11 The Athenaeum Pt.1

And when Rebecca was confused about how Danny reached down here and on whether he had already turned into one of those creatures they call The Bits, we know that none of us had an HG on us. It was all over confusing for her.

Rebecca asked Danny," How... is it that you got till here. I know that I and James reached here through the same elevator. And the elevator does not go up ".

Danny scratched his head and said with a smile," I saw two routes and then chose to go straight rather than to my right, the path behind me just became a wall and I just ignored it and went on ahead and came along with this group and that's how I reached till here. Well, to be honest, it was a hefty ride ".

Danny then introduced Rebecca to the rest of them. Danny told," This is Josh, He might be an old man but he has got the best hearing out of us. This is Noella... ", he whispers to Rebecca and James and then said, " She is amazing all-around ", then he continues in his normal tune and says, " Noella is just the best. And then finally this is Takashi, He is the one who kept us alive till now, he is just cool ".

After Danny had introduced the others he told Rebecca and James, how they all together reached down here, Rebecca and James were convinced that this is their "Danny" but, James was still confused about how Danny had made it out of the 66th Floor because he did see Danny was bitten by one of the Haveks back there and now the mark isn't even there. The first reason that came into his head was that Danny could have been treated by the Doctor on the 51st floor.

Meanwhile, There was a beep from one of the speakers that none of them could notice since they didn't have an HG attached to any of them. The Overseer said," Hello There! Aren't you all happy about reuniting with each other? Man! I am happy on seeing some familiar faces, it gives me the nostalgic feeling of when we all were together during the War in Dart in 2030, now known as New Dart. Can you believe it has been 10 years and you all look like you haven't aged even a bit "

The Overseer then continued," Oh Nevermind me just spaced out for a while, I also should add my students from the other Pieces... Ah! There you go I wanted to inform you all of something important the Pieces are numbered in which you are on according to the order I say. The students of aged 16-22 in Batch A are on the 1st Piece. The Adults are on the 2nd Piece. The students of aged 16-22 in Batch B are on the 3rd Piece. The students of the age of 15 and below are on the 4th Piece. The students aged 16-22 in Batch C are on the 5th Piece. The last one was supposed to be the Batch D for the age of 16-22 but, they all died, So, I will call it Hell Piece. I will elaborate it by telling it calling out my favourites in each Piece, 1st Piece is Benjamin, 2nd Piece is James, 3rd Piece is Lucas, 4th Piece is Allan, 5th Piece is Sarah and 6th Piece is Hell. And now the surprise of reaching the end of the Hive. But, only one in each can receive it, So, I have put up a game here look at where you all are standing, all of you are given a colour tile where you are standing on and ya it glows. Now, look at the four sides of the platform, since, the Building is the shape of a Triangle in every Piece, There are three sides and the colours are blue, pink and white. The colour on the tile you are standing upon shows where you have to go to. The game is based on luck ad it is simple. Stand on your corresponding colour team and the team colour glows till the others stop glowing wins, the tile in the middle represents a roulette arrow, So, Understood I assume?... Ok, then I have another thing to attend. I will be taking my leave then "

Then he Beeped off. And the game started. It all begins in the 1st Piece Diana, John, Hassan and Me on Blue, George and Benjamin on Pink, Andrew and Jean on White. And then on the 2nd Piece Rebecca and Danny on Blue, Takashi and James on Pink, Noella and Josh on White. In the 4th Piece, the Overseer didn't play the game with them and let them pass on to the elevator. And the 5th Piece, the Overseer didn't play the game as he did with the 4th Piece.

And then the games begin. Since there are only two of the pieces participating which are the 1st and the 2nd Pieces while the rest of the others have left for the elevator early and are on their way to the 45th Floor.

In the 4th Piece, Allan and the others didn't know what to do since they didn't see anything the Overseer specified. Their HG along with the others in the 5th Piece beeped and the Overseer said," Unfortunately, you all won't be playing the game like the others are since there are only a few of you. If there was a minimum of 6 in your group you could. So, you can go on to the elevator and the groups that don't play are on the 3rd Piece with only two members, 4th Piece with five members and 5th Piece with four members "

Then the HG beeped off. Allan and the others reached the elevator, as they got close to it the elevator opened for them. Their HGs beeped and the Overseer said," The Athenaeum is Guarded but the Athenaeum Watcher loves kids, I can guess it will be easy for you kids "

The Beeped off and Allan was getting worried about me and the others since we are playing whilst they had made it through the Hive and are off to the Athenaeum. The was going in the minds of Sarah as she and the other had also made it through and are off to the next one in Athenaeum.

Meanwhile, The games had started in the 1st and the 2nd Pieces. In the 1st Piece, The Roulette arrow started to move faster and faster and after a while, it started to slow down as it stopped at Blue that's where Diana, John, Hassan and Me were, The blue light just went off and there were two pink and white. The Roulette arrow started to move again and before long the arrow started to slow down and landed at White which is where Andrew and Jean were, The white light went off. The Speakers then went on and Someone other than the Overseer spoke and said," Congratulation, The Winner is Pink! "

Then suddenly we all were in cages and lost, as the person continued," Unfortunately, the others have another game to play before they join up with you, So, both of you can move on ahead stay here along with them and play the second game but the gates will reopen only after the second game is over and then it would be over and the all off you could move on ahead "

In the 2nd Piece, the game had come to its conclusion and the Winner was Blue which was Rebecca and Danny. And the same happened to them they had a choice to move on ahead or stay to play the second game with the others. Both 1st Piece and 2nd Piece chose to stay with the others for the second game.

The Platform below us started to shake as it was about to prepare the second game for us, we waited till the ground was still. The person in the speaker continued," The games are simple since the 1st Piece has eight members and the 2nd Piece has six members, you both will play two different games on this platform. The game that the 2nd Piece will play is called sliders to the fortress, The game is understandable if you look around you. It is about protecting your fortress, from the other team and the team has already been selected as you look at your tile, it will be numbered 1 or 2 and there will be no rules applied to the game. So, move on to your numbered team and the obstacle in the middle below the slim stairs divides your team from the other team's entryway from below. The task to win the game is to take the flag of the other team from their flag stand to your fortress. And the 1st Piece will be playing a game of Tag-it, as the game suggests there will be one Tagger and the game can go two ways for the Tagger, that is, Lose the game by running down the timer or Win the game by tagging everyone. So, as you all understood the game will be played 8 times, since, there are 8 of you and everyone will be a Tagger, The Taggers will play according to their numbering from 1-8. And sure you could take a break in the middle of the game but when you do the timer will be paused if everyone agrees they have to put their palm on their HG, In the 2nd Piece none of you has an HG, So, there will be no time limit in your game. So, Go on with your games respectively "

Now the second game was about to get started but we were thinking ahead on moving on to the 45th Floor, In the 2nd Piece, the Teams were Takashi, James and Josh in Team A. Rebecca, Noella and Danny in Team B. And in the 1st Piece, The Taggers in order were Jean, Diana, John, Me, Hassan, Andrew, Benjamin and George respectively.

In 2nd Piece, they all were off to their fortresses, Team A was on the left and Team B on the right. Takashi went on and stood next to the flag and started thinking about whether there was more to the game," Can we escape instead of playing the game or would he kill us all since they tried to cheat but he did say there are no rules and if there is a passage it should be below or could it be o the side which lead us to the elevator which he did say the doctors had a private one ", He started conveying his ideas to the others in his group and then decide to the play for a while and drop the opposing team member to the floor below the bridge and convey the idea to them then, It was a clearly planned 1st Phase but they still had to think of an idea to find the passage away if there is one, if not they planned just to continue on with the game and see what he had planned on ahead.

While on the 1st Piece, we were all set to play the game since the confusion of losing a few members and moving to other groups, it all went so quickly but we had to believe in their decisions there. The first tagger was Jean and she had to stan on a designated tile which was in the centre of the platform and the field was set perfectly since the whole platform was set up like an old ruin where we could hide from place to place to not get tagged by her, we all didn't also know what does she tag us with, is it with her palm or laser tag gun. Meanwhile, in the centre of the platform where Jean was, she was given instructions individually since hadn't heard anything about how she tags us, we all had already known the game had started.

We all shifted positions in the ruin to get away from the reach of Jean plus we knew she was smart enough to seek us at least. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder and then I saw it was Jean. Jean said, "Tagged you, Alexa!". It seemed like Jean had to Tag by hand but then I saw that she was wearing a pair of gloves that looked weird, it looked like a hand seemed to be melting or slimy. The others were all given notice that I was the first tagged out of them, the game had gotten even more intense after the 1st Tag of Jean...