Trapped

Prologue

"Please," the guy coughs blood from inhaling too much toxic gas. "Just let my kid escape."

The child looks even worse than her father. The probability of the father surviving is bigger than the child's. I can't blame the father for thinking about his kid first, though. We're in a situation wherein you'd think about your loved ones' sake first before yours.

"I don't think I can," the other guy, the one who looks like a businessman, says. "I can only use my access but it's too complicated for a child to use. I want to be selfish and use it for myself. It's mine after all. But, I can't even save myself with my state now."

I look over them. He's right, he can't save himself even with an access to the exit.

You see, the guy have a pole right through his gut. Most certainly not going to survive. He's pale as a ghost from all the blood he loss, and the most likely to die first. Not that no one has died, actually.

There's only this guy who looks like a businessman, the father, his child, and I left in this room. The rest? Lying on the ground looking pale as if left in a freezer for days.

I tried to stand up. I just woke up lying on the floor. My memory of what happened is a bit fuzzy right now.

Trapped inside...

Gas...

Where am I? Last time I remember, I was with my parents and my young niece in a town event.

I look around to make sense of my surroundings, hoping my knocking out unconscious can be explained by someone or something.

These two talking about the exit. Shouldn't there be an exit opened wide for people to freely go out?

Then it all sink in...

We got trapped inside this building before the event could even formally start. Gas leaking out from a pipe inside the two huge lion statues beside the gate of the building. No one knows about the gas. Nor do I.

Everyone were in panic, running in and from every direction. It's complete chaos because for one, there's a gas leaking which may or may not cause our deaths (but will still do us damage even if we manage to escape in time); two, the gate shut itself close because of the lock-down system; three, no one can escape nor anyone knows what the gas is.

Minutes after the lock-down and the gas leak, people started being more chaotic. People started shouting as if directing it to anyone. In reality? They are not grounded to what's really happening anymore. I overheard a conversation about the gas possibly causing people to hallucinate.

Which I found out to be true as an old lady started dancing as if everything is fine. She's talking to her daughter, but her daughter is nowhere to be found. Either she's here alone, or her daughter has fled to who-knows-where.

I tried to remain calm. But with all my surrounding screaming and panicking, it's hard. I walk towards the exit. No surprise to find out it's still locked. I find my way up the building. Thankfully, lesser people are here. Obviously, people are scared to be away from the exit. No one blames them for that.

I glance around and saw a group of people hurrying to somewhere. I walked fast, hoping to catch up with them. They all look collected as if they know exactly what to do.

As I've walked closer, I hear them discussing about the gas causing hallucinations. They talked about it like how I've heard before. Gas. Hallucination. Death. Injury.

My fuzzy memory went by fast. We walked in a room with the president of this organization (who also owns this building). I'm talking about the guy who looks like a businessman and has a pole through his gut. Everything is coming clear. Some of the people lying here tried to steal the guy's access to the exit.

As I've said, I don't exactly know how it works. A card? A key? An I.D.? I don't know.

They attacked each other as there's only one access. At first it was just an argument, then a fight, then a complete attack. Fist swinging, people dodging, the president being stabbed. It's bloody chaotic in here.

As for the rest of what happened, I can't remember. The last thing I remember from that was me being hit in the head. Hard. By someone I don't even know.

And I fall to the ground unconscious.