3rd Announcement

[The Organization]

A heartbeat.

Rhythmic drumming, steadily playing inside the young man's body as he slept. He didn't know it yet, but out in the world of the awake he was being watched, monitored, observed. There were people checking his vital signs, poking at him with needles and prodding him with knives. They were busy working out how every inch of his body worked, what made it tick. The good doctors were doing so many tests, drawing so much of his blood, all the while thinking he was just another specimen, infused as he was with that ever critical serum of theirs. What they didn't realize - and this was key - was that this boy wasn't just another specimen; he wasn't just a sample. No. This boy was special. Much more special than they first thought, and much more special than those babies over there, on that ridiculous island.

And yet, conscious as he was, he couldn't seem to move. It felt like there was something missing, like something very important had left his body. Funnily enough, that was one thing the doctors actually did know. It was really very obvious, at least to those who saw it. But the boy couldn't see. He was trapped in a strange and ominous darkness, like his mind was asleep but his consciousness wasn't. Familiar feelings of isolation returned, but he had no idea why. He'd died several times before, and it always felt the same - long, painful, terrifying - but something was deeply wrong this time. It was as though he was trapped between the two planes: one of the dead, and one of the living. But then, surely he would awaken soon? It was impossible for someone to survive like this, wasn't it?

These questions would haunt the boy for an age, as his mind slipped deeper into unconsciousness - the hours dribbling by. Fortunately though, his rest was about to come to an unforeseen end, courtesy of the men on the other plane. Their cunning words and unchallenged authority allowed them to stop proceedings, to halt the hands of the many busy doctors who hovered constantly around the patient. The leader of these men was a familiar man, whose presence alone shot down any quiet protests the flies may have had concerning the state of the boy on the table, who now began to stir. This brought a rare and disturbing smile to the patchwork face of the man, and after a few orders were given, the boy was drugged once more, before a handful of masked men entered the room and stole the boy away into the night.

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"You do realize what he's done, don't you?"

Doctor Marshall squirmed in his seat, trying to direct his attention away from the man in front of him. He busied himself with the files on his desk; sorting them into neat little piles while Cavery stood in front of him, leaning down to face the old, cowardly man. Fluorescent light dripped from the eyes of the mask, making the other man squint whenever he tried to look up at him.

"Marshall, look at me."

He froze. He didn't want to look at his superior, not now. Not with those eyes of his.

"I said look at me."

Marshall looked.

"Where has he taken the boy, Marshall?"

Cavery was losing the very last of his patience now, he could feel himself boiling beneath the leather. The other doctor could feel it too, the air changing with the emanating belligerence the two of them were beginning to exude. Patches of sweat swelled up around the old man's back, dampening the air. If he didn't answer soon...

He didn't want to think about it.

"I don't know, I assure you. Connelly, he- he only asked if the boy was stable. Nothing more."

The eyes behind the glass narrowed at the end of his answer. Such lies. Even children could tell that he was lying, so why was he insisting on making this so much harder than it needed to be?

"I'm not asking you again, Marshall. You've got one last chance."

Fingers tightening, he leaned in closer, resting his balled-up hands onto the desk below.

"Where did he take the boy?"

----

"Hey gang, guess who's back for the third announcement? Oh right it's totally me! Haha! How've you all been? Good? Great! Me too! Well, better than last week, no thanks to mama's boy over here. Now- don't even start with me Carl. Do not even start with me. Hey! Hey, I saw that! You want me to throw another pen at you? Huh?! Yeah, that's what I thought. Dick. Diiiiick."

Lizzie stuck her tongue out at the sound technician who'd usurped her position the last time, then turned back to the microphone, missing the two fingers he now stuck up at her from behind.

"Alrighty-roo, so, death time. My favourite time~! After lunchtime, that is. Ooh! And bedtime! I loooove my bed, seriously. So comfy. So cozy. I could literally lie in it all day long if I didn't have so many dead kids' names to read out. See guys, you're such a hassle and yet I still come up here and do this for you. I'm like... Hm. Oh! I'm like Princess Di! You know her, right? Princess of Wales? Stunningly beautiful, like me? Oh, snap, you can't see me, huh? That's okay, I'll send you all a picture of me after you're all- y'know what, never mind.

On to the deaths! Yay!

Okay so first up waaaas-" Lizzie snorted. "Joel Deitrick, who like, died of blood loss? Or something? He just sorta... died. Fun times. After that there was a crazy-assed confrontation in the black forest, which resulted in poor Pippi- what? Shit, right. Penelope Rivers getting shot right in the boob. As a girl, let me tell you- painfullll. Last of all came Keira MacDonald who made a very pretty dead person with all that smokey stuff. Is it bad that I totally wanna get some of that for my birthday party? I dunno if you guys saw, but it looked super pretty.

As for danger zones, all the ones from last time are now cleared and whatever, so here's your new ones!

The Church, Black Forest, The Ravine and The Settlement have all become no-nos, so stay the heck away from those if you wanna keep being not-dead!

Annnd, that's all we've got for today, so make sure you survive another twelve hours of family fun to hear the next announcement, okay? Have fun kiddies, and make sure one of the guys stays alive long enough to receive one of my super special mixed tapes!"

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OOC: Three days to get out of the dangerzones, mkay?