And then he woke up in this place, where chaos had taken over and people were losing lives.
In the smoke filled hallway, Abraham stood still, looking for something to hide behind as the dark figures approached quickly from the front.
A man who had followed him ran behind, " Is there the point? The extraction po...." his excitement died down with him as he was shot by the figure ahead. The man fell right in front of Abraham, his eyes red from the gas or from death, he couldn't tell.
The HUD updated.
PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 27
Twenty-seven.
He feels nauseous. From forty-seven to twenty-seven in less than five minutes.
Abraham ducked down, his grip tightening on the extinguisher. If he stayed still, they might not be able to see him. That's what he hoped at least, that's what should be only if they aren't equipped with heat detectors.
The timer ticks down.
06:34
Abraham stumbled backwards behind a stack of wooden crates, heart slamming so hard he feels it in his gums.
He crouched. Breathing shallow, too loud.
The extinguisher digging into his palm.
He pressed his back to the crate and squeezed his eyes shut for half a second. Something flickers in his mind.
Concent Recorded.
Orientation Pending.
Why did he click? What did he agree to without reading? How desperate was he to accept such a thing? Well, he was desperate enough but why.
Another precise shot echoed through the smoke. Another body fell somewhere out of sight.
The interface was still there.
[MISSION 01:
Reach Extraction Point Delta within 10 minutes.]
[06:13]
The armored figures advanced slowly, boots heavy and unhurried. They were not chasing anyone, they just killed whom ever they saw.
Abraham pressed a trembling hand over his mouth to silence his breathing.
The timer continued its indifferent descent.
06:02
06:01
And the hunters were getting closer. Every step evoked some kind of dread in his body.
Then there was silence. Something changed. The gunfire stopped.
For a few seconds, all Abraham could hear was crackling fire, distant coughing, and the blood rushing in his ears.
The armored figures stopped advancing. They just stood still like everything in the place.
The only thing changing was the timer in his vision.
05:56
05:54
Then the robotic voice returned.
[Extraction Point Relocated].
The words appeared across his field of view in sterile white text.
Updated Mission:
Eliminate one active participant to secure priority extraction.
For half a second, no one moved. The sentence hanging in the air like it hadn't translated properly.
"What?"
"No—no, that's not—"
"You heard that too, right?!"
The panic changed flavor. It was no longer outward. It turned inwars.
The smoke cleared a bit.
A woman a few meters away stared at the man beside her as if seeing him for the first time.
"You have it too," she whispered.
He nodded slowly.
She takes a stepped back.
"No. No, that's not what this is."
The timer kept falling.
05:28
Someone screamed, "It's lying! It's trying to make us kill each other!"
Another voice shouts back, "What if it's not?!"
The HUD updated.
PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 22
Twenty-two. From forty-seven.
The hunters hadn't fired again.
They stood in their places, rifles lowered slightly, helmets tilted. They were no longer hunting, but observing. Waiting for these people to start hunting eachother.
And that was not impossible after what they had gone through.
Abraham's stomach twisted. This was the real test.
A man near the loading dock shoved the person next to him suddenly. "Stay away from me!"
"I didn't do anything!"
"You're looking at me like—"
A punch was thrown.
Someone else backed away, hands up. "We don't have to do this. We can just run. We can still make it!"
"Make it where?!" another voice cracked.
The green DELTA sign at the far end flickered once and went dark.
The message lingered in Abraham's vision.
Eliminate one active participant.
Secure priority extraction.
Trust evaporated in seconds. People spread out instinctively, increasing distance between one another. They started watching, calculating.
Abraham felt it too.
Every person in the warehouse was no longer a fellow victim. They were a potential key or threat.
His grip tightening around the fire extinguisher, as if it's his last hope in a place that has lost all of it, in himself, in humanity.
He hated that his first thought wasn't outrage, it was to search for a possibility.
A sudden movement to his right made him flinch.
It was a younger boy, maybe nineteen, maybe younger, slid in behind the same crate Abraham was crouched against.
The boy's face is streaked with soot. His eyes were wide, unfocused, on the verge of breaking.
He looked at Abraham like he's grabbing onto the last solid thing in the room.
"Please," the boy whispered. "Please. We can work together."
Abraham didn't answer immediately, he looked at the boy in utter bewilderment. His heart was pounding too hard.
The timer shifted into the corner of his vision.
02:56
02:55
When did it drop that far?
The boy's breathing was ragged. His hands were shaking uncontrollably, as he grabbed onto a wooden piece, sharp enough to penetrate skin.
"I don't want to die," the boy said, as tears streaked down his face.
Abraham swallowed.
Neither do I.
Suddenly, something new appeared in his HUD. A faint outline around the boy.
[Nearby Participant: 205-C
Vitals: Elevated heart rate.
Survival Likelihood: Low.]
Abraham's breath hitched.
Why could he see that? Why was it labeling him?
The words lingered longer than they should have.
Survival Likelihood: Low.
A subtle highlight pulsed once around the boy's silhouette suggestively.
Easy target.
The thought didn't feel like his own. He shifted his gaze away sharply, but the overlay followed.
"What are you looking at?" the boy asked, voice trembling, holding the wooden shard outwards at Abraham.
"Nothing," Abraham said too quickly.
Gunmetal boots scraped faintly against concrete nearby. The hunters were still there, looking around like spectators of an excited show. They were not shooting, only giving them space to decide, to choose. They had to choose.
The smoke had cleared mostly by now.
A man across the warehouse suddenly lunged at another participant. They crashed to the ground in a violent tangle of limbs.
"Get off me!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
A metallic clang echoed.
Someone has picked up a pipe.
A sickening thud, a scream cut short.
The HUD updated instantly.
PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 21
A door on the far wall unlocked with a loud mechanical click. White light spilled through the crack.
A voice echoed through the warehouse speakers this time, not just inside their heads.
[Priority extraction window opened.]
The man who committed the violence stumbled towards the light, face pale and horrified.
"I had to!" he screams at no one. "It said—I had to!"
He ran through the doorway. The door slamed shut behind him. The light disappeared.
PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 20
A wave of nausea rolled through Abraham.
It was real, it worked. Kill one and escape.
The boy beside him started crying quietly.
"No. No, no, no…" His eyes darting to Abraham's extinguisher. Then back to Abraham's face.
"You're not going to—" he started. Abraham didn't answer. The fire extinguisher felt unusuallyheavy in his hand.
He didn't want to think. But thoughts pushed in anyway. If he wait too long, someone else might choose him.
If he hesitated, his probability dropped.
The timer flashed larger.
01:22
01:21
Another fight broke out across the room. Two people circled each other, both holding improvised weapons.
"Back up!"
"You back up!"
One swinged wildly. But missed. The other retaliated harder, bone cracked.
PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 19
Another extraction door opened briefly. Another body disappeared into white light.
Abraham's pulse pounded in his temples.
The boy beside him whispered, "We can hide. We can wait until it's over."
"It's not going to be over," Abraham said, his voice hoarse.
"How do you know?!"
He just did.
One of them hunters stepped forward through the thinning smoke. Slowly, deliberately, his rifle lowered. He didn't need it anyway because people were killing eachother for them. They only observed like scientists studying rats in science lab.
00:40
00:39
The boy was shaking harder.
"Please," he whispered again. "Please don't."
The HUD flashes urgently in Abraham's vision.
Survival-dependent compensation.
The armored hunter's boots echoed closer.
Abraham could see his own reflection faintly in the black visor now. Small, distorted.
The hunter stopped a few steps away, head tilting slightly, in amusement?
The boy's vitals spiked in Abraham's display.
Heart rate critical.
Survival Likelihood: Minimal.
The implication pressed against Abraham's skull.
His hand raised the extinguisher slightly before he fully realized he's doing it.
The boy saw the movement, his face collapsed. His grip tightened on the wooden piece.
"Please," he breathed.
The timer blared red.
00:12
00:11
Somewhere behind them, another participant screamed and then fell silent.
The hunter took one final step closer.
Close enough that Abraham could hear his controlled breathing through the helmet's filter.
00:05
Abraham's arm trembled. The extinguisher felt impossibly heavy.
00:04
The boy squeezed his eyes shut.
00:03
The HUD flashes one last message.
Decision Required.
00:02
Abraham inhaled sharply, raising the extinguisher and swinging it hard...
Everything went dark.