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DARWIN'S GAME
By Wayne Webb
CHAPTER 48
“Moral or Immoral it doesn't matter.”
“How can you say that? That it does matter is
the very definition of morality.”
“It does not affect the outcome, you can trot
out your pithy soundbites from your holier than thou pulpit, but it
won't make a difference to the game. It'll only make a difference to
you.”
“And if I do nothing? What's that saying 'all
it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing?'”
“Okay, first. You? Good? Not even. And B, do
nothing, do something, do anything it's irrelevant. Your righteous
anger is just serving to increase your blood pressure and nothing
else.”
“So you're saying that we should all stop
fighting it and give in? Take the cowards way out? I won't be able to
live with myself, and I'm surprised that you could either. I'm not
angry, I’m just disappointed in you.”
“I'm sure I can live with your disappointment
in me, it's your approval of me that would keep me up nights worrying
where I went wrong.”
“Who did you vote for?”
“I voted for both. I went on to two different
websites on two different days from two different computers and voted
for Simpson on the first day and Vargas on the second.”
“How does that make any sense?”
“How does any of this make any sense?”
“Yeah, good point. Did you choose Simpson and
just change your mind, or was there some other thing you had in
mind?”
“Well I didn't want to not vote, that seemed
wrong to condemn them by not getting involved, it was … opting out
just felt wrong. But all in all I can't choose between them to decide
who dies, and I think that loads of people are splitting their
votes.”
“But voting twice has the same net effect as
not voting at all!”
“No it doesn't. It's massively different.”
“How? How is it massively different?”
“Because I voted, is that not obvious? You
can see the difference, in one I vote and the other I do not.”
“But you moron, it has the same effect!”
“No it doesn't.”
“Yes, yes it does! It's a zero sum, a no-win,
a Kobayashi Maru if you will.”
“A Kobayashi Maru? Really? You go Star Trek
to prove your point?”
“You like that?”
“Idiot.”
“Well maybe, but I understand that it....”
“No, you don't understand. It's not about
winning or losing, it's not about Vargas or Simpson. It's about me.
It's about being able to Play the Game not have the Game Play me.”
“Clear as mud, though it sounds very Zen .”
“If I don't vote, it's me telling myself I
don't care and I don't count, but if I play the Game the way it's set
up then I still have the guilt of participating, not knowing the
outcome it'd be like taking a 50/50 bet on the winner or loser. I
have a one in two chance of feeling guilty or feeling better than the
majority because I backed the right person. Now that, that is a sad
proposition. If I opt out then I am avoiding responsibility as a
Human Being. If I vote for one over the other I am condemning a man
to death, whether I win or lose that vote I have chosen to ask for a
man to die. If I don't chose and then just take a punt, randomly,
then I am gambling with another human being's life. If I vote for
both? Then what I am doing condemns no one, helps me be better with
having to engage in the Game, and on my terms. What I am doing is
betting, on the outside chance that enough people will reach that
decision and vote with me, on both men and refuse to choose.”
“That won't happen, people are voting, people
are choosing. You credit 'people' with thought processes they are not
capable of.”
“Maybe, but how can we hope for an outside
chance to happen unless we actually HOPE that it will?”
“That's very naive.”
“Thanks.”
“What would you do if it was someone you
knew?”
“It's not though is it.”
“But each of these guys right, each of these
guys yeah, they have you know like families and friends and shit too.
They ain't like you know, characters in a movie or nothing, they're
people.”
“They're fucking scumbags is what they are.
Let them die.”
“Who's that guy that you, you know that guy
who...?”
“Leroy? You mean the car guy?”
“Yeah, yeah the car guy Leroy, that's the one
yeah. What if it was Leroy?”
“Leroy didn't … oh wait yeah he kinda did didn't he? But he's not a … these guys are evil fuckers, they deserve the shit they go through.”
“I bet that that girls mother, I bet she, she
would not be unhappy to see Leroy in the Game would she.”
“Well she wouldn't but he, he didn't mean to,
it was an accident. He had been drinking, he can't really help
himself when he's been drinking, that's different!”
“Yeah, and some of these guys, these evil
fucking scumbags, I bet that their lawyers, their families and their
friends all say similar things about them too.”
“Well maybe, maybe. No, I don't agree. Look
at these pricks, look at them and tell me that they don't deserve
it.”
“They don't deserve it.”
“Oh come on now you're just arguing with me
for the sake of it, stop being such a douche-bag.”
“No I mean it. I can't help but look at these
guys and I think about me. I could be on the next episode, I mean you
and I both, we have both killed people.”
“That's our job. You can't prosecute soldiers
for killing people. That's not fucking legal. No fucking way.”
“I know that, I also know that you can't just
execute people for being a scumbag, not even being an evil scumbag,
not even in Texas, there are laws. But these laws are nothing but a
thing to Darwin are they? And are all your kills righteous?”
“Yes.”
“I … I don't know.”
“My kills are righteous because what we are
doing is right.”
“And you think Darwin is right too? You just
said you were ok, you'd pull the trigger yourself. But those aren't
righteous kills, not at all. They are people, man people. Americans.”
“The wrong kind of people, man you need to
harden the fuck up.”
“I can't believe anyone gave you a gun.”
“Fucking A they did.”
“Simpson is a bad boy, he's tough and he's
kind of cute.”
“And Vargas is a drug dealer, and a cop
killer.”
“Plus he's got funny eyes, have you noticed
his eyes? They look kind of sad, that's not sexy.”
“I don't think that sexy is what most people
are worried about.”
“Well if I have to vote I'm going to pick the
one I like right.”
“Is that how it works?”
“You can't tell me how to vote, this is a
democracy and I have the right to make my own choice the way I want
to.”
“No I mean is that how it works, you vote for
the person you want to live or the one you want to die?”
“I .. I don't know. Who should we ask? Text
Becca, she's a braniac she'll know.”
“Ooh good idea, she'll totally know. Do you
think we should ask her what she thinks, you know like who to vote
for?”
“Eeeww no, she's going out with Dominic, what
kind of taste is that? No way, nuh-uh.”
“I don't think either one should live.”
“You want them both to die?”
“Yes.”
“Dude that's cold.”
“So?”
“Well I … I mean we're kind of choosing who
should live or die, and you don't think that this shit is fucked up?”
“They killed like so many people, they killed
people to get where they are. Both of them.”
“Uh, Survival dude, heard of it?”
“None of these people should walk away. It's
fucked up that they are even alive in the first place.”
“Dude that's dark.”
“They're all guilty, no one is denying it, no
one is saying that they are not, they are a drain on the tax payers
dollar.”
“A drain on the tax payer? What the fuck man?
Who are you? What the hell have you done with my friend?”
“You … you don't... don't know. I don't
want anyone to win. I wish they would all just die and it would be
over, no more waiting, just let it be done.”
“Are you... crying? What the fuck dude?”
“Fuck off. Leave me alone.”
“What do you think will happen to the
winner?”
“Dunno.”
“Well they will be famous right, where can
they go that people won't know who they are and what they have done.
Winning could still be losing. You know what I mean?”
“Wow. I had not thought of that. It's like
the loser is the winner, that's so … trippy.”
“I know right? If you win, where do you go
and where do you hide?”
“Back to prison I guess. Would they do that?
How fair is that, you fight for your life and then go back to prison.
And they would get him for killing the people in the game, I mean
either one of them killed someone on the show right?”
“Yeah, that's... something to think about.”
“Wow, what would you do if you won?”
“I don't know, write a book maybe? Life on
the inside of the Game, but I can't think what that must be like.
Would this Darwin guy even want the winner to live? Would you let
someone away that had seen you?”
“If he has seen him that is.”
“Yes, yes that's the thing. It would be cool
to know all the stuff too. I'd totally get that book. I know winning
could be a bad thing in one way, but also in another you'd be totes
famous and uber rich, for reals and for life.”
“They have laws against that kind of thing
though. You can't write a book and make money from it if it is
proceeds from a crime or something. I read that somewhere. They did
that with the guy who did his wife and did the book from jail.”
“Right I remember that. Can't make money,
can't not go back to jail, can totally get prosecuted for new murders
and man-slaughters or whatever they charge you with and never ever be
free of it. That's some heavy stuff to lay on someone.”
“Especially after having to do all that stuff
and like not die for however long this thing has gone on for.”
“Yeah, maybe winning is not what you want to
do.”
“I know, so who did you vote for?”
“Whats the score?”
“The score?”
“On the voting, who is winning?”
“Uh as far as I know it's neck and neck, as
soon as someone edges ahead it's like the next batch swaps it or
settles it. There's a website somewhere, there's loads actually,
trying to predict on some bullshit mathematical modeling thing. Who
did you vote for?”
“I haven't voted yet and I won't until I know
that my vote is going to count.”
“Of course your vote is going to count.”
“No, I mean that I don't want my vote to be
wasted if the guy I chose is going to lose.”
“What are you on about? Of course your vote
counts, they all do, that's how this works. Assuming it's not rigged
in which case what ever is what ever yeah?”
“No I mean I don't want my vote to be wasted
on a guy if he's only got like twenty percent of the vote and has not
chance of winning.”
“Why?”
“Well I want to pick the right guy. I don't
want to vote for the loser, that's a waste.”
“Do you think before you open your mouth?”
“Whatever, I think I'll wait until voting is
closer to closing before I choose to give my vote to someone. I don't
want MY vote to be wasted.”
“The fact that you have a say in this is
already a waste.”
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