CHAPTER 6: GAME START

A week had passed, and yet I still couldn't believe what had happened between Dazna and I. Knowing how creative my mind could be, I had several stand-ups each time I thought about that incidence. Sometimes I felt it was all a huge realistic wet dream. True, I was at that curious age (17years), where you want to go with the flow of your body. Spy at girls taking a bath or dressing up. Wanting to feel their bosoms or their tush just like it is depicted on the porn magazines (hidden in a place where only God and I know) or porn videos (crypted in a vault in my phone) I usually watched. I was at that age where one won't skip an opportunity to go out to clubs, fancy restaurants, or crowded areas with sole intention of laying a lady. But little could I imagine getting the first lady of my school in my hands and her tongue in my mouth. If that wasn't a dream, what else could it be? I asked myself.  We didn't speak much after that incidence. She explained to me as to how she had access to my room. I didn't know that as partners we could request the spare key of a partner if the reason is of course important/sensitive. So, she got mine from the warden of our building and came to my room. 

As one would have expected, our WhatsApp forum was very silent. No interactions amongst us. It was only KK, who kept tormenting us with useless messages. I even thought at one point that it was a bot texting. His messages were so illogical and made no sense. He would send us newspapers head titles, random stickers, wise sayings, random and worse than senseless questions. Though it was just gibberish actions, to me it felt calculated. Another week came and passed and nothing happened. During the third week, he sent us a pdf document. The same day the pdf was sent, Dazna landed in my room.

"Was I expected?" She said, as she entered my room.

"Well yeah."

"How so?"

"In our partnership, you are playing the sentinel. Making sure things go the way you planned them. Making sure I am not a deadweight. "

"That's not absolutely true. But still…" She hesitated.

"Anyhow. Let's get to it." I closed the tensed chapter and opened the matters arising. The pdf was describing how the training sessions shall continue. First, we had to submit a form depicting our names, group name and our level in school. When done, we had to verify all the changes that were made on our accounts. If all was ok, we shall be diving into the unknown every three days till the holidays come to an end. During school periods we shall be training only on weekends; specifically, Sundays, at hours which shall be communicated to us. We immediately sent the form (putting the initials of our first names as group name) and waited for the changes. While waiting for the changes we continued reading the pdf (well, she forced me to continue reading). It spoke about how the training space had been segmented into worlds. Three worlds; each with seven stages. Each stage existed simultaneously. It wasn't a hierarchal type of game, where you had to complete stage one and move to the next. Instead, it was a probabilistic one. You could log into world one and fall on stage seven or you could fall on stage one. All the stages exist at the same time.

"It's like Schrodinger's experiment." She spoke.

"Indeed. Our presence determines the manifestation of the stage. But still the lesson to be learnt, or the ideology of the training doesn't change." I responded.

"Yeah. There seems to be a back draft memorization. When one world is encountered and cleared, it won't manifest itself again." She kept on.

"I agree with the memorization. But saying a stage won't materialize, that I refuse." I said.

"Really? Care to tell me why?"

"Since it is just a matter of probability, the probability of materialization might not be zero."

"Not bad of a reasoning. But zero is still a figure." She said, rapidly adding; "That isn't even important."

"Is there something else?" I wondered.

"Since, we are speaking of probability, we shouldn't be looking at it only with respect to the real and complex domain."

"What do you want to add? The quantum domain?"

"Bingo."

"No. You can't be serious."

"I am dead serious."

"What can be the major impact of introducing the quantum factor?"

"The existence of two worlds with the same probability. Hence manifesting themselves at the same time. What do you think might happen?"

"Two things." I voiced

"Go on."

"Either a complete annihilation due to a destructive interference, leading to an unknown state for us the participants. Or…"

"Or?"

"Or a constructive interference, leading to the creation of an unknown world. A hybrid one? Maybe. A completely different one with none of the properties of the parent worlds."

"That's a wonderful deduction." She said, smiling at me. "That will be our main issue. Quantum uncertainties. But we shall leave that for our future selves." She added, standing up to stretch her bones a little. That is when I recognized that, her top dress revealed her bare back, showing that she wore no bra. At that instant, I got a boner and I immediately changed sitting position. I clamped my thighs to hide the bulge of my trouser around the forbidden zone. But I wasn't fast enough. She had noticed the boner but took her original position silently. She began reading the rest of the pdf loudly. She read a certain aspect of the game that caught my attention.

"Hey. Wait a minute. Can you read that again?"

"It was to be expected. You can't possibly be left to remember such an experience." She said.

"And why is that so?" I wondered.

"Because, the experiment is a liability. Am sure we shall have access to a certain level of information that kids at our age are not supposed to know. You wouldn't want a losing participant hold that kind of information."

"Yeah. I see. The information might even be a source of blackmail to those who organized all of these."

"Now we are in phase" She nodded.

As she kept on reading, I kept fidgeting. Trying to shake off that boner that kept increasing in size. Wanting to ward it off, I tried escaping to the bathroom. To urinate and release some stress from that member. But it went south. How so? She locked ourselves in the bathroom. How so? When I stood up to visit the bathroom, I didn't pay attention to any of her moves. I knew of course she would be focused on her reading. But she was spying on me. When I was at the door, with one leg already into the toilet, she pushed me and closed the door behind her; locking both of us in the bathroom. The bathroom was spacious enough for a person, but seemed just right enough for two individuals. I couldn't turn to face her. I didn't want to look at her face nor did I want her to look at mine. The situation she was just from creating wasn't good at all. All that crossed my mind was to feel her up. She placed my tablet in to the hand basin, not even caring to look if the basin was dry or not.

"Dazna, the position of my tablet isn'tꟷ" I didn't finish what I was trying to say. My mouth was silenced by her right hand, as her left hand reached for the zip of my trousers. This didn't look good. I had to stop what she thought she was doing. With my left hand, I grabbed her left hand and tied the rest of her arm under my armpit. With my remaining right hand, I grabbed her right hand too. But surprisingly, I couldn't make any of her hands budge. Her muscles were sternly contracted. Despite having a physique smaller compared to mine, I couldn't pull her hands off my body. And as I fidgeted strongly, my feet slipped and I fell backwards. Falling on her. The impact sound on the door was so loud I thought neighbours would barge into my room. But it wasn't a thought. It was a prayer instead. I feared she would ask me something impossible to do. Or coerce me to do something I wasn't ready for. With the fall, her grip loosened and I stood up. When our eyes met, I knew what I had to do.

"Hey my lady. Are you ok?" I softly asked.

"Am sorry. I… I… I…" She stuttered. With tears forcing themselves out of her eyes.

"You can tell me. I am here. I will always be there." I answered. All my being screamed to comfort her. Or at least put her a little at ease.

"I can't do that. You won't consider me anymore." She answered, facing the floor tiles

"Try me." I said, giving her my hand. She looked at my hand, then me and began crying the more. She held my hand so softly I didn't feel any strength. I pulled her up and warmly hugged her. "You can tell me anything. You don't have to shoulder it alone anymore." "Then, kiss me." She said, with her lips moving towards mine and her hands trembling around my neck. Was it what she was refraining from telling me? I wondered. I did as she wanted. Our lips locked slowly and gently. This time around it was different. My heart was getting a different emotion from her. I couldn't describe the exact feeling but at least that kiss calmed her down.

"Is it awkward to thank you?" She blushed. That was the bell that rang very wrong in my brain. I wanted more. I held her again, with all the lust of taking the kiss to a different level. But as my lips approached hers, my heart and my brain were out of sync. I redirected my lips towards her jaw and pecked it.

"Yeah. It is awkward to thank me, given that I enjoyed it too." I said, smiling.

"Yeah…" She giggled too. And she began narrating. "When I was younger, around 12 years old, I fell sick…"

She apparently contracted a rare disease (which she had forgotten the name). But from her description, it wasn't a disease but rather a traumatic experience. This experience led to severe depression which had so many impacts on her mental health. Among the impacts was a sexual disorder. At her age, she had developed a very high sexual drive, making her body craving the men she was into. This was alarming, for she almost made it out with one of her cousins.

"Does that mean, you are interested in me?" I asked. The ugly part of me wanted to see something else in her.

"Why ask that now? My actions should already tell you." She responded.

"No. You still might just need to fulfil your cravings and are using the cheapest way to that." I answered. That was very mean but I still said it.

"That's mean of you." She responded, turning to open the bathroom door. I pressed the door and locked it once more. Flipped her to face me.

"I see. I understand it a bit too well. I accept the challenge, Dazna." I said, picking up the tablet, opening the door and ushering ourselves out. Before we could sit and brush off what happened in the toilets, my tablet rang, notifying me of a newly received mail. It was a message from the administrators. Changes were made and groups were formed. There were 20 groups listed as follows;

Poison lilies: ATEBA Pascaline, SIEWE Donald

Twin tulips: NEMBOT Diana, NEMBOT Viridiana

Les Troubadours: NYATCHOU Arthur, ONDOUA Eli

N-squared: NANGA Dazna, NDANGA Randy

B-2: ONANA Turner, OTTOU Steve

The Thinkers: NKADEU Jules, SADEU Ryan

Darts: ONDJA Romuald, ONANA Claude

Don men: MANJECK Thuramp, NGEN Rose

Rebels:  AFANA Nikson, ABESSOLO Christian

Strix:  MALESSON Sandra, TONKA Lenore

Overhaul:  ABDOUL Rostand, OUMOUL Corine

T.K: TSANGA Simon, KONGHO Pierre

The Weapons: KETCHEMEN Armel, NKUH Rollins

Task force: EWANE Roland, PENN Peter

SS: NGOUFACK Sabine, NGALA Serena

M.L: MBI Cliff, CHIA Lesly

Impulse:  NGWA Julius, NGOH William

The Flame:  MANDENG Roger, LEMOLA Pulcherie

High Tension:  HADJATI Reine, EBO'O LaGrace

E.L:  ETO'O Aurore, NANGA Laurena

Following the groups was the official launching day of the real tests. Dazna immediately left after that. She didn't look too well, but her expression showed she was already in battle mode. The day arrived swiftly; 1st September 2035. Same time; 7p.m. Same glow on the button and a push followed. This time around the pod looked different. It was like my first time seeing it. The feel while entering seemed new also. I laid, closed the pod and the magic word followed;

"Deep Dive!" And my soul was pulled out. I was brought to a starting area with all sorts of dresses as the eye could see. I had to choose one before being sent to the official starting area. My mind wasn't dress oriented but colour oriented. So, I decided to dress like the gentleman I dreamed to be. I took a black Kingsman Navy Super Wool Suit. The kind of dress I could wear only in my dreams. To look fancier, I added a felt fedora. When I finished dressing, the whole dressing space vanished, restructuring itself to leave me in front of the usual door with the other participants. Everyone had a dress that vibed their mood. As I threw my eyes at every corner of that void space, I spotted her looking at the infinite emptiness. I could only imagine what she was thinking of. I slowly approached her from behind and used my palms to close my eyes.

"Randy, stop it." She instantly reacted.

"Waitꟷ"

"My God. Just listen to your reaction. You sound so dumbfounded. Didn't it occur to you that I had spotted you already?" She voiced. I looked very stupid. But at least, she had accepted me as her equal (I suppose…). Removing my hands, she turned to face me; smiling like a person that just received a surprised gift.

"Welcome, young guns." His voice echoed, spoiling the mood. "Today, is the day. Nigh is the moment. Time to grasp whatever is yours by whatever means. This area, with this door you are facing will be your starting point and ending point. Meaning, you landing back in this space is when your training is completed or when you have been killed during the training sessions. That said, may the heavens smile upon you."

The door opened and the light dashing out from it dragged us through. When the light subsided, I was falling from an immeasurable height. All I saw from that height was a vast arid land with scanty trees. Right below were some other participants. And to my right, was Dazna. She popped out a chain and wrapped around me, pulling me to her.

"Are you ready, partner?" She asked, smiling widely.

"I was born ready babe."