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THREE TIMES THE DOORBELL RANG, but Jaaspar and I were too distracted by our excitement to notice the first two times. I opened the door, and a gazer stood directly in the doorway with his arms behind his back and two guns on his holster instead of the one they usually carried.
“Fate, Jaaspar, follow me,” he said.
The door automatically shut on our way out, and we followed the gazer to an upper level above our new dorms, level ninety-six. I had never been this high up on Second Earth; I doubted any of the other players had either. These floors were off-limits to the public and were only accessible through special invitation, or in our case, by entering the Exogames.
“Don’t mention the location of the first game,” Jaaspar whispered into my ear.
I hoped he had a plan because we still needed to build a strong alliance if we were going to make it all the way to the end of the Exogames. I agreed but wanted at least to mention it to Jayde because she was on our side and to Anyma because she had been my best friend since childhood.
The hallway met with a stretched-out red carpet that divided into two separate rooms. The gazer escorted Jaaspar and me into the room on the left, where we met some of the other players. I recognised Neon, who sat on the far end of a giant hollowed-out round table. In the centre was an overflowing arrangement of flowers and four unlit candlesticks. The purpose of the candles was obsolete because there was already sufficient lighting from the light panels on the floor and walls. Eight sets of cutlery and crockery were evenly spaced out around the table.
Kuiper was seated on Neon’s righthand side, probably ripping his hair out because Neon was annoying, but it would have seemed rude if he moved seats after he sat down. I also recognised two other players who had joined from Mars with Jaaspar and me. If I remembered correctly, their names were Hinata and Cobalt.
Four empty seats looked lonely as they waited to be filled. There was a single empty chair between Neon and Hinata, but neither Jaaspar nor I were going to sit in that one.
Jaaspar sat directly opposite Neon, where the flower arrangement would block his view. I sat on Jaaspar’s righthand side, and I immediately sensed Neon staring at me, even though half of the flowers covered him. My fork was slightly askew, which didn’t seem to bother me as much as it did Jaaspar because he realigned it parallel to the spoon and knife.
Cobalt, who sat to my right, nervously trembled as he fidgeted with his cutlery. I could see it from the corner of my eye. I couldn’t blame him; I was scared as well. Though, I was not as scared as I had been prior to entering, especially now that Jaaspar and I knew the location of the first game and had started to build an alliance.
Everybody was dressed in suits, which I could only imagine they had received from the game makers like we had. I assumed we had all received the same box, and if that was the case, then perhaps the rest of them had also figured out the clue. I didn’t want to be the first to bring it up, but luckily, that was Cobalt’s doing.
“Earth,” he said simply with his eyes wide open, but he didn’t look around the table.
“You’ve lost the plot, young man,” Kuiper said.
“The first game is on Earth,” Cobalt elaborated.
Based on his expression, I got the sense that his mind was racing. Jaaspar turned to me, out of arm’s reach to nudge me as he usually would, and he shook his head with minuscule movements.
“How do you know that?” Neon asked mockingly.
“The metal piece, inside your box,” Hinata answered for Cobalt. He spoke with a light accent.
“I didn’t get a metal piece,” Kuiper said.
“Neither did I,” Jaaspar lied.
“Yeah, me neither,” I lied as well.
The door opened again, and two more players walked in with a gazer escorting them. Both had joined from Second Earth, and I hadn’t met them yet.
The shorter, chubbier man sat in the empty seat opposite me, blocked by the flower arrangement. The other player sat on Jaaspar’s left, accidentally bumping into Hinata as he tried to take his seat. He introduced himself to Jaaspar, and I caught a bit of their conversation. I leaned over and acquainted myself with him because the more people we had in our alliance, the easier it would be to get through the games alive.
“I’m Fate. Fate Artemis.”
“Badru,” he said.
“I’ve never heard a name like that before. What does it mean?” I asked curiously.
“It means ‘born during a full moon’. My parents were greatly fascinated by lunar events. It’s stupid, I know,” Badru responded.
“Not at all,” Jaaspar said, not very convincingly.
“Did you find a metal piece in your box?” Hinata asked, butting into our conversation.
“No. What metal piece?” Badru asked.
“Never mind.”
I was taken aback by what Hinata said because it seemed wrong to disadvantage the other players in a game of life and death. But by the same token, Jaaspar and I kept our knowledge of the first game from the two latecomers as well. And we were probably not the only ones keeping it secret.
All the seats around the table had now been filled. I wondered where Jayde and Anyma were — and Thebe, whom we’d gotten to know earlier. But only the male players took up the seats in this room. The female players must have had a separate dinner in another room; that was probably why the red carpet split into two paths. I hoped Jayde could convince a few of the girls to join our alliance. But that should have been easy for her, as she was quite persuasive and intelligent.
“Players of the ninety-ninth Exogames,” a voice announced from behind Neon. I couldn’t see whom it was because of the flower arrangement blocking my view. “Welcome to your last meal,” he continued.
I gulped with difficulty as my saliva wouldn’t go down my throat easily.
“Only joking. But for some of you, yes, this may be your last dinner. The first game begins in no less than twelve hours.”
“I thought the Exogames weren’t for a few more weeks,” the player behind the flowers said.
“We’ve brought them forward.”
“Who are you?” Neon asked rudely.
“You’re a cheeky critter, aren’t you? Moirai. They call me Moirai. Game maker of the Exogames. Not head game maker, don’t get that wrong, just game maker. Second, in charge, let’s say.”
I knew his voice sounded familiar. He was the game maker who’d spoken to us in the briefing room. We hadn’t seen what he looked like before since he spoke over the speaker system, but now it was clear that his deep voice didn’t match his tiny body. Moirai walked around the table as he spoke and tugged at a gold string in his hands.
Eight servants, one for each of us, brought us glasses of champagne. I wasn’t a huge fan of alcohol, but it was free of charge, so I decided to drink it. The bubbles tingled and danced in my mouth as the sweet drink coated the inside of my throat. It had a peachy aftertaste, which wasn’t as terrible as the last time I drank champagne. Jaaspar took a sip and shivered the moment his lips made contact with the drink. He put his glass back down, looking around the table furtively.
The servants came back and placed our meals in front of us. There were two alternating dishes. I received the olive bread and potato mash, and Jaaspar had the vegetable soup. The bread was soft on my tongue and practically melted like cotton candy. The mix of oregano and olive oil in the little cup beside my plate was warm and soaked into the bread. I left the potato mash because it was a tad too hard. During our meal, game maker Moirai had disappeared, and the rest of us enjoyed our dinner in silence. Not even Neon said a word. All I heard was fizzing champagne, the clinking of knives and forks, and the sounds of everyone swallowing their food.
Slowly but surely, everyone finished their meals and drank all their champagne. Badru called the servant for another glass, but he was ignored, so he snapped his fingers to try again.
“One glass is plenty for all of you,” Moirai said as he returned to the table. “You wouldn’t want to be drunk through the first game. You will all require a good night’s rest because tomorrow’s game will test your mind.”
“What will the game be?” Hinata asked, trying to obtain more information.
Moirai pointed his finger at Hinata and said, “Nice try, but you will all find out the instructions a few minutes prior to the commencement of each game.”
“Is there a theme to these Exogames?” Kuiper asked as he looked around at all of us. “You know, how the past games all had a theme?”
I stopped watching the Exogames a long time ago, so a lot of what I should have remembered had left my memory. My father’s games ruined it for me. The Exogames were meant to be a fun event for everyone on Second Earth. People would take days off work and dress up in fun clothes to watch each of the games as they were played. But over the years, the games had lost their purpose and meaning. They were now the event everyone looked forward to every two years, not so much about refining the criminals on Second Earth.
“I do remember some years back the theme was girls against boys. Is that what you mean?” Jaaspar asked.
“Something like that,” Kuiper replied.
“We stopped with the themes many years ago. Now the games are just that, games,” Moirai said.
“Can I ask a question?” the player opposite me, who was hidden behind the flowers, said.
“What was your name?”
“Leo.”
“Go ahead, Leo,” Moirai allowed.
“What is stopping us from leaving the games now? I know we can’t exit once we have entered, but theoretically, if someone wanted to leave the games, or rather, escape, could they successfully?”
Moirai applauded very slowly, leaving at least five seconds between claps. He placed his hands on the back of Hinata’s chair and stared at Leo with narrowed eyes as he nodded his head.
It wasn’t a question that needed to be asked. After Leo’s question, the game makers would suspect that he didn’t want to play the games anymore or that he was going to attempt to escape. It had happened once — a player attempted to escape the Exogames. He made it out, but it wasn’t long before the game makers caught up to him. It was a few years before my father’s games, so my recollection was rather vague. I couldn’t remember what the game makers did with the player who escaped, but I didn’t imagine it was anything pleasant.
“I get that question every time. I’m glad you asked,” Moirai said as he walked around the table without stopping behind any of us. “During every Exogames, all players are equipped with a tracking device. It doesn’t matter if there are hundreds of you or just sixteen. Everyone will be tracked with a device you all consumed minutes ago.”
Jaaspar turned to me with his eyes wide open and his face as white as a sheet. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. My hands trembled as I went to take another sip of my champagne but realised I had drunk it entirely. All eight of us looked at each other in disbelief and confusion, wondering why the game makers didn’t just attach a regular tracking device to our bodies as the gazers would.
“Your champagne was filled with nanobots that will link up to our main servers,” Moirai continued.
I gagged a bit, but nothing came out of my mouth. I put my champagne glass back on the table and looked away from it. The thought of having tiny robots swimming around in my body was completely terrifying, and never in my twenty-two years alive would I have imagined it actually happening. But it was happening to all eight of us, and it was highly probable that it was happening to the female players in the other dining room as well.
Cobalt pulled his glass up to his face and poked one eye inside to look for the nanobots, but he returned the glass back to the table when he noticed us watching him.
“Don’t stress, players. The nanobots won’t harm you. Unless you don’t play by the rules, of course. Now, on another important—”
Moirai was cut off by Badru, who projectile vomited. His green-brown puke splattered on the floor, in the centre of the table, all over the flower arrangement and on Jaaspar and Hinata, the two players on either side of him. He wasn’t the only one who wanted to vomit; I wanted to as well, I felt the bile rise up me oesophagus like hot lava, but Badru was the only one who actually did.
“Never fear, players. The nanobots would have already reached his bloodstream by now. There is no way to get rid of them unless deactivated or filtered out, a facility none of you have access to.” Moirai waved his hand to signal for a cleaning team.
The servants who brought us our food rushed to the aid of Badru with small handheld devices. They scanned the floor, and I watched in amazement how their gadgets completely removed the vomit. It evaporated into thin air, and even the horrible smell disappeared with it.
“Back to the second piece of important information,” Moirai continued. “As mentioned in the briefing earlier, some players will be given an advantage for particular games. My advice to you all is that whoever has the advantage should use it to help everyone else get through the games.”
“At least we know Moirai’s thoughts on an alliance,” Jaaspar whispered to me.
“All of you would have figured out by now that inside your boxes from tonight were various notes. Players with the advantage for the first game were notified, so please keep it to yourself if you were given an advantage until the first game has begun.”
“What’s the advantage?” Neon shouted eagerly.
“I cannot reveal that tonight. If you have made any friends, I’m sure the advantage will be revealed to you. I can assure you that you do not have an advantage in the first game if that is what you were wondering.”
Neon rolled his eyes and scoffed as he crossed his arms.
“Players with the advantage would have ingested it through their meals, and it will take effect overnight.”
I looked at Jaaspar, who stared at his empty bowl. I knew already that Jaaspar had an advantage in the first game, and I was confident there would be more players with this benefit. It was almost a guarantee that both of us would make it through the first game with his advantage. Jaaspar most likely consumed a second set of nanobots from his chicken. He now had twice as many nanobots flowing through his blood as I did. If it were me, I would surely be vomiting all over the table just as Badru did.
“Is there anything else we need to know? Anything we may or may not have ingested?” Kuiper said almost furiously.
“No, that is all. We now just need all of you to wave as this camera comes around. The audience will finally get to meet you,” Moirai responded.
A gold metal sphere, big enough to fit in my hand, rose from the middle of the flower arrangement. It hovered above the flowers for a second before it moved around to each of us. To go from discussing the games to announcing ourselves to the audience in the span of a few seconds was slightly concerning. It was as though Moirai was trying to hide something or that he had said too much and wanted to distract us from the truth. But the entirety of Second Earth was filled with secrets to its core, none of which were ever revealed.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” Moirai jovially announced as he stared into the golden sphere.
We all looked around at each other in confusion. None of us knew what to do. Nobody had prepared us for this, for any of it.
“I present to you all, the male players of the ninety-ninth Exogames!” Moirai continued as the gold sphere slowly moved around to each of us. “First, we have Badru!” Moirai exclaimed.
Badru simply smiled and put his thumbs up. He clearly wasn’t in the mood to contort his face or swing his hands around with splotches of vomit around his mouth. The camera broadcasted the less-than-spectacular reveal to the people of Second Earth, at least to whoever was interested enough to watch.
“Leo!”
I couldn’t see what Leo did, but I assumed it was more entertaining than Badru’s introduction.
“Next up, we have Cobalt!”
Cobalt smiled awkwardly and waved at the gold sphere slowly as if he was unsure if he was doing it correctly.
“Hinata!” Moirai pronounced his name completely differently from how I had heard it previously, but it didn’t seem to bother Hinata.
“Kuiper,” Moirai called him to pay attention as the gold sphere moved to him.
Kuiper jolted awake and smiled with narrow eyes. The camera moved to Neon, who was enthusiastically ready to wave at the camera.
“A little eager there, Neon,” Moirai laughed. The rest of us didn’t laugh with him. “Next is Neon!”
I was sure Neon wanted more time looking at the camera because he would not stop waving. His smile reached ear to ear as his eyes opened creepily wide.
“Jaaspar!”
The camera hovered in front of Jaaspar momentarily, but he didn’t move. There was no smile or even an acknowledgement to the audience.
“Jaaspar,” I whispered loudly, but hopefully not loud enough for the audience to hear me. “Jaaspar,” I repeated, “smile and wave.”
He finally snapped out of his trance and cracked a smile for the camera, although his eyes didn’t seem as jolly. It might have been food poisoning that brought him down, or the millions of nanobots that filled his stomach.
“Last, but certainly not least of all, Fate!”
The camera paused in front of my face, and I smiled. The front of the gold sphere had a black lens just big enough for me to see my reflection. There was no hiding my fake smile, and if I noticed it in my reflection, the audience would have as well. I watched it for a few seconds before my smile faded and the camera returned to Moirai.
“Thank you all for a wonderful evening,” Moirai said directly into the camera.
Historically, there were events and parties before the first game, and audiences got extremely drunk. My guardian, back when my father entered the games, got a bit too drunk the night before every Exogames. It was quite a mess to go home to, and I am glad I got away from it at an early age.
“Enjoy the rest of the night, and we hope you enjoy the ninety-ninth Exogames!” After Moirai concluded, the camera shot up into a hole in the ceiling. “Players,” he turned to the rest of us, “get some rest. You will need lots of it because tomorrow is the beginning of a free life for some of you and the beginning of the end for the rest. Thank you for being a part of the Exogames this time around, and goodnight.”
All the lights shut off except for a thin illuminated path to the exit. Moirai was right; for some of us, this was the beginning of our freedom, but only if we made it through all five games. And for whoever didn’t make it, it was the end.
* * *
I TRIED MY HARDEST to fall asleep so that I would have enough energy for the first game. Every part of my body willed me to sleep except for my brain. I ran through possible scenarios for tomorrow’s game. Even though I had absolutely no idea what the game would entail, all possibilities led to death.
Jaaspar must have heard my shallow breaths from the other side of the room because he came over a few times to check if I was alright. Every time he checked on me, I lied and said that I was fine. But I didn’t want to be alone on possibly the last night of my life, so when he checked once more, I told him I couldn’t sleep.
We moved into the living area where the couch was, and Jaaspar turned on one of the pendant lights so that the room wasn’t in complete darkness. He exited through the front door and spoke to one of the gazers who patrolled the hallways.
“Thebe and Jayde are on their way,” he said to me when he returned.
The gazers must have been extremely lenient to allow them to visit our room. After all, it was the night before the first game, and we were all on edge.
The door whooshed up, and in came Jayde and Thebe dressed in their plain silk pyjamas — we all looked the same because every player had received a pair. Thebe still had some makeup on her face, most likely from their dinner, and Jayde’s hair was messily tied back in a low bun. They shared a room together, just like Jaaspar and me.
“Can’t sleep either?” Jayde asked.
“Not just Fate. Me too,” Jaaspar said.
I sat on the couch beside Thebe, and Jayde sat on the round ottoman opposite Jaaspar. Jaaspar stretched over the bench and leaned on his forearms as he held his head up with one hand.
“What happened at your dinner?” I asked.
“The eight of us, all the female players, sat around a large table,” Jayde began as she adjusted the cushioning underneath herself. “One of the game makers spoke to us about tomorrow’s game and the advantage; for whoever has one.”
“I have one, an advantage tomorrow,” Jaaspar said a little too eagerly.
“We’re not supposed to say who has it,” Thebe warned, quietly, as if an unknown entity was listening to us.
It wouldn’t have surprised me if our conversation was being recorded. On Second Earth there was no privacy, and we were still not free even in these Exogames.
“I have an advantage as well,” Jayde said.
“It sounds like your dinner was pretty similar to ours. We had to smile and wave at the audience,” I said, mocking the stupidity of it.
“Us too. It was terrible,” Thebe laughed and her small dimples were more noticeable than they had ever been. “Have you got an advantage tomorrow, Fate?”
“Not me.”
“Me neither,” she responded.
Jayde and Jaaspar were the only two that I knew of with an advantage in the first game. Depending on the advantage, it would allow us all to work together in order to get through the first game. It was either the blessing we needed to calm us down or the curse that would damn the ones without an advantage to a horrible death.
“What are your thoughts on the nanobots they put inside us?” Thebe asked.
“I’m not overly keen on the idea, but I guess if it makes it easier to keep track of us all, then go for it,” Jaaspar said.
“You and I now have twice as many as everyone else,” Jayde said to Jaaspar.
“It’s a bit concerning, hey,” Jaaspar said back.
“Did you two also find the clue in your box, the clue for the first game?” Jayde asked.
“We did. A few of the other guys at our dinner also found the clue,” I answered as I reached to grab the metal piece from one of our boxes on the floor beside the couch.
“Earth,” Thebe whispered. “It’s the first time they’ve taken any of the games back down to Earth. Sure, they play on other planets, but back down there, I’m scared of what we might find.”
“We’re going to find out tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe we’ll all die in the first game,” Jayde said.
“Has that happened before?” Jaaspar asked. “Has there been an Exogames where nobody made it past the first game or even the second?”
“The games before my father’s year. The furthest the players got was round three. That’s when I think they introduced advantages for certain people,” I responded.
“That’s right,” Jayde said as she fixed the hair that had gradually fallen in front of her face. “The only reason the advantages were introduced was so that players would make it to the last game. It’s a fairly new rule. Clearly, they want a good show, or else the audience would stop watching.”
“I’m glad you two have an advantage tomorrow. I don’t feel so nervous now,” Thebe said.
“Jaaspar, I don’t know if Fate told you, but we are going to work together with as many players as possible to get through to the end,” Jayde said.
“Fate mentioned it a few times,” Jaaspar said, smiling.
“Thebe is with us too. Did you speak to anybody at the dinner to try and recruit some more players?” Jayde asked.
“Not specifically about joining our alliance, but there are a few players I had in mind that we could work with. Kuiper seemed pretty chill; he spoke with us earlier, if you remember.”
“Yeah, Kuiper can definitely work with us,” Jaaspar agreed.
“No. Kuiper was strange,” Jayde quickly interjected. “He talked about eventually killing off the other players on purpose. I don’t want to be murdered at the hands of a psychopath.”
“Yeah, you’re right. He did say that when we met him on Mars,” Jaaspar concurred as he quickly changed his mind.
“Cobalt, I think he’d be good to get on our side. What do you think about Hinata?” I asked Jaaspar.
“Let’s see how he does in the first game and then talk to him about working with us. I know I definitely don’t want Badru; he vomited all over me,” Jaaspar said in disgust.
“Wait, what happened?” Thebe exclaimed with wide eyes as she propped herself forward.
“The player who sat next to Jaaspar puked all over the table, and it landed on Jaaspar.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Jayde said satirically and laughed.
“Disgusting,” Thebe said, shivering as she made gagging sounds.
“And definitely not Neon. He is too annoying, and he seems like he wants to play solo,” Jaaspar added.
“Yes, not him,” Jayde and I said in unison.
“When we spoke to him earlier, I got a bad vibe from him,” Jayde said.
“Who is Neon?” Thebe asked.
“That guy who always has his hair styled straight up,” I described.
“Okay, yes, definitely not him. I spoke to him for a while after the pre-examination. He bored me to death about his strategies to beat all of us. I don’t think he understands that the games are not player against player; they’re the players against the game,” Thebe said in frustration as she recalled their conversation.
“What about any of the girls?” Jaaspar asked. “Did anyone stick out to you?”
“Sol and Astatine were the two we had a chat with. They’re considering it, but I think once they realise they need the numbers, they’ll jump on board,” Jayde responded.
“I had a really good conversation with Sapphire. We need to get her on our side,” Thebe said.
“We can definitely get more numbers. It’s just a matter of making sure we can all trust each other and work together,” I said.
“I think once the other players realise they need help in the games, they’ll come to us. We’ve planted the seed; now it has to grow on its own,” Thebe said.
“Alright, it’s getting a bit late now, and we need to conserve as much energy as possible for tomorrow. Earth may not be the paradise it is always described to be,” Jaaspar said.
“Well, we know two of us have an advantage tomorrow. I hope it can help us get through the first round — and some other players as well,” Jayde said.
“Tomorrow’s game will set the bar for the difficulty of the rest of the Exogames,” Thebe said as she and Jayde walked towards the door.
“Sleep very well, you two and we will see you tomorrow, hopefully before the game begins, but if not, then we will survive together,” Jayde said as they walked out.
Jaaspar turned to me, half asleep, and smiled nervously to hide his yawn as he placed both his hands on my shoulders.
“Welcome to the ninety-ninth Exogames,” he said sarcastically.