As they all were there, they all knew that the only way to survive was to get through the challenge ahead.
"Everyone, we are about to begin Round 1," the host announced, a chuckle escaping his lips. Liam's blood boiled at the sound of the host's voice. The screen displayed the title, "ROUND 1," and everyone's eyes fixated on it. "Make sure to listen carefully to these instructions, otherwise, you'll regret it later."
"In the first round, you runners will leave this room for just 10 minutes," the host announced, pausing to gauge the participants' reactions. "Just 10 minutes!?" Kathleen spoke up. "What are we supposed to do in those 10 minutes?" she asked sternly.
"You're so eager, aren't you?" the host replied seriously. "80 coins are hidden in this block," a golden-colored coin appeared on the screen with the word "pass" written in italic form. "You have to run as fast as you can to find the coins. The faster you are, the earlier you'll find the coin. Once you find the coin, you must rush back to this room. One second late and you'll be eliminated," the host finally stopped.
"But... why only 80 coins? We're 100 participants," a participant named Chris spoke up. "If everyone gets a coin, what's the fun in that, hmm, Chris?" Chris stepped back from his position, shivering with nervousness.
"Those coins are your pass to enter Round 2 and survive this round... understood!?... And if you don't find a coin, you can get them illegally... I hope you understood what I said," the host laughed, seeing the nervous faces of the participants through the camera.
Complete silence followed. Everyone waited for the host to say more about the game, but he said nothing. "What does getting those coins illegally mean?" Sara asked, confused and nervous. Liam leaned in close to her ear and whispered with a smirk, "It means killing those who have the coin and taking it for yourself...simple." Liam backed away and said, "Don't worry...I'm with you," while fixing his cap and smiling towards Sara.
Kathleen took a deep breath and spoke up, "When does this round start?" making everyone look at her. As she finished her sentence, the big golden-colored curtain started rolling upwards, revealing a big blue door. After a few seconds, the door automatically opened with a great push, making everyone flinch. As soon as the door opened, the screen displayed a timer of 10 minutes, indicating that their first round had just begun.
As the door opened and the timer counted down on the screen, everyone rushed out of the room, pushing and shoving each other, without concern for anyone else. All they could think about was finding the coin and returning safely to the room, so they could qualify for the next round.
"It's interesting," Liam said as he made his way out of the room, punching one or two participants. "YAHOO!" Liam exclaimed with joy as if he was having the time of his life.
"He's not normal," Sara said in disbelief, waiting for the others to leave the room while holding onto Kathleen's arm. "Will you please let me go? I have to leave too," Kathleen said, freeing herself from Sara's grip.
"But we still have nine minutes," Sara said, thinking it was easy to stay in the room and wait for everyone else to leave.
"Leave me," Kathleen said, pushing through the crowd and disappearing into the throng of people.
"I guess I'm not taking this as seriously as I should," Sara murmured to herself, before starting to pull people out of the room so they could not leave before her.
Kathleen ran as fast as she could to a building some meters away from her, it was almost dark outside, and the light coming from the building windows showed the way to runners, Kathleen entered the building and made her way to the first room she saw, as soon as she entered the room a gasp came out of her mouth making her cover her mouth from screaming, she saw a dead body Infront of her "Wait....is it CHRIS" Kathleen let out the scream she was holding, her eyes started tearing up on Seeing Chris's dead body on the floor with a wooden bat beside him and blood on the floor "I must not stay here" Kathleen murmured to herself wiping her tears and coming out the room just to meet a person waiting for her to attack on with a hammer, luckily Kathleen already saw the shadow of that person and dogged herself from that hammer, running out of the building as fast as she could but the bad thing that participant started chasing her, Kathleen took a second to realize that who was he, He was John who cheated on her girlfriend, Who was exposed by the host Infront of 100 people, Suddenly someone grabbed Kathleen's arm and make her run to the opposite way climbing the wall and disappearing from John's eyes
"Thanks," Kathleen said while breathing heavily and her one hand on her chest, "Welcome" Kathleen recognized the voice and looked up at the person who just saved her, He was Liam, Liam saved her "You.....umm... Thanks" Kathleen said with a shock on her face as she never expected something like this from him "No need to mention, Did you find a coin?" Liam said while preparing himself to run again "No, not till now" Kathleen said starting to turn again "HEY WAIT" Liam said in a loud voice making Kathleen stop "Hmm what?" Kathleen turned back to Liam, Liam ran to her, held her hand, took out something from his pocket, and placed it on her hand "Take it" It was the golden coin "But..." Kathleen was shocked again to see what she never expected "Don't say anything and go back...time is about to be over" Saying this Liam ran back and climbed the wall disappearing from her eyes in just some seconds.
Kathleen felt guilty and stood there for a few seconds, thinking about how much had happened in the last 4-5 minutes. She wiped away her tears and made her way back to the room. There, she found Sara sitting peacefully on the floor, leaning against the wall.
"Sara!" Kathleen shouted and ran to her. "Did you find the coin?"
Sara asked calmly, "Yes, I did. But did you find it too?"
Kathleen replied with guilt in her voice, "No, I didn't find it myself. Liam gave it to me."
Sara stood up and showed Kathleen the coin Liam gave to her. "He gave me one too!"
Kathleen was shocked and asked with confusion, "What is he trying to do?"
Looking at the screen, Kathleen covered her mouth and cried out, "What the...? There's just one minute left!"
Sara asked, sounding like she was about to cry, "Why isn't Liam here yet?"
She then shouted, "Why isn't he here yet?" and started sobbing while covering her face and kneeling on the floor.
Kathleen started tearing up as well as the timer was getting close to the end.
With only 30 seconds left and around 50 participants in the room, Kathleen nervously bit her nails and fixed her eyes on the door, waiting for Liam to enter with that smirk he always had on his face.
With only 10 seconds left, the timer started ticking loudly, making Sara cry even louder and Kathleen lose all hope of Liam coming back. But suddenly, a loud noise diverted everyone's attention. "I GUESS I'M NOT THAT LATE."
YOU ARE READING
The Darker Side Of The Run
Mystery / ThrillerKathleen had been running competitively for almost 6 years and was a well known name in the running community. She had a close friend, Sara, and together they were making a name for themselves on the running track. One day, Kathleen receives an invi...
