Memory Files

03 - The Moida Game

"Zeus, now!" I yelled.

     He nodded and started rushing towards the girl. We had all planned to steal the girl's keys. We were all gathered around the room in a way that would make it hard for the girl and the man to follow Zeus' movements as he ran towards them.

"Gah!" He yelled in pain as he fell to the floor.

"Zeus!" I called out.

     The old man next to the girl had shot him with a handgun, but luckily only struck his leg. We were sure this would work, the old man had almost no time to react, but it looks like they were more trained than we originally thought. Dammit, looks like there really is nothing we can do. Annie, unmoved by what just happened, continued.

"Now, I know what all you nitwits must be thinking, 'But adorable genius Annie, what about the rules for your Moida game?' Since you're asking so kindly, I'll tell you! First rule: Moida anybody you find suspicious of being a traitor. Second rule: extra rules will be added in a future update! ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆"

"What's 'Moida'? Some sort of disease?" asked Eris in an obnoxious tone.

"I don't completely understand either. What does 'Moida' mean? Is it like tagging someone?" I asked since there was no way she would respond to what Eris said.

"You're hopeless.. ʕ'•ᴥ•'ʔ To Moida is to, you know, end someone's life, idiot! Moida is the most efficient way to spread despair!"

     Does she mean murder?

"N-no way... You want us to murder each other?" the wheelchair-bound Maia asked, worried.

"AHH!" We were all startled by a bloodcurdling scream coming from the usually shy Cerberus. He kept mumbling "I don't wanna die" over and over while his puppet Lola tried to calm him down. Must be his way of coping.

     It took us a while to process things. Annie had given us a tour around the building: the "throne room" we were in, a medical office, a warehouse, a kitchen, a shared bathroom, a diner, and our sleeping corners, which looked a hell of a lot like cells. Despite there being so many rooms, every single one of them was empty. No chefs in the kitchen, no doctors or nurses in the medical office, we were the only ones. After the tour, the old man escorted Zeus to a mysterious heavily protected door, hopefully, to treat him. If we were guinea pigs for an experiment, I doubt they would let us die so easily. He must have only shot Zeus to use him as an example for the rest of us. Either way, we all felt bad for making him go through that.

"Don't worry about him, he'll come back even stronger! ʕ•'ᴥ•'ʔ Before you idiots go out and do whatever idiots do in their free time, there's something I would like you all to listen to!"

     She takes us to the throne room we had come from and pushes the throne aside as if it was cardboard.

"What the hell?" Coeus seemed shocked by what he was seeing.

     Behind the throne was a room much darker than the one we were currently in, and inside we could barely make out the silhouette of a radio. We all hesitantly stepped inside and the throne behind us closed on its own, making a loud crash as it slams against the wall. Everyone was startled by it. We couldn't see anything and the only sound in the room was everyone's breathing. Suddenly, we all heard static coming from the middle of the room. A muffled voice arose from the static.

"You are all here because of the crimes you have committed. Be grateful, you all were going to be placed in prison for the rest of your lives if we had not given you this chance." The voice seemed like it was being masked by some sort of software to hide their identity. "We know you have all lost your memories and you all must be scared and confused, but we have an opportunity for you. We do not know how much Annie, our assistant, and your tour guide, have told you so far, but we'll go over the rules. If you want your memories back, you must fight for them. Every day you must all kill somebody and do not forget that one of you is working for us and will kill you all when given the chance. When the traitor is killed, the experiment will end and you will all be freed. If nobody dies by midnight, you will all be murdered-"

"Moida'd, say it right, idiot! ʕง•ᴥ•ʔง"

"-with the exclusion of the person working for us. Every night, assuming one of you has died, we will provide you with a portion of someone else's memories. I must warn you, however, that your memories might contain information you would rather not remember. You are all here for crimes you have committed, some worse than others. Meet up here every night when the timer reaches zero and make sure you do not oversleep. Good luck, players, and don't forget to stay attentive."

     The static fades away. As we're guided out of the room, I notice something strange on my wrist. I look down and it's some sort of watch, displaying the number 86400. Everybody else has one too. At what moment had they put this on us?

"I see you have all noticed the watch wrapped around your stupid little wrists! Well, starting now, you will all meet up here when the timer reaches zero, just like the Professor on the radio said! Your watches are powered by your pulses, so whenever one of you miserable souls gets killed, it'll be stuck on the time of their very unfortunate Moida, wink wink! ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆"

     At that moment, the watch started counting down. 86399, 86398, it seemed to go down every second. I'm guessing if we're not in the throne room by the time it reaches 0, we'll be killed. There's no way, this has to be some sort of elaborate joke, right?

     Some time had passed since we had left the throne room, and we had all decided to explore the place. We had all been bonding in the kitchen when we heard Maia's stomach rumble.

"Haha, looks like someone's hungry!" Yelled out Eris. Jeez, quiet down a bit for once.

"I'm a bit hungry too, actually.." whispered Cerberus. Lola, Cerberus' puppet, began to make fun of him for that comment. What a strange guy.

"If someone doesn't make something to eat, I swear you'll all die by my hands," proclaimed Oizys. It sounded like a joke, but she was probably being serious.

"Well, we do need to eat if we want to keep the brain active and at peak performance," added Coeus.

"Ooh! I know, I'll cook! I don't remember any recipes obviously, but I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something good!" Aphrodite said in her usual optimistic tone.

"Let's make something special for Zeus since we made him go through all that," I suggested.

      We all only met today, but we're already acting like old friends. For a short, short moment, we were able to forget the situation we were in.