A/N: Hey I got an anonymous review! And it was really good too! Well, you asked for it… here is the next chapter of the story, we find Eric who had just been killed by a gunman in a park… he has no idea what's in store for him now. (Keep in mind that this is an experimental story, I'm using a very psychological and sociological approach, I'll detail every emotion, and movement to hint betrayal, or romance or whatever, this is kind of a project for school.)
Chapter II
His eyes squinted as a bright light shined on him… unfortunately, and to his surprise, it wasn't the light of god or anything biblical like that. No, he was thwarted by a mere row of fluorescent lights in a strange room. He looked around and saw a few faces; the room looked like a bathroom, but no toilet or anything. Porcelain tiles lined the wall and the floor was wood. The room smelled musty, pipes leaked everywhere and in the middle of the room was a strange black sphere. His ears still rang from the gun blast to the face, meaning he was quite deaf. He noticed the people trying to talk to him but couldn't hear a word of it. Eric tried standing up but ended up just taking a spill to the hard wood floor.
He was accompanied by his friend James somehow, who tried to help him up. The ringing diminished and he heard distinct voices from James. "Eric? Can you hear me?" Eric backed against a wall "where the hell am I? Hell?" nobody answered… there were about seven, or eight people… a man stood up in the group with a bashful face, he sweated quite profusely. "Excuse me everyone… I think we should introduce ourselves, to save us the confusion… if I am accurate everyone in this room recently died… right?" the group nodded and turned attention to him. Eric looked at James "I thought we did die… why are we here? This is so confusing…" James nodded… "I'm sorry I had to get you into this man, I really had no idea taking that wallet would lead to this." Eric assured him he was fine, but confused. The man began with Eric to introduce… which surprised him "Well son, tell us, what is your name and how did you get here?" Eric thought for a moment "Eric Savage, I'm seventeen and a junior at Portland central high school… I think I was shot in the head."
"Thank you eric, now you" he said to James. "James Guy, I was shot and killed too… like him." He motioned to Eric. The man went on and asked about a girl who was huddled in the corner trembling "Kira freeman, I'm fifteen I am a freshman at PCHS; I was in a car accident, I want to go home." She was crying but looking at Eric for some strange reason. "Jake, that's it. No need for last names… I was killed in a gunfight…" The introducing the people looked startled but continued on. Eric was still confused but waited patiently. "Has anybody been able to get out of here? Can we leave?" asked James. Another man spoke up from the crowd "We can't even touch the walls… it's strange… the doors and windows either!" James leaned back again… "Ok, well I guess I'll go." Said the man who introduced eric and james "Greg Waters, I'm an accountant for a bank out of town, I'm visiting Portland and need to get back home… so I assure you I am as eager as you to leave this place." And with that the ball in the middle of the room started booting up. I strange eerie noise emitted from it which startled the people closest to it.
"What the hell is this ball?" Asked one of the women in the room. Nobody answered except the ball. Words began to appear on its front. "You all have fucked up, now I will determine your fate…" Everyone gasped and murmured… Eric was baffled by the strange sight. The ball changed and displayed some sort of picture and stats. "The twin aliens… Small, who is small, strong, doesn't speak and likes tall" Eric and James looked at each other than back at the picture on the ball. It displayed a humanoid figure with sunglasses, no nose and a mouth on its head and a wife beater shirt and jeans. The screen changed suddenly and displayed another picture of a lanky tall humanoid with the same facial features, only this time he wore a cloth in front of his eyes. The ball said tall, that was it. It changed to dialog again "Go kill them, and do it quick or else." Eric looked at the girl in the corner named Kira, she was still cuddled up… her arms were around her knees and she had stopped crying. The ball jerked suddenly and parts of it sprung outward. The contents were small cases with the names of everyone, and strange looking guns." One guy, who had made himself scarce stood up and grabbed one of the cases and two guns. One was a round looking pistol, and one was a rifle looking weapon. His case opened with a press of a button and he extracted a dark latex looking suit.
He turned around and left the room into a small outlet. "Excuse me sir, what is going on, why are you putting on that suit?" Asked the man named Greg from before. A few moments passed of silence and the man emerged fully dressed in the suit. He slipped some nice new black slacks on, a white T-shirt and a tie, than finally a nice dress coat. With him originally he had a suitcase. He balanced it in the top of the sphere… it clicked open and he pulled out a pistol… it made everyone jump and move away. "Don't be alarmed, I think this time I'll make things interesting and tell you a little about what is going to happen… I'm bored of watching people fail." A barrage of questions was thrown at him but tossed back immediately "Shut up! I tell you what I want to tell you. It's your job to decide to believe me or not."
He stepped forward "This room, this ball has chosen you for a nice game of hunting… I don't know why or how but we are about to kill or be killed." The group looked at each other nervously "Not each other... you will be killing those aliens, the ones the ball showed a minute ago. I've seen a lot of people die, so put these suits on…" Eric for some strange reason stood up shaking his head (God this is stupid, why am I doing this… that girl over there probably thinks I'm a loser now.) Eric grabbed the suit with his name and went into the outlet. It was a small dimly lit hallway with nothing in it. Eric opened the case and put on the contents. Eric struggled to get it on but it finally fit. He noticed some sort of instructions… he was instructed to press the small yellow nodes on the sides of the suit. When he did, that area of the suit clang to him like a second layer of skin. To look at least presentable he put on his baggy jeans and shoes. His shirt was left there, his upper body was enclosed in the suit along with his neck and a bit of the chin area.
The room was no different when he walked back in, the people were glancing at him… Eric only noticed about for or five people beside himself put on the suit. The girl Kira didn't, but she was still a little rattled from her accident… "Is that it then" the man with the gun asked… "Hey kids" he called out to Eric and James. "Take a weapon" he grinned. Eric and James walked up to him "This looks fake…" Eric said blatantly "Kid, you choose… life or death" Eric took the gun "I thought we were dead" The man laughed while returning to the sphere… he picked out a hand full of weapons and distributed them to the people with the suits on. "For those of you who don't wear the suits… I won't issue weapons, you won't need them." That caused a slight eruption of questions but was abruptly ended by the sphere again which switched again to what appeared to be a timer. The man in the suit stepped in front of the sphere. "For those who wear suits, I can only say you have a better chance of surviving… for my entertainment, ill give you a hint on how to use them… if you can believe you are stronger than anything in the world, you may be right…" he turned around and placed his foot on the sphere and leaned into it. "Well GANTZ, how's about we have a nice clean round." He said and released his foot. The floor below him and the ceiling above him lit up in a flash of blue light and surrounded him, he diminished extremely quickly and the light went away…
The groups gasped in wondrous confusion, but soon each of them were disappearing just the same as the first. Eric was now extremely scared… and so was James… Kira screamed loudly which caught Eric's attention. He looked over quickly as the light surrounded her… her voice faded slightly and ended abruptly with a flash of blue light and smoke… Eric watched the light appear around James and James tried to make out a sentence "Eric, I don't want to go… please don…." But his form was surrounded instantly and exploded into another place… this knocked Eric back… Eric trembled and shivered… (Oh my god… I don't want to die… am I dead? Will I go to hell?) the light appeared above him, his body felt like it had completely fallen asleep like your foot or hand might if you had sat funny. He looked around but the fear was piercing… he yelled at the top of his lungs and felt himself being slammed at ridiculous speeds to some other place… he could have sworn his life was over… or was it his imagination… at that point he questioned reality and his standpoint in the real world… was he a human on the planet or a spectator?
His body stopped like a car hitting a brick wall at a high speed but felt no pain… He was still on his legs and knees with his eyes covered. Again… he uncovered and opened his eyes…
A/N: Well, what did you think? If you like it or don't like it just drop me a review or e-mail… thanks again and stay tuned for more chapters.