They congregate to the center of the room and begin the process of letting one of their own go back to safety and civilization; or at least they hope that is what is happening. They all know its Renee's turn to go, and a lot of them know how Renee got that number that he has. His first twenty days in that room had one goal, survival, but as time went by, even though it was merely days, something changed in him.
Life had a different meaning, the time spent with Bonnie, the time spent in the dark thinking of what he did, he changed, he wanted nothing more than to become a better man. He confessed to Jim that he was never very spiritual before coming into the room, and when he first heard Jim even mention God or prayer to help them get through this time he laughed at it, he felt only he would be able to get himself out of this. But something inside, some inner voice that gave him the courage to survive not by killing and controlling, but by loving and helping took over and he and Bonnie grew even closer after that.
Cipher came on the monitor. "Good morning everyone, everyone did very well in their writing assignment, I was quiet pleased, B+ for everyone, no such thing as straight A students in my world." he leans back in his chair and puts his fingers in the steeple fashion he always does.
"Hey..psss" Oliver taps Ross. "Know anyone who does that?"
Ross and the others take note of Cipher and how he's sitting, arched back in his chair, finger tips touching as his arms rest on the chair. This is a pose they've seen the President do in many speeches, but still, it is a rather common way to sit for any man in power.
"Yeah, my old boss when I worked at the Mobile gas station, come on man, that's not the President." Ross shushes Oliver and takes a step away from him.
Oliver moves back closer to Ross and tries to get his attention as Cipher continues to pontificate on the screen "dude." he nudges him on the arm and and swings his head to make Ross see. "Do you see?!" he says between his teeth as though he's trying not to be heard by the class teacher.
"Shut up, and leave me alone." Ross whispers back through his gritted teeth.
"Renee, we all know you have today's number, step forward please." Cipher calls him forward and with a smile on his face he moves forward. "Ready to go see Bonnie?"
"Yes I am." he says and tears run down his face and stain his cheeks.
"Will he?!" Scott cries out to Cipher.
"Will he what?" Cipher shoots back.
"Will he see his loved ones? Will he see Bonnie? Do we get reunited, do we really get to go home, we don't know what happens to anyone when we get out of here."
"Scott from Day 1 I have told you that his is a journey, a way to make you all stronger, what is the point of making any of you stronger if when you get out of here you can't live that stronger life."
"You said you wanted to make the country stronger. Hell we could all be martyrs for your cause."
"Martyrs, no; soldiers, yes. You will leave here, tell your story, talk about what you endured, you will be symbols of how life carries on, not how it dies. You will be heroes of our nation. The story of Renee and Bonnie will be fantastic, they'll probably get their own reality show or film the wedding. I want you to thrive, this experiment is to help you thrive. My fellow Americans we will show this world the best of what humanity can be through life, through working together, and we will be a shining example of what a country, a people, from all walks of life, can do working together, America is the blueprint of the future."
"SEE! OH MY GOD! SEE! I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU! THATS FROM HIS FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH!" Oliver jumps up and down pointing at Ross and pointing at the monitors.
"What the hell is going on?!" Cipher turns to look at something on his desk, most likely to zoom in on who's screaming.
"YOU'RE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!" Oliver screams it out, and the room looks slightly shocked as for a lot of them, the corolation of that speech and ones they've heard the President say come together. "HA I TOLD YOU!"
"Renee, leave through the door on the North Wall. P90s please obtain that man, I believe his name is Oliver and bring him to the room on the West wall." Cipher flips a couple of switches on his desk and seems oddly upset and curt.
The light comes on at the North wall and Renee makes his way towards it, the P90s enter the room and move toward Oliver with their laser sites trained on him, as he jumps around the room nervously. "WEST ROOM? YOU MEAN WEST WING RIGHT? RIGHT MR. PRESIDENT?!" He screams and rants as he moves in and out of the crowd, but no one is providing him any safety or shelter.
The group starts to move about and run from the P90s as they become disjointed and try to grab on to Oliver. In the midst of the chaos Daniel looks across the room to Renee and runs at him, he grabs him by the shoulder and spins him around. "Why?! Why didn't she give me a different tag?! What did you mean by what you said?! Answer me!" He shakes the big man, his anger and rage have given him the strength to do so.
"Get your hands off me! You have to stay, that's what was decided from day two, you're the one who has to stay... til the end.May you find that same Angel of Mercy that I did." he shoves Daniel to the floor and runs the rest of the way to the North Wall and the door shuts behind him.
Daniel gets up and sprints towards the door with his shoulder down its clear his goal is to ram through. "GUARDS! 100!" Cipher screams out through the monitor and the guards scan the room to find Daniel, they see him running towards the door, and they open fire. It sounds like puffs of air, like a popcorn maker makes, and the group cringes because they know how one of those shots feel, a group of them would be excruciating. Not one of the P90s miss, and he drops the floor with a grunt, not a scream.
They then turn to Oliver and open fire and drops crying and screaming in pain. "100!" Cipher shouts again and they turn back to see Daniel getting back up to run to the door again. They shoot again, several shots a piece, and they all hit. This time its more of a scream, but its guttural, deep like an animal trying to avoid capture. Ross runs towards him shouting out.
"Stop, he's done, he's down!" He slides on the floor into him to shield him from more shots, but the guards have gone back to putting their attention to Oliver. They've grabbed him and drag him to the West room tossing him inside, touching their ear pieces, they get the order to leave the room and do so through the West room.
Daniel pulls himself up and looks to the monitor where Cipher is still watching. "WHY!" he screams out, holding onto Ross's arm.
"Isn't it obvious Daniel, you're the strongest, you'll make it and you'll do us all proud. I'll be right back to start the day, I have to go talk to our buddy Oliver for a minute." he shuts off the monitor and is gone.
"You knew, you all knew." Daniel looks at Ross and now Liz and Anne who have run over.
"I didn't know I swear to God!" Ross pleads with him.
"I knew." Anne answers. "After day 2 and all the fighting, a lot of people were hurt, knocked out, or dead, those of us that were standing knew. Cipher told us you had to be number 100, he said if anyone traded with you, or gave you a lower number they'd be killed. He said someone has to make it through and he was betting you would do it, if we told you we'd be killed, if we hinted at it, killed. He said someone has to stay till the end."
"Whatever, get off me." Daniel rolls away from Ross and tries to stand up.
"Don't be stupid, let us help you." Liz grabs his arm, but he pulls away.
"That's all I've been is stupid. The pansy to this dumb game, I'm just tired of it all."
"Dude. I swear, I must have been knocked out when Cipher gave that speech! I would have told you! I'm you're friend!" Ross offers his hand again.
"Yeah, well friends... family, they come and go. Not everything can be fixed with a movie quote Ross. Life isn't like TV, things don't get solved in 30 minutes. I'm going over there, and I want to be alone, don't follow me." Daniel gets up holding his arm like it were in a sling and limps over to the other side of the room.
"Daniel! I didn't know!" Ross calls out.
"Let him go, give him time. The more you try and apologize the worse it will be." Liz and Anne get Ross up from the floor just as the monitor comes back on and Cipher returns.
Begin Day 41.
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