Wolves of Entertainment

11:00 a.m.

"Hey," Desire greeted as we entered Tomas' room. We stood around for a while, exchanging glances to one another. Tomas' room looked like an office. There was a computer desk in the corner with a wheel-less, leather-less wheelchair sitting behind it. In front of the desk, on the floor, was a radio.

Desire popped her lips. "Anybody have a plan?" We all shook our heads, unsure of what to do. "We need to do something. We can't just stay here."

"Did you guys find anything?" Roberto asked us.

"No," I answered, "at least nothing new. We still didn't check the rooms thoroughly, though. We were more focused on finding a way to get out."

"Okay, let's check out those rooms and put our heads together on this," Brian bubbled. "I know we can figure something out." I looked around and I could see it in everyone's eyes. Despite Brian's light tone, they were uneasy. They were all thinking about the possibility of the two wolves. For the moment, it's best for us to stay and do things together. The wolves, if they were real, can't act accordingly if there are five hunters surrounding them. Realizing this, I clapped my hands once to get their attention.

"Maybe we can do something about the windows," I suggested. "I noticed that certain ones aren't barred, but boarded instead."

"Si. I noticed that, too. So you want to find a way to pull them out?" Tomas asked.

"Yes. I mean, it's a start and a lot better than just standing around here. There's a couple that aren't completely boarded also. I'm pretty sure we can find something, something hard, something metal to pull the boards out. Maybe some type of rod will do the trick if we can find one," I said.

"Shit, we got nothing better to do. Let's do it." Brian walked out of the room and everyone followed.

"Let's stay together and check each room," I instructed as soon as we got out.

"Don't you think that's a little unproductive, primo?" Roberto asked. "It'll be quicker if we split into groups."

"He's right," Desire agreed. "We'd cover more ground that way."

"But-,"

"If that's the case, I'm going with mi hermano," said Tomas before I could voice out my opinion. They bumped fists.

"And I'm not going anywhere without my sister," decided Destiny. She folded her arms and clicked her lips. Desire shrugged and sighed. Things didn't go exactly as I hoped, so I tried to think of something else. As I was about to suggest switching around members, they started towards opposite directions. Could I really blame them? They were still feeling uneasy, and stayed with the people they fully trusted. Now it was me, Daniel, and Brian left.

"Brian," Daniel placed both of his hands on his shoulders and got his attention. "I got a favor to ask."

"You're not gonna ask me to join one of them, are you?" Daniel opened his mouth to talk, but didn't say anything and smiled instead. "Ugh. I knew it. Can I at least follow the girls?"

"No problem. I was going to ask you to follow them anyways since they're the ones we don't trust the most," Daniel replied.

Brian took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll go. I'm going to kill you if I get killed." Daniel patted his shoulders twice before he jogged towards the twins. "Hey, ladies! Wait up!" he hollered.

"So, where do we begin?" Daniel asked after Brian ran off.

"How about we start with your room," I suggested.

"Sure." Daniel began walking and I followed. I looked around to make sure no one was near to hear me talk.

"Who do you think the wolves are?" I asked him in a hushed voice.

"I don't know, man. We're not even sure if the game is real yet," Daniel answered.

"Let's just pretend it is real. Who do you think, from this same group of people, would be wolves?"

"Come on. Ricardo. Do we really have to do this now?"

"Yes. Why? Would there be a better time? It's just us two."

He let out a breath before speaking. "Well, I'd have to say the twins. Tomas is right to suspect them from the beginning," he answered. "What about you?"

"The twins are the obvious choice, but you never know."

Daniel stopped walking and turned to face me, surprised by my answer. "Do you really think our cousins would be able to kill us? Especially Tomas with his religious views?" he asked.

"Like I said, you never know."

He shook his head as he began to walk again. "But we do know, Ricardo. They're our cousins, for God's sake. I'm not going to let some 'game' change my trust in them."

I wish I could say the same.

Soon, we came upon his room. The one he came out of looked like it was for patients. On the bottom-left corner was a small bathroom with no door and a dry toilet. A mattress-less gurney lied in the middle of the room with an empty T.V. stand against the wall across of it. A closed, dirty-white portable closet stood next to it, and pieces of paper and clipboards were littered on the ground. On the wall behind the gurney were the rules for the game, and beneath it on top of a withered pillow was a radio. The room was relatively empty, and had nothing much to look through.

"Guess I'll start with the bathroom." Daniel walked over to the left. I walked to the middle of room and searched around. Other than the closet, there was nothing else to look into.

"Have you tried opening this closet?" I asked as I heard a steady stream of piss hitting the toilet.

"Yup. Couldn't open it a while ago. Wouldn't budge at all," he replied. I placed my hand on the handle and pulled. Contrary to what I was just told, it opened with ease.

"Are you sure?" The stream slowed to a stop and Daniel popped his head out to look.

"What the hell? I swear it wouldn't move at all when I was here." He moved towards me as I opened it all the way. There was a dirty lab coat and, to my surprise, four bottles of water standing at the bottom. Brian would be ecstatic. I quickly grabbed a bottle and showed it to Daniel.

"Holy shit," he stated. I took a drink and wiped a drop off my face before handing it to Daniel afterwards.

"You think maybe it was unlocked at the same time the doors were?"

"Mhmm," Daniel replied while he drank. He let out a satisfied sigh and put the cap back on the bottle. "That would explain why I wasn't able to open it a while ago." I picked up the other three as Daniel examined the closet doors. "But we still don't know how it opened. What do you think?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was opened wirelessly? We don't even know how the doors unlocked themselves either." I took a closer look inside the closet and found a cord along its edges. "Bingo." I placed the bottles next to my feet and followed the cord's path with my finger. One end led to the top of the closet to a metal bolt that kept the door locked, and the other end was attached to some sort of small block that sat at the bottom right corner. It had a blank digital screen and two buttons with one of them being lower than the other. I placed my finger on the higher button and pushed down. Immediately, the other one went up and the bolt made a short snapping noise. I looked up at it, but it hadn't moved. Then, three red zeros appeared on the digital screen. "Shit."

"What?"

"It's a timer."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning this was set up while we were sleeping or before we even got here." I pushed the other button to see if anything new would happen, but nothing. Then, to the side of the timer, I noticed a folded piece of paper and picked it up.

"What's that?" Daniel took the paper from me and opened it. "It says 'Cache No. 4/7.' So what? Are these like, supply drops? And there are seven of them?"

"I guess so. Maybe one in each room?"

"Most likely. Come on, let's go check with the others and see if they found something like this." He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.