Team Deathmatch

Round 1: Preliminaries

There's always that moment whenever someone is playing a video game that I like to call "the turning point", where it's decided whether or not the player wants to continue or not. I think that life is kinda like that.

-James Woodrow, The Washington Post, 2019

The alarm made my eyes snap open, and everything from the night before came rushing back in a stream of memories. I reached over and tapped the digital clock on the bedside table, and sat up. The team and I had been up until almost 5 in the morning practicing for the events that were about to take place tonight. Even though I had barely gotten any sleep, I was still ready and awake in seconds. I just hoped that it wasn't all for nothing.

I hopped in the shower quickly, and kept going over the several hours of training we had done against several bots in every single game mode that Team Deathmatch had to offer. We now knew each others strengths and weaknesses, as well as developing strategies that we could use. But, even with that, we still had no idea what Woodrow and the contest would throw at us. I contemplated this as the warm water ran over my body.

I got out of the shower, and had a sudden urge to make myself look somewhat presentable. I wasn't really a person who cared about my physical appearance, so this was surprising to me. But, I decided to humour myself, and picked out a button-up blue shirt that was slightly wrinkled, along with a set of navy pants. I looked in the mirror, and tried to straighten out my tangled mess of hair. After several minutes of futile attempts, I decided to leave it as it was.

I walked out into the living room, and saw that room service had already delivered a full breakfast for me. I looked over the array of fruit, baked goods and meat, and felt my stomach rumble. All of that hard work last night had definitely worked up an appetite. I sat down on the couch and began to spread some butter on a bagel.

As I ate, I thought about the chemistry our team had shared last night. On our first match together, we had taken a while to get used to each other's playing styles, and there was more than one heated discussion or confrontation. Jasper usually seemed to instigate these, and Maya or Yumi would always retaliate. I was sure he meant well, but he seemed to be confident for his own good. The only one who didn't make anything complicated was Leo, who would always stand to the side and follow orders to the letter. At least he would cooperate. I thought.

But, after about 10 games or so, we began to get accustomed to each other, and I soon found myself calling out one of them and knowing exactly how they would react, then securing the kill. Yumi and I seemed to move like one. She didn't even have to call something out, whenever she made a maneuver, I would do a move that complimented it perfectly. It was like we could read each other's minds.

Then, I heard a knock at the door, and I opened it up to see Bowbridge looking at me, "Good, you're up." She said. "The car's waiting for you downstairs. If you're ready, let's go." I nodded and followed her out the door, heading downstairs towards the lobby. I fiddled with my cube the whole time, which had become sort of a talisman for me. Something to keep me anchored, and to remember what I was fighting for.

The car pulled up at Horizon HQ again, and Bowbridge walked me into the lobby, past the same secretary I had met when I had first come here yesterday. We went to the black elevator again, but this time, we went up instead of down. Not all the way up towards Leland's office, but about midway. 

The doors opened, and I walked with Bowbridge down a hallway, one that was much emptier than the busy one that was on the top floor. We reached the end, and saw that Leland was standing there, his hands clasped together, smiling at me. "Morning, Sam! Trust you enjoyed your room?" I smiled politely and nodded. "Yeah. It was cool." Leland moved towards the door. "Great. Now, if you just follow me, we can get started."