I thought my vision returned, however, after the blinding light I only saw darkness
My arms reached out to feel my surroundings or body, but there was nothing, only a phantom feeling where my hands should be or maybe that was my mind playing a trick on me.
Suddenly, there were large, glowing arrows that pointed in a direction in front of me.
I fought against my gut and decided to follow the arrows for some time. This continued until they changed locations to lead what would be my right side. The more I follow the more I started to think it was a hallway of some-kind, because I have to turn around a few edges or else I would find myself not moving at all.
This went on for a couple of minutes until I was presented with a bright rectangular light.
"Go left when you're in the hallway"
That stranger's words echoed through my empty skull, is this what they meant? Or was I really just going crazy back there? I guess nothing about any of this is sane, yet again, what if I miss out on something?
My phantom hands slapped my unapparent face.
I need to stop overthinking, I could just test to see if I can go left, and if nothing happens then I'll go towards the ominous rectangle.
My attempt to walk left failed immediately as I find myself not moving again, I knew this was stupid.
Why don't I just trust every stranger, maybe they'll take me to get candy next time too-
As I turn around while talking to myself, the bright rectangle was gone, as a matter of fact, the arrows were gone as well.
Fuck, this is great, possibly Spec-fucking-tacular. Why do I even listen to myself? Following random instructions because of some person that was probably not even real!
*EErrt*
The sound of a rusty hatch opening came from below me.
My eyesight hesitantly lowered, and sure enough, there was a square of pure light where my feet should be. I had no time to react and immediately fell through, another blinding light forbade me to see.
I couldn't help but freak out until I realized my feet were planted somewhere solid, hold on, my feet?
Looking around, I see that I had my body back and wasn't blind, instead, I was put into a white space. In front of me was a few moving texts.
With a few steps, I closely inspected the lettering to only be further baffled.
[Loading Area...]
What is this crap? It's almost like a video game loading screen.
When I thought those words, this abnormal feeling surged throughout my body and a weird hud appeared in front of me.
[Name: Mathew Greyley
Personal Attribute: Shut-in
Minor Attribute(s): Gamer
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (no interested candidates)
Private Skills: None
Personal Skills: None
Skills: Gaming Hud, View Character Stats: Lvl. 1
Sta-]
My mind sparked with a little excitement and curiosity. It's exactly like a video game; this seems to state my personal identity and powers. Hopefully telling myself that will make things easier to understand.
[Area Loaded]
It felt like being pulled out of a dream, I instantly opened my eyes to find the same white floor I woke up to the last time, my eyes adjusted once more, and I see it is the same exact setting as the last white room I was in, with the exception of a fewer number of people.
I looked all around and most of them seemed to be high schoolers as some had varsity jackets with their school colors and some even had backpacks on, but if they have items does that mean...
I immediately checked my pockets to find I still had the bronze pocket watch, my wallet and smartphone.
Quickly glancing inside my wallet, I was hoping to not be disappointed in myself, but it was already too late. It was pretty much empty with a crumpled twenty-dollar bill, a few cents, my I.D. card as well as a discount for ChilB's and an old stick of gum. I wonder how long that's been in there?
Indistinctly, I checked my phone too, though I already expected to see no service in this place. However, I seemed to have received a message shortly after the time the sirens rang.
"Mathew!"
In the midst of my distracted self, I could have sworn someone called out my name.
I stood up tall to meet eyes with Scott and Marcus just down a ways, they were both walking my direction now.
Finally, some people I do know, but does that mean... God I hope he isn't in here too.
Tossing my insecurities aside, we met up in the middle of two crowd, Scott's face looked relived and Marcus gave a small smile.
"You don't know how worried we were, I'm not sure what happened, and I got questions too, but I think we need to stick together because-"
I cut him off before he could ramble any further.
"How long have you guys been here"
He looked at me confused and answered, "Maybe ten to fifteen minutes, why?"
That's not good, if this was like mine, then theirs was about to start. Maybe if we hurry, we can scramble to get supplies or start warning people for what's about to happen or.
*ZZTTT*
The same electronic sound echoed the walls and the same notification panels appeared in front of everyone, except for me, so I looked over Scott's shoulder to see panel much like mine but with much different words.
[Introductory Story Objective: King Election! - select a single individual to lead and have absolute power]
The walls now inverted into the ground like last time to reveal a meadow of golden, dead grass. There was a forest close by and a small hill the opposite of it where a gold sun was already setting.
The center of the room started to sink like last time, the people there moved to the sides with worry, in spite of this new thing, most looked eager to the new opportunity in front of them.
There were minimal supplies compared to my room as I only saw five crates and a few dry bags, but beside these supplies were weapons varying from sharpened spears to baseball bats. People started to move in quickly to get something from the pile.
My mind was at a lost, should we go to get something? Was there a catch to all of this? Where are the wild animals or was that only for my place-
*BANG* *BANG*
Everyone fell silent as the echoing sound of gunshots filled the area. People backed away as one of the only adults I saw was clutching his chest, without muttering a word his body fell onto the floor and pool of blood began to spill from the lifeless corpse.
There were a few gasps and cries, but all eyes were gathered around a boy with dark, long hair, who didn't even look older than me. His arm was extended outward with his hands holding some pistol emitting subtle smoke from the barrel, whoever this guy is, he is definitely a threat.
He proceeded to slowly walk towards the body. As he walked down to the corpse, all the people in the space backed away, not knowing what to do.
When he got to corpse, he proceeded to shoot it again, and again and for a third time until the sound of only clicking could be heard. He quickly reloaded his handgun and now looked amongst the crowd with a sick smile.
"EVERYONE!" He yelled with a grating voice "listen up, my name is Tobias, and me and my group-"
He pointed with his gun towards some of the high schoolers who were already rummaging through the crates.
"-Are going to take whatever we want" he snarled "Unless you bow now and promote me as your king!"
This bastard, how wrong in the head do you have to be to say something like that?
This is when I noticed only Marcus right beside me, Scott was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey!" A feminine voice yelled out "That fucker took something!"
She began to go into a sprint while pointing at a singular figure, but before I could see the figure, they disappeared into the crowd.
Tobias then proceeded to point into the groups of high schoolers, but I don't think he anticipated what would happen after an irrational act like that.
As he wavered the gun around, the groups went into a frenzy and dispersed, causing only more chaos, any sight of the thief was lost.
"Find that little rat, or else I'll be shooting into the crowd!"
Tobias cried amongst his crew and probably as a threat to them too, however, that only caused more panic, making him back away due to the sheer number of people.
A couple of fights ensued as some snuck into the crate area, some managed to get a hold of weapons too. We were not too far from the center, but I was getting pushed around from those trying to flee or take advantage of this hectic situation, until a large, firm grasp held onto my shoulder.
Marcus got my attention and made a motion with his hand to follow him. I followed close with him while he lead us through the mob, reaching the edge of what was the room now leading into the meadow where the tree line was. That's when my mouth opened to ask,
"Why are we over here? Where's Aideen?"
Marcus looked back as if he is looking for someone and spoke.
"Scott is the thief, we are meeting him here" he paused for a short bit "It was his idea"
While we were on the backsides of this crowd, I saw the familiar orange, curly hair from a figure holding a small bag close to his chest trying his best to squeeze out of the crowd.
As a group of people like this would be troublesome to progress through to others, Aideen was rather dexterous and had managed to get by unnoticed. That is what I was hoping for at least, because when we were just about to greet him, a chubby kid grabbed his arm.
"You're going to share that right?" he said with a toothy grin, before Aideen can respond the kid butted in "If you don't, I'll call you out, thief"
The kid's mouth spoke kindly but his eyes told a different story, they looked like they belonged to a con artist that tries to sell you a random product on the busy streets of New York.
Aideen stood there, looking at him then back at the bag, and in one motion, he threw it in my direction and pushed off the kid to meet with us. He stumbled back a bit before screaming,
"It's the thief!"
I grabbed the bag and hid it in my hoodie before the group we were behind turned their gazes and started to surround us, or more specifically, them.
"Let's hurry this up" Marcus sighed with a small crack of his knuckles.
"Shoot! I didn't know he would actually do it; looks like we're going to have some fun Clem, I'll get right you get left " Aideen squealed out while his partner nodded.
They put themselves in front of me and both got into defensive stances, it looked like Aideen started hopping in place and Marcus raised both his arms up to guard his torso and face.
[***]
I began counting how many people started moving in, there were three on the left and four on the right, some were hanging back either scared or just overestimating themselves, but little did they know that those two probably have more experience than all of them combined.
The right side approached less cautiously than the left, the unintimidating Scott was now in between two guys, the third was in the back just watching.
A high schooler with a baseball cap lunged forward to grab Scott, which was foolish on his part.
I watched a slight smirk arise on Scott's face as if he planned this reaction and in an instant, he pulled his leg inwards.
Like a pistol, his leg exploded forward, making contact with the guy's chest to leave him grasping for air.
The second person froze in shock, but Aideen gave him no chance to react because he shifted his position and donkey kicked his foe once in the gut and retracting his leg like a pistol once more, kicked him in the bottom of his chin with so much force, it threw his enemy's head back which lead to him falling down unconscious.
The other man, still hunched over in pain, looked up to see a heel of a foot come swooping in. The back of his head was cleaved into the ground like a sharpened axe chopping a stump, knocking him out for good.
While I was watching Aideen, I heard a much larger commotion coming from the left.
As I turned my attention to Marcus, I already saw three groaning bodies with bloody faces lying on the floor.
"You bastard! Those are my cousins; your gonna pay for that"
A boy with a southern accent screamed while blankly charging Marcus. As soon as he began to swing his arm, Marcus grabbed hold of the southern kid's fist and punched him square in the face, making a loud cracking sound. He stumbled backwards holding his bleeding nose.
"*Gah* Jesus man, are your fist made of stone or what?"
Marcus stood still, waiting for him to move.
"So you're one of those silent types?''
Due to Marcus's focus on the kid, I noticed another group slowly approaching from behind where Aideen was, that's not good, I need to tell Marcus that he might be in trouble.
Right when I was about to warn him, he already glanced in my direction then behind him to acknowledge what I was looking at. While his head was turned back, the southern man ran forward yelling at the top of his lungs, but I know for damn sure he is just a distraction this turn.
As soon as he got in Marcus's range, he swung his right arm as forward as he could, Marcus caught his hand again, but without any effort he grabbed the guy's belt and managed to fling him right into the group that was about to gang up on him.
Encased by the pandemonium, I didn't realize I was pretty much hidden within a group of bystanders that were bewiled on the duos performance. I was really hoping I could help out in some way since I'm just standing here watching too, maybe if we leave now, they won't follow us.
"Guys! We got a paparazzi on our tail and they don't got cameras!"
I heard Aideen scream as I saw him running towards Marcus's side; however, he wasn't the only one coming.
A couple others were tailing in hot pursuit that wielded blunt instruments, when Scott got in Marcus's controlled area, the group paused.
The two stood their ground, guarding each other's backsides when even more people started to gather, who I presume were of Tobais's goons.
One finally stepped forward who was easily beaten to a pulp in a matter of seconds, but then a few more went, then a dozen at a time. Purely outnumbered, there they fought until the sheer number of people grabbed ahold of them, pulling their hair and limbs or even beating them down with weapons.
I stood there helpless as I watched my friends get overrun, even so, they both yelled in unison yelled to get my attention.
"RUN!"
I lacked the fighting experiences of a part time boxer and a taekwondo student, I knew that if I went in there at this moment, I was sure to be caught and that Tobais guy would probably kill all of us.
So I did the only thing I could do.
I pushed past the people I was hiding with and booked it into the tall grass, as I traversed through the thick blades, I could hear the sound of muffled words and footsteps, but my sailboat sailed with other thoughts than being caught.
How could they both do something like that? We have never been in a fight like this and they want to be heroes all of a sudden?
My legs carried me without stopping for what seemed to be minutes, until I reached the forest.
I then stepped inside without the others behind me.
■The only thought flooding his head was how useless he was■
The sun had already gone under the horizon an hour ago, occasionally I would turn my head to the sound of rustling leaves from the cold night air.
I was never one for camping, the only amount of experience I have is spending the night under a tent in my backyard, looking at the stars. Though there were no stars this time.
I found my way to the forest where I lost whoever was chasing after me, I looked everywhere but I saw no signs of humans or wildlife, that still didn't mean I could let my guard down. When I settled down to try and formulate a plan to get my friends out of here, I didn't know the requirements to leave this place other than the 'King Election' so I checked the bags' contents to find anything to help.
All I could find was a tarp, rope, a small portion of food bars, a water bottle that didn't even last a second and a couple of cylinder objects with pins on their tops, I recognized them as grenades, but I was not going to gamble on what type they are.
That made me chuckle a little.
An idiot I know would still pull the pins knowing full well he could probably die, but the world would just turn the other cheek and give him a break.
Lucky wouldn't even describe the power that guy has over any gamble, every day was something else with that moron. I wonder if-
*Crunch* *Crunch*
I was immediately set to defensive mode, the sound of footsteps crunching leaves was close by, that's when I saw three beams of lights flash around the trees I was held at. My heart began pumping blood into my legs and I dashed off into the night. I had the bag on my back already, but I was using the tarp as a blanket so that was gone.
Whoever they are, they were in hot pursuit.
Voices bounced around the forest as well as the beams of lights getting closer. I am not taking that risk to find out if they're friendly as I am a bad gambler.
This chase was going on for several minutes until my legs started to give in, constantly running away all this time was really wearing me down. I knew I should have somewhat tried in middle school track.
My speed was slowing by the minute, I was practically walking by the time there was no hope left. The search party after me was only a few feet from me now, I guess this is it for me, I'll be taken by them and put in front of that sick bastard to probably be executed.
"He's over here!"
As I reached the end of the forest, I fell over from complete exhaustion,.
I was forcibly kicked to my back and all their flashlights were shining in my face, I couldn't help but feel helpless once again, I'm just so useless. Now I will die before I could-
Without warning, one of the persons dropped to their feet and was dragged to the top of a branch he was under, wailing about.
The other two looked at each other and screamed at the top of their lungs, just as they turned to book it out and leave their pal, something fell from the trees on top of them both. There was a small grunt of pain from the boys as well as whatever landed on top of them.
One of them was not moving at all and the other struggled to get up. The thing that fell on them got up from their bodies and stood above the last one.
A rogue beam from a flashlight was all I had to make out their shadows. I watched in horror as the tree showed the shape of their arm raised and wielding some type of weapon.
The barely conscious boy looked in horror as the figure's arm came swooping down like a butcher's knife.
*Pow!*
The cartoonish sound of getting hit with a metal object reflected through the night and the boy fell unconscious.
The mysterious figure started to laugh an annoying laugh and slowly walked out of the light to slowly fade back into the night.
I lacked the strength to move my body, but by the time I mustered enough I heard their shoes already at my face.
They then shown a flashlight in my eyes, blinding my view to find any discernible features with the little light there was. I was expecting the same treatment of the others, instead, an arm swayed before me in a friendly gesture.
My mind raced with possibilities to who this was and why they are helping me.
"Quit being so ungrateful and grab my damn hand already" they exclaimed while forcibly grabbing mine.
Against my better judgment I decided to trust this person and I was raised to my feet. The light now showed me who this was as I got better look, my eyes widened and begged me to ask,
"How are you here?"