Hour 0: 42 Students Remaining
Day 1
12am
You always wanted
People to remember you.
You leave your little mark on
Society!
Don't you know your wish
Is coming true today?
Another victim dies tonight
-The Game by Disturbed
One Week Later...
Steve Taylor is standing on the sidewalk in the calm and quiet Suburban streets, waiting at the designated bus stop, waiting for the school bus that will take him to Lavender Downs, the location of his classes leadership camp. Listening to the birds sing a song, Steve begins to quietly hum and tap his feet to their catchy beat. After a few minutes of humming, tapping and a couple of awkward glances from passerbys, Steve's eyes are met with a glorious site, a table of apples, with one particular apple looking marvellous as it neatly rests on the top of the pile with the sun shining on it. It is the most delicious apple that Steve has ever seen. His stomach agrees with a hungry growl.
Steve quickly checks the road up ahead to see if the bus is coming, it isn't. I'll only be a few seconds, I can make it back in time. He quickly sprints up the sidewalk towards the fruit stall and the glorious apple, flinching in pain as he brings his foot down on a solid rock. But the small bout of pain isn't enough to hinder his quest for the apple. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Steve, but in reality was only a few seconds, he reaches the fruit stand and stares at the apple with wide eyes. Having skipped breakfast, he is starving, he desperately needs something to fill the empty pit in his stomach, and the apple looks set to do the job.
His hands quickly lunge for his left pant pocket, searching for his wallet, before finally ripping it free from its confinement. He quickly finds his wallet's zipper and pulls it open, wrenches out a 5 note and outstretches it to the Asian looking store owner. But all of a sudden a strong gust of wind blows in Steve's direction, causing the 5 note to fly out of Steve's hand. The note lands a few steps away from Steve on the sidewalk. He quickly pounces on it, but is too late, the note has now been blown onto the centre of the road.
Steve quickly rises to his feet and runs out onto the road after the note. It could have been Steve's lack of thought or his desire for food, but either way he didn't realise the incoming bus. The last two things that Steve heard were the beeping of the bus's horn and the sound of his body being broken in numerous places by the massive force of the speeding bus. He flys backwards and smashes the back of his head on the road, causing massive internal bleeding. Steve's dying eyes stare up at the sky.
Both of his arms are broken, his left leg is left hanging by a mere few strands of sinew, he has four broken ribs, a deep gash above his right eye and severe amounts of blood loss. Steve's vision quickly goes from the sky to darkness. He knows he is dead, he knows that this is the afterlife. But then the strangest thing happens, he discovers that he can breath. He quickly rises to his feet and takes a look at his surroundings. He then realises that he isn't in the afterlife, but in a classroom with the lights turned off. His death was just a dream.
In the classroom there are 7 rows of desks, each row containing six desks, all neatly lined up together. Steve then notices the body's lying around him. They are the body's of his fellow classmates. Each one is alive and breathing, asleep just like he once was. Henry Jukes...Carly Darlington...Heather. Steve scans along the bodies to see some familiar faces. He quickly kneels down next to Heather Jordan and grips her shoulders, their relationship having blossomed in the past week.
"Heather...Heather...wake up," Said Steve, shaking her to wake her up.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh," Moans Heather as she rouses awake.
As they both look at each other, they are both met by shocked faces. Both have noticed the metallic collars around each others neck.
"What, what are these things," Said Heather, her voice filled with genuine intrigement as she fumbles around with her collar.
"I...I...I don't know," Said Steve, trying to find an answer to Heather's question.
In the space of a minute, the whole class had woken up. Most of the class are rushing around the room looking for answers as to where they are and how they can get out. Some are just sitting on the floor, blankly staring into space, while even a few students are wearing evil expressions on their faces, as if they know what is to come.
"Everybody, remain calm," Yelled Georgie Hall, trying to gain control of the situation.
"I AM VERY FUCKING CALM," Screamed Oliver Packer, trying to become the centre of attention as he pushes Nancy O'Neil out of his way.
The students suddenly all turn their attention to the back of the room where three teenagers are sitting at three lone desks. One on the far left of the room, one in the middle and one on the far right. All three of them are wearing blank expressions as they watch the students. The table on the left contains an Asian Male. He is 5'9"ft, is of average build and has short dark Brown hair. The table in the middle also contains a Male, but he is Caucasian. He is 6'2"ft, has very short Black hair and is built like a tank. The table on the right contains a Female. She is 5'11"ft, has long Brown hair, is very pretty and has a slim frame.
"Who the hell are these dudes," Said Taylor Walters, finding the presence of the strangers discomforting.
All of a sudden the students are startled by a loud scraping sound coming from the front of the classroom, soon realising that what they once thought was a wall, was in fact a door, and it had just been opened. A tall man in his late 30's enters the room, followed by a dozen soldiers wielding M16 Assault Rifles in their arms and M9 Pistols in their holsters. The soldiers order the students to sit in a desk each. Nine of the soldiers surround the students, aiming their M16's at the students. The three remaining soldiers stand next to the tall man, as he stands behind the desk at the front of the classroom. The man is 6'2"ft, has long Black greasy hair and has a sinister grin on his face. He has three holsters on his body, one on both sides of his hip and one on his right ankle, each one containing a Colt Anaconda Revolver.
The three soldiers next to the man are wearing name tags and all look as if they are in their early to mid 20's. The one on the left is Private Hernandez, he is 5'3"ft, Hispanic and has short Black hair. The one in the middle is Private Kennedy, he is 5'11"ft, Caucasian, is wearing a bright smile and has short Brown hair. The one on the right is Private Lewis, he is 6'1"ft, African-American, is wearing a displeased expression and has short Black hair.
"Welcome my dear children to the first ever annual American Battle Royale!" Said the man, in a booming and cheerful voice, acting like he is trying to get applause from an invisible audience.
The students look perplexed. Most of the children hardly even noticed what the man had said, as they are more concerned with the soldiers aiming guns at them.
"My name is Mr Murray and today's lesson is to kill each other off, until only one of you little rascals is left standing," The man said, smiling at the sight of the children's shocked and scared faces.
"What...what the fuck did you say," Carlos Diablo said as he rises to his feet, he attempts to confront Mr Murray but is stopped by Private Hernandez.
"SIT YOUR ASS DOWN OR I WILL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF," Private Hernandez yelled, as he shoves his M16 in Carlos's face.
"Hernandez, please be kind and respectful to our guests," Mr Murray said, still wearing his sinister grin. He glances at Carlos. "Boy, sit".
After considering his options, Carlos decides to return to his seat. Hernandez returns to his position next to Mr Murray while he continues to address the class. A large majority of the class are crying their eyes out, some are just sitting their wearing blank expressions and gazing off into space and a few students are showing pleased smiles on their faces.
"As you may have noticed we have three very special guests joining us today," Mr Murray said, pointing at the three new arrivals sitting at the back of the classroom. "Ethan Flewell on the left, Noel O'Reilly in the middle and Erin Farrow on the right".
The class glance once again at the three strangers, fearing their very presence. Ethan, Noel and Erin don't give any reaction to Mr Murray's acknowledgement or the students watchful eyes.
"How many of you have actually heard of the Program before," Mr Murray asked while staring at the class, waiting for an answer. Only three of the students raise their hands. Oliver Packer, with a look of glee on his face, Rose Black, her face baring no expression at all and Nancy O'Neil, her terrified face wet with her own tears.
"Oh that is most disappointing, most disappointing indeed," Mr Murray said as he walks around the front of the classroom. "Due to the rising amount of teen violence in this great country, we have decided to follow the example set by England and Japan and decided to create America's very own version of the program".
"You...you plan to stop teen violence by causing teen violence!" Vanessa Walton said, shocked and perplexed by her current situation.
"Why am I here, I never did anything wrong, I'm the fucking model student for Christ sake, I SHOULDN'T BE HERE," Prue Quill screamed, before braking down in tears.
"Might I add that you all should feel very lucky, after reading through all of your files I discovered that a large majority of you want to be famous, well, nows your chance, were giving you all the opportunity to be forever immortalised in history," Mr Murray stated, as his ever watchful eyes scope across all the faces in the room.
The room falls silent as the students think about their impending fate.
"There is only one rule, do not leave the playing field at any time, anyone who does will be executed immediately, the collars you are all wearing will make sure of this, besides from that there are no rules, anything goes, in return for this amount of freedom we only ask that just one of you is left alive by midnight three days from now, if more than one of you is left alive at the end of the 3 day time limit, than everybody dies, understood?" Mr Murray stated, waiting once again for an answer from the crowd of students.
Reluctantly, all the students nod their heads while Mr Murray meets their reply with a wide toothy grin. All of a sudden a hidden projector casts a picture of a map on the whiteboard behind Mr Murray.
"Now this boys and girls, is the playing field," Mr Murray said, pointing at the map the way a hostess would on a cheesy game show when a prize is revealed to a contestant. "We are on an island in the middle of nowhere so don't expect any knights in shining armor coming to rescue you, now, the island is divided into zones, as this map clearly shows, each zone is associated with a letter and a number, for example, B7, the zones range from A1 to J10".
Some of the students try to memorise the map just in case this is their only chance to see one.
"Now about the collars that you are all wearing, they are 100 waterproof, shockproof and permanent, if you leave the playing field a small plastic explosive inside the collar will detonate, killing you instantly, if you try to rip them off they will also explode," Mr Murray said with a smile on his face as he watches the students cease fiddling with their collars. "Every six hours I will broadcast updates from speakers situated around the island, these updates will include the names of the students who have died since the last update and the announcement of 3 danger zones and their time of activation, for example if at 1am C10 becomes a danger zone, any student who enters that zone after its time of activation will have their collar automatically detonated, these zones will remain that way for the rest of the game, oh and 30 minutes after the last student leaves this school, this zone, F5, will become a danger zone for the rest of the game".
Mr Murray stands silent for a few minutes, letting the information sink in.
"You will be leaving the school one at a time, alternating between boys and girls, the order has been randomly selected, as you leave you will be given a day pack, each day pack contains water, food, a map, a compass, a pen, a student list, a watch, feminine products for the girls and a randomly assigned weapon, the weapons aren't just guns and knives either, so you may get lucky, or you may not, oh and you are able to take your own personal bag with you, though we confiscated anything that could be considered a weapon. Any questions?" Mr Murray said, once again waiting for a response from the class.
None of the students answer as their minds are still processing the information they have just been given.
"Great, it seems we are all set, when your name is called please come up to the front, grab a day pack and exit through the door on your right, you have exactly 30 seconds before the next contestant leaves, alright then, let's get the ball rolling".
"Boy 1 Abraham Beckham".