Chapter Text
The room was dark save for a muted glow from under the blankets of the bed across the room from his own. Sage shook his head, a soft smile forming despite his lingering exhaustion. This was the fourth night in a row Rowen had fallen asleep reading what he'd described as an “interactive webtoon”; he vaguely remembered other children when he was young reading books titled “Choose Your Own Adventure”, so he figured the comic was along the same lines. He gently removed the phone from his friend's grasp and set it on the side table.
The following morning the kitchen was abuzz with commotion. Living with 4 other adolescent males made for chaos at times as each wanted to follow their own routine, and said routines, particularly over the acquisition of morning sustenance, often clashed… with catastrophic results. Such was the case this morning, with Cye on his hands and knees mopping up spilled cereal and milk as Kento and Ryo argued over the best time to start making toast so that it would still be hot when the rolled omelettes were complete.
It wasn't too different from college fraternities he'd seen featured in movies, he supposed, and the chaos did seem to die down when Mia, their self-proclaimed den mother, came for a visit. She, unfortunately, had left on a trip with Yuli earlier in the week, who was considering traveling abroad to continue his schooling.
Amidst the cacophony sat Rowen on a stool; coffee long-cooled on the table, a pink pastry pressed between his lips, and the ever present glow of his smartphone in front of him.
“We should go into town today, there's a new game I want to pick up in the mall,” Kento said to no one in particular. But as he was the first one to suggest something for the day, and no one else had anything better to do either, it was decided. Into town they went. Rowen didn't have an opinion one way or another, glued as he was to his phone.
The day passed by uneventfully, and the mall was bustling with people. As the group boarded an escalator, Rowen's head jerked upwards from his phone in surprise. Not just Rowen, though - gasps and concerned murmurs soon filled the concourse as translucent screens appeared in front of each person there.
***Welcome! You are cordially invited to play The Game. To play, you'll need a team of 5, so we'll give you a couple minutes to get situated, and when you're ready make sure your hands are linked with your teammates! Good Luck, and may the best team win!
1:59
1:58
1:57 ***
“What the hell is this?!” Kento scoffed. Sage looked around at the confusion forming on everyone's faces; everyone's, in fact, except for Rowen. *His* face reflected terror.
“Fuck, this can't be happening,” Rowen muttered in disbelief. The numbers continually ticking down soon made him face the reality of his situation. Less than thirty seconds remained. “Everybody, link hands now!” Rowen frantically shoved his phone in his pocket and grabbed Sage and Ryo’s hands, urging the others to do the same.
“Rowen? Do you know what's going on?” Ryo, understandably baffled, asked his friend, mostly out of concern. It wasn't like Rowen to be this panicked over *anything*, and that included being captured during the war with the Dynasty.
“Yes. No. Maybe! Just please, please don't let go - none of you!”
Around them, the public had varying reactions to the countdown on the screen - some playfully held hands with their friends, some looked around the mall to see if there was a camera crew filming a new reality show. Most ignored it and wrote it off as some futuristic looking propaganda for whatever new video game had hit the shelves. Of the groups of people actually holding hands, few if any totaled exactly five members.
***Preparing training mode for new challengers: Game begins in 0:10, 0:09, 0:08, 0:07…***
Rowen squeezed his eyes and his friends’ hands tight and finished the countdown in his head: Three…Two…One.
It was silent at first; the commotion of the busy mall had settled into an eerie quiet. Perhaps “settled” wasn't the best word to use, because Rowen was quite *un*settled. Then the screams came. The screams of the survivors as they realized the population of the area around them had suddenly reduced down to five percent… *maybe* five percent; most likely less.
Cye, being only one of two people with a free hand, because after what he just witnessed, like hell was he letting go of Kento's, placed it on Rowen's shoulder and nudged him to see eye to eye. “I need you to take a deep breath and focus, Rowen. Tell us what is happening here.”
Rowen vacillated between fear and determination for a moment until he’d steeled his nerves enough to reveal the truth; “This…this is exactly how the comic I'm reading starts”.