(part 46)

Matilda came along with Meghan and me, and we discussed some ideas. There always seemed to be a big gust of wind as a soul approached, then would veer off in a random direction when it got within arms reach. We found that laying flat on the floor, with the person on the left or right slightly ahead of the one in the center, gave us the best results. We all managed to capture one soul this way.

But we soon found that if we stayed in one area, the souls stopped coming near us. At first we tried walking downwind. But we found that the souls just snuck up behind us, the wind would blow us over unexpectedly, and the soul would scurry away. So even though it was more tiring, we proceeded upwind.

Matilda and I each managed to score our second souls after a while, but we couldn’t quite get another for Meghan. We decided to find where the door to the next Circle was, then we would continue hunting.

(part 47)

Along the way we managed to nab a second soul for Meghan, but she didn’t seem particularly exvited about it. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“When I said those gasps and moans sound like me, I mean they really sound like ME.” She emphasized that last word. “Somehow that bitch recorded my last orgasm. How? Does she have video too? Fuck, is she going to try to blackmail me when this is over? If this is ever over!” She was in tears by this point.

Matilda and I wrapped our arms around her, which was not easy in 40 miles an hour winds, We held her until her crying stopped. “Thanks,” she sniffled.

“When…not if, when…we get out of this, we will find a way to take her down. I don’t know how, but we will find a way,” I said.

And at that moment I swear I could hear Karen’s laughter floating by in the breeze.

(part 48)

When we let go of each other, we were again hit by a sudden gust, which knocked all of us down. And Meghan’s wristband chimed. That was good news…at least the three of us would be moving on.

The winds near the door was strong, so while we waited for the round to end we backed away from the door. We would once in a while see players either tumbling in the wind, or celebrating a score, or both.

In due time several others came over to us, forming a group of those who scored our 2 each, and had no interest in fighting for more. I looked around and counted how many….15, including Meghan, Matilda, and myself. “Who’s missing?” I asked.

“Kah and Ben aren’t here,” said Jay.

“I don’t see Rorry or Vi either,” noted Sheldon. “Or Holly.” He was right, no Holly yet.

“What about Angel and Gareth?” asked Kyla.

“We’re right here,” said Gareth, holding hands with Angel. Poor Angel looked battered and bruised.

Sam asked, “Are you two okay?”

“Yeah,” Angel answered. "This damn wind kept blowing me over.”

We all sat in silence for a while. It was hard to talk over the sound of the wind, which seemed to be getting stronger. Eventually we heard the horn, telling us we had 10 minutes to get to the door. There was no sign of the other five.

(part 49)

We all got up and headed towards the door. As we did, the wind picked up. Significantly. To the point where it was questionable if any of us would make it to the door in time!

The two tallest of us….Sheldon and myself…linked arms, to make a wind break, and support each other to push ahead. Soon Sam, Gareth, and even Maya joined us, forming a wall to help each other push, and protect those behind us. We made slow but steady progress towards the door. At one point I heard a scream, and someone yelling “No!” behind me, but I couldn’t turn and look.

And of course, just as we reached the door, the wind suddenly stopped, and we all fell into the next room, and the door closed behind us. Well, almost. We heard a brief but frantic pounding on the door.

“Who did we lose?” asked Sam.

“Jane. She got caught by a gust of wind just at the last moment,” said Jay, looking upset. She had been from the same show as him.

“Two rounds, and already we’re down by a third,” noted Jake. “Are any of us going to make it to the end?”

On that somber note, we ate dinner. More of that accursed gruel.

(part 50)

There was little conversation that …night? To be honest, I had no idea if it was day or night outside….wherevr outside was! We were all so tired that after eating, we all went to bed….or rather, cot.

The next “morning” there was a bit of a ruckus when people went to get their morning gruel. “There’s something green in the mush,” said Jay.

“What, mold?” asked Matilda.

“Worse, “ said Kyla. “It’s broccoli! And the mush tastes like fish.” Her face showed her disgust.

And she was right to be disgusted. The fish taste was awful, and the broccoli made it take longer to chew. We ate, but I don’t think many of us got enough calories that morning.

(part 51)

After our gourmet breakfast, the doors opened to our next Circle. This one seemed to be the same size as the others (How were they not getting smaller?), but this one had what looked like a river or stream running right through the middle. There was a chill in the air.

Karen was there, looking as smug and evil as ever. “The Third Circle,” she said, “represents the sin of Gluttony. Souls were forced to lie in a river of icy slush. So that is where you will find your souls today. You will need three to pass to the next level.” With that, she went through the door we had just passed through, it closing behind her.

And.....we're back!

(part 52)
As a group (now 16 of us), we wandered over to the river. The closer we got, the more the chill intensified. By the time we got to the water's edge, several were shivering.

The river looked like it was filled with finely crushed ice. Picture an Icee, or a 7-11 Slurpee, in various shades of a sickly brown. And it stank. It was hard to describe....a mix of rotten eggs and rancid peanut butter. Sorry if you're eating lunch right now.

“Did she say how many souls are on this level?” asked Angel. “There don't seem to be that many.”

She was right. There were only a few visible from here, maybe 4 or 5. “She didn't,” replied Gareth. “Assuming there has to be at least enough for all of us to advance, there will be at least 48.”

(part 53)

“At least they seem easy to catch,” said Sam, who had just snagged one at the icy edge. With that, I motioned for Meghan and Matilda to follow me, and we made our way to a group of 3 “souls” I had spotted. These were a few feet from the water's edge, so we had to wade into the icy muck. We were each able to snag a soul, and got out of the muck as soon as we could. That water was fucking COLD!

We continued to make our way around the circle. Since we had gotten started a little before the rest, we were each able to get our 3 without much difficulty, other than we had to venture out a little further into the water each time. When we scored the last ones, I was in water up to my waist...and I'm tall, so it was even worse for the girls.

After we had each scored our 3, we moved away from the water, to warm up a little. As we walked, Matilda asked, “Should we try to get some extra, to deny them to the others?”

“That's not a bad idea,” said Meghan. “We need to get across the river anyway. We can try to get some when we cross.”

That brought up a good point. The door to the next circle would be on the inner wall, on the other side of the water. So we looked for what seemed to be an easier crossing point. We spotted a few clumps of souls a few times, but at those points the river was pretty wide, so we left those for others to harvest.

(part 54)

We got to the point where we were opposite the doors leading to the next circle. The river was pretty wide here as well, so we continued on for a while, looking for as narrow a crossing point as we could find. Shortly after, we heard Shemsa up ahead of us. “Hey Maya, get over here,” she shouted.

Shemsa was in a pretty wide part of the river, near a cluster of souls. But the water was barely up to her ankles! She gestured to Maya and pointed to a spot near the water's edge. “Step right there,” she said. “The water is real shallow here.” Maya joined her, and they headed out to where the soul cluster was, almost halfway across the river.

What happened next was very fast. The ground underneath them tilted suddenly, and both of them went tumbling into the water! The water must have been pretty deep there, since they both disappeared beneath the ice for a moment. We were about to wade out to help them, when first a metal cage, then a platform with two very cold and very wet girls on it rose up out of the water.

(part 55)

Meghan, Matilda and I continued along, looking for a narrow crossing point. Periodically, we would see the platform with Maya and Shemsa lower back down into the water, soaking them all over again. We found a promising looking spot, and I waded out first, to make sure it wasn't too deep for the girls. It got up to about chest level on me, so we had Matilda come across next so Meghan and I could help keep her from getting completely immersed.

We made our way across without incident, and sat shivering on the far shore for a while, trying to get feeling back in our feet. Once we felt we could walk again, we made our way back to where we had spotted the door to the next level.

Along the way, we passed Shemsa and Maya still trapped on their platform, still occasionally getting dunked, arms around each other, trying to stay warm. We waved...I won't repeat here what they yelled at us in response.

(part 56)

In time, more players started showing up at the door. Angel and Gareth were the last to arrive. Angel was soaked from head to foot, Gareth with his arm around her, trying to keep her warm. “She slipped as we were crossing,” Gareth told us. Angel tried to speak, but she was shivering too hard.

Sooner than I expected, the 10 minute warning buzzer sounded. A quick head count showed that everyone was here, except Shemsa and Maya. The ten minutes passed, and we made our way im for our evening meal, and rest. The evening gruel had dark things in it that we all hoped were raisins. Spirits were pretty high as we settled in for the night.

I'm enjoying the gradual escalation with this one, particularly with the circles becoming increasingly 'gamist' for want of a better term with the addition of booby traps to them rather than just overcoming puzzles or obstacles.

part 57)

I was restless that night. I kept dreaming that my hands or feet were frozen. So I was still groggy when the 7 AM wake up call came. Breakfast...more gruel. I was getting sick of the shit.

The doors opened to our next level. This level looked different. To the left and right were several large golden...boulders is the best way to describe them. They were all taller than me,at least 7 feet high, so I had trouble seeing past them. Each one seemed to be set in some kind of track. A quick count showed there were 14 in all....one for each of us. Karen was waiting for us. We certainly were not waiting for her.

“The Fourth Circle,” she said, “represents Greed. The damned here are forced to push around large weights, representing their accumulated wealth. So your task for this Circle is to get your 'wealth' across to the far wall. At least for this Circle, you don't need to gather any souls. Isn't that great?” That last was said with way too perky a voice, which prompted many of us to give her a strong “Fuck you,” which only seemed to make her smile more.

I’ve read the first, second, and all of the third game show that’s written so far today and man it’s great! I can’t wait for more! You have quite the talent in writing!

(part 58)

Sam asked, “If we finish getting our own boulder across, can we help the others?”

“Feel free to try,” Karen answered, smiling sweetly and rubbing her throat. Somehow I didn't think helping another would be a good idea.

“But these are huge!” I heard Angel cry. “There's no way I can push this.”

“Each person's boulder is related to their body weight. Yours won't weigh as much,” Karen told her.

“There's still inertia,” Jake said. Karen just shrugged.

“Find your boulder and get pushing,” Karen said. The round just started. Oh, and if you need to rest, don't rest too long.” The horn sounded just as she finished speaking. Jake saw that our names were written on the ground by our boulder, so we moved to find our own. The names were in alphabetical order, so Angel was all the way down on the left, Sheldon on the right. Roger was to my right, Meghan to my left, and Matilda was next to her. At least we would be able to give each other verbal support.