At his terminal close to the rear of the main 'war room', Dorian; the man who had both repaired the damage done by the virus and inadvertantly exposed the system to it in the first place, was totally relieved that version three was almost at its end. He'd screwed up HUGE, and thankfully for him, only two people were aware of what he'd done. One of whom was protecting him, for a reason that he couldn't figure out, and the other who he had the potential to blackmail, which would secure her silence. Blackmail, protection, murder...? None of these were things that Dorian had ever expected to be involved in.
All I wanted was to be a computer programmer, make a ton of money, and live a quiet little life in some big city. That's ALL. But now...?
Regret had racked his brain since he'd accidentally infected the system with the virus, but now that everything was seemingly wrapping up, it wouldn't matter if half the cameras were out or not. They'd simply pack up, leave, and be done with it. Maybe then, he'd be able to get out. Maybe he'd be able to talk Danya into letting him leave. Maybe...
...Yeah, right.
Speaking of Danya, Dorian immediately stiffened as the door opened up and the intimidating leader of their group and the public face of Survival of the Fittest entered the room, just on time to do his morning announcement, which would likely figure to be one of, if not the last announcement that he had to make until the game was over. There were nine students remaining on the island, and while this game had already gone longer than either of the other two, Dorian knew that Danya would only be pleased if the students fought to the bitter end. As Danya strode through the complex, glancing here and there to frighten people into making themselves look busy, Dorian saw Cecily across the room, glaring at him. Garnett had still not returned from his...'outing', and if he didn't return, then, well...quite literally, the shit would hit the fan inside of the control centre.
As he watched Danya unlock and open the door of the announcement room, he shook his head slowly. Whatever Garnett was doing, he'd better manage to come back, or he was screwed. Blackmail information on Cecily be damned, he knew that he was done for. He was a computer programmer, seen as a weakling and didn't possess as high a constitution as he would have liked. She was a harlot, a black widow. If she had to cut off Dorian's head in order to climb overtop of him, he knew that she'd do it in a second, and like it.
Reminds me of some of those kids on the island, really...she'd fit in really well there...
---
"Good MORNING, children!"
"This is your wake-up call! Rise and shine, sharpen your knives and load your guns! To everyone still alive – congratulations, you have broken the final ten of Survival Of The Fittest Version Three!"
Truth be told, even Danya was getting excited, but then, by this point, he always was. The game was finally getting down to the wire, and this point was where it became most thrilling.
"The first to bite the dust yesterday was Jordan Redfield, who picked a fight with our good old friend Lenny Priestly and wound up coming off much worse. Mr. Priestly has been on quite the warpath recently. Shame that poor Lizzie isn't here to support you any more, hm? Next down was Eris Marquis, who tangled with the wrong person and wound up deciding she'd rather off herself than have her head blown off. Very unsportsmanlike, I say! You should be ashamed... if you weren't dead, of course! Hahahaha!"
Of course, Danya was exaggerating the humour he found in the death. However, he knew that even at this late stage, that kind of remark could rile up the contestants and more importantly, the public. It was all about the audience, not personal feeling. Danya looked at the list of deaths again and came to the names of Andrea Vanlandingham and Denise Depuis. It was probably best to leave those two out, otherwise he and his group would seem incompetent. No sense mentioning that blunder where it wasn't necessary.
"Our next not-so-lucky contestant to get wiped off the face of the map was Harry Tsai. He fell victim to one of our many dangerous traps out in the Jungle. Be careful now, children! Fourth for the day was Nicole Husher, who was the next victim of John Rizzolo! Something, I might add, that was in no way the fault of Eddie Sullivan. Keep on trucking Mr. Rizzolo, you're neck-and-neck for the highest body count of the entire version!"
"The last death for the day was Adam Reeves, our tenth place finisher! Mr. Reeves bit off far more than he could chew with Alexis Machina, having been playing so intelligently up until then. Ah well, I wouldn't make that same mistake children!"
"So nine of you remain, and of course that means it's time for everyone's favourite part of the announcements: the dangerzones! From now on, the Hospital and Caves are dangerzones. It's getting down to the wire, children! Remember, eight more deaths and one of you will be on their way home. Don't let me down now!"
His duty complete, Danya shut the P.A down and returned to his chair, intently monitoring the cameras to watch as the final acts unfolded.
---
It happened almost on cue, at virtually the same instant that Danya walked out of the announcement room.
Without any warning at all, and much to the shock of every single member of the SOTF staff who were monitoring the cameras and computers, there was an absolutely MASSIVE explosion from somewhere on the island. This particular explosion was so powerful that it shook every single camera, noticably knocking a couple of them off their track, and in one instance, out of a tree and onto the ground. In total shock, Dorian could only sit there and gape. What the hell had just happened?
Achyls, on the other hand, was able to snap himself out of his shock and quickly went to the camera that happened to be on the main screen, monitoring Lenny Priestly and Lulu Altaire. Panning away from the students, it searched the immediate area but was unable to figure out just what was going on. Flipping to a camera at the now-vacant Airfield, he only had to pan to the right and up a bit to see a sight that horrified all of the staff, and sent Danya into a frenzy.
An absolutely enormous fireball was shooting up into the air, filling up the early morning sky with heat, ash, and smoke. It seemed to be coming from the north-western side of the island, and the smoke from the massive explosion was shooting in all directons, beginning to circulate around the island quickly and with ease. The treeline had almost evaporated at the source of the explosion, and from what he could see from the distant view at the Airfield, several smaller fires had started as a result of the blast. The ground had rumbled, as the explosion possessed as much force that it actually turned one of the downed aircraft cockpits on its side, and undoubtedly, every single student still alive would have felt the blast.
Flying over to Achyls' station, Danya's face was beet red and he looked FURIOUS. Almost picking the poor tech up and shaking him, Danya demanded an explanation.
"WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL WAS THAT?"
Stammering, Achyls wasn't sure how to answer, so he simply replied "I-it was an explosion, sir!"
Ignoring the obvious answer, Danya whirled around and looked straight at Dorian. "DORIAN! GET ME A VIEW OF THAT EXACT LOCATION, I WANT TO SEE WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!"
In what was possibly one of the most difficult things that Dorian had ever had to do, he looked at Mr. Danya and shook his head.
"I'm s-sorry, sir. The cameras in t-that location are still down. I b-believe that they're recording, but they were listed as a non-essential l-location, so we haven't restored the feed..."
That was an answer that Danya was not pleased with, and as much as strangling Dorian would be most fulfilling, he needed the jittery little bastard to get the system back up and running.
"WELL, GET THEM BACK UP! I WANT THOSE CAMERAS, and I want them YESTERDAY!"
Smart enough not to mutter an answer back, Dorian simply nodded, and got to work. This was one task that wasn't going to be easy, not at all. Meanwhile, Achyls was trying to find a better view of the explosion, but the airfield camera was still the best option. Turning to Danya, he shook his head grimly. "I'm sorry, sir. This is the best viewpoint that we've got."
Cursing, the blood vessels in Danya's forehead seemed primed and ready to explode. Walking over to the radio station that was keeping in contact with the four squads of terrorists that were on the island, Danya picked up the radio and blasted in to it.
"Konrad, are you there? KONRAD, I WANT A REPORT!"
...nothing. Scowling even deeper, Danya waited for a moment, and switched the frequency.
"CARVER!? DAMMIT, CARVER, REPORT IN!"
Still nothing. You could almost see the steam coming out of Danya's ears. Flipping the frequency dial again, he again picked up the radio.
"RAIGER!? Raiger, what is going on?!"
A few seconds passed.
"RAIGER?! RAIGER!"
There was no response, and this sent Danya over the edge. Firing the radio back down to the table, Danya turned and looked around, his face a contorted mask of rage and fury. The closest thing to him was Cecily Lacoste's terminal and workstation, and he walked right over, picked up the computer monitor, and smashed it to the ground, sending a frightened Cecily scurrying away. None of them had ever seen Danya this furious before...well, maybe once. Not since the infamous 'fan-fic announcement' had Danya been in such a rage over anything at all, and as he walked to the center of the room, nearly every eye was simeltaneously watching and avoiding Danya's glare. Finally stopping in the middle of the war-room, Danya spoke, his words far calmer than his visage seemed to indicate.
"I want to know what is going on, and I want to know NOW. Achyls, I want you to keep sending a message - any of our men who check in on island, tell them to converge upon the explosion! Dorian, you will work on the cameras. EVERYONE ELSE, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE! I want an answer by the end of the day, or else NOBODY IS GOING HOME!"
With that, Danya turned and walked out of the room, leaving a devastated and frightened SOTF staff in his wake. Now they were all on the clock. If they didn't figure this out, then they would face Danya's wrath, which was a brutal thing, indeed. As he set out to work, Dorian could only shake his head.
Just one more thing...maybe it's the other way around...maybe BAD things come in threes...what ELSE could go wrong?
---
OOC STUFF:
All right, now for the out of character stuff.
As usual, everybody has three days to escape from the dangerzones, or their character's collars will be detonated. The victims have one week to complete their deaths, otherwise the staff will be stepping in and handling them.
As you've all no doubt noticed, there will be no BKA or BDA prizes awarded anymore. At this point in the game it would be frivolous, especially since there's only one more public roll left (namely this one) and there's no sense complicating things. Giving out a best kill prize would also be fairly pointless, considering every student has at least one firearm to their name.
On the subject of rolls...
You're not seeing them!
We've decided to keep the game suspenseful for you. From here on out, none of the rolls will be announced publicly. Keep following every character's storylines - it's starting to get intense!