Day 87 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 36 (3177 words)

©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 36

Episode 7

“We are always slow in admitting any great change in which we do not see the intermediate steps.” ~ Charles Darwin.

The scene opened to a room on fire, totally engulfed in flames, through the wall of flames which obscured almost everything and made the picture swim with distortion from the heat there were shapes moving the background, the size of beams or boards burning and falling from the roof and walls. Then out of the flames runs a figure writhing and running covered head to toe blackened and clothes aflame, it's impossible to know who it is as they lurch toward the camera, before pitching over and shaking in flames and scorching heat obliterating them quickly. The scene slowly fades on the prone figure burning away much faster than expected, staying on the scene just long enough to know that they are not getting up again.

The picture fades in again and this time the four remaining players are standing around a table which has a 3D model of the Darwin Town on it, all the buildings are in white except four of the structures which are in four different colours. And each of the four men have a coloured card in their hands which matches one of the four colours in the map, the three of them are reading what is on the cards, unseen from the camera view. Vargas is the only one to be examining the map instead of reading the card. Following his head around a route in between the buildings. Rowlands is staring at his card and then at the other three players, suspiciously as they are looking at their cards yet Vargas is not.

Rowlands moves to Simpson and Suarez, showing them whatever it is on his card and they a little more reluctantly show him theirs as well, the three of them rounding the table to confront Vargas who takes a step back when they approach. An argument ensues, but without the sound it is hard to know what it is about other than something to do with the cards. Vargas takes his card out of his pocket where he had put it after a cursory glance and throws it at Rowlands, flicking end over end the card flies erratically to the floor in front of the table, near to Suarez who nimbly picks it up. He sees the content whatever that is and throws his head to the side in frustration or anger, it's hard to determine which. The other two men are pointing their fingers at Vargas and obviously yelling at him, but their backs are to the camera which is also above head height so it is hard to see their mouths moving, but the shoulders are heaving from the volume and intensity of what they are saying to each other.

Vargas is getting more and more animated and he he is shouting at them “it's not me” in an exaggerated voice that it is clear to read even for the inexperienced lip reader. He bats away their accusatory hands and points to a corner of the room, and as he does so the camera angle changes to show him pointing directly at the lens, then he moves to each corner of the room, and at all four points the angle swaps so that he is pointing directly down the lens of the camera's eye each time.

The argument continues for some time, and they are getting more and more wound up when the table in the middle starts to burn, smoking at first and then catching fire and burning finally getting their attention away from the argument. They stop arguing and try to put the fire out, taking off their shirts and beating at the flames, but as the model is dislodged there is rising from the centre of the table a gas powered plume of flame. Vargas is pointing them to a door in each wall and is telling them where to go, pointing directions for each of them and one at time they leave, the three able bodied men running from the room, which is obviously now very hot and hard to handle, and finally Vargas leaves via the nearest door to where he is standing but moves a lot slower than the other three.

The scene changes to a static shot of a button in the middle of a room, a big red button with a patent application of needing to be pushed for something to happen. On a wall behind the big red button is a television screen that dominates one wall. The shot changes three more times to show three more buttons, each on a table in a similar room but each one configured slightly differently, but all with giant screen TV's in the picture. The shots then move to the exterior of each building, and show that each of these rooms are in buildings within the Darwin town structure each one at points approximately the same distance from the final shot which is of a door in the hard wall at the end of the street where Vargas had thought he would be escaping in the previous episode.

Each of the men is running to a location on the 3D model map, Vargas is running, loping on his damaged leg towards the red building and is carrying a red card. Rowlands is heading to blue, Suarez to green and Simpson to yellow. The three men who can run faster have a head start but also have the furthest to run, the red building being closest to the tall building where Somerset’s final breaths were taken on it's roof top. They had been in a room on the ground floor of that building and the men had taken off at a run to get to those positions as that building was catching fire, some of the outside walls were already being licked with flames as Vargas limps out of the doorway and makes a beeline for a building across the square, the red building where Suarez had been perched with his sniper's nest.

Simpson reaches his building first and leaps up the stairway three steps at a time to make it to the third floor of the yellow building where his room awaits. He bursts in through the door and as he does so the TV screen bursts into life and shows four squares that the screen is broken up into and in each box is one of the rooms with the buttons, he can see himself in the bottom corner. He looks into the area where the camera is turning away from the monitor and the picture shows him staring out of the TV at the back of his own head in the room before turning back again. Simpson looks at the button carefully, not opting to push it just yet.

He is still looking at the button assuming it is a trap of some kind when Rowlands bursts into the room he is assigned to in the blue building, also at the top of a three story building. Simpson sees him run right in, the TV flicking to life on his wall as well, but he does not hesitate and slams his hand down on the big red button immediately and in that instant two things happen. Firstly a key pops up from the panel next to the big red button and presents itself to Rowlands, as he snatches it from the clip that holds it lightly in place a ring of fire surrounds the remaining three red buttons in the three other rooms. Simpson had his hand hovering in the air over the button when his ring of fire leapt upwards catching the sleeve of his shirt.

Simpson bats out the fire on his forearm, the skin blistering already and he stares at the red button and realises that it can still be reached. Rowlands does not look at the other three screens and he leaves his room with a big grin on his face, holding the key up so the camera by the doorway can see it as he exits, in much less of a rush than when he ran in. Simpson can see the button within reach as Suarez enters his room in the green building and sees the ring of fire and the big red button. Suarez stops and looks up at the monitor and sees Simpson reaching for the button, and waves his arms frantically at the other man and they both stand stock still. Simpson points at the button in front of himself then at the one in front of Suarez and holds up three fingers and nods at Suarez on the monitor until he gets a nod in return.

Simpson counts down from three on his fingers. Three, both men stand as near to the ring of fire as they can. Two, they stretch out ready to punch the button and then Simpson stops the countdown and waves at Suarez. Suarez shrugs wondering what the issue is, and then Simpson starts to mine the appearance of the key on the desk after the button push. Simpson is trying to let Suarez know about the need to get the key quickly as soon as the button is pushed. Simpson hopes for the best and restarts the countdown. Three, both men again stand as near to the ring of fire as they can. Two, they stretch out once more ready to punch the button, and grab the object that should pop up. One, they both lunge forward, but slightly offset as Simpson has launched on the 'one' and Suarez has thought to lunge after the 'go' instead, but catching on quickly and jumping in a half second behind Simpson.

This time the key appears as the button is pushed and Suarez sees his and nabs it a half second ahead of Simpson and then the fires increase in two ways. The ring of fire doubles in height and is now encased in a second ring at the same height as the inner ring of flame as a result of Suarez getting his key first. As Simpson is scorched a second time by the double ring of fire he knocks the key off the perch and it falls to the table blocking one of the jets of gas that provide the flames in the outer ring. As the key is dislodged jets of flame shoot out of holes in the wall and spread across the room making both men duck down to a crouch to avoid being singed.

Suarez exits his room still in a crouch as the Television in his room explodes showering glass behind him. The TV's in each room shatter and break from the fire one at a time but in a short period all four rooms are burning heavily. Simpson takes off a shoe and uses it to knock the key away from the jet and down to the floor, the shoe itself now on fire and burning up. Simpson throws his shoe away and picks up the key, instantly dropping it again as it has burned his finger tips, and he winces in pain and grasps at his fingers, doubling over and putting his burned hand between his knees for comfort. The room is now about half covered in searing flames and the heat is making his sweat heavily already. He steels himself and takes of his other shoe and picks up the hot key, depositing it inside the opening and using it to carry it away, cutting his feet on shards of glass and metal from from the Television as he shuffles out of the room.

Vargas arrives in his room to find that it like the others has a shattered TV and half of the room burning so harshly that the heat is pushing him bodily backwards. He can see the button through the flames, but only just and he knows that he can't get to it himself without serious self harm from the fire. He looks about and pulls up a shard of glass, a decent size from the TV screen and then aims at the button and launches it through the air. It bounces off, the button only depressing slightly at the impact. Thinking fast he takes off both shoes and inserts the toe of one shoe into the throat of the other, pushing them firmly into each other to make a single heavier weight. Still crouching as the ceiling of flames is lower and lower now, he lobs the weighted amalgam of footwear at the button, catching it square and making the button depress.

Vargas does not see the key pop up in it's little compartment and he leaves the room satisfied he has fulfilled the requirement of this round. He is shown descending the stairs and limping through the building, the flames starting to lick at the top of the stairway but not blocking it off. As he is making his way down the stairs to the ground floor a body rushes past him and up the steps three at a time, not stopping and running breakneck up towards the flaming room.

As Vargas makes his way though and down the rest of the building, the scene jumps backwards and shows Rowlands arriving at the door in the wall a few minutes earlier fresh with his key, looking around but not waiting and inserting his key as fast as possible, the door swings open to show a short corridor and another door. He tries to remove his key from the first door but he cannot and then he sees that there is a monitor on the wall and he sees the mime session between Simpson and Suarez and then he throws up his hands and waits. They get their keys and he keeps an eye on the monitor as there is no sign of Vargas yet.

A short time later Suarez shows up and Rowlands impatiently takes the key from him and opens the door, to find another door behind that and another short corridor. Rowlands punches the wall in anger as Simpson, looking charred and dripping blood from his cut up feet arrives in the corridor with his key. Rowlands tries to take the key from Simpson but the bigger man thumps Rowlands harder than he had anticipated he slammed into the wall and slumped down to the floor out of breath as Simpson slowly and deliberately goes to his door and opens it.

As the door opens the final corridor is revealed and at the end of it is another door, and in this one the final door is a full glass door and outside the glass is an outdoor area tarmacked like a driveway to the building and surrounded by grass where there are four black sedan cars parked. Rowlands slams into the glass door beating his fists on it and screaming something silent and unintelligible at it before retreating to the other two men who are staring at him warily. They all look at the screen as Vargas enters his room and they see him try to throw the glass shard and then the shoes, making the button depress.

Rowlands is tearing at his head in disbelief as Vargas leaves the room and makes his way painfully slowly down the stairs. Rowlands is crying and howling at the sight of freedom just outside the impassible glass door and with a last longing look at the black cars he turns on his heel and sprints back out of the corridor. The shots of him sprinting through the small town are interspersed with ones of Vargas coming down through the burning building painfully slowly but ahead of the flames.

They intersected on the first floor stairs and the rush of air and impatience knocks Vargas against the wall, which he recoils from as he touches it again and pulls his fingers away again fast, shaking them as if burnt. He continues on and out of the building.

In the top floor the camera changes to be from the centre of the ceiling, flames burning around it but not over it as it has an eye of the storm view of the room looking down over the button which is pushed and the key which is on the cradle next to it surrounded by flames on all sides. The walls are not just jets of flame any longer the material itself is crackling and bubbling, burning on it's own caught fire from the gas jets in the walls. Rowlands bursts in and dives head-first over the table swiping downwards as he does so, dislodging the key and sending it flying backwards to the floor behind the table. The size of the jets do not increase this time as the key is moved but the walls are now ejecting flames at all levels all the way to the floor, leaving only a thin corridor around the table that is clear for escaping.

Rowlands hit the opposing wall head first, stunning himself as he did so and getting the first full jets of gas powered flames into his hair and eyes as he slammed into it. The panic over took him and all thoughts of the key were lost as he rolled in broken glass and melted plastic from the TV that had fallen where he landed, batting furiously at the flames and trying to stop himself burning. The flames on him were now out but his hair was a melted, matted mess and his face was burned and the skin was blistering, one of his eyes a morass of red flesh, either torn or bleeding from an injury. Scattering the pieces of television under him he is feeling about for the key and not really seeing it, the view from above show him frantically trying to find the key which is directly to his left but he apparently can't see it.

The floor is burning, the table in the middle now breaking apart and pieces of the wall and ceiling are falling down on him as he still continues to feel around. With an accelerated gas influx the burn has spread so rapidly that the whole room is on fire. The episode comes full circle as the scene is now the same as the very opening of the episode, and this time as the beams and structure of the room are falling into shot, the running, writhing body burning to death is Mark Rowlands.

The three remaining players are watching this play out on the monitors in the corridor, each of them pale and shocked by the visual of watching the other player burning to death in desperation to get out. They stare out the door of the corridor at the cars and as they are doing so a curtain falls from out of sight to cover the doorway, to obscure their view and matching the episodes fade to black.