Day 81 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 30 (3036 words)

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DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 30

Episode 6

Part 2

An exterior shot of an alleyway, a blank wall, in black and white shot from above from the security camera or CCTV angle. The angle changes and looks at a different part of the same alley, no person is in sight and there is nothing interesting in the shot. The camera switches again to another camera this one pointing at what is probably the mouth of that same alley, where it meets a road or a street, there is no movement or people in any of the shots, the alley way is empty and quiet.

The original angle comes back into view, and sites for a few seconds before a soundless explosion blasts a hole in wall in the lower left section of the shot, and the dust settles before the scene switches again, to the second and then the third view of the alley. The camera views further up the alley and to the street show no sign of any activity, as it cycles around to the first again, there is debris falling off the jagged hole and the dust is finally settling as the view switches once more. This time when camera one is back Vargas is standing outside the hole, looking about and moving very cautiously into the alley way, the camera view changes again before he is out of sight, just timed right to see him walk into shot on the second view, moving his way up the narrow walkway between buildings to the third camera angle and walking from one shot to the next.

John Vargas stops at the street and from behind you can make out him looking up and down the street, rubbing at his injured leg as he stands there, reacting to what he sees or choosing what to do next. The view moves back to the first camera, the hole is unmoved and the dust has stopped moving, the scene now static. Nothing is happening there or on the second view as it changes soon after, eventually making it's way back to the view where Vargas was, but has now left. The scene is empty and the visual fades to black, slowly fading back a few moments later and now the other four players who are still alive are standing outside the broken hole, each with a long barrelled rifle in their hands and each with a piece of paper.

The view is not changing automatically any longer and the scene stays with the four men, Thomas Somerset, Julio Suarez, Mark Rowlands and Evan Simpson. There is some discussion between them and they are referring to the pieces of paper they are holding, tracing a route on what could have been four maps. They all check their guns, looking down the sniper sights and reading instructions from a little booklet they have attached by a piece of string to the stiffer laminated maps they have. All four move off together and walk through the scene to camera two, the four of them walking apace until the third camera angle where they become more cagey in their movements, slowing down and keeping close to the walls before peering out into the street, Thomas has shouldered his gun and is looking down the sights, letting others walk in front of his barrel. Evan Simpson sees this as he is walking at the rear and he slaps at the gun, forcing it down from the others and the two men have a heated exchange, in silence with no sound to the video, before Suarez is motioning them to keep the noise down.

The scene changes to show another CCTV view of Vargas running, half loping on an injured leg and coming to the end of a street, a two lane roadway that is truncated by a steel wall cutting off access. The wall of metal intersects the buildings next to the street and it looks like the town that he is in is actually set inside of a wall. A flash through of other CCTV cameras show in black and white that this is not a real town and that the entire town is made up of a few small streets and a central intersection with a square configuration set around a central grassy hill with a couple of trees and a park bench or two. Other camera angles show a few high buildings and the four other players are following map instructions to find positions marked out for them.

The view is now set from a long way above and you can see the entire 'town' is inside a building the size of an aircraft hangar for a Jumbo Jet, there is sun light pouring in but the roof is a long way above and there are large block buildings surrounding the central 'town' which is in the centre. The picture that was in black and white slowly transited to colour and the scene focused and gave a much better and highly detailed look to the quality of picture. The hole in wall that led to the central town area is just up from the corner of the south section of 'town' and you can see that this large box building was that second section of the obstacle course within it, and the west wall section was most likely the first section of the course. This was a massive endeavour and the buildings in the 'town' were maybe 2 to three stories high but they only formed four small blocks with a ring road around the outside and the central square between those sets of buildings.

The cameras now changed to a colour view and the CCTV illusion was shattered, these were the high definition static cameras that Darwin had been using all along. The four players who were now the 'Hunters' were taking positions in the four corner 'towers' that marked the blocks of the square, and from the roof tops, or the top floors depending on the building configuration, they had unobstructed views down the outside streets and with a short walk a communal view of the 'town square'

Thomas Somerset was sitting behind a low wall on the rooftop of a four storey brick building, the final ascent to the top had been up a metal fire escape ladder, the rifle slung on his back. From his vantage point he could see the most and was the highest position of all the buildings. He like the others had a bullet in the chamber from the loading in the alleyway and he held a small box with five more rounds in it. He counted them out and put them in the clip, six shots from his sniper rifle. Then the moved around each of the four sides of the rooftop and took aim at the other three sniper positions, the lined up Suarez who was also exposed on the lower roof, standing out against the black tar papered surface of the concrete structure, it looked like it could have been a bank. He saw Rowlands through the glass sided penthouse apartment, there was a balcony on three of the four sides of the apartment, but with glass walls there was a contiguous view of Rowlands, walking about and opening windows and looking down the sights of his own rifle. That left the clock tower, the nearest in height to Somerset’s position, but at the diagonal opposite corner of the square.

The scene of Somerset zoomed out rapidly, the camera moving on rails at some distance and changing locations very quickly, before zooming in just a rapidly on the clock tower. At first there was nothing to see, but as the camera zoom adjusted for the light in the shadows, Simpson was hiding there, the hood of his jacket up over his head, helping him remain unseen. He had the rifle lying on the ground, and he kept very still as if he knew that he was being sighted by someone else's rifle. The sights from the gun were off the body and in his hands, he was carefully twisting his body and looking from a slightly odd perspective over the edge of the belfry wall, looking upwards at the rooftop of brick where Thomas was aiming back down. He watched him walk around and try new angles before giving up and moving out of sight again, staying out of line for a little while, appearing on the adjacent wall to the opposing corner and aiming again at Mark Rowlands.

John Vargas was now in full colour and inside a building, testing doors and finding the locked. Every room had some kind of camera in them, the corridors and entrances dogged his steps as he explored the fake town where he thought the had escaped to, but was just as a captive as he had been at the start. As he was leaving one building and making his way around the outside street the view changed to be from above again and this time Suarez was aiming down the sights of his rifle, it was hard to determine how close a shot he had on Vargas, but he was training the sights on him and moving in a very slow line as John picked his way through the store-fronts which were more for show than function.

Suarez trails him the whole way down one street and does not take any shot, just continues to shadow him and move around the edge of the building. Finally he lifts the barrel of his rifle and sits back down again, his head in his hands. The view stays on him for a few seconds, and in close up you can see his eyes welling up with tears, he looks more angry than scared or sad, but tears are streaming down his cheeks now anyway. Then he takes the gun again, wipes at his face and sets the stock back into his shoulder. The tip of the barrel dances around shaking with the wannabe sniper holding it in place. He continues to follow the only player without a gun as he limps towards the corner building where Rowlands is set up, testing the door and then going around the base looking for another door.

Somerset is back in camera and he is training his gun sight on Suarez, then realises that Suarez is trained on something too. He pulls back and moves around the wall to see where Suarez is aiming, The camera moves and zooms in behind Thomas's head to show that a few small trees are outside the Rowlands building, the set of apartments. They obstruct his view of Vargas as he is entering the building, so he picks up his rifle and swings up and gets into position to get Rowlands in his sights.

The room in which Mark Rowlands is shooting from has a camera in it, the scene changes to show that view and Mark is staring down the sights of his own rifle into the square looking at the other three buildings and the central park. From that angle it is nor clear, but it can be guessed that he cannot see the approach to his own building unless he is out on the balcony looking directly down. The windows are open but he hides in the shady apartment, visible from the rooftops but not from the street level,

From across and adjacent side of the square Somerset is looking down directly on to Rowlands hide, and is pointed straight at Mark, the index finger on his hand on the trigger and ready to pull. The door at the rear of the upper floor opens silently and from the elevator out limps John Vargas, and walks into the room. Rowlands reacts turning around and training the rifle on his guest, shouldering it as Vargas turns to see the elevator closed behind him and he slumps his shoulders in defeat. Inside the room Rowlands has a tight grip on the gun and is keeping Vargas in his view, John on the other hand has given up and lowers his hands, holding them open and palms outwards by his sides, waiting for the final shot.

Rowlands has not moved and there is a conversation of some kind between Vargas and Rowlands, but it does not last that long as a shower of glass explodes through the room and Vargas instinctively dives to the side, lying on the floor. Rowlands is sitting down, the rifle in his lap and a wound fresh on his left shoulder, reddening the shirt he is wearing. Vargas motions to him as another bullet rips through the counter top above Mark's head, sending shards of wood and marble flying into his hair.

Rowlands lands on his side, and grimacing he tries to pick the gun up, but is in too much pain, wincing with each attempt. There is another shouted, silent exchange between the men and then Rowlands shoves the sniper's rifle across the floor with his feet, skittering a few meters away and stopping two thirds of the way to where Vargas is hiding. Vargas looks up but cannot see much over his cover without raising his head, then looking back at the gun.

From Somerset’s rooftop he can see the broken glass, the shattered counter-top and in the middle of the floor, with the stock mostly in view and the rest of the gun in plain sight there is the weapon, and he knows that both men are in there with it. He grips his own weapon tighter, watching the other gun like a hawk down his own telescopic sights. He can see a movement of a head, a few clumps of hair as someone is moving through cover to get to the gun, but there is not enough to take a shot, he has four bullets left. Suddenly the head reappears and the man attached, Vargas, forward rolls into view, grabs the rifle in mind roll and continues on out of sight again. Somerset squeezes off a round but it misses, gouging a track in the panelled flooring as John Vargas is now hiding again behind the same counter top that Rowlands is hiding by at the other end of the kitchen, covered by other thick furniture. Somerset now has three shots, he concentrates and keeps an unrelenting eye on the apartment across the street in his direct line of sight.

Back inside the apartment Vargas has the gun but he only has one bullet in it when he checks the clip. He crawls around to find Simpson who has passed out from the shoulder wound, but is not dead, Vargas has to cross open ground to get to where Simpson is. He looks around and sees there is more room further along the counter top, the bar arrangement at the end of the kitchen has a wider area and he moves there in a crouch, his gun at the ready. He pops up suddenly the gun swinging up as he stands and fires a shot at the rooftop where he knows the sniper is, though he does not know who it is.

Somerset is watching and waiting and then there he is, Vargas is standing up and just as he tries to get a shot off Thomas sees the gun and the flash and throws himself backwards before taking his fourth shot. The bullet ricochets off the air conditioning unit quite some distance form where he actually was, but as the sniper was now the snipee he was shaking and looking very shocked and with much less controlled confidence than he had seconds before that bullet. He moved on his belly further along the wall and came to the corner opposite the clock tower and levered himself up to look back down into the apartment. There was no one in sight.

Back in the room Vargas was searching through Rowland's pockets who was moving groggily, his head lolling about on his shoulders, Vargas trying to keep his head down and keep Mark from moving about too much either. He finds the box of shells and loads the clip, he now has five shots. From this new vantage point he can aim through a partially shielded gap in the settee and the coffee table, which he upends to make a bit more cover before taking careful aim at the section of wall where he has seen movement and the man who had jumped up and backwards. From where he was positioned he could not see the corner of the building where Somerset was, he had a blind spot made by the way the furniture and the stanchions of the door blocked a little of his peripheral vision.

From Thomas's view he could see the top of Vargas's shoulders and then a blockage where his head would be, then the barrel of the gun moving in slow arcs sweeping the section of wall where he had been minutes before. The smile and the confidence came back to his face and he set his rifle carefully and took his time to line up the shot, aiming in the middle of left side of his back, aiming to take a shot into the heart from behind. He shrugged his shoulders, waving out any kinks of quirks in his muscles as the shot lined up and he counted down, mouth the 'three' 'two' 'one' and then his own head exploded in a shower of red and grey, before he fell forward almost a headless neck stump on a limp body to plant facing forwards on the rooftop.

Evan Simpson was on one knee and looking up at the opposing rooftop, smoke rising from the barrel of his own rifle, the camera changed with a slight lag to see the puff of red and the headless body of pulp that had once been Thomas Somerset pitched forward. He had the sights back on the rifle and was pulling back, not interested in aiming back at Vargas or Rowlands, whom he could see in perfect line from his clock tower also above them.

The scene faded black again and the episode was done.