Patrick awoke, or at least it felt like awakening, or resurfacing from deep under water.
"Has it worked, do you think?" he heard a voice- a young woman's- say.
"It should have." A second voice was replying. "Of course, they fought it, unlike most of the others, so it may not be as secure in the long term. But at this stage we don't need long term. Once we've got this off the ground there'll be no going back, and we can deal with problems as they arise. For now, they should be fine. You go and make sure everyone's getting ready for boredom, and I'll sort this lot out."
As Patrick felt himself gaining control of his senses he recognised the second voice as Will's. The first was familiar, but he couldn't place it. A door opened and shut. With their words his memories of what had happened came back. Cautiously, fearing either the strobing light or someone noticing that he was awake, he opened an eye. The lights were steady, and the room was empty except for himself, Ruth, Tom and Adam, who were all slumped on the first aid room bed in various attitudes of discomfort, all trying to hide their eyes. As he looked Adam opened an eye too.
"Ok?" Patrick whispered.
"I think so," Adam replied.
"Have they gone?" Ruth whispered, opening an eye too.
"They'll be back," Patrick said. He reached out and touched Tom on the arm. "Tom?"
"Mmm- what? Who's that- oh." Tom opened his eyes.
"Listen, I heard them talking- they think the hypnotism worked. Play along with them- do what they say- and maybe we'll get a chance to escape."
Even as he finished whispering they heard footsteps approaching, and all lay back in the attitudes they had awoken in, closing their eyes and hoping to escape attention.
As Will came back into the room- Patrick wasn't sure how he knew it was Will, he just knew- the four of them felt a change come over them. It was hard to describe- Ruth said later that it was like something rising in her mind, something which had lain dormant and almost unnoticed rising and spreading out so that it covered almost all her thoughts. But one area- the bit of her conscious that had fought to stay awake- refused to give in to the suffocating, dulling influence.
"Awake," Will said. Ruth's body began to obey, opening her eyes, straightening her limbs. But she could still feel that little area in her brain telling her that she didn't have to do what he said, telling her that she had free will.
"Get up," Will continued. She could resist. But at the moment she didn't want to. As Patrick had said, their only hope of being able to escape was to obey, to win their trust and hope they would be left alone and be able to get away.
"It's time for boredom," Will said. "Follow me."
One by one they turned, as automata, and followed him out of the room, along the corridor, through the green room and into an empty dressing room. "Sit down," Will said, and they obeyed. Sneaking looks at the others, Ruth wondered if they too were able to resist, or whether their minds had given in to the suffocating dullness. It was hard, keeping it at bay.
"You will stay here until you hear the announcement that boredom period is over," Will said. "You will not speak, or read, or listen to music, or do anything. You will be bored. Whatever you hear, whatever you see or think you hear or see, you will pay no attention. You will remember what I have said." He left, shutting the door behind him but not, Ruth noticed, locking it.
For some moments after he had left, they remained silent. The footsteps died away. Suddenly the comms unit on the wall crackled in to life. "Boredom period is beginning. Please find somewhere to be bored. Sentry duty today will be performed by Emily and Charlotte."
Ruth looked up, and met Tom's eye. Quietly she stood up, crept over to the door and opened it carefully to peer out. The corridor was empty, but she could hear people settling down in the next dressing room. Their door was left open. The stairs were on the other side of the dressing room. Somehow she didn't think that "ignore anything you hear" included ignoring people trying to escape. Besides, there was the issue of the two sentries- normally she wouldn't have thought Emily and Charlotte would be much of a threat, they were lovely people, but now- how could you know what anyone might do, when they were under someone else's control?
Besides, even that much was an effort. Part of her wanted to sit still, to obey the orders she had been given, and she had to fight the impulse to give in and to get her body under control. It was an effort. Her head hurt, and a fear was increasing that she would be unable to keep up her resistance for long.
There was no escaping at the moment, then. She closed the door and shook her head at the others, who were watching her.
"No way out," she whispered. "Will they hear us if we talk?"
"So long as we're fairly quiet they shouldn't," Tom said. He put his hand to his head. "Whatever they did has given me a headache."
"It's from fighting it, trying to resist," Ruth said. "I've got one too. But we've got to keep resisting."
"I don't know if I can..." Patrick began.
"We must," Ruth said. "You can, I know you can." She looked at him. He was obviously afraid, but then they all were.
"Isn't there anyone who might be able to help?" Adam asked. "No one else who didn't join the cult?"
"There were a few of the girls," Ruth said. "But I don't know where they are."
"I saw some of them going out just after the matinee finished," Tom said.
"No help there, then," Adam said.
There was a noise in the corridor. Quickly they all returned to the attitudes Will had left them in. The door opened, and Charlotte came in. Ruth lay back, allowing the conditioning to control her body while still preserving that little clear space in her head. Charlotte looked round the room, then left, closing the door again. Ruth noticed the vague, half asleep look on her face. She was under the influence of the same conditioning as had been tried on them, as they had thought. No help there.
After a minute or two they sat up.
"That was close," Adam said.
"There's no way we can get out past her," Tom said. "We'll just have to wait and-"
The door opened again, and Charlotte came back in. She had obviously been suspicious, and had come back to catch them out. It had worked.
"You are breaking boredom," she said. "You will be reported to the Leader. You will be locked in here until I fetch him." She turned back to the door.
The story continues...
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