Eliminated 

It has been three days since we escaped the pit. As of now, there are twelve us in total - a full dorm. But, there are over a hundred others in the other dorms. Let me explain. 

After we left the pit, we were greeted by four other people - 003 to 006,  Artee, Ronin, Elemental and Kake. The people who had come first, Airo and Avoma, were nowhere to be seen. Elemental, who was a year older than me and a few inches taller, was rather cold, and had little to say, but the other three were cheerful and friendly, and we struck up conversation about our days in our pits, and I learnt a lot more about each of them - everyone one of them was incredible. Ronin and Artee had also killed a pale viper in their pit, and had split the venom sacks between them, before ascending together after they had heard Airo had completed the mission. They were appalled when they had heard that I had taken them both myself, as the pain would've been doubled, and congratulated Neo and climbing so far by himself without the strengthening effect. But by far, the most impressive out of the six of us was certainly Elemental. He and Kake's pit didn’t have a pale viper, but instead a massive amount of common cave snakes that didn’t attack and weren't venomous but were extremely fast-moving. Elemental had caught over two hundred of them by himself, and Kake had torn off their skin with his fingertips and tied every single on of them together to form a giant rope. Elemental had then climbed the top of the pit alone with the rope trailing behind him between his teeth, before letting it down, acting as a human anchor, and pulling Kake back up, all with his own strength. He was quite the monster. There was blood running down his arms from his palms as he stood, leaning against a rocky wall, with his arms folded. 

After we had yapped at each other for about ten minutes, Elemental piped up and told us that we should probably explore further down the passage we were in, which went in three directions. To the left and right, there were thousands more doors that stretched as far as the eye could see, most of them unopened, except the three that we had come out of, and another one really far down the corridor where Airo and Avoma had escaped. So, we determined that we would explore the dark passage that lead away from the hall of doors, and we followed it for about a quarter of an hour before it opened up into the largest cave I had ever seen. It was more of an underground world than a cave, with a city inside it. There were buildings everywhere, and powerful lights shone form the ceiling high above our heads, forcing us to cover us eyes and slowly blink them open since we'd been stuck in the darkness for too long. Before us, there was a long row of small housing pods, the cheap kind thirty years outdated a poor family would use for camping out or as a home. We estimated there to be fifty pods in total. 

Curious, we had opened the sliding door to the pod at the end of the row, numbered pod 50, and found that these were indeed probably our living quarters. There was a small, battered freezer filled with bottles of water, a bathroom to the left of the front door and a large wardrobe on the right. The pod was a rectangular shape, with the door on the width of it and a tiny circular window opposite the door. There were six bunkbeds, three on either side down the length, and in the floor there was a trapdoor with enough fresh bread under it to feed twelve people for several months. Instantly, we fell upon the fresh food and drink, and while we were stuffing ourselves with our first decent meal in ages, Artee, who was skilled in first-aid (he was a combat medic with a year of service) bandaged Elemental's torn and blistered hands. 

After we had settled down in pod 50, the only interesting other events was watching other participants arrive at the giant cave and choose their pods (the voice had stopped announcing anybody after it got past the first 10), and we gained a few more friends with us in our pod. 011 and 012, named Swifty and Chris, joined us, and they too had both ingested the pale viper's venom. 023 also ended up with us, named Leon, who had been abandoned by his partner the second they had escaped. As time went on, our number count in the small pod increased even more, as more duos began to escape their confinement - occasionally there would be someone who entered the cave city alone, however. 076 and 077 joined us, named Nyx and Dobo, who hadn't ingested pale viper venom but instead the blood of a horned rock lizard, which had slightly weaker strengthening properties but hardened the skin. With their addition, we also gained the first female member of our pod - Nyx was a young woman hardly older than me, who was also a science graduate - and we spent a lot of our free time discussing chrona theory and such whilst the other combat maniacs kicked each other about outside. There was some time before our final member joined our pod. With two days left before the deadline that the voice had given us, 269, named Loflo, joined as our final twelfth member. He was six years older than me, and a soldier who had fought battles against the Skathers on the Southern frontier, and whose partner had fallen to their death during the climb. Fortunately, as an experienced soldier, the death of someone he had known for only three and a bit weeks did not weigh down on him too much, and he was cheerful, helpful and friendly, telling us many stories from the front lines. 

"They would come at me like bugs," he would say, as we sat around a makeshift fire outside the pod. "And we would send them all the Hell with our railguns, then chop the stragglers up with chronablades." 
Then he would pantomime slaughtering aliens and we would clap and cheer and the people in pod 49 would stare at us from their doorway before coming to join us. And that brings us up to where we are now.. 

And that brings us up to now, a minute before the deadline set by The Voice (as we called it) ran out. A last duo, supporting each other, staggered into the cave, panting hard and covered in blood and grime, as 588 and 589. 

"There were only six hundred places anyway," Artee says, as we watch them join pod 34. "There are fifty pods, each with twelve beds." 

"What happens to the other four hundred people who don’t make it then?" Nyx asked, biting her nail nervously. 

I had a feeling I didn’t want to know. But the seconds were ticking down and we were all standing outside our pods with the 577 other survivors, so we were bound to find out any moment now.  

"There are still 11 places left," Ronin said. "Do you think…" 

"Unlikely," Elemental said from behind us, where was sitting on the steps before the front door. "Twenty seconds left." 

I will remember what happened after that for the rest of my life. Before I had been abducted and shoved down here, I had never seen the death of a another human being before. Insects and animals, sure, all the time. But I was not prepared for what was going to happen next. I was expecting it. But not like what the insane bast*rds behind Project Pharo did.  

"The remaining time for your current mission is 00:00:00. Your mission deadline is over." 

Neo shot me a look, and a shot one back at him. Ronin nudged me and gave me a reassuring smile. 

"The participants who have failed number 411," the voice continued, calmly.  

There was deathly, eerie silence throughout the cave.  

"And thus, according to the rules of Project Pharo, set by The Administrator, those 411 are deemed failures." 

Nyx shut her eyes, and even Ronin's smile began to melt. Elemental sat behind us calm, expressionless, looking down at his hands, as he listened to the voice. 

"Concluding the announcement. As per regulations, those 411 failures, will be eliminated." 

The second the word 'eliminated' sounded in everyone's heads, every single survivor in that cave both knew exactly what was coming, but also had no idea of what was coming. Before anyone had the chance the open their mouths, a deafening boom rolled through the cave, jarring everyone off their feet and hurling us to the ground. Elemental remained seated on the stairs, and now he leaned back, staring up at the stone roof. A flashlight positioned itself to shine directly at the entrance to the cave, and I couldn’t but follow it. Everyone else looked in the same direction as me and Nyx's hands went over her mouth. I would've done the same too if I wasn't helping Artee to his feet. I felt like I wanted to scream and vomit and run all at the same time. Beyond the corridor, there was nothing. Nothing except the thunderous roar of a waterfall, a waterfall of great, gargantuan boulders, racing past the entrance and crashing to the ground. Dust leaked from above us the onslaught continued, burying those 411 innocent people inside their stone tombs forever.