Midnight Pursuit
Four hours later.
Seth and Laura were still on the rooftop, not intending to leave as he thought it was safe from the Skywatchers soldiers. Nothing had been heard since the beginning of Seth's hiding; the man guessed the soldiers had spread out to various places.
The system bracelet on his right hand was still on. Besides being useful for illuminating the place, it also showed the number of participants in this first game.
At the beginning of the game, the number was about 4.5 million people, but as the game passed, there were only two hours left, the number of surviving participants was now 3 million.
Within four hours, there were already 1.5 million people killed by this crazy game, not to mention the victims of the previous battle, bringing the total human deaths in Chicago to 6 million people in one day.
"There are only 3 million people left. I wonder what the city will look like tomorrow," Seth muttered, watching the numbers appearing on the holographic screen above his bracelet.
"Somebody ... help me!" someone shouted, like a teenage girl.
Seth was drawn to take a look. He peered through the small hole he had deliberately made with a golf stick. The voice was heard behind Seth's back as the young man was leaning against the wall of the house's roof.
One of his eyes was stuck in the hole, watching the outside, which looked dim. He saw a girl in shabby clothes walking directionlessly on the city's main street, her head and hands bleeding from being hit by something.
Laura, who had fallen asleep leaning against the wooden structure, had to reopen her eyes. She saw Seth pointing his head at the roof wall, his strange demeanour.
"What's wrong, Seth?" asked Laura, her voice quite loud.
"Keep your voice down. There's a girl walking alone in the middle of the street," Seth replied.
"What? Let me see," said Laura, asking Seth for permission to come see.
Seth cleared his throat, walking backwards to allow Laura to look outside the house through the peephole. The woman's heart pounded, excited and worried about the girl's condition.
"We have to save her!" insisted Laura, turning to Seth.
"That would be dangerous. We don't know if this place is safe from Skywatchers," Seth said.
"Stop being a coward and go save her!" said Laura.
The man seemed to be silent for a while, alternately peering into the hole. Seth's eyes still saw the girl stay silent for a long time on the city's main street, then sit down listlessly while crying loudly, terrified.
"I can't take it anymore!" moaned Laura.
"If you don't want to save her, then I will," Laura said, insisting on saving the girl at any cost.
"Don't act recklessly!" said Seth.
"I don't want to hear anything from you," Laura snapped.
The woman began to remove the boards that covered the entrance and exit to the house's roof. She climbed down alone with ease, trying her best not to make any noise.
Seth felt so annoyed at Laura's attitude. He was still staring outside through the small hole in the wall.
[00:01:59:59]
Every time an hour passed in this first game, the bracelet would display the latest time countdown. It didn't happen only to Seth but to everyone who wore the bracelet.
Seth turned his head, seeing that he had two hours to survive. He then continued to watch the girl, shocked that Seth had to crawl faster towards the hole.
"Damn!" Seth complained.
He just realized something: the girl didn't wear bracelets on both hands. In his previous one, if humans were not wearing bracelets, they'd have been killed initially. However, how could a girl like her still survive?
"It's an alien in disguise!" said Seth, rushing out so quickly that he jumped over the top of the wooden cabinet.
Seth ran down the wooden stairs to reach the first floor, where Laura was already at the house door, intending to open it and invite the girl to enter.
"Wait, Laura!" shouted Seth, startling the woman with an annoyed expression plastered on her face.
"What?!" groaned Laura.
"She's not human. She's an alien in disguise," said Seth loudly.
Laura had already opened the wooden door of the house, so the girl's attention was now drawn to the two persons. Just as she found the surviving participant, the girl removed the same necklace that the three aliens had worn in Millennium Park.
The alien's true form appeared before the two people: a large, tall body with a spiral black mask covering its face in clear sight. It grabbed a rifle from behind its back and ran towards the house where Laura and Seth hid.
"Shit!" said Laura, closing the door again.
The woman was in a panic, with her face pale. Seth invited Laura to return upstairs while they still had time to hide on the house's roof.
They both ran fast to reach the boy's room upstairs, where a chair was still placed before the wooden cabinet. Seth helped Laura up to the rooftop while the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard from downstairs, making their way towards this room.
"SETH!" cried Laura.
With such little time left, there was no way Seth could climb up and put both of them in danger. Thinking hard for a short time, he decided to drop the wooden cabinet to block the doorway.
"What are you-"
"I will survive. I promise you," Seth said as he finished knocking down the wooden cabinet.
"Don't leave me alone!" moaned Laura, tears falling down her cheeks, making her eyes spontaneously turn red with her heart beating fast, feeling guilty.
Seeing the wooden door as if it was being smashed from the other side, Seth circled his eyes. The only way out was to jump from the bedroom window.
He picked up a wooden chair, held it tightly and threw it towards the glass window. The glass broke and scattered in the room. The loud sound must have invited many Skywatcher soldiers to come closer.
"Don't go anywhere. After the game ends, I'll be coming back!" said Seth.
The door was shot down by the Skywatchers' soldiers. Seth had no other choice. He jumped from the house's second floor to fall, rolling over the city street.
The height of the second floor reached 7 meters, making Seth's left hand broken as he used it as a landing base. Seth ran fast with the remaining energy, leaving the house with an injured left hand.
Occasionally, he looked back, finding Skywatcher soldiers chasing him. It made Seth's heart a little relieved that it was no longer targeting Laura, who was hiding in the house.
"Akh!"
Seth looked at the bracelet on his right hand. There was still an hour and a half left for him to survive in the game this time. However, the Skywatcher soldier's large steps were able to catch up with Seth's running speed.
He tried to rack his brain, looking for the most effective way to avoid the monster's pursuit. Seth tried to walk a circuitous route, passing through a small alley that could make it difficult for the monster to chase him.
Seth managed to escape from the soldier, but another Skywatcher soldier once again encountered him. Now, three aliens were chasing him, all appearing to be armed to the teeth.
"Shit! I cannot run any further," Seth said.
His breathing sounded ragged, his steps slowed down with both legs cramping. He looked back, three Skywatcher soldiers still chasing him.
Seth's steps stopped when he was at the edge of the lake; his mind was stuck, and he didn't know what to do. However, his ears heard a faint sound like a whirlpool under the lake. He looked down, and sure enough, there was a pretty fast stream of water under the lake. It must have led to the sewer.
"I'd do it, but I don't like it!" muttered Seth.
He turned his body around, watching the white soldiers still chasing him from a distance that could be considered fairly close. Seth took a deep breath, then jumped into the lake and entered a large pipe with a strong stream of water.
Seth needed to hold his breath as long as possible in that place, which was not a problem because he had good lung condition.
The water stream was so strong that Seth could reach the City of Chicago's underground sewer. He grabbed onto a metal bar near the concrete sidewalk, used by sanitation workers to clear trash along the waterway.
Seth pulled himself out of the water, where he survived the aliens' pursuit. None of them chased Seth, as they lost track of him from the moment he entered the lake.
Seth tore his T-shirt, making it into a cloth to hang his injured left arm. Right after he finished, Seth just sat listlessly on the spot, unaccompanied by anyone with wet clothes in the middle of the night.
He pressed the bracelet with the finger of his left hand, instantly showing the game time, which was now 1 hour left.
[00:00:57:32]
"One more hour. At least I'm safe here."