6-Countdown

          I woke up at 11 : 13. Since I still had about 50 minutes I decided to go search for Josh once again.

          Just before I left someone touched my shoulder.

          „Hey, Ken, where are you going?“, Axel asked me.

          „I’m... trying to find someone who’s also participating in the games. His name is Josh, I’m not sure you know him...“

          „Oh... no I don’t know him... Sorry, I thought... I thought you were going out to try to find out what the first game will be...“

          „Haha, why would you think that?“, I laughed nervously. Did he know about Linda?? No, no... he can’t... Then why did he ask me this?? „Where did you get that idea?“

          „You see... I was thinking about how, if we were able to get to the floor where the games were chosen, we would be in a huge advantage... It’s just that, to leave this floor, we need that card for the elevator to activate... I kinda hoped you had a solution for that, so I asked you where you were going...“

          That’s when I realized something. This floor didn’t have stairs... That meant I couldn’t leave early to meet up with Linda! How was I supposed to-NO! NONONONOONO!!

          Did-

          Did Linda lie to me??

          Did she betray me?? Were her words only there to bait me into joining the games? But... but her words... they sounded so honest...

          Maybe there’s another explanation to all of this... Maybe she meant that we’ll meet up at the first chance I got to leave to the bathroom or something...

          „KEN! Are you listening to me, man? Some woman wants to speak with you! Listen... I don’t know who this chick is, but she looks super hot. I hope she’s not here to disqualify you or something like that...“

          Some hot chick?

          LINDA!!

          SHE DIDN’T BETRAY ME!!

          I rushed down the hall and saw her standing near the elevator. When I came close to her she whispered: „Stop rushing, people will realize something’s fishy!“

          She then took my hand and let go of it. I felt a small piece of paper in my hand. That had to be the first game! It just had to! She now spoke clearly: „Wake everyone up and tell them to get ready by 11 : 40.“, she then turned around and went into the elevator. Before I could say anything, the elevator’s doors closed and Linda left.

          The first game.

          The rules of the first game must be on that paper! Before I reacted I heard Axel asking „What did she want?“

          „We have to wake everyone up. Everyone has to be ready for the games by 11 : 40.“

          „Uh-huh. That’s cool and all...“, Axel looked at me suspiciously, „Why the hell did she ask to meet you to tell you that? She could’ve said that to anyone, yet she insisted on calling you...“

          I froze.

          Both Linda and I fucked up! Axel was about to find out I’m cheating. „I... I-“

          „You can’t lie to me. I’m good reading people. You know Linda, don’t you? You’re friends with the boss’s daughter...“

          How did he- „How did you know?“, I started sweating...

          „As I said, I’m good at reading people...“, Axel smiled. I didn’t like that smile. He pushed me to the wall and out of nowhere he pulled out a small pocket knife.

          Before I could scream, he covered my mouth and put the knife on my neck. „You’re cheating,“ he whispered. „What did she tell you, spit it out! Fast, before anyone sees us!“

          I couldn’t believe what was happening. I trusted Axel, he seemed like a pretty chill guy... Needless to say, this took me by surprise.

          He slowly let go of my mouth, but the knife was still too close to my throat. „What the hell man! I trusted you. She didn’t tell me anything, she just trusts that I’ll listen to her and wake everyone up! She’s afraid that somebody else would leave a few people be asleep so he gets rid of the competition.“

          „That...“, he looked mad, but at the same time worried.

          „That-makes sense actually...“, he let go of me. „FUCK!“, he yelled. „I’m sorry, dude! I- I don’t know what got into me, I-“, he started shaking. „FUCK! I fucked up, dude!“

          He was crazy! „Calm down, Axel. It’s all behind us now.“, I said, even tho I didn’t mean it, „Help me wake everyone up.“

          „Wait!“, he said and grabbed my arm. Will he attack me again?? „Have this.“, he put his pocket knife into my hand. Luckily it wasn’t the hand I had that piece of paper in... „What-“, I started, but he stopped me and said: „Forgive me. Take this as an apology... I’m really sorry, I was just... stressed...“

          „O-Ok man, if you want me to take it, I will...“

          I put the knife in my pocket and we started going room by room to wake everyone up.

          When I knocked on the last doors, guess who opened them... „JOSH!?“

          „KEN!? I thought you gave up on the games, man! I’m sooo glad you’re here!“

          „Same, friend! It’s good to see a familiar face... Good luck! Oh and, before I go pack my things up, can you wake up your roomates? We need to be ready by 11 : 40, so...“

          „Sure! Well, see ya later. Good luck to you, too!“

          „Thanks!“, I said then I went to my room to pack things up. Boris and Axel were pretty much ready, also inside the hall were Janneth and the fourth roomate.

          I still didn’t like those two... As soon as I entered the hall they looked at me with that evil look in their eyes... I just ignored it and left the hall. I packed very fast and I hid the knife I got from Axel in a torn part of the inside of my jacket.

          Who knows, I may need it later...

          I went to the toilet and I looked at the paper Linda gave me. This is what it said:

The First Game is called The Periodic Table of Doom

You’ll play in groups of 8, each group will be put in a separate room. In each room there will be a periodic-    -table-shaped candy bar in the middle of a table set in the middle of the room. The candy bar has 94 candies, each representing one element from the periodic table, excluding the last 24 elements, since they don’t exist naturally... As you may guess by now, in the game players will take turns eating candies, and the one who eats the most candies will be the winner... Now... This game is one of the most dangerous games here! Let me explain: Each candy has some amount of the element it represents, for example candy number 13 has a bit of aluminium. Don’t worry if you swallow a bit of metal, your stomach may hurt a bit, but it’s still better then if you swallow a radioactive element, in which case you may even die... Now, I don’t have time to write every candy that you should avoid, what I can do is tell you to avoid any candy with a number higher then 56... Good luck, Ken... win for me...

          I... I couldn’t believe it! I knew the rules... I knew the rules of the first game!! I can do this... Linda didn’t lie to me!   I can win...

          Aaaand before I knew it, it was already 11 : 40...

          I threw the paper in the toilet and went outside to see everyone in the main hall of the floor... There were also a few men dressed all in black, who grouped us in groups of  8. There were 8 groups, so 64 total players. „This will be tough to win...“, I thought...

          Group 1 was told to follow a guy in black suit that was waiting inside the elevator. I guess groups are also made so we don’t break the elevator by rushing inside...

          I was in group number 5, with a cute blondie, a buff baldie, Janneth, Axel, a thin girl that looked high, that Moustache-Man and, thank God, with Josh...

          Boris and Yellow were in group 6.

          The fourth roomate was in group 8.

          „Thank God we’re in the same group.“, said Josh.

          „Yeah...“, I was thinking about this really really hard. Should I tell Josh what I know?? I did only meet him, like, two days ago, but... these games are dangerous... Really dangerous... I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if Josh dies, and I knew I could’ve saved him...

          After a few minutes of thinking I’ve decided that I would tell Josh if I see that he’ll be in trouble, so if I see him taking a candy with a high number I’ll tell him something like: „No, halve that number“ or „That number’s too high“.

          A few minutes later my group entered the elevator.

          During the ride nobody made a sound. Everybody was scared of what will come up next... even I...

          Even tho I knew the rules I still don’t know how will I react if someone, no, when someone dies...

          We reached the room where they’ll announce the first game and OH MY GOD THIS WAS HUGE!!

          I thought the entrance was big, but this... This was at least twice as large! We were standing in the middle of the room. Around us were a bunch of those rich creeps who invested in these games. There was a transparent fence between us.

          That’s good for them, since the more I looked at these guys the bigger my need to punch them in the face was...

          After the 8th group came down there was silence for a few moments, but then we heard it...

          The countdown...

          10...

          9...

          8...

          7...

          6...

          5...

          4...

          3...

          2...

          1...