The awning retracts, to a certain point where most of the group can stand up, they have to then help untangle 5 people from the net and allow their bodies to fall to the floor so that the make shift ceiling can go back into the walls. Five more dead, and one to leave today, that makes a total of 50 people gone from this room, half of the people that started are already gone.
Several people move the bodies to one of the walls out of the way as the rest of the group moves to the center and awaits the monitor to come on and Cipher to release whomever has number ten. Jim stands and stares at the bodies against the wall. "Hey you okay?" Scott walks up to him and puts his hand on his shoulder.
"I have no idea who those people are." He continues just to stare, "I work in a pretty big office, there's got to be like five hundred people in our building, several floors of workers, I bet I know at least sixty, maybe seventy people. My job moves me around the building a lot, but those five people in this group of what? Sixty some people here, I didn't know who they were.Why didn't I know who they were after being here ten days?"
"It's not like this is an ice cream social man, we aren't mingling, if you've noticed we're all staying within the same groups. Everyone seems to be hanging with same people and we're sticking with them, come on lets get in the middle." Scott tries to guide him to the center.
"No. I'm good." Jim sits down Indian style and just continues to ponder who these people were and why they're lives were cut so short.
The monitor comes on and Cipher appears. "Good morning all, did you like my pets? I see them being with you resulted in the death of five more of our participants. Funny thing is, not one of them were poisonous, as I speak they're scurrying off into the drain holes that I've opened in the walls and floor. With five more gone that puts us at 49 people no longer with us; lets have number 10 step forward and make it a clean fifty." The room pauses everyone looks around and awaits for someone with the ability to leave step up, but no one comes. "Who has number 10?" Cipher asks again and waits a moment. He rolls his chair to his computer. "Where is Linda Bursiek?"
"Linda died on day four." Daniel shouts out. "She died holding hands with her friend Dante, remember?"
"Ah that's right. So who has her number?" He waits and still no response. "One of you must have taken it, it wasn't with her body." Still nothing from the group and they all look puzzled.
"Holy crap!" Bonnie screams out and runs across the room to the place where the five bodies lay. Before she makes it half way twenty or so other people come to the realization that if none of them have the number its on one of the dead bodies. Like a mob of zombies, the fast walking kind not the slow ones, they run to the corpses against the wall. Its as if they're sliding into home plate as they dive at them, pulling at their clothes, opening their clenched hands and scouring the floor around them. Bonnie manages to grab one of the bodies and pulls it to her, she rifles through it and pushes and shoves others away from her. "Come on, come on!" she screams searching the body until she finally pulls the tag that had been stuffed into the dead mans underpants. "Damn it!" she screams again.
A door opens on the wall and the P90s walk out taking aim at the rampaging pack of what used to be people. Finally a man falls back out of the crowd and runs back to the center of the room, and stops with a huge smile on his face he screams. "I got it! I got number 10!"
"And who are you sir?"
"Jeff. Jeff Glendale! I want to go home!" he waves the key tag around and jumps around as though he found a golden ticket in a bar of chocolate.
"Jeff you can leave through the door that the P90s came through and are taking the recently demised." Cipher waves him off. Jeff darts across the room and maneuvers his way through the P90s and dives into the room laughing.
"WAIT!" Daniel screams at the back of the pack of people still trying to get at the bodies, as the P90s are pulling them into the room. No one hears Daniel as they all fight and scream to see what is going on with those that died.
"Beanbags." Cipher speaks and the P90s swap out their guns, swinging them around their body in amazing precision and pulling up a M-32. The M-32 is an incredibly scary looking gun. I six shot grenade launcher easily altered to be able to fire bean bag projectiles. The P90s fire their guns and the bean bags explode from the gun with such a bang that the sound alone knocks several people of the group back. As the group falls back five of the P90s each grab a body and drag it into the room as the remaining continue to take aim and fire at the crowd.
"WAIT! STOP!" Daniel still advances through the group, Dalton
The P90s drag the bodies into the room and as the last one aiming his M-32 enters he fires a shot and strikes Daniel in the chest dropping him as the is taken from his chest. Bonnie who had been covering her head the whole time unable to get away from the riot see Daniel on the ground and in a fit of anger screams profanity at the P90s and throws the key tag at the man who had just shot Daniel. He snags it out of the air effortlessly as if someone was tossing him his keys. He goes into the room and the door seals behind him.
Bonnie rushes to Daniel as do Liz, Dalton
"I didn't shoot you honey. They're gone now, its okay." She rubs his back and tries to calm him.
"The tag.... you threw the tag.."
"Yeah, it was number 88, who would want...." she stops.
"What did you do....why did you...why..." Daniel clenching his chest falls onto his back. "You threw away 88. I could have...I could have..." its unsure now if whats stopping him from breathing right was the hit to his chest the bean bag did or the shot to the gut Bonnie just hit him with.
"Oh my God...I didn't think...I just, I'm so sorry." Bonnie covers her mouth realizing she just took his chance of leaving 12 days earlier, and she panics looking at Renee who's come over to make sure she keeps quiet about the fact that she's also holding several other numbers, much lower than 88. "I'm sorry Daniel." She runs off and disappears into the crowd with Renee.
Cipher still on the scream speaks. "See what the problem is here, there is no communication in this group, you're all still a bunch of savages, clawing at dead bodies scavenging for your own survival."
"You're wrong!" Jim screams out at the monitor. "We all know we are in this together, and you just made the biggest mistake, you've pointed out our flaw of our individuality! We have to work together, we have to work as one to beat you and your dumb game. We all have to realize we are in the same boat and can't act like this any longer. We need to know one another, we need to think the same way, we need to be the same way with one common goal, live, live and beat you at your idiotic game." he picks up one of the bean bag and hurls it at the screen.
"Jim, when will you grow up." Cipher responds so calm and casual. "You're all victims here, all of you, you're one, but your not the same, you all just out for yourselves. Any of you would gladly beat the next to get the chance to leave, you've all grown so little, but maybe this is the first day, and maybe we can have a successful expedition after all. You will all eat today, food and water will be provided, the temperature of the room will be dropped down to forty degrees, that's your test today. Eat, the food is fine, survive the cold, keep each other warm, do what you must to survive another day. Maybe now you'll start taking this expedition, NOT a GAME, seriously. See you all tomorrow. Daniel? Feel better." the monitor shuts off.
They all look around, and sadly notice how everyone just moves back into their own cliques. Jim walks over to Daniel and pats him on the shoulder. "We'll get through this...together."
Daniel pushes him back hard and Jim stumbles, his face shocked. "Leave me alone." he walks off holding his chest and pushes past everyone.
"We have to be as one, Daniel. We have to.." Jim is stopped by Ross who steps in his path.
"Not today we don't, leave him alone." Ross puts his hand on Jim's chest and gives him that nod telling him, he's not moving past him. "Let it be."
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