"Exactly right. The Nunnlifs will kill us quickly enough; killing what humans remain only helps their cause. If we put another to the chair, we need to have a good reason. But we're going to have to sometime, or they'll pick us off one by one until they outnumber us." Sven strides to the water cooler, picks up a plastic cup, writes SVEN on it with a permanent marker, then fills it with water and takes a drink, setting the empty glass on a nearby table. "If anyone wants to test me, there's an easy way. I have nothing to hide."
Only way left to test people is to fry 'em'. The creatures got a geneticist. Fat lot of good that'll do us!
Mike stares at Clive in open wonder, confusion plain on his face.
"Yes, there are two geneticists left, a human and a creature. If we unknowingly vote for the last remaining human geneticist, I dare say the creatures are well on their way to victory. Now, in that scenario, I assume the geneticist would produce evidence and proclaim their position, sparing them from us. That will lead to the nunnlifs targeting the geneticist. I know there is someone among us who could offer protection, but for how long, eventually a misstep would happen and the nunnlifs would attack. Or, by sparing the geneticists from the happy little mob we are becoming, we very well may instead descend upon the very person I am talking about and accidentally kill the only person who could protect the geneticist, which would basically bring an end to this crazy ride!" Mike gasps for air after his long winded rant, draws a deep breath and begins again, "Or I could just be a wimp who does not have the stones to do what needs to be done and am grasping at logical straws in a desperate attempt to keep from justifying a vote. We may get lucky instead of unlucky, so I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is the classic Do you feel lucky, punk?"
Are you slow Mike? Elora was a geneticist! And the creatures killed her!
Mike whispers to Dash while softly patting him on the shoulder.
Oh Dash pales, The creatures know I'm not a geneticist! They'll kill me next!
"Well, I'm out of ideas. Somebody has to take charge here. And by that I mean somebody without tentacles."
Russ begins rifling through Elora's recipes and other documents for any potential clues.
Following suit with Curtis, Avistan begins to rummage through Elora's papers. His face turns to a look of disdain when he doesn't get the instant gratification of finding anything interesting. Quickly giving up on the search he moves to Elora's handbag, picking it up and spilling the contents over one of the nearby workstations. Combing through the contents there, he does find something interesting. A photograph.
"Hey Mike, why is there a photograph of you in here with little hearts colored all over it? Were you and Elora an item?!"
"Laudable sentiment, Duke, but that's risky too. The creatures will continue to pick us off one by one until they can over power the remainder. Maybe we can try a test. Suppose the creatures react differently to alcohol than normal humans. Let's all have a few drinks. Even if we learn nothing, we'll die happier."
"Hey Mike, why is there a photograph of you in here with little hearts colored all over it? Were you and Elora an item?!"
"Oh Elora, you should have let me know for I was drawn to you as well." Mike says quietly before replying to Aistan, "No sir, we where not an "item". She was a woman of even more talents than we knew, and I wish I could have known here better, but we were never more than friends."
Mike grabs a bottle and finds a quiet corner to lose himself in thought.
Avistan reaches into the handbag and pulls out another photograph:
"Hey, There's another one. Its a photo of me covered in stink lines and X's for eyes."
Avistan is not amused...
"I don't see how getting s%**faced is conducive to our survival," Alexander says in earnest, looking at Jimmy and the Duke as thought they were flailing tentacles around. "If anything, it just makes us easier prey. Stupider prey, at that. We should be drinking water. Keeps the brain juices flowing."
"Look, I'm no stranger to acts of wanton violence. Being former military, and all. I mean sure, I've busted down a few doors, cracked a couple of skulls, and torched some bad guys in my day. But in my professional opinion, frying some random person's brain isn't the answer right now. We need more I-N-T-E-L before we act."
Sven watches Alexander carefully when the survival expert starts talking about drinking. At the word "water", he relaxes. "As long as it's really water, I agree. Nothing else. I've seen some of your shows, man."
"I too agree with Maxerson. Alcohol is an unproductive waste of time."
Avistan ponders:
"Could the Nunnlifs be tricking us into lowering our defenses by means of alcohol?"
Avistan glares at all the drinkers in the room with suspicion.
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"HA! If they are, they started at 14 fer me and have been trickin me at leas once a day ever since!"
Russ chuckles over the two photos Tharp located in Elora's notes.
"You've never looked better, boss."
Then he gives a puzzled look over some of the papers.
"The lady sweets maker was writing a paper on how bad cheese is for you. Huh, what a funny thing. You and her got along, didn't you Clive?"
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"No one is speaking of drinking to excess, though in such a time as this men have been tempted."
"Once again we are wanting blood, I again refuse, I instead say we work together and tie the vote so that neither man be subjected to such an unwarranted death."
"Who else will help us stop a needless death?"
Needless death? shouts an incredulous Dash. There are three creatures picking us off. That's the needless death! And you're being REAL calm about all of this! Why're you protecting Jimmy!?
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"As far as I can tell Jimmy is being targeted for his economic status and there is naught else against him, the real question is who is helped by making certain the executions go forth?"
"I am in fact protecting us all, and putting my faith in my fellow man to be able to identify the creatures and combat them. We have lost one of our geneticists already, and killed an innocent man, our track record speaks for itself!"
"And yes cool heads prevail, unless we just want to give up now and wire us all together into that device."
"I understand what he's trying to do, Dash. He's trying to keep us from making any more mistakes and killing another human. Because you're right, the creatures are picking us off. It does't help if we keep killing ourselves off, which we will if we choose the wrong person." Sven takes another cup of water from the cooler and plops into a chair with his back against a wall. "That means we have to choose the right person, who isn't a person anymore. All of us are doing a good job at being ourselves. So the creatures are good mimics. Elora might have known, but she's gone. Do you think her warning about cheese is really a warning about Clive?"
"We have no data, so right now it's a simple matter of probability. We have an 8/11ths chance of killing one of our own. I believe that Duke Leto is right and that we shouldn't kill anyone yet. Perhaps we can figure this out."
We gotta pick somebody, or three of us are gonna be exploded from the inside out. The last geneticist speaks up and they're gonna get it next from these freaks! Best case scenario only two of us die and we get one of these monsters!
Dash's eyes narrow You two are Real buddy buddy, you know that? he says to Jimmy and Duke.
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"Not at all, I merely state the obvious and would make the same attempt for anyone in this position, I in fact argued against the first killing, and now the second, it will take time for the genetics worker to obtain results, and he or she should be able to guide us in the third or fourth time without exposure."
"If you suspect buddy-buddy, then look at Russ and Tharp. They even have a club handshake."
"Duke is right. I mean, when it comes down to it, at this point the creatures are the only ones winning as we kill each other off in suspicion...unless we guess correctly somehow."
When Jimmy mentions the handshake, Russ gives a wry twist of his lips.
"You know how it is, Jimmy. You got to give the boss their little idiosyncrasies without complaining to keep 'em happy. A happy boss don't ride you too much if you slack a bit."
Russ rubs his eyes tiredly. "You guys want to vote and don't want to vote, but it feels like the people who vote are suspicious if no one votes. And those who don't, they assume everyone voting must be a baddie to want to create a death."
Russ finds some other expensive thing to sit on and puts one booted foot up on a protrusion on the same machine. Russ raises a hand.
"So let's consider this. The creatures are three of us, right? We know that for sure? Then we have to imagine they would be the ones who want to push a vote...if they've discovered who each other are. Once they know, there isn't any downside to keep us lynching each other, until only they are left. But if they don't know each other yet, there are still more of us for now, so it would be better for us, if we can ferret them out."
Now the opposite hand is lifted. "On the other hand, if we don't lynch anyone, they just keep picking us off since if they can do it even as we're watching if they take their time (and let's hope it's only one of us at a time if at all) then they have pretty good odds not to take out one of their own."
Three creatures. Dash says to Russ And only one of us died. But we know from the way poor Marco died it only takes one to kill us. Why wouldn't they take as many of us out as possible thinning us out and hoping to get all our geneticists? I figure that two of the creatures tried to take out other creatures and THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE now. AND They're trying to protect each other and stall for time so they can take three of us humans out the next turn. We don't try and take one out now and three of us are dead for sure next time. How does not killing anyone in the chair make any sense? If you're human of course. It makes a hell of a lot of sense if you're NOT.
Russ chuckles over the two photos Tharp located in Elora's notes.
"You've never looked better, boss."
Then he gives a puzzled look over some of the papers.
"The lady sweets maker was writing a paper on how bad cheese is for you. Huh, what a funny thing. You and her got along, didn't you Clive?"
"Well, like anything cheese should not be consumed to excess - In many ways it shouldn't be consumed at all - at least by those who cannot discern the specifics of the processes that go into it." Clive nearly starts to lecture on his favourite subject, though the niggling query about alcohol distracts him.
"Avistan is correct, alcohol is generally a terrible idea, but maybe it'd be an interesting idea - especially a bit of wine, just as a cleansing agent." Clive ponders.
Sven watches Alexander carefully when the survival expert starts talking about drinking. At the word "water", he relaxes. "As long as it's really water, I agree. Nothing else. I've seen some of your shows, man."
With a grunt, Alexander takes a swig from an inconspicuous canteen. "It still might come to that, Sven. So best we all hold onto any empty containers we've got. They'll come in handy."
Now the opposite hand is lifted. "On the other hand, if we don't lynch anyone, they just keep picking us off since if they can do it even as we're watching if they take their time (and let's hope it's only one of us at a time if at all) then they have pretty good odds not to take out one of their own."
"The longer we hold out, the more time we give our human geneticist to work, and the greater chance we've got to put a 'nunnlif' to the chair later on. Sure, they'll pick off a few weaklings in the meantime, but us strong folks will be left to wrestle down those tentacled sons of b~%+*es. Survival of the fittest!"
"So we're agreed? No one dies right now?"
"Sounds good, hopefully the someone will stop the nunliffs too. That'd be the only way that there's no deaths but, it'd be a 10% chance, also with a 30% chance they attack each other. Thus if there's no lynching that's a 1 in 3 chance that no-one dies and our geneticist gets more info...." Clive ponders trying his hardest to work out what's exactly going on.
"Don't get the wrong idea, Sven. Can't be having Jimmy or anyone getting their brains fried."
The researchers decide to hold off on the killing, patting themselves on the back for being quite reasonable. When Russ Curtis receives his pat on the back, he falls forward, the blood drained completely out of his body. The body cracks from dryness as it smashes against the floor.
In his pockets, there are swabs with all of your names on them and he appears to be carrying a testing kit, but it seems he didn't get a chance to jot down any results. If the testing kit is examined, it seems that all the glass bits have been smashed to pieces by whoever drank him.
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", I said that everyone had to stay hydrated!" Alexander bellows at the mummified corpse, his feigned composure crumbling into dust. His balled-up fists looked like a pair of sledgehammers. "And you were the geneticist this whole time? Now what the f+*$ are we supposed to do!?"
What the hell is wrong with you people! Dash screams What did you fools would think would happen?
"Duke, another drink please. I need to peak on the Ballmer curve. "
Jimmy slumps in a chair. " What are the odds that the monsters get the geneticists one two."
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"Now my hope of the geneticists helping us sort this out is gone, with that gentleman I am out of ideas for this evening, we are back to randomly voting for each other and hoping that a guardian among us can protect us at least a few times as this goes forward....."
"The other question is how did they know? How were they able to pick the people looking for them like that, just one, two?"
"The first was chance. The second one, well, they figured out the message Russ gave us. He tried to pass it off as Elora's warning, but one of the monsters was smart enough to figure out Russ's game and make sure he wouldn't play it again. Right, Clive?" Sven stares flatly at the cheesemonger.
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"Oh aye that was a f@&~in good plan. Ya bleedin goons!"
"RUSSS! NOOO! You were my only friend in this god forsaken place! Just kill me now... We're all going to die here anyway..."
"We are, that is right, coz these f+*!in pansies can nay make the tough call. Protecting Jimmy and murdering our only surviving geneticist? Three monsters ya say? Seems like we know who our three are..."
Robert looks at the Duke, Jimmy and the so called security Officer, Alexander.
"Damn it Duke me and you been friends for years and this is how ya play me? Well ya will nay stop me this time..."
Sven shakes his head and wonders how many Robert has had. "Or how about we take out the nunnlif that the dead geneticist fingered, Robert? Russ called out Clive before he died, and I think we should act on his word. It's the best data we have."
He turns on the survival expert next. "Oh, and Alexander... you do realize there's a continent's worth of snow and ice outside? Really think we're all going to die of thirst, do you?"
Alexander snorts derisively at Robert's allegation. "Oh, don't you worry yourself Robert. I already said that you can't be human. You're next. But first I have a bone to pick with this cheese-loving freak."
The Scandinavian shakes a meaty finger at Clive. "Sven is right, Russ did say something about you. Seems like there was more to Ellie's dietary notes than just our tastes."
His finger lowers slightly when he hears Sven's latter remark. "Wait, what?"
"I'm next? Spoken like a true f~++ing monster. You want me you come and get me now!" The huge Scot stands up slowly, cracking his knuckles and growling.
"I'll do all my dirty business in the light of day boy, unlike you and your ilk. Monster scum!"
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"It is true let us not have Russ's death be in vain, he did indeed point the finger and in so doing he risked his life. I think it may be the best option we have at this time and really the lone piece of legitimate information we have."
"Robert, my friend I have not failed you, in fact by us not killing anyone we have improved our odds of outnumbering the things and possible long term survival."