Now those people whom he bonded with in such an intimate and extremist way were gone, there were a few with him in the room and the idea crossed his mind for a moment that he'd make new friends, but as soon as he did the wave of guilt, and death and sorrow washed over him. Daniel was going to give it his all to make it through these 100 days and show Cipher he was wrong, that there was no lesson learned there was just the day after 100 and he would move on with the rest of his life. He and the rest of the room gingerly exited the room and looked around to see whom else was there, the room was empty. The buzzing sound of the lights the humming of the air vents was all that there was.
The monitor clicked on, the P90s entered the room, there were fewer of them this time they strolled out, yes strolled, they seemed more calm. "What's up with them?" Jim nudges Daniel as he looks at their guards.
"They're calmer." Daniel says shuffling to the center of the room in front of the monitor.
"Why calmer?" Jim says studying the guards noticing how they haven't even bothered to raise their weapons.
"They have less work to do, its like its four o'clock on Friday for the rest of this expedition." Daniel gets to the center and sits down Indian style on the floor, he knows he's not going anywhere, no big deal if he doesn't show his tag.
"Good morning all. Looks like you all made it, I have to say I was worried some of you might claim your own lives feeling the guilt of making it to this day. Its a two full weeks, you should be proud of yourselves." he waits for a reaction and gets none. "Alright fine, that's the end of the daily affirmations. So number 14 please step up." He looks to the crowd and waits.
"Number 14 wasn't in our room, we asked around last night." Jim addresses Cipher with no sense of fear or trepidation. "So its just us, the lowest number in our group was 29, looks like you either send us home early or wait another two weeks."
"Well no one is going home early, we've all discussed this. Number 14 is a Veronica Caponti, where is Veronica. Hmmmm Veronica was in the South room. Here we are, she said good bye to her three boys and her husband, why do you think she chose the order in which she said good bye? Random? Favorites? Lets ask her." He pushes a button on the console.
Daniel stands up and looks across the way to the South room, the door opens up and in the same manner that his group entered the South room individuals exit the room, they however see Daniel and Jim and their group and run to the center. Ross walks out and sees the other group, he runs over and meets Jim who's run the other half of the way to meet him halfway. Daniel held back trying to keep the ruse of their animosity apparent as much as he could, but the smile on his face and his eyes painted a different picture.
Ross got to him and held out his hand making it look as though he forgave him, still the actor he played his part perfectly. The two shook hands, but not in that board room or nice to meet you type of handshake, the gripped each others hands and strongly gave each other a nod and a smile. That moment of escaping death and being their with each other was back. "The others." Daniel whispered. He let Ross's hand go and turned to the monitor. "You didn't kill any of us, let the others out of the rooms, you did what you set out, you made us all feel it was the end, but its over now, we'll start the next day, end this one and let the others out." He shouted at the monitor and others rallied behind him believing his words and watching the East and West rooms.
"I'm afraid I can't do that Daniel, the other P90s are in those rooms cleaning things up so we can use those rooms again." Cipher turned to the console and jotted a note on a nearby pad. "Veronica are you here?" She stepped forward gripping her tag and the light lit up on the North room's wall. Half of the room didn't even notice she left as they stood there sunk that the ones that they had gotten to know in these past two weeks were gone.
One of the P90s touched his ear as if listening to someone, and then raised his hand in the air and made a circling motion. "Looks like clean up is done." The East and West room doors opened and several P90s exited the room. Ross waited to see Anne but instead only the armored P90s looked back at him. He put the heels of his hands to his eyes and began to breath heavily.
"Hey....wait." Daniel put his hand on his shoulder and tried to comfort him but he wasn't having it. "Ross, wait, open your eyes look." He moved his hands and looked to the room and the occupants of the room spilled out and ran over joining the rest of the group. They all looked over to the other room and there was Liz and the rest of her group, Bonny, Dalton, Renee all came walking over to the group, tears in their eyes hugs began and everyone came back together.
"See, I'm not so bad." Cipher snickered "Did you know that the torture of perceived execution was perfected by our own US government in good old Guantanamo Bay. Fire a couple of rounds, keep everyone separated, no communication, it does wonders for the psyche."
"You're a bastard." Anne says out loud to the monitor. She takes a moment to stop hugging Ross and runs over to Liz, the two hang on to each other and cry, Daniel and Ross just smile and are happy to have all their friends back together. The girls pull back and Liz wipes the tears from Anne's face and kisses her softly on the cheek. She tears up a bit more and rests her head on her shoulder and weeps a bit more. Dalton walks over to them and they all hug and give the pats on the back. Jim has a giant grin on his face and is praising life and thanking God that they're all back together as Dalton walks over to the men and the group is whole.
"Excellent, now that you're all happy lets do just as Daniel suggested, begin day 14. Does everyone see the small vent opening that has opened up next to the door on the South wall?" he pushes a button on the console and a light above an opening on the wall only about two and a half feet high and two and half feet wide showcases the small hole in the wall. "Enter."
Begin Day 14
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