Frozen Reality for Money

Chapter 7: Open Eyed Beauty Beast

I tried to get myself together. "just think about everything you love and everything you hate" Caleb... he immediately came to mind, he brought me to this stupid place probably to kill me. I saw all the eliminated players on the floor, dead. I squinted and saw several robots circling around. "We are required to collect all the eliminated players blood" To collect the blood of the eliminated players? What were they planning to do? As I wondered in fear another robot came up to me. "Player Cheryl, There are 2 choices for you" The robot stated. "W-what is it?" I gulped. The robot searched for the words it needed to deliver. "You are commanded to pick. You have a choice, serving the game as a robot or being a test subject" the robot stood very still. "You mean I have to be like y-you or be a test subject?!" I trembled. "Yes. This organisation does not waste." The robot pointed to the dead players being dragged into capsules. "This was long deserved." The robot replied. The robot initially smiled and looked as if it felt thrilled. Robots were pleased to see test subjects get thrown into capsules. "Human robots are well deserved... half blood half machine" The robot creepily smiled. "It's your choice, Cheryl. That or us"
I started getting dizzy. The thought of being a robot or suffering death inside a capsule full of preserving acid... I'd be frozen in time. I tried to push this decision later as much as possible. "Would you like the robots to decide.?" another robot questioned. Deciding myself was already hard enough. getting a decision from a robot would result in terrible fear; I always hated others doing things for me. I was infuriated by the way this game treated me. Why would they just kill the ones who lost? Why didn't they leave a chance for them to get a victory next time? This world was cruel. People had robot brains and others were mental. What was the world's point? I started questioning intrusive thoughts. Then, someone broke the chain.
"We, robots, will be deciding for you if you do not claim an option in the next 40 seconds" "40 seconds?! That's all I have to decide?!?!" I shouted at the "annoyed" robot. "System: Your pitch was too high, please try again" a text on the robot's face appeared. "I said, DO I ONLY HAVE 40 SECONDS TO DECIDE MY DEATH?!" I was not going to forever serve a game like this or die for it... But a thought came to mind. I was going to die either way so it would be better to pick the fastest and painless one. If I were to become a robot they'd take out my organs and replace it with machinery... that would be brutal and harsh. On the other hand, my other choice, being a test subject or just merely dying in a capsule seemed like a gift from heaven compared to the first option. It really would be a quicker death for me. "10 seconds, Cheryl Burdings..." The robot still continued to count down my death. Now, I have it. "I'll... be a test subject" Those words of my own rang my ears. I was really going to be an experiment. "Aw that's unfortunate. We could have had another half friend" The robot shook its head. "Follow me"
It led me to a ginormous room with hundreds, if not thousands of capsuled people. It was glowing continuously and blindingly. "Shall we start the process?" The robot had green fingers. It grew a Fwetolis flower, currently among the world's most poisonous flowers. "Thanks to the many, many players who participated in this death game, we were able to create such a flower" The robot slowly lifted the flower as I backed away. "This flower's poison will slowly spread through your body then kill you in seconds or if you're strong, you'll suffocate. That is an almost painless death. Then, your body will be put into a capsule to be tested on'' The flower snapped its jaw at me. The petals were a beautiful ombre but the pistil held a stinger that could potentially reach the antarctic. This beauty beast was threatening. I held my ground and accepted reality. This was going to be the day I last breathed air. Eyes of the beast sprang open. It darted among the capsules then... it landed on me. The robot inched the flower closer and closer towards me. "I-" "STOOOP!" A woman's voice echoed. I turned to see a woman about 28. Strangely she looked oddly familiar, I couldn't quite place my finger on who she was. "I'M WILLING TO SACRIFICE MY LIFE FOR THIS WOMAN!" She shouts. "Who are you-" I tried to say. "From where I stand, this should be illegal!" The woman yells. Her voice seemed to have no effect on the robots. "Why is this organisation even in existence?! You're killing hundreds of lives! I'm here to stop that... I'll be the sacrifice" The robot scans the woman's face. "No name." "Yes that's me, I will sacrifice myself" "Unfortunately that is not an option" Robots said. The woman screamed unconditionally, assuming to provoke the small crowd of robots. "No name, Cheryl will both be executed tonight" The provokation worked. I sighed, what the heck was she thinking? We're both going to die now... a slow, long, fussy, painful death. Was she a spy sent to sabotage the system? Or maybe she was just one of those mental people like Caleb.It didn't matter if she wanted this or not, nothing was changing now. 'No name' was soon cuffed. She tried to fight it off by twisting and biting, which fortunately bought me just enough time to skedaddle. I concealed myself behind the acidic blue machine. I gazed into the tube, it was bubbling and foaming with blue acid. The robot noises died down. I think I might've fallen asleep or got knocked out. I woke up, still in place... with nothing changed. My nose was runny and cold. The smell of rubbing alcohol mixed with several other chemicals filled up my nose. This aroma punched right through my blocked nose which startled me. I jumped up, only to discover that I was alone. I took one last peak around to ensure I was alone. Now, what this crazy woman had caused the robots, was to apparently save me and everyone else. I sighed. This woman had to be saved before the robots killed her and every other innocent life. I had to be the one saving her. I had to at least attempt. "Remember, prey runs, predator hunts" I reminded myself. In this circumstance, I had to be the predator this time. I vowed to myself that I'd do what my mother died doing, fighting. Regardless of who it is or how well I execute it, I wanted to keep my mother's trait alive. My ambition kept growing on me whenever I thought about my mother. But, I had to get over her sooner or later. I confidently stepped out from behind the capsule. My gaze reached the empty space where the capsules had once been. They had disappeared without a trace. But it was there just before I had gotten knocked out! This was strange but useless. I crawled out and reached the door handle and made a run for it. I used all of my strength and stamina to dash out the hall. There were bloody bodies everywhere but none were alive. I was the only one. My mind didn't have the greatest memory but I was able to capture the face of the woman. But now that I thought about it, she looked oddly familiar to me. Her shouting portrayed me and her recklessness described me, perhaps we were so different after all. But one thing was different... but what? I had to figure out who this woman was before it was too late. She could even be a  hand to help me escape this 'game'. I had given up on winning the prize or wish anymore.
I hadn't seen the Caleb man in a while now. He was probably already fighting with his bare hands against someone. The thought of Caleb winning made my blood boil. He was the one who had put me in this mess. I looked around, dodging the dead bodies. But right now, I was going to find out who "no name" was.

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