"Yeah, gimme another one!"

Sybil slid her empty glass to the bartender, her twin sister looking on as she sipped her cocktail. She knew her sisters plan was a pub crawl throughout many of Ritzrubs finest bars, but something told her the journey would end with the first one.

"Yeah, you mind ordering a little less?" She asked.

"Alysia, don't you pussy out on me now!" Sybil yelled. "You said you'd pay, and I know you have the money."

"It's really not about the money." Alysia said, gesturing to the bartender that this is the last shot. "It's just that you seemed stressed before you got in here, and we're now at the stage where if pushed a little you'll either start crying hysterically or assault somebody with a bar stool."

"Look, I got actual problems." Sybil said through narrowed eyes she was struggling to keep open. "I gotta deal with a bunch of stressed out little shits and future menaces to society on a daily basis. A bad day for you is not being able to angle your tits in front of a camera correctly."

"I keep saying that isn't the focus of my streams. You know I'm actually a top thousand player in Young Heathens, right?"

"That isn't why you're the most popular streamer among teenage boys and you know it."

"I mean, if you wanna leave the teaching game you could start streaming yourself. Young Heathens isn't that much different than Bad Seeds, so you'd probably climb up the ranks pretty easily. I'll get a twin stream going, you'll do fine."

"Ugh, but that wouldn't be fair." Sybil groaned. "Mom put everything into getting me through teaching school, and ditching that to become a titty streamer doesn't feel right."

"Yeah, on that topic, you tell mom about the whole death game thing you're caught up in?"

"How do I even explain that?"

"I don't know, but I'd really prefer if I didn't have to explain at your funeral."

"Yeah, whatever." Sybil said with a hand wave, letting her head fall onto the wooden counter. "I'll figure it out when I get there."

Suddenly, a ringing sound rang out through the bar. Sybil shot up, letting a stream of vomit from her mouth before she knew what was happening. She was in a pretty bad state already, and she felt pressure amplify in her head to the point it felt crushing, which was unfortunately released on the bartender. But she suddenly remembered what the ringing actually meant, but the shouting began reminding her before she could fully come to that conclusion.

"Hello, everybody!" The woman's voice rang out once again. "Today's game has a pretty large range compared to anything coming out. Basically, if you aren't in the west half of this city, right now, you're eligible for the game.

So with that being said…

Desta Makonnen!

Elijah Davis!

Evelyn Morrow!

Latrell Freedman!

Ines Destrade!

Mateo Gaspar!

Sybil Collins!

Tedros Makonnen!

Terrence Nash!

Trav-I mean…Valerie Wyatt!

Ulysses Morris!

Today's game is hostage! My assistant Halford has taken ten members of the city and left them tied up in random locations throughout the east side. Your goal is to find them. And naturally, the person who doesn't find one will be eliminated from the game. Now then, have fun!

The bartender and Alysia looked at Sybil, still trying to keep her brain in her skull. Suddenly, a noise was heard just a little while away, from the bathroom. Sybil crept inside, with Alysia in tow.

Inside the woman's bathroom, there was a sound of wailing from behind one of the stalls. It was unlocked, so Sybil swung it open, and inside was a woman. Looked to be her age, tied up with a blindfold over her eyes. It didn't look to be anything other than normal rope restraining her, so Sybil quickly undid it, leaving her free. The woman just looked at her in shock, unable to say anything.

"And Sybil is the first to free! Nine chances left!"

"Okay, cool." Sybil nodded, looking at Alysia. "You know what, I'm gonna go home. I have taxi money, and I'll call you in the morning to remind you I'm still alive, got it? Got it."

Alysia followed her as she stumbled into the taxi and was driven back to her apartment.

"Uh, Sybil?" Alysia asked.

"Yuh?" Sybil replied, looking like she was ready to drop to sleep at any moment.

"Please stay safe. Like seriously, join a gym or something to buff up before you do anything else, okay?"

Latrell heard the news as she left the centre of town. She was in a game now. Two branches appeared in her mind, which were quickly splitting into more branches, more paths. Nearly each decision was clear in her head, storing itself to be retrieved at another point. For now, she decided to go with the leftmost branch. It was easiest to execute, cost her the least amount of time, and had few risks associated with it.

She skated over to the apartment building at the centre of the abandoned district. If she remembered right, Leon lived here, but he wasn't a part of the game. Meaning he was either somewhere else, or she was just east enough to be counted into the game while he wasn't.

She burst into the building, looking for any signs of people. Or anyone yelling about people appearing in the building. So she ran upwards, looking for people. The few people that were there didn't pass much heed outside of an odd glance.

"You new here?" A large black woman asked after Latrell's third staircase.

"I'm looking for Leon?" She asked.

"Top floor, door three. Don't think he's here though."

"Wait, what?"

"If you need him that bad I can call him. I'm on the bottom floor, door one."

Latrell ran past the woman, landing in front of Leon's apartment. She started banging on the door, hoping he was inside. That or some kind of roommate.

"Are you okay, lady?"

She turned quickly, and a man was behind her. Dressed in a gas station uniform, he looked way too tired to deal with whatever was going on.

"Have you heard anything weird around here?"

"I just got here?" The man asked, looking around. He took a key out of his pocket and opened the door to Leon's apartment. And when the door opened, something else was heard.

"Hey, are you involved in the God game Leon is?" The man asked.

Latrell ran into the dingy apartment, opening the bathroom door to see an elderly man tied up inside. Latrell freed him, and once he stopped hyperventilating, he thanked her and left.

"Latrell Freedman, second to free. Eight chances remain!"

Leon's roommate looked on as the girl left his apartment.

"Um...good luck with the game." He said before she left his view.