Finally, the monitor comes on and Cipher is sitting in front of his console, he is shuffling through papers and appears to be flustered by something. "I am sorry it has taken me this long to get to you this morning, I was preoccupied by your two friends Daniel Mr. 100 Days and Ross his trusty side kick. But now that they are set for the day all tucked in nicely and helping us along with all of you, we can proceed." He straightens himself in his chair and looks into the camera and pauses before he reacts as if he just remembered something and immediately turns away from the camera.
"What did you do to them!" Liz shouts out.
"Mostly just talked talked really, and gloating, oh and well did you know that the human body can replace blood loss within twenty four hours. I used to think it was faster, since you can give blood and they would tell you it would be replaced within an hour, but thats not entirely true, the plasma replaces faster but the blood cells could take up to three weeks. Daniel and Ross are not small guys, so I'm sure they can take losing a couple of pints in a day. If I can get two pints from them every two hours, thats two quarts in two hours so in four hours, one gallon. Roughly sixteen hours left in this day, hmmmm so that would give me about 4 gallons of blood today. I'm not sure that will do. A man weighing about 150 has about five and a half quarts, I'm sure the two of them weigh more than that but I can't drain them completely, hmmm. But between the two of them I can get that. I'll admit this is a bit on the fly with this one, the torture they're going through right now was intended for the group, not just two men."
"What're you doing to them?!" Jim shouts back to the monitor preventing him from gloating any further.
"Jimmy you always cut me off, I don't like that." Cipher turns back to his console and presses another button. "Jimmy, they right now are in a room, strapped to chairs that are nailed to the floor. From above they are being rained upon by leeches, ticks, spiders, and swarm upon swarm of mosquitoes and other flying insects all of which can suck their blood. Those nasty little critters are then being gathered up and...well, juiced if you will. The torture of the insects is compiled with the fact that they are quite literally bleeding to death and all of this is going on to spare all of you from this torture. Their lives for yours." He sits back in his chair and puts his fingers together in what he likes to call his chapel of smugness. "Now their life is dripping from them and I ask you, would you like this torture bestowed upon you or do we leave it on them? There's your dilemma today."
"That's easy, yes, put those things in this room, with their being so many of us in here it won't be nearly as bad as what they're going through." Jim stands firm shouting to the monitor.
"Excuse, hold up, no, I say it stays with them." Scott steps next to Jim and shouts to the monitor. "He had this originally planned for this room, meaning their are probably a whole lot more of those insects to dump on us, than there is to dump on them. If they die, well its two of them versus how many of us in this room will die, most likely more than two." he stares at Jim and lets him know he's serious.
"Cipher has never put us in a life and death situation, the number he would release in here wouldn't kill anyone, he needs us alive, he doesn't like Daniel or Ross, that's why he's killing them, we can't do this." Liz moves to Jim's side as does Anne.
"Tell that to the people who drowned or the guy who had his neck broken. I'm sorry no, I'm not putting Daniels ONE LIFE against everyone in this room because you have a crush." Scott doesn't back down and has a portion of the room gathering behind him.
"A crush?! You Jackass! This is about helping people in this room, rising above the fear and winning this damn thing." Liz gets in Scott's face, Jim and Anne hold her back.
"Well said Liz, I totally agree." Cipher chimes in. "However I suppose its only fair that we put this to a vote. Everyone who agrees with Scott, stand behind him. Those that want Daniel and Ross spared and have the torture put on all of you, stand behind Liz and Jim."
It barely takes ten seconds for the majority of the group to get behind Scott.
"Dalton! What're you doing?!" Jim shouts out to Dalton who has moved behind Scott.
"He's not going to kill them, he's full of crap, they're probably somewhere not even being tortured, or their torture is that he told them he's making us choose. So I'm betting this is another one of his bluffs, they're fine, I vote we stay fine and then everyone's fine." Dalton pleads his case.
"You don't know that, are you willing to risk it?" Anne reaches out to him.
"Yeah. I am." He replies and moves into the group behind Scott.
"Okay, we're all set then, the torture stays on them for the day, they get drained of blood and you all stay here no insects. Of course you could be being morally tested/tortured because you now chose to test/torture two of your own intensely rather than all of you getting tested/tortured mildly. Enjoy the day." Cipher turns in his chair. "Oh wait, look at this, we have reached a marker." the group looks around confused. "Sorry, the amount of blood I've collected, here you go, this will happen periodically through the day when we hit a marker so I hope it doesn't bring down the mood of the group." he turns again hits a button and then the monitor goes off.
"What was he talking about?" Anne asks but before anyone can answer, the sprinkler systems above turn on and spray the group, and as soon as it hits their faces and tongues and the crimson liquid runs down them they realize they're being rained upon with the blood of their colleagues.
"Wait. No! Turn the monitor back on!" Dalton shouts out, but Scott and the rest of the group stare at the others wipe the blood from their faces and turn to walk away.
Day 17.
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