Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 3 - Pink Streak

The lights were switched on and suddenly everything was blinding. Even though her eyes weren't open.
Dae-eun felt sick briefly as she tried to sit up, her muscles still asleep and being slow to awaken.
Her eyes were open now, eyelashes fluttering as she blinked sleep away and pulled down the fleece blanket covering her.

She realised that she was no longer in the minivan, instead, she was in a bed.
A bunk bed to be precise.
And she was no longer dressed in her own clothes.

During her period of unconsciousness, she had been changed into a sea green tracksuit with white accents and stripes, along with simple, flat white shoes.
As she fiddled with the zipper to stop it from choking her, she realised there was a number emblazoned on her chest.
225.

Looking around, she noticed others dressed in the same attire as her were waking and getting up. Some were already walking around.
Everyone had different numbers than her, each one individual to one person.
Their identities had been stolen, along with their freedom.

No names.
Just numbers.

Dae-eun got up out of her bunk bed and descended down the ladder to the floor, walking out to count how high up she was.
2, 3, 4, 5...
She was five beds from the floor, one off from the top, making the bunk six beds high.

Too high...
A large digital board displayed a number of players over what appeared to be the main door.
456 PLAYERS.
Too many...

The room itself was composed of white tiles lining the walls, the type you'd see in some posh bathroom.
The floor looked like it was made of porcelain, a murky sand sort-of colour.
The ceiling was painted the same colour as the uniforms she and her fellow players now wore, with some kind of metal door.

The room looked like some abandoned warehouse, though for the Players it appeared it would be functioning as a dormitory.
There was something else she thought she could see behind the bunk beds, but the way there were stacked made it difficult to distinguish.
She dropped the curiosity, for now.

As she took in everything, a grunt, shout and the clamour of a crowd rose to her ears.
She noticed a large knotted circle had formed around two Players.
One, a girl, was on the floor, the other a man, stood tall and intimidating.

Dae-eun wormed her way through the crowd to glimpse their numbers.
Player 101 was the man, a viper tattoo visibly coiled around his neck, with greasy black hair.
Player 67 was the girl, messy short-cut black hair and now a bloody lip from where she lay on the floor.

The girl managed to get up, and the two spoke in a hushed tone to each other, though by their expressions, Dae-eun guessed their words weren't friendly.
She must've said something else to piss him off because he quickly wound up for another punch, though this one she leaned away from.
The crowd around her jumped back and clamoured, as if the blow was directed at them.

Like frightened livestock, these people.

The fight quickly became a struggle, the girl being knocked off her feet again and down on the floor.
Hair was grabbed, a lot of pushing and shoving, grunting, shouting...
And even so, the crowd lapped up the view like warm milk.

It came to where 67 had been knocked down, kicked, and left winded.
And all Dae-eun was thinking that it would be best to stay down, try to avoid giving the guy another reason to go for her.
She spotted a man in the crowd with a different expression from the others, perhaps one of confusion.
Maybe he knows one of them?

She couldn't read his number until he stepped out and broke the fight up, shoving 101 away and grappling with the woman with a busted lip.
456...
Dae-eun watched as he began shouting about how she had stolen from him after recognising her from a scar on her neck.