On the other place…

“We’ve got a little trouble boss…” The man said.

“What is it?” A man around 50 straightened his position as he faced the other man.

“We caught three school boys because they saw those nine guys, boss. What are we going to do with them? Should I just kill them right away?”

“You’re not a God, let them decide their own fate!” The boss said with piercing eyes.

“I don’t get it.”

“Put them in the game.” The boss declared his decision.

“I’m sorry, but that’s not –“

“I am the boss here! How dare you preach me? Now go tell our loyal customers that the contestants will be 12 this year! Ask them to place the bet immediately! Put their name at the stake table! Don’t mess it or you know what will happen to you! Now, get lost!” The boss ordered.

“You want to out?” One of the muscular men bent down to Kyungsoo’s eyes level and smirked. As Kyungsoo couldn’t speak, he just nodded his head several times.

“Well, let’s see if you are the lucky one. I don’t bet for you though. Okay, listen up everybody! You are not here to be sold as slaves like in those movies! You are not going to be mutilated too if that’s what you are thinking! You are here for a game while some rich people out there are betting for you! You are the players!  You guys like to play, right?” The man smirked even wider.

“Your life is on your own hands. Therefore, we gives you freedom to choose. Right after my friends and I walk out from this ship, the ship will be sinking slowly. You all have approximately 12 hours before this ship becomes completely underwater. There are several information that you need to know. First, the window is unbreakable. It can only be destroyed by a thousand gallons of water, so keep your expectation low from escaping through the window. Second, this door will be locked and so do the ships. Third, if none of you manages to get out of here, the bomb has been set up. That’s it. The game starts… Now.” He said as he disappeared from their sight and the door being shut with a loud thud and a ‘click’ was heard afterwards.

“Holy !” Chanyeol cursed as he removed the duct tape.

“I know. Who is insane enough to play this kind of sick game?” I answered immediately. Twelve of them started to unite themselves and they gathered immediately.

“Okay, we just need our brain to cooperate right now.” Chanyeol tried to call everybody down.

“Do you know what I’m feeling? It feels like this is the first day of the last days in my life. Never once I thought that I would die sinking in the locked ship.” A tan guy said.

“First thing first, let’s get to know each other. I’m Kris.” I said.

“I’m Chanyeol.” Chanyeol grinned slightly. He still could grin in this kind of situation, geez!

“I’m Kyungsoo.” Kyungsoo said.

“I’m Luhan.” A Chinese guy said with a soft voice. He looked beautiful in my opinion. His skin looked soft, and he had perfect face!

“I’m Baekhyun.” Another guy with a pair of beautiful eyes said. Did he wear eye liner? That was just my guess because he had something black under his eyes.

“I’m Suho.” A guy with a ‘mama’ manner said and flashed a small smile. Yeah, he had those motherly face anyways.

“I’m Jongdae, but my friends called me Chen.” The guy ion the black leather jacket said.

“I’m Yixing. Call me ‘Lay’ in short.” Another Chinese guy spoke.

“I’m Sehun.” A tall guy spoke. He had his brunette hair and he looked cool by the way. I believed I have somehow seen this guy somewhere. “No need to stare at me that way. Maybe you saw me in a magazine.” He spoke again and made Kris blushed in embarrassment.

“I’m Minseok. You can also call me Xiu Min. Whatever you prefer.” A guy with very adorable cheeks spoke. I felt a sudden urge to pinch his cheek but that would be really discourteous.

“I’m Jongin but I prefer to be called Kai.” A tall tan guy said. He smirked and I could say that his smirk was rather y than scary.

My eyes finally landed on the last guy which happened to be next to me. “I’m Zhi Tao. Just call me Tao in short.” He had eyes like a Kungfu Panda.

“Okay, good. Try to remember names, okay? First task, how to get out from this room first?” Chanyeol opened the topic.

“How about we kick the door?” Luhan gave his opinion.

“I thought that just happens in movies.” I raised my brows.

“Well, no harm trying, right?” Luhan said and we all nodded.

“Okay, who will try first?” Baekhyun asked.

“I will since it’s my idea, besides, I often kick balls.” Luhan said. I almost laughed my out. I wanted to say something like ‘Hey, this is a locked door, not a ball’, but again, we just happened to be strangers that had to work out together if we wanted to get out of the disaster.

Luhan stepped forward and with all his strength, he kicked the door. The result was as I had predicted earlier. Luhan screamed, “Ouch! !” as he fell to the floor and cried over his feet.

“I’ll give a try.” Tao suddenly said and stepped forward. From his moves, it seemed that he learnt martial arts. “Yeah, I learn Wushu.” He suddenly leaned to me and said. What was that? Was I that readable?

He bent his feet before taking a deep breath and then kicking the door. The door was still locked but at least, he wasn’t injured.

“What a strong door!” He cursed.

“I think we have to do it together. Together, we are strong right? We need to join forces.” Chanyeol said.

“Okay, first round, Sehun, Xiumin, and Jongdae.” Tao said.

“What? Me?” Sehun blinked.

“Yes, you!”

“Excuse me, but why me?”

“Because I guess, you are younger than me?” Tao answered and I swore I heard Sehun murmured something sounded like ‘motherer’. Fortunately, Sehun was smart enough not to talk back. The three of them stepped forward and at the count of three, they kicked the door. The door was not flung opened.

“! This is not going to work!” I said in panic.

“Don’t say like that. Let’s do it again. This time, you, Chanyeol, and I will do it.” Tao said. I never really kicked a door with all my might before this, but I guessed I had to do it now. Of course I had to give a little sacrifice for my leg.

“One, two, three!” The three of us kicked the door and Tao even shouted ‘AYAAA!!’. Surprisingly, the door flung opened.

“Wow! I must admit, that was cool!” Baekhyun said.

“Guys, I’m hungry.” Lay said.

“We all are, I bet. But I don’t remember the man mentioned about ‘there is food’ or something similar to that. So, I guess there is no food here.” Jongdae spoke. 

“I want to be home! I am supposed to sleep on my confortable bed or playing with my dog but look where I am now? Stuck in a locked ship and in a so called game between life and death!” Sehun grumbled.

“Look, kid, you are not the only one that feel like that! Look around you! There are 11 guys that face the same problem with you! I am supposed to be in my friend’s party but here I am now! So, stop complaining!” Suho said. Even though he had those motherly voice, he sounded strict too.

“Let’s have a tour around this ship and see how we can get out of this hell.” Chanyeol said. “Does anybody have a flashlight? Coz here is really dark. I can barely see your faces.” Kyungsoo asked.

“My phone.” I said suddenly.

“Don’t use it. It will be draining the battery. It’s better that we find stairs and get as high as we can, then search for a signal.” Xiumin gave his opinion.

“But we need it to walk first. Really.” Tao argued.

“Okay, pay attention to the battery. If it has reached 30%, turn it off.” Xiumin made the decision. I took out my phone and pressed the flashlight button. This ship was really in a bad condition. The floor was dusty and there were barely things in here. Was this made exclusively for this sick game?

“That looks like a kitchen!” Lay suddenly said, distracting us. Of course, we turned to face the direction. I squinted my eyes to get a better view and I guessed he was right.

“Check if there is food in refrigerator.” Suho said and Lay was the first one that opened the refrigerator. There was nothing there. There was only a bottle of water.

“This is the only thing I can find inside.” Lay said and tossed the bottle to Suho.

“Let’s share. At least, we get to drink.” He said as he tried to be optimistic. We counted. An hour had passed which meant we only had 11 hours left. To be honest, I started to lose hope. I meant, c’mon! This was really awful! I was stuck in a locked ship with nothing in it and the ship was sinking slowly.

“Guys, get up!” Suho suddenly said.

“What?” Kai jumped from his seat as he was shocked by Suho’s sudden loud voice.

“The man was lying. If he said that this ship is sinking, we will not have that much time! We only have a maximum of six hours according to my knowledge.” He said suddenly.

“How do you know?”

“My dad is a sailor and I know a little about ship. Let’s find the engine room!” With that, we got up from our depression state.