"Ladies and gentlemen! The show is now beginning! We will choose only 300 of you to participate in this.. Trivia.. Show! We expect a great turn out from all of you!"
I looked at what seemed to be a stadium. It had lots of seats, but it looked closer to 1200 than any other number. It wasn't the size of a football stadium, but it beats the little leagues by a large amount. I already signed myself up for the event, so there's no going back. I told Nick that I was signing up for it and that he shouldn't. Whoever gets grouped up with me gets to remain that way.
I walked among the crowd of 300 people. And as we did so, a giant centerpiece was brought in. It looked quite extravagant. It had four giant monitors, and four control panels at the bottom. It was hard to make out any details, but it was clear that the control panels affected the monitors. But what for?
"These 300 people are making an excellent sacrifice for all of you! I hope you all root for someone! Anyway, the rules this time are simple, as any first game's rules should be. Don't get a question wrong, and don't let the monitor be on you when the timer ends. This will test your immediate knowledge of all things random! Now, would all of you please split up into groups around the centerpiece? If you have any friends, make sure to go with their group, hehehe."
… I don't like this at all. But, I should go through with what this guy is saying. That laugh makes me really suspicious of what he could mean by that. The black haired woman signed up with me. I haven't caught her name yet, so maybe this would be a good bonding exercise? I went over to her, or really, followed her into her quadrant and poked her on the shoulder.
"Hey! Lady, I heard you and Nick were speaking the past few days before the cells opened up"
"..." She seemed indifferent to me.
I moved to be in front of her, "Hey, lad-" she moved away, so I moved again "Lady-" she did it again.. "Hey, c-" and again… "Lady!" and once more. I was going nowhere with this. Best to leave her alone at this point. I remembered that I haven't spoken to her this time… Right. I guess I was being a little pushy.
"Alright, all participants seem to be in the right places… Alright. The rules are on the monitors, go over them once more, you have 5 seconds! 5.."
I looked up at the monitor and noticed an added rule, I wasn't the only one as people in my quadrant started making exclamations. However, I was the first to read it all.
'Don't get killed by the wild beasts!'
Jesus fucking christ, that scam-artist. Of course there'd be a danger like that! Who was I kidding. Some people didn't even look at the rules, but wished they should when they heard the news. Yes, we were being used as lunch meat for some wild animals. That's not very good, and thank god I wasn't the only one who thought so. I checked the quadrant we were in, quadrant 3, huh? That's not so bad.
"The first rotation has 1 minute! We're so kind to you all!"
Yeah right.
"Quadrant 1, GO!"
We didn't have the liberty of seeing their question, but in just 10 seconds, it was quadrant 2's turn. Then it was ours after.. 20 seconds. I looked up at the monitor and yelled out "THE FIRST AUTOMOBILE MADE WAS THE COLOR GREEN." a few murmurs went through the crowd and the one in the front chose green, which made the monitor move once more. It took us 3 seconds to pass the bomb. Quadrant 4 struggled quite a bit. Luckily, the time they had was 27 seconds. So, that was good for them, but… They took 25 seconds. The anger of quadrant 1 filled the stadium, saying they were stalling.
This wasn't great. Discrimination of people in quadrants would get really bad outside of this game alone. Someone from quadrant 1 began to flee when the monitor turned on, but suddenly an array of lasers shot out and cut the poor guy's arm off.
"Ohoh! First blood from quadrant 1!! Isn't this getting exciting? Luckily, there's more to come."
Soon, sirens went off and a door behind Quadrant 1 had started to open. "We'll be nice to you and give you a lion from Earth. A single lion! Come on, it won't be THAT hard to handle."
Everyone in the other quadrants could only watch in awe as the announcer acted so… Nonchalant about a tiger. A tiger, that, get this. Looked starved. It was going to kill every human it could. I couldn't help them even if I wanted to. The screams were too loud to say anything, and the laser grids were blocking me from even getting over there. What a sick fucking game these alien bastards made for us. I looked away as it was all I could do. In all honesty, I've seen sights like these, but I KNEW they were fake. This? This was as real as the skin on my body.
Soon, screams filled the stadium, not just from Q1, but people inside the other quadrants and people in the audience. I heard the lasers getting used to cut things, and always the screams didn't stop… After a few seconds, I heard the screaming die down. Q1 was completely empty. The lasers were being used to get rid of everything.
"Ah, the bloodshed, humans really are feeble beings!"
This fucking cunt. Jim, right? What an asshole! Who does he think he is? That fuck.. Killing humans like this and laughing? Soon, the game started up again.
"Around and around it goes, where will it stop..? Nobody knows! This time, you have 40 seconds! Make the most of it, everyone!"
I watched the other quadrant fumble. Before getting the answer right. 15 seconds. Too long. Way too long.
The monitor in front of us asked us who played as aladdin in the original VHS.
"Scott Weinger!!" I shouted through the group. Soon, the monitor was passed on. We spent only two seconds that time. The other quadrants were shocked, some from the back of the other quadrants were eyeballing me like I was some sort of freak. Quadrant 4 spent 10 seconds on their question, and soon, it was back to us. We only had 4 seconds. The question was delayed, however.. Delayed? It was only by a few milliseconds, but I saw it… Those fuckers are rigging this trivia game.
'What man got the most nominations for an emmy?'
The most.. "MICHAEL J. FOX AND ED ASNER" a moment later, the monitor did not move, I shoved through the crowd "MICHAEL J. FOX AND ED ASNER ARE TIED FOR MOST EMMY NOMINATIONS!" I got to the control panel and they both had separate buttons, I glanced at the two, before pressing them both at the same time. The monitor moved forwards to Q4, and they were sentenced to their death, having only a second to respond.
"Who the fuck wasn't touching the panel?" I looked through the people, and the black haired woman came forwards. "It was a tie between the two, I didn't know to press them both at the same time, you said both, and-"
I let out a yell. "Woman! We literally cannot hesitate, you see a tie, no matter how many ways, you NEED to press them all. We will die if we don't."
"What about the other quadrants?"
I gritted my teeth "We can't help them."
She shook her head "We can. They can tell us their question and you can answer it for them."
I then shook mine, waving my hand in front of myself as if to toss the statement away. "Either-way, people are forced to die. I don't know how we could have avoided this many deaths, but I assure you, I don't want anyone to die any more than you do."
".. from saturn's ring!"
The announcer had entered my attention and we caught a glance towards the quadrant next to us. A better look, even. Some people jumped into the lasers to end their lives quickly, and some tried to fight the creature. But that would all be in vain. Without a weapon, it wouldn't be possible, and even then, it wouldn't be easy.
I looked away once more. But, this time, I couldn't help but glance back. The creature looked bizarre. It was not from earth… Ah, right, Jim said it came from… Saturn's ring? Jesus, they must've been telling the truth. I kept watch, since there had to be something to it that would make this easy… This creature… it had clouded eyes, and its movements were kind of slow. It's breathing was odd as well.
There's a reason why VFX artists design their creatures the way they do. It's kind of to be unique, but also, to help the viewer understand the threat. Haha! The lion is hard to deal with, but this? It would hurt itself in the lasers. And it didn't seem to be that active. Those motherfuckers took a sedentary animal and tried to use it to kill people! Ha! What a serious joke.
I think I found a flaw in their design. "HEY! QUADRANT FOUR IDIOTS! STAY QUIET, STAY STILL, SEND YOUR FASTEST ONE TO RUN AROUND IT, TRY AND BRING IT OVER TO THE LASERS AND HAVE IT HARM ITSELF."
The black haired lady came up next to me. "I see you. That's a great suggestion… Think they'll follow it?" A few of the Q4 participants hesitated, before one got into a running position and ran towards the creature. She had hopped over it and grabbed its tail, causing it to try and bite her. I smiled, but something was awry. This felt a bit easy. I kept watching, but I seemed to have fooled myself, as the lady dragged it's tail to be facing towards a laser wall, before slapping the creature and diving out of the way.
The enraged creature hopped through the side towards us, and the creature was immediately killed. I smirked.
"You trust me now, lady?"