The Death Game

Chapter 2 - Ascend

The lift doors creaked open, and Ng stepped out. His hairs stood on its end as he came face to face with a grim courtyard. The walls around the corridors surrounding the courtyard were lined with doors that had dark red splatters on them. The familiar metallic smell of dried blood filled the air, mixed with a smell of decay and decomposition. It was putrid, dry, and hot. The odour assaulted his face and made his eyes water. The air was stale and stagnant without so much as a slight breeze. On his left was a staircase leading up the five levels. The stairway was blocked by a gate. He tried to open it, but it was locked, and it would not budge. He shook the gate to try and open it but only echoes of the clanging metal filled the air. He walked around the corridor and tried to open the doors one by one. To his dismay, they were all locked. Behind one of the doors, he heard voices. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying even as he pressed his ears against the door. He heard whispers and what he thought was a child's voice.

He brushed it from his head and walked around trying to make sense of what was happening. There was no way out. He tried to open the gate that led to his house, but that gate too would not budge. He peered through the gate and looked into the house, calling out and trying to get the attention from his family inside the house. He was with dead silence.

He turned around and walked to the middle of the courtyard and looked up at the air well. He noticed a bridge connecting the fifth floor across the air well that ran from the middle of the corridor. The skies were dark and still swelling with rain which could fall at any minute. He took out his phone to check for any news but there wasn't any signal. "No internet. Great. Fuck me," he exclaimed.

As he stood there and looked around contemplating his fate, a loud sound like an alarm blasted through the air. The loud sound was followed by the sound of locks on doors being unlatched.

One by one the doors around him opened and some people stepped out of the rooms which looked like small storage spaces from where he stood.

There were two elderly persons in their 50's or 60's, one of them was a Malay man whom he instantly recognized as his neighbour Pak Farhan, and a Chinese woman that he could not recognize. From another door, two adult women stepped out, one Chinese and one Indian. Two other doors opened, and two adult men stepped out, one Chinese and one Malay. From the last door, a teenage Indian boy stepped out.

All had puzzled looks on their faces, the same puzzled look that was plastered across his face. They stepped out and looked at him while simultaneously looking around quizzically wondering what was going on.

"Oi! Did you do this to us? Did you put us here? Who are you??" screamed the Malay man at Ng. It caught him off guard and he was startled like a deer in headlights. He looked around and all of them were looking at him and staring at him.

The Chinese man ran towards him and grabbed him by the collar screaming, "Who the fuck are you? Why did you put us here? What is this? What's going on? What are you going to do to us?!".

Ng was stunned and found himself speechless. His heart pounded against his chest, and he felt himself pee a little. Fearing his fate, he stuttered, "I... I... I don't know what's... I don't... It's not... it's not me... I... I... I don't..."

The words barely left his mouth when the man shook him and screamed, "You don't what? Say it! Speak! What? You don't what?!"

Every conceivable thought left his mind as he came face to face with the man screaming at him. The Indian girl spoke up, "Let him go! Can't you see. Obviously, he doesn't know what's going on!"

It was this point that the man who had him at his neck let go of him slowly, but the look of anger and confusion still lingered on his face. "Ng is that you?" asked Pak Farhan who was standing on his left.