Hell and Back (EXO x Reader)

Test Tubes (Trials 61-70) [Part 1]

Word count: 4151

Chapter warnings: Mild language and themes

-----

She finally worked up the courage to open the app again. No one wanted to keep going. Why would they? This was a nightmare, it had to have been. She'd remembered everyone's constant warnings and predictions, which had been so frequent at the beginning of the game that they were borderline annoying. Things were always bound to get harder. Was it worth continuing? Or were they all just so broken by this game that they were mentally married to the idea of going on?

Congratulations! You have completed the Delegate Trials. Welcome to Round 6, the Vat Trials! Round 6 will consist of 10 simultaneous trials, one for every player. If a player cannot continue or chooses to drop out, the trial will be null for that player and they will be penalized with the dropout fee. Other players are not affected. Round 6 will end after trial 70.

"Are we really doing this?" Xiumin asked, trying to get one of the other members to make eye contact with him. "After..."

"If you don't want to do it, drop out." Kai said curtly. "None of us will blame you."

"No, that's not..." He tried to defend himself, but just fell silent. They were all waiting to see who would take charge. Everyone listened to Suho, but now that he was gone, there was sort of a power void. While everyone wanted direction, they also didn't like it being anything other than their status quo. If Kris were to take charge, Chen would be upset. Same with Kai. But if Chen took charge, the reverse would be true. Sehun and Xiumin weren't stupid, but they also weren't forceful enough to demand anything from the stronger members. Kyungsoo was the most logically thinking, but he was too sarcastic and confrontational for anyone's liking.

Finally, Y/N was the one to make the decision to continue. She didn't want to, but she was the best choice they had right now. She was by no definition a leader of their friend group, but no one really had a problem with her, and no one wanted to upset her, so she had a good feeling they'd listen to her, or at least pretend to. Not to mention that she was the one who had entered them in the first place, so it was sort of her responsibility.

"It says the trials are simultaneous, that means we're all doing them at the same time." She said, looking at the message again. "We could end up separated. Do we have a plan?"

"As if making any sort of plan against this thing is going to be helpful." Kyungsoo said. It was unlike him, he was generally the first proponent for a designated course of action. Still, he wasn't wrong, nothing they did would really be of use.

"Everyone has their phones?" She asked, receiving only nods. "And their items?" Nods again. "Alright..." There was no putting it off. She pressed the button to start the trials.

The first instruction they were given was simply an address. It was about thirty minutes out of town, an empty distribution center that had ben poorly located, so much so that it ended up abandoned. Sooner or later, as the city expanded, someone would buy it, but for now, it was desolate. They all piled into Kris's car, which was admittedly less crowded, not that anyone liked it that way. They spent the first few minutes in silence, but eventually she couldn't take it any more.

Sehun, who had the window seat, had already fallen asleep because of the monotonous vibrations of the car, with Xiumin leaning on him from the middle. She couldn't see Chen or Chanyeol well, as they were in the very back, but they certainly weren't paying attention to anyone else. Lay had passed out in their row as well, half on top of a slightly squished Kyungsoo, seemingly tired all the time. Kai was staring out of his window side, ignoring Baekhyun to his left, who was messing around on his phone with earbuds in. They had given her the front seat now that Suho was gone, and obviously Kris was driving since it was his car.