The Dystopia Game: Episode Two: Dystopia Game, #2

By Adam Wodyk

Max Stranger cannot forget his terrifying adventure in the Cave. Nagging questions haunt him all the time and demand answers, but there is no answer. Not yet.

Meanwhile, the Seven Players series continues. Max, Claudia, and Lara are thrust into the wasteland, much more hostile than the world darkening beyond the walls of the Emperial Metropolis. There awaits a hidden terror.

In the chaos of events, Max finds out that the Movie Story Algorithm demands total obedience even at the cost of humanity and that playing against its ruthless code can change Seven Players into an unpredictable and perilous game. To his horror, the Filmmakers give him an ultimatum: follow the script or dare to improvise. Whatever choice Max makes—it will have unimaginable implications.

 

Previously published as Seven Players: Episode Two.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam Wodyk
• Release date: Mar 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393264613

Adam Wodyk

I’m a huge fan of the fantasy genre. I love worldbuilding and storytelling. I’ve spent years working on the first draft of Ainavel – my fantasy novel about the world of Erydan. I also love sci-fi, dystopian and post-apocalyptic survival stories. I can be found at https://adamwodyk.com

Book preview

1

A sudden shiver pulls me out of my lingering slumber, and I blink twice to shake off the visions that blur my sleepy eyes. Then I whip around like a frightened bird and notice where the bloody Scavengers have trapped me. It’s a small cell in a shape of a rough rectangle. The white walls enclose me tightly, leaving no area for a bed or a table. I’m lying on the floor in the corner with my legs sprawled out. Lara rests by my side, her head propped on my shoulder.

Hey, Max, she says, squinting her gleaming eyes. I brush her cheek gently with my fingertips. A half smile crosses her lips. Are you okay? She embraces me and whispers in my ear, It’s so good that we got you out.

How long have I been out?

Eight hours. You’ve slept like a log, being on a drip almost all the time since—

She pauses suddenly, as if scared to mention bygone events. I remember everything that happened in the cave right from the moment they slammed the automatic door behind me. It’s a blaze of pictures and flashes still swirling in my dizzy mind. Dead kids’ suits littered almost everywhere, desperate trudging, spiking fever, throbbing temples, final blackout, revival of some unknown consciousness in my thoughts, the bloodcurdling howling of the mutants, finding some mysterious globe—and finally my friends’ appearance at the automatic door. Friends doesn’t include Director Noah and the Scavengers, of course. I consider only Lara, Claudia, and Othello friends.

And there’s something else—something that stuck in my mind much more firmly than the other thoughts. The disturbing vision that crept over me when I dozed off after my feverish walking—a black-haired girl glancing at me over her shoulder and the cave looming behind her silhouette, a huge crack hollowed out of a colossal rock.

All these memories, though, are faded now—still fresh and vivid but a little bit distant, as if lingering somewhere in the background of my consciousness. I feel that I’m surrounded by some other aura, another air, denser and making me sleepy and lightheaded. In addition, I must have had an injection of some kind of drug, because I can’t even get to my feet. The thought of getting up makes me even dizzier.

Are they filming now? I ask Lara after a while.

No. We’re on a break.

Silence falls for a few moments. It’s too long, because Lara can’t stand it.

What happened there? she asks suddenly in a trembling voice, as if releasing long-suppressed tension. We were in the big hall at the presentation. All of a sudden, we heard this terrible howling. Everyone got scared. Even those ... Scavengers in gray suits.

That’s intense. I snort sarcastically and give her an angry look. You were at the presentation, while I was thrown into a dark cave without a bloody warning!

Max, I panicked when you disappeared behind the door. Lara swallows, and her voice cracks. I saw where you went. But Director Noah calmed me down and told me we’d started shooting. Then I felt like they activated the Movie Character in my brain. Some guy in a black vest appeared and started showing us the whole base, talking about an important experiment. And then we entered the big hall. There was a large screen showing a picture of a cave similar to the one you went into. Like in a cinema.

I nod, bewildered. The cave. The bloody Emperialians have a picture of that mysterious place, and they surely know exactly what lurks there.

So you took a trip, I say derisively. You found out about the experiment, and I guess I was involved in it at the time, right? Just like the others before me. You knew I was meant to die, right? That’s what the script required. I wasn’t the main character; I was just some kind of third-rate guy on the chopping block!

You’re talking rubbish! Lara bursts out. I glare at her with a furrowed brow. I have a strange feeling she’s only pretending.

Look straight into my eyes, Lara, I say flatly, examining her distrustfully. Say you guessed what was awaiting me in the cave. And the fact that I made it surprised you all. I’m just not sure if you knew about the dead kids and the bloodthirsty beasts living underground.

Max! An expression of real pain breaks out on her face and is reflected in her eyes. There’s only one thing I can agree with. That it was some kind of experiment—the man in the black vest told us so. But the rest ... how can you accuse me of that?

No, she isn’t pretending. I drop my gaze and bite my lips, feeling a sting of guilt. Why did I treat her like that? It’s not her fault that she’s also involved in this idiotic production, which doesn’t resemble a normal film. I get to my feet clumsily, wobbling a little bit, and steady myself, tucking Lara tightly against my chest for the first time since she gave me a smile.

Forgive me. That wasn’t fair, I whisper softly, cuddling her as if she were a hurt child. Lara doesn’t reply, just clings to me, and I feel she’s not angry anymore.

You’re the main character, Max. She whispers her spell again, as if reassuring me that that’s the most important thing. They’ve shot the first episode.

They’ve shot it, that’s true, sweetie, but just to ... Well, just to what? I know something alarming and very perilous is going on here. My terrifying adventure in the cave and the awakening of a dormant memory, probably silenced by scientists from Emperial—that’s just one piece of this mystery. Another seems much more terrifying—kids’ corpses wrapped in gray suits, dispersed almost everywhere like debris. A grave. Maybe the Emperial vipers are only making the Seven Players serial to achieve their hidden goals. To exploit us, the actors. But what for? What the hell was all that in the cave? Part of some scientific research? Did they intend to ... test me, like those poor children? Test ... Hmm, I muse for a few seconds. Test always means facing some threat!

Tell me, Lara, I say quietly, following this train of thought, and I notice her gaze is focused on me. Did the guy in the vest tell you at the presentation what kind of danger I would have to deal with in the cave?

Some kind of radiation, she answers quickly.

Okay. Radiation. Did he describe it at all?

Wrinkles of hesitation crease her forehead. He just said it was dark, and he added that they once sent three groups of well-trained children and equipped them with plenty of protective devices, mostly nanochips, to keep them connected with the wardens in the base. They did it because, as he said, the children were more resistant to radiation than the adults. But no child came back. The image from the camera inside the fumes was very blurry, actually nothing could be seen, and after some time it disappeared completely. That’s why they couldn’t tell—she lowers her voice to a whisper—what happened to the children.

What? What did you ...?

They couldn’t tell? I exclaim suddenly. So that means ... the audience couldn’t watch what I went through or see what I saw in the cave!

They have no idea how many dead kids are scattered in that place like useless marionettes, says a voice in my mind, but I’m too shocked and enraged to say it out loud.

For a short time we were able to see your silhouette, Lara replies calmly, though her voice is laced with a slight tremble. But then some interference appeared. The screen went blank.

I clutch my head like a maniac. Surely my face must be scarlet with anger now. Interference! Blank screen! And you just told me, girl, that they shot the first episode—that they filmed everything!

Everything ... Lara stammers and swallows, startled by my reaction. "I mean, I wasn’t just thinking about your adventure in the cave but about our presentation too. It was part of this episode. Maybe they knew the screen would go blank, Max, if you crossed the fumes? I’m sure the special-effects supervisor came up with something when the interference popped up. They have their special computers, and they can display their own