I watched as the scoreboard ticked down. What the hell was this? Some kind of abduction? Had someone stolen the train?

Was I in the latest Saw movie? I bit my lip, looking around. There was panic in the crowd, some people swiping at the air— probably at interfaces, if they had the same thing I did pop up— while others were hurriedly asking questions, trying to figure out what was going on. I looked around.

The man with shock blue hair and the drunk were on opposite sides of the crowd— but both near the back, where the train stopped earlier. The clock was ticking down to 30, now.

I walked over to the drunk man, who gave me a smile with tired eyes.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, looking him up and down. The two briefcases were on the ground around him, open and empty, and he sported a pair of brass knuckles. The sight of them instantly made me wary; but I had come this far to talk to him, and he seemed to know what was happening.

“The game is about to begin. 10 seconds left now.” The man squinted at the distant billboard, uncrossed his arms, and started to stretch.

“What game?”

“The one that matters.”

There was a harsh buzzing noise, and I turned to the source of it. The clock above had hit 0, and was now blinking red. A score board appeared next to it— one listing names. Names of the passengers. I found mine on it— in the left column, twenty fifth from the top. There were four columns total— exactly one hundred people.

Two huge fences swung open, human silhouettes swelling out of it like a black, groaning tide. They were shrouded in the mist, and inside of it were human shapes, pouring out into the yard we were in.

A voice came over a loud speaker. I looked its direction— a masked man now stood in the toll booth at the exit, opposite me in the yard— the gate that swung open was between us.

“Game Start: Noface Tithe. Game type: Strength. The rules of the game are simple. Behind me is the toll booth to exit this room. Entry through the toll booth requires 5 tokens. For every Noface you destroy, you’ll earn one token.”

“Nofaces?” I asked aloud.

“Those, I presume.” The drunk man said, finishing his stretching and pointing towards the silhouettes emerging from the mist.

“What are those things?” Someone on the opposite side of the crowd as me shouted, moving towards them. There was a strange silence in the yard, oppressive and artificial as people reacted with fear and wariness.

“Excuse me… do you need help?” Another person asked, approaching a silhouette.

It leaped at her, pinning her to the ground, and she screamed. I got a better look at it then as it leaped out of the mist. Its skin was pallid, nearly white, covered in grotesque and rubbery flesh, and it had no face, save for its mouth with rows of jagged teeth, but it didn’t bite the lady— not yet. It pinned her down first, lifting its head up, opening its jaw, and then descending.

The screaming stopped. But the crunching was audible.

Someone from the crowd bolted towards the toll booth, skirting around the wave of monsters, running. “I’m getting the hell out of here!” He shouted, moving to leap over the turnstile gate.

The front half of him landed on the other side, while his legs remained behind at the turnstile. The man in the booth retracted a— was that a sword?— into the tollbooth.

“Well, I’ll see you in the bullpen.” The drunk said, stumbling forward.

“What? Where are you going?” Even though it seemed the man was stumbling, he was moving faster than my step— enough that I had to jog to keep up.

“I’m earning my tokens.” I stopped as the man stumbled into the crowd of monsters, swinging twice. He moved deceptively, his motion appearing slow, but when his blows made contact—

Two monsters heads exploded. Then he disappeared into the throng of bodies, and I was standing alone at the edge of the crowd as one of the monster’s threw themselves at me. I swung the briefcase reflexively, and its head crumpled at the force.

Huh. A pop up appeared in my vision, hovering at the bottom of my sight like a HUD in a video game. It said: Tokens: 1.

So the man making their heads explode was less impressive than it looked. They were still monsters, and I certainly didn’t plan to dive into the crowd of them any time soon. I stepped back, scanning the crowd. Several of the passengers were in fist fights with straggling monsters at the edge of their crowd now, kicks and punches landing on them, while other members of the crowd screamed and stood behind the fighting.

I took a look between the two— the back of the man that disappeared into the crowd of monsters, and the crowd of lost people who were running from the fight, and made a choice.

I was going to earn my tokens, too. I heard a man scream, and my eyes snapped that way. The Noface’s repeated a robotic motion; one pinning him to the ground, then, slowly opening its mouth. None of the other monsters stepped up to help finish or eat him. It was like they were programmed robots more than hungry zombies.

I smashed the brief case into the monsters head, but it growled, maintaining its actions, so I kicked it once— twice, and then it fell limp on top of the screaming man, who crawled out from under it and scrambled away without so much as a thank you. I looked to the tokens in my screen.

A new column appeared; in the tokens section, the number incremented to 2, but the new column had a value of 1: Saviour Points. I blinked at it. I didn’t know what they were, but they were probably good. I looked up, then back around at the crowd. In my head, I went through what I knew. I grabbed my tie, coughing to clear my throat.

“Everyone! Listen up!” I shouted over the crowd. “You heard what the announcer said— everyone hear needs five kills on these monsters to move on! Listen— they’re weaker and less scary than the look! Everything here is operating on a set of rules. If we all help each other, we can all make it through!” I yelled.

The crowd was still in a state of panic, and I watched someone who turned to look at me get tackled from the side, falling under a monster.

“Look! They can’t just instantly kill us, they always wait a moment before they act!” I punctuated my statement by kicking the monster off of the man. He coughed, standing up, and began angrily kicking the monster that tackled him. I watched my tokens and Saviour Points increment again.

“He is right!” The man shouted. I put a hand on the mans shoulder.

“Fight!” My words encouraged a few more people to step forward, pulling stragglers from the crowd of monsters. I weaved between multiple fights. In one, multiple monsters were ganging up around one person. They crumpled at my briefcase, and I was quickly at 5 tokens, though killing monsters that didn’t have someone pinned wasn’t rewarding Saviour Points.

I heard a scream, turning and bashing the briefcase into a zombie on top of a woman. As I slammed the briefcases side into the zombies face, it popped open. Something clattered to the ground.

“Are you alright?” I asked the woman. She nodded, holding her hands out and panting— she was clearly shocked. Few people wouldn’t be, giving the circumstances.

After helping her up, I stepped towards what was left of the briefcase. It was a round metal column with a button on it. It was smooth to the touch, and heavy. It felt like holding a crowbar or a hammer. I squinted at it, pressing the button.

Like one of those extend-able metal poles used for magic tricks, the end popped out, telescopic metal lining up and clicking into place. But it was sharp. It clattered onto the ground, and I leaned over, picking it up.

It was a sword of some kind, sharp and heavy, and I turned back into the crowd of monsters. Jagged yellow teeth panting, exhaling visible breaths that stank of rotting meat.

Other people in the crowd had begun helping each other, leading people forward or even holding down monsters so other could get their tokens. I spun the sword in my hand.