| Originally posted to Reddit. See Thread |
This was posted as a response to the question, "Worlds largest hide and seek game! Winner gets $10 million! Where do you hide?"
This question is a nightmare. Consider the chaos that would ensue.
1 Year in Advance
An agency of the United States (or the UN if you want to scale this to world-size) announces the game. All persons who wish to participate must register at least 6 months prior to the start of the game and, for an entry fee of $200, are given a nano-implant which can be read by smartphone to tag the person as "out". To keep the game going and get people to actually find each other, each find is worth a $100 prize. Roughly 95% of the country's population are expected to join, with a projected profit of $29.303 Billion. Politicians promise that this money will be used for healthcare reform and educational programs. The day of the start of the game is declared a federal holiday.
6 Months in Advance
True to expectations, about 89% of the population has registered. Even the homeless have saved up and registered. Blue- and white-collar workers alike have bought for themselves a ticket to a better life. At $100 per find, finding even ten people can turn a whole life around.
1 Week Before
Gradually millions of Americans disappear from social life. Families are fragmented as players disperse to hiding places selected and prepared well in advance. In some rural areas entire families disappear into heavily fortified bunkers, hoping to wait out the game - some in hopes of winning. More prescient citizens elect to leave the country. Airline tickets are very high and airports are crowded.
1 Day Before
Whole towns have turned into ghost villages. Traffic is extremely light everywhere, as most hiders have already holed up. Entire businesses are forced to close due to employees not reporting for their duties. Public services struggle to perform their daily duties. Large industrial operations shut down or are switched to automatic, on the promise that crews will return in 48 hours.
The police receive a few thousand calls nationwide about groups of people - families, offices - being held hostage by masked intruders waiting to make finds of them. Authorities suspect that these calls represent only a small portion of such incidents actually ongoing.
Day 1 - 09:00 AM EST
The streets are almost barren, aside from the few people who are not participating. They struggle to go about their daily lives: most grocery stores, gas stations, offices and services are closed or offline while the majority of the country is suddenly missing. A few players - either already caught or not interested in hiding - can be seen wandering about searching public places.
Day 1 - 02:00 PM EST
While most areas appear calm, the news is now reporting that police are overwhelmed with calls of break-ins and trespassing. Determined to find people, players are forcing their way into homes and businesses to "capture" families and other players. Small troupes of players have teamed together to efficiently ferret out hiders in urban areas.
Day 1 - 07:00 PM EST
Emergency services are already overwhelmed with calls of break-ins, vandalism, and isolated violence as unscrupulous players disregard the law to secure finds. Hospitals are already straining with insufficient staff and high occupancy due to violence among players. Reports of non-players and those-already-found being harassed by other players fill the news.
Afraid of the even worse ramifications of denying players their money, authorities refuse to terminate or modify the game.
Day 1 - 10:00 PM EST
The national guard and armed services have been called into most population centers to combat growing bands of players turning the city inside out. Furniture and garbage fill the streets as objects are ejected from buildings. Cars are burned in some places, and looting is now growing out of control. Emergency services are now completely unavailable. Hospitals have, if they were lucky enough to get them, armed guards to protect the staff who may not have been "found" by anyone yet. Information networks are buckling under the load of people trying to contact each other.
Day 2 - 12:00 PM EST
Roughly 50% of players have been found. Urban areas are now under martial control with a 24-hour curfew, though many buildings have been burned in effort to "smoke" out hiding players. Some larger fires are still raging. Hospitals are beginning to recover as most injuries are non-critical. In the most heavily populated areas the game is over.
Suburban areas are still in trouble. Whole families have been destroyed by betrayals and third-party assailants. Reports of murder and other violent crimes are coming in faster than emergency services can handle. Many homes are on fire or are otherwise trashed. Despite police being on 24-hour patrol, gangs sweep the neighborhoods vandalizing and searching houses.
Rural areas have it the worst. Whole towns, including their small police departments, have fallen to ruling bands of players. Armed players are holding citizens captive partly for their finds and partly to exploit the lapse of rule-of-law. In at least one rural area an entire town has been paralyzed by a sniper and one other player working together to kill and then find anyone seen leaving town.
Day 5
90% of players have been found. Between armed services, the national guard, and local police order has mostly been restored. SWAT has removed most armed players, including the sniper who is now fabulously wealthy - and famous thanks to the media.
Building fires are now uncommon but still reported. Most workers having been found, hospitals have fully recovered and are now back to normal.
Businesses which were forced to shut down due to disorder and lack of labor are beginning to report their losses in the billions, with further losses to continue due to interruptions in the supply chain.
Unofficial reports place the death toll in the thousands.
A forest fire is rapidly growing in West Virginia, believed to have been set by players attempting to flush out those hiding in the mountains. Similar fires rage in California and Kentucky.
Day 10
98% of players have been found. Many were caught as they stumbled from the woods, out of food and other provisions.
Local businesses are selling catchy t-shirts and other merchandise about "The Find". It is common for people to (rudely) scan each other as they pass on the streets or in shops, just to be sure. The media has begun speculating about what will happen if the final player is found dead.
Those responsible for the game are widely condemned for the destruction and disruption caused by the game. Though the federal government has made a massive profit state governments, insurance agencies, charities and businesses all report losses which together total in the trillions. Resignations are demanded. Peaceful protests take place in Washington DC.
Day 11
The agency responsible for the game confirms reports of a data breach four hours after a list of the 147 remaining players' names and addresses are posted online. To protect the families of the remaining players many of their homes are placed under immediate police protection. In at least one case the home is defended by armed community members. All of those not protected by armed personnel are razed or looted within twelve hours. Fourteen deaths directly result from the data breach.
Day 30
Two players remain. Several of the final ten were found by hacking those players' phones. Player number eight was armed and killed two people as they approached his hiding place, one of whom hadn't even been a player.
A tour group in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky finds player number four dead at the bottom of a sheer drop deep within the caverns. The official report is that he slipped and fell to his death trying to hide in the caves.
After hundreds of residents in a small New Mexico town report to a local medical center with identical symptoms a public health investigation discovers player number six drowned and decomposing in the municipal water tower.
Day 45
Two players still remain. The hashtag #findthem is everywhere. Though the state department insists that both players are still in the country, rumors circulate about players being smuggled out on cargo ships or railroad. One Ecuadorian man appears on television claiming to have harbored one of the two fleeing to the rainforests of Brazil.
Day 366
Memorial services are held nationwide for those who died in The Find. Flags are at half and a federal holiday is observed.
The families of the final two players receive tremendous unwanted media attention as they await their return. One of the children of a "Top-Two" pleads for her daddy to come home.
State and federal governments refuse to assist in finding the two missing persons. There are reports of black-market bounties being placed for both of them.
5 Years After
The final death toll of The Find is more than 12,000. Final totals for fiscal losses are in the trillions. Foreign citizens around the world laugh derisively when talking about the US's biggest public work blunder in history. The president at the time lost his bid for reelection.
Occasionally reports surface that one or both of the Top-Twos have been sighted or even killed. None of these reports can be confirmed. Both are still missing but authorities refuse to presume either player dead. One of the children of a Top-Two has committed suicide whilst another is in prison on drug charges. Two have become public officials specializing in emergency response planning and management.
Hide-and-seek is banned on school playgrounds.