Nobody knew what time it was— their phones and watches were confiscated. A couple of hours went by until the metal door swung open. A man in a suit and a gas mask walked into the room.
“Get up and follow him,” the voice on the speaker instructed.
Billy realized the masked man was just a supervisor, not the organizer.
“Where are they taking us?” Billy whispered to a fellow captive, but nobody knew.
Soon, they were all ushered into a dimly lit room where their right hand was cuffed to a chain dangling from the wall.
“Welcome to your first task!” the chilling voice spoke. ”Find your key and set yourselves free within ten minutes or face the consequences. Your time starts in three…two…one, and go!”
As many as one thousand keys dangled from various hooks on the wooden board before them.
And they only had ten minutes to find the right key and release themselves.
Billy’s soldierly instincts kicked in as he saw the commotion in the room. “Take a key each and pass it around. If it doesn’t fit, toss it in the middle,” he addressed the group.
“That way, we’ll be able to eliminate the wrong ones and find the right key.”
They formed a circle and started passing the keys in a tense, terrifying fashion. The first five minutes passed. Four participants succeeded in finding their keys and freed themselves.
The circle was disrupted, making the task even more challenging for those left behind.
“Four minutes left! Faster!” the voice said.
Three more contestants successfully unlocked their restraints and hurriedly exited the room.
Billy was stranded with an older man and a woman who were still desperately searching for their keys.
“Who will make it out?” The voice continued its live commentary as the hearts of the three participants pounded with anxiety.
With just a minute remaining, Billy finally found the key and unlocked himself. However, he decided to stay behind and assist the other two.
Finally, the older man was freed.
He and Billy frantically searched for the woman’s key when a sharp siren echoed in the room.
The supervisor reappeared, and the voice on the speaker ordered Billy and the other man to leave the task room immediately.
The metal door slammed shut behind them as they left. Suddenly, a jarring gunshot echoed through the corridor.
“What was that?” one of the captives shouted in terror.
“They sh-shot her!” a contestant stammered in shock, and chaos erupted. The contestants screamed and protested to be let go.
They even ran around frantically, hoping to find an escape route, but in vain.
Soon, they were herded back into their room and locked up. A supervisor stayed back to watch over. At that point, none of them knew that their fates were sealed in a sinister game of survival and that out of the nine remaining contestants, only one would make it alive.
Billy suddenly rose from his bed and marched across the room, but a guard blocked his path.
“Where are you going?” he barked.
”I want to use the restroom,” Billy replied, but the guard followed him.
Billy knew this was his chance. As he stepped into the narrow bathroom, he turned on the faucet to make some noise. Then he removed his shoes, leaving them neatly arranged in his stall, and crawled into the adjacent stall.
”Hurry it up, old man,” the guard outside said, growing impatient, and he began banging on the door.
Billy remained silent.
A few minutes passed, and the guard’s frustration reached its peak. He crouched down and peeked under the stall door. When he noticed only a pair of shoes, he grew suspicious.
He barged inside.
In a flash, Billy emerged from the adjacent stall and charged at the unsuspecting guard. He grabbed him and slammed his head against the wall with a sickening thud, using all the strength he could muster.
Soon, the guard fell to the floor, unconscious but alive.
Wasting no time, Billy quickly changed into the guard’s uniform and secured the unconscious guy with his own restraints. Then he wore the gas mask and emerged from the bathroom.
He stealthily made his way to the metal door and opened it using the guard’s access card.
He was wandering down the hallway in search of the exit when he ran into a guard on duty.
“Hey, hold on, man. Where do you think you’re going?” the guy asked Billy.
Fear gripped Billy as he scrambled for a quick lie. “I–I’m just following the boss’s instructions.
He ordered me to check the building and report anomalies, if any,” Billy stammered nervously.
“Anomalies? What kind of anomalies? Did he say anything specific?” the guard asked.
“Not sure, man.
But the orders are important,” Billy replied, trying his best to sound convincing. Finally, the man relented.
Billy couldn’t believe his luck, and he continued down the corridor. He stumbled upon a dimly lit office and walked inside, only to gasp in horror.
Video feeds from surveillance cameras showed that the other guards had found the tied-up guard in the contestants’ bathroom, and they were all looking for Billy now.
Billy’s heart raced as his eyes darted around the room for a phone.
Finally, he spotted an old telephone on the cluttered desk. He had just dialed the cops when the door burst open.
Billy gasped in shock when he recognized the man who entered. It was the customer with poor vision from the store.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” Billy asked nervously.
The man smirked. “You’re a man of questions, Billy!
Well, let me educate you. We are nothing but pawns in a game of survival…orchestrated by the wealthy elite, individuals who have seen and experienced everything the world has to offer. But they hunger for more…for the thrill of human desperation and survival.
“The contestants were carefully picked…desperate souls like you…You want money for your wife’s treatment, don’t you?
It’s a game of the survival of the fittest, Billy. And only one emerges as the winner…alive…in the end! Leave that phone, Billy, and you’ll get another $250,000, and you’ll get to go home,” he added.
“There’s no way you can outsmart us! Guards!”
As the men nabbed Billy, he was worried they would kill him. But minutes later, the sound of police sirens filled the air.
The cops were on the telephone line, listening to everything.
The police and K-9 units surrounded the factory, freeing the captives and collecting evidence and data about the game’s organizers.
“Can you tell me how you ended up here, sir?” An officer approached Billy, startling him. Billy narrated the deadly incident, never expecting to see the officer again. But a few days later, while Billy awaited the news about his wife’s condition outside the hospital, the officer approached him.
“We have good news, Billy,” he said and explained how the police had tracked down the game’s organizers.
“And you risked your own life to save those eight people. Good reaps good, Billy, so I’ll take care of your wife’s surgery for you.”
Billy couldn’t believe it. His eyes glistened with tears, and he thanked the officer with all his heart.
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