-1The Controller stood in front of a bank of computers. Every so often a moan could be heard from Mr Henderson who was lying in the corner. He would be kept alive, just. The Controller was in charge now. In control. It was ironic. Lots of things about her life were ironic. The fact that she was a former participant in The Program was one thing. She'd been in one of the earlier ones. Before everything had been fine tuned. She still walked with a limp.

The fact that she now worked for The Program was another. After she had come out of that Hell she had wanted to fight against it and everything it stood for. The Wild Seven wouldn't have her. She was too old, they had said. Was it her fault that they'd picked a collage? Then she realised that it was the Wild Seven who were the enemies. She oversaw their destruction. And pulled the trigger when he begged her not to. As the girl died she had turned the gun on him and shot him through his broken heart.

They had come for her after that. They had been watching her before and the elimination of the Wild Seven's leader was proof enough of her loyalty. She'd been trained, in marksmanship and unarmed combat, and had worked as an agent keeping the games running smoothly until her leg started playing up. After that she'd been moved to a desk job and quickly rose through the ranks. Soon she was head of a whole department and pretty soon, the whole thing. She owned The Program now. Basically.

'Locate Tom Mcdine' she barked to a subordinate. The technician tapped furiously at a keyboard in front of him for a few moments before turning round to answer.

'He's on the East side of the island. Took out a few other contestants just a few moments ago.

'Bring him in. as far as he's concerned his game is over.'

'Ma'am?' the technician inquired, 'that's not within your authority to do'

'This is my authority' The Controller replied, and shot him through the head.

The Controller turned away from the corpse and limped over to one of the guards.

'You did not see that, understood?'

'Yes ma'am' the guard replied.

'Bring him in now, but keep him alive for questioning. Shockers only'

'Yes ma'am I understand' the guard clicked his heels and turned away, motioning for others to follow. The Controller smiled, her men were loyal. She checked her own PDF and called up the list of students. It was time to see how the new arrivals were doing.

Decla Palmer, Kenzie Millar and Sian Gulliver (Female students numbers six, seven and eight) mourned. They mourned for the loss of a part of themselves. First when they were taken one of them, named because of her Ruby red hair, was killed by The Operatives. The Operatives were the collectors for The Program. Unbeknownst to them Finley had been collected by similar people. They had been in hiding after escaping from the second Battle Royal. The collars back then were external and, however difficult, could always be disabled. They'd tried examining the collar of a boy they found in a house, his severed coat hanger lying next to him, but he had exploded before they could find anything out.

They had met up and were now holed up in a lighthouse on the southernmost tip of the island. Their weapons, a Crossbow, a Dart Rifle and a Discus lay on the table. They had agreed to take alternate watches with the rifle, the crossbow trained on the stairs at all times but now all lay forgotten. They had checked their maps and looked through the names until they found his. Crossed of. Vinny had been their cousin. Not by blood but by complicated family ties (it involved some dole fiddling and lazy lesbians). And he was dead. They didn't know how he died but it was all they needed to know. Now they were determined to tear this fucking system apart. Decla said as much.

'We have to tear this fucking system apart!' She yelled and, in frustration, flung the discus at the wall. Dried plaster fell to the floor as the discus quivered in the wall.

'I know we do, but how?' Kenzie replied, 'We can't disable our collars this time and we really can't cut our stomachs out'

'Well maybe' Sian added dreamily (Sian was pretty stoned now, but no one was worried, that was normal)

'No Sian we can't' the other two said together.

They all fell into silence.

Nearby, Tom was running, as best he could on his injured leg. Voices behind him.

Behind us the voice reminded

Yes, how do we handle this?

Turn left here, the voice commanded

Now what?

Wait here, when they come past use your sword on the last one so as not to alert the others. Then take his weapon and shoot the other two.

I will, thank you

Don't mention it

Tom crouched between two bushes and waited. The voices were shouting orders to each other, splitting up to search quicker. They were in a line now, far apart but close together. He could take the first one now.

Now!

He leapt forward, the sword came alive in his hands. The tendons on the back of the man's knee were cut and he fell screaming to the ground. Quickly Tom cut his throat but the other two were alerted now. Nothing was going as planned. One of the men raised his gloved his hand and fired something at Tom. A small grey tag, it landed on his shoulder and pain shot through him. He fell to the ground at the foot of a lighthouse. As consciousness left him he saw the leading man fall, a crossbow bolt in his ear and the second man turn only to be hit in the temple by a discus. A voice from somewhere was talking. He could just make out the second part of the sentence.

'-ill him he'll lead the others to us. Who's going to do it?