POV Seth

The transition from the brilliant white void to all-consuming darkness was harsh, leaving Seth disoriented. Seth sank a few inches into the floor before the thick, wet surface pushed against his feet. He did not know where he had emerged into the room, or how close he was to the door that led to panicked Squad IX. The dull staccato of gunfire did little to calm the panicked energy of the room.

“Videl, light!” He prayed that the entity overseeing this disaster would have enough heart to assist.

Not so much as an electronic flicker answered Seth’s call.

“Seth?” came Regina’s panicked question.

Seth reached out toward Regina’s voice and grabbed hold of her hands. “I’m here!” He announced in a roar, so they heard him over the barrage of muddled commands from various sources. The hands pulled at him, urging him to climb onto the desk that both Hope and Regina had claimed. He held both women close to him, not wanting to knock them back into the unseen threat that had forced them to climb to safety. First, he needed information. “Report!”

“Fuck you, Seth!” Erick roared. He was struggling out of Seth's reach, his rage making his situation worse. “We should have grabbed those damn guns! Those fuckers are coming for us! They’re going to kill us because of you.”

‘No, they’re not.’ Seth thought, but he said nothing to reassure his squad, the evidence was stacked against him. The opposing squad was still alive, fighting for their lives. Whatever other force existed in this building was likely working hard against Videl to merge both rooms, assuming that it couldn’t establish a plausible connection between both areas.

“Then we should get organized and get out of here,” Seth growled. He reached out, searching for a wall. He’d walk the perimeter if he had to.

A red light blinked into existence. Its dim light barely lit the scanning pad beneath it, while hinting at the large transport rear door next to it. Seth picked out the silhouettes of his squad mates, who were swallowed waste deep by the floor.

‘Something else is here.’ Seth felt it in his bones. He felt something stirring and aware. He felt a panic burst, slipping from his control and overwhelming him. His reality didn’t fracture.

He felt it. He saw it in the depths of the floor swathed in oppressive darkness, a megalith eye opening wide, its abysmal pupil contracting to a pinprick, then expanding into the nest of red and yellow that shaped its massive eye. It had seen him. It had seen them all.

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Seth jumped to the next desk and pulled Wallace from the floor before reaching for Gemma. Regina and Hope followed Seth’s silent order, rescuing Esmey and Elle, who were never far from each other. The floor had sucked at the remaining few, swallowing them to the chest while trapping limbs that had fallen beneath floor level.

The trapped few panicked. There was nothing in their training that could have prepared them for the terror of a building bent on warping reality to fulfill its murderous mission. Seth plunged his hand into the floor, grabbed onto Erick, and heaved. Erick’s body resisted against the floor, waterlike on one-side, while solid on the other. Seth grit his teeth and pulled again.

Erick screamed in agony, his neck now level with the floor. The others were just as trapped with rescuers caught in the savage grip of the false floor, unable to let go.

“I’m not leaving you guys!” Seth screamed as his grip slipped from Erick’s meaty arm. It freed Seth. “I’m not leaving!” He screamed at the beast beneath the floor, pounding his fists.

“I’m being pulled in!” Regina screamed. The others join in the panicked chorus while trying to pull themselves from the floor.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to help.

Meanwhile, the red eye of the transport’s scanner blinked at him, calling to him, promising to end this nightmare.

Seth removed his arm console and showed it to the beast in the depths. “This is what you want, isn’t it? You want out? Give them back!” His hands shook, threatening to drop the data-pack into the black.

The eye blinked a slow, thoughtful blink. “Is it me you want?” He screamed, remembering Videl’s urging him to run and save himself. The odd, stagnant pause in the air suggested that he had the monster’s attention. “Your choice,” Seth sneered, not quite feeling the confidence he projected. “Freedom or me.” He wiggled the device representing the beast’s freedom. “Think about it! How long have you been trying to break free? I’m the only one who’s been able to pull it off! How much longer do you want to wait?”

The eye blinked slowly, thinking. “Let them go, and I promise I’ll be back next year,” Seth said. He felt something at that moment, like a cosmic gong had sounded, binding him to an absolute truth.

“I will come for you next year,” Seth promised again, feeling the gong sound a second time, cementing his intent with his resolve.

The floor drained, leaving semi-conscious bodies littering the glistening wet floor. There were more bodies than he had squad mates.

Seth felt the icy chill of death rake down his spine. He ran to the transport scanner and swiped his arm console across it. It blinked green, accepting Squad VII as champions. The exterior hatch slid open, allowing the interior light to fall onto the bloodied remains of Squad IX. A promise for next year’s game.

“Get into the transport now!”

His squad lumbered to their feet, supporting each other through their fading confusion.

Seth stayed behind. His prolonged presence in the death chamber assured their safety. He considered taking the bodies with him. Their families would want to know what became of them. In response to his thought, the darkness beyond the light shifted. He was out of time.

He squeezed the arm console in frustration. As he crossed the threshold into safety, he smashed the console again into the transport, then threw its remains back into the black. The last thing he saw as the hatch closed was a swath of enraged darkness lunging towards them.