I opened my eyes, finding myself; with the rest of the players in some sort of desert. The sun shone from the horizon, making me shield my eyes for its orange ray.
The desert somehow was outlandish, instead of feeling the high temperature of the sandy desert, rather its temperature was cold. And before us was a large field of sand.
"Tell me we are meant to walk over this valley?" Pashina murmured.
"LISTEN CAREFULLY PLAYERS, THIS IS YOUR FIRST QUEST. THIS DESERT ALSO KNOWN AS THE VALLEY OF TRENCH," The voice began to explain.
"Valley of the trench. Haha! What a joke," someone said in a sarcastic way; the instructions proceed.
"YOUR MISSION IS TO CROSS OVER TO THE GREEN AREA, WHERE THE EXIT IS. BE CONSCIOUS OF THE LIMITED TIME, EVERY SECOND COUNTS. FAILURE TO MAKE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT WILL LEAD TO THE PLAYER'S TERMINATION!" The voice premonished. "BRACE YOURSELF, AS THE GAME COMMENCE IN 3, 2, 1." The countdown ended when a timer appeared in everyone's views which counted backwards. We have just 20 minutes to complete the mission and the field was large and the sand would be a set back.
Each single one of us took a few steps forward when an impenetrable barrier appeared from behind preventing anyone from turning back.
"It is now or never," I murmured and proceeded to match forward with others with our total alert.
Everything seemed to be going fine for the first few moments; we were still conscious of the time though, when the unexpected happened taking everyone by surprise. One of the players, in a rapid surging motion, ran on the field when all of a sudden tipped off some sand monstruosité and commenced to crawl out beneath the sand, moving slowly on hands and knees, dragging their bodies along the ground. One of the monster; like a giant mantis with a hard scale, clutching the player that snitched them and gorge the player ravenously, splat his blood hard on the sand.
The horror display of the monsters before us makes us realize the danger in what we were in. The creatures make a deafening shriek.
"OH F@#¢! EVERYBODY RUN!!!" I heard someone screeching raising and alarm and everybody took to their heels and so the battle for survival began against the creatures as the time counted down.
Habib made a low, guttural sound uttered in frustration as his call entered the voicemail for the hundredth time. All his possible ways to reach Steven were in vain when Steven failed to show up at work that day.
"If you find this voicemail which I've been dropping for..., I don't know why you didn't not show up at the office or why you aren't picking the damn call. If you're still alive just give me a call," He dropped the message and entered the bathroom to freshen up.
MEANWHILE…
Things have turned to shit and bloodbath. Little did we know that the monsters under the sand are many. The more we ran to get to the other side of the field, the more the monsters emerged from beneath. The time was ticking, monsters obstructing and the chance of surviving reducing. I've managed to cross the field halfway so as the rest of my tovarich; Pashina, Reece and Reecer.
I heard the sound of scream, struggling groans, flesh slashing and agony cries. Since I've made it halfway, I'd make sure to survive the remaining half no matter what it takes. I have to survive.
Out of nowhere one of the creatures jumped right in front of me and commenced to draw near me. It was covered in a mixture of blood and sand. I could see its claws ready to piece through me like a paper, the creep saw me as a prey it could devour with ease. The creature leapt at me, taking me by surprise and tackling me to the ground. I strived to fight against it, trying to get the creature off me and in the moment my gun slipped away from my hand. I struck with fist, but it was tougher to even feel any pain; its aversion smell was suffocating me.
When it left me no choice; also trying to survive, I held it off with an arm shield to prevent it from biting my hand off while I used the other hand to activate my visor, releasing a beam of orange energy, tearing the creature to pieces. I breathed in relief after killing it and I straightaway stood up without delay and continued the fight. It took a little while to get to my destination and the time almost ran down.
I looked to my side, seeing Pashina smashing the creatures on his path with ease; some unfortunate players include those who were accidentally caught in his path.
"This is fun!" He exclaimed with so much enthusiasm, like he was totally enjoying every single second of it.
When I was pushing forward I witnessed another player getting killed and I shot the creature in the head. "Die disgusting deviants!" I mattered, gritting my teeth. I checked the timer, it's less than 2 minutes left. I let out another battle cry, shooting blindly and also quickening my pace. I was going for maximum kill this time around, I couldn't afford to lose after making it so far to this moment.
Another of the creatures tried acting tough, but I laser its brain away before blasting a hole through its body. I continued fighting and I was close to my destination when I saw the time count down... 10... 9... I dodged another attack, levitating with my booth and shooting the monster from above. 8... 7... 6... I could still make it, that's what I kept repeating in my mind. I saw some players that have managed to cross over and the creatures could not follow them. 5... 4... So, I avoided them instead of attacking back to save my strength. 3... And at the last moment, one of them came out of nowhere which I didn't see coming but I was able to avoid being grabbed by it. 2... I leaped high to jump inside the safe zone. That was the moment one of the creatures stretched its hand aiming for my feet. The timer was about to count 1 when something interfered, the cre1ature's hand was butchered off by some sort of invisible blade. I thought that's what was keeping them at bars never to go beyond the safe zone.
With the help of Reecer who used her tentacles to drag me inside on time, completing the mission. From where I was kneeling I witnessed the players that couldn't make it being devoured by the creatures. Their scream of agony couldn't be bare. In that moment I felt something snapped inside of me. I was filled with anger, boiling with rage. I wish I could have whoever was behind all of these subversions and make them pain in thousands of what they are causing. But in the end, I was clueless like the rest. My string isn't mine to control myself, there were puppet masters lurking in the shadows.