[Total Points: 30]

‘Points? Is this really some type of perverse game? What is going on?’ Mercy decides to shelve the questions for later. There isn’t anyone that can answer them considering the only people around are three sobbing messes.

Mercy notices the vibrating on the door stops, then, as she watches, the door fades out of existence. There is nothing there. No tar on the ground. No imprint from the door. There is no evidence that it ever existed in the first place. She would think it was all an elaborate mental illness if not for the three cowering humans, the two dead people laying in their own blood, and the five green creatures collapsed with various injuries. Another reminder that it is real is the stench. The entire room reeks of copper and shit. It smells like someone died in the sewers. Definitely not pleasant in the slightest.

“E-excuse me, miss. W-will you p-protect us? I-I can pay you!” The man in the hawain shirt begs her. Mercy, the miss he mentioned, couldn’t care less about him. Why should she protect someone that would ditch their loved one just to live? If he fought back, then maybe she would consider it. Especially with the lack of information though, she won’t even think about it.

Mercy gives the group of three behind her a few words of advice as she pulls out the spears, “Find a weapon and hide. I don’t know what is going on, but if this happened here, there is a chance that the rest of the museum is compromised too.” All in all, she has three recovered spears, the rest are either broken or stuck.

A quick glance around the ancient weapons shows that there is only one usable weapon left, that being the bow of Apollo’s high priest. Sadly, it is useless since there are no arrows. The other artifacts are all broken at some point or another. There are other artifacts that may prove useful though. In the same case to the god of Ares is a steel shield. ‘Even if it just blocks one blow, like the sword, it would be good to take it.’ Mercy snatches the shield out of the case. The shield is a gray color, with spikes coming out of the sides. The front of it has a large sword and skull insignia taking up most of the room. It is fairly weighty, but due to her well worked out body, she can wield it.

Just before she walks out of the now open doorway, one of the other three, a man in a suit, calls out to her, “Miss. If you would be so kind, would you let me follow you at the least?”

Mercy quickly shakes her head, “No. For two reasons. Firstly, I don’t want a leach on my back. Secondly, I can’t guarantee that it is safe out there. You might be better off hiding in here. If you follow anyway, you will have to fight because I won’t protect you like I just did.”

The man glances at the two people not moving next to him before replying, “We’ll stay in here. There is safety in numbers, afterall.”

“Good luck.”

“You too.”

Mercy makes her way out of the door. To her surprise, the hallways are completely empty. Not even a lick of blood is anywhere at all, a contrast to the red and green room behind her. The hallway is white, the color coming from the stone. Along the walls are dozens of pillars, for aesthetic purposes as much as support. If she remembers correctly, the staircase down from the second floor, where she is, should be to the right of the hallway. As she walks down the room, she notices that each and every exhibit room is blocked off by a black wall, like the wall that blocked the doorway in the greek room.

she continues on until the wall all the left side of the hallway opens up. Mercy approaches slowly and peeks around the corner. On a normal day, the hall would open up to a two story drop down to ground level. Down there would be a dozen or so statues. Past the statues should be a temple entrance like wall. Today, as she looks at it, she can’t help but be nauseous. The entire room has changed from white to red. There are a few green spots every once in a while, but it is almost purely red.

Mangled corpses lay everywhere. Men and women, young and old lay all over the ground. A quick count is at least thirty but closer to fifty. There are a couple goblins, but most are humans. The most surprising thing is that the bodies look like they have chunks torn out of them. Like some rabid animal decided it was chow time.

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She notices that there are also a dozen or so goblins still alive. Each one of them has a human limb in their mouth, chewing on it with looks of ecstasy.

As Mercy watches, one of the people she previously thought was a corpse stands up. He books it to a dead policeman's body and pulls his gun. By the time that he reaches it, the goblins have already stood up and are running at him with their spears.

The man smirks as he squeezes the trigger towards each of the goblins. To both his and Mercy’s shock, the gun doesn’t do anything. His smirk quickly dies into an expression of terror. The man hits the pistol a few times and messes with something on the side before trying again. Nothing happens. In the few seconds he was messing with the gun, the goblins had already arrived. As Mercy watches, the dozen or so goblins run the man through with their spears multiple times. Every time he gets hit, he twitches with more and more blood pooling out. In no time, the man isn’t recognizable as at least three spears are going through various of his face’s holes.

Mercy stands there with a growing sense of horror and confusion. ‘Why didn’t the gun work? He could’ve easily killed all of them. Wait…’ Mercy tries to remember what the original tar door said, ‘Didn’t it say something like “Five for five is live. Fair and square. Survivors will live, diers will give. Have fun, without any gun.” Does that mean that guns don’t work anymore? And what about those classes that we picked. Why haven’t I noticed anything different?’ Mercy stands there, watching the goblins tear into the bodies with their sharp teeth as she replays what has happened so far in her head. One thing stands out above the others, ‘Can they not tell the living from the dead if the living are covered in blood? That man hid among the other human bodies without them noticing.’

As she is musing, she hears the sound of a shoe rubbing the floor behind her. Completely on instinct, she swings her spear at the sound. In the fraction of a second before it hits, Mercy stops the blow. The spear ends up pointed directly into a man’s face.

The man quickly raises both hands, allowing Mercy a better look at him. He has on a pair of glasses that look like they should belong to a wizard. His hair is a dark brown shade and his eyes are a light blue. He has on a heavy coat and a pair of jeans, both covered in red and green blood. On his back is a wooden spear, like the one he is holding.

Just as he opens his mouth to speak, Mercy stops him with a finger to her lips. She lays down the spear and motions him over, pointing around the corner. The man cautiously approaches and peers over her shoulder. Because he is so close, Mercy can hear him gulp as he sees the broken bodies down below.

She leans up to his ear and whispers into it, “Let's go somewhere quieter. They might hear us speak.”

It takes a few moments, but the man nods his head and motions back the way he came. It isn’t a surprise that it takes a few moments to regain his mind. If Mercy wasn’t so accustomed to blood, she would’ve paused for longer than she did too.

The man with glasses leads the way into one of the exhibits. Mercy recognizes it as one of the exhibits that was closed off when she first passed by. Inside is much the same as the room she came from. There are four dead humans and five dead goblins strewn about. Each one of them has stab wounds from spears. The only difference between the rooms is that the room she is currently in has a window. Outside the window is a street in NYC.

The street is in total disarray. Cars are strewn everywhere, like the humans driving them disappeared in the middle of going. There are corpses of various humans and creatures everywhere along the roads. Some creatures are all like the goblins, but there are some larger green creatures and some wolf-like creatures.

Mercy is gobsmacked by what she sees, so much so that she doesn’t notice the man talking to her until he taps her on the shoulder. She jolts back wards, about to swing her spear before she halts herself.

“Are you okay? And do you know what is going on?” The glasses-wearing man asks her.

Mercy shakes her head, “I don’t know what is going on. I have a slight flesh wound.”

The man shakes out his shoulders as he glances around the room before refocusing on her, “Listen, I plan on escaping out of here. It would really be beneficial if we were to team up.”

“Do you know how to fight?” Mercy asks.

The man motions to the spear strapped to his back, “Not really. I do know enough to get by though. I killed two of the creatures in here by myself though. It’s too bad that the rest of these guys weren’t so lucky. What is your name by the way?”

“Mercy, you?”

“Tyler. I have to say, you are one of the most beautiful people I’ve seen.” Tyler attempts to flirt with her.

“Now is not the time for this.” Mercy ruthlessly shoots him down without a second thought. “Now, I have a plan to get out, if you want to join me. You have to know how to fight though.”

“Of course. So… what’s the plan?”