Video Games

Chapter Nine

Shovelling a cooked piece of potato into my mouth, I wait for the call for today’s game. Nothing really happened last night after the market, where I purchased more bread, milk and a bunch of potato seeds. Again, Tynoco visited and the two of us exchanged goods. It turns out that he’s got enough for ankle supports, so he’s going to buy them tomorrow. They’d only sell them if they had relevance, so investing in a pair is a really wise thing to do in my opinion.

Now, it’s the crack of dawn and the twenty five of us survivors are going off to play whatever game we’re told to play today. All I can work out from the event is that it’s going to be physical and hard to do. If yesterday wasn’t all physical, today will be. This place is designed to push us to the very limits any beyond if possible.

The potato is crushed by my teeth; the soft fluffy insides of the delicacy spurt out of skin and smother my inner cheeks with sweetness. Man, I love potatoes more than I love most things. In return for some of my potato seeds, Tynoco gave me runner beans to grow.

Going outside, I decide to harvest the small batch of seeds that he gave me. I refused to give him half like yesterday, for potatoes are my life, but I gave him a quarter of the seeds and that satisfied him, for he gave me a slab of beef for the bread; we’ve made a deal that he’ll give me things if I give him bread every day.

Knowing my luck, I’m going to end up without bread as soon as he wants more. The market will stop selling it just to make my life so much harder.

Yesterday, he also took the turkey that I promised him; I currently chew on the half eaten leg of the creature that I started to devour last night. After Tynoco left and Dexio paid a quick visit, the bed looked more appealing than ever so I tucked myself in and let myself sink into the darkness. Now though, my dreams are filled with torturous nightmares of slow and painful death. The slicing of those three kids seems to have turned into a gif that’s stuck to my eyelids, for I see it whenever I succumb to sleep.

As I pluck runner beans from their place on the stems grown – if that’s what you call them; I’m not a gardener – I think about dinner tonight. I’ll use the last of the turkey and have a variety of vegetables, using everything but the corn that I’ve grown to hate. Who knew that I’d hate corn in the state that I’m in? It’s probably because I’ve been unprivileged and consumed it raw.

Placing bean after bean in my basket, I think about my purchases today. I’ll probably only buy rice today, for I have enough vegetables to last me for two days or so. That way, I can save up for some special treat, such as ankle supports. In fact, I think I’ll buy them at the first possible minute that I can, for I can only imagine that we’ll be playing something that involves heavy ankle impact further down the line.

“Twenty seven: please report for collection,” some lady’s voice instructs. Sprinting inside with the basket under my arm, I leave the beans on the table and walk towards the entrance of my farm. As the rope ladder is thrown from about ten feet above me, I grunt as my hatred for the swinging support almost hits me in the face.

Climbing the rungs, I decide to look down on my soil; it isn’t raked and it isn’t square anymore, but more of a blob of brown that fades into the juicy green around it. My head pokes through the hole that leads me to the inside of the hovercraft. Seeing only one seat free next to Baiyou and some random girl who looks petrified, I realise that I’m the last one to board. Twenty eight to thirty must’ve been visiting other people before my number in order to be on here before me.

“Psst,” Baiyou whispers to me, eyeing the guards that walk up and down the aisle of the hovercraft. “What are we doing today? I’m so scared.” For the first time since arriving, I see the weakness in Baiyou’s eyes; the scream for help within his facial tone is unbearable. Tears fill his eyes as the chocolate orbs stare right back at me. “I have to make it home for my brother, I can’t die here!”