3.
From the eighty-seven invites sent out around the world on this particular occasion, fifty-nine would be accepted. These fifty-nine would-be combatants all surrendered themselves freely and willingly for they would leave everything they knew of their previous existence behind whether or not that existence was one of incarceration or not.
What once was for each and every one of them now going forward is no more and for the one who come out victorious, any sense of normality may never again be freely attained, not that many of those going out would have much of a past to return to.
In keeping with tradition, all entrants would have to submit to becoming unconscious before being taken to a large, abandoned warehouse-like building which stands fairly near to but away from the 'Animal Island'.
Before progressing onto the island, all involved would have to endure a test. Those who accept the test and perform it to the greatest degree would receive an advantage as to when they would be brought to the island as well as having a strategic advantage regarding location too. Those who do not accept or perhaps perform least well, receive no advantage at all.
The task for those who accept is to take a razor blade and use it to cut themselves. Goes without saying though will be said that as far as the organizers are concerned, the more severe the cutting the better for each participant. Roland had no problem with this. Not long after regaining consciousness and being informed of this challenge he would take a large sharp blade in his right hand and use it to carve the word beast into his left forearm. Roland was by far the most aggressive of all with the blade.
Out of the fifty-nine people attending, thirty-four attempted to cut themselves and out of these thirty-four, twenty-eight were deemed to have cut themselves sufficiently to receive any advantage. The actual online broadcast began with the cutting task, after which all cuts would be and were treated and bandaged.
This would be the last time the participants would be treated in any way as human. Once the self-inflicted wounds were taken care of, it would be time for the program to begin to live up to its name. Electrically charged batons – stun sticks – would be and were used to direct the newly gathered 'animal' combatants into singular individual sized cages.
They could have been asked to enter the cage their designated cage, but no. in the eyes of the broadcasters, what fun would that be? You can imagine how this can only add to enrage the likes of Roland.
These cages would be air lifted to separate areas on the island where the combatants would be released like wildlife, left to fend for themselves and left to be free to destroy their competition. Upon being released from his cage, Roland first needed to change the dressing on his arm for with the severity of his self-inflicted wound and the length of time it took to be released on the island, his bandaging would appear not to be all so ... fresh.
The medical kit preplaced into his cage was one such advantage which Roland received for performing his task and it was just as well that he had this medical kit. Blood had been seeping through Roland's bandage.
Roland had only just taken a scissors from the medical kit to cut open his bandage about a moment or two before he was to be attacked from behind. The initial advantage in his placement upon the island can be seen in either of two ways, one being negative in regard to how soon his first confrontation would come and two also being negative with again coming down to this first attack.
His cutting task was supposed to provide him with advantages. It did though disadvantage could be argued with having next to no time to himself with one advantage coming with the consideration of the fact that Roland has never actually killed before so his initial moments on the island provide a great opportunity to gain killing experience before things can really kick off.
To begin with, Roland had been hit only once in the back, close to his shoulder blades. At any other time, this probably wouldn't even faze him, but since this caught him unawares it knocked him over. With Roland being exactly just who he is, this attack upon him would anger him for so many reasons. Just being knocked over was bad enough but also being caught unaware, well ... that just really made it all the worse.
Roland knew where he was. He had been getting ready to get to where he has come to for years and just as soon as he arrives there, he is knocked over. He couldn't believe he had let his guard down. He couldn't believe that someone immediately and temporarily got the better of him. As Roland got up to face his attacker, his anger grew exponentially.
The man who had knocked Roland over was easily at least a foot shorter and a couple hundred pounds lighter than Roland himself and this man began to laugh a real irritating laugh which suggested that he had just got one over on the competition's possible unbridled favourite and that this fellow was expecting to finish the bigger man off easily. Of course, it would be quite the opposite that would turn out to be the case.
A small tree branch was to be thrust against Roland's torso, and it cracked in half without even budging the big man. The small man's demeanour quickly turned to one of panic. At this point Roland's arm was properly bleeding rather than just seeping blood and the smaller man standing before him indeed knew, as he had realized, that he might just be in some real trouble.
With one heavy full on punch to the face, the smaller man was knocked out ... flat out, and Roland finished off his first adversary by driving a large sharp scissors, which he had already taken from the medical kit, through the man's chest.
Huh, not much effort had bene required. This first contender perhaps being cannon fodder, someone whose whole purpose was to receive a quick death. Perhaps in hos pre-island life he had been a banker or a businessman who stole or embezzled only to go on and believe his best punishment would be to take on this show rather than face his accusers and prison. His life may have ended there and may have been more torturous, so coming out here may have been the lesser of two evils ... still ... not a nice way to go out.
In the bigger picture of what was going on, this was this year's first kill, allowing or offering the experience of a first kill to a large, angry, young man.
