For a moment, I couldn't move.
Sarah stood beside me, but I barely felt her presence. My eyes were locked on the figure standing far away across the field. The same posture. The same quiet confidence.
Omar.
The name echoed inside my head like a memory that refused to fade.
He wasn't looking at us. He stood near the crashed plane. It is the same plane that showed us timer, players, winners and many more throughout the games...
My senses felt numb.
Every memory rushed back at once—every warning he gave, every time he pulled me out of danger, every moment I trusted him without question. Back then, I thought it was loyalty.
Now it felt like something else.
Like preparation.
Like he had been guiding me through the game, not to save me… but to shape the path I would walk.
"Mahmood…" Sarah whispered beside me, sensing the storm inside my head.
But I couldn't answer her.
My eyes stayed fixed on Omar.
The one I trusted.
The friend who had become part of the games we used to curse.
My legs felt heavy, but I forced them to move. One step. Then another.
Fear, anger, confusion—everything twisted together inside my chest.
I needed to hear it from him.
I needed to know why.
So, I walked toward Omar, gathering the last pieces of courage I had left.
I signaled Sarah not to come and wait there.
And when I finally stood close enough for him to hear me, only one question escaped my lips.
"Who are you?"
He didn't look at me. He was looking at the border. The big dark wall. Seconds later he answered.
"You know me well. Don't you?"
"That's what I am asking you. Do I know the truth, or you are hiding your real identity?" I asked with anger and confusion.
"The next game will not start soon. But when it does, make sure you take a look at your hand. Don't let the timer end." He replied.
-Don't change the subject. You killed someone right in front of me, didn't you? That is enough to realize how brutal you are. For the first time in my life, I got a friend. Who was able to change my view with some talks. And for the first time, I got betrayed.
-Betrayed? Who betrayed you? Everything I said was true. My identity, my thoughts. I also shared some of my best life moments with you. What did I do wrong?
-You were always a part of the game. You didn't tell me anything. From the very first game I thought you were suspicious. But you played my mind. Everything was a trap.
-It isn't like that. And you will see.
He stood up, picked his shotgun and moved straight towards Sarah. I got afraid. I followed him.
"Where are you going? answer me first," I said.
He didn't look back. As he walked, he passed Sarah. I sighed in relief. I was still going to follow him. But Sarah stopped me.
"What did he say? Do you know him?" She asked.
"Just an old friend. Changed a little bit. He is not telling me the truth, but I will not stop asking till I know everything." I replied.
We were looking at him. All of a sudden, he stopped. Two girls were sitting beside a broken wall which fell from the sky in last game. They stopped talking as his shadow came near. One of them looked at him. Then, she looked at her hand. That's when we realized her timer had ended. The girls looked at him in shock. He pointed his gun at her head.
As I heard the gunshots. Something hit me inside. My thoughts.
It felt like the ground beneath me had suddenly disappeared.
The person I trusted the most, the one who walked beside me when everything felt hopeless, was never really gone. I cried for him, remembered him, believed he was the only real friend I had found in that cruel world. But when he returned, he wasn't the same person anymore. The kindness in his eyes was replaced by something cold… something that belonged to the game.
When he pulled the trigger and someone fell right in front of me, the truth hit harder than the gunshot. The friend I mourned was standing there, alive—yet completely different. Not a survivor like us.
A Hunter.
In that moment, it felt as if every memory we shared had turned into a lie. Every step we took together, every word he said, every time he saved me—it all felt like a trap I had been walking into without knowing.
I wanted the truth. The anger inside me was on the highest level. It was my first time getting betrayed and I didn't know how to forgive.
I left Sarah's hands and charged towards him. Slowly, then speed up.
His instincts were fast enough to make him realize that something was coming but it wasn't fast enough to let him stop the punch. I punched hard in anger, slamming him into the ground. He got his gun and pointed it at me. But didn't shoot.
Not because he was kind or anything. I remember when Sarah told me, "The hunter will shoot and kill you if your timer ends. So, till it ends, you are totally safe."
If he breaks his rule to shoot me, he will die too. But he wasn't the same man who will hold back in a fight. He kicked me with his leg. I didn't fall, just backed up a little.
By the time he stood up, I tried to punch him again. He stopped it with his hands.
"We should talk, not fight" he said.
"You should've told me before that you were a part of this, but now it's late to have a talk" I replied.
-I wasn't a part of the game at that time.
-You and your lies. Enough of it.
-I didn't lie, and I am still not lying.
-You tricked me.
-Tricked you? No, I saved you.
-What?
-What do you think I have always been part of the games? If I didn't agree to become the hunter, you would've died.
-I don't believe you.
-I was the one who saved you from everything. Letting you and my own know the truth. I shot the boy in front of you, and I still had five bullets left. But I left you alive. I was the one to save you, I was the one who made you wear the watch in your hand. You still don't believe me?
-Then why did you choose to become the hunter?
-I didn't want to, but I had no other options...
I had already pulled my hands away from his grip. Maybe he wasn't wrong. My strength faded, and my hands loosened. He was about to let me go as well.
But in the middle of our conversation, someone rushed forward and punched him straight in the face.
"The Hunter can't do anything while our time is still running!" the man shouted. "So why don't we kill him now, just like he killed our brothers?"
I realized that something bad was about to happen.
By hearing him, everyone started charging at Omar. But I can't let it happen. He was going to punch Omar again, but I stopped it and gave him a punch in return.
Like that, I got the attention.
"Why did you do that?" He asked, "Are you also with him."
I didn't say anything. I didn't have to. The fight has started. It was me and Omar against all of them. Omar puts his guns inside because he can't shoot. But if they get a gun by mistake, they can.
We started fighting. Giving punch, getting punched., giving kicks, getting kicked, etc. But we didn't give up. They all gathered to attack us. Boys and girls of our age.
At one point, someone took a small gun out of Omars back. I was way far to stop him. Omar was in the middle. They all gathered and held him tightly. The boy was about to shoot.
But then came Sarah. She kicked his hand. He fell to the ground. Sarah picked up the gun quickly. She was about to throw it to me. I was all open waiting to catch it.
But then, a girl jumped on him. I started running to save her. But I was late.
The girl started biting Sarah's right hand. Sarah tossed the gun to her left hand.
And to my surprise, Sarah shot the girl.
She didn't have any options.
Everyone started panicking. Sarah was now on their target list. Sarah started shooting in the ground and everyone backed up quickly. Omar kicked them and freed himself away.
Now, it is three vs the whole lobby. But we had guns. No one dared to come near.
Sarah was pointing guns at them.
"No need to kill them. The next game is about to start." Omar said, "Just scare them away."
Sarah understood. I was going to tell her that she can trust him but then she said first.
"If you trust him, I can trust him too." She spoke.
Throughout the journey. I failed to realize many things before. Such as, the words of Omar, the cries of Zhou. I just couldn't run these codes to my emotion list because it was my first time experiencing something like that. But slowly I was understanding everything.
Omar saved me, guided me, helped me... because he cared.
Sarah saved me, trusted me, helped me... because she loved.
And there was me, what did I do? I didn't help them back. All I did was to ask why?
A wise man once said, "Not every act of love has an explanation."
I started to understand the reality. The reality which I kept ignoring. Like you all ignored Sarah saying "Mahmud" and not "Mahmood" in the 13th chapter. Whatever,
Some parts were still missing. Like, how is Omar so good at shooting? Why did the system take him? What did they say to him?
I turned to Omar.
"You were talking about the something right?" I asked Omar, " like, you saved me and not tricked me?"
"About that," Omar replied, "They captured me after the bucket game and-"
Just as Omar was about to say it, the system spoke,
Welcome to the final game. You're all tired, aren't you? Let's end this now.
This time, you will choose your own fate.
Decide which game you want to play. There are 86 of you here. One of you is the Hunter. The remaining 85 of you will play the games.
There are 17 different games. Each game requires exactly 5 players—no more, no less.
Only one player will win each game.
Keep your heads up.
The Final has begun.