1 Kidnapped!

Dave woke up abruptly. He was sweating profusely and was lying in a very dark room. He could feel a soft mattress under him. In this darkness, it was very hard for him to make out anything in the room. He ran his hands in the surroundings to create a mental image of where he was lying.

The bed that he was lying in was a small rectangular thing, small enough to fit a person. The cover on the mattress felt soft and was of very high quality. The room didn't have any sort of smell in it. And the lack of light was making this room more spooky.

He then sat up straight on the bed. He then turned around to stand up, and it was then the room was suddenly illuminated. The bright light from the roof of the room stung his eyes. He covered his eyes with his hands and also close his eyes. But still, his eyes were stinging.

After a minute he was finally able to open his eyes. And it was then he saw where he was. He looked around and saw that he was in a cube-like room. The room was very small and had no windows and only one door. The room had no furniture except for the bed that was lying on.

Looking at the unfamiliar place, Dave started to have a bad feeling. He saw that he was lying in the clothes which he was wearing last night when he was kidnapped. It was then he remembered that he had a gun.

He unconsciously went towards his back to see whether he had the gun or not. Halfway through, he realized that his kidnappers would have stripped him of his firearm. After all, it was the most obvious thing to do.

Still, his hands went to his waist and it was then he felt the familiar metal exterior of the gun. He then grabbed it and pull it out. It was his gun.

He immediately took the magazine of the gun and checked the bullets inside and was shocked to see that the gun had all the bullets. He immediately put the magazine back and loaded the gun. He then aimed the gun at the door of the room and stood up.

The door of the room was was a simple brown door with a simple knob. He went to it and turned the knob expecting it to be locked. But to his surprise, the knob turned and the door swung open.

As the door was opened Dave found himself in a brightly lit hallway. He saw that this hallway was filled with the same doors as the one he came from. The hallway was empty and devoid of any sounds.

Dave then cocked his gun in front of him and came out. As there were so many doors in the hallway, he was getting nervous as at any moment one of these doors could be swung open and his kidnappers would come gun blazing at him.

There were two ways in front of him. He could either move towards his right or left. As he had no idea where to go or what to do next he decided that he should move to the left and see whether he could see there is a path at the end of the hallway.

He started moving hurriedly with his gun steady in front of him. While moving he was getting curious about the other doors. But he didn't dare to open the door as it might signal the kidnappers that he was awake. And they will try to capture him again.

The hallway was very long and Dave could not see the other end. But he still kept moving. As he was moving hurriedly, he suddenly heard a door being swung open behind his back. He immediately turned around and pointed his gun in the direction.

He saw that from the room a man had walked out. The man looked to be wearing a two-piece suit and was of Asian descent. The man was surprised when he saw Dave pointing his gun at him. He immediately put his hands in the air and started yelling in Chinese….

"DON'T SHOOT. DON'T SHOOT." The man yelled in Chinese. But Dave couldn't understand Chinese, so he called him out in English.

"Who the hell are you? And what is this place?"

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I… beg… don't… I have a family at the house. Please!" the Chinese man yelled with a bad English accent. Before Dave could say something else, some of the gates around them were swung open and people started coming out of them.

The people that came out all belonged to different races and gender. Some of them were wearing pajamas while some were wearing formal suits. There was even a fat man who was in his underwear. While some people were wearing boxers and vests.

All the people that came out when saw Dave holding a gun were all startled. Some of them immediately went back inside. While some were caught in front of Dave's gun's barrel and thus could not move.

"Who the hell are you people? What is this place?" Dave yelled while pointing the gun at all the people that came out.

All the people that heard, put their hands in the air. While some plopped down to the ground as a sign of submission. Amongst the victims being held at the gunpoint was a British woman. She was a middle-aged woman and was in her 30s. She was wearing a nightgown and had her hands in the air.

"I don't know where we are. Please don't shoot. I have a daughter at home." She yelled a Dave.

Hearing this, Dave then finally put his gun down. He didn't understand where he was, but by looking at the people that were with him at the moment it was pretty given that these guys were all victims of kidnapping the same as him. And it was pretty evident that a fat woman in her late 30s could not be a gangster…

"Do any of you guys know what is happening here? Where the hell are we?" He asked while putting his gun back. Seeing his gesture, all the people present sighed with relief. Some didn't trust him and eyed him suspiciously. But the fat British woman trusted replied to him.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember is that I was in my room. And then I woke up here." The woman from earlier said.

Hearing her, Dave then started telling them how he ended up here. Some people in their group didn't even understand English. But from the looks of it, everyone present here was somehow or in some way kidnapped.

Hearing all of their stories, he started to have a very bad feeling. Because from the looks of it, whichever organization kidnapped them must be a very wealthy and powerful organization. Or otherwise kidnapping so many people from different countries and regions is a very hard thing to pull off.

Soon all the doors of the hallway started opening one by one. All kinds of people came pouring in in the hallway. Some of them started shouting in languages and as there was a language barrier among most of the people, the chaos started ensuing in the hallway.

Dave looked at the chaotic atmosphere of the hallway and decided to move away from there. He started moving toward the other end of the hallway like his original goal. Part of him wanted to move away from all of them because of how loud it was getting.

Also from the looks of it, there were more than 100 people in this hallway. And that many people combined with the panic in everyone's eyes was a recipe for chaos.

He didn't care about all of these people. He only cared about himself. And he is the one that has a gun with him. In a chaotic situation, it was very safe to assume that people would come for him because of his gun. And he didn't want that…

As he got to the end of the hallway, he went through a sea of people who were constantly coming out of their rooms. As he managed to reach the other end, he saw that there was a small hallway towards the right. And currently was a group of people already standing at the other end. He got curious as to why they were standing there, so he pushed them aside and went towards the front.

As he came there, he saw the people there standing in front of what looked like a yellow color barrier in the middle of small the hallway. The barrier itself was in the middle of the hallway and some of the people were inspecting it. There was nothing visible beyond the barrier. And it was pretty clear that one needs to pass by the barrier to get to the other side.

Dave when approached the barrier, he looked at it cautiously…

"What is this?" he asked the people standing in the front. One of the men who observed the barrier was a man in a business suit. He had brown color skin and black hair.

"Observe." The man in the business suit said in an Indian accent. Then the man took a handkerchief from his pocket and threw it at the barrier. As soon as the handkerchief made contact with the barrier, immediately it disintegrated into nothingness. Looking at the barrier, Dave started to have a bad feeling.

"So we are in some sort of high-tech prison," Dave mumbled.

"Seems like it." The man in the business suit said.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

It was then sounds of shots being fired echoed throughout the hallway. After the shots, there was pin-drop silence for a second or two. But after that people started screaming. Then the chaos ensued.

Hearing the gunshots, Dave's paranoia started kicking in. He wanted to go to his room right about now, but he knew that his room was on the other end. He started thinking of possible things that he could do in this scenario. But it was then he saw something that made his skin crawl.

Because of the shots, the people standing by the curve at the edge of the hallways started pouring into the small hallway. They wanted to avoid getting shot so they wanted to get in cover. But the thing was, the small hallway was not spacious. So people started pushing in to make space.

People started pouring into their little hallway. But as there was no space, they started pushing people in. And people like Dave, who were standing too close to the barrier, started pushing people back, as they got closer to the barrier.

But everything was futile because the volume of people pushing in was way more and they easily overpowered Dave and the people standing beside him. Still, Dave didn't back down. He pushed back but then his efforts were in vain. It only took one big push from the other side which made them fall on his back, through the barrier.

AAAHHH!

Someone yelled as they fell. Dave also closed his eyes to the pain. But the thing was pain never occurred. Curious about what happened, Dave opened his eyes slightly and saw that his body was perfectly fine. But the same could not be said for clothes, shoes, and his gun. As he went through the barrier, everything vanished.

Now he and a bunch of men and women were lying on the bottom completely naked on the other side of the barrier…

Dave's paranoia then kicked in. He immediately pushed himself up. He looked at the people that were all looking at each other for answers…

BANG BANG BANG

Shots were fired once again. But this time, Dave didn't stick around to see what happened next. He turned around and started running. He ran into the small hallway and eventually came to a red color door. He gulped some saliva as he saw the door. He didn't know what to expect if he happens to open it.

'Anything is better than that crazy crowd.' He thought. So he stepped forward and pushed the door open.

汉字

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