"Almasy, you're up for this Game."
Seifer blinked, tearing his eyes away from his dog-eared copy of Alice in Wonderland – the standard, prison-issued version of entertainment – and stared at the guard with a look of horror. "But there are already 8 Players," he growled, watching as the guard sought through a set of identical keys for the one to his cell, "There's no room for me."
"Wrong," the guard said as he fit a key onto the hole and turned it, the lock opening with a click, "McCormick died last night of his injuries. Meaning, you play in his place."
Seifer shook his head and turned his eyes back to the book as Alice fell down the rabbit hole.
The Game was the D-District's version of entertainment. 8 prisoners, usually on death row or just particularly famous – Like Seifer for example – were put into the sort of life or death situations one would only expect to find in some crumby two-bit horror film with bad acting and way too much gore to be realistic. The idea was to get through the Game alive and in one piece, but the 'designers' had put a slight twist on the thing and that came in the form of monsters, knives, rotating machineguns and in the last stage, a laser chamber. Of course there were other 'hazards' in there as well, such as boiling acid, trapdoors and the fact that the entire thing was a maze deep underground with no hint of sunlight, but in most prisoners minds, that was simply expected. What was really insulting was the fact that there were cameras hidden all over the Stages and high members of society could pay to visit the prison and watch as the Players were ripped to shreds alive. If you survived the entire thing, you were granted bale. But no one had ever reached the final tier, so no one even knew if that promise of freedom was genuine or not. But it was incentive enough to Play the Game.
"Come on, Almasy." The guard said, tugging the book from his white knuckled fingers and placing it gently on the bed beside him, "It's still going to be there when you get back, don't worry. Now come on, the director is waiting."
Sighing in resignation, Seifer stood up and stretched. The thing about the Game, the reason why so many prisoners wound up Playing the Game, was it was a challenge. It was the most exercise and rush of adrenaline one was able to get in the prison and it was a challenge to see which one of the mob was the best, who could get the farthest and survive the longest. It was a sick and exciting challenge and the prisoners just couldn't help themselves, like a moth to a flame.
Seifer allowed himself to be handcuffed and lead from his cell, passed the other prisoners in their cells and through the door at the end of his block. There was never any jeering about the game, cat-calling or well-wishing, there was nothing glorious or funny about death and for every Player so far to have entered the Game, that was all that was waiting on the other side of the door. Seifer left his cell to a deathly silence.