by Voss Foster
I don’t know if all my whining had any effect or if I just got lucky. Don’t really care and I’m not going to question it. I’m here, and I’m ready to go for it. They even hooked us all up with some weapons, which is better than The Mall. That whole fend for yourself bullshit they pulled last year? It wasn’t nearly as good as when they actually gave them the CESUs and let them really duke it out. I wish they were letting us find more weapons like they did in the first season, but I’m not complaining. I’m not complaining at all. I’m here and I’m awake.
Lobby of a hotel. I wouldn’t have guessed this one. Sounds like it’ll be a good place to play this whole thing out. And something about “hazards” spread around in this place. I’ve been up and about for around an hour and I haven’t heard any alarms. Waiting to see how things go, but there’s going to be a lot of people freaking out, I think.
Honestly? I’m thinking this is going to kind of be a cakewalk. Sure, I guess it’ll end up with some challenge, but I’m in good shape, I’m young, I’m healthy, and I’m willing to play this game, which I bet is more than a lot of the people in here. I know how this game works. I’ve seen it played twice, now. And I’ve seen some of my opponents. Not all of them. About half of them were gone by the time I came around. There was a girl about my age, but she looked pretty weak. All the rest were older. Normal-looking people, but nobody who really looks all that threatening. It could be that whoever was gone by the time I got up is really scary. But on the information I have now? I’m golden.
I could have taken them out right away. I considered it, even. They were out. I could have gotten rid of a lot of competition right there, but it didn’t seem right. I don’t want to be the guy who won this thing by being an underhanded asshole. That’s not what I intend to be my legacy in the public eye. Yeah, I’m on videos all over the internet. Porn star fame isn’t the same thing though. Not a wonderful legacy. Winning this, and doing it all the right way? That’s real fame, the kind that sticks.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 07DANIEL
ENTRY 001
DATE: 1/1/2076
I’m settled, now. I think it’s safe enough to take some time and try to clear my thoughts. May as well do it now. Depending on how things go, I might need some part of this tablet or another. I don’t know, yet. I don’t exactly have the tools to work on a tablet like this, but I want to keep my options open. So if anyone is reading this, don’t just assume that something happened to me if the journals cut off unexpectedly. Although in reality, the chances are pretty high that something happened to me if my journals suddenly stop, unless I note somewhere that I need to piece the tablet out for some job.
Best I can tell, this is a hotel. Not great, but not bad. Sort of right down the middle. Would that be three stars with a hotel? I think so. Not really relevant, I guess. But I passed by an ice machine and a vending machine and an elevator. None of them were working. There was another big machine that looked out of place. It was right at the opposite end of the hall from the elevator, and it just didn’t seem like it fit. Not the same sort of look as the vendor or the ice machine, all shiny and clean.
But what do I know? All I can do is hope that I’m right and that the other machine is the one we’re supposed to turn to for food. If I have to go search for it somewhere else, with everyone armed and wanting that twenty million, I can’t see it being easy. Or something I’d even really want to do. I’ve never shot a gun, so I doubt I’d be very accurate. I haven’t even tested it to see exactly what ‘non-lethal’ means. Or why it needs to have all these weird attachments.
I don’t know how long I’ll really be safe where I am. Heck, I don’t even know that I’m technically safe right now, sitting here typing this out. I could be just a few feet from death. The letter was very vague about the “hazards,” and I think deliberately so. It never said what spaces would become hazardous, or what the alarm would be. Is it even going to be noticeable enough? Can I sleep, or will I miss and it be on the end of whatever mysterious danger these crazies have concocted for me?
For us. Need to not be so selfish. Other people are suffering to. I can be compassionate to them and still not die, right? I think I can. It’s my working hypothesis until it’s disproven. I don’t want to have to compromise being a good person just so I can play this game, but I sure as heck don’t want to get dead, either. It’s a fine balancing act I have to do, and I hope that things work out. I really, really hope.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 08BILLIE
ENTRY 001
DATE: 1/1/2076
Shit. Damn. I’m not even sure what I feel. Other than terror. Terror is definitely right there. This is that damned show that everyone liked. I don’t get it, I don’t want to be a part of it, and here I am. Of course. Damn. Damn. Damn.
I don’t have anyone or anything here with me. My support system is gone. My friends and family. My hormones. All gone. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but I’m not looking forward to it. I’ve been on HRT for eight months now. I like myself. I feel right for once, and now it’s gone. Someone took it from me.
Why me? Millions of people in this country that could have ended up here. So why me? But who would I pick to end up in this situation in my place? I wouldn’t want to do that, either. That’s too much. No one should have to deal with this. I don’t want it to be another person, but I wish it wasn’t me. It shouldn’t be anyone. This show shouldn’t exist.
I tried to get as far from all the others as possible. I don’t know who all is in here, what they’re like. I do know that I have to take care of myself, and that means staying safe. I’m not a stranger to irrational hate. Maybe there won’t be any with these people. I don’t even think it matters. Even if they’re fine with me being me and being authentic, this is still some horrible stupid game where people kill each other.
I’d like to hope that nobody actually wants to kill, and that this isn’t going to be a bloodbath. But that’s not right. Even if I believed in the general goodness of everyone out there in the world, the fact is that this is the third time Evenstad Media has done this show. If everyone who’s been on was a great person, if I can run with that theory, then something about doing this made at least some of them snap and lose it.
Of course, I’m not running with that theory. I haven’t run with that theory for years. I know that people can be depraved. They can be monsters. And the chances of there being somebody like that in here are probably pretty good. It would make better television that way.
I just want to get this over with as quickly as I can and get back to my life. But what scares me is that I don’t know what I’m going to do with no one around, and I don’t know what I’m going to do when my levels start changing back again. How much time do I have before I’m expected to deal with that on top of everything else?
I took my proper dose New Year’s Eve. According to the date on this thing, that was yesterday. So I guess the door to Hell starts opening today.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 04KATYA
ENTRY 001
DATE: 1/1/2076
I woke up maybe half an hour ago. Well, I got woken up maybe half an hour ago. I thought it was my alarm clock, but I couldn’t remember going to sleep. Then I turned over and reached for it to shut it up. My alarm clock wasn’t there. Neither was my nightstand. Or anything else. I wasn’t at home in bed. I was in a hotel lobby, and there were two other people on the floor with me. A Japanese-looking man next to me and some fussy-looking blonde in a business suit across the way. They were both asleep, though I don’t know how. I’m a heavy sleeper and that sound woke me up. From the letter, I guess it means that some part of this hotel became ‘hazardous.’ Whatever that means.
I’m trying to practice calm. It’s the best way to get through a crisis. Act as though there’s nothing wrong, that everything is peachy and perfect and you don’t want to stop and just cry right where you are. So I’m fine. I’ve got my tablet for journals, I’ve got my gun
and my knife and six little black ovals I figure are the flash grenades the letter was talking about. Once I finish this up, I’m going to go try to find food and somewhere safe that I can be.
Staying calm. That’s the key. Just stay as calm as possible and everything will be all right, Katya.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 03MAX
ENTRY 001
DATE: 1/1/2076
An alarm just went off somewhere around here. I guess they were serious about that whole thing, I hope nobody got hurt with whatever happened, but I’d take that on my mind over it being in this room any day.
Could it really be random that they snatched up me and my sister at the same time? I just can’t buy that, no matter how hard somebody might try to sell it. Bet it’s going to make some real nice TV, putting us both in here. But I sure as Hell won’t be killing her, and she sure as Hell won’t be killing me. Probably not what them muckety-mucks in charge want to hear, but I could give two shits about their opinions. If they want exciting damn TV, they can just look somewhere else.
I want to like this black guy we’ve got in here with us. He’s older, but he seems to be a good enough person. I’ve always been a decent judge of character, or at least I think so. I maybe shouldn’t be chancing it, given the situation, but I can’t help but think that I’ve made a good choice. If nothing else, this lets me keep a good eye on him, and he’s probably not too much of a threat.
It was his and Joy’s turn to get some rest when the alarm went off. It didn’t last very long at all. Fifteen seconds or so, just like they said in the letter, though I don’t have any kind of clock or watch to be sure about that. When I went into the hallway to listen for it, it didn’t seem to get any louder. Not too terribly close, if I had to guess, but loud all the same. Can’t imagine how bad it would be to be in the same room as that sound. Bet it’d be enough to make me wish I was deaf. I guess I can give it to the TV folks. They don’t want us to die without a chance to move.
But really, they probably don’t want us to get done in by whatever is going on with those alarms, anyway. No, way I figure it, they just want to make sure nobody gets too complacent, sticking around in the same place the whole time. Want to flush us out of hiding every now and then so we ain’t got any choice but to be face to face with each other. Same as bringing a good birddog hunting with you. Scare the bejeezus out of whatever it is you’re looking to shoot. In this case, that means me.
Hell, maybe they made the alarm so loud so that people would want to run out, even if it wasn’t their room. It was loud enough to pull that trick off, I can tell you that much. It was quite a possibility that I could have been wrong, and it could have been in our room. But I took my best guess and, thankfully, I was right this time. I’m just hoping that that kind of guesswork might get me through the rest of this. Me and Joy both.
ENTRY END
The Inn – Sneak Preview
1/5/2076
Well, looks like Evenstad Media finally took some notice of little old me and my little old blog. They offered me the chance to take a look at some things for this season. If you couldn’t guess, The Inn is being set in a hotel. I’m not allowed to say where, or even if it’s close to where I live. For all you know, they had to fly me out to the middle of nowhere.
What I can tell you is this: it’s going to be interesting. This is just inference from what I saw, but it looks to me like they’re searching for a middle ground between The Park and The Mall. A confined space, all closed in, but they pulled their heads out of their asses and decided to give people weapons again, which is a major improvement, if you ask me, and a lot of other fans around the internet agree with me on that point. Weapons = good.
I can’t talk about all of the gameplay mechanics and new things they’re trying, but it definitely looks like the contestants will have to be on their toes. The arena won’t be as safe as it’s been in the past. Not just because of the guards around all the exits, either. Human guards, too. None of that robot crap.
I don’t know if they’ll be able to match what they had with The Park. I don’t know if anything could manage to even come close, just because of the chemistry between the contestants, and the novelty of the whole idea that first time around. But I think Evenstad is heading in a good direction, if that’s what they’re looking to do. And who knows? Maybe it will work. I’ve been wrong once or twice in my life. Might happen again.
What I know for sure is I’ll be watching, and I think all of you should be watching, too.
Phil Boggs
JOURNAL 06RAY
ENTRY 001
DATE: 1/1/2076
Shit, man. I was getting settled in, thought I might have had some of this figured out. About to write about stuff. Figured that would kind of give me a chance to clear my head if I could get it all recorded. Maybe I could start to work on some kind of strategy. Don’t know if there’s any strategy I can really use in this place, but I wasn’t going to come up with anything with my brain all cluttered up the way it was.
But then the lights were flashing, and this alarm went off. It took me a couple seconds to move, a couple more to figure out why any of that was happening at all. Whatever hazards they were talking about were coming to help add some more clutter into my head.
I probably shouldn’t have stuck around at all, should have gone as far from that place as I could. But in the back of my mind, I knew that I might not get a chance at this kind of information again. They said it wouldn’t be deadly or anything, and I was out of the room. Not far out, but out in the hallway. I wanted to take the chance and just see what it might be doing.
No chance at that. The alarm stopped and the door to the hotel room slammed closed. I mean, I guess I got one piece of information out of it: run while you’ve got the chance. I stuck around to listen, but I didn’t hear anything I could place. Some kind of humming, like from machinery. Nothing more than that.
I’m holed up in another room now. Not ideal. My guess is that there’s not a safe room. And my other guess is it’s not so random, which rooms get dangerous at which times. It seems like it’s a pretty small hotel, but I’d guess it’s still about fifty rooms. What are the odds of the one I happen to be in turning into some kind of trap? Well, one in fifty, I guess. A two percent chance, assuming I guessed at the rooms correctly.
I mean, it says right in the letter that there are cameras everywhere in this place. They’ve gotta record their TV show, after all. Is it really that hard to make the jump from recording us, probably watching us, to nudging the show along a little bit? Why me, I don’t know. Maybe they just pulled my name out of the hat this time. Because I’m that lucky, you know. Or hell, maybe it really is all random. Two percent chance is still a chance, technically.
I haven’t gone back to see what might have happened in that room. Room 2106. Writing it down so I can remember. I know it’s stupid, that I should just go back and see. I know that I’m not exactly safe anywhere in here, but I’m still working through that. Having four walls I can call my own makes me feel secure, even if it might turn into a death trap without warning. Not a death trap, I guess. Not if I believe the letter.
Of course, why should I believe the letter?
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 12TERRENCE
ENTRY 002
DATE: 1/2/2076
It seems like the alarms work. Perhaps a little too well, if I had any criticisms to bring to the table. I was dead asleep before they went off, but I never managed to get back to sleep. It’s a shame. I was actually managing to get some rest. So much for that.
Since I couldn’t sleep, I talked to Max. The lady he’s got with us? His sister. I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s got to be like for him. Having a family member involved in this with you would be Hell on Earth if you ask me. First time I’ve ever been glad Jamie’s dead. It would just be sick, having to go through this with my brother.
Max is a realtor down in Texas. I can see him being excellent at that. He’s char
ming and witty and he’s good at not saying much about himself. But I’m good at getting people to open up, even if that does sound like bragging. If you can’t brag in your own head, though, where can you?
In the end, it balanced out. I could tell he wasn’t totally comfortable with me, wanted to keep himself to himself. But I needed something to do. I don’t want to make it sound like I was just using him. Max seems to be a pretty decent guy. But cracking through his façade was a nice challenge. Not one I’ve finished mind you, but one that I’ve got a good start on. It helps that we have some of the same experiences. We’re about ten years apart, age wise, but there’s enough intersection. We were both raised while the war was still going, even though he only remembers the tail end of it. We were both around when Evenstad overtook most of the major companies, too. Computers went first, but it wasn’t much time before a lot of the major industries could feel them there. These kids, most of them don’t know a world without Evenstad.
It’s not much to bond over. Not in the real world outside these walls and all this insanity. But in here, being able to connect with someone even a little bit feels good. It does for me, at least, and for him too. He might be better at reading people, but I could tell he was a little less stressed by the time his shift was up and he went to bed.
Feeling a little bit less alone is a good thing. Unfortunately, it’s not something everyone gets. I can’t say for certain whether this is going to last through the rest of the time we’re stuck in here, but I wouldn’t mind if it did. I also get the distinct feeling that nothing around this hotel is going to be as permanent as any of us would like.
