13-Ally?

          I calmed down after some time. When I looked at the timer I saw that we had less than an hour and a half left.

          Then I noticed it.

          My percentage, when I take into account that I was panicking, yelling and breathing heavily, plus that it has been over half an hour has passed since this game began, my Oxygen level should be in between 70 and 75 percent at most! Yet my Oxygen level was... 77 percent! Now this might seem like I miscalculated something... but there is no mistake...

          This was it.

          Natalie’s gift.

          This was her final gift to me! That is why she opened the door in the first place! She already knew that I, as a male, used more Oxygen then her, plus both of us were panicking, but once she... cut her wrist... she used even less Oxygen!! This meant that she had at least 4-5 percent more Oxygen than me! By opening the door she shared her Oxygen level with me... She gifted me the 2 percent...

          This realisation made me shed tears again.

          „She was... such a good person...“, I whispered to myself. NO! I can’t think like that! I said ’she was ’... I accepted that she’s dead, even tho doctors definitely saved her! ’She is’, no ’she was’!!

          I calmed down again and rethought everything. So Natalie’s boyfriend abused her, cheated on her, and at the end took everything from her, and she couldn’t do anything because he was a high ranked police officer... She originally went to Australia to study, but ultimately gave up, or rather couldn’t continue, because she didn’t have enough money with her teacher salary. Eventually she lost her job and started having suicidal thoughts... She was almost at the end of the road when she met Linda... Now, from what I understood, she learned about the games from Linda, who promised her some kind of help, I guess, just like she did to me... But then... What did Natalie mean by ’she tricked me ’ and ’don’t trust ’? Did Linda lie to her? And, if she did, then why? More importantly... if she lied to Natalie that she would help her... why did she help me? What the hell was going on? Did Linda change her mind for me because she has a crush on me or some cliche like that? No, that is impossible... But then... why help me and not Natalie, when she promised to help both of us? So many questions, and no answers!

          But one thing is certain... Once this game ends, I will see how Natalie is doing, I will make sure she’s alive and stable, then I will meet up with Boris and Axel to tell them what happened and that I will go to meet Linda, but that we maybe shouldn’t trust her... No, wait... If I tell them that they will just think I am trying to keep Linda’s information for myself... The smartest thing to do then is to not tell them about what happened! Yes... After I meet up with them, I will head to meet Linda... Then I will find out the truth. Linda will tell me what the hell is happening. If she denies that she knows who Natalie is, then I will know Natalie is telling the truth, and that I shouldn’t trust Linda anymore!! On the other hand, if Linda says her side of the story, I will have both sides, and I should be able to figure out what happened from the two POV’s... Yes... Yes, that would be the best option I got!

          Then there’s the lock and the numbers... THE NUMBERS!! FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!!!! From all the stress I forgot what the two numbers Natalie had in her cabin were!!

          L-Let’s think about this... I’m sure one of the numbers was 3... but the other... One? Four? Eight? It’s no use... I can’t remember the second number... Damn...

          Anyways, talking with someone about all of this would be nice... Wait a minute... JOSH!! I completely forgot about him! He’s in the cabin left to mine!

          Yeah, yeah I can talk to hi-

          Wait... What if...

          What if Josh betrays me?

          What if Josh has been acting all this time? What if all of this was set up? Like, from the beginning, where Josh and I first met at that casino? But... No, what the hell am I even thinking! That is impossible! It just cannot be the truth! Nobody knew me, well, except for Mike, who came later to gamble with Linda, but other than him noone! Nobody would have any reason to set me up to play these games! I’m starting to get paranoid...

          But what if later on Josh also met up with Linda, or someone like her? By ’later’ I mean after the first game, since I lost him from my sight after game 1 ended. So what if he with Linda, or maybe Boris, and they made some kind of a deal, like: ’Ken knows the rules of the games in advance. Let’s make it so he needs to share the rules of the games with us, while you will play along as his ’friend’ and you will check if everything he shared with us is the truth. If not, we will report him. ’, or something like that?

          But would Josh do that to me?

          Then again, would Linda do that to me?

          I knew both of them for the same amount of time, so it makes no difference, right?

          ...No... That is stupid to think... It makes a ton of difference, but not the amount of time I knew each of them, but their personality they showed me so far, as well as their social status. First we have Linda, the daughter of a wealthy rich sick fuck who is the host of these games. From what she told me, she hates both these games and her father, and she wants to make him lose a huge amount of money in one of these games, by making someone ’the ultimate winner’, or in other words to make someone win as much money from him as possible. By doing this she hopes that her father will stop, or at least delay the next games. At least that’s what my theory of what she tries to accomplish by doing this is... On the other hand we have Josh, a failure. A nobody, like me, who has himself thousands of dollars in both rent debt, as well as debt to various money sharks, such as Noah. If anything he has all the reasons to betray me, if it means he will gain enough money to get his ass out of debt! While Linda has 0 reasons to betray me! Or maybe not 0... since she could be forced by her father to do so, if he found out what she was doing. Maybe that’s what happened to Natalie, and she mistook it for Linda going out of her way to trick her...

          So many options...

          So many different outcomes...

          This makes my brain spin!

          What should I do?

          Should I trust Natalie? Should I trust Linda? Should I trust Josh? Should I trust both?

          So many questions that I had no answer to... But answers will come eventually... Now I am met with a choice... Talk with Josh, or ignore him for the duration of the game.

          Is Josh a foe or an ally ?

          Well... standing here thinking about what I should do won’t get me anywhere... I gotta win this game first! Best chances for that is talking with Josh and finding out what his two numbers are!

          I turn to the left, where the doors to Josh’s cabin are, only to find out that one of the 2 LEDs was turned on! W-Who knows how long it’s been on! This meant that some time ago Josh opened his door and left it open.

          How did I not notice-well, I shouldn’t even ask that. When I think about it now, I don’t even remember hearing Josh say anything, which is unusual for him, which can only mean that, due to everything that was going on with me and Natalie, I did not notice him talking, nor did I hear when he opened the doors. He probably opened them as soon as I explained Natalie my plan on how to check for the numbers.

          If that’s the case then there’s no doubt. Josh is my ally! I mean he wouldn’t open the door first unless he trusted me and didn’t want to lie to me.

          I felt relief. ’I’m overthinking this, of course Josh is my ally! ’, I thought and, after quite a while, I had a smile on my face, knowing that my only real friend in these games is still with me. I put my hand on the door. „Josh...“, I said.

          „Thank you, Josh. I now realize how important it is to have someone that trusts you, as well as someone you can trust... And sorry for me losing my cool in the past half an hour... But I’m sure you realized what was happening with Natalie... But she’s safe now... And I calmed down and thought through things... I don’t know how much you’ve heard, but-“

          I stopped. How much did Josh hear? That’s when it hit me. I was at an immeasurable disadvantage here right now. All because of that... I didn’t know how much Josh heard!

          Now this might not seem like a big deal, but it is!! Because, let’s say he heard me clearly, but couldn’t hear Natalie unless she was yelling. This would mean that he heard things such as her ex-boyfriend, but did not hear things such as Natalie’s numbers. On the other hand, if he could hear both of us clearly, that would mean he did hear both mine and Natalie’s numbers, in which case we got three options:

          Option 1: Josh is really my ally, and that’s why he opened the doors in the first place, right after he heard our plan.

          Option 2: Josh opened the door before he heard what the plan was, in order to hear us better, since he would remove one layer of doors, which would allow him to hear both Natalie and myself better. In this case Josh is either desperate or he’s planning to use me somehow, therefor opening the door only to hear everything we say, hoping he would find out something that could help him later on.

          Option 3: Josh opened the doors after the plan. Specifically at the moment when Natalie mentioned that Oxygen level is shared between 2 cabins that are connected, if the doors on the sides of each cabin are opened. This would mean that Josh does not care about me, and is trying to use anything and anyone he can to win! He opened the door in order to get those few extra percent of Oxygen, making his chance of surviving the two hours bigger! This would be the worst option, because it would mean that Josh is certain he has lower Oxygen than me. How? Maybe he opened the doors on the other side of his cabin, because someone tricked him to do so, thus losing a lot of his Oxygen level, and is now doing anything he can to make me open the door and share the level with him!

          Stop Ken... You’re overthinking this again!

          Let’s calm down... However you look at the current situation there is really only one way to find out the truth. To open the doors! There’s really nothing else I can do... The chances are 50-50 that Josh is on my side. „Josh... I will now open the door... And we will go with the plan. Okay?“

          ...

          ... nothing.

          No response.

          „Josh?“, I said as I got my ear as close to Josh’s cabin as possible. Silence. What the hell? Is Josh not saying anything because of some kind of a plan he has? Or did he... already win? No, no, that can’t be the case... Because if he did, the door in his cabin would be closed, since they close automatically when you open the front door, as I saw with Natalie. Then... what is it?

          I open the door and look into Josh’s cabin.

          The shock that went through my body at that moment can not be described by words. Josh was there... unconscious!!

          „J-JOSH!!“, I yelled and put my arm inside the hole that connected our cabins. I could grab Josh’s hand.

          „Thank God!“, I said to myself with relief. He still had a pulse. But then... why-

          I look at my Oxygen level. It... WENT UP??

          It was now 78 percent!! How the hell was this even possible? This would mean that Josh was unconscious for at least 10-15 minutes or so, since he used waaaay less Oxygen than me! I pulled my arm back.

          Since he had more than enough Oxygen to stay conscious... That leaves only one thing...

          Josh is claustrophobic. There is no other explanation to him passing out! Damn... this means that Josh probably tried telling me that he was claustrophobic, and maybe he opened his door so that I could hear him better and maybe help him calm down... But, since those things with Natalie happened I didn’t even notice him... Damn it!

          Damn it damn it damn it!!

          I’ve made so many mistakes in this one game – no – I made so many mistakes since after the first game! Since Boris and Axel found out about Linda and I!

          But I get nothing by regretting my decisions now... I gotta think of a way to win this game...

          And I gotta help Josh...

          After all of these thoughts... My conclusion is that Josh... is my ally.

          That’s why I gotta help him!

          Okay... here we go!!