72 Hours: A Ticking Time Bomb

{-CHAPTER SIX-}

"What's going on?" Katerine asked.

Nobody knew what was happening. The lights just suddenly flickered out. Everyone scurried around, looking for any source of light. They were unsuccessful.

"I can't see a thing!!!" Nevena cried.

"None of us can see a thing, Nevena!" Sergey said in a sassy tone.

Suddenly, a glowing note appeared on the table next to them. Damiano walked up to it to translate it. Sure enough, it was the first challenge.

"Challenge #1

One of you will be chosen to wield a knife. That person must kill another with said knife. It will be pitch black and no one will be able to see a thing. Once someone is dead, the lights will turn back on. However, if the person wielding the knife doesn't kill someone within the time limit of five minutes, then they die instead.

Good luck on surviving the first challenge.

-Alessandro Mahmoud, Mahmood.

"KILL?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" Victor cried.

"I.... I guess so." Michael stuttered.

"Who has the knife?" John asked. That's when the knife appeared, it was floating, drifting towards them. The knife landed in Katerine Duska's hands.

Katerine froze. The knife stopped glowing. Katerine knew what was at steak. She didn't want to kill anyone, but she knew that it had to be done if she wanted any chance of survival.

The clock started, everyone began running around like a bunch of blind mice. Katerine was shaking. She couldn't even run straight without the unsteadiness of her emotions. She never thought that taking a human life would be something she'd do... Never in a million years would she have thought this was what would happen

Michael and John ran for a corner on the other side of the room.

"We have to be quiet." Michael whispered to John.

"Yeah, you think?" John sassed back. Katerine was all the way on the other side of the room, so she couldn't hear them.

Two and a half minutes have passed, and Katerine was still yet to make her move. She couldn't decide on who to take out. She felt weird thinking that thought. She decided that the next person that was to come near her, she'd kill....

She felt someone's hand touch her back by accident. She turned around to see Victor Crone.

"Katerine....." Victor stuttered. Katerine knew what she had to do. She shoved Victor to the wall. He was cornered and couldn't move.

"N-no! Please Katerine!" Victor cried. Nevena heard his cries and tried to pull her away, only to be cut slightly on the arm in the process. Katerine lifted the knife and.......

The lights turned back on. Victor opened his eyes and moved his hands, which were covering his face. He thought that he had seen his life come to an end.... However, the time had run out, and Katerine was too slow on trying to kill Victor.

"VICTOR!!!" Nevena ran for his arms. Victor's heart rate was going so fast out of pure anxiety.

But he was alive.

"Nevena! I thought I was going to die!" Victor cried. He had tears running down his face as Nevena hugged into him tighter.

As for Katerine....

"Wh-what? No! I thought I... This can't be...." She cried out. Everyone else stared at her with terror in their eyes. They knew what was coming for her.

"Make me proud..... Duncan needs you!" Katerine cried slightly as she knew that she wouldn't be there to help them.

The shot fired. Katerine fell to the floor, she was dead.

Nobody could move a muscle.

"She's...... She's dead!" Netta cried. Kate ran off to the toilet to barf. Nevena hugged on to Victor tighter in fear. Sergey began to start crying. John, Damiano, and Michael were speechless.

Victor was the first to say something.

"Wait.... That's what Mahmood meant by 'not all of us will make it to the end'!...."

"Well gee, glad you finally figured that out, Einstein!" Sergey cried out.

"At least I'm not the one crying like a baby!" Victor retorted.

"VICTOR!!! SOMEONE IS DEAD IN FRONT OF US! YOU'D THINK I HAVE A REASON TO BE CRYING!!!! AND WHAT ABOUT YOU? YOU COULDN'T EVEN ESCAPE KATERINE WHEN SHE TRIED TO KILL YOU!!!!!" Sergey cried.

"I did all I could! And it wasn't helping that none of you all would help! Or is it that you just like Katerine more than me?" Victor shot back. Damiano was getting anxious.

"Guys, please stop fighting." He trembled.

"Damiano, what do you expect they'd do? They just watched someone get murdered in front of them and they can't do anything else to get their anger out." Netta sighed.

"There are plenty of things they could do to get their anger out, they just choose not to do them!" Damiano said back.

Michael was getting nervous, and John could clearly see it. He decided to do something about it, and speak up.

"Guys! We all need to stop fighting! We are all here on a mission to save Duncan, and if we want to do that, we have to stop fighting!" John's words were inspiring to some of the others. Michael was shocked to hear this from John.

Netta was the first to speak.

"John.... John is right. We have to stop fighting in order to complete our mission in time!" She said.

"That reminds me, how much time do we have left?" Kate asked. Michael looked down at his timer on his watch.

"We've got 60 hours left!"

.....

"What fantasy world are you living in? He's clearly dead! I shot him dead!" The mysterious man yelled at his new sidekick.

"Well, you gotta look at this, sir.... Someone sent nine random people here to play some challenges to try to save Duncan!" The sidekick said. The man looked at the camera, and was furious!

"What does this have to do with Mahmood being alive?" The man questioned. The man looked to his feet.

"That's what I thought." The boss chuckled. He looked back at the cameras that were showing the others panic about after they watched one of their friends die.

"You know what, let them keep playing. They'll only kill each other off one by one." The boss laughed. He looked back at the camera screen and saw Michael.

He got curious.

"But that British guy,... The one with the blonde hair.... He seems as if he'd be a hard threat to our operation. Watch him, and if you can, kill him before they can make it to the end. Don't be afraid to do it. Just whatever you do, make sure your identity stays hidden! We don't need the cops on our tail." The boss demanded.

"Got it..." The sidekick said reluctantly, he ran off to get prepared for the operation.

However, someone was watching them in the shadows. Someone nobody expected to be seen again....

Mahmood.