The Simulation

1

Tick tock.... Tick tock.... Tick.... tock

The slow rhythmic ticking of the clock felt like torture to you. Especially when you couldn't see a thing.

Dark. Everything was dark. You couldn't make out what was around you, you couldn't move and you couldn't speak. You had no absolute control over your body.

You could feel yourself on the floor. Weak, hungry, and most importantly confused. You couldn't process what was happening and at that moment, you felt lost. You tried to move, but despite your best efforts, you could only go as far as moving a finger.

You eyes were blurry, your brain throbbed hard in your head and your entire body felt like it had been rammed over several times by a truck. The air was dense and you couldn't breathe properly. You made an attempt to speak, but short ragged gasps escaped your lips instead.

A flash of bright light spontaneously filled your vision and you close your eyes almost immediately from the burn. Tears dripped down your eyes like water from a broken dam, slightly easing the burn. When you open them again after adjusting to the light, you're stunned at what you see.

The once dark area was now brightly lit and you could make out what was around you. Everything was painted white.... Everything! Including the ceilings and the floor, it made you so anxious.

The room was cold... So cold you could feel yourself go numb. Black speakers lined the entirety of the ceiling, forming a sharp contrast to its white background. There weren't turned on, but there were glaring. Glaring at you. Apart from the black speakers and a small rectangular window by the corner, nothing else was in the room... except beds.

You see several other kids all around your age, cuffed up to futuristic looking beds. Each had a weird globe around their heads, much like the type SpongeBob wore in Sandy's dome, they were attached to a small tube behind their beds and they looked eerily like oxygen globes. The kids were all donned on weird, ugly hospital gowns and they all looked so sickly and pale, as if they had been ill for a very long time. They were asleep, unaware of their current situation. You look down at yourself-- a difficult task considering the massive globe over your head-- and just like the others, you were also cuffed up. This explained why you couldn't move.

You panicked. Where the heck were you? What is all this? Why were you along with so many others cuffed up here? You had so many questions running through your mind but no answers. You could only attempt to free yourself from the shackles of the cuffs.

The cuffs looked weak and easily to pull off, but you were frail and feeble— you could barely move. It would of course be difficult to pull yourself out of these chains.

Whilst deep in your thoughts, you hear a groan beside you, and you immediately notice that many of the other kids were waking up. You were suddenly washed with a bucket of hope, hope to figure out what was going on and if possible, how to get the hell out of here.

With the strength you had mustered overtime, you opened your mouth and attempted to speak.

"G-Guys!" Shaky, barely audible and unuseful but very effective. Your voice echoed through the quiet room, almost like an outcry. Several eyes turned to stare at you almost immediately, noticing your pathetic state. Chained up, weak and miserable. And as if being splashed with a bucket of cold water, they began to realise their own situation.

Almost instantly, the room was filled with panicked groans and muffled screams. Several of the teens who had miniscule strength tried to break their way through the cuffs. Very stupid! You thought. You've tried, nothing worked.

As you all continued to struggle maniacally, a cold, robotic and detached voice suddenly boomed, echoing off the white walls. "Welcome participants, to the 2045/2046 Apocalypse simulation. A game where the strongest shall strive and the weakest shall be trampled upon"