Age of Serial Synot

First Act (9)

Four minutes back...

Katie looked around in the light grid box and shook her head. The axe in her hands still felt as heavy as hell.

She was beginning to think that she had spent enough time swimming in fear. However, her nature went against what the game demanded her to do and she was not sure how to tackle this.

She gnashed her teeth and forced herself to take a step forward. However, the looming darkness that awaited her from the giant grid box ahead demotivated her from moving further. She wasn't sure if she should go straight ahead as she didn't know what to expect.

After hesitating momentarily she finally continued walking ahead. The more time she wasted, the more her choices and options became unclear.

As she walked along, the screams were a major deterrent to her movements. Hearing people screaming and the sounds of clashing weapons made her feel a deep sense of dread. The gurgling and crunching of human flesh and blood was even more unsettling. It made the young lady want to cry, but she knew that she could only save herself.

What pulled at her sympathy were the voices of those that did not even know where they were. It was evident that many had chosen to revoke their participation token, inviting someone close to them to play the game. In her mind, this was a sick thing to do.

Even though they were all just dragged into this game without any prior warning, doing the same to someone you cared about was too cruel in her book.

She did her best to ignore the sounds and keep walking forward, drawing near the dark grid box.

As she reached the edge of the light box, the dark of the pending adventure that awaited her literally covering her entire vision, she quivered.

'I wish I didn't have to go through this box. As a Rook I can only move vertically and horizontal across the board right? Dammit,' she thought before taking a step.

To her surprise, her body flashed forward with an incredible speed!

The darkness before her had vanished within less than a split second only to welcome another light box which she stood on.

Katie wanted to celebrate, but before she could, a heavy sense of nausea smacked her body and she knelt on the ground a moment later, throwing up.

She did not do well with motion and the instant transmission which did not even have a prelude had caught her off guard.

As she spat on the ground, the unsightly but colourful contents on the ground flowing messily, Katie caught wind of something that she didn't see before.

A man was standing a distance away. He seemed to be coming from the opposing side, with a drill in his hand.

He called out to her.

"HEY! HEY, miss! Please help me! I-I can't move!" he yelled.

Katie stood up with a stagger and focused her vision. She saw a familiar individual before her. It was a man with a cardigan.

She vaguely recalled the man being one of the people who wanted to stall and wait to figure things out before playing the game. She didn't bear contempt towards him because of his choice and kind of felt that he may have been right.

Katie first tried to wrap her mind around the phenomenon which had just happened. How she had flashed appeared in another grid box.

'Does It have to do with the rules?' she asked herself, scrolling through her memory and recalling what the man in the mask had said. 'He did say that our movements.... are like the ones from the chess piece we hold.'

It made sense to her as she put a little more thought into it. Rooks could move across the board to any spot that was within their jurisdiction.

She looked ahead again at the man who kept yelling.

"HEY! ANSWER ME WILL YOU?! Can you help me? I can't move!" he bellowed.

"I hear you!" Katie bellowed back with frustration. What was this man's deal? He spoke as if she was obligated to hear him out when she was already dealing with a shitload of emotional baggage of her own.

"I can't move forward or backward! What piece are you?!" the man barked.

"A Rook!" she yelled back at him with a hint of anger in her voice.

The man's face darkened and so did Katie's after she realised that she might be in trouble.

If she was a Rook, she could move forward and..... eliminate the man in the cardigan. She had a bad feeling about what would happen if she chose to turn the other way.

'Shit! I'm allowed to not go for him, right?!' she thought in her mind as her thoughts spiralled while hoping that she wouldn't be forced to kill.

"HEY! Miss! Let's not be hasty! I'm a pawn! There is a way that we can both go about our ways without any violence! I have to get to the other side and become another chess piece! That should be allowed in the rules, right? Please, just move aside. You'll lose nothing!" the man said determinedly. He was sweating all over, his nerdy  visage giving off the fear he was feeling through the paleness painted on his face.

Katie was freaking out too. The problem that she was noting with the game as she went on was the fact that not everything was specified. Like the conditions for winning. While the rules said that those who killed the other team's King would win, it didn't mean that it was the only scenario that could happen within the thirty minute duration. What if none of the Kings were killed by the end of the game?

What if they both killed each other?

What if there were more than two Kings?

She ground her teeth in frustration.

She thought about the man's words and considered moving to the next box to her right, which was... a dark grid box.

"Shit," she said softly as she looked at that menacing darkness.

"It's not as bad as you think. You just have to move forward and you'll reach the end," the man said, noticing Katie's hesitation but not failing to catch her movements that teased of her intent to actually move to the next box for his sake.

Katie considered it. She moved one step to the right.

A warning bell rang in her mind and she froze!

A masculine voice spoke in her head.

"A pawn has their way blocked by you and can be eliminated. Do you wish to not respond accordingly and accept the penalty?" the voice said, making Katie's breath stifled as she shook.

'I knew it!' he thought as sweat ran down her brow.