H1 is the worst, H6 is the best. A threat level of H5 is almost constant, and it often dips over into H4."
Simply put on a scale, H1 was bad, H6 was good.
The interrogator explained the alarms with crossed arms as they inspected their new armed forces.
The grand council were no strangers to using prisoners and citizens suspected to be infected for war. That's where the division the contestants currently were standing in came from.
The Dead Division.
A simple name created by the citizens of the city because everyone who entered the division ended up dead, one way or another. They secured a section of the wall parallel to a high interest section where the hive always attacked. They were stationed as such to always be able to give disposable reinforcements.
All around the contestants was a large group of people watching them with sunken cheeks and dead eyes. They wore orange jumpsuits with shoddy patchwork covering up the holes from their previous owner.
Some of them had blood trickling down their nose or coughed their lungs out until they collapsed. Not a single person there who wore the orange jumpsuits had gas masks on.
"Back to work." The captains began ordering as the prisoners got behind in killing the undead outside the walls. Without much thought, they turned their starved and dehydrated bodies and began operating the machinery they were given.
After making sure everyone was uncuffed, the guards quickly handed out the contestant's weapons, and gave those who had none or only short-range weapons, guns and ammo.
"Welcome to your new home." The interrogator spoke proudly to her new prisoners but found the contestants talking amongst themselves. She hadn't even noticed that until now, the new prisoners had splintered off into groups and made no effort to talk beyond said groups.
Nor had she noticed until now that all the same people had been huddled around each other since the prison.
"We'll follow Gwen's suggestion." Auclair decided with a whisper. "Let's see how much information we can take in before leaving."
The others gave a serious nod, including Jackson who dropped all friendliness and seemed extremely professional.
The interrogator stepped forward and her personal guards followed closely. Just as she was about to question the group further.
CRACK!
A strange current could be felt passing through the air before disappearing completely.
Click! Click!
Thud!
Click!
Thud! Thud! Click!
Taking the cue, with startling efficiency certain contestant's began taking off bomb collars, letting them drop to the floor, completely deactivated. The interrogator scrambled and the guards and captains quickly tried activating the collars.
"Blow them! Now!" The captains yelled to the guard with the detonator.
The guard pressed down on a button only for nothing to happen, a moment later his body began getting shot by multiple guns. His body slumped over, completely riddled with bullets as smoke slowly drifted from the fresh, gaping holes.
But the captains and guards were quick on their feet and quickly drew their weapons too. The two groups aimed at each other in a standoff. The prisoners in the back were once again distracted from their duties as they scrambled away from the fight. The other guards not involved quickly wrangled them up.
"H-how?!" The interrogator yelled in anger as she aimed a revolver at a contestant.
"…" Yet the contestants didn't reveal their secrets. As the tension began rising and each side was itching to be the first to pull their triggers in a desperate attempt to not die, someone broke the silence.
"Not everyone is trying to escape." Auclair suddenly spoke up.
The interrogator looked over at him with wide eyes to find that he still wore the explosive collar, as well as those around him. The interrogator looked around and found multiple groups just like them who didn't raise any weapons or make any attempts to flee.
"I'm sure you noticed that everyone here isn't exactly trying to fight as a cohesive unit." Auclair continued.
"Your point?" The interrogator asked furiously.
"My point…? It's that you better aim damn well, or else everyone here is going to try and kill you." Auclair concluded with a glare.
Beneath her mask, the interrogator licked her dry lips and swallowed a lump of saliva. The interior of her mask began fogging up as her skin grew hot from nervousness. She cursed inwardly before making up her mind.
Quickly looking around and calculating, she determined that almost two-thirds of the new prisoners wanted to leave. The interrogator slowly lifted her gun away from the crowd and spoke.
The sorcerers were too lucrative for her to lose entirely.
"Those who want to leave, leave. You'll get a five minute head start and if you're found, you'll be executed on the spot."
As she ordered, the captains and guards around her slowly lifted their guns. The contestants looked at one another before bolting. Some jumped off the walls and others ran into the maze-like tunnels.
After five minutes exactly had passed, the interrogator had a nearby prisoner blow a message using a whistle. The code started getting sent down the wall as more and more whistleblowers picked it up. Only then did the interrogator looked towards the contestants.
"Since we're going to growing much more acquainted in the future, I am Alyce North, Chief of Interrogations. Although it may seem offensive, I'll say that this is just how we part, be washed of sin." As she said the city's prayer, she turned and walked away to leave the captains to do their duty.
She was going to immediately report to the grand council to receive penance for her mistakes.
"People always try to use what they don't understand. They never learn. Maybe one day we won't all be arrested at the start." Jackson mumbled with a scoff.