dig-dug.
It was quick, how the number of players could go down, from “184” to “164”. Really, it wasn’t much of a difference, only twenty people… But how had it come to that? When exactly, in September’s mind, twenty people’s lives became a small, insignificant loss? It could have been worse, yes, but it was still twenty people. They likely had families, friends, loved ones… people out there lost those closest to them, yet the surviving players thought of it as a small loss.
Suddenly, she felt the cold air brushing against her hand, the girl furrowing her eyebrows, looking around to seek for the younger girl who had let go of her hand. She wasn’t in time to spot her, but she saw two agents leaving the dorms, the same ones who had escorted Nala out before. She sighed, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of it. For as much as she tried, however, nothing came up.
Just when she gave up and decided to go back to her bed to wait for her girlfriend to come back, the number changed.
“163”.
Fuck. It couldn’t be, no, but looking around, everyone seemed to be there… except for her. She didn’t hear any gunshots either, nothing. But Nala wouldn’t leave her like that, would she? She didn’t even say goodbye, she didn’t even try to. Maybe she didn’t know it would happen, but that felt unlikely, considering her encounter with the agents earlier. It felt planned.
Whether September wanted to believe it or not, her girlfriend left her, and she had planned to do so as well. She also had decided not to tell her anything either, not even something in some sort of code to decipher, nothing.
Nothing, other than that cold breeze on her hand, reminding her that Nala had likely never truly loved her.
And God, did that hurt.
Eyes settled on what once was Nala’s bed, September couldn’t help but sigh, tears continuously falling down to wet her pillow, as they had for the past hours. She hadn’t even tried to eat anything, there was no point.
She deserved to die then and there.
Unloveable, worthless, useless, stupid, naïve. All adjectives that way too perfectly described her. How could she even try to believe someone would love her? After what Sehun had done to her too, leaving her pregnant and alone after letting his friends drug her? How could she be so stupid? She buried her face in her now soaking wet pillow, heart racing, tears spilling out.
The bell rang again, a still half asleep September reaching out to squeeze Nala and hide into her arms in order to avoid getting up. Disappointingly, however, all she got was air and bedsheets. No, it all wasn’t just a bad dream as she had hoped. It was real. Too real.
Slowly, she got up, eyes fixed on the door, waiting for her Nala to come back. And she stood there for the entire hour, not even trying to go grab her breakfast before the agents came in. She wasn’t hungry, anyway.
“Attention,” One of them spoke, “follow the same rules as always. The game will begin soon.”
He was the same one among the two who had escorted Nala out the day earlier. For all September knew, he was the last one to see her. Her cheeks coloured a dark red, breaths heavy as she stepped up to him, their faces not that far apart. “I have a question.”
He smiled at her, though clearly, it wasn’t a genuine one. Rather, it felt like one out of courtesy, professionalism even. “Ask away, Number 269.”
“Where’s Nala? Number 098, what did you do to her!? She didn’t do anything wrong!”
He shook his head, slowly. “We simply showed her the way out. She wanted to leave.”
“Bullshit!” She grabbed him by the collar, “We both fucking know once you join the games, you cannot get out. What did you do to her!?”
“Nothing. The rules changed.”
“Fine! Then let me leave too then.”
“That won’t be possible, Number 269.”
Just as she was about to throw him to the side, another agent pointed a gun to her head. Slowly, and begrudgingly, she put him down. “Fuck you, I know you hurt her. Tell me why.”
“We would have no reason to hurt a player. We let her go for classified reasons, not up to players to know.”
“Oh, so now it’s a classified reason? You admit to lying earlier, then? Why the fuck should I believe you now!?”
“You can’t, but you can’t do anything to me, or any other agents, without dying. So whether you believe the truth or not does not change anything for us. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I recommend getting ready for the games.”
The hallways were darker, longer, quieter and emptier than usual now that Nala wasn’t around, September looking down as tears welled up in her eyes. So much so that, once she got up to the door, she struggled to read the bright text, her vision blurred. Aggressively, she wiped away the tears, only to furrow her eyebrows in confusion as she read “DIG-DUG” on it. After being yet again uncomfortably searched, the agent spoke up.
“Attention, the rules will now be explained. You will make your way into the game, and you’ll be led inside tunnels. You will have to choose the right door. After the time limit is over, an agent nicknamed Dig-Dug will follow and kill you one by one. You can only open one door per person and, if you try to open two, you’ll be eliminated.”
With that, the players were allowed to come inside, September chewing on her bottom lip as she looked around. They made them walk down what felt like endless stairs, the walls were coloured in brown and the texture was messy, made to resemble dirt tunnels. Finally, they got to the room the doors were in. They were white, seemingly identical, for as much as September could tell. On the ground were small pebbles and nothing else. In between the two doors was a timer that had yet to start, giving them four minutes.
Finally, the agents left, leaving them alone, and the timer started, everyone collectively panicking, chatters filling the room, some people pushing each other, until Number 001 spoke up, her voice loud to make sure everyone heard her. “Everyone, listen!” The group mostly shut up, heads staring in her direction, desperate for a way to fix it. “This is all clearly a trick. The choices are nothing but a distraction from the real problem, the time limit and Dig-Dug. It will be our hesitation and waiting that’ll kill us, the doors are harmless. Both of them are the right answer.”
She made her way up to a random door, the left one, twisting the handle open and making her way to the center of the room, facing another pair of doors, the colour gray rather than white. She turned around, a smirk on her face. “See? I’m al–”
September jumped, an impossibly loud noise filling the room, blood splattering all over, some getting on her face, too. A cartoonishly big rock was where Number 001 was, all now left of her being the blood and a few pieces of her once-were organs dripping down from the ceiling, some sticking to the walls, while others were on the floor. A lady behind her screamed, and that was what cued the chaos, everyone running to go inside the other room.
They only had two more minutes, and the time kept passing by, yet everyone was too terrified to make a move. September squinted, staring at the doors. They were white. Someone, Number 007, made his way in front of everybody else, opening the left door. “It was the right one before, it can’t be that one again.” He made his way inside, and September finally got to take a look inside. The doors were gray.
“GET OUT OF TH–” Before she could finish, she was forced to put her hands in front of her eyes, covering them up to avoid any blood getting in them as the noise was heard once again. Quickly, however, everyone ran inside the other door. This time, people seemed more glad he had died rather than terrified.
Only thirty seconds left.
September was quick to go open the left door this once, however, without thinking it through. The doors were white. She smiled, running inside, everyone hesitating to follow along just until the timer ran out, then filling up the room, though some were still dumb enough to go inside the other, too used to choosing the opposite of what the first player to come inside had chosen.
September headed to the right one, everyone staring in confusion. The doors were gray. She turned around, “This is the wrong one, someone open the other door.”
Number 012 spoke up, “How do we know you are not trying to kill us all in order to win?”
September sighed, rolling her eyes. “The doors here are gray. None of the doors so far were gray, were they? So go open that fucking door.”
Number 005 was the one to speak up this time, “Then won’t you die? The rules say we can only open one door without being eliminated.”
“I know,” She nodded, “And I will open only one, one of you has to open the other for me. Hurry. Look at the timer.”
The one blue numbers turned red, all the formerly descending digits having turned to zero’s, loud footsteps being heard from behind them, coming closer with each second. Number 012 rushed to open the other door, Coraline leaving the right one open as she rushed inside along with everyone else. People had started to understand how it worked, and had started to work in a team in order to survive. It would be cute if they weren’t so close to dying. And if people stopped pushing each other in the wrong doors on purpose.
By the time they got to the last room, only one golden-coloured room in front of them, it felt like they had been halved.
But they won.