When I lost my grip Day 44 pt2

Two rounds he said we would be done with this, the group could end this day as early as they wanted, all they would have to do is brace for the pain.


The first round of men and women have been sitting in the chairs for about 2 hours now. The sweat is beading at their brow and their arms are beginning to quiver. Cassie, number 80, is pushing with all her might, her elbows are locked and she's got her back slammed against her chair. She holds on with such tenacity. because the moment she lets that bar go there is a possibility that a drill will extend from the floor and screw a medical screw into her shin bone, the tibia, and that won't feel good.

The Pain Day 44 part 1

The lights come on and the door on the West wall opens up, Oscar comes stumbling back into the room, he's in a pair of what looks like blue pajamas he looks back a the group as he walks across the room to get to the center where the group is.

Day 44 begins and a woman, Gayle, stands up and holds her 44 tag in the air, she gives no speeches and neither does Cipher, he simply illuminates the door on the East wall and Gayle makes her way out to freedom. Just as the door closes the other doors on the balcony above open and the P90s enter the room with their guns out and aimed at the crowd.

"You are really getting lazy here Cipher, another day of just shooting us?" Steve mouths off with his hands on his scrawny hips. He's lost so much weight from being in the room that he's not nearly as muscular and formidable as he used to be.

"Lazy? No, just bringing out the security while some of the other P90s take care of some things in the room." The door on the South wall opens and one of the P90s emerge pulling a long cart on which appear to be at least 20 exercise machines.Four other P90s assist him and drag it into place. They lock the wheels flip a few switches and guide the group away from them as one of them does some fine tuning.

"Step back Ross." one of them speaks to Ross under his breath.

"Are you the one who spoke to me the other day?" Ross tries to inconspicuously mumble to the man in full body armor.

"Yes, now stand back, and if you can, be round two of this day, it will be in your favor." the P90 walks away from him, but Ross tries to casually follow.

"I thought you were shot for talking to me." he whispers to him.

"I will be if you keep it up, but no, I shot the other man. Now get back or we'll draw to much attention, make your group be round two of this, this one is going to be hard, and not pleasant for any of you. But it won't kill you."

Cipher begins to go on to the group about how he's been to easy on them lately, all these mental games have made them be whimpering fools and they've lost some of the strength they had early on here, in the first 20 days they went through so many more physical hardships that he needs to return to that.

"Dude, where's Daniel, what was up with that Oscar guy and is Cipher someone in the government?" Ross grabs the P90s arm to get him to listen, but the man spins away from him, pulls out a taser and shocks Ross to the ground.

"Ross, laying your hands on a P90, how brave and utterly stupid of you." Cipher acknowledges whats going on and the rest of the group back away from the P90 and the wiggling on the floor Ross.

The P90s grabs his arm and drags him to the wall, he grabs his shirt and hoists him to a sitting position. "I just got you to round two or maybe even out of this. As for your questions, he's fine, listen to Oscar, and yes." he then forcibly pushes him back to the wall and Anne and Liz come over to help.

"See its this type of insubordination I'm talking about. Ross grabs a P90, Scott constantly mouthing off. Do me a favor Scott, get into one of the chairs there of the machine."

"It's a lat press machine, I use these at the gym all the time." He sits in the seat and locks his feet into the base, grabs the handles in front of him, and pushes the weight forward, its heavy, especially for someone who hasn't worked out in a while and has a bad diet for the past 44 days. He quickly lets the bar back, but as he does a rod comes up from the floor humming and holding a single small screw. The screw is driven into his shin. "AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaargggggghhhhhh!" he screams as the pin enters his leg, stops and the rod goes back to the floor.

Scott falls from the machine holding his leg, a tiny bit of blood trickles from the mark on his leg where the screw entered and he flops around like a fish out of water screaming in pain. "Well now Scott, where's your big mouth now?" Cipher quips. "Welcome everyone to Day 44 which I'm calling, The Pain. You will take turns, there should be enough seats for all of you to to do this in two rounds. You will sit in the chair, you will  push the bar forward and you will hold it there for a set amount of time. After that amount of time the bar will lock and you will be able to leave the chair safe and sound. If however you release the bar to soon the rod will come up from the floor and a titanium orthopedic screw will then be drilled into your tibia. This will not break your leg, you'll be able to walk fine after a while, but the pain I assure you is detestable, don't believe me? Ask big mouth Scott there. You'll most likely not even bleed, your legs are so thin at this point in our experiment the screw is going through a thin layer of skin and right into the bone. First round, get in the chairs." The P90s on the floor draw their weapons and guide the first group of people into the seats. "Now everyone get ready...and push your bar forward."

The group pushes forward, most of them have no issue with the weight, its an easy push off, but hours of this will wear at their arms and drain their strength to the point where they will have to let go. Jim shouts out, "How long do we have to do this for? Whats the preset time for the chairs?"

"Each chair is different, there's no real way to know if your bar is locked or not without letting go, so hold on for as long as you can, stay strong and hope for the best. Just like you've all been doing, and maybe now, after this day,  we wont be so mouthy or handsy."

Day 44 begins.

Tryin to walk through Day 43 part 2

Its difficult to pace when you only have a three foot section to move, what makes it even worse is that you are confined by your determination to stay within that three foot area. You could drop the rope, you could run around, you can try and walk through the room in the same manner that you are running and walking in your mind, but then the guns go off like they did an hour ago.

When I was going insane Day 43 Part 1

Day 43 started different than any other day in the room, the group not only awoke to the simulated dawn and the wake up alarm but a  coffee bar.


They stood there and stared at it, looking for some sort of trick, gimmick or trap. A coffee bar in front of them with paper cups each numbered with each of their numbers and hot steaming coffee poured in each, with more pots behind the cups for refills. The numbered cups were those of only the people who were currently in the room so they felt this wasn't something where they had to consume 100 cups of coffee between the group though some of them felt they could.


The monitor eventually came on and Cipher assured them that the coffee was for them, that they needed it because the events that were going to take part that day would keep them up for most of the night and they should start their coffee early. Scott was the first to step forward and drink a cup, he made some stupid comment on how he usually likes a little sugar with his coffee and winked awkwardly at some of the women. Cipher did say that the coffee would only be served black and that everyone should have a cup, even those who do not like coffee, but it wasn't however mandatory that they drink.


Cipher then told them the process of letting someone leave wasn't going to take place as the number 42 was one of the tags that Bonny had kept to herself and not shared with the group. He asked them for a moment while he prepared some items for the day, and let them know it would be a bit. The late start would cause them to run their 'experiment' into the night, hence the coffee.


They sat and drank the warm beverage and it brought a sense of normalcy to them. A sense of home, the hot drink  warmed them inside in a way they had not had in so long. They finished their drinks and some of the group acted as servers, giving a warm up or topping off the cup of Joe that was so good that not one of them only had one cup.


Two cups stayed on the shelf, one marked 100 the other marked 60, everyone obviously knew that the 100 was Daniel, but no one had a clue who 60 was. Time dragged, hours passed, and the group started to become antsy  and agitated, several of them crumpled their cups and threw them to the ground in anger when they found out the coffee was all gone and they had to be kept waiting longer. They would soon regret their anticipation as the monitor came on and Cipher began to explain the events of the day.


"Along all four walls you will see there are cables three feet in length hanging out, they look like rope but it is in fact the same type of steel cables used for elevators. Everyone is to grab one of those cables now, you'll be hanging on to that cable for the next 12 hours. If you let go you will be shot, repeatedly. Your only saving grace for the day that will keep you unharmed is that cable, i cannot stress enough to not let go. You may switch hands but you must always have the cable in your hands at all time. Any questions?" 


"Where's Daniel!" Ross shouts out.


"He's in the infirmary. Any more?" Cipher responds


"Who's number 60?" Anne calls out.


"Oliver." Cipher responds and the room mumbles, does his cup being there mean Oliver is alive?


"Where's Oliver?" Anne calls out again.


"He's also in the infirmary, I'm not an animal people, he needed help, he was delusional and in that state I knew he would never survive this test in particular so he's been sedated for a bit." 


"All we have to do is hold the cable?" Liz asks.


"Yes. But...." he pauses.


"But what?" Liz and the others wait for him to finish.


"Well you all drank a lot of my coffee."


"So like we're going to pee our pants and thats the big deal? Hell I think I've peed in my pants at least 3 times here already." Ross attempts to lighten the mood.


"Well while you're comfortable wetting yourself Ross, some of the others are not, but the urination factor is the smallest of your concerns."


"What's the biggest of our concerns?" Jim asks.


"5150 Juice." Cipher responds.


"What is 5150 Juice?" Jim asks to his answer.


"5150 is concentrated liquid caffeine, one ounce of it contains 500mg of caffeine, each cup that you drank probably had two ounces of it in it. So you all consumed at least 1000 to 1500mg of caffeine just now. Plus the coffee wasn't black, it was actually sweetened with fenfluramine/phentermine."


"Phen Fen?!" Ross, eyes wide, spits out.


"Isn't that a weight loss drug?" Liz looks at him.


"Yeah, its also like speed! That combined with 1500 to more likely 2000mg of caffeine?!" he starts to panic as he says the words and he can feel his heart trying to beat right through his sternum. "OhMyGod OhMyGod OhMyGod OhMyGod OhMyGod."


"Ross calm down!" Anne shouts over to him.


"Oh I'm afraid a lot of you are going to have a hard time doing that today Anne; calming down will be next to impossible. All that caffeine and speed running through your system, I don't think it will kill you but you're definitely going to give the ticker a run for its money. Makes you wonder how easy is it going to be to hang on to a three foot steel cable standing in one spot for 12 hours all hopped up on that stuff. I'd have to guess that you're going to feel as though your being driven insane. Your thoughts will be scattered, panicked, heart racing, you won't be able to focus and having just that small area for you to stand is going to push you to the edge. Not to mention, I'll be checking in throughout the day, see how you're doing, give you some motivational speeches little encouragement to get you through it all. I'll see you all in a bit."


The monitor shuts off.


Day 43 began hours ago.