Just as a hunter stalks his prey

Two hours.

I spent the last two hours sitting right where she had made the declaration that I would have to take someone's life in the open. Alongside myself, sat six out of the seven others who were tasked with the same fate.

Sitting opposite from us, was Lilith, who showed no intention of leaving or taking her eyes off of us.

We in turn, did the same, alternating our gaze between her and each other, waiting out the tensive wait.

In the meantime, I decided to go through the system and check out the rules of the game. She was right about them being uploaded into our systems from the start. We just hadn't bothered to find out if there were any rules.

It was only after I went through the rules carefully, certain I didn't miss anything, that my lips curled into a satisfied smile.

"Interesting." I mouthed under my breath, staring directly at Lilith, who had her gaze directed at me.

"Time's up!" Lilith suddenly announced, rising to her feet without breaking eye contact with me.

"So soon?" Double 'O' eight mused, slowly stretching her limbs as she stood firmly beside me, arching her back and puffing her chest forward.

A window suddenly appeared on my system, it was some sort of alarm that alerted me that our two hours was truly over.

"I'm guessing everyone received the information too." 103 gruffly said, resting both his hands behind his head. He was so bold to have taken a nap in between hours.

My ears picked up on the sound of footprints slowly approaching from all sides, chatter came from mainly from my right side. Where most of the others who had laid in wait from a safe distance all emerged from, with pissed expressions on their faces.

Once a good number of us were gathered, Lilith took the initiative to mount herself on her favorite pillar and address us all.

"I think that's everybody, so without wasting any more time, let's start." She announced, sounding much more serious than ever before.

As soon as she said those words, the same group of men who had on safety hazard masks emerged from deep inside the forest.

My lower lip parted in shock when they rushed towards us, and started to inject us all one after the other, moving as still as shadows.

"When did..." Before the words could leave my mouth, one of them grabbed my left arm and thrusted a syringe into it.

Out of reflex, I rested my right hand on his shoulder and gripped it firmly to try hurt the bastard.

But the moment my fingers dug into his shoulders, my eyes widened in shock, followed by the sudden loss of consciousness that took over me.

And before I knew it, my body landed hard against the grass, as my vision only narrowed till all I could see were hazy figures lifting everyone unto stretchers.

"Make sure to round up everybody...." Was the last thing I heard, before I wounded up losing consciousness myself.

*********

The faint sound of someone's breathing against my right ear tore me out of my unconscious state. My eyelids slowly lifted only to be greeted by a blinding light, that forced my eyes shut.

"You awake?" The voice beside me sounded more like a question than an observation.

I tilted my head to the side and opened my eyes once more, aware that I was conscious, and sitting on something soft. For some reason, my feet were still numb as I was yet to feel the ground underneath them.

"008?" My voice almost didn't leave my mouth. The deafening silence helped to pass my voice towards her.

"You sure do take your time." She muttered to me, gesturing me to follow her gaze, which I promptly did, my eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness.

I followed her gaze till we were both staring at the same thing right in front of us.

"What the hell..." The words barely made it out of my mouth, my eyes widened in shock, tightening my chest.

"We woke up only to find everyone in this condition." 103 who was seated at my left hand side explained, heightening the tension I was feeling.

"This...This..." I still couldn't find the right thing to say, my fingers curled into an angry fist, as my eyes landed on 205.

Just like the others, her hands were tied behind her back and her entire body was bound in ropes, preventing her from moving.

But...

What made this sickening, was the fact that her feet were suspended in the air, with the butt of a dagger sticking out of her mouth. Each person was hung on a hook, and had the sharp part of a dagger tickling their throats.

"Try not to fall down yourself." Blondie stated from the second seat to my right, shifting my attention towards him.

He had his eyes facing downwards, with an all knowing look on his face. I followed his gaze and discovered why the hell I couldn't feel that ground beneath my feet.

There wasn't any.

All eight of us were placed on a seat, five meters above the ground, just like the others, we were supported by a large steel hook, that kept us in the air.

"Where's Lilith?" I thought to ask, if anything, she should at least give some sort of explanation.

"I'm right here triple three." She called out in a light hearted tone, diverting my attention towards her voice.

Lilith stood on top of the heads of two of the other players, adding her weight to theirs, causing them to wriggle like warms, struggling to escape.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, see that." She said, pointing at the hook above them.

"If you continue resisting, the dagger will either slit your throat, or the hook will give way and send you crashing down." Her sinister warning reached the stubborn player, who swiftly kept still. Despite having the sharp tip of Lilith's heel prodding at the middle of his head.

I parted my lips to speak, but refrained from doing so, it was obvious that she got a kick out of my mysery. If anything, showing my perplexity would only encourage her to hurt more people.

"Welcome to the first execution round in our little garden. As you are all aware, these eight are the only ones who cleared the first game. And as a reward, they earned a kill right. In response to this, we've reached the most crucial stage of the game." She took a pause and smiled at the ropes, suspending people as though they were animals.

"I'll quickly run through the dictates of how this goes, do well to remember." Lilith said, changing the people she stood on top.

"Firstly, all eight of you have to cross the person you'd like to have killed on your systems. Following that, your prey will be dropped down to the execution ground beneath you."

I felt a cold shiver run down my spine the second I didn't hear her say anything about taking off the ropes bounding them.

"And just like a hunter stalks his prey, there, will you claim a life." She announced, grinning from ear to ear, making her way towards the front.

"If everything's clear to you, then let's begin with the first ever execution."