Just a Game

Orientation [Producer Side]

The office smelled of pancakes on griddles, but Diwa Santos wasn't especially delighted. She plopped down on a random chair in a dazed sort of clarity. It was weird how she could see everything going on around her so clearly, yet feel so not-put-together at the same time. It felt like that one time when she had to get up at three a.m. to catch a long flight to the Philippines to visit her relatives. Lowkey excited, sort of anxious, but also simply tired.

"Um... 'morning," Bryce ventured. Diwa's younger colleague was the one making pancakes, and she had to admit that he was very good at this kind of thing, having worked at a bakery before joining the company.

Perhaps he wished he had stayed at the bakery. That way, he wouldn't have to be here. He wouldn't have to look so guilty every time he caught her eye, even though there was really nothing to be guilty about. Yes, he signed a contract that could potentially wipe out most of the world's population, that was true. But he had a gun to his head, and she had a gun to hers. Bryce had no choice, and Diwa wasn't going to blame him for something he didn't had a choice in.

She still wished he would start functioning like a normal human being, though, instead of having a panic attack just about every three hours. It had been months since they were abducted, and it was about time he got his shit together. It would have at least given Diwa someone to talk to, Bryce was one of the only friendly faces here, after all. "Here" being an airship by the name of Doomwhisper Station—or a virtual airship by the name of Doomwhisper Station, to be exact. Diwa wasn't too sure how it happened, but apparently their abductors—the murderers of their late boss, Mrs. Hunt—had created some sort of virtual world that users could actually "live" in once the devices were hooked onto them.

At least that was what Diwa assumed happened. She had been knocked out very soon after Bryce signed the Contract of Doom (that was what Diwa called it inside her head) and the next thing she knew she was on this airship. Everyone knew that airships didn't actually exist—yet—and therefore she decided that their abductors couldn't have been lying when they told her that their consciousnesses had been projected onto this airship through a device they invented.

It was a pretty great airship, though, Diwa had to admit. If she didn't consider the part where she and her colleagues were abducted, her boss was shot, and the world as she knew it was likely to end in the foreseeable future, she would have found the airship very enjoyable. It was beautiful in a high-tech sort of way, the walls were sleek, the floors sparkling clean, and each of her company was allowed a little something that reminded them of home—probably their abductors' way of being "nice". Diwa had asked for some plants, and received cute pots of cacti with eyes on her brand-new office desk. Susannah, one of Diwa's colleagues, had asked for cats. They gave her fifteen, of various colors and sizes, and even though Diwa wasn't as smitten with animals as crazy cat lady Susannah was, she had to admit that these virtual felines made the airship a bit more homey.

This applied to just this part of the airship though—the airship was huge, and Diwa hadn't even seen all of it yet. She was allowed around the staff headquarters only, and that was already a gigantic area by itself. Her abductors did say that she would be sent to the contestants' living quarters very soon, to make sure that everything was in order and help confused contestants around, and she was looking forward to that.

Looking forward to seeing what the contestants' living quarters were like, of course. Not looking forward to meeting the contestants. Diwa liked meeting new people, but she didn't particularly enjoy meeting new people who could possibly very well die in this game-thing they signed up for.

They thought this was just a game, just a way to have some fun and appear on TV. Oh, they had no idea.

Diwa shivered at the thought of the plans their abductors had in store for the contestants. Those unfortunate souls had no inkling what they were getting into. There were families, nice elderly couples, children, even babies. Diwa couldn't imagine killing babies. But that was bound to happen, one way or another, according to their abductors' plans.