Welcome to the Game

The room we walked into next looked like something from a sci-fi film. Dominating the centre of a laboratory was a chair which would have looked at home in a dentist surgery apart from the fact it had a number of straps and wires curling evilly around it. On the far side there was a bank of computers behind a perspex screen. There was a metal bench running around the edge of the room, breaking only to give us access to the two doors; one which we had just walked through, another which was evidently our exit.

"What do we do here?" Ray asked, going to look at the computers behind the perspex. "It looks like a game, there are two monitors and a button saying start."
Eyeing the chair suspiciously, we joined him. There were two monitors each with the word START floating on them, black on white.
I reached out and poked it gingerly. The picture on the right hand screen changed from START to a diagram of something; we all leaned in closer.

The new screen was a diagram of the chair with a man laying in it, covered in straps and wires. The left hand screen then changed and text began scrolling across it.
"This is Operation," Mikey read. "One of you must become the man on the table while two play the game; your mistakes will cause your friend a great deal of pain. You have sixty seconds to begin."
A clock appeared on the left hand screen and began counting down from sixty.

"We have to do it," Frank said quickly. "He'll give us an electric shock if we don't." He was clearly terrified of the chip inside his body being activated again.
Mikey chewed on his thumbnail. "But that chair looks a bit...sinister. How can we ask anybody to do that?"
00:50
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Frank suggested. "We play each other, then the losers play." he looked around at us. I shrugged, indicating I was okay with the plan.
Ray looked at Mikey who sighed. "Fine. I'll play the 'fro, you two can battle it out."
I squared off against Frank, Ray against Mikey.
"All together," Frank said. "We'll do one, two, three, show. Ready?"
"Check," I muttered and the others echoed me. Check check, check check.
Frank counted us down the all together we said, "rock, paper, scissors," and whacked our fists into our palms. On the fourth whack I held out my scissors only to be blunted by Frank's rock.
00:28
Next to me, Ray and Mikey had the same situation of Mikey's rock against Ray's scissors. We turned to each other reluctantly and nestled our hands in our palms.
"Ready?"
I nodded and together we said, "rock, paper, scissors." On four, we stopped. I looked at Ray's scissor fingers then regarded my flimsy piece of paper sadly.
00:14
"No hard feelings," he said anxiously and I shook my head.
"Course not, man. It was just luck."

I walked over to the chair and poked it. It was squishy and it sank a little under my weight as I boosted myself up into it. As soon as I lay down the countdown froze on five seconds. Experimentally, I lifted my head up and the counter flipped down a digit. I lay my head down again quickly.
Mikey and Ray had already disappeared behind the screen and were peering at the screens so Frank began to pull the straps across my body and fasten them. He looked at me a little weirdly and I felt a jolt when our eyes caught. I looked away, ignoring the feeling of his hand brushing my body as he secured me to the chair. Last of all was a strap that went across my forehead - he brushed my fringe out the way so it wouldn't get caught and a chill ran up my spine.
"Okay," Frank called to the others. "We're all set."
"The screen's changed," Ray called back. "It says START again."
"Press it," Frank said.

Ray obviously pressed the screen again because there was sharp click and the wall next to the monitors flipped open. "It's a game," Ray said, dragging it out on the end of a long tangle of cables. "Operation."
"I liked that game," Mikey said, peering down at it. "I used to play it a lot."
"That's the one where you have to pick the bits of broken bone and stuff out of the guy without letting the tweezers touch the edges of the holes, isn't it?" I asked, unable to turn my head and see.
"Yeah. It's a kid's game."
"Hey, the screen's changed again."

They perused the screens in silence before Mikey concluded it was just a copy of the rules. "I assume we play it and when we've finished the door will open."
We nodded.
"Gerard, we're going to start now."
"Okay," I called, trying to ignore my sweaty palms and the sick feeling in my gut. If they mucked up, there was a possibility I would be electrocuted. That's certainly the impression the sadistic Banker wanted to give and it was working.
Ray took the first turn, picking out one of the tiniest pieces. Next was Mikey who managed to winkle the wish bone out without a problem. I was still on the verge of having a panic attack, I had to find something to calm me down. My eyes found their way to Frank's face and traced their way around the lines of the scorpion tattoo on his neck. Immediately I started feeling better and I breathed out.

"You okay there, Gerard?" Mikey called out, taking the tweezers from Ray.
"Kind of freaking out quietly," I told him. "But nothing's happened yet."
"Okay, because we're getting on to some of the tricky ones."
"Right."
Mikey lowered the tweezers, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth in concentration. For a few seconds he looked as if he was sitting perfectly still then he said, "shit," very quietly. Both he and Ray turned to look at me as the world exploded.
Needles of pain jabbed by entire body, my eyes squeezed tightly shut but I could see violent flashes of purple and blue dancing across my vision. It felt like somebody was pumping hot lead into my veins whilst letting horses pull me apart. If I hadn't been strapped down I would have snapped my spine through contorting.

Eventually the pain stopped and fizzled out, leaving me panting and sobbing on the table with my throat raw from screaming.
"Gee? Gerard, you okay?" Frank's hands were running over my body, stopping at my neck to check my heart rate. "Feels high but it's coming down," he told the others. I opened my eyes blearily and looked at him.
"You all right?" he asked, worry making a tiny crease in the middle of his eyebrows. It was kind of cute.
"Yeah," I whispered. He took my hand and squeezed it.
"We'll get out of here," he whispered, "I promise. You good to go?"
"Yeah. Let's do this."
He gave a thumbs up to Ray who sat down and carefully picked out the next piece. I didn't like the uncomfortable silence and now Frank wasn't holding my hand any more I felt cold all over.
"Tell me about yourself," I said. "What do you do?"
"At the moment I'm working at a bar."
"Do you like it?"
"Yeah," he said. "I'd rather be working in music but it's a great job."
"Nice. I'm a comic book artist."
"Really, that's so cool. What have you written?"
"Umbrella Academy was a good one. I wrote Danger Days as well."
"No way," Frank squeaked. "You wrote Danger Days? You're that Gerard? Man, when we get out of here I'm getting your autograph inked in."
"Okay," I laughed as he pointed to his tattoos. "I'd be proud to have my name plastered on a stranger's arm."
He was silent for a second then he grinned. "Hey, there were two peanuts walking down the road. One was assaulted."
I made a noise like "pshh" as I laughed at the lameness of his joke. He raised his eyebrows. "What happened to the plant in the maths classroom?"
I shrugged as best I could while my body was strapped down. "I don't know. What happened?"
"It grew square roots."
"Oh, God," I said, feeling my top lip curl up into the semblance of a smile.

I was about to pass judgement on his sense of humour but just then Mikey banged on the perspex and Frank looked up. "You done?"
"Not yet, we've got two more left but they're both really tricky ones. We'll try not to touch the sides."
Suddenly the joking mood Frank had managed to conjure up vanished in a cold puff of reality. Each second passed like a week and I watched Frank tense up as he followed Ray's movements carefully. For a second a smile passed across his face as Ray managed to get the tiny piece of plastic out the hole then his face fell and I was screaming again, falling through fire and ice.

The pain was worse this time. The bare skin pressing on the metal wire ends began to burn and even when the electricity shut off I could feel the heat. I felt like I'd been winded and I couldn't draw breath. Thick, warm blood trickled from the corner of my mouth.
"Oh God, not again. He's bitten his tongue. Guys, he's not breathing."
Frank's soft hands fluttered nervously over my skin but it was Ray who darted out from behind the screen, clamped his lips over mine and blew a huge mouthful of air down into my lungs. I felt them free of the fantom band which had been stopping me taking a breath. I sucked down air greedily, feeling like a drowned man.
Ray looked at my eyes carefully and then examined the burns on my arms. "These need dressing properly," he said. "Dude, I am so sorry. The tweezers slipped out of my hand."
I didn't answer him, I couldn't get my mouth to work for me.
"That's not a good sign," Ray said as I closed my eyes. My head was pounding.
"What do we do?" Frank asked, grabbing my hand again. He really did have very soft fingers, aside from the guitar calluses.
"There's only one piece left and ideally I want him out of here just in case he throws up. But that shock looked more painful than the last one, if we fuck up again it might well kill him."
Frank shook my shoulder. "Gerard, you awake?"
"Mm-hm," I managed.
"What do you want us to do; carry on or give you a break. There's only one piece left."
"Carry on," I whispered.
"Are you sure?"
I didn't have any more strength to answer him with. I heard Ray go back to the game and Frank let go of me just in case Mikey mucked up. I waited forever to feel him come back and touch me, to unbuckle the restraints. I whimpered. "Frankie," I muttered, only half aware of what I was saying.
"It's okay, Gee. Just a little bit longer."

Finally I heard somebody sigh. "Thank God. Look, the screen's changed. Frank, you can unstrap Gerard now."
Finally, I got what I wanted and Frank unbuckled me. He and Ray lifted me out of the chair and lay me on my side on the floor.
"Gerard, are you awake, can you hear me?"
No, I can't. Let me sleep.
There was a sharp pain in my earlobe and my eyes popped open. Ray smiled worriedly and rubbed some blood back into where his fingernails had just pinched me.
"Try and stay awake. Do you feel sick?"
"Nah," I slurred. "Just tired."
'You can't go to sleep right now."
"I know," I sighed. I shouldn't go to sleep, but it was so hard. Frank knelt down beside me and held my hand. The tingle which ran up my arm at his touch had nothing to do with the electric shock I'd just received and I woke up a little bit if only to enjoy the sensation.
"Hey, stay with us, yeah?" Frank said with a tiny and sudden smile.
I smiled back. "Yeah. I think I'm all right."
"Great. Hey, Mikey, check that door. If that sicko hasn't unlocked it I swear to God..." his threat trailed off into nothing as Mikey tugged on the door handle and it ground open with a screeching protest. The sound lanced through my temples and I screwed up my eyes. Ray crouched down beside me and, with Frank's help, picked me up like a baby to carry me through the door after Mikey.

Notes

Sorry about the really long wait, I'm up to my ears in exams and stuff so I kind of got writer's block. Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Ghost