A New, Unwanted Home

He shrugged. 'Go ahead and try all you like' he said. He wasn't particularly afraid of them consequences. 'They can hear us too.. you can spend the hours trying to find a blind spot if you like.. but I don't think you will get far. Besides theres 10 rooms, if this is the same place. Either way its that or a copy. There will still be 10 rooms... so they have to watch all of them, and I also strongly doubt that they are always attached to the screens. Only if you attract their attention will they keep a close eye on us.'

He looked around bored. The man was acting like he probably had, but he supposed he would learn the hard way that his actions were futile.

"Probably best not to risk it." If whoever had taken them was looking in, he didn't want to be the first on their list. "Breaking it would probably catch their attention. Still, perhaps keeping them entertained would put them off making their... their own entertainment..." He trailed off, the idea seeming a bit too chilling. The idea that they were here simply for pleasure, rather than for any sort of message. The political death of a martyr seemed more dignified than someone who died after being played with like a rag doll.

"What have you been doing all these years?" It seemed silly to ask, but he was not ready to face the silence quite yet

'Oh you'll never amuse them' he said with a sigh. 'If its going to be anything like last time then it won't matter how many people are killed, they will still get bored and just bring in more. A seemingly never-ending cycle until we die, or they do.'

He looked at the man, curiously. 'The only way you can really entertain them is breaking down or twisting to do their own deeds. Its up to you whether you think thats worth it, or boring them and death is the better alternative. Me? I've been lying low, trying to forget.' He shrugged. 'Not much to it.'

"There might be something to it. Like I said, maybe there's a connection somewhere along the line." He paused and shook it head. "No... no, that's silly really. This is all too nonsensical for there to need to be a connection. Someone this... this sick doesn't need a reason to take random people from their homes."

He paced the floor a few times, his head lowered as if to avoid looking at the room and risk making it all more real than it already was.

"This still seems so... strange would be a silly term to use, wouldn't it? I mean, I remember the newspapers. I remember reading the stories. And now... we're here."

He sighed, never having particularly liked the medias response to it. It just meant there was a constant demand to re-live it, and he was forced to always just for money.

'I'm afraid the newspapers aren't quite going to prepare you. I hope for your sake you make it out alive, and fill the next news stories' he said, but that was all he could really say to him.

"Do you have no determination to live through it?" he asked. "I mean, of course I thank you, but you should hope that you yourself live through this. There must be some sort of need to get out of here alive, mustn't there? Otherwise there would be no point in fighting later."

He sighed and looked up towards the camera for a moment. It was as if he could see them staring.

"I wonder if they've caught wind of us disappearing yet"

'None of my plans helped last time. I spent months wishing to get out and when I started to give up luck had it that we escaped. Not sure if thats going to happen again, but clearly it does not matter what sort of attitude I have. The circumstances of our escape are beyond are control, as are our deaths.'

He struggled to care about the future. 'I suppose now half of us are marginally famous the media attention will be greater. If this is the same place the people doing this are truely idiots, we will be traced almost instantly.'

"Then perhaps we have that on our side?" he offered a little too hopefully. "People had no clue back then. It was just random people being kidnapped. If there are others like you.... they might be able to trace something."

It sounded so stupid. He felt as if he were a child again, trying to be naiive just to find an escape. The room was far too gloomy and the atmosphere was infectious- if he didnt try to at least mentally escape from it, it might drag him down too. He reached down and grabbed the keys, tossing them into the air and catching them again so as to fill the silence.

He shrugged. 'Who is to say this is the same place, or in face not a marvelously clever copy? They've had 5 years... anythings possible. I'm not getting my hopes up on the basis that whoever has done this is stupid- the likelihood is the very opposite.'

He followed the keys with distain, not liking whatever they must mean. 'Where are you from?' he asked. Last time they had escaped only to find themselves in the middle of England, many miles from their homes in most circumstances. He had stayed to bury some, whilst others had been flown back to families across the world. He wondered where they were now however, and if the same thing had happened again.

He arched his eyebrow slightly, surprised at the sudden more personal question. Well, not personal, but far more personal than he had expected Dimitri to be.

"China, originally," he began slowly. "I remained there for a while, moving about with the army... I ended up in Scotland, though, for the past few years of retirement. And how about you?"

'Ok..' he said, thinking about any significance from that. He had still been in America though, so regardless neither had been very near. But he was also fairly new, which implied that prehaps where he came from was closer to where they were. He sighed though- over thinking was pointless, even if a habit he was prone to. Where he died would really be quite insignificant due to the fact he would already be dead.

'America' he said. 'So quite a distance....'

"So on the one hand, there's little to no connection here... on the other hand, there are multiple countries searching now." Well, at least multiple police forces. Perhaps they would eventually see something that neither he nor Dimitri could see. That was at least an upside to their situation. Numbers always helped; more people would notice now, more people might come to realise what was going on...

"Do you know where everyone else was?" he continued. "Everyone who survived- were they all in America or spread across the world?"

'All around the world' he said simply. 'Well, thats where they came from.' He could already remember too clearly the ordeal that was made to give the bodies back to their families, which had involved all sorts of transportation methods. Although of course now he hadn't a clue where the survivors had settled. He simply had not kept in touch. He knew that Charlotte had definately returned back to America, but all that could have changed in 4 years and for all he knew she could have gone and pursued her dream of travelling.

'Either way he brought us all to one place last time. And we still weren't rescued..' He was not exactly hopeful this would help them. 'Plus if its just one person per country they might assume we had better places to be, out of the limelight.. no one would instantly assume kidnapping.'

"I doubt it would be one person per country if that's not what it was last time," he said. "If whoever did this is imitating, they wouldn't want to create a pattern so different to last time, do you think? Though I'm probably overthinking it."

Fa Zhou sighed and continued throwing the keys, pacing the floor, once in a while looking up to the camera as if he could see them watching.

"It's only been a few hours but I already feel like I might go mad from waiting," he muttered, more to himself than anything

'You probably will go mad' he said with a smirk. 'But trust me waiting is the good part in all this, by comparison to what you are waiting for.' He didn't really want to think about that. He much rathered the guess-work they had about who was responsible. It was much easier to reach conclusions when he had someone to look at everything at face value, rather than despair like he was prone to.

'I don't know if there was a pattern in all honesty... they think he was trying to punish us, but there are numerous reasons as to why that could be.' Obviously the murderers from last time were easy targets, but the police had never been quite explained that as it would have obviously just meant the arrest of many of the prisoners. However even that did not explain the likes of him, and many others, who had been kidnapped.

He could not help but smile at the brute honesty Dimitri displayed. You probably will go mad. Really, the pessmism seemed to have stopped effecting him. He needed to find out for himself...

"Maybe these people just have rather twisted sets of morals." Of course they did, they had kidnapped them. "If this is meant to be punishment then... then I suppose I can see a way in which I am being punished. Haven't you ever done something? By accident? Had a risky opinion? Otherwise there really is no sense here"

'I guess we just wait and see, and hope they don't really know what they are doing' he said with a sigh. 'If they are just copying from last time that might help us... well at least those who have been through it before, since we will know what to expect. Or that just might make it worse.' He already had expectations, but he could hardly say they were helping.

'In all honesty the more people they kidnap the more obvious it will get. If they find the process of mimicking fun then just keeping us here should be entertaining enough. Don't expect you will be fortunate enough to die soon in this place.'

"I suppose it might be quite obvious then. I doubt they have kidnapped you and spared the rest of your survivors. And I doubt I am the only person who was not related to that incident. Eventually someone will come to realise what is going on."

Finally the clinking of the keys began to irritate him and he put them back on the table, sitting on the edge and resting his elbows on his knees.

"Perhaps you should not assume death to be a pleasant release here," he warned. "They may very well be lazy at what they do, they could slip up. We do not know. In simply carrying out this arrangement I hope that they have slipped up- surely someone out there will have a clue what is happening. If family members have heard of this happening before... well, it might be the first suspicion that the police have"

'Maybe' he said, 'but in my case I lack the family to notice. Whatever the circumstance, death would be a pleasant alternative.'

He sighed, with absolutely no idea what to do to fill the break in the conversation. He could not even remember how he had filled the hours last time. Staring into space certainly was a start though. He looked around him, finally accepting that he was here and stuck there. He also looked at the camera, but he decided that it was not going to reveal much. Whatever was behind the screens, it was not revealing much.

There was temptation there to ask what had happened to his family, but really it would do neither of them any good. Instead Fa Zhou leant forward, staring at the floor.

"I can't imagine doing this twice," he said, shuddering slightly at the idea. "Do you remember much about the early days? Who was there, what they did, all that sort of thing?"

'We changed room mates eventually' he said thinking. 'And there were tv screens... that showed other rooms, or deaths. They turned the lights out, cut our food, generally messed with our heads. But most of the time was like this- sitting and waiting.' He sighed. 'It was more confusing too, we didn't know what to expect. Now I do, so in a way I'm prepared. At least slightly' he said, smiling weakly.

'You don't really want to know though,' he added. 'Its unnecessary preparation... just be prepared to do something you never would have expected to before.'

"It might not help but it's a way to pass the time," he pointed out, though the image of watching others on television screens was enough to put him off speaking ever again. What if he knew one of them?

"You're looking better, by the way," he noted, looking up a little. "Than when you first awoke, that is."

'The wonders of resignation' he said with a sarcastic smile. He did not exactly feel any better, but now rather than shouting about it he had merely resigned to the fact they were trapped and all but dead.

'I would say the same for yourself, but I think the realisation hasn't exactly helped since you woke up. If you are worried about someone you might find them in here, and if not you can hope they are safe.. You should meet most people in here sooner or later, and if you spread the word of who you are looking for you are more likely to find them...'

"Perhaps I will... though I pray I don't," he admitted slowly. This was no place for a loved one. "Did that ever happen to anyone here? People who... who knew each other? It would seem so strange if so many people came from such different places, to pick out relatives and friends at random"

'Like I said, it all works in a form of mind game. They can control you more easily if they have a loved one or friend...' He didn't want to worry the man but that was the likelihood. 'However they seem to have brought back more than one of the original prisoners so I think that might have been their primary focus, rather than anyone you may know.'