Chapter 2 #4
I turned to Sadie, who had let out an audible gasp when she realized what happened. Her eyes were wide, and she was incredibly pale, but she held herself together.
I understood the feeling, it had taken everything in me to remain calm and appear unruffled. In truth, I felt like I was going to be sick.
Someone had just been vaporized, reduced to nothing but ash, right in front of us. All because he didn’t comply with the aliens’ rules.
The ‘game’ hadn’t even started yet, and already someone was dead.
“Are you okay?” I asked Sadie, but I had to speak loudly to be heard over the commotion from the crowd.
She didn’t speak, but she did give me one quick nod.
The police were working to calm down the crowd, but the other contestants were still in a panic, and one of the women was freaking out so badly she had to be held down to keep her from running.
I didn’t blame them at all, and they were probably under the impression that we’d all been brought here to be sacrificed. I’d had the same thought myself, but now wasn’t the time to panic and make mistakes.
Besides, to me the message had been very clear: cooperate with the aliens, and nobody will get hurt.
While the police calmed the crowd, I stepped forward and spoke to the contestants.
“Remain calm,” I said loudly and in a firm, authoritative voice. “Don’t panic, and don’t do anything rash. It’ll only make the situation worse.”
A few of the men made faces, and I knew it was because they probably didn’t like taking orders from random strangers, but the women slowly stopped their crying and struggling, and shortly after all was calm again.
But the tension was palpable.
Once everyone was calm, and the crowd was relatively under control, another robotic voice spoke from the spaceship.
“The first game will begin in thirty minutes,” it announced.
First game?
I was already apprehensive about this entire situation, but the idea that there was more than one ‘game’ we’d be forced to participate in was daunting.
“Step into the circle,” the robotic voice continued.
I glanced around the empty plaza, and I didn’t see any obvious circles to stand in. Unless, of course, I counted the plaza itself, but we were already standing in it.
Suddenly, more panels at the bottom of the spaceship slid open, and these ones were much larger than the panels that had released the drone.
Once the panels had finished moving, a wide beam of blue light filtered down until it reached the stone flooring of the plaza, and where it touched the ground, it created a perfect circle of light.
Nobody moved as we all watched with apprehension.
The last time someone touched a beam of light from alien tech, they died, so nobody was eager to try again. Especially so soon after that.
“Step into the circle,” the voice repeated itself in a more demanding tone.
Sadie glanced at me, and I could feel the other competitors’ eyes on me as well. Everyone was waiting to see what I’d do.
No pressure or anything.
I glanced around at the plaza again, and still, the only circle around was the blue beam of light. I was sure we’d all be vaporized anyway if we chose not to follow the robot voice’s instructions, so I took a deep breath and moved toward the blue light.
I could feel Sadie trailing behind me, and the crowd around us was still and utterly silent as they focused on my every movement.
I paused a couple inches from the light.
“Step into the circle,” the voice said for a third time, but there wasn’t as much demand behind the order as there was before, like it knew I was going to follow its instructions without a fight.
I took another deep breath and glanced over at Sadie one last time before I took that final step into the circle of light.
Nothing happened.
I didn’t feel any different, though when I glanced at my hands, they had a weird blue sheen over them from the light.
I glanced at the other competitors, who were all watching me with wide eyes, and I gave a little shrug.
“Step into the circle,” the voice repeated again, and the demanding tone was back.
Sadie was the next to move, and she carefully stepped into the circle and stood beside me.
She also seemed just fine.
Next, Kyle rushed forward with a determined expression on his face, and it was probably because he didn’t want to feel like I’d one-upped him in any way. He also stepped through the light without issue.
Then the auburn-haired woman approached, and slowly, one by one, each of the contestants moved toward the circle and stepped in.
Once we were all inside the perimeter of light, we all looked at each other, and I could see the same question in everyone’s eyes.
What now?
Suddenly, there was a low humming sound around us, as if the blue light were somehow charging up.
I felt a strange sense of weightlessness for a brief moment, and then I felt my body slowly lift off the ground.
What the fuck?
All around me, everyone in the blue circle began to slowly rise, higher and higher, toward the open panels in the spaceship.
It was pulling us up toward it.
I felt a brief moment of dread and panic.
Then everything went black.