The beds in the dorm were astonishingly comfortable. Best sleep of my life! I rolled out of bed around 10 A.M. and took a shower. I then got dressed and headed to the common room.
Some big, bearded guy was cooking breakfast in the kitchen. He was wearing a mountain jacket, cargo pants, and a backpack.
"Morning! I don't think I've met you yet, the name's Buck Rafferty!" The man said, holding out his free hand.
"I'm Jack Waggoner, I'm a Defense Attorney. What do you do?" I asked.
"Mountain climbing! It's not something a lot of people follow, but I have the world record time for climbing Mount Everest!"
"Impressive! I wanna climb it myself one day, but the permits are expensive as hell." I shrugged.
"Hahaha, tell me about it!" He said, slapping me on the back, "You'll get there one day."
That kinda hurt…
"Anyways, you want breakfast? Cooking up some omelets, there's coffee too!" Buck said.
"I'll take one. Thank you, Buck!" I said, making my way over to the coffeemaker.
I poured myself a mug and dumped some creamer into it before making my way outside to the balcony. It was decorated with some beautiful exotic plants, some fancy lights, and was furnished with a dining table, eight cushioned chairs, and two identical large couches.
I don't know if it was because I was happy to be here, or because of the nice balcony, but the sky looked especially pretty today.
Two other guys were there. One had a somewhat dignified appearance, nicely dressed, wearing a navy blue sweater vest over a white collared shirt and a pair of jeans. He had light skin, curly, brown hair and wore round glasses. The other guy wore a black turtleneck with matching cargo pants and boots. He was light-skinned and had short, scarlet hair.
"Good morning!" I said, plopping myself down on a seat next to the one dressed in black, "I'm Jack Waggoner, Defense Attorney."
"David Bryers, I'm a Magician!" The turtleneck-wearing man greeted.
"I'm Herbert Ornsby, a Historian," the man with glasses said.
"Magician? Can you do a trick?" I asked David.
"Sure," he said, "Check behind your ear."
I felt a sudden weight on my ear and reached behind it, pulling out my own wallet.
"Holy shit!", I exclaimed.
"Don't worry, everything's still there," David said, crossing his arms, "I'd do a cooler trick, but I didn't bring all of my gear with me."
"I don't even understand how you did that," I said.
"A magician never reveals his secrets," David laughed, "So, Herbert, what sort of history do you specialize in?"
"American history. Boring answer, I know," Herbert sighed, "I still know a bunch about the rest of the world, just haven't published much research about it."
"I'm trying to branch out though, it's a bit boring to only look at one country's history. Especially because of how much it intertwines with that of other nations, and all of the complexities between their politics and economies—"
"Went on a bit of a tangent there, my bad," he said a bit sheepishly, sipping orange juice.
"Don't worry about it. History is kind of part of my job as a lawyer, precedents and all that crap," I said, slouching in my chair.
Buck arrived at the table with our food. It smelled and tasted delicious.
We talked a bit while eating before getting interrupted by some clattering from the kitchen. The door to the balcony then violently swung open, revealing a very angry looking man wearing a monogrammed chef's outfit with the initials CR on them.
"Which one of you useless fucking fucks used the damn frying pan without washing it afterwards?!" The chef yelled, before pulling a flask from his pocket and taking a swig.
"It was me, I'll wash it after I eat," Buck said calmly, "How about you have a bite to eat, Christopher? Being hungry makes you grumpy~"
"Who the hell do you think I am!? I refuse to eat any of that trashy, disgusting, worthless excuse you call 'food'," Christopher snarled before grabbing Buck's plate and tossing the eggs right onto his face.
"Hey! What was that good for!?" I exclaimed.
"It's fine, don't worry," Buck motioned at me to stay calm, before wiping his face, "At least it wasn't the coffee."
"Maybe you shouldn't be drinking alcohol so early in the morning, Chris. Being dependent on alcohol is a sign of low intelligence anyway. " Herbert said quietly.
"Huh? The fuck did you say to me?" Christopher said, rushing over to Herbert's side of the table.
He pulled him out of his chair by the collar.
"You will not fucking call me Chris! You will not call me Christopher either. We are not friends, so you'll call me Chef Rogerson or Mr. Rogerson from here on out, capiche?"
"Sorry, I-I just think you should lay off the alcohol, Christopher," Herbert said with a trembling voice.
"Didn't you listen to anything I just fucking said!? The nerve… You must be taught some manners!" Christopher said as he started to raise his free hand.
"That's enough!" I yelled at the chef, grabbing his free arm, "Now, I don't know who you are or what your damn problem is, but you're going to let Herbert go ahead and apologize… like a decent human-being."
Seeing the rest of us staring at him intently, Christopher exercised his better judgment and let Herbert go. He then took one last big gulp from his flask, completely emptying it.
"S-sorry, Herbert…" Christopher said.
"Now, why don't you introduce yourself? Calmly this time.", I asked him.
"Right, um… I'm Christopher Rogerson, I'm a Gourmet Chef. Sorry, Buck… for tossing eggs on you," he said sheepishly, rubbing his head, "I get very possessive when it comes to the kitchen."
"Yeah, I could tell," the mountain climber laughed, "Don't worry about it."
We all made our introductions, before going our separate ways. I can already tell that sharing a dormitory with Christopher is going to be a real treat…
I walked around campus some more, enjoying the breathtaking scenery and cool air. Along a path I came across a petite woman, wearing a pilot's jacket and camouflage cargo pants. She's pale skinned and had her brown hair tied back in a ponytail.
"Howdy!" She greeted me while waving.
"Good morning! Enjoying nature too?" I asked her.
"It's great! I could stay here forever," she said, picking some lavender from a nearby bush.
"Name's Alexis Kayes," she said after taking a sniff of the lavender, "Might have heard of me, best Fighter Pilot in the world!"
"Really!?" I gasped.
"Yep! I've flown a couple hundred missions and I've taken down over 2,000 rival aircrafts," she boasted, "But that's enough about me for now, what's your name?"
"Jack Waggoner," I answered, holding out my hand, "I'm a Defense Attorney in LA."
"Pleasure to meet you, Jack," she said, shaking my hand vigorously.
I heard the sound of leaves rustling behind me, so I turned around and was hit face-first by a woman running.
"Ouch! Be more careful please!" I shouted.
"So sorry about that," she apologized, "Do you have any scratches or bumps?"
"No, I think I'm fine," I said, getting up and dusting off my suit.
I pulled her up by the hand. She was a bit shorter than me and wore tactical pants, in addition to a navy blue t-shirt with a small six-pointed star on the front and American flags on the sleeves. There was also a large caduceus on the back of her t-shirt. Her skin was brown and her hair was a black, pulled back into a ponytail.
"Again, so sorry about that. Was just going on my daily run a bit later than usual because I woke up late today," she said nervously.
"Don't worry about it," I smiled, "I'm Jack Waggoner, Defense Attorney."
"Victoria Patel. I'm an EMT," she said, calmer than before.
"Great to meet you," I said, "I'll see you two later at the tour, gonna go and meet the rest of the new Elites."
We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
I walked through the campus some more and then found my way to the library. The facility was massive, four whole floors filled wall to wall with books! There were even private rooms for individualized study and some state of the art computers too.
The library was currently occupied by three women. One of them was using the computer, another one was sitting down, reading… and the last one was frantically searching around.
The one using the computer wore over-the-ear headphones, a colorful hoodie with an abstract design, in addition to leggings. She had beige skin and long, brown hair.
The one reading wore black cargo pants and a green cardigan over a light-beige turtleneck. She had ivory skin, brown hair tied in a French braid, and wore glasses.
The last one wore baggy jeans, an oversized T-shirt with a peace sign, and beat-up sneakers. Her skin was tan and she had long, messy, brown hair.
I approached the one who was sitting at the computer. She seemed to be doing some art on a website.
"Morning!" I greeted, sitting in the seat next to hers, "What're you working on?"
No response.
"Hello?" I tried again.
Nothing. She is wearing headphones after all.
I took another look at her screen and moved on to go and greet the reading woman. I sat across from her and noticed that she was reading Locke's 'Treatise of Civil Government'.
"Good taste," I whispered.
"Haha, thank you. Locke is one of my favorites," she said quietly to me, "Although nobody can beat Socrates."
"Poor man, his fate was cruel," I said.
"The world lost one of its brightest minds when he was executed," she said solemnly, "Oh, I haven't yet introduced myself! Marie Bechard, Philosopher."
"Jack Waggoner, Defense Attorney," I said, "Have any idea what she's doing?"
I gestured at the woman in the hoodie.
"Her name is Jasmine Velazquez, she's a web designer. She likes to keep to herself," Marie said, "And that over there is Christina Hoyle, I don't know what she does."
She gestured at the woman frantically searching around the library.
"I'll go introduce myself," I said, "I'll see you on the tour."
I walked over to Christina, who was in the science section.
"It has to be here somewhere, I don't understand!" I heard her mutter.
"What're you looking for?" I asked.
"AH!" She screamed.
"Be quieter in the library please," Marie whispered from her seat.
"Sorry," she said, looking in the philosopher's direction.
She then turned back to me.
"You spooked me, you know? I was looking to see if any of my published books are in this place," she said.
"Oh, are you a writer?" I asked.
"Partly. I'm mainly an Environmental Scientist. Was looking to see if any of my research is here but none of it is," she sighed, "I'm Christina Hoyle, by the way."
"Yeah, Marie told me. I'm Jack Waggoner, Defense Attorney," I said.
"Interesting," she said, "Wait, are those leather shoes!?"
"Uh, yeah. Is there a problem?" I shrugged.
"Damn right there's a problem!" Christina snarled.
"SHH!", Marie frowned as she put her finger to her lips.
"Sorry!" Christina apologized and lowered her voice, "Damn right there's a problem."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Don't you know that by buying leather shoes, you're financially contributing to an industry that is responsible for deforestation and the emission of tons of greenhouse gasses?"
Oh, great… a hippie. As if we didn't already have enough weirdos around.
"Well, I already have the shoes. What do you want me to do about it?" I asked apathetically.
"Just don't buy any more! Synthetic leather is about… three times better for the environment, so buy that instead!" Christina nodded.
"I'll keep it in mind," I shrugged.
As if!
I quickly left the library to go find the last two people I hadn't met yet. Assuming an even gender distribution, they'd both have to be women.
There was a gym in the same building, across from the library actually. Figured that somebody would be there. I entered to see two women playing volleyball.
One was pale-skinned with short blond hair, she wore a T-shirt from Michigan State and white and green sweatpants. Really representing her school, it seems.
The other had light skin and black hair, styled into two buns on the opposite sides of her head. She wore black skinny leather pants, heels, and a black and white varsity jacket.
The first woman spiked the ball onto the second's side of the court. She tried running towards it, but fell over.
"And that's three!" The first one exclaimed, holding up three fingers.
"I thought you were going easy on me this time," the other replied.
"I was, but I offered you my sneakers and you said no!"
"I don't want your peasant footwear! I'll put on my own sneakers later and smoke you," she said,
She finally looked in my direction. "Who're you?"
"I'm Jack Waggoner, Defense Attorney!" I said, "Who're you two?"
"Like you don't already know," the one in heels scoffed.
"Nope. That's why I asked."
"I'm Ashley Wright, I'm a Volleyball Player!" the more polite woman said, "Great to meet you, Jack!"
"Great to meet you too, Ashley," I smiled.
I looked at the other one. "You never told me your name."
"You don't know who I am?", she asked, annoyedly, "Sabrina Liu? World famous actress?"
"Ohhh!"
"Now you remember?"
"Yeah! You're that actress that went onto Brett Nelson's show two years ago and spewed constant profanities and insults… and now you're washed up looking for roles. How could I forget?"
"Oh, you're a fan of that fat idiot…" she scoffed, "Also, for your information, I recently scored a major role in the new Lester Testerfester movie!"
"Blah blah, I've just been messing with you. I don't really care about that stuff," I said, holding out my hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
She looked at my hand, then at me, and then shook it.
"I hope everybody's had a chance to wake up and eat breakfast! I'd like for everybody to head to the school's entrance, where we'll embark on a tour," a voice sounded from the speakers.
I left the gym without another word and walked over to the entrance, where a couple of people were already waiting. The president was already waiting.
"How are you all liking the campus so far?" Drake asked.
"It's amazing, Mr. Maddox," Sam smiled, "Does there happen to be an astronomy lab here somewhere though? Or just somewhere with a telescope?"
"Sam, just call me Drake. We're all adults and equals here," the president said, "And yes, we in fact do have an astronomy lab! I'll be sure to stop by there on the tour."
Christopher got here last, noticeably drunk and smoking a cigar.
Then Herbert's words from earlier rang through my head.
"Maybe you shouldn't be drinking alcohol so early in the morning."
Well, at least he seems quiet… so he shouldn't be too much of a problem at the moment. I hope it stays that way.
"That seems to be everybody," Drake said, "Let the tour commence!"
From the entrance we went straight north, to the main academic building which housed the classrooms, lecture hall, and a couple of small labs.
Drake started to explain some of the history behind the building, but I had quickly zoned out. I wasn't the only one though… Matthew…
West of the main academic building was the gym / library combo, and east of it was the coffee shop. Directly north of the main academic building were the two residence halls and slightly east of that was the auditorium. Past the residence halls was a closed gate.
"The astronomy lab is further down past this gate," Drake said, pulling out a remote from his pocket, "Allow me to open it."
Before Drake could push the proper buttons on his remote however, a cloaked figure tackled him onto the floor, snatched the controller away, and quickly retreated a safe distance from the group
"The fuck!?" Christopher gasped in shock.
"Drake, are you alright?" Victoria asked as she ran towards him.
"Ouch…", the president groaned weakly.
"You! Who the hell are you?" Margot asked the figure.
The figure started walking slowly towards us, holding the remote. They quickly pressed the button twice for the nearby gate, opening it, and then closing it just as fast.
"Simple enough," they muttered.
"Hey! I asked you a question!" Margot exclaimed.
"Hm? Oh yes."
The figure removed the cloak from their head, revealing a woman with long, red hair and pale-skin. She seemed to be of average height.
"You will all refer to me as Ultio," she said seriously, "You're all probably wondering what I'm doing here."
"No shit," I said.
"Well, it's relatively simple," she said in a much more casual voice, "I'm here to make you all… kill each other!"
What!? The words had barely registered in my mind… Was she for real?
"If you're pursuing a career in comedy," Matthew said in an equally casual tone, not looking away from his guitar, "Might want to rethink that."
He then continued playing. Ultio simply stared at him blankly. She stayed silent for five seconds after continuing.
"Anyway! No… I wasn't joking. And no, you didn't hear me incorrectly either. But I'll say it again, loud and clear."
"You are all going to kill each other!" She said, staring each and every one of us in the eyes.
"What makes you think we'd ever do something like that!?" Sam asked her.
"Yeah, you must be severely mistaken if you think I'd ever dirty my hands by killing these losers!" Sabrina snarled.
"It's either killing each other, or none of you will ever leave here… ever!" Ultio said as she snapped her head at him.
She then pressed another button on the remote.
"Just FYI, that just now was the entrance gate I activated. So, unless you are able to climb up a hundred feet tall wall - which you can't, by the way - you're stuck here… forever!" Ultio explained.
"What do you mean, stuck here forever?" Herbert asked.
"Didn't you listen to anything I just said!? Kill or spend the rest of your life stuck inside of the school's premises!" Ultio explained.
"I don't see why this is such a big problem… the school's pretty nice." Ashley said.
"Are you kidding me? I want to go home!" Alexis exclaimed.
"So, how will this killing work anyway?" I asked her.
"Jack!" Margot gasped, "I knew you were a shitbag, but not that much of a shitbag!"
"What? I just wanna understand the lady," I said, "Maybe we can all work something out? Meet somewhere in the middle perhaps?"
"Nope, but I'm glad you asked!" Ultio exclaimed.
"It's almost like a murder mystery game, except someone actually dies! One of you will murder someone else, and the rest of the living will conduct an investigation!"
"Following your investigation - two of you are gonna love this - we'll hold a trial to try and find the killer!"
"Although, this is by no means a conventional trial. You will all play the roles of defendant, attorney, prosecutor, and jury. While I am the judge and executioner!"
"Executioner? So you mean—", Christina started.
"Yep! I'll execute whoever's found to be guilty. Or maybe the people that aren't guilty, depending on the outcome of the trial!"
"Explain!" Buck shouted.
"Sure thing! Once you're all done arguing at the trial, you vote on who you think the murderer is!"
"I'm keeping constant surveillance on everything going on here, so I already know! The fun is seeing whether or not you can get the right answer!"
"If you do, great! I'll execute the killer and the rest of you all get to live another day!"
"However," she said with a drastic tone switch.
"If you vote for the wrong person, everyone except the killer is executed," she said grimly, "They're the last one standing at that point, so they win, and get to leave."
"But it's less fun for me if the game ends early! So make sure you always vote correctly, okay?" She said, back to her cheerful voice.
"You're assuming that we'd even get to the point where we'd hold a trial," David said, "And what's to stop someone from killing everybody here?"
"The threat of death. There's a maximum of two deaths per trial," Ultio explained, holding up two fingers, "After the second death, any further murders prior to the trial will result in the immediate execution of their killer."
"This is ludicrous," Drake said, pulling out his phone, "I'm calling the police."
If I blinked, I would've missed it. I almost did miss it while staring right at him.
Ultio dashed towards Drake, seemingly at the speed of light, and snatched the phone from his hands. She then did it again, making everybody's pocket one phone lighter.
"Hey, give that back!" I shouted at her.
"How'd she do that?" Ashley asked, "Magic?"
"No, it's not magic," Ultio said, "But speaking of magic…" She turned to face David.
"This man is no magician," she said, "He was scouted here as the Elite Thief."
"You lied to us?" Buck asked, saddened.
"It's not like I had any other choice, I can't just walk around telling people I'm a thief!" David shouted, "Look at Margot, she's practically foaming at the mouth over the case she could build against me!"
I looked at the prosecutor, whose jaw was practically on the floor. She closed her mouth upon seeing me look at her.
"What?" She tilted her head, "Nothing to see here."
I shrugged at her and turned back to David.
"Guys, we have bigger issues to worry about than David's thievery," I said.
"The man is right," Brett said.
"If you all are done arguing, I have more information to tell you," our captor said, "I've disabled internet access on the computers, but do not fret, you will all be receiving new devices later today!"
"They'll be equipped with a map, as well as a messaging / calling application that only works between these devices," she said, "Oh, and I have one question for Drake."
"What is it?" Drake shrugged.
"Your office… How do I open it? There was some weird lock on the door," she said.
"You have to push the front gate button three times, this gate button once, and the office gate button twice," he said, "Wait… why are you trying to get into my office!?"
"Thanks a lot, president," Ultio cackled before skyrocketing into the air and flying north towards the office.
"That bitch is gonna ruin my office… Goddamn it!" Drake shouted.
"Way to have your priorities straight," Alexis said, "Shouldn't you care more about this killing game?"
"Yeah, speaking of the killing game… I'm fuckin' outta here!" Christina said, "Wouldn't wanna get killed by one of you crazies."
Christina ran away towards the residence hall.
"Who is she calling crazy!?" David said.
"She's probably already working out a plan to kill somebody, I just know it.", Sabrina said, putting a hand on her hip.
"What makes you say that?" I asked the actress.
"Just look at her outfit! It's clear she has nothing to lose from trying!"
"That's a nasty thing to say," Marie said, "She dedicates her life to the environment and this is what she gets in return?"
"Wouldn't kill her to at least get some new shoes," Sabrina said with disgust.
"Leave her alone," I said to Sabrina.
"Conflict is the last thing we need now anyway!" Buck exclaimed, "I'm sure there's an exit here somewhere, right Drake?"
I turned to look at where Drake was standing, only to see an empty space.
"Dude probably left already," Matthew said, "He's likely the most stressed out of anyone here, considering he's the university's president."
"Well, we need answers," Margot said, "We can split up for now, but we need to talk to him soon."
We split up in the hopes of collecting our thoughts and staying calm… but nobody could get the thought of murder out of their heads.