Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 5 - Democracy

Her tracksuit was bloody.

Dae-eun and the other Players had been lead back to the dormitory after the massacre, however many had survived, that was.
They were left in darkness by the guards, huddling against the bedposts like frightened sheep, traumatised by what they had just witnessed.
Dae-eun figured most of the people here had never seen death before today, thus being the reason for why most were acting this way.

She couldn't relate.
Her grandmother, Song Chin-hae, had perished in hospital after she had come down with a terrible illness.
She had been a kind woman, loving, more so than her own parents who saw her as a liability.

Her death had sent Dae-eun spiralling into depression, being another reason for her to pursue gambling as a kind of coping mechanism.
And it had all lead here.
To more slaughter.

She was against a bed frame with 456, 218 and the immigrant who had saved 456, Player 199.
They were all silent, for obvious reasons, until 456 decided to try and spark conversation.
"Sang-woo." 218 only glanced up slowly. "You helped me. Thank you."

He then turned to 199. "And you did too. You saved my life out there."
The man he spoke to gave him a genuine smile.
"You are alive. That is what matters." He stated.

456 then did something unexpected.
He turned to Dae-eun.
"And you."

The woman he spoke to glanced up at him.
"I recognised you when I went over the line. I saw you talking to that pickpocket."
"I-"

Dae-eun was cut off by a blaring alarm and the main door sliding open to reveal the pink soldiers again.
The lights flickered on as the door slid closed again, the Players standing up expecting some kind of speech.
They were correct in their assumptions.

"You have all made it through the first game. Congratulations. You're moving on. I will now announce the results of the first game." The guard stated.
The board displaying the number of Players trilled and beeped as it lit up and the number of Players began to decrease.
It reached a set number and stopped, blinking twice to display the new total.

"Out of 456 Players, 255 were eliminated, and 201 Players successfully completed the first game."
Gasps of shock and horror broke out among the crowd, their eyes fixed on the number and faces written with complex emotions.
"255 people were shot? That's over half!" Sang-woo whisper-shouted.

"The rules were explained twice when we first walked in, plus, didn't you do an observation check?" The girl with a pink streak asked.
"How would that have helped them?"
"There were flaps in the walls where the guns were stationed, I saw them when I was looking around. But still... seeing people die before my eyes isn't something you can really prepare for..." Dae-eun explained.

"Mister! please!" A voice sobbed as it exited the crowd.
Dae-eun could just glimpse the woman from where she was now sitting on the bed.
She had long curly hair, her Player number '212' emblazed on her back.

"Listen. I'm so sorry! I swear I will pay what I owe! I'll do it! I'll pay it all!" She dropped to her knees, rubbing her hands together in a sort of prayer.
This is the place God is afraid to touch.

"Please, sir! I have a child. Oh! So young, I need to register, and I still need to name my child, sir!" She cried.
Dae-eun had to resist the urge to scoff.
She looked and sounded young, too young to have a child.

She figured the woman was desperate for an out and was crying out whatever sob-story came to mind.
"Please sir! Sir I'm begging you..." another woman fell to her knees, her hands together in a prayer as well. "Let me leave and I swear, I'll find a way to pay it all!"
Another woman crawled out of the crowd.