17: Cirque City

     Zico and Suzy stood in their spot, looking around the strange city around them.

"I've heard about this place before," Zico said as they started walking forward. 

     There were broken bits of debris strewn everywhere as the two continued walking along the monotonous city, and nothing could be heard except the faint sound of an orgel music box coming from the buildings in the far distance.

Suzy looked around and could sense movement around her, but she couldn't see anyone or anything.

"What is this place..?" Suzy asked, intimidated.

"Cirque city," Zico lowered his voice. 

"That sounds like a freak show-" before Suzy could finish her sentence, Zico pulled her into a small shelter beside them and blocked shut. 

     The two watched as a girl fell on her knees and collapsed to the ground with a large arrow stuck in her right eye. Zico pressed Suzy's mouth shut as Suzy witnessed the horrifying scene and watched as Jooheon hopped out from the alleyway in the side and high-fived his partner, pulling the arrow out from the girl's eye. 

"This bothered me since the moment she got here," Jooheon snorted as he pulled the eyeball off the arrow and threw it behind him.

     Jooheon and his partner knelt down and searched the girl, taking all of her food and weapons. 

The two clutched everything into their bags and kicked the corpse to the side, disappearing into the alleyway. 

Zico sighed and released his hand from Suzy's mouth. 

"Oh my god," Suzy whispered as she stared at the eyeball that rolled infront of them. 

"You saw that right?" Zico grabbed her shoulders. "Even 0.01 of a second is important."

     Suzy wanted to break down and cry, but she held in her tears and only nodded silently. She knew her tears wouldn't help in any way, and she didn't want to show her weak side to anyone anymore.

"Out of all the game maps, why did we get Circue city," Zico muttered as he took out a bunch of knifes and attached it to his inner vest.

"What do you mean?"

"A long time ago, I overheard them talk at the Head Ministry department. Every single time, there's been a continuous repetition of 10 game maps in random order. Out of all the game maps, the most brutal map is Cirque City. "

"I don't understand," Suzy frowned. "What makes this place so different?"

"Cirque City runs on a system called the Midnight Circus."

"Midnight Circus..?"

     "A few centuries back, Cirque City was the only place where animal humans existed. After humans discovered Cirque City, they claimed superiority and set up a revolution called the Midnight Circus. They took millions of citizens into captivity and used them as circus animals for other humans as entertainment; they killed off all the ones that were weak or were useless for their circus. But these humans had no idea what consequences their actions would bring."

"What..?"

     "There was a huge war," Zico said quietly. "The animal humans fought back and their savage nature they evolved from returned. We just.. lost the war. They killed every single human in the same way we killed them."

"But this was a century ago," Suzy said angrily. "We're not the humans from 100 years ago."

"Time flows differently here. Time here flows two times faster, so for them, it's a recent event."

Suzy sighed disbelievingly and buried her face in her knees.

"Basically," Suzy said blatantly. "We caused this."

"None of that matters anymore," Zico sighed. "This won't stop unless we win over them."

"A simple apology will-"

"Apology," Zico snorted. "Yeah because genocide can be forgiven with sorry, right?"

Suzy bit her lips and sighed.

     Zico and Suzy looked up as a large bell began ringing through the city.

"Come on," Zico stood up and helped her up. "We have to go."

     The two walked along the side, hiding along the debris as they made their way toward the main city in the far distance. They could hear the orgel music getting more clearer as they got closer to the city.

     100 feet from the main city, Zico and Suzy stopped as they saw lights from the inner entrance of the city.

"Others are already in there," Zico said.

"How do you know?"

"Footprints," Zico pointed to the prints on the floor that led all the way to the entrance.

     Suzy and Zico walked toward the front entrance and looked up at the gory entrance. The entrance was covered with an large clown face, the mouth covering the arched entrance. Suzy gulped as the clown face looked down at her.

     Zico cringed as the small square of land parted infront of them and a clown head slowly ascended from the floor with the sound of the orgel music they had heard from before. The clown began to laugh hysterically as its mouth opened itself into a shape of an O and shot out eyeballs from its mouth.

Suzy breathed sharply as she looked down at the eyeballs that were dripping blood.

"Entrance fee, five balls. Entrance fee, five balls." the clown head repeated with its maniac laughter as it continuously opened and closed its mouth.

Zico picked up the bloody eyeballs and picked up another five, placing them in Suzy's palms.

Zico took a step forward and threw the eyeball into the mouth successfully.

The clown laughed maniacally and its eyes began to spin as the mouth opened and closed again.

Suzy threw a ball toward the clown which hit the side and bounced off.

The clown laughed maniacally and its eyes began to spin in different directions as the mouth opened and closed faster than before.

"Shoot," Zico muttered. "It gets faster with each miss."

"I noticed that," Suzy bit her lips as she stared at the clown.

"I'll take the rest of the shots," Zico said. "We can't risk it getting faster."

     Zico took a step back and carefully aimed the ball, throwing it toward the mouth. The ball hit the corner and bounced back to Zico followed by another maniac laugh as the mouth began to open and close even faster.

"!" Zico cursed.

"We'll pay for them," A familiar voice approached from behind.

     Suzy watched as Joohyuk approached from behind and took their eyeballs, aiming it into the clown's mouth in no time. The clown's laughter died down as the arched entrance opened up to a large circus park filled with luminiscent lights.

"Oppa," Suzy gasped.

"Go in," Joohyuk held her hand. "I'll be right in."

Zico glared at Joohyuk and walked into the park with Suzy beside him.

"What was that for?" Kyungri asked Joohyuk with a face.

"What?"

"You killed off two people back there, but you're helping her?"

"Don't worry," Joohyuk said, irked. "I have a plan."

     Joohyuk and Kyungri walked into the park and saw Suzy and Zico waiting for them in the corner.

"Thank you," Suzy said as she smiled at Joohyuk gingerly.

"Of course I should," Joohyuk smiled and glanced at Zico who glared at Joohyuk with a contemptuous face.

"Isn't there something you want to say to us?" Joohyuk stared at Zico.

"No," Zico scoffed.

"Let's form an alliance," Joohyuk held out his hand toward Zico. "I've studied everyone's weaknesses earlier. If we work together we can defeat them and-"

"And what?" Zico retorted.

"What..?"

"Then you'll kill us off too?"

"That's not what I-"

"You think I can't see through your little black heart?"

Joohyuk chuckled half heartedly. "If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have helped you earlier."

"Don't play bullcrap with me Nam Joohyuk," Zico slapped his hand away. "That earlier wasn't even a death round. You had nothing to lose-"

"But you did."

Zico couldn't say anything.

"Come on," Joohyuk held out his hand. "You can hate me all you want when we get back to Rubicon. But for now, let's work together.

"You can have the tea party with someone else," Zico smiled sarcastically and walked past Joohyuk.

Zico walked along and stopped; a thought popped into his mind.

He turned around and looked back at Joohyuk who still stood there, his eyes on Zico.

"Under one condition." Zico said firmly.

"Condition?"

"I'm in charge."

Joohyuk hesitated for a second but nodded. "Deal."

     Joohyuk and Kyungri followed behind Zico and high fived each other silently.

"I told you this would work." Joohyuk sniggered and followed Zico as the second bell rang across the city. 

Thanks for reading!

Sorry this chapter is short