To see me through Day 41 pt.3

Its not sand, or dirt, the best way to describe it is debris. Debris blowing and whipping across the room, flying around so much and raining on them that it almost cuts the flesh from their body. Its so loud from the wind that a constant roar is all that can be heard, like standing next to a train passing by that never ends. Even if they could hear, they don't dare open their mouths for fear of getting a mouth full of the dust, dirt, debris and small stones that race at them from every direction. Day 41, filled with so much drama, its torture is to essentially survive a explosion of wind, debris coming at the group non stop.

Ross sits huddled with Anne, Liz and Jim, making a small circle trying to shield each other from the onslaught. Before the wind had hit these speeds the group had made an attempt to get Daniel to join them but it was to no avail. The four arms locked over each other shoulders try to hide their face and keep their breath from slipping away in this man made 'sandstorm' or sorts.

Groups all around the room sit together, some in pairs, some in four or more but only Daniel today is on his own. He sits against the wall with his shirt off and wrapped around his face, with his hands cupped over his ears he tries to block out everything, but being in his head right now, alone, is not the place he wants to be either. In his head he sees Dalton. He's staring down at him and reliving that moment when he pulled the mask off and his face, beaten to a pulp laid there un-moving. Cipher manipulated him into killing Dalton, he manipulated the group, his friends to lie to him so that he would be the last to leave this prison.

He heard them say they didn't know, but Anne said she did, so who can he believe? These people whom he's only known for a little over a month? Why would they care if he was last one in the room, what ties do they have to him, as long as it wasn't them. Would he act differently he thought, would he lie to someone if he wasn't Mr. 100 Days and pretend he didn't know to assure his safety?

His fists clenched from anger relax suddenly and he's transported by memory through time and space out of the room to a day when he and his wife and son were playing outside, having the greatest time. A car horn goes off and they suddenly have visitors, he sees his wife's friends exit their car, carrying plates of food and find it to be the craziest thing they would just show up unannounced with food. He asks her did he forget they have plans? She tells him no, she just didn't tell him because he thought he would be upset if he knew some of the girls were coming over.

He said to her, you couldn't tell me so you lied to me? She responded, no, I just didn't tell you, so I really didn't lie. Later on he found one of his child's toys broken by the door way and when he asked his son if he broke it he said no, the dog next door did. This was clearly a lie, the dog had no way of getting in their home, but his son being so young didn't know the logistics of his lie. He told his wife later on about the broken toy and about the lie about the dog. His wife asked if he called him out on his lie and told him it wasn't right. He said to her, what's the point, as we get older we just get better at lying or avoiding the truth, why make him a better liar now. They fought like married couples do, he was hurt, she was offended, she was hurt, he was offended in the end they tried to remember why they were fighting and realized that they were probably both right and both wrong at the same time.

He remembered saying to her, only humans lie, animals may trick other animals for survival but humans do it and know they're doing it all along, maybe we're just not meant to be with each other, we'd be better off behaving like animals. This didn't help the situation, it angered his wife more and she would use that logic of his against him time and time again when they would argue about anything.

The last time he thought about that fight was the day of their funeral, when he watched both of their coffins being lowered into the ground he screamed internally because instead of every happy moment he had with them in his life he was filled with the memory of every stupid fight, every missed kiss, every lie and every avoidance of the truth. He would never get a chance to say again to his wife, just see me through this, and when that was taken from him, his faith in nearly everything was shattered.

He thought to himself again, would he have lied, would he have kept quiet and  not  told the truth to avoid the consequences? Is it sometimes easier to let people think what they do to avoid fights and arguments? Yes, he answered to himself, yes it is, as awful as that sounds he knows that's the real truth. His wife was right, but she was gone and he couldn't tell her.

He stood up against the wall and tried to walk away from it as best he could in the insane storm, but unable to see or hear where his friends were it was pointless. He shuffled back to the wall and knew he was set to be alone for until morning. Day 41's torture for him wasn't the wind, or the debris or the roar of whatever it was that was blowing it all at them. It was his being left with his own thoughts and the fear that what few friends he had now he would lose forever, again.

Had an angel of mercy Day 41 part 2

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.

And let the wrong ones in...Day 41 part 1

“My hand is killing me, more my wrist actually, but damn, not since Miss Huppuch's class in middle school have I had to write so much.” Ross rolls his wrist around and stands up away from the wall in which he was sleeping against.

“Yeah, I never got in trouble in school, so this is a first for me.” Liz sits up from her cramped position on the floor against the wall.

“I find that hard to believe.” Jim smirks and stretches his body groaning and shaking off the morning.

“I’m going to be a writer when we get out of here, I’m going to write all this down and I’m going to make millions, and on the inside jacket its going to say ‘Hey Cipher, suck it.’ Yeah, that sounds good.” Ross tries to lighten the mood and lunges in his stance, stretching out his legs in a bizarre fashion.

“What the hell, all the writing is gone?” Anne stands and looks at the wall, hers and all of the other walls in the room that had been being written on as part of the day 40 torture have been wiped clear and no longer show anything. “How is that possible?”

“How does Cipher do half the stuff he does around here, this room, the P90s the weird traps and crap, it's like science fiction movie stuff half the time.” Jim runs his hand over the wall to see if he can feel any moisture or determine how the wall was wiped clean.

“I know how he does it.” A man with a beard that seemed to go up as high as his cheek bone just barely below his eyes approaches them. They had seen him around the room obviously over the past 40 days, but none of them knew him.

“What’s your name again friend?” Jim offers his hand in greeting.

“Oliver, my name’s Oliver. You’re Jim, and you’re Anne and Liz and you’re Ross, everyone here knows you guys, some of us however, we try and stay out of the spotlight.” He shakes Jim’s hand and nervously looks around the group.

“I’ll pass on any spotlight, despite my dreams of movie stardom. You said you know how he cleaned the walls.” Ross shakes Oliver’s hand.

“Clean the walls, get rid of the bodies, kidnap 100 people in a day, I know how he does all of it, I know who Cipher is.” Oliver looks around to see who else is listening.

“Who is he?” Anne moves closer.

“Come on its, obvious. How do you get 100 people in a room like this? Have this type of technology, like self cleaning walls and floors. How do you have a small army of soldiers at your disposal?” He whispers, growing more nervous.

“What are you getting at? Like government conspiracy type stuff?” Liz raises one of her eyebrows and asks him with a look on her face that screams (this guy is crazy).

“No, well yes, but not in the way you’re thinking. This isn’t like when the government put out TV shows like the Munster’s and The Adams family to make the American people feel comfortable with monsters walking amongst them, but we know that failed. But yes in that a conspiracy is when someone who is extremely powerful and cunning achieves something malicious secretly. So unless everyone else in the world knew we were going to get kidnapped, yes the conspiracy was to kidnap us, but…but...who, who could pull it off and have all of this at their disposal and not get caught or even show the slightest bit of fear that they might get caught, who? Who?” He looks at each of them in the face and keeps asking, who? Who?

“The government?” Jim looks at him. “Why would the government do this?”

“What has Cipher been saying since day one, he wants us to be stronger Americans, who else had said that in their speeches? Whose tag line was America is great, together we’ll make it even better.”

“Come on man, no way. President Winters?” Ross looks at him.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t vote for him.” Liz chuckles.

“Neither did I.” says Anne.

“Yeah, I didn’t vote for him either.” Jim looks at Ross.

“No, I voted for the woman.” He shrugs his shoulders.

“Hey guess what kids, none of us did, not one person in this room has voted for President Winters, not one. Coincidence? I think not.” Oliver nods his head.

“That’s just crazy talk, the president didn’t kidnap us, cause people here to die and then broadcast it on the web.” Anne says the words with as much conviction as she can while still letting them have a sour taste in her mouth.

“Why haven’t we been rescued?” Oliver pokes her arm. “Why when the first person was let out of here did she go running and tell the police where she was, what happened and a man hunt begins to track us all down? Because, the government, their in on it, and the President, well he’s the guy behind it all, he’s pulling the strings, he knows what’s what.”

“You’re just guessing.” Ross pokes his arm.

“You ever see a P90 gun before you got here? Think they sell them at Wal-Mart in the sports section? Those are government issued weapons to elite black op teams.” Oliver rants a bit louder and continues to poke.

“How do you know that, were you in the military?” Anne leans in more, slowly feeling as though maybe she doesn’t want others to hear her concerns, or show that she is letting Oliver convince her.

“No, it was in a ….” He pauses.

“It was in a what? Documentary?” she asks him.

“No, a, um, you know Army of Two. From there.” He retreats back into himself slightly.

“Army of Two? Is that a training film or promotional campaign?” Anne looks over at Jim and Ross.

“It’s a video game! Army of Two is a video game. Seriously dude, that’s what you’re basing this all on? A video game?”  Ross gives his shoulder a little shove as if to say cut it out.

“No! Not just that, but come on, think about it, why hasn’t anyone come for us? Either he’s killing the people who leave here, or moving them to another room, or the government is delaying any type of rescue attempt, it has to be. Cipher is the President, I’m sure of it, listen to him talk next time, he’s got the same mannerisms, the same pauses and inflection, his voice might be disguised but that is him, I know it.” Oliver begins to regret telling the group and starts to back away from them, until he completely walks away from the group and starts to head over to the center of the room so that day 41 can begin.

“Sometimes we let the wrong ones in this group.” Jim pulls his tag from his pocket and starts to walk over to the center.

“We going to tell Daniel about all this?” Ross looks to Liz.

“I think Daniel is going to have different questions for us today after what Bonny did yesterday and what Rene said to him.” Liz pulls out her ticket and walks with him.

“What was that all about? How come she didn’t give him a different tag?”

“I don’t know.” Liz sees Daniel from across the room; he looks just as pissed as he did when they parted ways the night before.

“Wait. You two don’t know?” Anne looks at Liz and Ross. “I thought we weren’t talking about it because we were afraid.”

“Know what?” The two respond in unison.

“Why Daniel has the number 100?” she stops walking but before she can explain more the buzzer goes off and everyone is assembled in the center of the room to begin day 41.

I kept the right ones out... Day 40

The light comes on, the buzzer goes off, they hate the buzzer, but after 39 days of this some have actually learned to sleep through the morning wake up lights. Daniel stretches pulls his 100 tag from his pocket and the number 73 from his pocket as well. The number 73 has blood on it both figuritevly and factualy, he's never bothered to wash it off nor show it to anyone else, for the last 19 days he's said very little about Dalton other than he knows he's dead.

Ross sits up a few feet from him, makes some odd mouth noises, adjusts his glasses and looks over to Daniel. "Good morning." he smirks scratches his chest and stands up and offers his hand to Daniel to help him up. "Today's Bonny's day isn't it?" he says to Daniel as he too stands and scratches.

"You know it is, we talked about it all last night."

"Ah yes, it was hard to hear everything with the buzzer screaming every 20 minutes or so, and not to mention you mumbling all the time now." Daniel slaps him on the back and walks over to the others.

"I don't mumble." Daniel mumbles under his breath.

"What're you mumbling about now?" Liz walks up to the two of them, with Anne right behind her.

"I don't mumble!" Daniel shoots back.

"Yeah you do, its been like over two weeks now since Cipher jilted you on actually meeting him, really dude, you have to let up on that, look around there's a hand full of us left."

"There's like 30 of us, you must have big hands." Jim joins the fray.

"Hey don't make fun of my hands." Anne puts them behind her back and moves away from the group.

"Dude, not cool." Ross passes by Jim and heads over to the center with Anne.

"What I say?" Jim looks to Liz.

"You don't make comments about a girls hands, its like saying something about her feet." she pats him on the shoulder.

"What's wrong with her feet?" Jim asks

"AAhhhh! Shut up." Anne growls at him. "Can it be your day to leave."

"Nope, its my girls day to leave." Renee walks up with them to the center, Bonny right in front of him, she has tears in her eyes but says nothing and just smiles at the group.

The group assembles and awaits for the monitor to turn on, it buzzes and lights up and there sits Cipher, in the same clothes and mask they've seen him for the past 40 days. "Hello everyone, glad to see no one took their life yesterday with that little annoyance you had to deal with all day."

"Little annoyance? It was like the worlds loudest and worst fax machine ringing in your ear every fifteen minutes!" Scott shouts at the monitor.

"Whine, whine, whine, when you all get out of here, and I truly hope you all do, you'll be able to sleep through a plane crash. You should be thanking me."

"I'll be happy if I could just sleep again." Anne nuzzles next to Ross.

"So where is Bonny, our number 40, come forward please." Cipher awaits at the monitor as Bonny steps up and waits for the door to light up for her to leave. "Are you ready to go Bonny?" Cipher asks, and the group thinks, what a stupid question.

"Not yet." she suprisingly replies, she turns from the monitor and faces Renee. "Renee these past 40 days you've kept me safe, you've kept me sane, I know you get out tomorrow so don't you dare do anything stupid over the next 24 hours." she touches his face and glides her fingers down his jaw line. She looks over at Jim and Ross, "You two, you keep him safe, understand me."

"Yes mam." they both reply, smiling happy to see the person who's become their friend get her freedom.

"And you two..." she looks at Anne and Liz. "Don't be afraid of what you're feeling in here, its real, I know it is, you never know how you'll meet someone, it could be the best circumstances, it could be the worst, but if somethings there between you and someone else, don't ignore it, flames shouldn't be ignored they should be stoked to see what happens." she smiles and runs over to hug the two women. 

"Time to go Bonny, the group has some important things to get to today." Cipher encourages her to rush. "I feel like the Wizard in Oz. Hurry up now, you've said good bye to the lion and scarecrow." Cipher chuckles but no one laughs with him.

Bonny kisses Renee, a long slow kiss where they hold each other's faces so gently, their time here started so bad, and it got really worse before it finally got a whole lot better. She runs over to the lit up door and steps inside but places her hand on the edge of the door, keeping it ajar. She looks back at the group and shouts out. "Daniel!" 

Daniel looks over to Bonny, he knows they didn't start out on the right foot but after a sometime they actually grew closer. After he returned to the room after the Dalton incident she went out of her way to talk to him, to try and make him feel better and console him. He always suspected that maybe she knew, that she sensed that he had blood on his hands since as he knew, she had some on hers as well. She never said anything to the group however, when anyone asked what they were talking about she would say "Art." or "Just you know...things." and that would be it. He raised his hand to her to say good bye and she raised hers in return. She shouts again "Be careful and get answers!" 

'Get Answers' he thinks, what does that mean? He looks at her oddly, his hand still in the air as well as hers. Hers is clenched in a fist and as she opens it he sees several tags fall to the floor inside the room. His eyes pop as he realizes she had more numbers, numbers she took and lied about giving back, lower numbers! Lower than his 100, and she kept them from him. Her door closes and she's gone and so are those tags.

"What the hell was that?!" he looks to the group and no one answers. He runs to Renee. "Hey man! What the hell was that?! She had lower numbers?! Why didn't she give me one! She said she was my friend!"

"She was your friend, and she did give lower numbers away, just not to you, she couldn't and that's all I'm telling you, and its for your own good." Renee pushes him to the side and walks away.

Daniel runs over to Ross, "What is going on here?!"

"I swear to God, I have no idea." Ross holds grips Daniels shoulders trying to calm him.

"I'm sorry Daniel your question will have to wait its time for Day 40s adventure to begin." Cipher comments from the screen as if he were the host of a children's show.

"No way! I want answers! NOW!" 

The P90s enter the room on the upper balcony and take aim at Daniel.

"I'm not going to shut up! I want answers now!" he screams again regardless of the red dots dancing across his chest from laser scopes above. 

"You're friend doesn't know whats going, on, some people do, but I had to keep the right ones out of this little scheme, but if you're not going to cooperate today, fine. P90s, 'Beta 4'" Cipher sits back in his chair and the P90s remove their lasers from Daniel and take aim at Liz, Anne, Ross and Jim. "Ready....Aim...."

"Wait! Stop! Fine." Daniel sits down and shuts up.

"Excellent. Now everyone split up, groups of eight to three walls one group of six to the south wall, Daniel you go to the south wall, Daniel's groupies you head to the North wall." Ross hears Ciphers and turns around as he was already heading to Daniel.

"This isn't over." Daniel mumbles and heads to the South Wall.

Day 40 begins.