Fun and Games

Corn

The team lay on the floor panting as the staff members come by and unlock them. Once they are unlocked they make their way back to the elevator, everyone covered in sweat. Opal, who had been terrified of the distance between her and the ground before, is now sitting with her back against one of the walls, looking out the open grates to the ground below, calm and still.

Sang-Woo, who is standing next to her, looks at his palms and notices that they are blistered and burned from the rope. He looks down to Opal, "let me see your hands."

"I'm fine," Opal barely responds.

"And I'm not arguing that, but I would like to see the blisters your hands." Opal nods and opens her hands, palms up, so that Sang-Woo can see the blisters that were rubbed onto her hands from the rope as they pulled. Sang-Woo kneels down next to her and kisses both of her palms, trying to aim for a place that isn't badly blistered.

Opal smiles weakly and very unconvincingly to Sang-Woo as she places a hand on his cheek, "thank you." He can hear the sadness and guilt in her voice as she speaks, but right now there is little anyone can do about it.

The only other noise in the car is from 244 praying. As he mutters away a prayer, 204 calls out to him, "hey, dude. Who do you think you're praying to, huh? To God? You think you made it out of there because of God, don't you? " She sighs a bit annoyed with him, as is everyone else. She leans forward toward him, placing her hands of her knees, "the reason you're still breathing and thanking that nice God if yours...." The looks to 001, "is that old man there." She then looks to Sang-Woo, "and that guy over there who came up with that awesome last-minute trick. You know if there's anybody you should be thanking it's them, not God."

244 stops his praying and looks up to 204, "you sad lost soul. What would you say about everybody who was nailed to the cross for our salvation today? They sacrificed themselves for us."

Opal scoffs, "they didn't make a sacrifice, we, as a team, pulled them to their deaths."

"We are here, thanks to their blood. I pray to the Lord on behalf of all us sinners. I have thanks for their sacrifice. God made a decision to help our team win. That's why we're all here."

While 244 was talking 204 had returned to her position of leaning against the wall, "bullshit. You killed those guys out there." 244 goes back to praying, "oh! If we say some prayers, do we all get to go to heaven?" She puts her hands together end closes her eyes, "I should really pray too if that's how easy it is. Our God who are in Heaven, we worked as a team to send people to your side. And we sent a bunch of them today. And please help us send a whole lot more to be with you. And I hope they from now on..."

"Be quiet!" Sae-Byeok states very loudly, but doesn't move her gaze from the ceiling.

"Me?" 204 looks up to Sae-Byeok, "or you mean that guy?"

"Everyone."

The elevator then rattles to a stop and the team exits in a single file line, passing the team that's going to play next. When they get back to the bunk area they head Deok-Su's team laughing about the game, but the go quiet when they realize another team has come in, looking over, shocked, to see the team come in. Two more teams are to follow, everyone finishing the game before they are given their dinner for the night, corn and a some water. After that game there are only 40 players left, the grand total now being 41.6 billion. The only person who seems to want to talk about the game within the team is Mi-Nyeo, "you know what? I really thought we were going to die out there. And then, as soon as we all leaned back, I felt so powerful. Like, 'whoa! It works. Is this real?' Hey, old man, how do you know that?"

001 chuckles, "as a kid, I would always..."

But Mi-Nyeo cuts him off, not really being interested in his answer, "oh, you copied that one thing. From that movie, what's it called? The guy who dodged bullets like this," Mi-Nyeo starts to lean back swinging her arms back as she does.