Trials and terror [The trials fanfic]

[CHAPTER NINE] THE BUSINESS MAN AND THE SCIENTIST

In the previous chapter: Later, Drak had finished, but something came up to him... Seems like he got his conscience back

"What...? Is this a-" he flinched and tossed the bones he was holding on so dearly a moment earlier. He examined his hands, they were bloody and as he licked around his mouth he came to a conclusion

"I... I ate Dg!!"

[Flashback ends]

...

"So that's what happened then, uh?" the Doctor asked in regards

"Yes, it was. Listen Doctor, I don't want to hurt anyone, I'm a kind soul! When I had a normal like out there I never killed a fly... But now, I've become a freaking cannibal!" he sighed "It's like there's something inside me that is forcing me to do this"

The Doctor nodded

"Don't you know how rarely they feed us?" he asked

"I know, but I can't do anything about it. I'm just the facility doctor after all" she explained rationally

"Plus, you can't rebel against anything the trial master says, I get it"

"I do believe that you turned on your friend because of a natural instinct: you see, any type of living begin was born with the instinct to survive no matter what. You were starving so of course you had to eat something, anything just to live... and your system said that to live you had to eat him".

After that someone knocked at the office door, it was the upper class mediator who was bringing a body

"Wait here for a second" Doctor went to open

"Hello, if you would mind I've got a mediator who needs to be revived" she said

"Alright... Participant, you need to get out"

"Aw, already?" asked Drak

"Yes"

...

It was about 9 PM and everything was going alright in the hold section, Zak was walking about when he saw another participant coming his was, he didn't look like much from the distance but as he got closer he became more and more familiar.

"Space!" he called out

"Zak?" Space said

"That's me!" he laughed

"You don't look the same without that mask of yours"

"And you don't look the same without the sunglasses!"

"So, how did you end up here?"

"I was about to ask you the same question" Zak replied "I was looking for a way to make my services more accessible, or in other words I was looking for fame"

"What an useless desire"

Zak stared at the glowing yellow collar Space wore and said "Says the man who chose wisdom"

"It's depressing to see just how many of these people don't understand the power of the mind"

"True, but then again, we all want what we don't have" he joked.

Space shrugged to show how much he didn't care

"Anyways..." Zak kept on going "...did you greet your employees yet?"

"Of course I did! I ended up stumbling here because of their disappearance" he replied

"Whoa, I never expected someone like you to be so kind!"

"Indeed, the only thing is that some of them are... different"

Zak rubbed his chin "What do you mean by different?"

"For example look at Clownie..." the man pointed at a white haired participant scribbling on a wall with a black crayon different words and sentences

"...he was like a son to me back at the nuclear power plant, but now I barely recognise him anymore" Space concluded and sighed.

"Well, I've never seen this one before, maybe I should meet him" Zak though and walked towards Clownie, Space followed too

"Hello there!" the business man greeted, Clownie turned around and took the time to rub one of his eyes

"Hm, what are you doing here?" he asked

"I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Zak" "Nice to meet you I guess. Name's Clownie"

The participant went back to drawing, Zak took a closer look at the wall in front of him: "Death" "Traitors" "Let us out" "Nowhere to run" "Gotta find exit" and other things like that were crudely sketched on it including multiple drawings of human figures dying in painful ways.

"Now you know what I meant..." whispered Space

"I've been witnessing players of this deadly game go crazy, to the point that they'd hurt or kill eachother... Space, you have to know what you're going up against when going through the trials" Zak explained

"Thanks for the warning, but I already do..." the other participants said and took out his lone star ring from one of his pockets "... remember that time?"

"When Ren died and Milkshake tried to escape?"

"Yes. I have to be honest here, I feel bad for all of those who had died in my trial group, but that's just how the mechanism works"

Zak nodded to that, "You're right old man, so many inhumane things are going on in this obscure facility that you begin to lose empathy the longer you stay in here!" he then laughed.

"You know what? You're not that bad! wanna team up with me for phase 2?" Space questioned the other guy

"Your request entices me, but no! First, I already have the ring so I'm not risking my life again just for your sake and second, you can't just enroll and think you'll win"

"Then what do you think I should do? There's no training room that I know of"

"There's the TV room that displays current rounds, if you can learn how those trials work you may get out alive. Or maybe you'll just get lucky like you did for phase 1" Zak explained

"I didn't get lucky, it's all skills" "Surely..."

...

Now we'll change scene to go to a totally different place in another town. When people enrolled in the trials, they were taken within the facility itself so that meant a lot of citizens were reported missing. The police departments of various cities tried to find these people without success but since the streets were often filled with crime it wasn't hard to assume they simply just died, but four policemen in particular didn't want to give up.