Day 92 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 41 (2275 words)

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DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 41

Episode 8

“All observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service.” ~ Charles Darwin

The scene opened outdoors, a desert view that looked much like it could be anywhere like Arizona or Texas, anywhere there was a decent amount of open sandy land with a blue sky that stretched for miles. The three remaining players were standing in an octagon formed by wooden beams that surrounded them in a unbroken line on the ground. Simpson and Suarez both had a ball and chain attached to one leg, Vargas was unfettered by anything other than his physical condition, injured as he had been multiple times in the game so far.

Nothing happened for a while and all three men stood in the middle until the silence of the soundtrack was interrupted by a sound which they heard, and was obviously overlaid onto the video, the sound of a gong. Immediately Vargas and Suarez turned and moved rapidly away from the circle, each pulling something out of their pockets and consulting them, as if they were a compass, changing vector as they did so, though it was impossible to see from the angle of the camera if that was the object in question.

Only Evan Simpson did not move, in fact he looked at the other two, then looked upwards directly into the camera lens and calmly flipped it the bird, then crossed his legs as he descended and sat down with the ball and chain next to him.

A long lens camera showed the camp, such as the circle/octagon was, from some distance away a speck, then zoomed in rapidly on the location with a telescopic motion and brought the figure of Suarez trying to run with the ball and chain in hand. The chain was not long enough for him to carry it and run at the same time, it was forcing him to stumble, half bent over. He tried dropping it to the ground and dragging it, but that looked to difficult and painful to accomplish so he tried picking it up and moving slower, able to stand a little taller but progressing at a much slower pace.

The camera angle switched to another view, this time again showing the camp a long way away, zooming all the way in to show Simpson sitting and facing away from the view, his back directly to the camera so far away. Facing him was a a camera on a pole, outside of the circle, obviously where the first pictures were captured.

The view rotated to the fourth view, this one of another distance and another angle, zooming in to see Vargas who was looking over his shoulder at the other two, stopping when he sees that Simpson is not moving from the start point. Vargas stops himself and turns around looks back at Simpson, yelling something with his hands cupped around his mouth, Simpson just sits there. Vargas looks at Suarez struggling with the ball and chain and heading off on his compass directions, not looking back and not looking at why Vargas has shouted. He is moving much slower than Vargas, but is making time with a big head-start over Simpson. Vargas trots on his busted leg, like the skip of a person with cramp or a bad knee, but he is heading back to the camp site, while Suarez continues.

Simpson is still sitting and not moving from the start line when Vargas comes up to him and is talking to him, but Simpson is unmoved. Vargas is pointing at the fleeing Suarez and shouting at Simpson, the exaggerated motions of him shouting making it easy to read his lips, “You're going to die!” and throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Simpson looks up at him and then back at the camera, which is now looking back at him with the viewer and he shrugs his shoulders to say either “c'est la vie” or “who cares” but is dismissive or unworried by the threat. Vargas turns and lopes away again, at a pace much faster than the fleeing Suarez who has the ball and chain handicap. He only goes a few feet when he stops and pleads with the seated Simpson, who calmly shakes his head, not at Vargas but at the camera lens. John Vargas shakes his head, but in disbelief and looks after the form of Suarez.

Instead of running back along the compass line that he started going after, Vargas changes directions and runs lopsided after Julio Suarez, calling out his name while trying to catch up. The angle looking back down towards Suarez shows that he is slowing down, there is blood from where the ankle clasp is rubbing at his skin and sweat is dripping off him from the effort, the weight of the metal ball and the desert sun are taking their toll. John can be seen coming towards him a quick zoom can see him shouting out for Julio, a zoom back and Julio reacts but keeps moving forwards, speeding up a little before the pain and discomfort slow him down again.

Vargas looks back over his shoulder and sees that Simpson is still sitting there, the close up on him swims into view, a little heat effect added in post production shows how hot it must be where they are. All three men are sweating, with Suarez looking the worst of all three. Simpson is cross legged and has taken off his shirt, draping it over his head and shoulders, revealing the tattoos and insignia of his motorcycle clubs association and tribe-like social structure. He is serene and peaceful and is smiling at the camera, in control and refusing to play.

Vargas catches up with Suarez who drops the ball and draws heavy breaths, looking back at Vargas's insistence. The rest is allowing him to catch his second wind, and he listens as John is saying something, obviously in relation to the game and to Evan Simpson. Suarez nods and nods as he leans on his own knees, taking the brief respite to recharge. After a short time all of which Vargas is talking and gesturing back at the camp and back up in the directions they are supposed to be travelling, Suarez picks up his ball and chain and nods back at the camp.

Vargas starts off in that direction but Suarez double takes and heads back in the original direction as fast as he can before Vargas realises. Julio has gotten maybe twenty feet further before John realises he is walking alone, so he turns on his heels and chases Suarez again, pulling him by the shoulder when he catches up. Julio shrugs him off and barks something at him resuming his trek half carrying, half dragging the ball and chain.

Vargas wrests the ball and chain from Suarez and drops it to the ground, when Julio reaches for it John picks it up again and yanks it hard, pulling Suarez off his feet and knocking him to the ground. Vargas is pulling the ball and chain backwards, in the direction of the camp when he suddenly throws up both his hands in surrender and then there is a very visible red dot on his chest and another on his forehead. He keeps his hands up and shouts “ok, ok” to the sky, looking about himself unsure where the camera is coming from.

Wearily Suarez picks up his ball again and carries on up through his compass vector, trailed by Vargas who is talking to him at every step, pleading or begging for something and walking behind him, but keeping a foot or so of space between themselves at all times. Suarez is moving slower than before, but seems unhurried now it was obvious that Vargas could not interfere with the game.

The angle has changed to a sideways view, from one of the long distance cameras designed for the other two players, now that two of them have moved in one direction the camera has swung around and zoomed all the way in. The ground is sloping upwards now and there is a slight hill, raised up about ten feet above the flat dusty ground they were in and there is a small structure at the top.

The camera view from the direction that Suarez and Vargas have travelled towards is shown to come from a housing and a swivel ball at the top of that small shed, and it is rotating to face the camera view that has zoomed in on it. The view changes rapidly to show that there are three such structures and they each have a similar shed on them and are at three points roughly equidistant from the starting point. The final shot in the mini montage shows Evan Simpson, lying back against the octagon, like a pillow, the shirt covering his face.

Vargas and Suarez climb the small hill together and approach the shed, there is a key on a small hook and Julio looks up at the camera, nodding along to an unheard instruction as he unlocks the ball and chain from his ankle and rounds on Vargas, punching him in the jaw, knocking him backwards and the unlocking the shed door.

Vargas rubs his chin and stares at the camera, perhaps wondering why Suarez could hit him but he could not get near Suarez, though it could be easily assumed that it was to do with intention. The assault was part of the game to eliminate others, but Vargas's attempt to subvert the game was outside of that. He watched Suarez pull out a long barrelled sniper rifle, similar to the ones that they had used in the Town when hunting Vargas in episode 6 part 2. Julio also had a box of ammunition and a piece of paper with something written on it. He set up the gun with a little tripod according to the instructions he was reading and propped it on the rock, steadying it and aiming down the sights.

A rapidly zooming camera zeroed in on Simpson lying back and then in a small inset square there was a view of Suarez fiddling with the scope mounted on top of the gun, flicking a small switch, as he did so a red dot appeared on the targets leg.

Suarez took his time aiming the shot and Vargas was standing there watching him and then looking back at the camera, finally staring below in and into the doorway that was below the lens view. The angle changed to show that Vargas was leaning into the doorway of the shed, which was quite shallow and not big enough to step all the way inside. He looked back over his left shoulder and watched Suarez taking careful aim. A picture in picture inset showed the dot on Simpson moving up his leg and onto his midriff as Julio consulted his piece of paper and twisted on two dials to marginally moved the precision aiming on the sniper's weapon.

The dot moved above the belly button and slowly inched up the chest, continuing inch by inch towards Simpson’s neck and Vargas stepped away from the shed door, and moved towards Suarez very slowly, creeping trying not to be heard while Julio aimed. The inset changed from being of the red dot moving up Simpson to be from the top of the Suarez shed, showing that Vargas had a big hunting knife that was very shiny and had a sharp, curved front blade and a jagged saw on the back edge.

Vargas came right up next to Suarez who turned to say something without taking his hand off the trigger to see that Vargas was standing over him with a knife. The inset changed to Simpson again and as Vargas lunged awkwardly at Suarez, Julio tried to leap up and pulled on the trigger wildly as he jerked his arm, the red dot flicked away from Simpson and out of sight as the rifle kicked violently backwards and sideways, punching the bullet into the ground causing a explosion of dust and dirt a few feet from Simpson. Evan leapt to his feet and the shirt fell away to the ground and then he must have realised what the noise was and he went prone on the ground, shirtless and flat against the earth all in the inset video square.

Vargas had the upper hand as the butt of the rifle had rocketed backwards and slammed into Julio Suarez's rib cage, making him wince and skew leftwards opening him to a thrust with the knife that caught him in the shoulder and neck muscles, blood spurting forth from the would, but not spraying wildly. The inset disappeared and the view came from far away and showed Vargas, looking sadly but determinedly at Julio, flipping the knife so that the saw edge was out and pulling it across the man's throat in a hard swipe and then trying to dodge the resulting spray of red as the camera zoomed back to the long view and out of any blood soaked detail.

Back at the camp site Simpson was trying not to stand up and be shot but was also trying to see in the direction that the two men had gone off in and he saw nothing from that perspective. Vargas wiped the knife on the ground and then dropped it and walked away from the hill where he had killed Suarez, and he walked back the way he came to go to Simpson.

The scene faded to black.