1

Tick tock.... Tick tock.... Tick.... tock

The slow rhythmic ticking of the clock felt like torture to you. Especially when you couldn't see a thing.

Dark. Everything was dark. You couldn't make out what was around you, you couldn't move and you couldn't speak. You had no absolute control over your body.

You could feel yourself on the floor. Weak, hungry, and most importantly confused. You couldn't process what was happening and at that moment, you felt lost. You tried to move, but despite your best efforts, you could only go as far as moving a finger.

You eyes were blurry, your brain throbbed hard in your head and your entire body felt like it had been rammed over several times by a truck. The air was dense and you couldn't breathe properly. You made an attempt to speak, but short ragged gasps escaped your lips instead.

A flash of bright light spontaneously filled your vision and you close your eyes almost immediately from the burn. Tears dripped down your eyes like water from a broken dam, slightly easing the burn. When you open them again after adjusting to the light, you're stunned at what you see.

The once dark area was now brightly lit and you could make out what was around you. Everything was painted white.... Everything! Including the ceilings and the floor, it made you so anxious.

The room was cold... So cold you could feel yourself go numb. Black speakers lined the entirety of the ceiling, forming a sharp contrast to its white background. There weren't turned on, but there were glaring. Glaring at you. Apart from the black speakers and a small rectangular window by the corner, nothing else was in the room... except beds.

You see several other kids all around your age, cuffed up to futuristic looking beds. Each had a weird globe around their heads, much like the type SpongeBob wore in Sandy's dome, they were attached to a small tube behind their beds and they looked eerily like oxygen globes. The kids were all donned on weird, ugly hospital gowns and they all looked so sickly and pale, as if they had been ill for a very long time. They were asleep, unaware of their current situation. You look down at yourself-- a difficult task considering the massive globe over your head-- and just like the others, you were also cuffed up. This explained why you couldn't move.

You panicked. Where the heck were you? What is all this? Why were you along with so many others cuffed up here? You had so many questions running through your mind but no answers. You could only attempt to free yourself from the shackles of the cuffs.

The cuffs looked weak and easily to pull off, but you were frail and feeble— you could barely move. It would of course be difficult to pull yourself out of these chains.

Whilst deep in your thoughts, you hear a groan beside you, and you immediately notice that many of the other kids were waking up. You were suddenly washed with a bucket of hope, hope to figure out what was going on and if possible, how to get the hell out of here.

With the strength you had mustered overtime, you opened your mouth and attempted to speak.

"G-Guys!" Shaky, barely audible and unuseful but very effective. Your voice echoed through the quiet room, almost like an outcry. Several eyes turned to stare at you almost immediately, noticing your pathetic state. Chained up, weak and miserable. And as if being splashed with a bucket of cold water, they began to realise their own situation.

Almost instantly, the room was filled with panicked groans and muffled screams. Several of the teens who had miniscule strength tried to break their way through the cuffs. Very stupid! You thought. You've tried, nothing worked.

As you all continued to struggle maniacally, a cold, robotic and detached voice suddenly boomed, echoing off the white walls. "Welcome participants, to the 2045/2046 Apocalypse simulation. A game where the strongest shall strive and the weakest shall be trampled upon"

"You have been chosen to compete in this ultimate survival of the fittest and your objective is to be the last one standing. You are all lucky citizens whose lives are about to become mere statistics in the grand experiment of human resilience." A resonant silence followed shortly after those words. Several of the struggling teens were now all stilled, staring in shock at the speakers.

You say nothing. Your heart is thumping erratically, and you had the feeling it would almost pop out. You quiver, thinking, this couldn't be what you think it is.

Were you in some sick life and death game at this moment? You didn't know.

You tried to remember how you got here, how stupid you were to have signed up for shit like this. But your mind was blank, you couldn't remember a thing. Not even your name.

You tried hard. You strained your brain just to remember, even if it was just a flash, but what you got instead was another throbbing headache.

It was at this moment, the same detached voice boomed once more. "For those of you wondering why you have no memories of your past self, the answer is simple. All your memories have been wiped out at the orders of the higher authorities. But don't worry, your memories have all been stored in a safe place, where no one will temper with it"

Again, silence. You were pretty certain you all could speak now, but no words were said, none of you could find any words to say. After all, you were all as equally confused as the next person.

The voice was not seeking an approval from the most of you as without warning the speaker once again resounded that haunting voice.

"Phase 1 of the simulation shall now commence. All participants should be prepared for this phase."

"Phase 1 shall commence in 10..."

"9..."

"8...."

"7...."

"6...."

"5...."

"4...."

"3...."

"2..."

"1..."

"Phase 1 shall now begin. Goodluck to all participants" The speakers automatically turned off and the room was instantly filled with heavy breathings as you all watched the large metal doors slowly open.

The ordeal was lethargic and terrifying. And the tension was slowly killing you from the inside. What was behind those doors? What had these sick people prepared for you all? And most importantly, what the heck was Phase 1?

Your gaze almost burned a hole into the metal doors, but it didn't last long enough to actually burn a hole. The doors finally opened, and in a blink of an eye, a short, greyish, crazed figure rushed at you....

"Roar!!" A loud animalistic growl escaped its lips. Its eyes were as white as the room and its claws, bared at your face were long and spiky. Long bloody fangs peeked from its mouth, glaring directly at you. As if telling you, 'it's your end'

You couldn't tell if it was running very slowly or if your mind was intentionally playing tricks on you and turning everything into slow motion, but the zombie's advance towards you felt like eternity and you didn't like it. You didn't like any of it.

Your wait wasn't long, and It soon neared you, ready to bite your face off. Everything else suddenly became a fever dream. Everything was blurry. You heard screams from all the other kids around you, they all watched in horror as the creature charged at you. For a moment, you cursed. Out of the several billion people in this room, this... thing, had to target you first.

Your luck.

Your luck was a silent bitch.

You didn't know how, but from a rapid surge of raw adrenaline, you managed to kick the creature several feets away with your legs. You had mustered all your strength to perform that stunt, and the moment the creature was far away from you, the adrenaline in your blood dissipated like smoke.

Your hands were still cuffed, your heart was beating rapidly in your chest. You didn't know what to do. You were helpless. You look over at the others, they all had flabbergasted looks on their faces. You notice how their chest heaved up and down speedily, probably from the shock. You were not surprised, you felt that too.

Suddenly, you all hear a growl and all your eyes shot at the creature in less than a millisecond. It was still laying on the floor, with its body bent in a weird angle. It was obvious it had broken some bones.

It didn't move, but it was growling nonstop. It was shaking violently, as if it was about to explode. None of you knew what was happening, but you weren't clueless for long. With a loud boom, the creature blew up into bits. Black liquid spluttered everywhere around the room, all over everyone. You all stilled in shock.

A severed limb lands on your face, you stare for a moment, allowing your brain to process. Once you've realised what had happened, a shrill scream erupted from your lips.

Like a catalyst, your scream seemed like a cue for the others as they all began to scream one after the other.

By the large metal doors, several crazed greyish creatures-- all bearing the same threatening fangs and claws as the first one-- charged through, attacking the closet human they could find. All hell had broken loose.

"Oh my God!" You meant for it to come out as a whisper, but your voice resonated in the entire room, drawing unnecessary attention towards you. The crazed creatures, hearing your words all snapped their heads to you directly. One let out an animalistic growl, it white eyes quickly turning red with a hungry look plastered on its face. It charged at you!

"Jesus!" You cry out, shaking violently on your bed, trying to free yourself from the cuffs. You were not alone, all the other kids were also in a frenzy, trying to free themselves from the shackles as many other crazed figures rushed at them.

The ones that were closest to the creatures suffered a far worse fate. The creatures neared them quickly and immediately began to chomp on their bare skin. Tearing, scratching, biting, peeling. They screamed again the globes that seemed to crack under the pressure. It was too brutal for you to watch.

You cried. You didn't want to suffer the same fate, but looking at the crazed creature running at you albeit slowly, you couldn't help but lose a little hope.

You continue to shake violently, in hopes of freeing yourself. You feel the cuffs loosening on your hands, and with new found hope, you increase the intensity of your shaking.

The creature neared and launched at you with its bared fangs. His class struck at your globe and it immediately broke, sending shards of sharp glass everywhere. You close your eyes to protect them, you're successful but the skin on your face suffered far worse. A shard of glass was embedded in your skin, but your mind was now too wrapped around the creature coming back to attack, to even think about it. Just like you did earlier, you kick it away with your legs, causing your entire body to jerk forward. From the brute force, the cuffs on your hands broke, releasing you from the shackles.

You didn't even have the time to breathe a sigh of relief. You jump out of your bed, barely evading the other creature trying to grab you. You dash to the opposite direction, where two claws clutched you shirt and slashing through you bark. You cry out but you don't stop running.

Several of the others had also broken free from their shackles and we're all headed towards the large metal doors ahead. You follow their lead and run towards the doors. From the corner of your eyes, you notice that three creatures were hot on your trail. Despite how slow they moved, you always had this feeling that they would catch up in no time.

You look at your exit. Why did it feel so far away? You were still really weak, and you weren't sure you could make it in time, but you put in more effort. Just as you closed in the distance, you were tackled to the ground from the side. You back hit the floor with a thud and you shudder in pain as the bleeding in your back intensifies.

The person that had pushed you was a boy with no distinctive features, he too was being tackled to the floor by a creature. Ignoring him and everything else around you, you continue your race toward the exit, desperate for your life and pushing whoever was in your way.

A hand clutches around you just as you finally reached, dragging you back. It was a creature.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***