Fatal Order

Part 4: Meaning of Death - 3

The time was 8:34 pm.

Alex had been laying in bed, lamenting everything that had been happening to them so far.

He had been thinking about Aurora, Omar, and Erica. He thought about what happened to them, and the brutal images of their dismembered corpses flashed unwantedly in his eyes, leading him to groan and sigh as he continued thinking about them and their grim fates.

He thought about ways he could possibly save them, how he could possibly save the others, and himself. He also got lost in deep thought as he lamented the odds of them ever actually escaping the facility. Would the Fatal Frolic truly last until only one of them remained alive? He thought hard about this possibility, and the odds of him surviving that long, but he failed to consider the resilience of some of the others in the facility, such as Maria, Adam, and Dante.

Could he outlive them? Would he even want to? How long would that even take?

Similar questions floated around in his mind for a good while, before he was suddenly interrupted by the growling of his stomach, indicating his hunger was beginning to show itself.

"Guh..." he groaned, flipping his body to the side and preparing to sleep, as it was beginning to get late, and he hoped he could sleep the hunger away, so that he could comfortably last another day without any food.

He had gotten desperate and started biting the pages of a book because it technically wasn't food. But, he couldn't get it down, nor did he really want to. It was total desperation.

He slowed his breathing and cleared his mind, as he attempted to drift away into calm, deep sleep.

However, his plans were quickly foiled as he could hear the thundering vibrations of a device beside his bed, causing him to jump up so that he could turn and see what it was.

To his surprise, it was a smartphone. This was especially confusing, as he didn't have one in the facility, and he didn't remember it being there just a few minutes ago when he was lying down lamenting.

It was as if this phone had just appeared as he turned to fall asleep, completely from thin air.

He didn't have time to think about it too hard though, or he'd miss the strange call he was receiving.

It was an anonymous caller, leading him to be immediately suspicious of who it might possibly be. But without much hesitation, he picked it up... and answered it.

"...Hello?" he spoke, hesitantly.

"Alex!"

The voice on the other end was one of a panicking, angry-sounding woman. Alex thought he vaguely recognised it, but the reception was too poor for him to properly tell who it could be. It was too gargled and distorted.

"Y-yes, wh-" Alex replied.

"I don't have enough time to explain!"

The woman was talking incredibly fast, and other voices could be heard in the background, suggesting she was trying to not be caught on the phone with him for whatever reason.

There was a great sense of urgency to her tone and voice, and yet she was speaking very quietly, only making Alex more suspicious of her and her situation, and why it would require her to be so quiet.

"Okay, well- what is this?!" Alex asked, inspecting the phone once more. "Where did I get this phone? What the hell is happening?!"

"I uploaded it," the woman replied.