Chapter 3

Rainer lowered his gun and stared at it “I never realized just how heavy this gun was, I’ve always been able to use it so easily” he muttered under his breath. 

“Maybe it’s from the weight of all that blood you have shed.” A man’s voice whispered in his ear, Rainer quickly turned and shot another bullet in the direction of the voice, but no one was there. All he could see was an empty room, but that didn’t force his guard down. His breathing was starting to become heavy, and he was starting to feel afraid. 

“Who are you?” he asked in a panic, hoping for an answer. Looking cautiously around the room he found no one. The only sound in the room was coming from the television.

“Either I’m going insane or someone is stalking me.” he said to himself without letting his guard down.

Rainer moved towards the door with caution, and proceeded down the way he had come. Upon arriving at the exit, he began to hear yelling and running outside. Curious as to what was happening, he walked outside, all the guards had disappeared. That was not the oddest part, he heard a soft humming in the sky and looked up. To his amazement, he was looking at a large lean spaceship, clad in the royal colors of white and gold.

“What the hell.” he whispered to himself in awe. Quickly regaining his senses, he began running to the car and made it there safely. 

Everyone in the neighborhood was outside, looking at the ship. Meanwhile, Rainer quickly jumped into the car and called Fleur, only to receive a busy signal. Cursing under his breath he put the phone in his pocket, and began driving towards the safehouse. 

Rainer encountered traffic on the road and was forced to move to the highway. People were still moving but most were pulling over to the side and recording the ship on their phones. No matter how far he went, every exit was blocked, except for the city. But he knew once he entered, there would be no way out with the car. Taking a chance, he entered the city and ditched the car when traffic appeared. As he proceeded to run towards a subway station where trains were still running, his head began to hurt. 

Instead of entering the subway, he quickly entered a nearby empty alley. He clutched his head tightly “What… The hell” he managed to murmur. Rainer dropped to his knees in pain and visions began to flood his mind. Visions of a man with black hair and red eyes, who was standing in front of an army. “Stop!” Rainer yelled. The vision disappeared, and slowly so did his pain. 

Outside of the alley, he heard people screaming and running away from something. Rainer tried to take a step but his body felt like it was frozen. Outside the alley he noticed everyone was looking at the sky while running. He dared not to look, afraid of what he would see. His heart was pounding and he didn’t know if it was fear or something else. “Arise, my King” said a voice in his head.

He quickly looked up and saw the ship above the city. Its length was larger than a skyscraper. Rainer stared at it in shock just like the rest of the world. “What’s happening? What are these voices? What’s going on!?” he said in fear. Rainer grabbed his phone and tried to call Fleur once more, unfortunately no one answered his calls. “I’m alone. What should I do?”

His body began to move on its own and ran with the crowd. Most people were entering buildings for safety, and he entered a mall with the rest of them. The doors behind him closed and were locked by guards. Rainer made his way to an empty toy store on the second floor, where he was able to see the people below him on the ground floor.  "What now? I ran here without thinking.” 

 A blue holographic screen projected itself in front of Rainer’s face. There was an almost human-like figure on the screen, a man with glowing red hair and blue eyes. Rainer looked around and the screen followed everywhere he looked. He was able to make out that others had the same screen, and everyone began to panic trying to swat it away like it was a fly. They only ended up hitting others close to them. “Silence!” yelled the man, and everyone’s voice died down. 

“Greeting’s humans. I am general Dolmi of the Coliaran empire. On this glorious day, I would like to welcome your species back to our realm. As per such a wonderful achievement, you are rewarded with a ticket to the glorious Tournament of Champions. Hosted by the Coliaran empire and is attended by millions of other species. A champion from Earth has two hours to be chosen or volunteer for the great honor of being a contender. We will provide all humans above the age of twelve with a device on which to vote. It will be transported from the ship to your wrists. We look forward to hearing from you. Good day.” 

The screens disappeared and a watch-like object attached itself to Rainer’s wrist. On it was a yes or no prompt that sat there waiting for him to choose to volunteer. On the side was a button that changed the prompt to the list of humans to choose from. That caught Rainer’s attention but he was suddenly being pushed out of the way. Everyone began to panic and run, the store Rainer was in began to overflow with people. He too began to run, not knowing where he was going but felt he had to get out of there. At the end of the hallway was a flight of stairs going up, no one else was going through the door so he entered. 

Rainer made his way to the top of the stairs and onto the roof of the building. He looked at the watch and tried to take it off but it was stuck to his wrist like glue. His phone began to ring, before it could reach the second ring, he picked it up and answered. “Rainer! Thank goodness you’re alright.” shouted Fleur. 

“Fleur, are you guys alright?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah, we’re just fine. Communication went down because of that ship but we’re back up now. This whole thing is insane, I don’t know what to do.” She replied, barely taking a breath. 

           

“Just stay there, and don’t let anyone press that prompt.” Rainer shut the phone and sat down on the roof, staring at the ship. He wasn’t able to wrap his head around what was happening, it was all so sudden and none of it made sense. 

           

"Ok, giant ship in the sky, aliens are real, someone on this list is going to die but I don't even know who is on the list. Should I choose someone from the list?” He screamed inside his head "Come on, this is too much to handle! I need to calm down first, stop panicking.”

           

He sat there for a few minutes, collecting his thoughts and then returned to the inside of the mall. People had stopped running and were now either silent or speaking to their loved ones on the phone. Rainer made his way outside of the building and noticed traffic was still everywhere. 

           

"I have to get to the safe house, but at this rate it will take me a few hours. Screw it, not like I have any backup plans.” He made his way down the street. The safe house he was referring to was outside of the city in a suburban home.

           

Only an hour had passed until Rainer made it to a less congested part of the city. Curious as to what was happening, he peeked inside a home with a tv, and sure enough the news coverage for the event was there. 

           

“We have an understanding that the alien has given us only one more hour to volunteer or choose a human to go with them. As of this moment, no one has volunteered, and many are frightened by what might happen if they choose wrong.” said the reporter

           

Rainer began to sprint down the street. "Only an hour left, after that, someone is going to be chosen. The odds of it being anyone I know are slim, there are billions of people on this planet, no way in hell is it going to be one of us.” He thought to himself. However, there was still a lingering feeling that it might be one of the kids.