The Absconsion

Prey And Predator (P-1)

Elly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was nothing. It was entirely dark. It must either be a dream or the room must have been completely dark. After a few seconds, she pinched herself and realized that she was not in a dream. 

When a person wakes up from a deep sleep, then he or she might require a few seconds to process everything, in that phase, nothing really makes sense. Elly was currently experiencing that phase, so she did not react. She thought this was a dream, but soon she realized that it was not. She slowly got up and was now sitting on the bed. Her eyes slowly began to adjust to the darkness. Although it is impossible to see through utter darkness, in presence of the lowest intensity of light, a human eye could adjust to the darkness and reach its optimal sensitivity to low light conditions.

She began to hear voices from beside her.

' Why is it so dark? '

' Where are we? '

' Are we kidnapped? '

Soon the murmur grew loud, and people started to panic. Most of them began to shout but none of them came out of the bed as they were afraid to explore the dark territory and that too in an alien place. All the indistinct yelling of the people came to halt when a piece of music started to play. Post the music, the lights turned on, in an organized way, like in movies, and an audio said, ' Good Morning. ' 

When the lights finally turned on, all the individuals were dressed in black-colored clothes, with a code on their right shoulder and on the back. All of them were lying on a single bed next to each other. The last thing that they remembered was eating the delicious sandwich and drinking water. All of them went to deep sleep soon after. Everyone is experiencing a black out as if a part of their memory is erased from them.

People started complaining, yelling and some of them got up and started kicking the beds and damaging the property around them.

All the people were kept in a large rectangular room, which had only one entrance that was locked. There was a huge screen above the locked door. And there were cameras, speakers everywhere inside the large hall. It was like all the people present in the large hall were continuously being watched and monitored and that made people feel unsecure.

People who were not arguing or complaining were looking around the hall and checking out their surroundings. It was better to adapt to the situations rather than complaining and losing your composure while gaining nothing.

With a loud bang, the screen switched on, and a man with a golden mask appeared on the screen.

' Good Morning, Players. I apologize for the noise. I started with a bang to gather your attention and stop the murmurs. Now that I have got your attention, let me congratulate you for accepting the invitation and taking a step towards progress. You have taken the right decision by coming here. Secondly, we apologize for sedating you during your transport. The only reason was to safeguard the identity of this place. There were no other intentions. I know you have many questions for me. So before I proceed with further instructions, I am happy to answer your doubts. I know everyone would start asking at once, so raise your hands who have a question, and the spotlight chooses whose turn it is. 

Now they realized that the sleep was not because of their tiredness from the journey, but because of sedation. Knowing all these stuff made everyone more uncomfortable and suspicious. 

Many people started raising their hands, and on whom the light stopped, they were asking their questions.

' Where are the hell are we? ' Questioned one of the frustrated individual.

' As I have already said that the location needs to remain hidden, so we cannot disclose you regarding your whereabouts. We make sure that as soon as the event completes, you will be dropped off at your respective pickup points. '

' How did we get into these clothes? ' Queried a woman.

' There are many teams who would make sure the event goes as planned. Every team is comprised of both men and woman. Therefore, females team members are assigned to take care of female players to avoid any discomfort. I hope that answers your question.

' Who are these guys in black and white masks? And why is your mask golden? '

' The color of the mask represents their rank. The people in white masks are called "Officers" and their level is 1. The people in black masks are called "Generals" and their level is 2. And I am called "The Organizer" and I am level 3. '

' Why are you hiding your faces? Why do we get to show our faces? '

' The two main reasons for the concealment are to protect the team's identity and clear representation of the hierarchy. The job that our team will be doing is a difficult one, so their identities need to be protected to avoid any future altercations. And do not think about your identities, because as soon as the event ends, we will no longer bother you. All the data that we gathered about you will be discarded. '

' What exactly, this event is? We do not have any idea about it. Care to shed some light on it? '

' I shall be discussing all of it post your breakfast and showers. Our team will soon approach and make sure that everyone receives everything. '

' When will they come? I am starving, you little piece of s**t. Do you feel me? ' Yelled an angry young man.

' Our team will soon approach and make sure that everyone receives everything. '

' Why the f**k are you repeating the same sentence? You useless golden s**t. '

The screen shut down, and the doors slowly opened. There were 20 officers and five generals. There was a group of five officers under the command of one general. 

General: Good Morning. The first thing that you need to do is fresh up. I want you all to split into two groups, males in one and females in the other. This is not an act of discrimination. The only reason is to make things move faster and smoother. 

Players started to move into their groups as instructed, and then each of the groups was guided by ten officers and one general. They were taken into two separate large halls where they were instructed to bathe openly in front of one another. Even though, all the players in the group belonged to a single gender, most of them felt shy to undress in presence of hundreds of others.

A few minutes passed by, and none of them undressed. They were just washing their faces and hands and brushing their teeth. 

General: Twenty-five minutes remaining for freshening up. After that, we will proceed to breakfast even if your task remained incomplete.

Players understood that bathing was not mandatory. It was not a rule that they should follow at any cost. As soon as they realized it was not a rule, many players were relived as they can now skip the bath. They did not have any problem with bathing in the morning, but they required privacy which was not available in the current situation. Not everyone can be comfortable without bathing, so a few people started to undress and began bathing with their underpants on. By seeing them, others also started. Very few people decided to skip it because they were more uncomfortable about the idea of publicly bathing than not bathing and smell unpleasant..

When the time was over, players were instructed to collect their new outfits and towels. The new outfit was just a replica of the one they were already wearing. People got ready quickly and came back to the main hall. By that time, the arrangements were also made for breakfast. There were three rows, and players were rushing to get their breakfast. The players were behaving less human and more animal like. It was as if they were starving for a very long time and the mere sight of food unleashed the beast in them. But that was not the case here. They had their dinner the previous night. There was no trace of discipline anywhere. 

The rest of the sane people stood back in the line and were waiting for their turns. The breakfast consisted of two apples and an orange juice. Initially, it felt less, but as they ate, their stomachs were full. Some of them couldn't even eat the two apples, and they shared them with others who were still hungry.

After breakfast, before people could settle down and talk with the others, the General started saying, ' The first round will begin after half an hour. Rest well. '

The countdown on the screen started. This was another screen, different from the one in which The Organizer popped up. On that screen, the time was counting back from 30 minutes to one. Since people had eaten just now, it makes sense to give them a break, otherwise, they can not perform well.

The Organizer came back on the screen.

' I hope you have had a good breakfast. And before going to the first event, I would like to inform you of some of the rules and regulations. The event consists of ten levels but they may change based on the player count. As you can see on the other screen, the player count is currently at 340. The code on your outfit is your name till this event ends. This is to protect your identity from each other. We also advice you to not share your personal details with the others. 

As you can see the first letter in the three-letter code is an alphabet and each alphabet consists of 20 players that is A1 to A20, and it goes on for the rest of the succeeding alphabets. The breakfast was conducted in a disorganized way today, but from lunchtime, you will have to form and wait in lines as per your numbers, or else you will not be provided food for that period. Not only for eating but for every other aspect, maintaining your line is important. A man who does not follow rules is an animal and that is how most of them behaved a few moments earlier. that should be the last time. Failure to maintain your discipline will lead to direct termination. 

The second point is that damaging the property is against the rules. Some of the players were kicking their cots at the beginning, which is not allowed. Any kind of intentional damage to our property is considered as breaking a rule and you will have to face the consequences. Remember, everything is monitored.. So behave accordingly. 

Every day, you will be participating in an event, the winners would proceed to the next level while the losers get eliminated. The more you win, the greater the fortune that you can take home. And before starting the event, I would like to tell you a story.

Long ago, there lived two farmers, who were also best friends. Ram was the kind of person who is compassionate and sensitive and people loved him for his modesty and kindness. Kishan was a kind of person, who is rough, but also kind-hearted, but people does not perceive him to be kind. Even though he was a good person, people admired Ram a lot. But that did not lead to any indifferences between the good friends. They never let the people's judgments come between them. That was the understanding they had.

They were so close that they even bought the land that was adjacent to each other. They built their houses near their farms and lived with their families.

The farm was sold to them at a cheaper rate because it was closer to the forest, and no one wanted to live there and take care of the land. So the two friends saw it as an opportunity and bought the land and started farming. Kishan had extensive knowledge about farming which helped Ram in becoming a better farmer. Ram followed Kishan in every aspect of the farming without questioning him as he trusted his knowledge. As expected, the crop turned out so great. Since the weather also supported them, they were able to yield crops in surplus quantities.

As time passed, Kishan had an idea to clear a small portion of the forest and turn it into agricultural land to increase their farming land and surge their profits, but Ram was against the idea of cutting down the trees, so he refused. Ram was a man with  a strong conviction. Kishan tried to convince him, but knowing about his character, he felt it was useless, so he began to clear a small portion connecting to his land and turned it into his land. Kishan's profits skyrocketed while Ram was still earning the same. Kishan kept expanding his farm while Ram remained in the same position by sticking to his principles. Ram's wife, who used to be delighted when people used to appreciate him for his values, now turned impatient and restless. She wanted her husband to change and adapt to the world that was moving forward at a high pace. She confronted him, but he was not able to change himself, it felt impossible for him to rewrite who he was. Going against his true nature seemed difficult to him. his ethics and code of living started to become his enemies. 

Ram's wife finally gave up after trying to convince him for a long time. Kishan's wife wanted his husband to be like Ram in the beginning, but now she was glad that Kishan remained as himself. because of which their lives changed in a way they never thought possible. Things were going okay for Ram and great for Kishan until one day, some wild animals from the forest entered their lands and spoiled some of the crops during the night. They knew that the reason this incident took place was that Kishan expanded his land, deep into the forest that the beasts are now entering their lands. 

Even though the reason was obvious, no one pointed out the fingers. Kishan felt bad for his friend because his desire to expand was now costing his friend's business that made him feel guilty. He decided to do something for his friend, so the next day, he approached Ram to discuss the problem. Ram, who is depressed about the incident, was still welcoming Kishan with untainted affection. 

Ram: Hey, Kishan. How are you feeling?

Kishan: I am good. I know we have not talked about what happened yesterday. But it is time to discuss and make sure that nothing of such sort would repeat again.

Ram: Well, what do you have in mind?

Kishan: First, I thought of hunting the mammals that will come to graze on our fields, but it seemed risky. I had a better idea then, what if we install an electric fence around our fields, which we would only turn on at the night. In this way, we can peacefully sleep while protecting our fields. What do you think?

Ram: Thank you for trying to help me in saving our fields but I don't think I will be able to go forward with what you have proposed. You are talking about killing those creatures, which is inhuman. 

Kishan: Come on now, Ram. We are not hunting them down for selfish reasons. We are just trying to protect our fields. I don't think it is immoral, it is a necessity.

Ram: I am sorry to say this but we are the ones who invaded their homes in the first place, Kishan. This can be considered as retaliation. What can you expect from them when we are invading their homes? Anyways, I am not asking you to back down from your idea. I am just informing you that I will not be taking a part in that.

Kishan looked at Ram's wife, hoping that she would persuade him, but she gave up a long time ago. As long as she had food to eat, a roof to live under, and clothes to wear, she decided to mind her own business. Kishan did not know how to persuade Ram despite being his friend for a long time. Reluctantly, he left.

Soon, Kishan started to work on the fences, and within a week, he covered more than seventy percent of the boundary. Every night he used to turn on the power and go to sleep peacefully, while Ram was worried about the destruction of his fields. Within a few weeks, Ram's field was completely spoiled, and all the crops were damaged. On the contrary, in the Kishan's farm, a few wild beasts were killed by the fence, and from then, no other mammal tried to enter his field, as a result, Kishan's field was booming with yield.

Ram, who could not change himself, decided to give up on his land and started to work on Kishan's farm for daily wages. Kishan kept expanding, and in a few years became the richest farmer. He became so popular that he gave seminars and opened a few centers to educate farmers on the better ways of cropping. Now, the whole world was talking about Kishan, and no one even knew that Ram existed. 

Kishan did what was necessary by setting aside his morals. This may not be ideal in every case, but a courageous and wise person knows how to differentiate the situations and when to put aside their ethics to make things happen.

The insights that we can obtain from this story are

You don't need to look for opportunities elsewhere, they are always under your feet, you just have to recognize them. In order to grow and evolve, you need to be able to do what the rest of us are not willing to.I hope you have learned something from this. Just remember that nothing is unrelatable. If you learn to read between the lines, you can find the connection that you can deploy in your real life scenarios and emerge as victorious. With that being said, let us begin the event.

The first round is called, "Prey and Predator." For this level, everyone should find a partner as this game requires a team of two people. You will be given fifteen minutes to pick your partner. After successfully teaming up with a partner, you need to cross the black line and remain there. Players who fail to find a partner in the given time would straight away be eliminated. The time starts now.

Players started looking here and there as all of them were strangers, which made it difficult for them to initiate the conversation. But since failure to find a teammate, involved elimination, people started to look for a potential teammate. Some were in the search of strong candidates, while few of them were busy finding beautiful girls.

A15(Jackson) was looking for potential teammates, and during his search, he made eye contact with D18(John). Without evening exchanging any words, they became a team just by a single nod. It felt like two friends met each after a long time. They instantly became a team and then crossed the line along with many others as instructed. They were the first team to cross the line.

In the first five minutes, no one crossed the line, but during the next five minutes, many teams started to cross the line leaving only a few players on the other side of the line.

P4(Elly), as she was about to approach a person, they were getting teamed up with other players. Finally, she spotted D4(the guy with who she traveled with, in the van). As soon as she spotted him, she froze. She forgot about picking a teammate. By the time, she came back from the trance, D4 was the only one left. Unfortunately, she only had 10 seconds to decide whether to team up with him or choose elimination. She decided to team up with him, and they crossed the line at the last moment. 

D4 smiled widely which put P4 at unease but since she was surrounded by a lot of many people, so she was not as intimidated as before. However, as long as he was around her, she had to be cautious, vigilant, and keep her guard up.

The Organizer: Now, follow the officers. They will guide you to the location where your first event is going to be conducted.

A total of 170 teams had been formed. They were quietly following the officers and generals. The surroundings through which they were traveling were baffling. It was like a maze with an infinite number of doors. They turned left and right multiple times. Some of the players tried to remember the direction in which they were going, but they got confused in the middle. Zain(H8) touched every door that appeared on the way. Since he was smarter than most of the players there, he remembered the way from the beginning. After a while, they entered into a large hall, where they could see a plethora of cages. 

After all the teams had entered the premises, the Organizer began to say, ' This is where your first round is going to be. As I had already said, this round is called, " Prey and Predator. " All the teams are provided with ten minutes to decide who is going to be Prey and who is going to be predator, and your time starts now. '

The players did not even know what the game was, but no one wanted to be prey.

P4(Elly): I am going to be Predator.

D4: Are you sure, baby girl?

P4: Stop calling me that. I am P4, and you are D4. Are we clear? And yes, I am going to be the predator.

D4: Think logically, P4. The predator is the one who preys on the prey. That doesn't mean the prey are weak. They are equipped with special skills to escape from the predator. Practically speaking, I can assume the role of predator, and if you become prey, maybe they will provide you with some additional stuff to save yourself. It is better to take roles that suit us.

Elly was so stressed that she did not think about it logically. When she took a few deep breaths and thought of D4's point of view, she felt it was right.

P4: Alright, then. I will play the role of Prey.

Zain(H8), on the other hand, volunteered to be the prey, and his teammate G6 readily accepted the decision. The reason H8 chose prey was that he had been in hiding all his life, living in the shadows, avoiding the spotlight, afraid of addressing a large crowd. In short, he lived in exile. He was not afraid of being in public, he just did not like it. But this doesn't make him a usual anti-social personality or an extreme introvert. These deficiencies were balanced by his intelligence and aptitude. If an analogy is to be drawn, he was analogous to prey. Even though being a prey is not good, it is what he is good at.

Jackson(A15) and John(D18) were both open to any roles.

D18: You can select any role you want, I will be the other one.

A15: We do not know what this round is and what we will have to do. It can either be against each other or face others together as a team. So, I think it is better to assume roles based on how we are in our real lives.

D18: Well, if that is the case, then I did not study properly, and I mostly grew up roaming around the streets and wasting life with my friends and with a fight or two every now and then.

A15: Well, it looks like you are a bit rough than I am. So, I think you should be the predator. Are we ok?

D18: As I said, anything is fine with me, as long as we win and move forward.  

The time given has passed by, and now it is time to begin the first round. The organizer continued, ' As you can see on the screen, every team is given a number. Check the cage with your number and move inside it. '

All the teams were busy searching their respective cages. In a few minutes, everyone found their cages, and they occupied them.

The cages closed as soon as all the teams were inside. All the cages were made of glass, which were transparent. Everyone can see through the glass. Inside every cage, there was a line drawn in between.

The Organizer: Attention teammates. As you all can see, there is a small partition inside every cage. On one side, you can see a sticker of text Prey, on which the player who had chosen prey must remain, and on the other side where a sticker of Predator is present, the player who chose predator must remain.

All the players stood firmly in their positions, and then a glass door fell down on the partition line separating the teammates. As soon as it fell down, the outer glass became opaque preventing the players of one team to observe others. This made people nervous as they felt like they were put in a prison by terminating the contact with the outside world. However, the inner glass door remained transparent, and both the teammates could see each other.

The Organizer: The outer glass is made opaque to prevent one team from watching the other team's game. By this, there is no scope for being influenced by how other people are performing. It is your own game. Now, I will enter into the game. The elimination of prey is in the hands of the predator. If a predator can perform the task assigned to them, then the prey is safe or else they will be exterminated.

One of the players got panicked and asked, What do you mean by exterminated? '

' You will cease to exist. '

No one really understood what the organizer meant by that dialogue.

The organizer continued saying, ' When the round starts, there is a small opening on either side of the glass box, through which a box enters. On the predator side, the box contains a g*n, loaded with two bullets, and as soon as the player takes the g*n, the box goes out of the opening through which it had come. On the side of prey, the box which comes inside automatically open and the box contains a snake.

All the players were shocked and gulped in fear. They were not understanding whether this was all a joke or was seriously happening. Anyways none of them interrupted the organizer.

' The snake is called The Blue Malaysian Coral Snake. I will give you a brief description of it before we move on to the next instruction. The Blue Malayan Coral Snake is beautiful but highly venomous. It inhabits primary and secondary forests, in lowland and lower montane areas and its primary food source is other snakes. Typically this snake is encountered crossing forest trails.

It is instantly recognizable by its red head, tail, and belly. The dorsal surface is a dark blue to black, and most populations have a broad blue stripe on each flank. This snake generally flees when disturbed, but at other times may remain coiled on the ground with its tail erect as a warning.

On the last note, the blue coral snake has a venom that's so powerful, it can trigger all of the victim's nerves to fire at once, instantly trigging full-body spasms, paralysis, and quick, horrifying death. That is a brief introduction about our beautiful friend.

Back to the instructions, the only person who can you from these venomous reptiles is the predator. On the predator side, when the box which contained the g*n moves out, a puppy enters through the same opening, post that the opening is closed. Now the task of the predator is to eliminate the puppy with their g*n. As soon as they eliminate the puppy, the cage doors open instantly, and the players can move to safety while the officers take care of the reptiles.

All the instructions are clearly communicated, now the cages will be made soundproof, which means you will not be able to listen to other teams, but you can talk to your own teammates.

Before commencing the round, I will repeat all the instructions as your life depends on it. So listen carefully. 

The Organizer repeated all the instructions by using the exact same words as he used before. All the players listened to it with utmost sincerity. Most of them had never been such focused on their studies even, but now they are all ears. 

After the organizer repeated the instructions, he wished everyone to perform in a good way.

The round begins in 9, 8, 7, 6,5,4,3,2,1,0.

The players were all yelling, shrieking and kicking the glass cages, but soon everything became silent because of the sound proofing.