Trick or Treat - The Annual Teen Massacre

Chapter Nine - Argumentation

Chapter Nine

David felt as if he just went blind. The adrenaline of evading over ten different kind of weapons that all were equally as deadly rushed through his brain. It all happened so fast. Faster even, he felt as if his body had moved more quickly than humanly possible. He tried to rerun the situation in his mind. He was running faster than he had ever ran in his life. Then he saw his parents both with cleavers in their hand. Huge square butcher knives that would easily cut off a limb if they were sharpened enough. They had each at least flung once to his head, as well as Vanessa's. There were more people there, but they were slower than his parents. Maybe because they recognized him less subconsciencely? He didn't know.

But everything seemed to change around him in the heat of the moment. He felt gravity slip away then he jumped, and increase when he came down. Just enough that he still could feel the cleaver running through his hair. Then again he was as light as a feather to make a diagonal leap behind his father who turned around to his left to reach David with his second cleaver once more, before David was out of harm's way. Then all he did was running towards Peter, climb up the stairs out of the manhole. 

David opened his eyes again, but still saw nothing. It was almost like night around him, but there was just nothing to be seen for miles. The evening had only just started, so there still should have been a few hours of sunlight. What was going on?
David looked around to find Vanessa and Peter. They were standing a few feet behind him.  
Vanessa had several nasty cuts on her body, but she still seemed to be able to stand. Peter was busy with Vanessa's cuts. He squished them together and Vanessa flinched a lot. But she didn't scream. Just like back then she showed how tough she was. Her face beamed all of her hate towards Peter. In her right hand was one of the cleavers they had just encountered. 

He saw peter keeping a close eye on the cleaver while he took out a needle and thread from his pocket and started to stitch Vanessa's gaping wounds. They were not very deep, but there was a lot of skin sliced open on her arms and legs. Her clothing was partially torn. 
"You look like a warhero", Peter said to Vanessa. "Your skin will soon enough heal. I think you've already noticed how quick it healed when you survived the Halloween night. Your body is no longer impeded by the GPS. So healing takes it's natural course instead of the limited way."
Vanessa's eyes closed after hearing this. She fainted the second after.
"Probably too much blood loss", Peter said. "Nothing to worry about, she'll be back up in no-time. We're safe here for now David."

A couple of minutes later Peter had fixed all of Vanessa's injuries. The cut in her shoulder was the deepest, and David was sure Peter had used up almost enough thread to cover the distance between them. He felt like taking a few extra steps back, just in case Peter would harm him, but his body didn't feel like moving anymore. It seemed paralyzed and he didn't know why. He tried to talk but even that failed. Had Peter used some kind of trick to keep him this way?

"You can't talk yet, that's fine too. Then I'll do the talking. If you hadn't noticed before I don't mind hearing my own voice", Peter said. He grinned. Probably because he knew David would know he referred to the Halloween night.
"Your body is paralyzed from being tricked. The sewers we just walked through spirals out of the town. We built this long ago in case something like this would happen. It fools the body enough for it not to realize it's leaving the place the GPS told the body it can't go. If we went straight out you two may have suffered heart attacks."
"But why did I save you two? You might be wondering that and that's a good question David, good job. Oh in case you wonder  : i cannot read your mind, but i can sure interpret body language.

"Even when you're paralyzed now I can see your mouth tremble because you want to say things, and your eyes seem to work fine still. But when you moved your body and it saw the town behind us for the first time it realized it wasn't dead in the first place, and it was too late to fake a heart attack to evade the conclusion. So it's adapting now. It's an horribly way to treat a body and a mind like that, but it was neccesary to survive. And the adrenaline that rushes through your body now confirms it."

It all didn't make too much sense to David, but he couldn't stop Peter from talking or even question it. He just stood there frozen. Trying to move, trying to speak, trying something other than breathing and looking. It had no effect. 
"This town is our little playground", Peter continued. "We experiment here how people behave, as well as just have our fun with it. But like everything else in life it has problems. If I wouldn't intervene the town would spin out of control. The golems can only transfer so much items per week. And if the population exceeds that treshold, everyone would have died without even realizing why. 
Starvation would settle in, and everything would become scarce. In the end everyone would simply die or kill each other to survive. In my opinion that is the worst fate."
"That's why I introduced the Halloween night. Trick or Treating would look to the population as a sadistic game without reason. I would introduce rules to make sure enough people die every year, so that the strongest and the fittest people survive. It would be like a reward, so they can live a blissful life."

"But the problems started a long time ago, and more and more people were required to die. Some people would get 'freed'  in the Halloween night, and start to live like animals in the town. They would eat and drink way more than neccesary or break golems. It accelerated the process of scarcity in the town. This would eventually mean this town will die beause of them. That's why my.. Let's call them allies for now, decided to use such a drastic measure to kill off everyone that isn't connected with a GPS."

"Allow me to clear up some things though. We do not, nor have we ever I think, control the golems or the GPS's. People receive them by default in the GPS programme at birth. And the GPS tells the golems what's required in the town to keep it running and alive. The whole system could be around for centuries, maybe even longer. I do not know. Nor do I know it's true perpose."
"The Halloween night is the only night I have actual power over the town. At the other moment my allies take over. Having their own fun with the town. Experimenting, playing. To us this town is one big playground, and we're the children playing with it."

"T...T....That's..", David tried. Peter Gibbiwibbs frowned. 
"Able to speak already? That's unexpected", Peter said. 
Everything Peter had just told him made sense to David. It was both unfair and cruel and merciful what Peter did. But was he good? Was he evil? There wasn't a word for it to describe it all.
But what became clear to David was that there were people that completely scemed his life, as well as his parents. And everyone he ever knew and loved. It was all real, but also manipulated possibly. 
David felt even more alienated to his past life than he already felt after he got pierced by Morgan's sword. 
"So that's why..", Vanessa whispered. She smiled. 
Peter jumped after hearing her voice. David laughed. Peter still was human at least. That was good to know. 
Vanessa stood up straight and looked at David. "Still unable to walk?"
"Yes, but my speech has come back. How long were you conscious?", David asked. 
"I faked fainting", Vanessa said. "I reckoned Peter prefers to show off to one person rather than to both of us at the same time. He was a lot more cryptic before."

Peter fell silent, and David knew why. He wasn't used to being outwitted. Maybe he wasn't even too used to being surprised anymore. 
"So you're like a demi-god to this town then?", Vanessa asked. 
"You could call me that, it sure has a nice ring to it", Peter said. "Also before you attempt to slice me with that cleaver, know that I'm stronger and faster than Morgan. I also wouldn't need a sword like his to kill you", 
"So what now?", David asked. "We're cut off from our town. Will the people kill us when we return?"
"Probably not right away, but I don't know exactly how they were this organized. All I know now is the golems, and therefore the GPS has nothing to do with it. But this may make it a bigger problem, rather than less."
"Why?", David asked. 
"If the GPS and the golems caused this phenomenon, It would be out of self-preservation. Which would mean that they would only try to kill you when they feel their system got threatened. But since the golems didn't act it means my allies managed to do it. I only saw a part of their plans which involved ensuring most -if not all- free people would be dead now."
"But the fact that I'm here means a lot more trouble to them. I'm not sure if they will start to attack me as well, though I doubt they directly would. Also there's a chance this kind of attack will not only happen in this town.."

Peter's last sentence struck David like lightning. 'will not only happen in this town', meant there were more towns in this world. Were Morgan and Peter not from his and Vanessa's town? Was there a whole world filled with people they didn't know about? It sounded ridiculous to David who never knew excistence about a world outside his town. And even if something like that excisted. Wouldn't that only be from people that came out of this town and started their own?
"The world is a lot bigger than you know", Peter said. "And it's a lot more wonderous now you're free of this sad little excuse for a village. But let's first visit the city right next to that before your little minds explode, shall we?"