Man Hunt

Chapter One - A is for Alice

I glance around the room I am in. I have no idea where I am. I have no idea how I got here. The last thing I remember is waking up here, and that was just moments ago. I feel fresh, rejuvenated, as if I have been asleep for weeks. My body is eager to move, but I am confined in this tiny room.

The room I am in is completely white; the walls, the ceiling and the floors – although not a clean kind of white, a faded, old-looking shade of the colour. The room is almost bare. There is a single bed, with a skimpy blue blanket tossed over it and a featherless, deflated pillow. There is a small table in the corner, with a folded piece of paper sitting on it as well as a neatly folded change of clothes and sitting on the floor beside the table is a backpack.

I slowly pace around the room. It is windowless, and the only entrance to the room is a door made of steel. There are no knobs on it, and it secured tightly shut. It appears to be a sliding door. Its steel is cool to the touch, and judging by the lack of movement when I press my hands against it, it is thick, sturdy. In other words, it would take a lot more than just an eighteen year old girl to get through it.

I approach the table in the corner of the cramped room and lift the piece of paper up from the desk. It is sealed with a small dollop of hardened maroon-coloured wax, with some sort of an emblem I don’t recognise printed onto it. The emblem consists of two letters, ‘M’ and ‘H’ printed beside each other. It obviously stands for something, but I cannot guess that at the moment.

Cautiously – as to not rip the paper itself – I use my fingernail and slip it under the wax. I then push my thumb forwards and remove the wax from the paper, it slides onto the table. I then take the paper and return to the bed, perching on the edge. The first thing I notice is that it is printed; it is not hand-written. The second thing I notice is that it is addressed to me.

Dear Alice,

You may be wondering why we have brought you here and perhaps where exactly ‘here’ is. Well we are pleased to inform you that your parents signed you up to participate in a new TV game show. In this game show, twelve teenagers will participate as two teams of six for the possibility of winning a grand sum of one million Euros for each member of the winning team.

The game you will be playing is a slightly modified version of a game called ‘Man Hunt’ which you may or may not already be familiar with. The aim of the game is to find members of the opposing team and find out their letters. Each member will have a single letter to guard, which will piece together to make a word which you must guess before the other team have guessed yours.

Which brings us to you Alice; you are one of six members of the blue team and are therefore opposing the red team. You will be assigned a letter (which is printed at the bottom of this page) and you will have to guard it with your life – hypothetically speaking of course! For your sake, and the sake of your team, it is wise to keep this information to yourself. In other words, don’t tell anyone else, even if you think they can be trusted!

You will notice that there is a metal bracelet on your wrist; this is for us to keep track of your location, monitor your heart rate and finally, make sure you have a healthy blood rate. As well as this, it is to make sure you do not lie to your opponents about your assigned letter. We will be monitoring you via microphone which is installed in the bracelet and we will make sure that you do not try to deceive the opposing team. If you lie to them about your assigned letter, the bracelet will blink blue, informing them of your dishonesty.

On the floor beside you, you will also notice that we have left you a backpack containing some survival gear as well as a change of more suitable clothing. We ask that you change into them soon – before you exit the room. We also want to ask you not to be alarmed by the contents of the bag; we have packed items for you that may or may not be necessary, so again, don’t be frightened. They are just there in case they are needed.