Lucky Number 444

Let The Games Begin...

Numbness... 

That's all (Y/n) remembered before she woke up in her bed. 

Wait. This wasn't my bed. 

Or was it? 

The other thing (Y/n) wasn't adjusted to was waking up in a bunk bed with other people; a very large room with other people in fact, or for the fact that there was classical music being played through the speakerphones mounted all over the room in order to wake everybody up. 

She then craned her head around to a circle gathering of people watching two in particular feud over some personal rivalry they had out for each other. A man was harassing a rather skinny person with their back to (Y/n), calling them out for being an ungrateful bitch. 

That's rude. 

Just then, another man stormed over and began to harass the skinnier victim, accusing them of being a pickpocket. 

There were so many people in the very room (Y/n) was in. They were all wearing the same green jumpsuit with numbers on their backs and on their left breast of the green jacket. 

Everybody seemed lost and sceptical as to why they'd woken up as they did. 

(Y/n) looked at her jacket and read the numbers that were upside-down from where she was looking. 

444. 

What luck. The only numbers I could've hoped not to get. 

(Y/n) looked at the two large doors as well as the two smaller ones on either side. Said large doors cranked open, drawing nine masked men into the room. They all wore red costumes with the same type of masks but with a different shape for the one in the middle compared to those with the triangles, armed with submachine guns or fully automatic rifles. 

The one in the centre of his companions with the square on his mask stepped forward and addressed everyone in the room. "I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to you all. Everyone here will participate in six different games over six days. Those who win all six games will receive a handsome cash prize." 

"And why should we believe that?" A random numbered person sung out with a stuttering voice. "Y-You took all our stuff and put us to sleep coming here. And then you brought us to this strange warehouse. Now you're saying you'll pay us if we go and play a few games? You really expect us to buy that?" 

"We reluctantly took all of those measures to maintain confidentiality as we brought you here. We'll return everything once the games are over." 

And of course, people still didn't buy it. 

They all started to argue. 

To their irritation, the masked strangers previewed everybody's dilemmas to the four-hundred and fifty-six contestants in the room; each person being reminded of why they were there and why they consented to undergoing arrival to wherever it was that they were. What they did not condone, however, was the methods chosen to do so. 

When they caused a third ruckus, the centre red man drew a revolver and stretched his arm up, outwards, and emptied a round into the ceiling above a random bed. In reaction to the loud bang, almost everyone in the room dropped to the floor, yelping and crying in fear. Then, the centre red man produced a remote and clicked a button. 

Everybody was taunted by a large piggybank filled with a billion dollars worth of won - enough to pay off all debts, loans, mortgages, rent, clothes and food. Whether they all came there for the money or for themselves.