The uproar ensued; inevitably, they never expected the game the Skywatchers were playing on humans would lead to the humans' deaths.
People began to protest; even some people in the front row tried to rush to approach the three human-form aliens. However, the immense power possessed by the Skywatcher's soldiers could easily contain the anger of the humans.
"Your enemies are the Skywatcher soldiers. If they catch you not hiding while there's game time left, they'll shoot you on the spot!" said the woman.
"You can't just take our lives! It's not fair!" snapped a man.
"At least give us weapons to fight back!" said another.
By now, the people in the front row were more eager to express their opinions, pushing each other without caring about the people around them who were knocked down and hurt.
"You have to calm down. We don't want you to die before the game starts," said the woman, presumably the leader of the alien platoon that controlled Chicago and the surrounding cities.
Seth didn't choose to rebel like the people in front of him. He was more focused on finding a way to hide safely from the pursuing Skywatchers soldiers. Rebelling would only make things worse and bring those people closer to death.
A notification panel appeared from the bracelet Seth was wearing. The man clearly saw a blue holographic screen displaying the countdown time for the game to start, making Seth widen his eyes, shocked.
"We'd better leave immediately!" Seth said.
He pulled Laura's hand and led her away from the Millennium Park location. The people who were previously with Seth also began to follow where the man went; they didn't want to separate from Seth, who they thought had good survival instincts.
"We should also leave quickly!"
"Let's go hide!"
People began to take this first game, hide and seek, seriously. The tens of thousands of people gathered in the park instantly scattered to all sorts of places to seek shelter, leaving only a few still trying to push forward, looking to kill one of the three human forms of aliens.
Seth continued to run quickly, making it difficult for Laura to keep up with him. Some of the people who were with Seth began to lag behind; most of them were office workers who had never exercised their skills.
While walking, Seth continued to watch the countdown that was clearly displayed on his bracelet. There were ten seconds left, but Seth couldn't find a suitable place to hide.
He stopped his walk right at a residential area with buildings that looked destroyed from the previous battle between the human army and the aliens.
"Where should we hide?" asked Laura.
"We can't hide in an outdoor place like a stadium or a park. The best option is to hide in these houses," said Seth.
Just as the countdown ended, the Skywatcher soldiers began firing lasers at every human in sight. Screams and cries of agony could be heard again that evening, even more clearly because the massacre site was close to the house where Seth wanted to take shelter.
"They've started firing at people," said a man dressed in a black suit.
"Let's get inside!" said Seth, telling them all to go in and hide.
The house had two floors, three bedrooms downstairs, and one bedroom upstairs. Being chased by time and the Skywatcher soldiers made it difficult for them to think clearly, but not Seth.
"Where are we going to hide?" asked Laura, panicking.
"See if this place has a basement. You all hide there!" said Seth, telling the five people who went with him to hide somewhere else in the house.
Seth chose to go to the second floor, his right hand dragging Laura's to follow him. Now, he arrived at a room with typical youth decor.
The room felt spacious, even though it was in the corner of the house. Seth glanced around, noticing the items around him. Seth's focus was distracted when he saw three golf clubs stored on a black bucket.
He walked over to them, picked up one of them, and used it to shatter the room's ceiling. Laura walked away from where Seth had smashed the roof, the woman confused by what Seth was about to do.
"Why are you destroying the roof?" Laura asked.
"We're going to hide on the roof of this house for six hours. They won't notice," Seth said.
The man continued to punch holes in the house's ceiling until it was just the right size for the two to squeeze through. He leaned a chair against the wooden cabinet, allowing Laura's feet to get up there.
Laura was hurrying to climb the chair and the wooden cabinet, while Seth was still in the room, near the glass window facing the outside of the house. Seth's eyes narrowed, watching the thousands of Skywatcher soldiers walking while checking every place they passed. Soon, they would arrive at the house where Seth was hiding.
"I'm already upstairs. You had better hurry," Laura said, popping her head out of the hole in the room's ceiling.
Seth cleared his throat. He, still holding his golf club, tried to climb onto the wooden chair and cabinet. It wasn't hard for Seth, unlike Laura, who had never done anything like this before.
Both of Seth's hands went into the hole. Laura helped Seth to get in by pulling Seth's hands as hard as she could. Finally, they were both on the house's roof, sitting on a wooden structure that was sturdy enough to hold their weight.
Seth and Laura laughed softly as they struggled to hide for their lives. Seth went back to looking for something that could be used to cover the hole. He saw a thin wooden board on the roof; it must have been left behind during the construction of the house.
He closed the hole with the board and placed the golf club on top of it. Seth finally could take a deep breath, feeling relieved that they found a suitable place to hide, hard to be noticed by anyone.
"AAAKH!"
Screams sounded loud and clear from the house's first floor. Seth guessed the Skywatchers had already found out where the five people were, so he and Laura had to be cautious and not make any noise.
The only lighting in the place was from the blue light of the system bracelet that displayed the number of participants in the game. The initial number of participants at site 28 was 4.5 million people. Chicago's previous population was 9 million, drastically reduced due to all the city's soldiers and some of the city's people being killed in the previous battle.
The silence on the rooftop made Seth and Laura could hear everything clearly, one of which was someone's footsteps. The footsteps came right below them; Seth guessed that the Skywatchers were inspecting the room.
Seth held up one finger, placing it before his mouth as a sign not to make any noise that might make the Skywatcher soldiers suspicious. Until the footsteps faintly sounded and disappeared, the two had to remain mute no matter the distraction.
After about ten minutes of waiting, the footsteps slowly came faintly, as if walking away from the room. Seth and Laura were once again relieved. Seth tried to slightly open the wooden board covering the hole; Laura was a little worried about seeing Seth doing that.
He peeked through the small gap; none of the Skywatcher's soldiers seemed to be in the room below them. Seth nodded, closed the board again, and crawled towards Laura until he reached the woman.
"It's a pity they had to die," Laura said, feeling compassion.
"There's nothing we can do. They have to decide how to live their lives without relying on others," Seth said.
Laura's eyes grew wide, her heart pounding as Seth said this. The order to send the five people to hide in the basement was Seth's; there was no guilt on the face of the man she had known for so long.
"So, you used them as bait on purpose?" Laura asked.
Seth looked sharply at Laura. Their eyes seemed to meet for a moment, and then Seth cleared his throat while lowering his head.
"I'd rather call them braves than bait," Seth said.
"But why?! Why don't you invite them to hide with us?" asked Laura, raising her tone until Seth had to shut Laura's mouth, both of the man's eyes glaring at the annoyed Laura.
"Do you want to get both of us killed?!" asked Seth, softly but firmly.
"Don't you see your surroundings? This place won't fit seven people," Seth replied.
Seth opened the fist wrapped around Laura's mouth, allowing the woman to speak, "But at least you can tell them that hiding in the basement is dangerous."
"If I tell them, their survival instincts will never be developed. It would only burden me," Seth said.
"What's wrong with you? You used to be nice to them, but now you're abandoning them," Laura snapped.
Laura gasped after realizing this. Seth had planned everything so that he could survive, even in the middle of the stadium field.
"You planned to use them?" Laura asked.
"That's what I like about you. You're good at seeing situations," Seth replied, complimenting Laura with a smile on Seth's face.
"I initially wanted to take cover alone with you, but those naive people followed us instead. I used this moment to get supplies of food and medicine; they didn't seem to mind doing it for me," Seth explained.
"I gathered information from them that I could use for both of us to get through this world," Seth replied.
"You're crazy, Seth. The alien invasion has put you out of your mind," Laura complained, annoyed and unexpected that Seth would take advantage of the naivety of the people covering his back.
"I should have brought them here so we could die together!" snapped Laura.
Seth laughed softly, looking at Laura's face, which looked angry with her attitude towards the people. Laura hadn't realized the world was doomed and there was no time to help each other.
"Be realistic, dear. The world has ended, and you can't keep relying on others. You have to stand up for yourself."