The Wheel

68. Michael

Finally! It's over! The chair mechanism unshackled that idiot Chris, and the glass went back up. As soon as this boastful liar took several steps toward the center of the room, all of that office furniture with the wheel went down, and a few seconds later there were screens on its place. The room could be considered perfect: all the inner sides of the cube were covered with black turned off screens.

"Hey, let us out!" I shouted. "Sedate us or whatever; I wanna get out of here!"

"What are we going to do next?" Sam kissed Veronica. "Maybe we'll go to the café?"

"Café? After this?" Veronica laughs, kissing her boyfriend. "Maybe SPA? We need to relax after what just happened."

Sam laughs and kisses Veronica again. Meanwhile Emma was looking around suspiciously.

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

She glimpses at me and averts the gaze: I guess she still feels awkward because of those entries about me that she had to read. Emma is so funny.

"Why doesn't anything open?" David resented. "All of us have spun the wheel already! This freaking trial is over! Over!"

"I want to go home so badly," Miguel said, tired.

"Please, press yourself against the wall," Ayama asks.

We all did as she said.

"So what, are you going to sedate us or open the door?" Kate asks.

"Mr. Virani, get to the center of the room," Ayama asks again.

Something is wrong. Sam once again does what she says. The screen overhead diverges and a small object, wrapped in a cloth, goes down.

"Take it," she said, "you'll need it."

Sam takes the object in his right hand and removes the cloth. It's a gun. Sam opens his mouth in shock, and his hand starts shaking.

"Mr. Virani, you'll have to shoot someone with this gun," she announced another freaking trial.

"No! No!" Veronica screamed, "Not that! Aaaaaah!"

There was a bustle in the room. Damn it! And I relaxed already, imagined myself lying on my bed in the dorm, and now this! Sam's hand that holds the gun, shakes even more: the weapon might fall out of it any second.

"No!" Veronica keeps screaming. "Nooooo!"

"It's okay, sweetie," Sam tries to calm his girlfriend down, "I won't harm you. I promise!"

"Yeah, maybe you're going to choose who you're going to kill through the process of elimination?" Kate said discontentedly.

"Listen, I'm not going to kill anyone, you have my word! I'm sure the gun is not real, it's just another trick!"
Sam points the gun at the floor and pulls the trigger – there was a loud shot and a crack appeared on the floor! Veronica, Emma, and even Kate screamed. Damn it, it's a real gun!
"Oh my God!" he said in shock, and put his left hand on his lips that tremble even more.

"If someone gets to be shot with this gun, you'll leave the room!" said this psycho Ayama.

"You said none of us would have to kill one another! You said we would have only one trial!" Veronica shouted.

"Wait a second, Ms. Spears," Ayama told her calmly," all of this is a part of one trial. All you see is a part of the trial. Your whole life is a trial."

"You..." Veronica resented. "What are you going to do next? You'll make us go through other 'subtrials' that are a part of 'one' trial? Enough!"

"You agreed to that! You knew what you'd signed up for!" she heard Ayama saying her favorite phrase everybody is sick of. "I'll repeat: when someone gets to be shot with this gun, then you'll leave the room.

"Okay, let's stop panicking," David suggested, "we can come up with something!"
"What, are you trying to talk Sam into not killing you?" Chris asks. "You're not succeeding."

"Let me help you, Mr. Virani," Ayama said to Sam, "you must be tired and want to go home."

"And what are you suggesting?!" he yelled, still trembling.

"Well, for starters, put the gun on the floor in front of you," she said.

Sam does as she says – the screen the gun was lying on went down.

"And now we'll watch a short video," Ayama announced, turning on the screens on one of the walls.