The Experiment

            An alarm sounded somewhere outside of my dream-filled state. I casually tossed my hand toward the noise only to find myself hitting cement. I awoke with a panic and quickly looked around. I was in a decent-sized room with four other people, two male and two female. They were each waking up with a reaction similar to my own. A loudspeaker clicked on and a voice boomed out, “Welcome. I hope you had a nice rest. You are now a participant in an experiment. Your goal is to survive. The task is to follow the rules in each of the upcoming trials. Good luck!” An audible click could be heard from the door at the end of the room. Everyone turned toward it. One of the girls in the group began to cry hysterically. Another girl stepped up to console her and when composure was gained I asked, “What’s the last thing everyone remembers?” A big burly guy stepped up, “The last thing I remember is going to sleep.” Nods could be seen around the room. The loudspeaker crackled again and everyone turned toward the noise. The same voice said, “Please walk through the door. The experiment is ready.”

The same girl began to cry again. This time she was hysterical to the point of being inconsolable. A male went to console her this time but to no avail. Everyone began walking toward the door. I made it first so I opened it, peered inside, gave everyone the “all clear” head nod, and walked through. The girl was sitting at this point and clearly refused to move. Everyone left in the room tried to get her to walk through the door. One of the males even threatened to carry her through. After about two minutes of this, the smaller of the two males chose to stay behind with her. Those choosing to walk through the door did so.

“We have to close the door.” I said, “The next trial won’t begin until it shuts.” The scrawny guy nodded and focused attention back on the girl. The last person through shut the door. A loud buzzer went off, the door expelled an audible click, and two screams could be heard ringing out.

“First one across wins their life.” The loudspeaker boomed as the lights came on to full strength. In front of the three of us was an obstacle course straight out of a movie. There were pendulum saws, spikes coming up from the ground, and a rather weak looking stop on the ground. After a brief moment of silence over what had just occurred, the decision was made as to the order. The burly guy would be first, the girl would go second, and I would be last. The burly guy ran. He was rather slow and didn’t make it through the spikes. The girl gave a curt nod, had a look of fierce determination and ran faster. She made it through the spikes only to pause in an area of the course she felt was out of pendulum reach.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small remote. Upon hitting the third button, the course stopped moving. If someone living had been around, they would have heard me say, “It’s sad when the experimenter is the only one to survive.” I walked to the end of the course and out the door into daylight in search of my new targets for participants.