After a few minutes of arguing and deciding who we all wanted to be partnered up with, we finally had two teams of two. It was just lucky that even though we lost so many people in the preliminaries we still ended up with an even amount of players. Otherwise one of us would probably have to get left behind. The whole bomb deactivation rooms were already too much for me to handle, I didn't need another factor that could possibly kill me to be thrown into the mix.

I chose Z as my partner because he seamed like the calmest of the seven. I wasn't really sure if that was a good thing, and on top of that, he just seemed intriguing. I'm not going to lie, when I first saw him I thought he was the one who betrayed his partner. Yet he was one of the few in our group who actually survived by having his partner deactivate his bomb instead of their own. He seemed like the safest and most interesting option.

The next group to pair up were Ash and the Asian girl. She said that her name was Ai, but somehow I feel like that was a name she had just made up. I don't really know why, but maybe it's because the name seems to fit her way too well. If I'm not mistaken, Ai in both Mandarin and Japanese means love. And one of the many things I've learned throughout my entire life is that if you name a child a virtue, they will almost never follow that virtue. Yet Ai seemed like the loving and caring, no fighting type. Then again, that was a really stupid reason to be suspicious.

The third group was Tiffany and the old lady, who never gave us a name. It shocked me that not only did Tiffany get grouped up with the old lady, but that she was also the one who chose to group up with her. But I could understand her reasoning. It was pretty obvious that the reason she wanted to match up with the old lady was so that she could kill the old lady.

And finally, the last two to pick a partner were forced to join to form the fourth pair. The first was the nervous looking boy, Matt. And the second was Ken, the jock-like boy Ai was initially paired up with.

So Z and I went through one of the six red doors, as the other three pairs chose their doors. We personally took the door on the far left. And we left through the door before everyone else, so I had no idea which doors anyone else went through. And before I could even think about turning back and returning to the circular room, the red door slammed shut behind Z and I as soon as we walked in. And the other side of the door had no handle. There was no turning back, not that turning back would have been a good idea. But I just had to hope that choosing to go along with Z was a good idea.

Behind the door that we had walked through was a short hallway. At the end of the hallway was another circular room, although this one was much smaller than the one that we had just come from. On the opposite side of the circular room was another door. Above the door was another electronic story that displayed the word 'Locked'. This one was another steel sliding door with no handle. On the left and right side of the room were two more steel sliding doors that appeared to slide upwards as opposed to the side. And on top of that, these two doors had no electronic signs above them. And finally, in the center of the room there was a small, metallic, square table in the center of the room that was bolted to the floor. And sitting on top of the square table was a strange looking device that was bolted down onto the table. The device itself was a black box with a red light bulb and two chrome handle similar to joysticks on an arcade machine.

"What do you think this is?" Asked Z.

"This kind of reminds me of this old arcade game I would play as a kid. Where you would try to see how long you could hold onto the handles while an electrical current would flow through them." I suggested.

"What kind of 'game' is that, were you a masochistic kid or something?" Said Z, jokingly.

"Maybe, but let's just see what this is." I said as I got down on my knees in front of of the table in order to get myself into a more comfortable position because of the small size of the table. I wrapped both of my hands around the two handles like I would when playing the shocking arcade game as a kid. After a moment the red light bulb sparked to life and I felt the electrical current flow through the handles. It hurt like hell, as it was a strong current, but after playing the game so many times as a kid I had gotten really good at ignoring the pain and just focusing on holding on to the handle.

Suddenly the sliding door on the left slid upwards. Instead of being like a standard door that is only two or three inches wide, this door spanned the entire length of the hallway it opened to. That way there was a risk that if I were to let go of the handle while Z was in the hallway he would be crushed by the door.

"Hurry, get in there before I let go!" I shouted at Z, while the machine continued to shock me.

Z paused for a in shock for a moment. Okay, I won't make any more bad puns. But then Z quickly came to his sense and ran down the hallway that had just been opened. From what I could see from where I was sitting the hallway led to another circular room. And after he got into the room he got down on his knees like me, so I assumed that he was presented with a shocking game as well. A moment later the flow of electricity vanished. I looked to my right and the other sliding door began to slide up.

"G-go! I can't hold on for much longer!" Cried out Z in pain. I wasted no time and quickly got off my knees and up on to my feet. I sprinted down the hallway that had been revealed by the weight-like door that would crush me if Z were to let go of the shocking device. At the end of the short hallway there was not another shocking device, but instead a big red button. My only guess was that it was a button that lock both of the hallways in placed. But I didn't have time to think, I just outstretched my right arm as I got near the button and slammed the palm of my hand into it as soon as I got close to it.

Afterward there was mechanical beeping sound that came back from the center room. I turned around and could see Z from the hallway I was in. He was slowly gutting up off of his knees, confirming that the button did in fact lock the two doors in place. That solved the problem of the two being trapped in the hallways, however, it did open up a new question. How would we open the third door? The door that most likely led to more bomb rooms.

"Hey!" Shouted Z as he was walking into the center room "Look! The center door is open!"

"Really? Thank God." I said as I made my way out into the middle room to see that the third door was in fact open. However, when I got into the center room I was also greeted by a pair of eyes glaring at me. Z's eyes.

"God has nothing to do with it. Why should you let someone else take credit for something you and I accomplished together." Z said with a stern look on his face.

"Calm down, it's just an expression." I tried to assure him.

"Whatever..." He replied as if he had lost all interest in me. He left me in the center room and headed on through the third door.

I quickly followed him through the third door and saw that the next room had a pair of doors in it. They were just like the pair of doors that Ash and I were met with in the preliminaries. They even had a giant sign above the two doors that read 'SEPARATE'. They were more bomb rooms.

"Hey, John..." Said Z while avoiding eye contact with me, staring at the pair of doors.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking of a plan that we could use to make this game a lot easier." He said, turning around to face me.

"A plan?" I asked.

"A point system." He answered.

"What kind of point system?" I asked him.

"Maybe it would be better if I wrote it out instead of explaining it in words." He said. I was about to ask him how he planned to write it out when he pulled a small notepad and pencil out of his pocket and began scribbling away on the paper. Just what kind of person was Z that he carried around a notepad and pencil with him?

"Done!" He exclaimed after about a minute of writing. He handed the notepad to me so that I could see what he had written.

Trust Chart

Name / Pre / R1 / R2 / R3

Z / 1 / 2

John / -1 / 0

Matt / 1

Tiffany / -1

Grandma / -1

Ash / -1

Ai / 1

Ken / 1

+1 deactivate other bomb, -1 deactivate own bomb

It was a chart designed to keep track of how trustworthy a person was. At the beginning everyone has zero points. However, their decisions in the bomb rooms would determine whether they gain or lose a point. If they choose to deactivate their partner's bomb than they earn one point. However, if they deactivate their own bomb then they lose one point. So someone with a higher score is easier to trust rather than someone with a low score. And one thing that I noticed was that he had already filled out both of our points for the end of round one.

"I'm going to choose to deactivate your bomb. So if you betray me then the notepad will be destroyed by the explosion anyways," Explained Z with a cold look in his eyes "Let's get going."

I stepped through the left door and he stepped through the right door. The interior of the room was identical to the one from before, with the screen installed in the wall and everything. However, this time a message was displayed on the screen that wasn't the first time.

If you are able to kill your partner you will be granted a bracelet that will let you leave the project through a Yellow Door before the start of Round 2.

My eyes widened at the sight of the message. I knew that there would be some sort of twist that would make players more willing to betray their partner. And even I was tempted to betray Z. But deep down I knew that wasn't right. Although Z was a bit strange, I had a feeling he had no ill intentions towards me. So it would be wrong for me to kill him for my own selfish purposes. And I highly doubt that he would have betrayed me anyways. So once the message vanished and the option of which bomb to deactivate I chose to deactivate Z's bomb.