Novella

“A Predator Game” Excerpt

Submitted for publication to Writers of the Future Contest 4^th Quarter 2018

The light of the Tasker on my wrist illuminates the dark corridor ahead of me. I don’t initially know what I got myself into. I don’t even know how I got here. But I soon know all too well where I am by the technology embedded into my wrist and the darkened path ahead of me. I’ve seen this very image too many times to know exactly what is going on before it’s explained to me. I’m in the game, inside the very nightmare that started it all. Years of studying and analyzing the history of the Predator Game could not prepare me for this. Not that I care much for studying. That never gets anyone anywhere. What does science lead to? What has it led to? To this! To this “entertaining” form of “justice. It’s sickening. Yet here I am, about to be one of thirteen to go through The Hunt.

Thirteen prisoners get thrown into the Predator Prison. Everyone who commits a crime, no matter the crime committed nor the age or gender of the accused, must endure Terra-Emulous’ form of justice: The Predator Game. The only advantage to the game is for those who commit smaller felonies. Each criminal gets sorted from a number between one and thirteen. The smaller the crime, the smaller the number. The advantage comes into play when the game commences. The Predator Game involves two sides: the prisoner and the Predators. Each prisoner gets paired with a Predator. And as the game begins, the Predators get released one at a time in reverse order starting with thirteen. Once the game begins, a Predator gets released every two minutes, so whoever is thirteen never stands much of a chance. The Predators’ job is simple: hunt and kill their criminal. They can only hunt and kill their selected criminal and therefore must search through the prison until they find their target. In turn, the prisoners have one job: Reach a Safe Point to the next stage.

There are ten stages to the “game.” Each stage becomes more difficult, though there is no need. In all the history of the game there has only been a handful of people successful enough to reach the end of the tenth stage: Freedom. That is how Terra-Emulous defines justice: survive the prison and earn your freedom. So pretty much, everyone that comes here knows they’re dead. Escaping the grasp of Terra-Emulous’s trained pets is not easy. The Predators are savage psychopaths specifically trained to kill. They know no fear or pain, making them that much more dangerous. They stop at nothing to get their kill. To us inside, this is our last moment alive. To everyone outside, this is their form of entertainment, while it simultaneously reminds them of what happens to those who don’t follow the rules.

I was never one for rules. There were too many to keep up with, broke at least thirty of them every day. I’m surprised I didn’t land a spot in the monthly Predator Game sooner. I finally got what I deserved, I guess. To be honest, I’m not even quite sure why I’m here. I mean, yes I deserve it. I just wonder which of my many acts of defiance led me here, which one drew the attention of the officials at Terra-Emulous: my graffiti, my burning stacks of books, my keying T.E. officials’ vehicles. There’s so many to choose from. I lived a good life, I guess. The best a girl can nowadays. The last eighteen years of my life have been a blast. Who doesn’t want to live in a country where everyone is afraid to even breathe the wrong way? I guess me. I refused to be like those slaves! I did what I wanted. That was only going to get me so far, but I didn’t care.

And now, I question my life decisions. Maybe there was a better way. I could have caused a riot in a different sort of way, stir others into a rebellion and stand up to the oppressors breathing down our necks every day of our lives. I couldn’t have been the only one tired of it.