Chapter 4: Wipe Out: Part I

20 REGULARS & 40 MINIMIZED REMAIN.

"PLEASE PREPARE FOR GAME NUMBER TWO." the voice bellowed over the speaker, the sound waves rocketing between the walls of the giant room, jolting everyone from their slumbers.

"GAME NUMBER TWO WILL BEGIN SHORTLY. YOU HAVE 10 MINUTES TO GATHER AT THE DOOR." 

Lara mumbled herself awake, lifting up her head with her eyes barely open and her hair a total mess, she turned towards Joel. "Looks like this is it."

"Yeah..." he responded whilst quickly rising out of bed.

The lights flickered on fully as people readied themselves, both physically and mentally. Lara walked over to the door with the scared boys in her hand, looking forward trying to focus on what was to come. The door open as the guard held their hand out as if signalling to the players to enter the next room via the corridor. Lara looked down and nodded at Joel with frantic nervous breathing, he nodded back with a thumbs up, a firm look of determination on his face.

The players entered a long white room, it stretched approximately 120 metres forward, 2 metres in front of the door was a massive drop into pitch black, it must have been at least a hundred feet deep into god knows where. This stretch of nothing went on nearly all the way to the end of the large room, connecting both ends was a large glass corridor filled with what looked to be...

"WELCOME TO GAME NUMBER TWO; OBSTACLE COURSE"

Lara's heart sank as she looked down at Joel with a scared look in her face, "I'm not athletic.." she said with a frown, her face struck with serious worry about her fate in this game already.

"Me neither" he said as he looked down holding his forehead in stress.

The glass corridor bridging the gap was filled with various sections, some with hoops or rocks on a wall, there was even a large staircase, they were matte red in order to stand out from the glossy white, however they were still a hard material with no padding. However down the middle of the obstacle course on the ground was what looked like a tiny version of a different obstacle course that stretched for the entire length of the big one despite being much smaller, it was directly inside the same corridor.

"I WILL NOW EXPLAIN THE GAME, THESE INSTRUCTIONS WILL NOT BE REPEATED." this caused everyone to walk closer whilst looking at each other, hoping to soak up every detail possible.

"TEAMS WILL BE TWO MINIMIZED TO A REGULAR, EACH MINIMIZED CAN CHOOSE A PARTNER TO MAKE THEIR TEAM HOWEVER THEIR REGULAR ASSIGNEE WILL BE DRAWN RANDOMLY." this caused a distressed look from Lara who realized she likely wouldn't get drawn with Joel so they couldn't work together.

"REGULARS AND ONE MINIMIZED OF THE TWO MUST RACE EACH OTHER IN THE SAME OBSTACLE COURSE CORRIDOR, MINIMIZED RECEIVE A 20 SECOND HEADSTART. THE GOAL OF THE REGULAR IS TO KILL THEIR MINIMIZED OPPONENT BEFORE THEY REACH THE END OF THE COURSE, IF THEY SUCCEED THEY WILL BE ALLOWED OUT THE OTHER END WHERE THEY CAN ELIMINATE THE OTHER MINIMIZED. THE MINIMIZED MUST REACH THE BUTTON OUTSIDE AT THE END OF THE COURSE, IF THEY MANAGE TO DO SO- THE FOLLOWING WILL HAPPEN..." the guard turned whilst signalling to a guard at the far back, who proceeded to press a button in his hand. The ground inside the glass corridor quickly threw itself open allowing anything inside to fall into the depths below, luckily it was empty, but it soon wouldn't be. The regulars would fall to their death if the minimized beat them to the end. The floor made audible mechanical noises as it lifted itself back up from it's trap door formation to create

"HOWEVER THE MINIMIZED'S OTHER PARTNER WILL BE IN A GLASS WATCH AREA NEXT TO THE CORRIDOR ABLE TO OVERSEE THE ENTIRE RACE, THEY CAN INTERACT WITH THE CONTROL PANEL INSIDE TO SABOTAGE THE OBSTACLES THAT THE REGULAR WILL BE USING. THAT IS ALL."

"Wha- what? do they seriously expect us to race you guys? There's no way.." Joel said whilst frantically throwing his arms around in a panicked confusion at Lara above. Contrary to her previous thoughts she was now worrying about getting put with Joel or Theo because they'd need to compete against each other to avoid death.

"No no, your partner sabotages them. It's a balance of strategy and athleticism, us regulars will need to be both at the same time. We likely have the upper hand on a base level but it largely depends on how well the two minimized work together. It's an interesting design." Lara inspected the course whilst figuring out all the details. - "I think I can win this Joel, this isn't what I was expecting but it's a turn for the better. I wonder what the sabotages can do to each obstacle, if I can figure it out I can avoid them-"

"I CAN'T- I cant win this! I'm- I'm me, I'm like fat and slow. I don't know what to do-" Joel silently paused his dramatic meltdown, stopping his hands in mid-air from waving around angrily, almost as if time froze for a brief moment, he slowly turned his body around to look at Theo who was staring at his with a blank expression, itching his head. "You!"

"Me? me what?" Theo muttered confusedly whilst pointing at himself with both hands.

"You are fast as hell, you can run the course with me in your corner. I remember, I saw you, you were like The Flash you blinked past me at the speed of sound. You were like BAZOO" Joel did a strange air sound effect whilst waving his arm from right to left, simulating someone moving really quickly. Theo looked at him with his head turned confused. - "I can be the sabotager, I'll protect you whilst you outrun all the competition! We'll be a great team." he held his fist in determination with a smile on his face. Theo started to understand and get behind the idea as a smirk crossed his face, he nodded as he understood the assignment. They looked up at Lara.

"Let's get out of this together, okay boys?" she said getting pumped up and ready for a tough game.

"MINIMIZED YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO CHOOSE A PARTNER. IF YOU FAIL TO SELECT ONE, YOU WILL BE RANDOMLY PAIRED WITH SOMEONE ELSE WITHOUT A PARTNER." the guard grabbed everyones attention away from their mumbled discussions, causing them to start focusing on the objective again, multiple minimized began scouting the floors looking for the right partner. Andrea rolled her eyes above as she watched the insects on the floor try to think their way out of this game, "how pointless" she thought, knowing most of them had the odds stacked against them.

"APPROACH ME WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR TEAM." this request caused Lara to lower Joel & Theo down to her feet, they turned to look up at her one last time in all her massive might, she smiled mouthing the words "good luck" silently at them. Joel nodded up as he began walking towards the guard with Theo.

4 minutes later...

"I WILL NOW DRAW THE COMPETITORS." everyone twiddled their thumbs nervously except for a couple of people who seemed overly confident, Joel noted their demeanour, notably Jenny the redheaded girl from the table that Joel briefly met. Andrea the violent asian girl & Alessia the athletic tanned woman. Alessia's confidence made sense, this was her church. He crossed his fingers hoping to avoid certain people.

"TEAM A" the guard pointed at one Martin & Michael, Michael looked terrified without the wifely protection of his other half; Kristen, who carried him through the first game figuratively and literally.  - "PLAYER 18" he pointed to a dainty asian woman in the crowd who looked to be no larger than 4'4 and was fairly thin. She was known to the outside world as Kim, a 19 year old art student. Martin & Michael didn't seem shaken by this choice, they were feeling lucky with this pick. - "ENTER THE CHAMBER" the guard ordered as Michael entered the chamber, shaking constantly on the way there. Martin entered the control room, getting a full view of the obstacle course. Above Michaels door was a staircase, he heard ground shaking thumps vibrating him as he approached his door, above him Kim stomped up the stairs to her starting point, which was directly above his by about half a foot.

"MINIMIZED HEADSTART. READY. SET." the guard spoke as Michael took his sprint stance. A buzzer went off giving him the signal that the obstacle course had began, he took off sprinting, quite slowly for a man rocking a dad bod who hadn't hit the treadmill in what looked like 14 years. His breathing already started to get too heavy as he hauled himself over a red cuboid obstacle quite poorly, causing him to roll off the other side barely landing properly heading into a protective tube that went through the staircase, it was his height thus designed to be a checkpoint of some kind. As he kept running and jumping over pads into the second section he felt booming starting distantly behind him, the vibrations becoming apparent to him that Kim had entered the race after his grace period. His speed suddenly rose by 130% as he became a dart, driving forwards with greater force.

Kim sprinted up the stairs as quickly as her short legs could push her upwards, she reached the top, pausing briefly to see Michael heading under her 2nd obstacle ahead. Suddenly the steps below her vanished turning the staircase into a ramp, she slipped all the way back down to the bottom landing on her ass then falling back onto her head. "What the fuck happened to the staircase?" she thought to herself as she looked up whilst holding the impact zone of where her head slammed the floor, the ramp then transformed back into a set of stairs.

"RAMP SABOTAGE USED UP." the voice said over the speaker. Kims eyes darted to the control room window on the far left seeing a small man looking at her in the distance, frustration forming on her face as she jumped to her feet, jumping up the stairs again. Martin quickly slammed the sabotage button again to make the ramp but it didn't do anything. - "SABOTAGE ALREADY USED." the speaker inside his control room said as he hit the button twice. - "Once per obstacle? I guess that makes sense, just need to make it count." he said whilst moving left to his next set of controls.

Kim reached the top of the stairs, seeing a set of rings floating from a pole, it looked like she had to cross these to get to the other side. "What is the sabotage she thought as she looked at the floor and rings, as well as the pole holding the rings." Unable to figure it out she just went for it and starting climbing across from ring to ring, each ring was wide enough to place her hands on only. Martin slammed the other sabotage button causing Kim to shake frantically sending her straight to the floor. "The fucking ring electrocuted me!! What the fuck?" she shouted whilst holding her palm upwards at her face. She turned heading straight for the ladder to return to the start of the ring swing, she limped this time as the impact to the ground had injured her lower back.

She quickly crossed the rings knowing this time they couldn't be sabotaged anymore, Michael was getting closer to the end door every second that she messed up. Her third obstacle presented itself after she finished the rings, it was a rickety moving bridge, it had large gaps between the wooden planks on the bridge. Surveying the dire situation she was in, Michael was going to beat her to the end and there would be nothing she could do about it if she didn't take some risks, she couldn't play it safe anymore. Kim closed her eyes and took a deep breath, almost immediately afterwards sprinting across the bridge at break-neck speeds, risking falling between the wooden planks. Martin quickly slammed all the buttons on this section sending planks behind her falling as he missed her cues due to her speed, she blasted through the bridge finishing the obstacle in 2 seconds. Martin frantically ran for the next button as Kim kept her momentum.

Obstacle number four quickly approached Kim, the rock wall. She darted up the wall quickly, Martin slammed a button, causing the rock she was hanging onto to disappear into the wall, she placed this hand on another nearby rock, Martin had not selected this specific rock strategically as it was next to another and she had both of her hands on the wall at the same time. "You stupid idiot, Martin!" he shouted to himself as Kim easily rebounded from his sabotage attempt. The rock wall and rickety bridge gave him 3 sabotages due to their design, so he went ahead and hit another one, again Kim completely dodged it. He was flustered and panicking due to her completely skipping the bridge. Kim completed the rock wall, rising the top and dropping to the ground on the other side. She saw in her vision, the victory door. But also about 2 metres away from the tiny door underneath it was Michael, closing in on his victory door.

Kim darted forward into the final sprint section, Michael turned to see Kim blasting towards him, her 4'4 height becoming a deception as what was approaching him was a determined giantess of a woman, she was going in for the final kill as finally the opponent was in her vision now that she had avoided multiple sabotages in a row. Michael couldn't get near the door quicker than Kim, distracted entirely by eliminating her opponent, multiple tiny spikes shot straight up into her left foot as she took off of it, sending her into a world of pain, so perfectly timed to her take-off that her other foot also landed straight on them as they came in for a landing. Her entire body tipped over in an instinctual reflex to avoid the spikes as well as removing her bleeding feet from the floor, slamming to the ground onto her shoulder, her speed carrying her further as she slid in Michaels direction. Stopping just before his tiny door. "YES!" Martin shouted as he let go of his sabotage button, Kim was completely unaware that even the final sprint had traps, her face struck with fear as she looked forward from the floor to see Michael on the other side of the tiny glass door with his right hand positioned on the side of the door, he waved with his left hand as he slammed the button next to his door.

The white floor beneath Kim opened up in the blink of an eye, so fast you couldn't hear it move. - "AHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh..." her blood curdling scream echoed into the depths below as she fell for four whole seconds before a massive thump was heard in the pitch black cavern below, the noise echoing up the chamber. The floor then returned upwards, the contraptions mechanisms securing it in place again coming to a stop with a loud metallic thud.

"TEAM A WIN. PLEASE PROCEED TO THE DOOR."

Joel thought watched on with a lump in his throat as he watched the woman plummet below to her death, the fall must have been deep. He couldn't feel any postivity from it even if it was a giant, if he was in their position he would've done the same. His thoughts were interrupted by the guard announcing the next round.

"TEAM B" he pointed towards two younger looking men, both looked fairly lean, they could've have been older than 24. They were known as Brock & Justin, their nervousness was showing on them as Justin's hands held each other and Brock looked at the ceiling with his hands behind his back. - "PLAYER 28" the men turned to look at their opponent, Andrea Sai. She waltzed up to her steps near her door, as the men recognized her as the crazy girl that the guys were talking about, how she violently enjoyed killing people in the first race and ate a man whole during the break. Justin and Brock both broke eye contact with her due to her firm gaze that struck them with fear. Brock entered the control room as Justin took his place on the starting line.

His grace period began as Justin took off, much faster than Michael previously did, making good ground. Andrea then started off, jumping onto the first step then quickly backwards off again as it converted into a ramp causing Brock to waste his sabotage, completely deceiving him. She smiled quickly darting up the stairs with no time lost, she slowly progressed through the ring swing but as she reached the last ring attempting to grab it with her finger tips the shocking began causing her to fall, landing on the end platform with her elbows she barely managed to stop herself from falling to the ground, which would've meant having to backtrack and redo the hoops to get across. She used all her strength to slowly pull herself up. Brock cursed at himself for failing, he once again missed an opportunity to set the evil Andrea back.

She made her way to the rickety bridge, hanging onto the ropes on the side of the bridge and moving slowly forward, hoping to use the rope as a safeguard irregardless of whether she gets sabotaged. The planks started vanishing below her due to the sabotage of Brock in the control room. Andrea stepped right onto the missing step, her weight falling downwards but managing to keep herself on the bridge by firmly gripping the rope, making it across the rickety bridge. She jumped down in front of the rock climb rubbing her hands together to get ready to climb only to notice a man running between her legs heading for underneath the rocks, Andrea suddenly realized she had already overtook him without realizing it. She visibly shrugged her shoulders with an expression of amusement. - "Where do you think you're going?" she shouted whilst pulling her leg back behind her "This is MY GAME." throwing her foot forwards, Justin turned to his right to see a set of toes hitting him with extreme force right in the hip, snapping his spine and breaking most of his ribs from the force which also sent him flying through the air spinning frantically as he hit the glass wall of the obstacle course container with a splat. The force of the impact nearly exploding his body as it began to slip down the wall leaving a trail of blood above it.

Andrea smiled as she finished the course with ease knowing she had a guarranteed win, she skipped through the victory door as she went around to the control room sticking her hand in and pulling out Brock. - "I'd say you need to work on your trapping skills but you won't get another chance ever again." the man banged his hands on her thumb that was holding him, she clutched him between her thumb and index finger. She stared at him for three seconds before bring him towards her lips and opening her mouth wide, the man remembering the story he heard last night before bed about the other man being eaten. Brock began to scream and panic as she released him, dropping him onto her nearly vertical tongue. He slipped all the way down as his eerie screams were silenced by her mouth shutting, instead resorting to a pathetic muffle. That too was silenced as she swallowed him whole, directing his tiny body down her oesophagus. Splashing into her stomach to keep the now-skeleton from yesterday company until he too would slowly melt away in her belly.

Andrea strutted towards the end of the room where the two successful minimized sat, looking down at them on the way past. - "Thanks for saving yourselves for me, boys. I'm only just getting started." she uttered with an evil grin across her face, waving her black hair behind her shoulders. Michael shuddered under her words, he had a habit of losing his arrogant attitude towards other competitors when they were massive and he wasn't under obvious protection from his partner, instead resorting to looking at the glossy white floor to avoid her gaze.

"You're welcome..." Martin whispered into Michaels ear, grabbing his attention abruptly.

"For what?" Michael returned looking rather confused by this comment.

"I saved your skin out there against that Asian lady, y'know a thank you would be nice, is all I'm sayin'." he shrugged his shoulders whilst tutting with his mouth at Michaels lack of appreciation.

"Let's get something straight, old man. First thing's first, you barely fucking saved my ass out there towards the end, that girl was about two seconds away from turning me into mashed potatoes. Secondly, I was doing you a favor by running the course, look at you, you look like melted ice cream. You're brittle and wrinkly, if I'd have let you run then you would be dead already. I just thought that whatever you lost in physical strengths you'd make up for in strategy and mental strength, apparently I was wrong." Michael shouted at the man, quickly storming off as he finished his sentence. Martin looked slightly amused but not upset in the slightest, the attitude of a man who has heard it all. Martin was a debt collector on the other side, little did Michael know but he was rock solid and didn't walk away from anyone who threatened him, he sensed Michael was upset and let him solve it on his own. He was a firm but fair man, giving anyone the benefit of the doubt where it was deserved. Strength came in numbers so he'd likely need to make other friends as Michael was slightly unhinged and uncooperative, Martin believed Michael wouldn't act this way if he didn't have his partner in this place with him but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Multiple teams were called to the course back to back. Team C minimized managed to win followed by a minimized win in Team D, the tinies were on a solid roll in this game where their strategy gave them a fighting chance, motivated by the fact that the regulars could get eliminated directly by their actions. After many action packed games Team G stepped up to the plate, consisting of two minimized by the name of Chris & Jake, two gym nuts who looked like they could lift ten cars between them, picking each other in hopes that their combined muscle would allow them to pass the course with ease, this destiny was placed in their reach when confronted with their opponent, Amy. She was standing still at her starting step whilst moving her arms around in a circle, as well as stretching her thighs, warming up for her chase. Jake was off running, his pace was decent but not amazing due to his build being more suited to lifting large weights, he pushed forward as fast as he could. Amy approached the ramp as she was finally allowed to start after the minimized grace period, hitting the middle of the stairs before Chris initiated sabotage, she quickly placed both her hands on the ramp as well as placing her barefeet flat on it, granting her enough grip to not even move from her place. "That's bullshit! How the fuck did she do that?" Chris shouted from his control room, punching the ramp sabotage button numerous times in frustration, "how could he time it so perfectly and yet the girl avoided it entirely?" Chris thought to himself.

Amy move swiftly but not at great speed, her movements were quick but her speed was not. She headed for the rings, jumping and placing both of her hands onto one ring swinging forward once then backwards letting go, landing back where she started, hearing the jolt into the metal handles. She then repeated her movement this time swinging forward safely, tricking Chris into shocking the rings when she swung backwards. Amy proceeded by crossing the rickety bridge, clutching both the ropes on either side, she progressed very slowly, each time she pressed her feet softly onto each plank, some dropped and some did not, she constantly kept herself on two planks at once. Chris was unable to slow down her pace even a little bit as she passed the rickety bridge. She jumped down to the rock wall to see Jake passing under it just in time, Amy began climbing the wall moving her hands swiftly between each rock but not pulling herself up quickly, instead choosing to focus on not slipping off rocks, her tongue stretched outside her mouth in concentration. She made it to the top of the wall making her way down to the final sprint she saw Jake in the middle of the final sprint at least 6 metres away from his victory door.

Amy's final stretch was in clear view, her energy and stamina had been totally conserved the entire game by her slow and careful approach to the obstacle course, swiftly bursting into a sprint heading towards Jake who looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. Hearing the gigantic thumping approaching him at the speed of sound, he turned to see feet slamming against the ground in his general direction, she stopped behind him readying her foot in the air as Jake looked up, his eyes widening and his mouth agape, she aimed properly before lowering her foot only for spikes to shoot out the ground around Jake, scraping his shoulder as they shot out the ground barely missing him, it was for naught however as he walked straight into a spike that had erected in front of him banging face first into it like a lamp post and landing straight on his back. Her sole in full view above him hovering above the spikes, it hadn't sunk into them at all. All because of her slow approach she was able to stop in due time and predict the spikes she saw trump Kim, her pacing had saved her for the final time. The spikes then sunk into the ground again, catching the attention of Jake. - "well fuck-" was all he could utter as the sole came down with full strength this time, the ball of her foot blasting straight through the center of his body leaving everything above his chest in tact, however causing blood to projectile out his mouth onto the arch of her foot. She pressed hard and fast, quickly lifting her foot to avoid indulging in the gross feeling for too much longer, the man stuck to her foot as he kicked her foot forward, the force sending the man hurtling towards the side of the course rolling onto his back. She walked slowly towards the victory door. Jake wheezing air through his blood filled mouth as his life faded away entirely. Amy walked around the control room pulling out Chris who too fought back like all of them before her.

"How did you do that, I got you multiple times. It's complete bullshit!" Chris screamed whilst trying to pull himself free of her grip.

"I'm sorry, it's really not personal." she said as she simply chucked him into the dark pit where the other regulars had been dropped into by the obstacle course, not allowing herself to take his life by her own hand if she didn't have to. Chris screamed all the way down to the bottom where he would join the giant bodies of the regulars who had died before him. She turned and proceeded to the victory area where quite a few minimized were lingering, as well as Andrea & Kristen, Michael's wife. They seemed to be happy that they once again made it through, this time thankfully without each other.

Andrea chuckled at Amy after watching her take care of Chris. - "Well that was boring, why don't you spice it up? get a little fun in your life?" she said to the shy girl.

"You find this fun?" Amy said disgusted at her suggestion. Andrea simply shrugged back, her usual response to everything; uncaring & unbothered.

"TEAM O" the guard once again directing at another couple of minimized, made up of Thomas & his new companion, Larry. 

"Why do I have to run? I'm quite clever, I could make great sabotage decisions!" Larry pleaded, Thomas pushed his glasses up towards his face whilst wetting his lips.

"Did you know I finished first in game one? do you want to know why? It was because I was fast or because of my stamina, it was because I'm an excellent strategist, I know exactly how to trick whoever comes our way. You've got to trust me here." Thomas explained thoroughly and clearly to Larry.

"Oh yeah? and how is that? how do you trick everyone?" 

"Well it depends, Larry. I change my strategy for whoever comes our way, I've been monitoring these ladies for the entire game so far, I have most of them figured out. My theories on how they will act towards us in the course is likely to be accurate. I can protect you with certainty, that I am sure of." he tapped him on the shoulder. - "Remember, if we lose, I die too. You shouldn't trust me to protect you, but you most definitely should trust me to protect myself. Understand?" Larry nodded at his remark slowly but bewildered at his crass comment about trust.

The guard then pointed towards their opponent. "PLAYER 30" Thomas recognized the number, turning his eyes to the pointed finger of the guard, following its direction as it landed on... Beth. Looking unamused at Thomas, they had been turned against each other, unfortunately for him she was the one person who knew his sneaky tactics, perhaps he had become too friendly with the regulars and now it was going to bite him in the ass. She began heading for her podium, avoiding looking at Thomas below.

"What's up? What's wrong with her for an opponent?" Larry looked at Thomas who was looking at the ground thinking strongly.

"Unfortunately, Larry. She's a friendly to me, so she may know quite a lot about my strategies and tactics." He said looking up at Larry whose mouth was agape at this comment.

"Are you shitting me?? I- I'm the one out there, you said you'd get me through and not to worry? I knew I should've been the controller!" Larry shouted frantically waving his hands at Thomas who kept thinking.

"I need you to shut up for ten seconds, this friendly relationship goes both ways. Thankfully for you, I know one crucial detail about her. Which is that she's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box." Thomas smirked at Larry, who gave up his angry rant and nodded at Thomas once again.

"MINIMIZED READY. SET" the guard shouted, the loud buzzer followed allowing Larry to begin his run, jumping hurdles at a strong pace. Thomas stared down at Beth who was in her prepared running stance, he watched her closely with a smirk on his face, he had the whole thing mapped out. Beth was released, allowing her to take off towards the ramp, Thomas hit the button almost immediately as she went for the first step causing her to slip and bang her knee off the ramp and falling forwards. Nobody was expecting a sabotage at the start of the ramp, in addition she was now injured. She limped forwards after finally getting to her feet, her mouth open so she could breath easier due to the pain she was feeling in her knee. "The knee is one of the worst pain receptors in the body" thought Thomas to himself, his fingers under his chin in a sophisticated thinking stance. Beth made her way up the stairs, sucking in air attempting to ignore her damaged knee.

Beth approached the ring swings, double taking to the left to look at Thomas in his control chamber. Shaking her head from side to side unable to figure out what he was doing, she grabbed the ring then quickly let go, failing to bait out a shock from Thomas who knew she'd be too slow to get across the rings in time, Beth knew she'd had a terrible start and had to take this risk, jumping to the rings attempting to swing fast but failing she missed her first leap to the safe platform, pulling herself up so close to the rings that her back was facing downwards, she looked to the left. Why hadn't Thomas zapped her yet? she thought to herself. She then decided to lower herself so her legs were facing downwards in order to begin a swing then the zap hit her, causing her to completely let go landing leg first onto the ground below, further damaging her knee which made a snapping noise. "FUCK" she screamed whilst clutching her knee. tears beginning to stream down her face.

"Thanks for playing." Thomas whispered under his breath before walking away. In the distance Beth couldn't see Thomas at the control panel anymore, looking around confused and then realizing why.

The ground opened beneath Beth as she shouted "Thomas you son of a biiiit........." collapsing into the black void below echoing a loud snapping noise and a thump combined into one upwards into the ears of the all the players.  Lisa stood at the start shocked, her only friend in here had just been bested by Thomas and now she was dead. The realization of the games was creeping on her more and more every game as she imagined how terrifying it must be to fall into that black pit, she began shaking thinking about the same happening to her, Lisa's breathing nervously increased.

"Damn, Thomas. We did it, whereabouts was she in the course when I beat her?" Larry asked with his hands on his knees trying to get his energy back.

"Oh you know, on the floor at the rings." he told him with a large confident grin on his face.

"The rings? my god you must've set her back strong, my friend." Larry laughed as the two walked their way into the next round.

Joel looked upon the remaining regulars they could get paired with, there was Lisa; his so-called friend from real life, Lara his new-found protector from inside the games, Alessia the insanely fast athletic woman, the redheaded woman from the cafeteria who didn't look upon him favorably and finally a dark skinned woman with her arms crossed, she hadn't said much and Joel hadn't observed her at all. She was a wild card compared to the rest of them, however he didn't want any of them for wildly different reasons. This would end up badly regardless of their competitor. No, they had to win at all costs. Joel gazed over at Theo who was kicking the ground lightly out of boredom. He had to do it, for the kid, he had to make it out of here alive, no matter the cost. Even if it meant Lara's life.