Keon walked to the front of our group and turned to face us.
“Now that we’re all up to speed, let's do a little investigating and find out-”
His speech was cut short by a voice on the intercom.
Welcome freshman class of Fortune’s Favor University! Now that you are all familiar with one another, come to the gym and meet the faculty that will be looking after you during your stay! Please be prompt.
We all looked around at each other in silence. Louis, weirdly enough, was the person to break it.
“Hoo boy. They sure got us good huh? I should have known this school wouldn’t be normal. What good would it be to trap us all here anyway. What a relief!”
He wasn’t shaking or stuttering anymore. In fact, he seemed confident when he spoke. There was no way I could see him that way though after his strange first impression.
“Like it would be that simple,” Cyrus retorted. “There’s no chance that such a respected university would pull this kind of stunt. We have no choice but to play along for now though. I’m leaving for the gym.”
Many others in the room seemed to share the belief that this did not seem to be simple freshman hazing. Louis started shaking again. It seems like Cyrus’ comment crushed the brief feeling of safety he had finally obtained.
“Nobody panic,” Keon said, still trying to regain everyone’s attention. “We’ll head to the gym and get to the bottom of this. Worst case scenario: We just have to escape, which should be easy if we combine our talents. Best case scenario: We’re being pranked by the university and it’s just part of being students at FFU. Either way, we’re all going to walk away from this just fine. Now, let’s go.”
Some were listening to his speech and others had already walked away while he was talking. I guess not everyone sees him as the group’s leader after all. After a couple minutes only a few people, including me, remained in the gym. I was about to follow suit, but before I could take a step, Marin came up from behind me and tapped on my shoulder. I flinched at her touch which caused her to flinch in return.
“Woah! Sorry for sneaking up on you! I was just wondering if you wanted to walk there together? I just think it’s a good idea to not go alone until we figure some more out, y’know? Also, I don’t wanna walk with him, or her. They're weirrrrrrd.”
She was whispering and pointed to Robbie, who was inspecting the floor very closely, and then to Sabrina, who was staring right at us from the other side of the room.
“Yeah, there are definitely some characters here that’s for sure. Some seem pretty genuine though,” I said.
“Would you consider me one of the genuine people?”
She was making eye contact and I again had trouble looking away.
“O-oh yeah, for sure. You definitely seem very normal.”
Very smooth jackass, I thought to myself.
“That didn’t seem too convincing, but I’ll let you off the hook this time.”
She finally broke eye contact.
“I’m only a baker and there are some truly amazing people here, so I guess it makes sense that I don’t feel like I fit in with the rest of them.”
It made me happy that she felt more comfortable around me, but since it was because of me not being “truly amazing” it hurt my pride a little bit, even though she was right.
“Okay, we’ve wasted enough time! Let’s go see what’s in store for us,” Marin said while pointing towards the door.
We both walked towards the exit. The only people left in the room were Robbie, Sabrina, and Louis. Louis was closing his eyes and saying something under his breath that I couldn’t make out. Once we went through the hallway which housed our dorms, I started reading all the names posted on the front of the doors, and surely enough, they truly were all co-ed. The fact that there were dorms here with bathrooms made me more hopeful that this was just a really bad first impression and nothing more than that, but that doesn’t explain why we were put to sleep and had our belongings taken. There were also tablets implanted inside the walls right next to every door. They looked to be turned off though, so I had no way of knowing their purpose. We made our way to the gym, which was adjacent to the cafeteria, which itself was at the very end of the hall. We walked in and saw a bunch of chairs set into four different columns of four chairs each, making 16 total. Many of those who made their way to the gym were already seated, except Cyrus, who was standing up and looking around the room, and Emma, who was braiding Amber’s hair. I guess some people aren’t convinced that the situation is that bad.
“Oooooh! Let me help!” Marin said, running over to Emma.
“The more the merrier,” Emma said with a smile.
“Make me pretty!” Amber said while giving two thumbs up.
They all giggled.
I left them to it and took my seat. Even though Marin talks like these people are untouchable, it seems she still tries to make a good impression. After a few minutes, the rest of the stragglers came in. After which, a new announcement came over the intercom.
Thank you all for coming! Now that you’re all here, I’d like to introduce you to the staff that will be looking after you all during your studies!
Four people came up onto the stage. They all had gray military-esque uniforms and had their faces shown except for one man who wore a space helmet. There were two men and two women. I assumed the person with the space helmet was a man based on their build, but I guess there’s no way to know for sure. The person with the helmet went up to the microphone and started to speak.
“Hello everyone! I am the headmaster of this esteemed university, Levi Blackford. I expect all of you to be on your best behavior during your indefinite stays here!”
Indefinite? Many of the others were taken aback by his choice of words too as there was a murmur of voices around me. Finally, someone spoke up.
“What the hell do you mean by indefinite?!” Conrad yelled. “You guys are scaring the shit out of us! I thought we were supposed to be guests to a top university not playthings for this fucking weird show you’re putting on!”
“Now, now,” Levi said. “You all can ask your questions at the end of the presentation. Now be polite and wait until then, okay?”
“Like hell we will!” Conrad continued. “Tell us this is a joke! Why were we all put to sleep?! C’mon!”
One of the women standing on the stage next to Levi looked just as pissed as Conrad, but for a very different reason. She looked right at him.
“Quiet yourself boy! Or else we may have to take drastic measures to make sure you don’t interrupt your headmaster again.”
She lifted up her jacket slightly and we saw there was a handgun holstered to her side. “You’re all very lucky to be here. You should be grateful!”
“Calm yourself Andrea. There will be no need for that,” Levi said, putting his hand in front of the woman who I guess is Andrea. “I know that you all out there have many questions, and I will answer all of them that I have the ability to answer at the end of the presentation. I promise on my integrity as your headmaster.”
The sight of the gun made everyone deathly silent. Conrad sat back down looking like he was about to throw up. All the color had drained from his face. The only one who didn’t seem to react was Cyrus who sat silently while looking up at Levi, seemingly waiting for him to continue.
“Good,” Levi said, aware that he was back in control. “Now let me introduce you to the staff who will be here taking care of you all.” He gestured to his right. “Firstly, this here is Alex. He will be the one making your meals while you’re here.”
Alex was a very scary looking man. He was massive. Easily the biggest person in the room. He also had a huge scar across his face from the top of his forehead down to his chin. The fact that he was a chef was definitely not what I expected. He was also very tan, like he had never spent a day indoors until today. He walked up to the mic and spoke.
“I look forward to serving you all during your stay here. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if there is anything special, you’d like me to make for you.”
“Thank you, Alex,” Levi said.
Alex walked back to Levi’s side.
“Now, next is Andrea. She is the correctional officer of this university,” Levi said while motioning to her.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It was easy to see that everyone was already terrified of her considering how she had a gun, so being told that she is a correctional officer does not soften that blow. Regardless of the fear she instilled in us, she was very beautiful. She had dark brown skin and a black afro that was separated into two puffs on each side of her head. She walked towards the microphone.
“I am going to be making sure you all follow the rules. This school is heavily surveillanced and I will be going over all of the footage every night to make sure and punish any sort of rebellion you all try to start. As long as you all follow the rules, we will all get along just fine.”
“Thank you, Andrea.”
She then also returned to Levi’s side while shooting glares at us all.
“Now last, but surely not least, this is Jane. She does the housekeeping here”
Jane looked like a sweet woman. She seemed to be around her mid 20s, maybe early 30s. She had a baby face and was definitely shorter than me. She had pale skin, light red hair styled into a messy bun, and green eyes. She didn’t look like she’d hurt a fly, but with the situation we’re in, I doubt she’s harmless.
“I’ll be here to make sure you all have a nice and clean environment. If there is mess feel free to let me know, and I will take care of it. Most of the time I’ll be in the housekeeping quarters, so feel free to see me there and let me know if I can be of service.”
Her voice was soft and sweet. Seeing her and hearing her speak almost made me feel like the situation might not be as bad as we thought. I quickly snapped out of it though and remembered the rest of the facts that showed that we were most likely screwed.
“Now that we’re all acquainted,” Levi said, making his way back up to the mic. “I’ll be going over what life will look like for you all during your stay here.”
Everyone began listening intently.
“I’m sure you all are aware of it by now if you have been paying attention to your environment, but all of the dorms are co-ed. Now that you are all legal adults, it is important to learn to live with someone of the opposite sex. It goes without saying that Andrea will make sure there is absolutely no funny business going on in your rooms.” Andrea once again lifted her jacket to show her pistol. “This is solely for educational purposes. This is not meant to be for you all to learn how to date. It is to put you all in an uncomfortable situation that will in turn make you all stronger as individuals.” He paused as if waiting for applause, but no one made a sound.
*Ahem* “Also, some of you may have noticed that there are tablets outside of your dorms. These are the key to entering your room. Or it might be better to say that you are the key. They have facial recognition software that only lets you in if one of the people assigned to your room is looking into the tablet.”
I guess that explains the tablets, but facial detection technology is kind of a weird way to unlock rooms. At least we don’t have to worry about losing our keys, I guess. It’s also nice to know that we’ll have some protection against Andrea barging into our room, but I imagine they might have a way to get in regardless.
“Breakfast will be served at 8am every morning, lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 6pm. And your curfews will be at 10pm every night. After curfew, the cafeteria will be closed. I urge you all to stay in your rooms at night unless there is an emergency that requires you to contact Jane, such as a large mess, or improper bedding. Teenagers need to make sure to get all their rest, after all.”
This is all seeming a bit too structured now. It’s making me a bit nervous. They’ve got intricate rules, a curfew, and a gun? Something tells me that getting out of here is not going to be easy, not with this much thought being put into it. At least we won’t be in danger of starvation.
“Lastly, and I hope this answers a question that a lot of you are probably waiting to ask about the indefinite stay, you all will be living here from now on. But do not fret, as we will make sure you are comfortable as long as you all remain here. And we have also put in a way that you may in fact leave this place if the urge to becomes too great.”
Everyone’s eyes were wide open and heavily focusing on what the next words were going to be. Finding a way out without needing to overthrow our most likely armed captors was definitely the smartest course of action. But the next words that were spoken, the only way that we were given to be willingly let go, was something sounding more like a cruel joke rather than anything serious.
“All you have to do is…kill someone and get away with it during a class trial!”
Everyone’s faces went pale as if they saw a ghost, maybe even a glimpse of their own, and the silence turned into a frenzy of confused voices.
“Y-you’re joking right?!” Conrad said, finally out of his scared silence.
“There’s no way we would do that!” said Amber standing up while pointing straight at Levi.
“I see…Things are getting very interesting…” I could hear Cyrus say during the confusion.
“There’s no way you guys can keep us here! People will look for us!” Maya screamed while her sister tugged on her sleeve.
“Everyone stay calm! This must be a joke, and even if it’s not, there’s no way we’d give in to something so barbaric,” Keon said as he stood up and faced us all.
“Now, now,” Levi said while wagging his finger. “No one has to kill anyone; it’s just an option for those who truly feel as though they don’t want to remain here. We’re not cruel, so we wanted to give you all at least one way to go back to the outside world, but we didn’t want to make it so easy that everyone would jump at the chance.”
“What do you gain from keeping us here?!” Carmen yelled from her seat.
“We only want to nurture your studies. You’re all the brightest and most talented high school graduates in the United States. We just want to incentivize you into staying here and honing your crafts. We have an extensive library where you all can enjoy books at your leisure and other facilities for those with more hands-on talents. If you tragically end up losing your life, then it was because you were weak and unworthy of being here.”
Levi spoke in a tone reminiscent of a disappointed teacher rather than a psycho kidnapper. It was a strange feeling.
“The one who kills an ultimate student and gets away with it, will prove that they are strong and cunning enough to survive on their own in the real world, and therefore, earns the right to graduate.”
He’s insane. This entire situation is insane.
“Before I let you all go, I’d like to hammer in a few more things: First of all, myself and the other faculty will not aid in any murders you plan to take out, but we will not stop them either, as long as you are following the rules when you proceed. Also, the staff, as well as myself, all are armed with pistols that we would really prefer not to use, but I’m giving you a warning that if you try to be violent with any of us, there’s no guarantee you won’t come out of it with a couple new holes.”
That last line was the first time I heard any genuine emotion in Levi’s voice, and it was excitement.
“It’s now time to give you all your student handbooks. These are going to house all the rules that you must follow, so that you do not have to worry about forgetting them. They also come with a map of the school that will help you make your way to specific facilities open to you. We have more floors in this building, but with the amount of people we have now there’s not nearly enough space for you all to share evenly so they are closed as of right now.”
That was definitely his way of saying that when there are less of us, he’ll open more areas. It’s obvious what he means by that.
“That concludes the presentation. So, are there any questions? It’s almost noon, so we will be starting lunch in the cafeteria soon.”
“I’ve got one,” Cyrus said, standing up. “You said that if we kill someone and get away with it, we can leave, but what if we get caught?”
“An excellent question. During the class trials, everyone will have time to discuss who they believe carried out the crime, and after the trial stalls, or if I deem it over, then everyone will get to vote on who the murderer was. If they are correct, then the murderer gets executed and everyone can go back to their peaceful lives. But if they are wrong…then everyone except the murderer is executed, and the killer gets to graduate and leave the academy!”
“I figured as much,” Cyrus said as he sat down, seemingly satisfied with the answer.
This brought the room to an even greater internal panic that could be felt like a miasma of dread throughout the room.
“Anything else?” Levi said.
“So, how long are you actually going to keep us here?” Miles said, crossing his arms.
“As previously stated, indefinitely. Unless of course you want to kill a fellow classmate,” Levi said while dragging his thumb across his neck.
“Okay, so we’re just gonna grow old here? I mean you guys are probably gonna croak before we do if we play it that way.”
“Don’t you worry, Miles. I guarantee that you all won’t have to worry about that. It’s human nature after all,” Levi said, shrugging his shoulders.
“What do you mean by that?” Keon asked.
“Exactly what I just said.” Levi then pointed at us. “When humans are put into tough situations, the will to survive takes hold and all reason is thrown out the door. I doubt this situation will drag on long enough for anyone to grow much older.”
“We won’t just do what you want!” Marin yelled, standing up. “No one is going to get hurt, and no one is going to die! There’s no chance you can keep us all here! We’ll get out!”
She was very passionate in her speech.
“I welcome you all to try. As long as you’re not breaking the rules, anything goes, so let your creativity run wild! Use your brains! Use your skills! Use your talents! I will support you all wholeheartedly. Now, take your handbooks, and go. Lunch will be served soon. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask one of our staff members. Dismissed.”
Jane came off the stage and handed each of us our student handbooks individually, while the rest of the faculty members left through the back door of the gym. I looked over at the others and could see Louis was shaking more than when I first met him. The others also looked worse for wear. The only people who didn’t look terrified were Cyrus, Keon, Robbie, and Sabrina strangely enough. I was hoping this was because at least one of them had a realistic plan. Keon was the first to leave his seat. He went up on the edge of the stage and faced us.
“I’d call this a success,” he said.
“How do you figure that, jackass?” Carmen said.
“We learned who’s keeping us here. We learned the circumstances of our capture. We now know they are armed. We know that there are rules and that there are curfews. We have a lot of information that we didn’t have before.”
Very few people seemed to be listening to Keon. Most of them looked to be deep in thought about the situation and couldn’t care less what he was saying.
“I actually have many more worries and questions than answers myself. I think I would have preferred to find out that this is not our own little circle of hell. This university is fugazi,” Carmen retorted. “What are they actually gaining by keeping us here? Or how can we even trust each other anymore? Knowing that we can get out by killing someone…there’s definitely some freaks here who will relish that opportunity.”
I saw the fear in Carmen’s eyes as she spoke those final words. Everyone was now joining the conversation, but I couldn’t make out what most of them were saying except for Marin, who was screaming over everyone.
“NO ONE IS GOING TO DIE!” Marin screamed as she stood up facing Carmen. “No one here would do something like that! We need everyone here to work together to get out of thi-”
“Everyone, stop!” Keon interrupted. “I can’t hear myself think with everyone talking at once. For now, let’s just go to the cafeteria, get some food, and have a nice and structured meeting going over our next move as a group. Sound good?”
Everyone seemed satisfied with this, and the chaos ended. We all got up and headed towards the cafeteria. I just hope the food is normal.