«Look what happens to us: how quickly we fall asleep and wake up, how terribly the head hurts in the morning and the fact that no one dares to speak their native language. Even you and Alex speak exclusively English to each other.»
I cannot believe. It sounds that simple…
«Do you think others already know about this?» I ask.
«Maybe the athlete still has no idea. But between us, he’s not very smart.»
We laugh softly, she blows me a kiss and leaves the cell.
I quickly kick off my dirt and sweat-soiled clothes, take a cold shower, and check my watch.
A white overall hangs from the back of the chair. It looks like a wetsuit. It is solid and ends with lightweight boots with a thick rubber sole. Hmm. A strange choice for pajamas. However, I pull on tight clothing – not without difficulties, which turns out to be very light and quite comfortable. Even the rubber outsole weighs almost nothing.
I still have twelve minutes before the coordinator turns off consciousness. Okay.
I will spend precious time analyzing this day. But instead, all my thoughts are spinning around a strange girl. I need to find out her secret. What is hidden behind those sad eyes that causes in her such fear and distrust of people?
At exactly 9:00 pm, I fall into a deep, empty sleep.
Day Two
The first thing I feel when I wake up in the morning is a terrible pain in all the muscles in my back and neck. So intense that an unpleasant metallic taste on the tongue fades against its background. Opening my eyes, I understand the reason for this ailment: we are lying on a stone floor, surrounded by bare rocky walls that go high up. There they end in a wide opening through which you can observe the blue cloudless sky and the scorching sun. Despite its generous warmth, it’s pretty chilly here, and I’m genuinely happy about my warm-keeping wetsuit.
All participants gradually come to their senses, sit down and examine their surroundings.
«Where are we?» Yu looks around and her already pale face becomes even whiter. The girl is struggling to hide a growing excitement. She constantly bites her lower lip, squints the eyes and nervously rubs alternately between her elbows and knees.
«This is a grotto or cave of natural origin. I’m more worried about how we got here and what to do next,» Joleo walks thoughtfully along the grotto and feels the walls.
«Those bastards touched me in my sleep! How dare they touch me?!» Blonda is shaking all over with indignation. She doesn’t speak but hisses through her teeth. I would not like to be in the place of the organizers at this moment.
«Maybe you came here on your one? We don’t remember anything at all about what happens at night. How we behave, whether we sleep or do something…» Angel’s intonation is rather interrogative. He looks timidly at Blonda. Probably, in this way the guy is trying to calm her down, which immediately enrages Runner:
«Perhaps you know more than we?! If you know something about this damn place, it is better to tell here and now!»
«Runner, shut up,» Blonda hisses warningly at the athlete.
Surprised by her reaction, Runner falls silent. We look dejectedly around our new place of imprisonment. Apart from the wet rocks around the perimeter and uneven stone floors, there is absolutely nothing in our grotto that resembles a hint. Except for the wall-mounted monitor, of course. This means that we have no choice but wait for the Maestro’s instructions. The air is cool and damp and smells like rotten seaweed. The silence is interrupted by BeBe:
«It seems to me that these people have some kind of influence on our actions. Yesterday I decided to ignore the cloth prepared by the organizers and go to bed… mmm… naked…»
«Oh, spare us these details!»
«Runner, shut up!» This time Blonda’s tone sounds more tired than threat. If Runner tries to touch the delicate strings of the soul of this beauty, then extremely inefficiently.
Ignoring their swearing, BeBe continues in a plaintive voice:
«Five minutes before bedtime, I suddenly felt this… As if thousands of ants climbed under my skin and began to run over the bones and muscles. I wanted to fall and wallow, to tear my skin to somehow relieve this maddening itch. An unbearable test! I thought I was going to lose my mind in pain. Probably, it would have happened, but somewhere through a blurred consciousness I remembered about a wetsuit and pulled it on with all my strength. After that, my torture stopped instantly,» tears appear in BeBe’s eyes. She adds in a whisper, «perhaps it has something to do with the coordinators implanted in us».
I’m really sorry for BeBe. The woman is about to burst into tears.
The players react differently to her story. Most of them have already guessed about the manipulation of our sleep. But Angel, Joleo and Martha seem genuinely surprised by this turn of events. I, in turn, look at Alex with a silent question in my eyes. Our gazes meet, and he shakes his head slightly. I understand. Telling others about our own experience of the coordinator’s disastrous function in the jungle for violating the rules of the Game will make us look bad and emphasize that we are allies. This can be interpreted as a kind of opposition in relation to the rest of the participants. Moreover, we initially concealed this important information, and could have prevented the suffering of BeBe.
«We didn’t tell them right away, we are silent until the end,» I read in the eyes of Alex. I am a little uncomfortable with such deception, but in this situation, I cannot but agree with him.
At this moment, the screen built into the wall lights up. Maestro appears on the monitor. He is still neutral friendly. Deathly silence reigns in the grotto. The sound of waves is heard in the distance. It means that we are not so far from the ocean coast, – I notice to myself.
«Greetings, Players, and congratulations on the second day in the Game of the Century! Let me express the organizers’ admiration for the excellent work yesterday! It was like a balm to our souls to observe how harmoniously and accurately you completed the first task and rightfully received your reward. – Maestro pauses and nods his head respectfully. – The bets are growing, and our trust in the Players is also increasing. The organizers have no doubt that you are ready for today’s challenge, which will require not only ingenuity, but also physical endurance. For only the strongest can become the winner and fulfill the great mission of the Corporation. The task for today is to get out of the branched system of caves in which you are now.
«Let the light guide you
To your cherished goal,
Leave doubts in the shadows
Bury them into oblivion.
Only courageous decisions
Of coherent minds and bodies
Make it possible to leave this captivity
And find a way out of the dungeon.»
Think carefully about each step, as your time is extremely limited: in six hours all the caves will be completely flooded by the beginning tide. Don’t waste a minute, Players. Good luck to you!
The screen goes out, and a woman’s metallic voice echoes through the caves:
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: six hours zero minutes.»
In a daze, as if not believing their ears, the players exchange questioning glances. We heard right, this is about saving our own lives? In the light of the screen, two lanterns appeared, which all this time were in the niches of the rock on either side of the monitor.
«They are b-b-bluffing!» Joleo exclaims. Obviously, he starts to stutter when unable to cope with inner excitement. «If we had not completed