The Decimation Game: Twisted Reality

Chapter Two: Shocking Revelation

The revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. Hope filled my formally vacant heart once more as I quickly made my way towards the keypad. Thoughts of the bomb in my chest raged against my brain as I did so. Something told me if I made a mistake here it’d be my last.

Gingerly I reached the keypad.It was extremely cold to the touch, so cold it made me withdraw my hand the second I touched it. Barely audible over the roaring water and beeping coming from the bomb, was an extremely soft beep. Not like the beeping coming from my chest, it sounded more like it was confirming something rather counting down.

It was only a scanner so there was no way of me knowing if the number seven was actually put in. I sent another quick prayer that my solution was the correct one and pressed the multiply button and pressed my hand against the scanner.

I was hoping for a confirmation beep of some sort but the same low beep emitted from the keypad. Swallowing my nervousness I continued to put in the rest of my equation. As I touched my hand for the last seven the keypad turned a striking red. If not for the sounds I heard directly afterwards, I would have thought I was wrong.

I heard the pad beep three times consecutive followed by the sound of an unlocking door. I twisted on the metallic doorknob once more, this time it allowed me to open the door. I was, unconsciously, pushing the door extremely hard; so when the door opened my momentum from pushing so hard sent me crashing to the ground outside the door.

Water gushed out of the room, seemingly happy to be released. The fall may have hurt me and got me slightly wet but I was so happy I was out of the room I didn’t care to notice. I would have been content with celebrating now but a certain ticking noise prevented me from doing so. The Ringmasters words rang deep in my mind, “You all have ten minutes to get downstairs to the lobby otherwise… well the janitor is going to have a lot of cleaning to do.”

The fact that this was all a game to her angered me greatly. I’ve never been one to promote the taking of one’s life but I seriously wanted Ringmaster dead, 10 years old or not. Shaking of those thoughts off, I began to sprint while I looked around at my environment.

The walls were completely made of steel with no decorations. The carpet that was still covered in water looked to be a murky grey color. Numerous doors seemed to stretch down a never ending hallway that was weakly lit. I approached a couple of these doors and tried opening them, only to realize there was no doorknob. I had no time to think about that I continued sprinting down the seemingly endless hallway.

Ringmaster said to meet in the lobby in ten minutes. I knew at least half of that time was lost during my little breakdown earlier. This meant I probably had less than five minute to find the unknown location of a lobby. Seeing as she said lobby, this must have meant I was in a hotel of some sort. That being said, the lobby must have been downstairs. 

Though I knew it wasn’t, it felt as though I had been running for at least ten minutes when I finally reached an elevator. Without skipping a beat, I pressed the down button located on either side of the elevator. 

Somewhere in my mind I was wondering how I had run so long without breathing. On my best days I couldn’t run for more than a minute without taking a break. I knew adrenalin could make you body do crazy stuff, but this seemed borderline impossible.

Unfortunately, the elevator didn’t respond.

A cool sweat began to form on my neck as I began to frantically look around. The dimly lit hallway made it hard to truly distinguish everything but I was able to find a sign, a staircase sign.

The second I made my way towards it the beeping in my chest became much more rapid, communicating a message to me.

Only one minute left!