The Price of Life - IC

The sun rose over the city, spreading its warmth and light as usual. One of the many buildings that was being shone upon was a dusty, low-key hotel. You probably would never find the hotel if you didn't knew where it was, seeing as it was barely marked as being an hotel in the first place. As a result the hotel was on the edge of bankruptcy. As if to mock the bad state of the hotel, some spider had woven its web in the corner of a window. Now this would be just a standard run-of-the-mill hotel, were it not for a few strange things in the main lobby.
One, a set of three strange wooden dolls, each of them having a metallic ring of some sorts around their neck. One of these was holding a wooden gun, a second was in a running position, and the third was sitting on the ground holding a calendar.
Two, a state-of-the-art television hooked up to a laptop. At the moment it was just showing a black screen.
Three, eleven humans lying on the ground in the hall. Each one of them had a collar around their neck, each one of them seemed to be unconscious.

Each one of them had to either kill someone else before the month ended, or the would die themselves.



Soon after, the eleven slowly started to come to, likely to be confused about how they got here. "Luckily" for them, an explanation would soon follow. The television that until now was showing something about as interesting as ‘Watch Paint Dry’ sprung to life, revealing a faint figure. The figure simply stared at the camera for a few seconds before speaking up.
“Good morning, everyone.” the figure said – its voice seemed to be male, but of course one can easily change his voice with modern technology – “Good morning to all of you. I hope you had a good rest? I mean, you better have had a good rest, seeing as you'll need all the energy you can spare in the upcoming month.” He took a short pause. He loved to see the confusion of his Players when they first awoke and wondered what the F*** was going on.
“You're probably wondering what I'm talking about, right?”, the figure continued. “Well, I hope you're all wide awake, because I have a very important message for all of you. You better listen up, because I really don't like to have to repeat myself. Is everyone paying attention? Good, here it comes; each and every one of you has been chosen to... play a game against each other. Not just an ordinary game like Monopoly though, that would be boring.
Before I go on, I would like you to feel around your neck. You should feel a thin metal collar. Harmless, right? Wrong. This collar has been rigged with explosives and will disconnect your head from your shoulders if you choose to disregard the rules of my Game.
Now, let's move on to the rules of the Game, shall we? The rules are actually very simple.
One: No escape. If you try to leave the city boundaries…” The man paused again, but there would be no silence. As soon as he stopped talking, the collar around the neck of the running mannequin detonated, filling the room with a horrible noise and blowing the dust on the floor everywhere. When the dust cleared, the people in the room could see that the mannequin’s head was blown clear off its shoulders. Strangely, the nearby walls and other dolls weren’t even scratched – apparently the force of the blast was channeled inwards.
“…The collar will explode,” he stated the obvious. “You'll get a warning if you get too close to the boundaries. For the record, trying to-," the man said, but was suddenly interrupted by another explosion. A young girl with long, red hair had panicked and tried to remove her collar. Her panicked screams were cut short when her collar exploded, instantly killing her. For what seemed an eternity her decapitated body somehow kept itself upright, spitting out a fountain of blood that dirtied everything and everyone nearby before finally collapsing in a puddle of her own crimson blood.
"*ahem* As I just tried to say before I was so rudely interrupted," the man continued a few seconds later, on a tone so calm one would think that nothing had happened, " trying to remove the collar counts as trying to escape, as does letting someone remove your collar for you.
Two: No guns, seeing as those make for a very boring game. Other obvious weapons like oversized knives, axes and such are also banned – in fact, you will not even be able to find them. You are allowed to weaponize tools, taken that you are using them to enhance your powers, which I'll get into shortly. Again, breaking of this rule will lead to collar detonation.” As if to mark the man’s words, the collar around the weapon-wielding mannequin exploded as soon as he finished talking.
“Three: You must complete your objective - which I'll also get into momentarily - within 30 days. Failure to do so will lead to mass collar detonation of everyone who hasn't done so, seeing as everyone would break it at the same time.” It was at this point that the final mannequin’s head was removed from the body.
“Now, I'll say what aforementioned ‘objective’ is. You'll have to kill one specific person in this room.” The voice fell silent for a second to let the message sink in. “That's right, I'm asking you to either kill or die. I don't care if you have to kill a man, woman or kid, as long as you make it look interesting - and as long as you comply with aforementioned rules.
Now, you may be wondering: ‘If I can't use weapons, then how am I supposed to kill anyone at all?’. Well, it's simple; each and every one has been given a special power ‘A special power?,’ I hear you ask? Well, that would be things like being able to control fire, move water with your mind, that kind of stuff. But how do you know what power you have?. If you would be so kind to check your pockets? You'll find the following: A wallet, an envelope holding a picture, and finally a cellphone.” The man on the TV stopped talking for a second in order to let everyone check their possessions. He then continued. “The cellphone will have a message on it stating what power you have, along with some other useful information. You'd... probably want to keep it private. Oh yeah, it also has my number on it, in case you have any questions – or just want to chat with me. I’m always open for that. And no, you won’t be able to contact the outside world with that. It’s sort of like an intranet system; they can only contact each other, and then only if you press the right code. Several of my helpers also have a phone like it, so you can still call places like restaurants, hotels and whatnot – taken that you have their number, of course. Why don’t you note the number of someone else in the room? Oh, but are you sure you can trust them? You don’t want someone to backstab you in a Game like this, right? Then again, the chance that they have to kill you is only one in ten... Well, one in nine now. We can't have someone getting away with their target commiting suicide, now, can we?” As he said this, a devilish grin appeared on his face.
“Moving on to the envelope. The person in the picture in the envelope happens to be with you in this very room. Remember the part where I told you to kill one specific person? I hope you can do calculus, or at least know what 2 + 2 is, because I’m not going to get any more obvious than that.”
“Finally, the wallet. As small as it may seem, it actually has an infinite amount of money in it. Before you ask any questions as to how this is possible, remember that it came from the one that kidnapped all of you without the world noticing – or caring, for that matter. – and gave all of you superpowers.”
The voice fell silent again, both giving people time to think about their situation and allowing the speaker to think about whether or not he was forgetting about anything. “Well then, if you have any questions, you can always call me. And with that, I'm off! Remember, I'll be watching you...”
A wicked laugh sounded through the room before the signal to the TV failed once more, leading to it once again only showing a black screen.

DATE: 01 JUNE, 2012
TIME: 07:00 AM (07:00 on a 24-hour clock)
DAY 1 - THE GAME HAS BEGUN

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The Controller smiled as he turned on the cameras spread out all over the city. He hoped that this time, the Game would run as planned. He still remembered last time... "Stupid fools," he muttered to himself. "If they just did what I've told them, then one of them could still be alive. Now they're all dead. Well, that's what they get for not doing as I say." He sat down on a comfy seat, then stared at the giant multi-screen wall. "Hmmm... I wonder who will be the first one to snap?," he said to nobody in particlar. "Will it be that guy with the brown hair and the silver earring? Or maybe that black-haired boy? Ooh, maybe it's the white-haired woman with the bizarre skin disease! Heh, this would make for a great betting game..."

What the hell. What the hell. What the.. Adrian shivered violently, staggering backwards into a wall, and sinking to his knees. He brought them to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs in what was almost a fetal position, and looked forward with glassy eyes empty of comprehension, breathing heavily. In his mind, a kaleidoscope of images and thoughts whirled violently, without rhyme or reason, but the teenager still failed to grasp the enormity of the situation, on any level. This could only be a nightmare, but somehow he knew it wasn't. The very realization, the very thought that it could be, made itself obsolete. You can never question a nightmare, and here he was questioning.

Adrian could feel his heartbeat, feel the blood pump through his veins with the vigor of panic. Adrenaline made him shake slightly, made his thoughts race to repeat the words of the mysterious figure again and again. He was trapped. He was trapped, by a collar that would do the same to him as the.. a wave of nausea overcame him at the thought of the red-haired girl, at the realization that his crimson blood would spread just as violently if he disobeyed. He would have to kill.. kill, or die in thirty days. At the thought, a whimper escaped his lips, and he buried his face in his hands with a groan, curling up even tighter, as if trying to grow a protective shell. It was all too much.

Through panic, through fear, through total shock, the teenager began to cry. His curled body was wracked with sobs, and his mind still tried to assimilate the total chaos that his life had become. Yesterday, his biggest worry had been coming out. Today, he would be lucky to last until the night without painting the walls and floor with the contents of his jugular.

Matt sat very still, eyes closed and fists clenched. He had only broken down once in his life; when he watched his mother die. He clenched his teeth and focused. "Where? Anywhere. I'm in a room with eleven people. One of them is dead. When? June 1, 2012. How? I was taken...taken..." he rubbed the back of his neck. "Tranq dart? Maybe. Effects have worn off. What do I know? I am alive." He flexed his hands, arms, chest and legs. "I am stable. My body is intact. I can think clearly. I have 30 days to live unless I..." He opened his eyes and glaced at the unopened envelope. "I have to kill. I have to kill a single person and then I can go. Time for action." Matt stood carefully up and tested his legs. Everyone else seemed to be in some early form of shock. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the room, stopping at the end of the hall to take another deep breath. He glanced back, then stepped into an empty room and, slowly closing the door, opened the envelope. A single color photograph with a name. He hadn't stopped to look at the people in the room, but this must be one of them. "This person has to die. I have only my bare hands and..." He stopped again. A "power?" Matt knew he had to experiment with his surroundings at once, and he couldn't do it here.

It was funny; Aviva was one year sober and yet as she came to the first thing she did was reach for her head as if she was experiencing a hangover. As sight returned and she saw unfamiliar surroundings and even more unfamiliar people she started to wonder if she had relapsed. Where was she? Moreover, what was going on? She got to her feet, using a nearby wall for support. And then one of her questions was answered by the man on the screen. Her eyes widened with each passing word. Her hands instinctively shot to the collar when it was brought up, but quickly she dropped them as she saw the red-head fall over, dead. The sight made Aviva want to vomit. She had seen corpses, it came with the job, but those were just crime scene photos, evidence, this was happening in front of her eyes. In reality.

The news that the goal was to kill another came as quite a shock. She looked around the room, gauging any reactions she could, a force of habit. Aviva was not stupid enough to think that the others here were in the similar mindset as she was, she figured at least one of them wouldn't be so opposed to the idea. Or maybe that was her career bleeding over again.

"Well this is bullshit," Aviva spoke, her voice doing its job of masking how truly frightened she was internally, "This is kidnapping!" She pointed towards the fresh corpse on the floor, "And that's murder. Whoever you are you're not getting away with this shit." Aviva was breathing heavily, partly due to the shock she was still experiencing. She couldn't kill someone, not even for wealth. Aviva dropped to a crouch, clenching her teeth. Right now, she just wanted a drink.

While everyone else had appeared lying on the floor, Henry had apparently lucked out. When his eyes opened, the first thing he noticed was that he was still in his wheelchair. The next thing he noticed was that he was in an unknown area, with unknown people. Suddenly alert, Henry started trying to figure out as much of the situation as possible. They were in a dilapidated hotel, with wooden dolls and a TV screen. The people just getting up were all younger than him, no one in the room over the age of 40, and they all had metal collars around their necks. He could feel a collar on his neck as well, and reached up to his neck to tug on it before the TV activated. Henry lowered his land to listen to the announcement.

The competition didn't even need to start for Henry to get covered with blood. Unfortunately for him, he happened to be seated right next to the girl who tried to pull off her collar, as he was about to just moments ago. Henry avoided looking at the body, he already knew what had happened. He had seen it happen to one of the dolls, and he could feel the blood and bits of skull and brain and skin on the side of his face, and he could see it splattered against his jacket out of the corner of his eye.

As the Controller kept speaking, Henry forced himself to keep himself calm. As weird as this situation was, it was a survival situation. He needed to keep a cool head, and judging from the look of everyone else, he'd need to help them keep a cool head too.

The TV finished speaking. One man, blond but significantly younger than Henry, started talking to himself before standing up and walking to another room. A woman closer to his age decided to speak to everyone else instead, understandably angry about the kidnapping and murder.

"Of course it's murder," Henry replied. "But so would killing each other right now, and we're not going to do that. Not yet." Some of Ace Train's blood was covering one of Henry's eyes, keeping it closed. He didn't wipe it off yet, but it was starting to get annoying. He grabbed his wheels and rolled his chair back a few feet away from the group, one of his wheels rolling through a puddle of blood on the floor. "Now, I'm going to go see if any bathrooms in this hotel have running water and wash myself off, and anyone else who's got blood on them can join me. When we back, I suggest we move away from the... body, go outside and figure out what to do next." Without another word, Henry started rolling himself over towards the hall to search it for a bathroom.

Elise couldn't quite comprehend the events unfolding before her. This "game" as the creator called it, was sick and twisted. She felt her stomach knot up. Kill or be killed? That was a question that she never thought would be passing her mind in a million years. Green eyes peered across the room, noting the contestants splayed out before her. This had to be a practical joke! The only thing that Elise could do was rub her eyes, hoping to wake up from this nightmarish situation she found herself in. To her dismay, it was all real. Too real. The dead redhead across the room. The darkening pool of crimson was very real. She could smell the iron and death, and when she got a first whiff of the pungent odor, she starting dry heaving.

The reality settled in, and the brunt of it left her gasping for breaths. "I....I just couldn't..can't!" Elise yammered on in disbelief to no one in particular. Hands clutching her knees, she slid to the floor. "Fuck! FUCK FUCK FUCK!" This wasn't fair! Her life wasn't supposed to be a scene from a horror move. Thin fingertips, reached for her neck, not at all surprised to find the cold, metal torture device around her neck. With a final glance at the other "contestants", Elise sucked in a shaky breath and got to her feet.

"I may not know the purpose or point of this horrifying game, but one thing's for certain..." She thought as a chill from an open window sent shivers down her spine. "It does me no good sitting in a room full of gore."

Her petite frame stood on shaky legs. What really turned her stomach inside out was the picture of the contestant that she was assigned to. One half of her screamed to open it. Screamed to see the poor soul. The other half, her more logical side, knew that someone else in the very room she stood in had a picture with her face on it.

All Jason could do was stare... Stare as the blood spurted from the girls neck, stare as the steadily growing puddle at her feet reached his shoes, stare as the blood quickly soaked through the thin fabric of his worn converse, and drenched his feet.
A wave of nausea hit him, and he quickly took a few steps back. Jason vaguely registered the message coming from the TV, but mostly, he was just staring at the scene unfolding. Around him, people seemed to be in different stages of schock. One guy was crouched against the wall sobbing, another girl was shouting at the voice from the TV.
Jason felt like he should be doing something: scream, shout, sob, anything. Instead all he could was stand there and stare like an idiot. He didn't get any of this. Why was the girl dead? This isn't real. This doesn't happen in real life. He was about to have a panic attack when the old man in the wheelchair right next to him produced the first clear thought of the day: don't kill each other, don't touch you colar, don't do anything stupid. As the message from the TV stopped, Jason quickly felt inside his pockets, finding the wallet, picture and phone. Though before he had time to look at any of it, the man in the wheelchair announced he was going to look for a bathroom and wheeled himself to the door.
Jason felt the old man was the only one that seemed to have some idea of what he was doing, so as he wheeled himself out of the room, Jason followed.

Emerald eyes scanned the horror scene in front of her and evaluated the madness. She could no longer stomach the stench of death that so thickly permeated the air. Without a plan in mind, Elise slipped away from the crowd. The streets were eerily quiet, which only added to the suspense that invaded her life in such a swift manner. "Where to go, where to go?" Her thoughts were jumbled, she was surprised that her brain could comprise those sentences. She was still numb with shock. She didn't know exactly what direction she ended up choosing to head down, but she soon discovered that she was nowhere near the hotel. The buildings all looked very similar, making it hard to navigate what she quickly dubbed "Death City". She needed to get somewhere safe to view the contents of her pockets. The picture containing the poor soul who was also doomed to the same strange and tragic fate that she was. And powers? That was the part that any human being would find intriguing.

Elise slipped into an average looking building, eyes darting in every direction for danger upon entering. The building was what appeared to be an abandoned nightclub. Time was not so kind to the dusty old lounge. Broken glass was littered across the dance floor, along with trash and other miscellaneous rodents. Her face twisted in disgust. "Yuck" She spoke in a whisper. "I guess I better check to see if the perimeter is safe." She chuckled at the very thought. "Listen to me, I sound ridiculous..." With a sigh, she continued checking all of the rooms, upstairs and down. Deeming the environment safe, she proceeding in taking out the objects in her pocket, one by one. "First the picture...." She slowly unfolded the picture, and sighed. The contestant's face was somewhat familiar, though her memory was a bit foggy from the tranquilizer. She folded the photo back up and returned it to her pocket. "Now onto the cellphone." Her hands were trembling slightly, due to both eagerness and stress. Her hands stumbled with navigated through the phone at first, but she quickly found herself at the message page. With a reassuring sigh and a metaphorical pat on the back, she clicked the text. Her eyes widened at the discovery of her newly discovered power. "Oh..Interesting." Elise's heart was aflutter with excitement, and her adrenaline spiked drastically. She knew her powers would be weak at first, and that she would need to train in secret. So she waited.

Elise sauntered to a drape covered window, and looked through a corner. Nightfall would come eventually. She would wait until then.

Shuda scrambled backwards from the body, his heart thudding against his chest. Eyes wide, his back hit the wall and he stared mindlessly watching, just absorbing all the information. Was this even real? Was he dreaming, or rather, having a nightmare? It felt real, he could feel the steady rhythmic thud of his heart as it banged against his chest, the warm drops of blood on his face.

It was all too much at once. Seeing the girl get her head blown off, watching the blood and bits of matter flying through the air, learning that he had to kill someone or die. At the thought, his hand flew to his neck, it was there, he could feel it-the metal collar. His hand traced the outline of it before he quickly dropped his hand. He didn't want to die, not like that girl.

No, he didn't want to die. But, could he kill somebody to live? He knew this was where in the movies, and books the noble main character would say he couldn't kill someone else. That it wasn't worth it. But, Shuda thought otherwise. His life was worth more to him then someone else's. Espescially some complete stranger's. He thought maybe, he could kill someone. Someone with a wife and children. Someone with family waiting for them. That classic, cliche line. It now rang through Shuda's head. He furrowed his eyebrows, clenching his eyes shut. He had family too, waiting for him. Or did he? Would they even notice he was gone? He swallowed, somehow, he doubted it.

Shuda scanned the crowd in front of him, then dropped his gaze again. He might have to kill one of them, he probably shouldn't try to know them. At the thought, his hand drifted into his pocket, feeling the wallet and cellphone inside. Did he want to look at it now? Risk it? What if someone else saw? No, he would wait. Wait, till he was alone. Then he would look. And then...and then what? He didn't know. He would think about it later.

A low growl sounded in the ,otherwise silent, room that Elsa had taken lodging in. "Urgh..." She sighed deeply. Her low blood sugar would kick in a few hours from now. The longer she didn't eat the more disoriented she became. Her vision went blurry, and limbs became like jello. In other words, a sitting duck for whoever was targeting her. She didn't know where she was at this very moment, she didn't know how she could possibly find a food source in a place where she felt so small. She was already little as is, but the towering buildings made her seem even more minuscule. This whole thing seemed impossible to her. She was no killer. She felt perpetually stuck in a limbo like state. There were numerous times throughout the eventful morning that she scolded her fear "This has to be a nightmare. Wake up, just wake up." But it wasn't. and she accepted that. The gruesome reality of it all was hard to take in, but she swallowed the growing lump in her throat and trudged along. All she could do at the moment was stay on her defense, and move along.

Her stomach grumbled again. "God damnit..."

Fate was a cruel bitch. This was just another thing to add to the growing "reasons why I will probably die" list. She fingered the cold metal device around her neck, and closed her eyes. This was going to be a miserable time.