One.... day 20 part 2

The door shuts behind him and the room goes dark, Daniel stands there waiting for something, cracking his knuckles and nervously moving around the room. The light comes on above and another door opens to his left, was this the way people went when they left the room to go to the outside world? He knew those who left came into these rooms before supposedly getting their freedom, would that be where he was going, outside?

Carry Each other. Day 20 part 1

 It was dawn, the moment when the lights began to slowly illuminate the room, some of the group had picked up on that Cipher had gotten into the habit of slowly turning on the lights, simulating a sunrise. The group had moved to the far wall away from the large fallen weights and metal beds after their torture of Day 19 had ended. In the hours that they slept and rested, while the lights were out everything had been cleared away under the cover of darkness. Once the entirety of the group had awoken they moved to the center and waited for the monitor and for Cipher to release number 19. 

Jessica Sherwood, a child therapist had been trying to analyze her time in the room as she would any bad environment that a child patient of hers had been a part of, but could not wrap her mind around such a task. This time here was horrible, but she knew kids who had been through horrible situations and she watched them grow. She watched them forgive and reach out to bullies who had hurt them; she saw compassion in a face that the previous weeks were stained with tears. She knew she would take this experience and grow from it in some way. She clutched her number 20 tag and rocked in place, a habit she wasn't sure if she had picked up from her kids or if it was just the natural thing we all do to find a happy place in our minds. Rock back and forth to remind us of those times we were swaddled in our favorite blanket and held so close and protected, we were innocent, we felt safe, and we were happy. Cipher called out her number and she stopped rocking and began to cry, she was scared she'd never feel safe again, but she would leave and she would try.

"Good morning all." Cipher stayed on the monitor and the group reluctantly listened awaiting to hear what the torture of day 20 would bring. "I have a proposition for three of you, Dalton step forward, Scott step forward and Anne step forward." the three did, Dalton and Anne looked back to Liz and Jim concerned what their fate might be, they didn't want to be like the others who ended up flat on the beds yesterday. "I have a proposition for each of you, I do not plan on doing you any harm, I will not hurt you, and so rest assured this is not like yesterday." The three stood their, still not relieved and waited for the second part of Ciphers so called offer. One of the other three doors opened and everyone turned to see what would come out. "Scott, if you want to hear my offer. Enter that room." Almost without hesitation Scott goes to the room and the door closes behind him. "Dalton..."Cipher pauses and another door opens, Dalton paces back and forth and he to begins rocking as he does, he clenches his fists and goes to the room, the door closes behind him.”And finally, since I'm and equal opportunist, Anne..." A third door opens.

"Go to Hell." Anne turns her back on the monitor.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, go to Hell, I want nothing from you, I have my number, I'll wait my turn, so unless Ross and Daniel are in that room and the thing you need me to do is help them come in here you can go shove it." Anne she walks over and stands with Liz.

"Whoooo, you are a fire cracker. I like that and apparently you're psychic." Everyone just looks around, Cipher as well waiting for some sort of acknowledgement. "Really, you don't get that one? You're psychic, as in you guessed it.....nothing." he sighs. "Wow, okay I'll spell it out, Ross and Daniel are in the room and you should go help them out."

"Yeah right, like I said, go to Hell."

"Okay fine. P90s." out from the last room two bodies come falling through the door way as if two drunks were being tossed out of a bar, Ross and Daniel hit the floor.  "If you people don't want them, I'll put them back, that's fine."

A massive amount of the group run over, Liz and Anne leading the pack as they get to them and begins to lift them off the floor. Anne gets Ross to his feet; he is bruised and appears to be slightly out of it. "I thought you were dead." Anne holds his face and looks into his eyes.

"But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world? - Gandalf, Lord of the Rings, priceless stuff." he smirks

"You're priceless, he looks like hell and he's quoting Tolkien." Anne smiles with tears in her eyes happy to see her friend.

Liz leans down to pick up Daniel with Jim, "I got this, I got this." he says as he tries to help himself up.

"Oh, you're a tough guy. Get on your feet pal. Let’s find out how tough you are." Liz laughs and grabs at him.

"Liz, what's wrong with you?" Jim grabs Daniel under the arm and lifts him up.

"What?! That's from a movie. Come on seriously, are we only allowed to quote books or something today." she grabs Daniels other arm.

"Breakfast Club... you come at me with Breakfast Club?" Daniel gets to his feet and hugs Liz.

"See, he gets it."

"I got it; I just didn't want to ruin the moment." Ross smiles and everyone for a second seems to have forgotten again where they are.

"Well then, allow me to ruin the moment." Cipher, still on the monitor interrupts. "Daniel, I have a proposition for you if you’re up for it. You and I in a room, no P90s, what do you say?" a light comes on above the door Daniel was just tossed out of. He lets go of Liz,  stands up straight and rolls his shoulders to crack his back and moves his way back through the crowd to go back in the room he just left.

"Wait! Don't do it, it has to be a trap." Ross shouts out.

"You just got back, stay, don't go, please." Liz goes after him. "Don't do it, listen to Ross."

"No. I'm not listening to him this time."

Ross turns away from him and hangs his head down; Anne pulls him in and hugs him, confused why Daniel would hurt him like that.

"You just got back to us, we need you, you always help carry this group." Liz holds his hand and tries to get him to walk back with her.

"You'll have to carry each other, I have to do this. He told me I'll get what I want. I want this." Daniel slides his hand from hers and turns and goes into the room. The door shuts and the light turns off.

"I'll be right back; I have a few things to attend to." Cipher shuts off the monitor and the room seems so much dimmer.

"Did he really tell him he's going to get what he wants?" Anne walks with Ross

"Yeah, but he also told him he's going to get what he deserves." 

Day 20 begins

We have to carry each other day 19 part 3

Its late, they've been holding the chains all day and into the night, the fatigue set in hours ago and at this point they're basically using their dead weight to keep the chain from moving. The four remaining people on the table all have gone through the full spectrum of emotions. During some points they told the team to let go, let the weight fall and go help one of the other groups. This inspired others to angerly scream in hopes to motivate their team to never let go and in fact to hoist the weight higher. They thought of maybe lowering the weight the lowest possible point to see if that would eliviate the tension. Could they pull the chains close enough together to latch them to one another? Would that be breaking the rules? It was a lot of talk, and very little action, the ideas were flowing but there was not strength left in their bodies to do anything with it.

Meanwhile upstairs Ross and Daniel felt the same way, questioning why they were even holding the wheels. Was it making a difference, and if so, for the good or the bad. There were two other wheels they weren't holding and they weren't moving, they were doing just fine, so what was the point?

"I'm letting go." Ross panted. "I got nothing left. I need to rest. They'll be okay."

"What if they're not." Daniel responded, but didn't look up at him.

"Those two wheels haven't moved, and with all these gears we can't even tell what we're doing. At any given point he could break the gears like he did that wheel and the weight falls, this is just another one of his stupid tests, he's torturing us physcially and mentally on this one, I got to hand it to him, this one is good."

"Don't compliment him."

"Why not! I mean come ON! The man pulled off a kidnapping of 100 people! He set up this friggin' house of horrors, he's got soldiers at his command, cool monitors that he talks through, tell me Daniel, what is not cool about this guy?! He is a legit super villain. Okay, we're talking James Bond stuff here, like a bad guy with a lair, and henchmen, and stuff. We're not in some psycho paths basement chained to the wall out in the middle of the woods. This guy is for REAL, so you know what, I'm done, I'm finished. if this weight falls, its not my fault, its his, he did all this, we won't be tried for any of this, this is ALL ON HIM, and i'm DONE." Ross lets go of the wheel and drops to the floor. It rocks briefly for a moment, but that's it, its barely even noticeable that he let go or was ever even holding on. "SEE! Its all a god damn mind game!" Daniel looks at him and then looks at his wheel, waiting for something to happen, for Cipher to do something to make it that I told you so moment, but nothing. "Just let go, Daniel, it'll be fine, its late, we'll go to sleep and wait for day 20."

Daniel nods, he's so tired and locked into place that he has to actually think through how he's going to let go. He shifts his body from pushing on the wheel to more of a carrying position but he notices the wheel doesn't even slip when he makes the adjustment. He pauses, takes a breath and lets go, nothing happens. He walks over to Ross slams his back into the wall and slides on down to the floor until he's sitting next to Ross. "Thanks man, you know.."

"Yeah I know." Ross pats his knee as the two of them let their heads bang into the wall behind them, staring up at the ceiling, starved, thirsty and utterly drained of everything. The silence is almost loud, with just their breath being heard for almost a full minute.

Click, a humming and a clank.

The wheel Daniel was holding whirls and the gears spin, the chain starts lashing through as the weight in the room below falls. Daniel dives from where he was sitting and tries to grab the wheel, Ross right behind him, he falls towards it hoping to slow or stop its descent but instead the force of the wheel slams hims square in the chest and sends him falling backwards into the oncoming Ross. The chain comes through the wheel as if it had reached its end or snapped in half, it cracks like a whip at the two of them, striking Daniel ripping open both his shirt and his chest. He screams as the two of them fall back into the wall and the wheel stops spinning, meaning the weight below has crushed another occupant of the room.

The Monitor comes on. "Boys, what are you two doing? What did I say? I said the both of you had to hold on to the wheels and now look, another one down and two people dead. Daniel, you're hurt; what am I going to do with the two of you, I had planned on putting you back in the room tomorrow, but now I just don't know." Cipher talks to the two of them as if he were a disappointed parent.

Daniel clutches his chest, his wound is throbbing and growing more purple by the second. "You did that on purpose, you killed them!"

"Daniel, you let go of the wheel, and.... well you weren't really nice to me. Ross had all those nice things to say, uhh... complimenting my lair, all my hard work, this isn't easy you know, this took a lot of planning; and what did you say about me? Nothing, and you said before you want me one on one in a room, you threatened me, you called me names. That's just not nice." he rants like a child, but then changes his tone to a more dark vicious one. "So I wasn't nice to you. You're both done for the night, with that wound your useless in this test, I'll send the P90s in tomorrow to attend to you and dress the wound, in the meantime I don't want to hear anything from either of you. Daniel, tomorrow, you and I are going to have a talk, I'll give you what you want and then I'll give you what you deserve." The monitor clicks off.

"Its my fault, I told you to let go." Ross whimpers and pulls Daniel back towards the wall with him so they can lean against it again.

"Its not your fault. Its his, and tomorrow I'm going to show him."

10 MINUTES AGO IN THE ROOM BELOW

"This can't go on all night, I can't even feel my arms any more, and I'm so thirsty."

"We're all thirsty Jim, we all can't feel our arms, just shut up and hold on to the chain." Scott agrivated as to how this day has gone has had his fill.

"Hey.." Liz shouts out. "Did anyone feel anything? I feel like our chain just rocked a bit back and forth."

"Does it feel lighter?" Kara from one of the other groups of women shouts back to her. "Because ours didn't move and it feels the same I think."

"I don't feel any difference." Chuck, an older gentleman in the group across from Liz's shouts back.

"Just don't let go." Gus, strapped to the middle bed looks over to Chuck. "Please  just hold on."

"Don't worry Gus, we got you, that's what this group here does, its what that idiot has trained us to do, we'll carry each other or any weight we have to." Chuck smirks as the sweat drips off his brow.

"I know, I know, I'm just scared that's all, that weight looks shaky." he stares at the massive cube above him.

"I got you, no worries." he makes a double clicking noise with his mouth and winks. But then another click is heard, a loud one, then the hum, then the clank.

The group of men holding the chain collapse to the ground, they feel the chain snap and scream as they watch the massive cube fall. Chuck managed to keep himself standing looks at Gus, who's been frozen with terror. His eyes wide he has only a moment to look at the cube and then back at Chuck. Chuck takes that same moment to look at the cube and then attack the latches that are holding Gus to the bed. He frantically fondles with them pulling with all his might, his sweaty hands slipping and pulling with no results. All he can think of is to do one thing. He puts himself over Gus as if to shield him or stop the weight with his frame.

The cube slams into him crushing him right through Gus, the weight and the velocity compressing the two men together in a disgusting mess. The group on the floor turn and cover their eyes, trying to hide and escape from the horror before them.

The monitor comes on shortly after in a minute. "I am so sorry about that, totally not your fault. I feel so bad I'm going to let you rest for the remainder of the night. All you need to do now is trust me for a moment, you can all let go of your weights and they will stay in place, they've been locked down." he waits. Scott and Jim's group are the first to let go, nothing happens and they look to the others. "I'll unlatch everyone from the beds as soon as you all just let go and give me a moment of trust."

The remaining people on the bed begin praying and panting and breathing hard, going back through that range of emotions, screaming and calling out wondering if this is the moment they die, or if they live. The groups one by one let go of their chains and Cipher keeps his word and those laying down are released. "Who's responsible?! You said it wasn't our fault!" Scott shouts out.

"You'll find out tomorrow, and then we'll see how well this group 'carries each other'. Get your rest, day 19 is over." The monitor shuts off.

End of Day 19

One life, but we're not the same Day 19 part 2

A misting of water sprays, with just enough force to be felt on the skin waking the two men up and they both sit up from the floor. "Oh, my head." Ross wipes his eyes and props himself up, looking over at Daniel. "We're still alive." he says.

"That we are, but still in this room, and those are new, how does he get this stuff in here without us ever hearing anything." Daniel looks over and sees six large pulley systems. The wheels are about eighteen inches big with several gears on the side and underneath them, they have either chains or ropes going over them and there is a handle on the side making it so the wheel can be spun and the rope or chain can be pulled.

"Good morning boys." Cipher appears on screen. "Are we feeling better? All rested? Blood restored and such. Good, because today you have chores to do. See those wheels? The rope or chain that goes over those wheels lead down to the room below where all of your friends are. On one end of the rope a group of your friends will be pulling, on the other end will be an incredibly heavy weight."

"So they have to hold a weight in the air for the day? That doesn't seem so bad, whats the catch?" Ross stands up and hoists Daniel with him.

"The catch Ross is that underneath that weight lies a fellow person of the room strapped to a large steel, bed, for lack of a better term. If the weight falls it drops on the bed and well, from their things get squishy. So yes, 'the catch' is to make sure the weight doesn't fall on one of their friends. There are three men and three women lying on the beds, only the women can help women and the men can only hold for the men. You two get to choose who you help. Problem is you don't know who you're choosing, or if you are in fact even helping or hindering. See the bars on the side of the wheels? I suggest you each pick one, from there you either just hang on and keep it from slipping or you turn it to try and help out." Cipher pauses.

"How do we know if we're pulling up the weight or pulling the chain out of the groups hands?!" Daniel looks at the wheels to get some sort of clue or hint.

"You don't." Cipher quips.

"Which one are the men, and which are the women?" Ross moves around the wheels trying to determine which one he will grab.

"I'm not saying. You just pick." Cipher shoots back.

"Would we be able to lift the weight ourselves?" Daniel positions himself next to one of the wheels.

"Possibly, the gear system on the pulley could help you, your extra push could be the difference that lifts the weight higher up and stops it from falling. Although who's to say higher up is better." Cipher remarks "Are you both ready? Are you going to grip now or wait to see if any of them spin.... I have to admit the suspense is killing me today on this one." Cipher looks back and forth between the two.

"What do you think?" Ross looks over to Daniel

"I think they might put the weak teams in the middle so that the outer groups could jump in, and I'm guessing he's just going to drop the weights, so we should probably just pick and get a good grip." Daniel grabs the middle wheels bar.

"Good idea." Ross grabs the other middle bar across from Daniel. "When does this start?"

"Hold on, B. R. B." Cipher shuts off the monitor. (In the other room as seen in Day 19 part 1: "Oh, my bad, here we go. Ready...set... " he pushes a button on the console and there is a humming noise but nothing happens.)

"What do you think he's doing? Talking to the others?"  a loud humming noise interrupts Ross and then a large clank. Immediately they feel the weight hit the wheel and they brace themselves against the bar trying to prevent it from moving but it can't be helped but inch a little. "Oh my God! Is that the weight or them pulling?!"

"I don't know, I can't tell, I thought maybe we..." Daniel stops as he sees the wheel to his left spin incredibly fast. The bar falls off of the wheel and hits the ground  the whirl of the pulley sings as the chain rattles away.

"WHICH WAY IS IT GOING!" Ross shouts out over the noise of the chain flying through the wheel.

"I CAN'T TELL, THERE'S TOO MANY GEARS THE CHAIN GOES BACK AND FORTH!" Daniel shouts back trying to figure out which way the chain is going because there's no doubt that the weight is falling and about to crush someone. He thinks for a moment, should he jump over there and grab the wheel, see if he could stop it, slow it down somehow, but before he can move the wheel stops and the chain goes limp.

"Dammit." Ross continues to hold on to his wheel and hangs his head trying not to think of who it might have been that was just killed. "What do we do?"



"You just going to watch us today?" Daniel adjusts his stance, a little sweat forming on his brow.

"I might, could be fun, you know Daniel you and I we are a lot a like, determined, focused, unwavering determination to see this thing through to the end." Cipher leans in closer to the camera.

"We're not the same you and I, and its not just one life, it was someone we knew. They have someone somewhere worrying about them and now you've just let them watch them die. You're a vile disgusting human being, you make me sick, you're a waste of oxygen, you are a such a loathsome person, that ending your life on this planet would only make the world a better place. I'll see you die, I swear I will.You want to put me in a room with one other person, how about you and I." Daniels spits at the monitor.

"You know what... that can be arranged. In the meantime however, hang on to those wheels, I'm about to pull on the ropes.I suggestion you really put your weight into it." the monitor shuts off.

"What's he doing? Is it getting heavier?! He must have a motor on it pull the weight down!" Ross screams out. "Push harder!" He positions himself in almost a football stance, laying all his weight on the bar to try and stop it from moving in the direction towards him. The hum from earlier begins again.

"Ross! Calm down! Just hold the wheel!" Daniel pleads with him trying to steady his panic.

Meanwhile down in the room below, the remaining five groups hear the hum and notice a change.

"It feels like its getting heavier." One of the men in the groups shout out.

"You're just getting tired, just lock on, its the same weight, we'll be fine." Scott reassures him.

"He must be pulling at the weight! We have to pull harder!" Jim screams out. "Liz! Do you girls feel a difference?!"

Before she can answer Scott and his group fall to the floor. "What the hell!" Scott screams out. The chain whizzes by and they try and grab it, one of them is actually able to leap up and grip the chain but the large object above far outweighs him and pulls him into the air. In seconds the weight comes crashing down, slamming into the bed silencing instantaneously the shriek that was coming from the man strapped down.

"What happened?!" Liz screams over to Scott.

"It was like... something or someone was pulling the chain all of the sudden. It ripped it right from our hands." he gets up and runs to one of the other men's groups to assist them and pull down on the chain.

Two lives, two rooms, neither the same.  End of Day 19 part two.