Day 93 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 42 (2232 words)

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DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 42

“Reaction to the latest installment in the self styled game of 'Survival of the Fittest' has been mixed with the increasing levels of interpersonal brutality making each episode harder and harder to watch. Some critics are calling for it to be banned from the airwaves and to close the sites that carry it, though every major news site does carry versions edited and unedited. Opponents call it barbaric and manipulative, supporters call it the future of the justice system, and people on the street are equally divided, but love it or hate it, everyone is watching. With me to discuss the Game as it draws to a bloody conclusion, are Human Rights Lawyer and Activist David Shelton, Media Consultant Angela Preston and the man at the center of the Darwin Phenomenon from the very start Facts Alone co-founder and Managing Director Blake Harrison, Gentlemen and Lady, Welcome to POV.”

The host swivelled in her chair to face the panellists, each one sitting with folded hands waiting for the discussion to start and ready for Kirsty Bennett to invite them into the dialogue. She consulted her tablet for a few moments before pointing her stylus at Blake and starting the conversation with him. “Mr Harrison, welcome back to the studio, not the first and I assume not the last time that you have been here in the last nine weeks, you've been involved with Darwin since Day One, what do you make of the latest episode?”

Blake sat up a little and wagged a finger back at Kirsty as he spoke, slightly annoyed but controlled. “Let me just correct you before someone gets the wrong idea, AGAIN, I and no one that we know of at Facts Alone is in any way “involved” with the Darwin entity we were chosen for an unknown reason as the receiver of the episodes, and that is the extent of what we know, we literally know as much as any of your viewers, except Darwin himself, or themselves.”

Kirsty look chagrined, but momentarily only “Yes, of course you have been arrested and interrogated only to be cleared multiple times by the authorities due to lack of evidence, which is not to say that there is any, just what the official response from the FBI has been.”

The sarcasm in Blake's response is noticeable “Thanks for making us look so less involved.” The look that accompanied it was made of ice.

“Speaking of being the receivers of the episodes, I have heard from sources in the FBI that they got this episode two days ahead of you this time, is this true?”

“Yes It is, and I think this speaks to why we were chosen in the first place, the FBI have had this episode since Friday night, and we got ours on time this morning as expected (though not always on time), and they sat on it for that long. We knew they had it, they asked us about our copy, but refused to show us what they got, and they could have shared it with the public but held on to it for forty eight hours or more despite repeated infringements on our civil liberties to get what copies we had, when we were eager to share them as long as we got them out to the public, that was our priority. I think that's why Darwin chose us, whether he's making that point with this one or not, who knows? Certainly not me.”

Kirsty pressed for an opinion. “And what do you make of this instalment?”

“What is there to make? What my opinion is makes no difference to the outcome and the viewers at home already have an opinion, otherwise they would not be watching this show. Look, another episode and another death, this is exactly what is supposed to happen right? As far as we know? The reaction to this one because the death happened in a particular way? I don't see the distinction. There are ten people dead due to this game, again as far as we know anyway, and dead is dead is dead.” Blake shrugged his shoulders and looked at the Lawyer who was agitated and waiting for his chance to jump in. Kirsty was not relinquishing control so easily though and she turned to Angela and asked her. “What's your take on episode nine Ms Preston?”

Angela smiled and narrowed her eyes, effecting a shrewd look at the host before answering, making little gestures with her fingertips, but keeping the rest of her body straight and her arms pinned at her sides, looking comfortable and rigid at the same time. “What is interesting about the reaction to this latest episode is the change on Vargas, and it seems like that this Darwin character had obviously engineered some kind of showdown for Vargas, who was by far and large becoming something of a crowd favourite, the underdog that is so close to elimination but manages to survive, limping through to the next round every time. But now he's presented with a moral dilemma and he is trying to effect change in the game, something the Darwin character does not want. You can see quite clearly that the chance to talk to other players to change the game is allowed, but when Vargas tries to stop the person from playing the game his way he is threatened and prevented. Yet when he gets a chance to stop Suarez from killing Simpson the only way to do that is by continuing the Game and killing Julio. The Bloody knife to the throat is shown in just enough detail to be shocking, but not so much to completely disconnect or disgust the viewer watching unedited. This is a clever move, at the end of all this it looks very likely that Vargas will be the 'winner' as Simpson has no stomach for playing along any more, and Vargas has shown that he will ill to survive. He's gone from the underdog to a ruthless murderer who will do anything to win, and that is what is sitting badly with the general public according to the polling we conducted today before coming on the show. Not the brutality of the death, not the death itself, but the re-characterisation of John Vargas to be a murderer, not a player.”

Angela was making the punctuation of her points with little jabs of her pointy fingers, underscoring her point at each critical junction in her speech.

Kirsty turned to David, before swivelling back to Blake, pumping up Shelton's frustrated look a little more. “Do you agree Blake?”

“I think that Darwin is a master manipulator and that so is Angela here, and you too Kirsty. This video, like all that came before it are devoid of commentary, so the opinions and intents we draw are generally out of our own prejudices and experiences, this is one of the main reasons that Facts Alone and I don't make guesses. Informed or otherwise. I think Darwin knows this, and I think he is banking on that. I get the irony of making that statement which is a guess, an informed one I think, of his intention, but there's only one way to say it. The people who are playing Darwin's Game are you, the media and the experts, not the players. Honestly I think they were all killed weeks ago and the whole thing has played out. The episodes, the individual deaths, are forgive me for being so callous, almost irrelevant.”

That was the final straw for David Shelton who nearly exploded in reaction to Blake's suggestion. “Irrelevant!?! Irrelevant!?! How dare you suggest that the lives of these innocent victims of Darwin are irrelevant?” He was spluttering at Blake and leaning towards him in his chair.

Blake was having no problems in dealing wit the man and he leaned just as far over to him, causing David to retreat suddenly as Blake snarled with smile “I did say “almost” you know.”

Kirsty weighed in “And how can you refer to these blood thirsty criminals, confessed, convicted and clearly guilty men as 'innocent victims'?”

Angela Preston interjected as David was still eyeing Blake who had not retreated his position, slowly edging back now as she added her two cents worth. “This is another master stroke from the mastermind behind this Game, there's not a ounce of sympathy in any of the players that are 'playing' the Game for no other term really describes it. And when the audience starts to show sympathy for one of the men who is starting to look like a champion, someone to rally behind, you get the tables turned and you see him for who he is. A man who is a cop killer don't forget, and the man who on camera killed Jackson, effectively killed the two men who competed to death in the water tanks, missed the key that sent Mark Rowlands to burn to death and now slit the throat of Julio Suarez in full view of the whole audience. We are not supposed to like these men, they are guilty of heinous crimes, with no doubt and one of them will be crowned the winner at the end very soon, maybe even Vargas himself, but these are tarnished heroes, they are the worst of the worst and that is the quality that allows them to survive the game after all. So I disagree with Mr Harrison, these are not irrelevant, they are very very relevant as they show us how to to think and feel about the terrible things we are seeing, but also the terrible men doing them. We all talk about Darwin like he's a criminal but he's not, he has killed no one, not really, well maybe the electric chair, they just chose the person to get fried, but it's not him its those that play that kill.”

David Shelton was still eyeing Blake Harrison and decides to change his tack “Blake here is right, an I call you Blake?”

“No.”

“Mr Harrison is right, we are playing his Game, not the 'players' we see, innocent of all crimes? No, but innocent in this framework. Darwin has no right to choose the method and effectiveness of our justice system, and he has no right to take their rights away in order to get the balance that everyone seems to think is going on here, but we are all being manipulated by this. By our fear and our distaste, and our distrust of the system. We see a system that appears to work, that tramples all over rights and makes a mockery of our law enforcement agencies, I mean the FBI cannot find this guy or any of these men. Some of these players were taken from penal institutions, without anyone knowing at all. Some of these players were legally dead, in fact ARE legally dead and yet here we see them getting their comeuppance on the television. But do you know what? It's a short step from the public persecution, and execution, or the worst of the worst, to the execution of the least of the worst, and then the worst of the not-so-bad, and before you know it? You're playing the Game.”

Kirsty nodded and allowed him to gloat over his well thought out speech. Blake was nodding, either in agreement or not but he was no longer eye-balling the man, unwilling to be a pawn in his manufactured outrage, a prop he was going to use but he hurriedly had to supplant with the actual truth, a risky proposition with an audience who preferred a more polar choice.

Kirsty checked her tablet, making that tapping gesture with her stylus again. “So what's next for Darwins Game then, thoughts panellists? David?”

“I think that regardless of the obvious abuses of rights going on here, the public have accepted this and that is the real crime here. I expect more of the same.”

“Angela?”

“I see two more episodes, I predict that Vargas will take out Simpson very soon but that Darwin will not just let it lie there, there will be a final reckoning for the winner, but it won;t be predictable as him simply killing the survivor, that does not gel with the shifting of responsibility that has been happening each week, I think that it will somehow involve public opinion, or some kind of Sophie’s Choice scenario for the winner and that death will somehow be the option that is better that then fate that they could choose.” Angela held up two fingers waggling both without moving the hand or wrist.

“A fate worse than death, that would be interesting, Blake?”

“I think it's already all over and that it won't matter what we guess or what we think. Darwin exists, this Game has already been played and that there will be more regardless.” Blake nodded at the lawyer to his left and acknowledged his opinion, no verbally and getting a small swell in this chest in response to that.

“Interesting views from my in studio experts, after the break we see how the FBI are dealing with the massive amount of information they have to sift through with Agent in Charge of the tip line, Daniel Levy. After this commercial break.”