Game of DIcE

D-Day

"Where do you think you're going!? Come back!" One sentry shouted indignantly which earned the people's attention in the very early morning.

"We don't want to be there! Let go of us or we'll kill you!" One man shot back while running backward, his huge sword was readied in his hand.

"You are just making your situation worst, young man." The sentry replied, readying his rifle which caused the group to run faster.

Everyone flinched as the sentry fired one shot, but it only served as a warning as it was darted at the dark blue skies. Enough to wake everyone up from their still sleepy state, but not enough to stop the rebels from running.

"I knew this would happen." She heard the man beside him utter, looking in the same direction as they were all looking where a group of young men was starting to escape with violence through the weapons they got.

The screams of those rebels and the shouts of warning from the sentries echoed in the early dawn of the fourth division. The other participants were already on the huge livestock trailer which was used to deliver livestock in the market and would also be used to send the participants to the entrance of the fifth division. There were already some of the participants at the entrance and they were just waiting for everyone to arrive, but since there was a fuss happening currently, the arrival was getting delayed.

"Please get in!" The sentry instructed to them and motioned them to climb up the trailer, "Stop being so nosy and let's hurry. It's already five-thirty."

Riley was on the line of the next participants that will be sent to the fifth division, and they were the last batch. She was the last one to get and there were more spaces were meant for the group who were still being chased.

"To this group who were running away of their responsibility," Everyone felt the goosebumps as they heard the emissary's deep voice, it was threatening, scary, and firm, "we know every each of you, and one step further out of the fourth division's government hall boundary, you and your family will be sent as the participants. We are not going to punish you if you stop but once you escape, we'll immediately send sentries to your houses and take your families by force to take the game in your place. The choice is up to you."

The group abruptly stopped from running upon hearing the announcement, and it was not just a simple announcement among the government hall, it was announced at the whole Land of Asovine which caused a few people to wake up, and get anxious if their family's representative was one of those people who were trying to escape.

Riley saw the sentries shouted and motioned them to let go of their weapons and raise their hands to which the failed escapers followed defeatedly, After all, the parliament knew the common denominator of each participant present— it's their weakness was their families.

The eight people who tried to escape were pushed into the trailer, if earlier there were spaces, now the trailer was clogged, they looked like livestock from farms marked to be sold and killed afterward, which seemed like one best hilarious way to describe their situation because that was one best illustration.

The trailer started to move, and she couldn't feel but nervous as she held tightly on the bag, she couldn't see anything, she was in the middle and bodies were covering her view of their way so she just settled on looking down to have herself relax as much as possible until she got into the fifth division. No matter how much she denied it, her insides were quivering, she was feeling nauseous, she wanted to throw up until her heart stopped from being so fast and loud in fear and anxiousness of what awaits her inside the game, and wondering as well if these people around her felt the same because everyone was quiet, no one looked sleepy, nor relaxed, they were all blank, falling into the abyss of their thoughts, foretelling their fates inside their minds but all their mind could ever afford to give was an awful image of death.

The way to the fifth division was shorter than usual, it usually took an hour and a half, but since probably they didn't realize that they were near because of their clogged minds, they were surprised to see the other participants already wearing their uniforms outside the huge old metallic, obviously old gate of the fifth division— It was a black double door gate with the flag's design which was a circle and dice in the middle grandly embossed in the middle of the gate which if the gate was opened, it would be halved from each side.

The fifth division only consisted of the sector of the game, so it was indeed vast, they were not even on the half of the concrete barricade surrounding the place, and the transparent barricade on top was beyond the clouds which meant that it was wide in length, width and height that they looked like a colony of ants from the top, and that alone was enough to make their hearts burst in the nervousness of what else undiscovered creatures were living inside this game.

The last batch arrived, they got out of the trailer one by one and mixed with the other participants already in. Riley's knees wobbled a little but she managed to get back her stance as she slowly walked to where the others were while looking up at the place that might be her burial ground. She realized that everyone was already wearing the jacket uniform so she recklessly took out her uniform and wore it too, on top of her gray shirt while she was wearing black long tights and a pair of raven shoes.

They looked up at the sky when the sound of two helicopters took their attention, on the other was someone with a camera, going around the place to video them live, which were now viewable on one certain channel around the world, with the emissary himself, holding a microphone to announce the formal start of their journey, while the other helicopter was for an unknown purpose.

"An exciting morning to our land, Asovine, to our fellow Asovins, and to the avid fans and viewers of the Game of Dice which will finally start today! After five years, the day has come again where our new sets of dear participants will start their journey, and as you may see, they look beautiful to look at because of the uniforms provided by our parliament. So, without further ado, let us witness the opening of the fifth division, and now formally begin the journey of the greatest survival show, Game of Dice!"

They flinched when a series of fireworks and firecrackers erupted on the skies as different colors of confetti rained and filled the whole place, celebrating the beginning of the survival show and pre-celebrating another mass death of these participants. Along with the noise of the firecrackers, the ground shook a little as the huge door moved and the dice design split in half and had now fully opened.

"Enter the fifth division now, participants." The emissary instructed.

Every people around the world stopped from what they were doing as their eyes were focused on the television, on their phones, and on the huge screen playing outside the buildings which were on the channel of this survival show. The surrounding suddenly became silent as they watched the participants walked and entered the fifth division.

"Is that Riley?" Thirdy asked walking near their small television to point to that certain girl watching the surrounding innocently.

"She'd grown muscles." Riley's mother muttered, tearfully looking at her daughter who was now walking in the fifth division. "My child..."

"She'll be fine. Let's hope she will." Her husband said, comforting his wife by rubbing her back, but his own nervousness for his own child was still undeniably huge, realizing that if he was ao nervous even when he's at home, how much more his child when Riley was actually inside, looking so innocent and clueless of what was going to happen to her.

"Riley will survive, right?" Servy asked solemnly, watching as the last person came inside and the door slowly closed. "She will not leave us unlike what Quart did, right?"

"Quart will guide Riley, he will not let Riley leave us." His father answered, tapping his son's shoulder, "Don't be mad at your brother, he didn't mean to leave us, he tried, but... accidents happen."

The whole household of Cole became silent, remembering their first family who had left them and his tragic death, and wished that Riley wouldn't end up just like him.

The view from above changed into the camera inside the fifth division when everyone had entered the place and the door was now closed again. The participants were overwhelmed as they looked around level one— it was just a huge empty land with trees everywhere, the land was kind of humid, and the surrounding was misty like how the first division was every morning.

They were now on the first level, the whole fifth division was cold, the sunlight was filtered through the transparent barrier so there was barely heat, there were already Flees flying around, and some were resting, they were unexpectedly larger in actual, and seemed like not easy to please too.

The red numbers on top of the game were also ready, there were 7, 564 participants according to the information shown at the top. There was also a countdown of twenty seconds, the seconds before the game starts. There was a sentence showed at the top of the countdown when it hit ten seconds,

"Ready yourselves, participants. We'll start the game in ten,"

The participants became alert, there were people who already found the dices even from just standing there but they wouldn't dare to take it because the game hadn't been starting yet and they were scared that it might be considered as cheating.

Riley looked around, she had to find a dice herself so she could immediately take a Flee to send her to her destination, and seemed like that was what the participants were also thinking that they felt giddy and restless and kept on moving around, looking down to find their dice as well. She was swept to the back when someone almost stepped on her foot, but when she stepped her left book backward, she felt something hard on it.

She looked down and saw something with peeking dirty white and the slight gold colors and as far as she knew, the color of the dice was white and the dots were of gold colors. She sneakily stood firm on her ground as she gazed at the countdown which said three seconds.

Someone tried to push her and had stepped on her foot, but she remained standing and firm, she didn't move no matter how bad her foot hurt when they kept on stepping on her. The countdown turned into zero, and the yellow letters of 'GAME STARTS' showed which was what they were all waiting for as they started running and looking for the dices.

Riley immediately swept the foliage away from the spot she reserved and took the dice buried on the moist ground, it was a palm-sized box, already filled with dirt and scratches because of how long it had been used by the participants.

She immediately hit it inside her jacket and run to get a Flee, however, because of the people's panicky nature, she kept on being pushed down and bumped on their bodies. The level one field had become a quarterback football game with the dices serving as the balls, and everyone was targeting the dices even if someone had already claimed it. Not of course if it was already tossed.

And unfortunately, Riley's dice inside her jacket flew out of her grip when one man bumped on her.

"Welcome to the Game of Dice, that's all for the sneak peek, and episode one will air next week."

So, this is how it goes.