I checked my email before going to bed to make sure I hadn’t missed anything for school. There was a new email that had no subject. This piqued my interest so I opened it.

The email was two sentences, “You have been selected to compete in The Cave! We look forward to meeting you shortly!” This was a little unnerving but I figured it was some prank from my friends so I closed it out and went to bed.

I woke up finding myself sitting upright on a bus full of people. I went to stand but found my hands in cuffs that were attached to the seat. I kicked my legs but they were cuffed together with a chain attached to the floor. I looked around in a panic. Some people were still knocked out but I noticed a few faces showing the same fear I had.

“Hey! What’s going on here!” an older man a few seats ahead of me shouted.

There was no response from the man standing at the front of the bus with an assault rifle in his arms. He was fully kitted out in tactical gear but there were no identifiable features that I could see. He just stood there unwavering like a statue.

During the ride, I came to know the man next to me in the seat as Elijah. He was a mountain of a man who looked to be in his 30’s. I figured my safest bet no matter what would be to stay close to him. He had no idea what was going on either, he told me he went to bed after work and woke up here.

The yelling and screaming continued for a few minutes until we veered off the main road and started down what looked like an old logging trail. We went for what seemed like a few miles until we came upon a warehouse. The bus hit the brakes and I saw out the window that there were now two other buses along with ours. To my dismay, I also noticed more armed guards.

The locks securing our arms and feet to the floor clicked and fell to the floor. People began to stand. We were still cuffed but we could at least move around now. The older man from before shot up and made a break for the door. With one motion the guard reared up and struck the man square in the nose with the butt of his rifle. The man fell clutching his face.

“Everyone off the bus! Move in an orderly fashion unless you want to end up like him,” the guard announced while holding his rifle which was now aimed at all of us.

Safe to say we were all on our best behavior after that. We walked off the bus single file like we were back in elementary school. We were led through two massive hangar doors and instructed to sit and wait for further instructions. There had to be at least 100 people all cuffed inside this warehouse. Elijah sat next to my left and a girl to my right.

“You know what’s happening?” she asked.

“Not in the slightest. I woke up on a bus about half an hour ago. I’m guessing that’s also what happened to you,” I responded and she nodded in agreement.

“I’m Liam. I would shake your hand if I could,” I said trying to brighten the mood.

“Mia,” she said with a slight smile.

I introduced her to Elijah and we talked a little while longer until someone walked out from the other side of the warehouse. A woman in a black suit marched out and took a spot for everyone to see and pulled out a microphone.

“Welcome everyone!” she said in a tone akin to a commentator of a sports match, “You lucky people have been chosen to test your luck at getting through the cave.”

My blood ran cold as I remembered the email I opened last night. I guess it wasn’t a prank. I looked over at Elijah and Mia who both now had a look of shock and realization on their faces. They must have gotten an email as well.

“Shortly you all will be guided out of this warehouse and over to the cave entrance where the competition is being held,” she continued, “Please stand, the guards will now be coming to undo everyone's cuffs.”

Men dressed in black tactical gear walked over and began releasing everyone from their restraints. As soon as a man at the end of our row got uncuffed he started booking it towards the exit. He got about halfway before a guard pulled a baton from his waist and I saw the crackle of electricity as it came down on the man. He crumpled to the floor.

“Ohh and one more thing,” the woman spoke up again, “If you haven’t figured it out already, you aren’t allowed to leave, the only way out is through the cave. If anyone else tries what that man did they will be met with force. Deadly force if necessary.”

With that, we were on our best behavior once again. Everyone was slowly unrestrained. When I was uncuffed I found a black wristband with the number 43 secured tightly around my wrist where the cuffs had been. I looked around and saw that everyone else had one. After, we were led out behind the warehouse to an opening on the side of the mountain. The entrance looked very small but I could tell it opened up due to the lights I could see placed inside.

We all stood waiting for further instructions. I spent most of that time wondering how my life went so wrong that I ended up in this situation. I was snapped out of the thought by the high-pitched whir of a sound system coming to life.

“It seems everyone made it over in an orderly fashion,” our commentator continued, “I will now be discussing the rules of this game. Every one of you has probably noticed by now you have a wristband on you. This allows our viewers to see your number, location, vitals, and position inside the cave.”

“Viewers?” I said quietly as I looked at Elijah and Mia.

“Our kind viewers are who allow us to hold this event every year,” she said as she stuck out an arm toward one of the cameras facing her.

There were multiple cameras set up throughout the area. Some were facing our commentator while others were facing the crowd of unwilling participants. What kind of psychopaths are these people?

“We truly appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts,” she said, her face alit with malicious joy, “Now, it’s almost time to begin this year's competition. I hope all of you are as excited as I am.”

“Back to all of you,” she said staring out to the crowd before her, “You are the stars of the competition. There is one rule for this competition so you better listen well. Find your way to the exit on the other side of this mountain any way you see fit. Nothing is off limits.”

That statement sent a chill down my spine.

“Now, a little bit about this cave. It’s not a cave per se, it’s an old mine that was used who knows how long ago. I will say, we’ve done a little interior designing to spice the place up a little.”

“All right!” she boomed, “Everyone make your way inside the starting area,” after saying this a green light appeared on everyone's wristband.

“I guess we’ve got no choice but to get through this,” Elijah said while letting out a sigh.

“Unfortunately. I’ve still got a bad feeling about this though so let’s stay close to see what happens,” I responded and Elijah gave me a thumbs up.

We walked into the mouth of the cave and into a surprisingly spacious room. I noticed multiple paths veering off every way. Each path had a metal door in front of it preventing us from seeing past it. There were spotlights placed throughout and I noticed what looked like security cameras attached in all corners of the room.

Guards were stationed at the entrance but none were in here with us. I was feeling a lump form in my throat due to the mounting pressure of my situation. A speaker cut to life somewhere unseen gaining my attention.

“Hello my lovely contestants,” a familiar voice sounded, “It is time to begin.”

“There are plenty of routes to reach the end of the cave. Some are more dangerous than others so choose wisely. There are screens that display a limited map of your location and the number of contestants remaining scattered throughout.”

“I wish the best of luck to all of you!” she said sounding ecstatic, “As soon as the timer hits zero the competition begins.”

After she said this I turned to look at the screen in the corner of the room which had 75 in the top right corner and the number 55 which was decreasing each second. I heard a loud slam and turned to see a large thick metal grate being placed over the entrance. Some people began to shout and run towards the entrance. I saw the blue light of a welder fastening the grate to the outside of the cave. When people stuck out their arms yelling in a panic guards on the outside raised their electric batons and came down on them.

People were screaming, shouting, and some were huddled down crying. Me, Elijah, and Mia were trying to keep our distance so we were positioned just outside one of the closed tunnels waiting to see what happened. The clock slowly ticked down for what felt like an eternity. 14…13…12…11. My mind was going a million miles a second trying to figure out a plan. 10…9…8…7. We were all lost in the mayhem of the crowd and just stared at the clock like it was some holy relic. 3…2…1. A green light flashed and all the doors hissed and opened. No one moved.

“One more useful tip,” the speakers sounded, “I wouldn’t stay in one place very long. You wouldn’t want them catching you.”

“Them?” I said and turned to Elijah and Mia.

“Well, I don’t want to stick around and find out what she means. You guys want to test our luck in this tunnel?” Elijah asked while peeking his head around the door to the tunnel beyond.

Me and Mia nodded in agreement.

I noticed some other people had the same idea and were beginning to make their way into the tunnels. I noticed a lot of people still standing either crying or begging to be let out. Some were just standing motionless which I guessed was due to shock.

We made our way into the tunnel which was dimly lit by light attached to the ceiling. How long did they prepare for this? I thought to myself. We walked very slow for a few minutes to try and get a good idea of our surroundings. The tunnel had a lot of other paths leading off of it, but for the time being, we decided to keep straight. We were steadily making progress when we heard it. Screaming.

It was coming from the room we started in. We made decent progress, so the door we came through was now pretty small. I couldn’t see what was going on. I did see a few people run into the tunnel we were on and attempt to close the door. When that didn’t work they sprinted and went down the first offshoot they could find.

“Let’s pick up the pace a little,” Elijah said, “I don’t want to find out what’s causing all that noise.”

We made it as far as we could go straight. We couldn’t hear the screaming anymore, but I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

“You guys wanna go this way,” I said pointing to the path on my right, “I think I see a screen down there maybe we can get an idea of where we are.”

“Sounds good,” Mia responded.

We walked for a little while longer until we came up on the screen. A small monitor hanging from the ceiling now had a 58 in the top right corner. I stood there feeling glued to the spot. Elijah spoke before I could.

“Looks like 17 people have been eliminated. You think they’re all people who stayed in the starting room?”

“I imagine most of them are. That was a lot of screaming that’s not leaving my head for a while,” I said swallowing the bile rising in my throat.

“Does that mean 17 people are…,” Mia said with her voice wavering.

We were all thinking it. 17 people had died. That’s the only way you get eliminated. I didn’t want to admit that fact but now it was all too evident.

“Let’s rest here for a minute,” I said, “but not too long.”

They agreed and we all sat down. A few minutes passed so we got up and looked over the map and decided to walk further and take a left at the second tunnel we came to. We were making our way past the first tunnel when something caught my attention. Footsteps were coming from one of the tunnels on our right.

We stopped dead in our tracks and I motioned for the other two to go into the first tunnel so we could be out of their view. I didn’t know if these people were going to be friendly or not and didn’t want to put my new friends in danger. The footsteps volume kept increasing until two people shot out from a tunnel. They were breathing hard.

“You think we lost it,” the girl said while placing a hand on the wall.

“I can’t hear it anymore, maybe it found someone else to go after,” the man said.

“It killed all those people Lucas,” the girl said with a shaky breath.

“We got away though Sophia, I promise you we’ll make it out of here,” Lucas responded to her.

I decided to step out from behind the wall. They seemed like decent people and we needed any information that might help us out. So, holding my breath I stepped out into the tunnel with hands raised. Who I now knew as Lucas and Sophia took a step back.

“Hi, sorry to startle you,” I said trying to sound as calm as possible, “We hid because we weren’t sure if you’d be friendly or not.”

“How are we supposed to know you are?” Lucas asked, “You just popped outta nowhere like some bandits looking for money.”

“We were just trying to be careful,” I said as I reached out a hand, “I’m Liam.”

Slowly reaching and shaking my hand, “I'm Lucas and this is Sophia.”

Sophia stepped out from behind Lucas and gave a slight wave that I returned. That’s when Mia and Elijah both stepped out and I noticed it kind of shocked Lucas and Sohpia to see the grizzly Elijah come out around the corner. We swapped greetings and then I asked the question.

“What were you guys running from?”

“Well,” he began, “Me, Sophia, and a guy named George had just left the room we started in. We weren’t even 30 feet past the door when we heard screaming. We stopped dead in our tracks and I saw something running around in the room. It was on all fours but looked twice as big as a bear. I saw as it ripped some poor woman in half. That’s when we started running.”

“Jesus christ,” I muttered under my breath.

“We made it a good way down before the screaming stopped, when it did we turned to see that thing now facing us. I don’t think I’ve ever ran that fast in my life. But George was a lot bigger than us and couldn’t keep up. It caught him and as much as I hate to say it. I didn’t even turn back to try and help him. Me and Sophia just kept running,“ his voice broke, “We made a few turns when we stopped and ran into you guys.”

“Glad you all are safe,” Elijah said,” We just need to focus on getting out of here. I think we should start moving again before that mutant bear thing finds us. I have no plans on being dinner today.”

This boosted our mood and we began walking down the tunnel we originally planned on taking. We kept going for a while making stops at screens to check our location and try to get a sense of the right direction. We heard a few more screams and every time we did our pace quickened. We made it to another screen where we would make a pitstop and saw there were now 42 people remaining. 33 people had died for what? Some sick game for god knows who. It made me sick.

“I think we should take this tunnel up ahea…” Elijah said and was cut off by a roar that displaced some loose rocks on the wall.

“Yep. Sounds good,” I said and we all broke out into a mad dash in hopes of not meeting the source of the sound.

I hate to leave it on a note like that but it’s all I can get out. It’s still too fresh of a memory. I am typing this out lying in a hospital bed. I’ll try my best to post the next part when I feel like I can. What happened in that cave will be with me for the rest of my life. We told the police and whoever would listen but they have no way to search because no one knows where we were.

I’m mostly posting this as a warning to anyone reading this. If you ever get an email about competing in The Cave, pack up and hope they don’t find you.