We were now officially divided into two teams Grace, Sylvie, Chris and I formed the "Hawks". Karen, Dan, Wilma and Lee formed the "Ravens"
"So, who's up first?"
"I have another plan." Sylvie indicated her intention to play this first round.
"You screwed up last time, Sylvie." Grace voiced her objection to Sylvie playing the first round.
"In the practice round, both of our opponents shot Dana. So what if they tried that again?"
Chris gave an answer. "Then one of you survives the round no question."
"Which is why we'll shoot both of our opponents this round. 2-1, we win."
"Wait..." Grace found a flaw in this plan. "If they both defend, won't we lose 2-0?"
"You're coming with me then."
"Round 1 of 40 will begin shortly, please select two players from your team to play this round."
"Guess we're on our way then."
At the vault, we saw Grace and Sylvie against Lee and Dan. The croupier announced the start of the five minute strategy period.
"Grace! Come here and let me tell you my real plan!" Grace approached Sylvie to listen in on their plan. Sylvie's voice fell suddenly to a whisper. After she explained her plan in less than two minutes, they both rushed to their booths. The three and a half minutes that were on the clock diminished to ninety seconds. But that did not matter, Lee and Dan were already approaching their booths. When the doors closed with the four of them inside, the croupier officially called time and cut the camera's signal. All of the players had one minute to write down their actions. A clock appeared on the screen. 60... 59... 58... 57... The clock wound down to 0.
"We will now reveal the players' actions for this round.
Grace Black:
Sylvie Montaigne:
Daniel Schwarz: Defend
Lee Floyd: Defend
Mr. Schwarz and Ms. Floyd have been arrested. The prize for this round will be split among Ms. Montaigne and Miss Black.
"What? You're supposed to make a choice!"
"That's against the rules!"
The croupier explained the wording of the rules for this game. "The lack of action is not against the rules. There is no rule governing what is to be done in the event that a player refuses to input an action. They therefore do so at their own risk."
"That's not fair!"
The croupier responded with "It is irrational to not act in a round. Therefore, there is no reason to apply a penalty for inactivity. The sum of $300,000 will be given to the survivors, Ms. Sylvie Montaigne and Miss Grace Black." Sylvie and Grace returned to the Hawks' team room.
"Oh yeah! We're up 300k!" Grace watched her score for this game increase to three hundred thousand dollars.
"You had us scared for a bit." Chris seemed to still be hyperventilating slightly as he said this. Sylvie approached me to give me some information.
"Defend. Both of you should defend."
"Aren't they going to try the same strategy we did?"
"If you do nothing, the only way to get rid of you is to attack you. They think you're going to do nothing like we did. So they'll attack. Their game plan will cycle a dozen times now that they've been shaken up, but their mind will rest on 'attack'."
"Round 2 of 40 has started, please select two to play."
"Good luck." With almost no delay, Chris and I entered the vault and two of the booths. Karen and Schilling entered the other two booths. The round took more like thirty seconds.
"We will now reveal the players' actions for this round."
Dana Andrews: Defend
Christopher White: Defend
Karen Lewis: Defend
Wilma Schilling:
"What the..."
"I have your strategy figured out. Let me tell you now that this is far from a team game."