Seven

Chapter 21- The New Reform

"Six! Wake up!"

Mario opened his eyes, closing them shut immediately because of the brightness. It took him a few seconds to come to his senses, but when he did, he jerked himself up and looked around in confusion.

"Slow those breaths down before you have a panic attack," Carmen said, sitting next to him on the ground.

"Where are we?" he asked her.

"I have no idea. Apparently, some small island off the coast of Maine," she shrugs, looking around.

"How did we get here?" he asked.

"We swam," she shrugged. "Well, I swam. You just floated along while I dragged you."

"How long have I been out?" he asked, touching his head and wincing at the throbbing pain in his temples.

"Like a couple of hours or so, maybe more. Sorry, I don't have a way to keep track of time," she said, standing to her feet. "The ship is gone. I guess it's at the bottom of the ocean by now."

Mario tried standing to his feet, but he was very unsteady, almost as if he were drunk, or had taken a pain killer. "Do you feel okay?" he asked Carmen, wondering if she felt the same.

"Yeah, all things considered. There wasn't a whole lot of oxygen in the tank. Or maybe there never was any," she said, motioning to the tank lying a few feet away, the wet suit crumpled up in a pile next to it.

"They will probably come looking for us. They seem to always know what we're up to, even when we escape," he said.

Carmen nodded in agreement. "You're right. In this case, it might not be such a bad idea for them to find us. I mean, it's either that or stay here until we starve to death. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a horrible way to die."

"The other players....what do you think they did to them?" Mario asked, still not able to get the grizzly, disturbing image out of his mind.

It looked exactly like them, only their skin was pale, almost a green-ish color. Their eyes were bloodshot and crazy. They didn't seem to have any control over themselves.

"I have no idea. We thought they were eating them, but I guess turning them into zombies isn't quite as bad, Carmen shrugged.

"No one came here thinking something like this would happen to them. If they had known..."

"That's probably why Dr. Vincent didn't bother to bring it up. The invitation made it sound as if we were invited to a party with games, not fight to the death. If we had known, none of us would've showed up," Carmen answered.

Mario looked at Carmen, his eyes stilled glossed over in a daze of fear and confusion. "I didn't choose to come here. I was forced to. I can't...I can't explain it, but...I had no control over myself."

"I know, same," she said. "I'm not one to get into cars with strangers, so when I originally said no to the invitation, Agatha touched my arm and suddenly, everything went black."

"They are using some kind of mind control on us. Even if we get away, they can always bring us back. Even if we don't want to kill each other, they'll find a way to make us. I don't understand this. Why are we here? Why us? There's millions of bad people in the world. Why were just the seven of us chosen?" he asked, even though he knew Carmen didn't have the answers.

"This is all some sick way Dr. Vincent entertains himself, I guess. I have no idea why anyone else was here, but I...I feel like I deserved this."

Mario looked at her in surprise. "I don't care what you've done. No one deserves to be treated this way."