Escape to New Corea

It had been a long time since I’d heard that voice.

“Hey Pablo,” it said. “I don’t know how much time we have but I need to tell you something.”

“Who is this?” I asked the phone in my hand. And why did the power go out?

“Get up and start moving Pablo,” the phone said. “I’ve already given you enough time. You don’t want to get caught.”

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t heard or seen anyone since the game started. The last one must have been one of the guards. He must have noticed us and went off to tell the others.

I started to move towards the door. I made sure to keep an eye on the robots and their paths as I went. The one closest to me was just passing by. I could make it if I ran.

“No, don’t run,” the phone said. “Running will just attract attention. Walk normally until you reach the door.”

“Fine, fine, I’m walking but you better tell me what’s going on.”

“The power went out because I turned it off,” the phone said. “I only turned it off so the game wouldn’t be able to track you, but I can’t turn it back on until you’re out of the room.”

“What’s the point of a game you can’t lose?” I asked. “If we all die then the game is over. Why would they even bother making us leave?”

“Shhh,” the phone said. “You’re not supposed to know that.”

I reached the door without being spotted. I tried to open it but it was locked.

“I can’t open the door,” I told the phone. “I need some sort of code to open it.”

“There should be a keypad somewhere near the door,” the phone said. “Try looking for it.”

I looked around the door and found a small keypad next to it. I pressed the first button and after a second the door slid open. I stepped through into the corridor. The lights were still off but the screen on the phone lit up, giving me a clear view of the corridor I was in.

“Use the map to find the next exit,” the phone told me.

I looked down at the screen. There were three corridors I could take. The closest one led to the exit and the other two led to dead ends.

“Why is there a dead end here?” I asked. “Isn’t the goal to get out of the room?”

“Not exactly, the goal is to get to the next room and from there to the exit,” the phone said. “This room is the last one before the exit.”

“But why do we have to go through all these other rooms if we can just avoid them?” I asked. “I think I’m going to just head for the exit.”

“That’s actually a good question,” the phone said with a hint of surprise. “I don’t know why they set the game up this way. Maybe they wanted to show off their technology. I’m not sure.”

I turned right and started walking towards the exit. I passed through the entrance and into a long hallway. The lights were still off but the phone showed me the path so I could see where to step. I walked past a door on the left and continued down the hallway.

After a while, I reached the end. A door was waiting for me there. I walked up to it and waited for the door to slide open.

Nothing happened.

“I can’t open the door,” I told the phone.

“Just type in the code,” the phone said.

“What code?”

“The one you found in the room,” the phone said.

I remembered the keypad and the code I used to open the door. I typed it into the screen.

“You’re supposed to enter the code after you type it in, not before,” the phone said.

“Oh,” I said. “Sorry.”

I entered the code and the door slid open. I walked through it into a brightly lit room. The light was too bright for me to see anything so I switched off the phone.

A man in a suit walked into the room. He held a tablet in one hand and a gun in the other.

“Well well well,” he said, his eyes looking down at me. “Looks like we found the intruder.”

I looked up at him. He looked middle-aged. His hair had gone grey, but he still looked strong. I didn’t recognize him. I’d never met him before.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the man said. “What’s your name?”

He was an adult. He had to be, but why was he talking to me like that? I was sixteen!

“Pablo,” I said.

“How did you get in here?” the man asked.

“The game,” I said. “It brought me here.”

The man sighed. “I thought so.” He looked down at me again. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen,” I said. “I’m sixteen.”

The man shook his head. “You don’t look like it.”

“It’s the lighting,” I said. “I don’t look my age in the light.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” the man said. “You’re too old to be in here.”

“It’s a game,” I said. “I’m supposed to be in here.”

“Games aren’t meant for people your age,” the man said. “You should go back and join the others.”

“I don’t want to play anymore,” I said. “I don’t want to be in here.”

“Well I can’t help you with that,” the man said. He lowered his gun and turned away from me. “I need to call security,” he said. “They’ll escort you back to the others.”

He walked out of the room. I listened to his footsteps fade away. I couldn’t believe it. He acted like I was some younger kid. How did he even know that I was in here? Did the game alert him? And why did he act like I wasn’t supposed to be here? Wasn’t the whole point of the game to get out of the room?

I guess I’ll just follow him. I need to get out of here and find the others.