"Its the waiting that kills me. Every
morning, that waiting for that monitor to turn on, I don't think I'll ever
watch TV again." Jim stands in the circle with the rest of the group.
"I'm never watching
House again that's for sure." Liz shoots back.
"What's wrong with
House? I like that show." Ross looks over to her, looking at her with a
scrunched up face, clearly confused.
"Cipher sounds like
that guy from House." Liz pokes Ross in the shoulder, she's clearly in a
good mood, today is her day to leave.
"Who? Hugh Laurie? He's
British.Cipher doesn't sound British." he pokes her back, he's excited for
her to be leaving but he's also worried that what ever Cipher deems to be
today's challenge will hold her up from getting out of this place alive.
"Not on the show, on
the show he just sounds like a pompous ass, Cipher sounds just like him."
she chuckles and pretends to walk with a cane, giving her best House
impersonation.
"Yeah, I guess he
does." Ross and Daniel both respond in unison.
"Crap. I liked that
show. Now I won't be able to watch it again." Ross shoves her gently into
Jim who is standing behind her. "Thanks a lot jerk."
The monitor flickers on and
the group stands at attention, everyone is on their best behavior, they don't
want anything to interfere with Liz leaving. Although since Scott's revelation
that he was a conspirator of Cipher's the entire time, a lot of them have grown
leery of one another, wondering if someone else may also be a saboteur.
"Good morning,
everyone, happy day 62." Cipher comes on the screen, he seems a bit jovial
today, as if he's holding back some excitement. "If you could all please
form four rows of five, that would be great, give me a nice tight square."
The group line up next to
one another and stand front to back in four rows and five columns, with less
than 20 people they space it out to look as though each row has a full row. As
soon as they are in position a loud engine begins to hum. Daniel and Ross have
heard it before, its the sounds of the engines above that pulled the heavy
weights into the air. This time however they are moving the walls. Four
sections, one from each wall, North, South, East and West all have a large
middle section protruding out and moving closer and closer to the participants of
the room.
Eventually the four sections
meet up and combine to form one much smaller room, the ceiling above then hums
with movement and it slowly begins to slide up. Grinding against the walls, it
appears to be opening up the room above and extending the height of the room
another 50 feet or so easily. From the walls, small boxes approximately three
inches high and two inches deep randomly begin to protrude from the wall
as if they are being pushed through from the other side. The boxes stop, there
is no obvious pattern or explanation for them, they line the walls and extend
all the way to the top, all the same size but for one single round box.
The group has bunched closer
together, finding themselves trapped now in this much smaller area with an extended
ceiling. Unfortunately even though the monitor is out of eye site, Cipher is
still able to communicate with them, and they don't think the cramped space is
challenge of the day.
"Ladies and gentlemen,
you now find yourself in what I like to call 'the tube', you notice at the
center of the tube on the floor there is what looks like a drain. But what do
we hate about drains? We hate when they back up. In about 45 seconds this drain
is about to back up, when it does a liquid that is incredibly toxic will begin
to flow up the drain and in to the tube. Climb the wall correctly and you'll
all be safe. Climb incorrectly and I'm afraid we may be in for some sad times. Elizabeth
A bubbling noise begins and
the floor slightly gurgles, Daniel, Ross, Liz, Jim and the others take to the
blocks on the wall, each end up picking the side closest to them and scale the
walls as fast as they can. "I can't do it!" A voice calls out from
the floor while the rest of the group has already moved at least four feet up
the wall. "I can't climb!" Cassie, a small young blonde woman
calls out.
"Climb Cassie! Just get
off the floor!" Ross shouts down to her as he struggles to get his large
frame up the small blocks. His fingers are beat red and his knuckles are
screaming white, he clings to each block fighting his fear of heights.
"I can't I can't climb.
Its.." the liquid spurts up out of the drain before she can give an
explanation to what has gripped her in fear and kept her on the floor. Barely
an inch of liquid is on the floor, but when it connects with Cassie's skin the
burning sensation is so intense she screams as if she's being stabbed with a
thousand burning needles. She falls to the floor in seconds, as if her
feet were gone, the liquid splashes on her face and in seconds after that she's
gasping for air. Her eyes roll back, her breathing becomes shallow, and the
white orbs fall back into her skull. Like a birthday candle that's been going
on to long, Cassie is melting from the inside out.
Some of the group pauses for
just a moment to watch the horror, and then turn and scurry up the wall at
twice the speed they were at before. But suddenly a light comes on within the
tube and it illuminates a line about six inches wide all the way around the
room. Cipher's voice comes on the speakers again. "Okay, that was painful
to watch, and sadly Cassie yes was afraid of heights, but all any of you need
to do is get above that line on the walls and you'll be safe, its a mere twenty
feet from the floor, think of it like standing on the roof of a house."
his voice stops and everyone looks around the tube to figure out their path to
get above the line.
The climbing resumes, faster
now, there is no need for worries of energy spent or pacing to get to the top.
The goal has been set to pass the line lit across the room and about half the
group are already there.
Liz suddenly stops, her bust
line just above the white line, she looks for the next block to grab, but it
isn't there. She looks around to the others on her wall and they all realize
that the blocks they've chosen to climb, the path they picked doesn't go past
the white line. Her and the six others on her wall around her will die today.
Ross looks over. "Why
are you stopping?!" he screams and then begins to panic, he sees where
she's at and knows she cant go further.
"There's no where to
go! It ends! Its a..." she stops before saying the words dead end.
Ross reaches for his next
block and pulls himself up as much as he can, but his size stops him from
bringing his leg up to the next available block for his foot. If he was maybe a
foot taller, or a hundred pounds lighter he'd be able to manage to swing to
another block, but that isn't happening. He too has reached the end of his
path, the white line around the room at his calves. Cipher was clearly making
sure that today saw more than half the group die today in the same manner that
Cassie did.
Jim makes it past the line
and stops climbing, he looks to the others and calls out to Daniel who's path
has taken him at least another twenty feet from the white line.
"Daniel!" Jim screams out. "Daniel stop!"
Daniel looks back down and
sees that only a few others had followed him and they have all past the white
line. He sees Liz with the white line across her chest, he see's Ross
contemplating where he went wrong and pondering if he has enough time to move
back down and attempt a different path. But Daniel can see there's no way he's
getting anywhere with the way the liquid is filling the tube. The speaker comes
on again. "I'm afraid the liquid in 'the tube' is moments away from
gripping Liz's feet and ending her life, there was but one chance to end this,
if one of you had chosen the correct path you would find yourself near a round
box protruding from the wall, that box is actually a button. If the button was
pushed the floor would drain the liquid out of the room. Sadly none of you
chose that path, and now it would appear some of you in this room, well, your
fate is sealed by the path's you've chosen."
Everyone looks for the
button, its on the West wall, the same wall Daniel is on, problem being the
button is ten feet below him and about five feet to his right. More people have
begun to climb the wall up behind Daniel making it past the line of light around
the room but still not in reach of the button. There is no way to move to his
right to get to it, he can see the one path that would have gotten to the
button, but no one took it, he looks around the room at his friends, the light,
the liquid and quietly says. "I got this."
"No Daniel, the buttons
to far away, just stay there. You won't make it down, you could fall." Liz
calls back choking back her tears.
"I swear I got
this." He says back to her calmly and with clarity.
"Daniel, you'll never
make it back down in time, just stay there, just..." Ross tries to finish
but instead he just puts his head against the wall, defeated. "Just stay
there, its okay."
"I can jump to
it." He eyes up the space between him and the button, squinting at it from
where he's at, playing it out in his head.
"Daniel even if you
jump to it, there is no way you can grip that button from the height you'll be
dropping to." Jim, safely on the East wall calls over, pleading with his
friend.
"And even if you manage
to hit the button and could be okay from falling from that height, there is no
way the liquid will drain faster than your descent, you'll fall right into the
liquid." Ross tries moving over to his right but he's still no where near
getting to the safety beyond the white light.
"You know Ross, I was
thinking." Daniel grips the blocks above his head and spins around to have
his heel on the block he's standing on. "My goal in this room has been to
stay alive, to make it out, even if it took getting to that 100 day marker. But
it wasn't about simply getting out of here, it was about defeating him."
he gestures up referring to Cipher on his speaker. "But making it to that
one hundredth day, that's exactly what he wants, that apparently was his plan
for me since the beginning. You all know he's singled me out for some reason,
he's tortured me a bit harder, making me do things I'd never do, compromise my
morals, destroy my happy memories, dig up my past and now he wants to make me
live with the guilt of all your deaths. He wants to be right in all of this, to
show the world that he was right and that from the very begining he didn't do
anything wrong and that what he wants, his opinion, his demands are met and so
he gets to say I told you so." Daniel shouts to the ceiling, no longer
speaking to anyone directly in the group, he seems to be directing himself
toward the speaker. "I can hit that button, and if I catch myself and I'm
able to hold on, okay. But if not, well, I'm finally doing what I want in this
room. I'm living my life for me, not for him or by his rules."
"Daniel don't! Not for
me! Don't do it for me and make me live with the guilt of your death the rest
of my life!" Liz cries out, afraid to look back over her shoulder, she
expects the liquid to be licking at her heels any moment.
"I'm not just doing it
for you Liz, its about me this time. I'm going to do this for me. I'm going to
choose whats right for me, whats right for this group. Maybe for the first time
since my world ended years ago." Daniel inches over as much as he can,
putting his right foot on the block, balancing to keep himself steady on the
block.
"Daniel, don't do
this." Cipher is back on the speaker. "You wont make the jump, I
calculated this already, I knew you'd climb that wall, and if you would have
taken the path I put out before you, you'd be able to save everyone, but you
didn't."
"No I chose my own
path, not yours, and I can do this." Daniel's eyes are locked on the
button.
"Daniel I knew Liz
would climb the path she's on, this is what today is, its over. Do this and not
only will you die, but so will Ross and Liz, the splash alone you'll make after
you miss the button will kick up the liquid and hit the two of them sending
them down into the tube to die along with you. The day is over, some of your
friends will die, learn that lesson and do as I say." Cipher's tone has
changed, there's a bit of fear to it.
"You won't make the
jump. Don't do this!" Liz pleads with Daniel again.
"But I will, and the
fact that he sounds scared that I'm even going to try, well that just
makes it all the better. See I think I will make that jump, and the way things
go, well, I think they'll be just fine. Cipher doesn't like it, he thinks if he
scares me enough I won't try, I'll sit here and be obedient, and not speak out,
not challenge what I know is wrong. He wants me as a coward in this tube,
someone he can control. You don't control me, this is my life, my choice."
he takes a deep breath.
"Daniel, please, don't
try." Ross looks over to him.
"All that is needed for
evil to prevail, is for good men to do nothing." Daniel looks Ross in the
eyes.
"Edmund Burke." he
responds.
"Tears of the Sun,
Bruce Willis." Daniel smiles.
Ross gives a half
smile. "But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most,
and that is the indifference of good men."
"Boondock Saints."
Daniel looks to Ross, then to Liz, and then the button and back to Ross.
"And shepherds we shall be.."
Daniel leaps from his perch.
He flies through the air,
slamming into the wall chest first.
His fingers skid down the
smooth surface and make a sound like a kids bike tire on a rainy day.
He hits the button and a
grinding is heard below, instantly the liquid begins to churn and go back down
the drain.
He holds the round box, his
hands sweaty from nerves, its only for about the count of five. He looks to see
if there's another box with in his grasp.
And then he falls.
The room and speaker are
silent, bu somewhere Cipher screams.
It becomes a race between
Daniel's gravity and the suction of the drain. He is losing this race and he
knows it. He turns in mid air, and gets in a diving position. He breaks through
the liquid and before he even hits bottom, its over. His dive causes no splash.
Daniel, Mr. 100 Days, is
dead.
The liquid drains and Daniel
is there on the floor. A spray of water rushes out of the walls sending any
remaining liquid down the drain. The rest of the group make their way back
down, with no speed to their step at all. As soon as they hit the floor the
four walls open and begin to move back into place, the engines seem louder this
time but that's just because the silence in the room is like never
before.
"Cut the feed, cut the
damn feed." Cipher shouts the monitor is already on in the room.
"What good are any of you to me now. This experiment is a failure. Liz,
get the hell out."
The P90s enter the room to
take away Cassie and Daniel and escort Liz through the now open door.
Ross, Liz and Jim squat down
around their friends body, the rest of the group stand behind them. His face
isn't his, its drained of life, gaunt as though he's been dead for days. But
even though he's in this condition, they swear they see a smile on his face.
One of the P90s grabs Liz
gently under the arm and helps her from the floor, his care is shocking, and
even more surprising he speaks.
"I'm sorry. But we have
to go." he lets his gun fall to his side, strapped over his shoulder it
dangles behind him and he uses his other hand to help her along.
Its the end of day 62.
Day 62 part 2 - Its Amazing.
"Wait." Ross calls
out to the P90s who have grabbed Cassie and Daniel's bodies and darts across
the room after them. "Just wait a second."
They pause looking at the
other P90s, silently signalling them to hold their fire, but to be on alert.
Ross reaches down into
Daniel's pocket, he pulls out the 100 day tag, looks at it for a moment, looks
at the P90s, he pulls out his own tag, number 68, the next to leave. He drops
it on Daniels chest, puts the 100 tag in his pocket and walks away.
Everyone in the room just
stares.
Liz is calling out to him
but he doesn't respond and the P90s resume taking her and the two bodies from
the room.
Cipher just sits their on
the monitor, not saying a word, he just watches Ross walk through the group and
over to the other side of the room. He leans back in his chair and just before
he shuts off the monitor he speaks. "Amazing."
End of Part 2 to Mr. 100 Days.
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