The last words made boiling water pour down my head. "Hunting? Here…" I swallowed heavily. The beating of my heart echoed against my ribs like a death. "Is there an animal here?"
Everywhere around me was burning while she calmly looked at me and said, "There's no animal," and I felt my complexion jump.
She continued speaking without caring: "Still… we're hunting."
"But how?" My temples were throbbing.
The woman who had roughly looked at me a moment ago seemed to know exactly what the group leader would say. "You wouldn't even want to know how," she said. There was… a revulsion in her voice I couldn't describe. She spoke with the simplicity of an everyday habit, like brushing teeth or walking. Submission. "Like any other animal, we eat what we can… Do you want to see them?"
"H-How?"
The group leader, with a seemingly cheerful expression, grabbed my arm, and in a moment where I couldn't question anything, pulled me in an unknown direction. It felt like a punch in my stomach. I had forgotten the existence of my tongue. Passing along the sides of the walls, we walked about a hundred steps. The group followed behind like a fully equipped gang.
When the leader stopped moving, I thought my heart would stop simultaneously.
"This is…" she said, and suddenly bent down to reach a drawer that resembled an old door handle. I noticed it for the first time; apparently, I hadn't been careful before. While turning the handle, I ran through the possible scenarios in my head. Time froze.
I opened my eyes wide.
What I saw took my breath away. I gasped as if something had entered my throat. I covered my ears with my hands. Had I screamed or fallen into silence… I didn't know.
This… was a human arm.
At that moment, all my perceptions froze. My stomach was churning. I didn't know what to do. Words tangled with each other.
I tried to recall the words of the woman in the room I had been left in before coming here.
"She ate my son… it was a gluttonous animal of the device," she had said; I had seen the emptiness in her eyes, the absurdity that might last until death.
The group leader was right beside me, still standing with his hands in his pant pockets. The sight I had seen barely seemed to affect him. "Did you see?" he said, nodding his head and taking one hand out of his pocket. "What human hierarchy can lead to? When we first entered the device…" he said, in a voice barely choosing his words. "We thought this place was evil. But then we saw there was no difference from the outside."
Others were also listening to him attentively.
He bent down and pulled the arm, watching the empty space on the ground slowly close.
I shivered.
"No…" I said, my breath uneven. "Outside… I haven't seen anything this terrible outside…"
A mischievous expression appeared on his face.
"The crimes committed by upper groups on lower groups… Lawyers hired to cover their crimes… The devil's agents… Children who die before receiving treatment in front of the eyes of the wealthy… Bribery. Favoritism and much more… Isn't all this even more terrible?"
I wanted to say something to prove him wrong.
With my last strength, I tried to control the nausea. The group leader just drew a circle on the ground with his foot, ignoring me. "Tell me," I said, trying to appear fearless. This wasn't my first time losing control.
I had had countless bad dreams while depressed, but now I wasn't in a thought.
"I show this to everyone who comes here… Because… I believe people should know the outcome of everything beforehand," he said in a voice that left no room for uncertainty. "Also… if you can't contribute to the group, you haven't fulfilled your duty."
"What contribution could I make?" I said, trembling. "What kind of contribution is this?"
"It's actually very simple," he murmured, giving a glance to the blonde woman across from me.
The woman took over the words. "Actually, there are twenty of us. But we can't all remain twenty, can we?"
Her hand rose. Instinctively, I recoiled. At a moment I didn't expect, I felt coldness spread across my face. I felt her fingers glide slowly from my face to my chin. "N-No. Don't move. Listen carefully."
Her eyes were pointed at my heart like a gun.
"Every person here…" Her gaze hardened. "Lives one day with the fear of being prey."
She turned to the group.
The group leader didn't utter a single word after this.
"Why? Why would you want this for each other?" I asked involuntarily.
The woman then took on a calmer expression, saying, "It may seem complicated at first," and raised her chin slightly. "Still, we want to know the answer, don't we?"
When she suddenly let go of my chin, it felt as if it were floating in the air.
The group leader walked a few steps toward the holo-screen and looked straight ahead.
"The secret of these missions," he said in a clear voice. "You must understand it yourself and keep it from everyone… If someone else becomes part of your secret…" He paused cruelly.
"The chance of survival decreases," I completed in my own mind.
But he remained silent.
The group moved away from me, gathering around the leader.
I turned to the holo-screen out of boredom.
It was correct.
A new mission had appeared for me on the screen.
I realized, albeit late, that my previous mission had been completed.
Now, in the lower corner, a new mission flashed and faded:
[Learn the rules]
I looked at the man lying unconscious on the ground.
The bright reflections, like light seeping into an old mansion, fell across his long eyelashes. I remained where I was, then slowly bent down and laid myself on the icy floor. The word "Rules" kept bouncing off the walls of my mind. It was dark. The blue glow of the holo-screen cast a small beam of light on the ground. This light reminded me of the sunlight filtering through the blinds at home. Then I missed him. My husband.