Chapter 2

     “Catch!” Derrick tossed the key to Lenard rather confidently and grinned, which the latter caught with one hand.

     They walked towards an entrance that leads to a flight of stairs going up into a hall lined with doors to each players’ rooms. Lenard opened the first door and they all went in one after another. The lights turned on in an instant revealing 2 bunker beds and a single bed on each corner of the room complete with pillows and blankets in all black. The walls and floors are all white in colour creating a vivid contrast. A circular, glass table is placed on the centre of the room.

     “The single bed’s mine! I call dibs.” Vince, eyeing the single bed already claimed it. not expecting the disapproval from his teammates.

     “No! Everyone wants that. I suggest we should decide it over a fair game of arm-wrestling. “Harold argued.

     All of them agreed, nodding their heads as an approval. Satisfied with his team’s competitive reactions, Harold walked towards the table first, sat down and placed his right arm on the table, ready for the game.

     “Who wants to lose first?” He said boastfully, glancing at everyone in the room who were staring at him flexing their muscles as an act to scare him.

     “You, obviously!” AJ replied, mocking him.

     Suddenly, they heard the sound of something breaking from somewhere in the room but it was too late to figure out where its coming from. In an instant, the floor where Harold was sitting on, crumbled and dropped towards oblivion taking the table and Harold down.

     Momentarily surprised at what just happened, Derrick and the others immediately rushed towards the hole that has been created by the unknown incident. They look down and saw Harold laying down in the middle of the broken pieces of glass that was once the centre table. He is on top of a thick, circular metal platform in the middle of the hole.

     They all burst into laughter, teasing and mocking poor Harold who was unconscious from the long fall he experienced.

     “What a loser!” Lenard said in the midst of hysterical laughs.

      Derrick doubled over in laughter and sat on the floor, holding his stomach. His head tilted upwards and a confused expression appeared on his face. His laughter stopped and he stared at the ceiling, still stunned.

     “What the hell is that for?” He said to get the attention of the others. They looked at him with ridiculous smiles on their faces, the remnants of the earlier funny fiasco. Confused, they glance up towards what Derrick is looking at.

     Up on the ceiling is a timer that shows 20 minutes, counting down. The timer actually started at 25 minutes but it took them awhile to notice it. They looked at each other with bewilderment until Vince realized what’s going on. He looked back down to check on Harold and saw him slowly raising himself up. He is covered with blood from certain parts of his arms and face that must have been pierced by broken pieces of glass.

     Harold, at first was unaware, looking around him to process the situation. He looked down behind him and saw a message written on the metal platform that he was previously laying on. It says, “THE UNIFORMS”.

     “Harold! What’s down there?” Vince asked, seeing Harold staring down for a few moments.

     Harold looked up and said, “The uniforms!”

     “What? What uniforms?” Lenard shouted. He’s starting to feel annoyed at all of this.

     “There’s a message! It says THE UNIFORMS!” Harold repeated.  He looked around him again in attempt to find more clues as he started to feel the temperature increasing around him. Thick flames suddenly appeared meters away below him. His eyes widened in fear and in a split second, the platform descended, moving him lower and closer towards the fire.

     “What the fuck is this?!” AJ exclaimed, horrified.

     “He’s gonna get roasted alive!” Derrick added.

     Vince looked up. There’s only 15 minutes left now. “We have to save him!” Vince said in a panicked voice.

     “How? By going down there and get roasted alive with him?!” Lenard raised his voice. The others seemed to get his point and agreed with him.

     “We’re a team, you f*ckers!” Vince furiously shouted, realizing his team mates had totally decided to let Harold die down there.

     “Help me! I don’t want to die!” Harold screamed when the platform went lower again.

     “No one cares, you dumbhead!” Lenard replied then he stood up and walked towards the single bed. He laid down entirely unbothered of the possibility of a person’s death.

     “He’s right. People are bound to die here anyway. The question is when.” Derrick supported Lenard’s opinion.

     “Just pretend we never met him.” Lenard said dismissively.

     “What are you all talking about?! Are you saying we should just let him die?!” Vince stood up in rage, glancing at all of them.

     “D*mn right! Why bother saving him when he’s almost dead already? "Derrick responded.

     At this point, there’s only five minutes left and the platform where Harold is, descended, now only a meter away from the scorching fire.

     Harold is sweating and crying, begging them to save him but only Vince appears to thinks so. They spend the last five minutes arguing over Harold’s life, disregarding their only chance of surviving, THE UNIFORMS.

     They stared up at the ceiling, looking at every second that passed until there’s only 10 seconds left. The timer disappeared and they thought that it’s all over.

     Vince however internally continued the countdown from 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1. He felt guilty inside because he knew that he really doesn’t want to save a dying member. He just pretended to worry and care but if he really did feel so, he would have done something, he would have done his best to save Harold but he didn’t...

      “MISSION FAILED”, appeared on the ceiling in red coloured lights. And that was the last thing in their lives that they all saw before the entire room collapsed, and they fell into their demise...