Day 72 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 21 (2448 words)

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DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 21

Episode 5.

“To expect the World to receive a new truth, or even an old truth, without challenging it, is to look for one of those miracles that do not occur. ~ Alfred Russel Wallace”

The scene opens on a corridor, and at one end there is a corner that runs right. The camera angle switches and the other end of that corridor is a T-junction. From there the scenes change a few times to give the impression of a maze of corridors but there is no one showing in any of the shots. The scene eventually shifts away from the corridors and shows a large octagonal room which has a secondary octagonal room, this one with glass walls and four doorways inset into four opposing faces. The Octagonal glass room reaches to the ceiling which looks to be around ten feet high and leading to a trap door which was closed and set in the ceiling.

The scene changed again and this time one by one the remaining seven players were shown in the maze section wandering around the corridors singly, looking aimlessly and moving forward carefully, taking their time and to all appearances unaware of any agenda or motivation. A few looked trepidatious and fear was quite noticeable, but after the four previous encounters shown and the brutal deaths of five of their number, caution would be expected.

Garth Parker was the first to find his way to the centre Octagon and he stopped just inside the door and tentatively stepped inwards, checking for traps or other occupants before making his way to the centre and the inner glass room. As he was kneeling down and examining the floor in from of the first doorway he came to, another player came through a different door. This was Thomas Somerset, and he walked as carefully as the first arrival had done, though was keeping his eye on the room and his fellow occupant equally.

Thomas is saying something to Garth who nods back non committally, it's not clear what is being said at the distance that the camera is from the people in the room. There is a static view from one position high up in the room enough to be in the corner where the wall and ceiling meet. Garth is still kneeling and tracing a square on the floor in front of the rectangular door shape set into the glass wall. He is testing it with his hand, pressing on it and then leaning on it a little harder before pointing and saying something to Thomas, who kneels in front of another door. Together they seem to agree to something, stand up and at the same time step forward on to the square.

At once the doors in front of them light up with a row of four circles inset into the glass. Two of them are red and two of them are green. The red and green configuration are different on each door, which is noticeable as the doors and the walls are completely see through. They step off the squares and the lights slowly fade over a few seconds.

A third person enters the room, and like the others, through a different door, and it is John Vargas and he is limping as she shuffles dragging his injured leg as he walks to the other two men in the room. He is less cautious than the other two, perhaps having survived a few rounds has either gained confidence in his continued survival or has given up the excessive worry about his fate. He is coming towards Thomas who is nearest to him from the doorway he has entered when he stops and changes course, in reaction to the other two and something the have said. Neither of the others was facing the camera just before the change in direction, but Garth had pointed to the third of the four doors. The three men all stand on the squares and once again the lights appear, this time three green and one red all placed to represent the status of the door in front of them, and the final red obviously indicating the final door.

A few minutes pass and the men are alone with no change in status. Eventually John Vargas takes a seat on the floor, using his weight on the square from a sitting position and rubbing his injured leg through this jumpsuit. The scene fades and comes back to see all three men sitting, indicating the passage of time, but no clarity as to how long all three had been waiting. A fourth door was open and through it was coming Mark Rowlands, but before he had come fully into the room the fifth door was breached and Julio Suarez burst through it as if being chased, before coming to a halt.

While the three sitting men stood and were apparently explaining the door set up to the newcomers, the sixth door opened and in walked David Wilson. He walked past the other two newcomers to approach the fourth and final square in front of the glass room, activating it so that all four doors now showed green and quickly slid open. The two other men poked their heads into the glass room, and sniffed the air and the very slowly entered and looked around.

They found that inside the room, there were four more squares, each of these were on the four sides that did not have doors in them. Mark Rowlands put one foot on the panel and nothing happened. He put his whole weight on it next and still there was no reaction. He jumped on it once and then again, nothing. Julio stood on one of the others and got a similar lack of feedback. They shrugged their shoulders and looked about the room, checking each of the panels in the floor for anything and not one gave off a reaction.

Outside Parker took a step off the square he was on and the other three reacted as each of their doors, and their lights suddenly deactivated and went off, though the doorways were still open. One by one they all went inside the glass room at the centre and within a short period all four were activated and this time, those panels lit up red, each one that was activating was showing a red light and the unoccupied square was showing a green. There was some discussions going on between the occupants before all four were stepped on and the four doors all slid shut quickly and stayed lit with red circles. Garth was again the first to step off the platforms, but this time when he did the circle changed instantly to green and all four doors slid open again. He took a step back and then the doors all shut.

It was obvious that they had to cooperate, at least four of them, to open the room, and now they had to cooperate to keep the room closed. They took turns stepping on and off the squares, trying different configurations before coming to the realisation that this was how the system worked and there was no scenario or order of action that changed it. Julio was in the middle of the room as the squares were being tried and he was looking upwards at the trapdoor as the experiments were going on. He pointed up to it and the others all converged on the middle of the room leaving the four doors open. Julio pushes a few of them back, waving at the platforms and then pointing upwards again.

Four men take backwards steps and hit the panels, all keeping their gaze on the trapdoor. Nothing can be seen from the camera angle on the slightly protruding hatch, but the men in the room can obviously see something. They re open the doors and talk among the six people, pointing at the remaining two doors and arguing heatedly about something when suddenly all of the men react as if a noise has caught their attention.

The seventh door slides open and in saunters a fully grown tiger. The men see it and a few of them freeze while a couple of them head immediately to the squares, stamping on them to make them activate, then pointing frantically at the other two squares. The doors slam shut as the tiger makes its way to the glass walls and growls at them, showing teeth and pawing at the walls near Garth Parker who is standing nearest the tiger. The lunge frightens Garth and the stumbles back and off the square and all four doors are open again.

The tiger has not seen the opening and Parker steps back on the square quickly to shut the door, the action of the door shutting getting the tigers attention who then moves to face the rectangular panel that had slammed shut to its left. The men are all silent, and the tiger is pawing at the rectangle though each swipe seems less interested than the previous. In the centre of the room, looking upwards are Vargas and Suarez, and they are looking at the escape hatch in the roof with greater attention now.

Suarez is illustrating a leg up to Vargas who in return points to his leg and then back to Suarez, who considers this visibly then cups his hands for Vargas to take a step into the cup and to try and get to the ceiling hatch. Before they manage to take that step they look up and away to the eighth door which is opening and showing the final player to make it through the maze, David Wilson.

Wilson steps in and moves towards the glass room, obviously not seeing the tiger until he is about just over half way to the Octagon. The moment he sees it is obvious as he stops moving and his hands which were swinging by his side start clenching into fists. The tiger roars and he looks over his shoulder at the door behind him, which is now closed and he carefully walks backwards, the tiger eyeing him but not moving. The door is now locked and not opening, the anger and tightening of his hands into fists that beat on the door are more visible than ever before and Wilson is shouting something at the others who are motioning him towards the Octagon.

He walks slowly, not panicking and not running, moving in an arc whenever the tiger paces, keeping the central room between him and the tiger. When he reaches the central octagon he is shouting at the occupants, but they are unmoved as the tiger is standing opposite, outside the original panel that it tried to scratch open as if it were expecting it to open again. Wilson, shouting and yelling, starts pounding on the doorway, at the four men just inside and only a few inches from him but separated by the obviously strong glass.

The tiger slowly moves away from the door and Wilson is pointing and shouting frantically at the tiger and stays where he is in front of his own door. Still the four men have not moved off the panels and the doors remain shut as the predatory beast is moving very slowly, as if stalking and trying not to panic his prey, coming around the edge of one corner equidistant between doors. The pleading and shouting from Wilson increases and he waves maniacally to indicate it is time to open the doors, but internally there is a an argument apparent about the wisdom of opening the doors.

Wilson realises he needs to move and he circles the octagon to the next door and the tiger stops moving until David has stopped. Then the beast turned on itself and walked back the other way, stalking anti-clockwise this time while David is begging the men inside to let him in. Of the four men on the squares only one is wavering in his resolve and is begging the others to potentially save the seventh man just outside with the tiger. Thomas Somerset is watching the tiger and looking for the right moment before stepping off, but before he can make his move the tiger is in front of the door again. Suarez comes from the middle and stands on the platform with Somerset, pushing him down to the ground, banging his shoulder in the process on the glass wall and taking his place on the squares. Somerset raises his hands in defeat and shrugs apologetically at Wilson, then grins like it was funny somehow.

Wilson is now looking around the room for an escape and runs up the room to try a different door, and barely gets his hand on the latch, which is also locked before the tiger with lightning fast, terrifying speed has come all the way round and clamped it's powerful jaws on the midriff of Wilson, and picks him up like a bloodied doll and slams him against the wall, his body going limp before being dropped to the ground, blooding swelling through the torn jumpsuit and pouring out to the ground. The tiger continues to maul and then eat his prey and the seven doors around the edge all open simultaneously and the beast only looks up momentarily.

The six men in the octagon look shocked and pale from seeing David Wilson mauled and eaten a few dozen feet away and the four men on the squares are not moving as Thomas Somerset now is giving a leg up to the injured Vargas who can reach the trap door. The hatch swings open Vargas disappears up into it, disappearing from sight. A few moments latter a rope ladder descends into the room, and Somerset climbs up it and out of the room.

The four remaining men staring at the ladder and then at the tiger, who is occasionally looking at them but happily consuming the bloodied remains of David Wilson and shows no sign of leaving the corpse to come to the glass room where his co-occupants are trapped. Juilio Suarez is the first to move, leaping towards the rope ladder and bounding up it, the jerking and twisting making his progression slow and almost pointless. He is halfway up before he realises that the doors have not opened. He stops, looks about and the calms his motions and carefully leaves the room via the rope ladder. One by one the remainder step off their platforms and climb upwards and out, the four doors on the glass walls were not open again before the scene went dark.