Dangerous Game

Dystopian Comparisons

The two of them sneaked around the halls, careful not to make any noise. Jaz looked glad for the excitement while Lucy was desperate to find out what had set the alarm off this time.

“Shh, look,” Jaz said, peering over a balcony. A man walked in from the outside, dressed in all black. The outfit was strange, but it was plastic-y in parts. Maybe it could be decontaminated easier. The man removed his man to reveal long blond hair and Jaz bit her lip. Lucy watched as Ms. Venable greeted him. They spoke fairly quietly, and it was hard to make out most of it.

The man glanced up in their direction and they pulled back into the shadows.
“He’s kinda hot, isn’t he?” Jaz whispered and Lucy hummed and nodded.
“Not bad looking at all.”

“What are you two doing up here?” They turned to see Ms. Mead looking rather unimpressed with them both. Lucy spoke first.
“Jazmin was trying to find me, Ms. Mead,” she said, forcing a smile on her face. “She was reminding me again how I’m meant to be in the music room.”
“You better head there then,” she said. The woman wasn’t convinced of the quick lie, clearly. They both looked too suspicious pressed against a wall in the shadows for that. “Promptly.”
“Of course,” Jaz said, grabbing Lucy’s hand and pulling her along.

They’d barely been in the music room for five minutes when Venable announced a meeting, with the added extra of there being a guest.

Sitting down next to her friend, Lucy folded her hands in her lap just as the doors opened. Shoes clicked on the floor as the blond man from earlier walked through. He had his head held high as he circled around them to where Ms. Venable stood in front of the fireplace. He stopped beside her and tilted his head slightly. For a brief moment, Ms Venable stayed still but she moved from the centre to stand by Mead.

“My name is Langdon and I represent the Cooperative,” he started. He held his hands behind his back and stood with practically perfect posture. Curious, Lucy sat up and listened more carefully while Jazmin still slouched, barely paying attention. “I won't sugar coat the situation. Humanity is on the brink of failure. My arrival here was crucial to the survival of civilised life on earth. The three other compounds in Syracuse, New York, Beckley, West Virginia and San Angelo, Texas have been overrun and destroyed. We've had no contact from the six international outposts but we are assuming that they too have been eliminated.”

Venable and Mead shared a glance. They probably thought their strict measures were for the best now. They could relish being smug later.
“What happened to the people inside?” asked Timothy. Michael looked at him for a moment before answering.
“Massacred,” he said. No one failed to notice the strange way he said it, as if it was gleeful for him. “The same fate that will befall almost all of you.”
“Almost all?” repeated Mallory. Almost everyone turned to her and she nervously looked away.
“In the knowledge that this very moment might occur, we built a fail safe,” he explained. “The Sanctuary.”

“The Sanctuary?” Coco looked at the man as if he had suddenly grown a second head.
“The Sanctuary is unique,” he continued, ignoring the woman. “It has certain security measures that will prevent overrun.”
“Excuse me sir, what measures? Why weren't we given them?” asked Ms. Mead. Langdon raised his hand to silence her. Lucy smiled to herself as the warden was put in her place. Still, something seemed familiar about the man.
“That's classified.”

Lucy heard Coco scoff at him but she ignored the woman and focused on the stranger. Ms. Venable did not look too happy with the stranger, and his clear superiority over her.
“All that matters is that the sanctuary will survive so the people populating it will survive so humanity will survive.”
“Who are the people who are populating it?”
“Also classified,” said Michael as he stared at Andre, clearly wanting people to stop interrupting him. “However, I have been sent to determine if any of you are worthy and fit to join us.”

Coco and Gallant whispered to each other like excited teenagers in an assembly, as did Dinah and Andre. Lucy refrained from laughing at them but she realised she would probably chatter like a silly teen if Jazmin wasn't half asleep and actually listened to Mr. Langdon.

“The Cooperative has developed a particular and rigorous questioning technique we like to call... Cooperating,” he said. He spoke like he was speaking to children, although Coco did act like one. Rolling her eyes, Lucy rested her head on her hand and watched Ms. Venable's eyebrows raise. “I will then use the information gained to determine if you belong.”
“What is this?” asked Coco, clearly fed up with Langdon. “The Hunger Games?” Jazmin suddenly sat up with wide eyes, now interested in the conversation.
“We’re not being forced to kill each other,” Lucy said. Then she quietly added, “Not yet.”

“This is bullshit!” she declared. “I paid my way in here and that is the only cooperating I'm doing.”
“You don't have to sit for questioning.”
“What happens if we choose not to?” asked Andre.
“Then you stay here and die,” he said bluntly, turning away from Coco to Andre. The people in purple exchanged worried glances as did Venable and Mead.

“I volunteer to go first,” said Gallant as he raised his hand. Jazmin whistled the four note song from the dystopian novel. Covering her mouth with her hand, Lucy smiled at her friend.
“And so you shall,” said Michael with an eerie smirk on his face. “The process should only take me a couple of days so you won't be kept in suspense forever. For those of you who don't make the cut, all is not lost. If the worst should happen and feral cannibals come knocking...” Langdon pulled a vial from inside his coat with crystal-like pills inside. “Down one of these. One minute later, you fall asleep and never wake up.”
“Poison,” Lucy muttered to herself. How lovely. Judging by everyone’s expressions, she knew she at least agreed with them on that. It was ridiculous.

“I look forward to meeting each and every one of you.” His hand with the vial in dropped to his side, the crystals rattling inside. He walked out the opposite way, past Ms. Venable and Ms. Mead. It was silent for a moment, then Venable hit her can on the ground and the Grays went back to work and they returned to whatever it was they did when they weren’t bossing them around.

“Well, smooth move asking to go first,” said Coco, with a look at Gallant.
“There's an old actor's adage,” said Evie. “Either go first, or go last.”
“You're not going anyway,” Coco snapped, a look of disgust on her face.

Sensing the conversation was heading to an awkward place, Lucy quietly told Jaz she was heading back to her room. Standing, she managed to escape the situation without anyone verbally questioning her. Later, she might have to answer questions or deal with their judgements but for now, she had dodged the confrontation.