The Games building stands again, skeletal and ghostly in its re-making. After 50 years of building and re-building, complete knowledge of the Games has been lost. The only memories of the Games are concocted by the elderly; all of which have contradictory beliefs as to how the Games worked. Scouters who work in representation of the Games building had the job of putting together the mass of these descriptions and scientists, yes actual scientists had the job of putting them all together to create an ultimate GAME.
Since the re-making of the original Games building, the world’s population, for the third time in its history, has divided into three parts: upper class, middle class and lower class. This came not only as a result of the New Building, but also as a result of conflict between the middle and lower class. It wasn’t as though the lower class was trying to fit into the middle class structure, but they were able to get close enough to unnerve the middle class. A person of lower class had the right to start his or her own business using government funding. The middle class despised this act for three main reasons: One being that the government was wasting money on them instead of using it to help the businesses of the middle class. The fact that the government was helping them at all was a total blow to their confidence. Businesses were meant to be for the middle class and only the middle class. The upper classes might take certain advances of their own to try and own a business, but they were often too lazy and tired of such business ventures quickly. It would just be sold to the middle class eventually anyway, so really there was no point to it. The second reason was that the only purpose of actually having a lower class was to manipulate them in the Games. Under normal circumstances, the lower class lived in dire poverty, with no chance of becoming wealthy – unless they participated and, by some miracle, won in the Games. Therefore, they swarmed to the Games, more than likely getting nothing from it at all. The role of the upper and middles classes in this is simple: sit back and watch. One of the main purposes of the Games is entertainment. Another is to get rid of the lower class, which only infests their streets and markets with low-life filth. The third reason why they were so upset was that the position of the middle class was not meant to be shared. Since the lower class made up the majority of the population (a whopping 56%) they could become rather wealthy from their lower class customers. This, of course, is a middle class nightmare, especially if they sold their first business to another person of lower class and bought a bigger one in place of that. It was like a chain of wealth, and the middle class was not prepared to deal with that.
The worries of the middle class were diminished once the president of the Games announced that, as soon as the building was finished, there would be a new Game to be played. The government suddenly stopped giving grants to the lower class because the demand for the Games building was higher than ever before since the announcement. It wanted to please the public that it had almost forgotten about, the public of the rich. Also, the popular Free Television – all Games all the time for free – was banished and replaced with “Pay Vee”, the pay-per-view version of “Free Vee” with a bad name. The reason for this change is simple: to prevent the lower class from helping a contestant of the Games that they are supposed to be helping to defeat. The Games are very public-reliant and often everyone who is watching plays along. It’s actually more of a physical thing, different from play-at-home game shows like “Wheel of Fortune” or “Jeopardy.” In fact, it’s more like “America’s Most Wanted” you see this man on the street somewhere, call in and we’ll give you a hundred bucks. Since it’s a well-known fact that the lower class sticks together and is very poor, the people who work at the Games building came up with that fool proof strategy. Apparently the lower class are not fools.
Six months later, the building is complete. A short, bald man of about forty years posts a sign on the brand-new glass double door at the front of the building for all to see. In fancy writing above him, block letters proclaim: “MAIN DOOR.” A Pay Vee camera watches his every move intensely from a slight distance, then moves in closer for a better look. If it were animate, there would be a smile on its face. It has been out of work for almost fifty years – still in mint condition though – and now it has returned. For fifty years the people have endured re-runs from all basis. Even re-runs of the curiously easy “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” from the “Old World” are being shown. People now have also forgotten how to make a good show for television and are much too lazy to come up with their own ideas. If someone did come up with an idea, they would likely be accused of trying to rob the Games of their fame.
The camera is close enough now for everyone to see the announcement on their Pay Vee. This is a convenient setup for all those hard-working people who can’t go to the building themselves. The sign says in bold, articulate letters:
In The Long Run: Rules
Several people of lower class are now gathering around the sign. There are exactly 101 rules to this game (a number easily remembered thanks to those fine Disney puppies they have all seen in plenty of re-runs, children or no children) and each one is equally important for the contestant to memorize.
The idea of the game is simple: Run, run, run and then run some more. If you are the last person after everyone else is disqualified, you win the PRIZE. It is not yet known what the PRIZE is exactly, but people suspect that it must be good – maybe an automobile – since the word “prize” is written in capital letters. On top of the PRIZE, the winner gets $50 Special Dollars for every half-hour they stay in the game. If you lose after the first half-hour of the game, you still get fifty bucks. There are fifteen players – all required to be male – and fifteen hunters. The hunters must catch each player three times before they can be disqualified.
The rules are as follows:
1. You can run, but you can’t hide. If a player is spotted by a hunter, they must run and cannot hide. Contestants are permitted to run up trees.
14. Players must not use weapons of steel. Only products directly from nature (sticks, stones, etc.) are permitted. The same rule applies to the hunters.
27. At the time of the show, exactly 6:00 everyday, contestants must call in using the cell phone and number provided for the individual. Each number is different. The cell phones cannot be tracked; it is our company policy.
32. The contestant’s play-field is the world itself. They can go anywhere in the world that they chose. Running away from everyone is key to this game. If you spot one of them, as we picture them on television, you may call in and will receive $100 Special Dollars for correct location of a contestant. If the contestant is caught for the third and final time, each person who called in about him will win $1000 Special Dollars. Remember that one Special Dollar is the equivalent of twenty New Dollars.
40. Seven of the fifteen hunters are female. Comments and/or actions against them may result in a strike if a contestant is found guilty of harassment.
55. Anybody caught supporting our contestants – remember. They are getting the money from this, not you. If they say you’ll get a portion of it they are lying. Desperate people are greedy people. If you still decide to help them, you are cautioned. The anti-contestants persons will be after you as well.
68. If a contestant decides to take a plane to another country, they are forewarned: they are not allowed to use the plane as a weapon and if they do, they will be disqualified with no chances. Also, a plane is a trap. If there is a Games official onboard, you risk the chance of being caught all three times on the plane itself.
73. A contestant caught cheating will be automatically disqualified with no chances.
89. Each contestant must call in for the show. If they don’t, it will be one strike against them, forfeiting their chance to win.
96. When a hunter spots a contestant, they must not stop running until the hunter is out of sight. If they don’t, it’ll be one strike against them.
101. There will be no ties. Only one winner will prevail. When they do, they will receive the money they earned for being in the game and our special PRIZE.
The people have not completely learned their lesson from the explosion involving the first Games building. But the rules have changed enough to prevent it from happening again, they think. The people have also learned from the Games that their children were at risk for lung cancer every time they turned the key in the ignition of their car. Pollution used to be a hot topic, especially after the descendants of the original Games building owners stumbled upon documents revealing that pollution was indeed a serious problem all over the world. In order to prevent anger towards their ancestors for hiding the truth, they had their scientists invent special filters that sorted particles so miniscule and deadly they were new discoveries to science.
Let’s talk a bit about these descendants. When the Games building exploded that faithful day 50 years ago, everyone inside died. Desk clerks, the Games hosts, doctors, owners, etc. all fell victim to the game. Each Game had its own owner, host, and set of workers. The Games building was a huge fortress, and was normally filled to capacity at any given time. On the day that it exploded, Bobby Thompson, host of their most famous forgotten GAME, “The Running Man”, called in sick. Unfortunately for him, his house was only a block away from the building, and when it exploded, he exploded with it.
Still, they had all prepared their older children in case of emergencies or crazy contestants. Each one was working at a smaller Games building located in Hawaii when the accident occurred. Still, they became useless, because after fifty years a person tends to turn a little gray around the edges. It was up to their children now, each one a perfect blend of the Games generation. Their fathers were careful and each selected a mother related in some way to the Games. By now, there were hundreds of dimple-cheeked, cheery Games workers, all thanks to the relatives of the Games and a new faux fertilization technique which can help human beings make twenty children or more at one time for one family. The process of birth no longer belonged to the mother; children were born only scientifically. Scientists recreated the womb so that they could observe and alter the appearance of the fetus. Babies lived the first nine months of their lives floating in gelatin, similar to the liquid found naturally inside a human female. Then they were shipped off to the appropriate families when it was time for them to step out of the gelatin and into a New World.
The fertilization techniques were used all over the world, but some new techniques were reserved for people who had a lot of money. People involved in the process of the Games were perhaps the richest of all: they had fame, fortune and anything their hearts desired. Because now the Games building was considered to be somewhat of a risk. All contestants were always scanned for mental illness, even fifty years ago, but sometimes during the Games, a tiny thread supporting an entire brain could snap under its weight. Some games lasted for weeks and during those few weeks the pressure was on. The last contestant in the Games was pushed much too far, but for a while it made for good entertainment. Then it all fell apart.
Now the building was back and hundreds of employees, all working for this new Game or creating another, filed into the vast building. People who worked at the Games building fifty years ago had a room there, a good one if they were an owner or a host. Even the Games had their own personal hierarchy. But now those rooms have been taken away, and working hours installed. It was safer if the people worked in shifts, that way only half of the workers would get blown up or eradicated if an accident should occur.
The smiling, dimple-faced employees pushed the lower class from the front of the building as they moved inside. They were still smiling of course (“oh sorry about that” “no problem”) and all was forgiven. These were the fans, the future of the Games building, and if they could get this class on their side, it would make the Games a lot more interesting. No such luck though because these people had being living on the streets for most of their lives and they knew a stapled smile when they saw one. Causing a brawl in front of the Games building was an offense and everyone who did it would be shot. Violence of any sort was not permitted within four blocks of the building, but sometimes street fighters could get away with fighting within in a three-block radius.
People have been pressured into the Games their entire lives. Parents have taught children that it’s the right thing and that it’s a great thing. No one has ever dared to express their true opinions of the ruthlessness of the Games in fear of death. The people who truly liked the Games were normally violent and nonnegotiable when it came to that sort of thing. Therefore, the bloodier the captures, the more viewers the Games will attract. Even the children were into it. If they saw a Games contestant on the street, they wouldn’t hesitate to call in, breathless of course, and win their money. Perhaps they were too young to understand the consequences, but when they’re adults, they say they’ve known since they were kids.
Lower class men, now in complete poverty, are facing the decision of their lives. The Games are now the only way for them to make money, unless they take up a life of crime. Their wives would rather them do that then the Games, they know. But they never offer that option. Maybe they were poor, but not yet desperate. They didn’t need to be desperate, because they had the Games to look forward to. And with Games came a life-long fame (if you were a rambunctious contestant) and money to boot. That was if you got in and if you won.
There will be one more day for the workers at the Games to get started on their paper work. Then lower class people would pile up outside the main door hoping for a chance to get in and improve their wealth. And this is how it all began again.
Chapter 1
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