Play to survive -1

"No, Chakravartin! You can't do this" Priya pleaded to let us free.

"How dare you raise your voice in front of me, Chakravartin, the Supreme? You have already done so much immoral, and now shouting at me! Don't you know my anger can be the reason for your end?", the Supreme roared with extreme anger, with fire igniting from him, "So as I said, you all will be playing a game, consisting of 4 levels. If you all pass all levels, I will set you all free. But if you fail a level, you all will choose a person among yourselves to die. This means that whoever remains till last will be free. And remember, you have only 30 minutes for each level. You will get instructions for each level. Prepare for the first game", and he disappeared.

Our surroundings turned into a dark forest. A scroll fell from above. We opened it and read, it told us about the first game, "In the first game, you are escaping from warriors highly trained with weapons who kidnapped you. Now they are searching for you. You must go in the direction you are facing without being caught by the warriors. You will find some weapons and materials for your help on your way. One person can take one piece of equipment at a time".

As soon as we closed the scroll, some materials appeared before us. Almost everything there was useless, at least this is what we felt at that time. We picked up binoculars, a blowgun and nothing else. Soon we heard some noises, there was something in the bushes. I looked through the binoculars, "Run everybody! They are coming!". We immediately sped up to escape, but they were not someone whom we can fool easily. They were running and jumping and chasing us on trees. We had no option but to hide in the bushes and we dived into the bushes. They kept looking for us for a long time. And we were struggling to remain in the bushes. The thorns were piercing into our skin, the ground was muddy and dangerous insects were flying around us for blood. We were already in a bad situation. Finally, they were gone. We came out of the bushes, itching ourselves, we were also bleeding in some areas.

Kevin called out, "Guys, more stuff is available here". We moved there and took 3 bags and a water bottle. Now we can keep this stuff somewhere. We proceeded but we forgot the direction.

"Don't worry kids, I know where to head. There was a hill in the direction we were going, so we just need to look for that hill. Does anyone know how to climb a tree?"

Priya ran and climbed the tree in no time. She disappeared into the canopy. "Gotcha", she slid down, "This way, follow me".

We ran in that direction non-stop, not stopping for even a second. Suddenly something struck me- time, how much time is left? As I had the habit of looking at my watch in my hand, I did so and I had a watch on my hand. I remember I wasn't wearing it all this time. Maybe the game gave us this. I started to sweat when I saw the time, only 13 minutes were left! We need to hurry up. But a pack of wolves jumped out of nowhere.

"The game told nothing about these animals. They shouldn't be here" Adam was well aware of what those sharp teeth and claws could do.

"Of course, no one can expect animals to be found in forests, right?" I mocked him. As soon as they began to move towards us Kevin killed them with his blowgun *Nice move*. Now, this is what we need here, we got more materials after killing the wolves and these were valuable ones- a sword, assault rifle, RPG, ninja stars, boomerang and a combat knife. I picked up the rifle, Adam took the sword, Kevin put the knife in his shoes and Priya lifted the RPG on her shoulder.

We wasted no more time and left for the destination. But we could see the warriors again at some distance. I turned around to ask what to do now and I saw Priya ready with the RPG for a blast, all she needed to do was to press the trigger and she pressed. The aim was perfect, and it lit up the entire forest and this was the biggest mistake we did. Soon warriors appeared from everywhere, on every tree. We were trapped. They ran towards us with their deadly weapons. We had no other option but to give it a try with our weapons. I started firing like anything, it almost hit Adam one time. Others also fought against them.

"Whoa! I can't believe I am killing someone, I am using a gun" Adam was shouting like crazy.

"This shouldn't be happening. Adam's mental state is becoming unstable" Kevin teased him.

"Check the dead warriors, maybe we can find something" I suggested and I found some grenades, "Here, take these". And we rained the grenades at them. Finally, it was over. We had just 4 minutes left. A cave was in front of us. We made it in time. But as soon as we got there, Kevin spoke in a low voice, "Guys, I have been hit". We were aghast. We thought we could pass these games without any casualties but this was different than we thought. A voice asked us, "Who will be killed?". We didn't want anyone to be killed and didn't want to take anyone's name but it threatened that if we do not take anyone's name all of us will be dead. So we decided whosoever will be dead in that particular level, that person will only die. Kevin had to leave us. I couldn't stop my tears. I wanted to kill myself for what I have done. But we have to keep playing to get out of this wicked game.