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«We’d have eaten something long ago if there was something edible here,» the athlete answers tartly, «there is not a damn thing here. It looks like the organizers are planning to starve us.»
I don’t like the tone he has chosen. The guy’s appearance scares me: he personifies strength and aggression, as if a silent threat comes from him.
«What about the tap water?» the blonde girl complains, «I’m just dying of thirst.»
«You can safely drink tap water,» Planck replies, «judging by the temperature and low pressure, water does not come directly from a natural source, but through a desalination system. Heating occurs naturally from the sun’s energy. By the evening the water cools down, and in the afternoon, judging by the morning heat, boiling water will run from the tap. This water can be drunk without any harm to health.»
«They aren’t very hospitable here,» the southern woman sighs.
At this moment, the screen lights up, and we see already familiar Maestro. His expression and tone are still calm and friendly. Like the rest of the players, I’m just dying of curiosity. Almost the same as of hunger and thirst.
«I welcome you to the Location and congratulate you on the first game day in the Great Game «Antakarana. Quest in reality»! I hope you are well rested after a tiring journey and ready to start the challenge. Some of you are professionals in the hidden object genre, others are good at logic puzzles. Today you will join forces to find provisions for the upcoming game week. I will give you the hints every day. It is extremely important to listen carefully and memorize them. Indeed, they contain not only the key to the correct decision, but also, often, to life itself. So today’s tip goes like this:
The mysterious number seven:
Life starts with seven grounds:
Earth, Fire, Water, Air
Are filled with Light and Sounds,
And a bright Thought is there.
By finding germs of life
And merging them together,
You’ll get a little clever
Feed hunger through awareness.
So, seek for nature’s voices:
Where the harmony reigns
Unnatural darkness appears
To misinterpret the view —
There you’ll find the clue.
Happy Game start, Players! The Corporation trusts in you!»
Maestro disappears. Instead, four red arrows show up, guiding towards the interior of the island – the projections of light from the same screen. Silence reigns for a while. We can barely hide our disappointment. Angel breaks the hush first with a common thought out loud:
«And this should be the promise: we’ll be provided with everything we need? How will I complete tasks if I’m just starving?»
«What are you whining like a girl?» The athlete growls contemptuously at him. «As soon as this damn plane flew upside down, it became clear that they wouldn’t pat us on the head.»
«Your disputes and differences are useless,» Planck interrupts them, «there is not a minute to waste. In the tropics it gets dark quickly, and we don’t even have the slightest idea in which direction to move.»
He’s right of course. We all understand this, so we immediately start discussing the action plan.
First, we write down the Maestro’s hint. Then we spend 20 minutes to briefly introduce ourselves. Everyone knows Planck, thanks to his courtesy on the plane. Nevertheless, he repeats his name, then makes a short pause and adds: «My real name is also Max Karl» and laughs good-naturedly. We look at each other in confusion, not having the slightest idea what he is hinting at. From the expressions on our faces, Planck understands that his joke doesn’t fit this audience, and briefly introduces us the outstanding German physicist Max Karl Planck, known for his works in the field of thermodynamics, quantum physics and thermal radiation. The blonde calls herself Blonda, which makes many players smile.
The woman with a southern appearance turns out to be that mysterious BeBe – short for the full name of Beatrice Bianchi. The name of the athlete sounds like Runner, that is, «runner» in translation from English. A thin woman in glasses in her 50s introduces herself as Martha. Then follows Angel with an angelic face, Joleo, who named himself after the satellite of Saturn that he discovered, and Alex and I. The last one appears to be the Chinese woman – a miniature girl with thick black hair that reaches down to fragile shoulders and with too bulky frames of glasses for her neat little face. The Asian woman’s name is simply Yu, an abbreviated form for Yuming. Nobody asks for the name of the little red-haired girl, and I don’t bring it up.
We decide not to waste time on further discussions and to start searching immediately. Judging by the direction of the sun, our Platform is located in the west part of the land. The arrows on the screen clearly show directions: north, south, southeast and northeast. We make a general decision to split into four teams: Alex and I choose the northeast direction. Runner volunteers to accompany Blonda and looks frowning when Angel joins them. However, he doesn’t mind out loud, and this team gets the southeast. Joleo and BeBe take a southerly direction along the coastline. Planck and Martha remain to explore the area around the Platform, because of the age they are inferior to the others in physical parameters. Yu insists on heading north alone, also along the ocean line.
«I grew up by the sea,» she firmly denies all objections, «this is my element, nothing can happen to me.»
Now we have a vague idea of what exactly we are looking for. It’s only clear that you need to pay attention to some unnatural objects or phenomena in nature. Or, as Alex quoted the Russian fairy tale: «Look for that – I don’t know what.»
Before leaving, I ask Alex to wait a couple of minutes. We have absolutely nothing to fill water in and take it with us. It remains to hope for a fresh source on the way. I drink a lot and greedily and then immediately head to Leeloo.
She is still sitting under the tree. I have never had any particular knowledge of botany, so I have no idea what kind of plant it is. Nevertheless, I definitely like it – the branches covered with large leaves hang down almost to the very ground, giving a healing coolness in the midday heat and shielding from the outside world.
«Leeloo, do you want to come with us?» I ask, sitting down next to her. The tree immediately envelops me with its hospitable aura. We seem to be cut off from everything that happens outside in this secluded leafy hut. I even feel a slight euphoria from our «hide».
«No, I’d better stay here and try to find something,» the girl replies. After a pause, she adds: «Be careful and come back before dark. It gets dark terribly quickly in such places. I don’t want you to get lost and spend the night in the jungle.»
Her voice is full of alarm.
«Don’t be afraid, Leeloo, we’ll be back in time. The sooner the better. My stomach is already cramping with hunger. We’ll have a feast tonight, I promise.»
We exchange smiles and a sudden urge to hug Leeloo seizes me, but I hesitate. Instead, I get to my feet and run to Alex. He is already waiting for me to leave the Platform and go towards adventure.
***
For 10 minutes we’ve been moving forward in silence.
Just a few meters from the Platform, the thickets become unexpectedly dense. Our legs get tangled in intricate grassy plexuses, every now and then some impudent liana grabs the face or sleeve. From this angle, we no longer see the soothing blue of the ocean or hints of civilization, so the heart gets filled with anxiety. There is something mesmerizing about the sounds of the jungle. Multi-toned cries of birds. The buzz of insects. The rustle of trees. Whistling tops in the wind. They seem alive and pierce through – they frighten, surprise, delight, but do not leave you indifferent.
If in the morning a white tight-fitting suit seemed to me unsuitable for such a hot tropical place, now it would be difficult to imagine the best clothes. Tall fern with unknown inhabitants, tropical and often unfamiliar shrubs and the ubiquitous dense clumps of lianas are definitely not suitable for close contact with my northern skin. In addition, the sun beats down so mercilessly from the blue sky that I could be burned to the crust in a matter of minutes.
Alex walks in front, wearing his suit more loosely, which gives him a bit of the look of a factory worker. Finally, I break the silence and address Alex in Russian:
«Looking for objects in this jungle is the same as looking for a needle in a haystack…»
As soon as I utter the phrase to the end, suddenly a piercing ringing begins in my ears. The sound is so intense it feels like my head is about to explode. It causes such unbearable pain that I fall to the ground and hold my ears tightly with the hands. Through the veil in front of my eyes, I see Alex, with a frightened expression on his face, run up to me and say something. At this moment, he also grabs his head, and his face distorts a grimace of pain.
«… is happening here?!» the end of the phrase reaches me, after which he screams loudly and falls to the ground.
«How damn painful it is!» Alex rolls on the ground, and blood runs out in a thin stream from his right ear. A guess comes to my dull consciousness, and I scream with all my might in English, hoping that Alex will hear:
«Shut up! Not a word in Russian! Shut up! Quiet, quiet, quiet!!!»
I crawl up to him, look into his eyes and take my hands from my head.
«Can you hear me? Shut up!»
He nods, still wearing the same haggard expression. We sit side by side under a palm tree and try to come to our senses. The ringing in my ears gradually dies down and I can think more clearly. It takes about twenty minutes before I can move my tongue again:
«Alex, we violated rule number three: «The language of communication of the Players is exclusively English» and the rule number eleven was applied to us: «Players will be punished for violating the rules of the Game, and eliminated from the Game for significant violations». First, this deafening ringing in the ears. I don’t know what happened after your second sentence. But your eardrum seems to be hurt.
«I’ll tell you what. It was as if thousand needles had pierced eyes, ears and brains at the same time. But, of course, it seemed to me not enough,» he jokes sadly, «for the third time I felt a small explosion in my head. I guess I should throw away my right ear as it is hopelessly damaged.»
«At least you don’t lose courage,» I grin, «but just in case, from now on, not a word in Russian on this damned island.»
«After this I’m afraid, not a word for the rest of my life.»
«But how do they do such cruel things to us?»
We look at each other and understand at the same time. The answer is so elementary and terrible that we begin to laugh nervously:
«Coordinators! We are not just figures with the built-in navigators, we are puppets in the hands of the organizers. They can punish players, control every step, every word…»
«And turn off our consciousness any time convenient for them,» Alex finishes calmly.
«What?!»
«Look. Yesterday everyone fell asleep, barely got into their cars. None of us knows how long we were on the way, or which road we were driving. At exactly 21:00 p.m., I fell asleep, although I usually don’t fall asleep before midnight. And getting up at 9 a.m. in the morning is absolutely fantastic! I don’t even ask how it was with you, because now there is not the slightest doubt that everything happened in the same way.»
«That’s where this disgusting metallic taste in the morning and back pain comes from!» I whisper. «But it’s illegal! This is an infringement on a person’s privacy. They just don’t have the right to do it.»
«Lavina, something tells me that nobody in this ominous place thinks about our rights. Perhaps this is just the beginning. How did we end up here?»
«But… but how?! It’s just a game! And we almost went deaf by breaking a little insignificant rule. What will happen if…»
I feel depressed. There is no trace of hope that this adventure will turn out as I expected. This is a serious organization and it plays for real. High bets – high demands. How deep is my regret that I responded to the request, passed all the tests and did not leave that fatal plane while there was still an opportunity!
The words of Zhang Kiang come to my mind again: «Don’t trust anyone. Follow the instructions carefully. This is your only chance. "Maybe she really wished me well and wanted to warn me of the impending danger? I can’t wait to discuss this with Alex, but now that I know that every word of ours is being tapped, I hesitate, fearing to get Zhang Kiang into trouble. Of course, the Glossy Lady is not the best example of hospitality, and she has a brilliant talent for getting on your nerves. And yet, what if she is as hostage to the situation as we are? Alex interrupts my train of thought:
«One thing I can say for sure. You have good English if you know the word „eardrum“. And I seem to be able to hear with both ears again.»
***
We walk through the jungle in silence, still impressed by what happened. Our goal is to go as far as possible in order to explore the place in which we find ourselves as best as we can. I roll my head around in search of something unusual. In these thickets, it is simply not possible to see this something. My pessimism picks up steam when I suddenly hear Alex say:
«Look at that tall tree, something is clearly wrong with it.»
«What exactly?»
«It’s extremely high.»
As I get closer to our subject, I admit that Alex is right – this palm is different from other trees. Probably, it can be seen from any hill in the area. We examine it from all angles and find a tiny red Antakarana symbol at the base of the tree.
«We found it! Symbol!» I exclaim.
«Do you think this is our subject – a palm tree?»
«Maybe a piece of bark with a symbol? Let’s take a closer look.»
Examining the base of the palm tree thoroughly, we notice a square of earth directly below the mark. It differs from the rest of the tree’s surroundings: grass also grows on it, but the ground under it is red. Without thinking twice, we break the square with our hands. At a depth of about five centimeters, our fingers press against a plastic box.
Alex takes out a white box with the familiar black symbol – three sevens, placed in a volumetric cube. It contains a small glass bottle with a red liquid.
«Doesn’t look edible,» Alex says, disappointed.
«Not at all,» I confirm grimly.
A note is glued to the bottle with the words:
«Where one begins,
The other finds its end.
Great God created this
Best thing He ever made»
Alex reads the legend aloud and says thoughtfully:
«You don’t need to be a genius to guess the answer „Earth“. In addition, this element was mentioned by Maestro in the initial formulation of the task. Most likely, the phrase hides something more significant.»
«What strikes me is the contrast. Suppose all vegetation starts and sprouts in the ground. A person ends his life there,» I add.
«Smart girl! Even at the beginning, Maestro opposed the natural and harmonious to all the unnatural and called it „darkness“. What can disturb the harmony of nature? Only a human. That is, we have a conflict between nature and man.»
«In any case, we’ll find out more when and if we find all seven objects or, as Maestro put it, «mystirious seven elements’,» I sigh.
«Chin up! It hasn’t been long, and we already have something. Quite not bad. It would be nice to eat. There is nothing edible in this jungle except you and me. Let’s hurry up, I wouldn’t want to be someone’s late night meal.»
For a long time we follow forward, carefully making our way through the dense jungle, talking on various topics from our past lives. Our real lives seem to be something distant, having nothing to do with the current reality, only two days after we left our homes to plunge headlong into an adventure. Too much has happened in the past 48 hours. And first of all, tha fact we had to die and rise again.
I try my best to be vigilant, looking at my feet before every step in fear of seeing a snake or some unknown animal. We move extremely slowly, no more than two kilometers per hour.
With each step, the road becomes more and more difficult. The sun is now directly overhead, and there is not a cloud in the sky to somehow alleviate the midday heat. The shadow of trees is the only defense against the scorching rays. Sweat rolls down my face. Gradually, our conversations fall silent. Based on the position of the sun in the sky, we have been on the way for more than three hours. Given how quickly it gets dark in the tropics, there are maximum five hours left to reach the camp.
Hunger, thirst and oppressive heat are merciless. The water that I drank before leaving the Platform came out long ago with sweat. My tongue is swollen, the mouth is dry and I find it difficult to say something. My stomach is cramping, and I remember with longing about yesterday’s tasteless food on the plane, as well as the banana trees growing around the Platform. In addition, the humid stuffy air and the scorching sun depress consciousness. More than anything, I want to sit on the ground and fall into a deep, painful sleep.
But Alex is certainly right. In such dense vegetation live… who actually? I’m even afraid to think about it. I know one thing for sure: at night they go hunting. After getting dark, there will be little chance of reaching the Platform. And so we go on, and each step gets harder and harder. Every thought delivers almost physical pain. Alex, who at first after the discovery was still making some jokes, gloomily keeps silent and goes forward.
«I’m dying of thirst. Let’s go back? Maybe other groups have found something?» I did not expect to hear such a plaintive squeak from myself.
«And you quickly give up,» Alex hoarsely replies, who himself can barely keep on his feet, «let’s sit down and rest, and then turn back. How could they have sent us into the jungle, in which there is not a single coconut tree?! You know, once in some survival guide I read a phrase that somehow stuck in my memory: «In tropical jungles and rainforests, the soil is always wet and teeming with insects, leeches and reptiles. Therefore, during sleep, you should isolate yourself from the soil, otherwise the heat of your body will attract the snakes, and in the morning you may find one or more of them curled up around your intimate places.»
«I used to think that my worst nightmare is a plane crash. But THIS attracts me even less. Thanks, no.» I feel horror and disgust at the mere thought of a snake curled up in a ball in my lap.
