DILUTED BULLET
DILUTED Bullet-Chapter16
Theme: Weeping Love
©horluwa~p1
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Years Back
After the incident that almost made me lose my life, Precious wouldn’t give me a breathing space, no doubt, she was the best among us, she get the explanation quickly and in the practical aspect, she made all seems like what she was born to do it.
I was also trying, trying at maintaining my position of being the second best, I was always taking the second position after her in every practical or challenge, the least ,third not until the last challenge which I almost lost my life in it.
Precious is being referred to as P2 while I’m been referred to as P1.
We don’t have a name but initials.
{ our name was believed to be wiped out of our memories but surprisingly, precious remembered my name and hers, so we use it privately}.
All of us were given our initials according to the lettering on the entrance of our room.
We were in room P, so numbers was added to the letter in order to differentiate us , same also applied to our colleagues.
After our meal everyday, she always train with me personally, based on what we’re newly trained on and all the old training we’ve had where she’s taken her usual first position.
How much I hate being deprived of sleep, I couldn’t rebuke her when she starve me of it with the vigorous training she’s leading me through.
We started with the challenge that almost got me killed and after two days of explanations and practical from her, I beat her time of getting out of the ropes.
Then another follows, followed by another one, succeeded by the next one and I was already used to using half of the time secluded for sleeping in training.
The blaring of the whistle being blown by Goat I presumed woke me up, my eye itching as I tried to force it opened.
Precious had warned me that we almost always be out before Goat come ,kicking our door. She said she’s irritated by him.
She was already on her feet bringing down the mask on her forehead down to cover her face.
I stood up stretching lazily as I also dragged my mask down.
” lazy boy ” Precious had teased me before she opened the door and went out as I also dragged my feet to meet up with her.
The truth was that l love Precious, I love her so much but didn’t know how she feels about me.
After the incident that almost cost me my life ,thereby leading to her kissing me, she hasn’t brought up the issue of the kiss and I haven’t receive a peck from her not to talk of another kiss.
She just made kissing me then seem like a normal thing , maybe a form of accolade for struggling to survive and not giving up.
She’s Precious and weird with the way she handle things, so I get less surprised by anything she do, she’s just simply being Precious.
” what you’re doing today is beating the truth machine ” Miss bull eye had informed us as soon as we gathered in front of her in the Challenge room.
She stood at her usual spot, wearing a red singlet which barely covered her midriff, a black leggings which clung tightly to her leg and a red tennis shoe.
Being in the challenge room means someone is bidding the earth farewell.
It’s been almost three months since we had the last challenge, the one that almost took my life.
” we’ve used different medium to explain to y’all in the past weeks about beating the truth machine, and now is the time to show that you’ve paid a lot of attention to your lesson ” she said with a lot of enthusiasm.
” beating the truth machine is something a normal person can do if he/she set his/her mind to it and you’re not a normal person ,you’re the future of the mask, so don’t expect an ordinary challenge like a normal person ” she said passing a string of fright into my system, the fright wasn’t for me, but for another, maybe for one of the poor soul inside the room.
” we are not having the last get killed challenge today but a mass murder, fail to beat the machine, you fail to beat death, you fail to claim success and you admonish defeat which will send you 2 feets underground ” she screamed with enthusiasm like a human right activist trying to get people to rebel against a military head of state.
” like I said before ” she said now in her normal voice .
” you’re not having the challenge like an ordinary person, but like the future of the mask, beating the truth machine with a foggy head is almost like an impossible mission but you’re having it today ” she added as short span murmur erupted among us.
” sure ,many are going to die but the few that are going to remain will be partially recognized as been member of THE MASK, and it will take long before another death comes knocking on their door, so let the challenge begin” she said as some lady putting on mask entered each possessing a tray.
” take one of the doughnut and eat ” miss bull eye ordered us as the ladies brought the trays closer to us
We all took the doughnut , chipped the mask upward a bit to reveal our mouth and we all ate the doughnut.
All I remembered was chewing the doughnut before everything went dark.
I woke up to find myself on a big chair, with some straps holding my hands to the arms of the chair.
I felt dizzy as everywhere felt like it was rotating slowly.
I was hearing hammering sound in my head and my body itches me lightly.
I tried to focus my eye to know where I was or what was happening.
I found out that I wasn’t the only person inside the room, all my colleagues were also present, also strapped to a chair like I was but something was fixed on their head, some wires was connected to the thing, the wire was fixed to a monitor which was placed beside them.
I looked beside me and saw the same kind of monitor beside me and some wire which looked like it came from my head fixed to the monitor.
Trying to wrap my head around what was happening , a blaring siren alarm suddenly sounded, it was very loud that I felt it sounding in my head.
When it finally went off ,the hammering sound that I was hearing in my head increased by 100 folds and I felt everywhere rotating faster,I felt like I was going to throw up but couldn’t because of the way I was strapped to the chair.
I was feeling dizzy as everywhere became blurry.
It went on for some minutes before it finally subsided.
I was still feeling dizzy but it was fair compared to how I was feeling earlier.
I saw as some people started entering.
They moved to one of my colleagues inside the room, they spoke inaudibly to him or her, couldn’t decipher the person’s gender but after some minutes, I saw as a gun was pointed at the person and, the sudden flickering of the person’s body as the person jerked feebly and blood staining the person’s cloth confirmed to me that the person has been shot dead.
I couldn’t hear the bang sound of the gun, it was either a silencer was applied to it or the effect of whatever they did to us.
They were getting closer to me as three were already dead, only two escaped the death among the five people who has been challenged.
And this two people were injected on the veins on their neck instead of been shot.
I was the next after the sixth person who was about to be tested.
I didn’t know if I should be happy or sad as he was also injected ,meaning he passed the challenge.
” P1 can you hear me ” one of the twenty people that stood in front of me asked me.
I knew they weren’t up to that in number when they’re testing the already tested, but I felt them duplicating into many figures as they stood in front of me.
” yes ” I shockingly found myself answering them.
My mouth was working without me orchestrating it.
” I’m going to ask you two questions which you’re expected to lie but must be detected as truth and another two, which you’re expected to say the truth but must be detected as a lie and an unexpected question which you must answer to our satisfaction.
You must only fail two, fail three or more than and that’s the end ” the person said and I shook my head slightly to show that I understand.
I was surprised that I could understand them even as I felt that I wasn’t in control of my mind.
One of them switched the monitor beside me on and they asked me if I was ready and surprisingly , I found myself nodding positively again.
” are you P1 ” he asked stressing it for me .
I tried to steady myself and clear my head to answer but the more I tried the more blurrier my sight and brain got.
” yes ” I found myself answering.
” first question failed ” one of the twenty figures I was seeing said and I felt suddenly cold.
Tension engulfed my mind and I became extremely terrified.
” are you light in complexion ” he asked again stressing it.
” y, ye, ye, nooo ” I stuttered before finally screaming out the answer.
They both exchanged glance for a long time as they stared at the monitor beside me before one of them scribbled something down on the pad in his hand.
” 2nd question answered correctly ” he said as he scribbled s
down on the pad in his hand.
” now to the second phase, are you ready ” one of them asked and as usual, my body responded to them without my go ahead.
” you killed someone in the last challenge in order to emerge winner “? He asked and the question kept replaying in my head in different tone.
I suddenly found myself alone in the room, the room became awkwardly wide and its background changed to white.
The white background suddenly changed into red, blood started oozing out from everywhere, I wanted to scream but couldn’t.
A zombie suddenly sprung out from the ground, all covered in blood, it has the same shape and height with the boy I murdered but a rotten face which scared the hell outta me.
” you killed me and you’re also going to die” the zombie said laughing hysterically, with its skeletal hands stretched forward as he moved closer to me.
The truth was that I wasn’t able to get over the trauma of murdering the boy.
Tho I tried to make myself feel better every night that it was in self defence and he would have killed me if I didn’t kill him, but that hasn’t been effective in countering the nightmare I always have whenever I shut my eye.
Nightmare featuring the same zombie I was seeing now but in another setting.
I didn’t inform precious about it because of a reason unknown to me.
He moved closer to me wrapping his hand around my neck as he made an attempt to choke me.
I swiftly jerk as I opened my eye and found myself in another zombie land, the real zombie land which I tried to drift away from.
” you killed someone in the last challenge in order to emerge winner “? He asked me again as I opened my eye.
” yes, I did ” I answered him heaving a sigh of relief.
They all took their time checking the monitor while my heart was beating fast due to tension.
It was suppose to display that I lied and I doubt if it was going to display it ,tho I tried my best to increase my heartbeat ,unsteadying my nerve and feeling insecure as I answered it in order for the answer to come out as false.
” third question answered correctly ” one of them said scribbling something on the pad in his hand.
” the fourth question, you survived a poison challenge on your first day here ” they asked me and all the words became wobble to my ear echoing from the different angles.
” yes I did ” I slowly muttered.
Like they’ve been doing before, they stared at the monitor waiting for the result.
” fourth question failed ” I heard from one of them said and I suddenly felt myself sinking on the chair.
” your last question , have you ever feel the urge to kill your instructor ” the question came at me like a hungry lion that sighted a lame antelope.
” yeah I do ” I answered them
trying my all to make it come out as false because I really do wish to kill Miss bull eye.
They monitored the monitor closely and I also tilted my head a bit in order to see the monitor, a line was running on it in a splashing manner.
” False ” the truth machine’s monitor displayed after some seconds.
” Last question passed ” they said and one of them placed a syringe beside my neck, plunging it into it releasing the content inside the syringe inside one of the busy vein in my neck .
They left me as soon as they were done.
Bit by bit, I was getting normal and my wit was returning to me.
” P2 can you hear me ” I suddenly heard making me look beside me to confirm if I heard right.
Yeah ,I heard it right, it was Precious, I couldn’t notice her before ,because of whatever it was that they did to us.
I was confident that she’s going to beat the machine because she’s the best at everything.
I forgot she’s also a human and a human can’t be best at everything, their must always be a shortcoming.
I concentrated all my attention in them when I heard ‘” first question failed “.
I was bewildered when I heard again ” second question failed ” .
I felt like breaking away from the strap used in holding me to the chair,and run to her screaming her name so that she can get hold of herself and answer the questions right.
” now to the second phase, you’re going to die if you miss another one now, are you ready” I heard one of the two guys asked her and she shook her head rapidly to answer them.
She looked like she’s intoxicated by a strong alcohol.
I knew she was also seeing more than twenty people in front of her when they were only two.
” you are the best in here ” she was asked and she stared at them with a blank expression.
She seemed to ponder on the question for some minute before she finally answered ” no, no I’m not the best here ” she said as the two guys in front of her stared at the system.
I couldn’t see the result it gave but I got a good news from them.
” third question answered correctly ” I heard one if them said as the other guy scribbled something down on the pad in his hand.
She answered the fourth question correctly and I felt a lump of tension in my throat like I was the one who was asked the last question.
The question goes thus.
” have you ever remove the mask from your face in front P1 and has p1 also remove his mask in front of you”?
I knew she was battling it out as she took her time to answer the question but I was shocked to the marrow when she gave her answer.
” yeah, many times I did but that little bastard had refused to remove his ” she answered grudgingly as she stared at them.
It felt like a decade to me as they focus their stares on the monitor beside her,
My heartbeat had increased and I felt like I was the one being asked the question.
I felt the world drifted away from me when I heard ” last question failed, challenge failed, death inevitable ” from one of the guys.
I was screaming but discovered that no word left my mouth, I was only opening my mouth but words refused to come out of it.
One of the guy brought out a gun and pointed it at her.
I couldn’t help but cry as its trigger was pulled and,and, and, and
To be continue….
NEXT ON DILUTED BULLET
” do you have any ulterior motive for accepting the President’s offer ”
” yeah, I do “
Next Episode
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