Watchers

Chapter 18: What is this place?

Sasha follows Daniel as he walks the perimeter of the room, his hand on the screen, and Francie trails behind them both, saying, "I'm telling you there's nothing hidden in the screens."

"And I'm telling you that there's a door around here somewhere," Daniel insists. "If not the screens, then maybe a trap door beneath the astroturf."

He stomps his foot on the ground as he walks, but he doesn't take his hand off the screen. Whenever his fingers find a seam, he pauses and pushes on the screen, setting his jaw as he absorbs the warning jolt of electricity, then trying to get his fingernails beneath the seam to pry open doors that aren't there.

They make it all the way to the back of the house, where there's a large yard - all bright green astroturf - as well as a patio and even a swimming pool. Sasha asks Francie questions while they walk, trying to formulate a plan to survive this place.

"So we're on a reality show that no one comes to willingly, and the only way to leave is to win or be eliminated, but you said we don't want to be eliminated," she says. Taking a deep breath, she asks, "Why not?"

Francie is quiet for a minute, long enough to make even Daniel pause and look at her, and then she says, "There's a good chance you won't make it out of here alive."

"What?" Daniel asks.

"It's only a rumor," Francie says, "although it's a pretty well-circulated one. The clues are all there pointing to the fact that the real sport of The Elimination Game is the viewers voting on which one of us to kill. Of course, the show's producers can't just say it out loud or they'd be immediately arrested, but we're all pretty sure it's true."

"That's insane," Daniel says, turning back to the wall. "It can't be true."

"Just before I entered the house, a video was circulated showing one of the previous contestants being zipped into a body bag and loaded into the back of a black van," Francie says. "You two really have never seen the show?"

"I've had some more important things going on," Daniel says gruffly. "No time for TV."

Sasha shrugs and adds, "No access to it. So how do we keep ourselves from being eliminated?"

"Be likable or be awful in an interesting way," Francie says. "If everyone loves you or they love to hate you, then you've got a good chance. Taylor really has the market cornered when it comes to being an asshole people can root for, so if I were you two, I'd try to be likable."

"You said you've been here twelve weeks," Sasha says. "How have you done it?"

Francie laughs and says, "I'm fourteen years old. At the end of the day, nobody wants to look in the mirror and say they voted to kill a kid."

"Jesus," Daniel says, then goes back to walking along the wall.

They're almost to the other end of the back yard when Francie says, "If I were you two, I'd play up the fact that you're a couple."

"We're, umm, not a couple," Sasha says.

"It doesn't matter," Francie says. "You came into the house together, so the viewers will assume that you are - that, or brother and sister. Are you?"

"No," Daniel says.

"Well, however you decide to play it, make sure they know how much you care about each other," Francie says. "There was one other time when they brought multiple people into the house at once. They were triplets and they did pretty well for a while."

"A while?" Sasha asks, afraid to hear what she already knows must have happened to them.

"People didn't want to separate them," Francie says. "They made it four weeks together, until one of them cracked up one day and started screaming at the cameras, telling the viewers how much she hated them and how sick what they were doing was. Once she was eliminated, the other two stayed a few more weeks... until their mourning became boring and people found it easier to vote them out."

"They all got killed?" Sasha asks.

"Don't use that word," Francie snaps. "There's no faster way to get the whole house put on punishment."

"Fine," Sasha says. "Eliminated, then."

"Two of the three did," Francie says. "The third one's still hanging on. Her name's Melody, and she doesn't talk much to the rest of us anymore."

Daniel suddenly kicks the screen, stumbling back as it shocks him and letting out a frustrated groan. The image distorts in a spider web pattern and Francie jumps forward to pull him away from it.

"Don't," she says.

"Are they going to eliminate me for that?" Daniel asks. He's getting angry, and Sasha puts her hand on his arm in a futile attempt to steady him. "It sounds like it's inevitable, so I'd rather just get it over with!"

"Daniel," Sasha says, trying to find the words to calm him down and coming up empty. Then they hear the familiar whir of a Watcher drone, and she looks up at the sky.

It's lifting off from a high point on the roof, flying straight for them. Sasha's heart begins to beat fast in her chest, and she tries to pull Daniel away from the cracked screen.

"Be apologetic," Francie tells him in a whisper. "Tell them you're sorry and you won't do it again."

"Screw that," Daniel growls, and then the drone is hovering in front of them.

Sasha has only seen one this close up twice, and both times her blood was pulsing so hard in her ears she thought she might pass out. A similar feeling is threatening now as a robotic voice demands, "Do not touch the wall."

"Or what?" Daniel says, mule kicking the screen and creating a second, overlapping set of spiderweb cracks across the display.

He doesn't get a chance to do it again, though. A jet of liquid shoots out of the drone, splashing Daniel across the face and splattering Sasha beside him. It burns her skin and he drops to the ground, gasping and retching into the fake grass. Then, its subject neutralized, it lifts off and goes back to its sentry position on the roof.

Sasha drops to her knees, using the hem of her dress to try and wipe the burning liquid from Daniel's face.

"The damn thing pepper sprayed me," he gasps between great, heaving breaths.

"Is it a Watcher drone?" Sasha asks Francie as the powerful odor reaches her eyes and tears begin to stream down her cheeks.

"Not exactly," Francie says. "It's the same model, but this one is controlled by The Elimination Game. They use it to keep us in line. Daniel's going to have to do some work to win people over again if they see that he was maced within an hour of his arrival."