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Sunday 18 August 2013

By The Hand Of One!

    It’s not been at all easy since I was brought to the Village. The Administration isn’t quite what it might be, and Number Two, such incompetence, I wonder where they got them! They say the reason for so many Number Twos is so that Number Six doesn’t get the chance to create a relationship with his warder. Rubbish! Each successive Number Two is as incompetent as the one before, and that of any of his or her successors! I suppose one could argue that the first Number Two didn’t fail, that he was only there to debrief the Prisoner, and then to brief him on the Village. But he did make the first attempt to extract the reason behind the Prisoners resignation. In that he thought that if the Prisoner gave something away, like the time of his birth, then in time all the rest would follow. It didn’t! So having failed once, Number Two came up with the idea of using the Prisoner’s personal maid, this in an attempt to gain the Prisoner’s sympathy. They said they’d let her go if he gave her some sort of information…..! A second failure, it was no wonder that Number Two had to be replaced! They said the idea behind this, was to face the Prisoner with another Number Two, to disorientate him, to knock him off balance so to speak. That the Prisoner would have to begin all over again! What do “they” know?
    The second Number Two had been given the task to demonstrate to the Prisoner, now known as Number Six, that escape from the Village was not possible. In that task Number Two succeeded. But in time even he had to be replaced. And we did so with a man with an infectious laugh. And yet, he played second fiddle to a plant in the Village, Number Eight. He said that he had doubts, but it wasn’t his fault really. Although he should have made sure that Post five had his wrist watch set to the correct time. Had he done so, then the result may just have been in our favour. Number Six would have talked then, that much I’m sure.
    It should have been as easy as A B and C! The trouble is, Number Two does tend to underestimate Number Six. If Number Two had had an ounce of imagination, while he was busy computing the Prisoner’s whole life, he could have simply put the question to the computer…..why did the Prisoner resign? So he failed, perhaps because he was put under undue pressure, while he himself was in some pain of his own, a stomach ulcer. So is this No.2 fit for further term?
    “Everyone votes for a dictator!” And Number Six turned out to be no better. He tried to force his idea of freedom onto the people. He didn’t care about the people. He simply wanted to incite a mass breakout, so that he could escape in the confusion! The elder statesman Number Two, left the Village because his term of office was over. The newer Number Two was a bit brutal with Number Six, but at least she didn’t damage the tissue, only having bruised it a little!
    So far Number 6 has been afforded a certain amount of protection. No extreme measures have been used yet. We have not ended up with a man of fragments, and yet it would appear that it’s time to break the man. Enter the Schizoid man! Curtis is brought to the Village, while Number Six is taken from his cottage, put into 12 Private, Curtis moves into 6 Private, to live the life of Number Six, while Number Six is being conditioned to be Number Twelve/Curtis. I still think it was a bad idea to have Curtis change to a cream blazer! And if it had not been for the fact that Susan died a year ago……well that I suppose was Number Two’s one saving grace. Other than that, it was a complete and utter failure!
    Generally speaking there are no second chances, except that this time it’s all to do with an educational experiment. So Number Two of ‘A B and C’ was brought back for a second term of office, although there is still the question of his health, that stomach ulcer. I suppose it would have gone well, had it not been for that Number Six! Number Two made the same mistake he made the first time, he underestimated Number Six. But this time he had help, from someone in Administration, Number Twelve! This was a real disaster for Number Two, the Professor dead! Number Twelve dead! The General destroyed, and the educational process Speedlearn dead in the water, and we still don’t know why? The Village was deserted! It gave the appearance of everyone having left the Village, everyone but Number Six! It was a tricky operation, as no-one could be seen to be abroad in the Village the whole time Number Six was building his sea-going raft. That also went for the time he was returned to the Village. Poor old Number Six, he is so predictable, and that predictability made it easy for us to pick him up anytime we so desired. ‘Many Happy Returns’ an exercise to demonstrate to Number Six, that even though he could escape, there was nowhere he could go, that the long arm of the Village could simply reach put and take him again. Another new Number Two in the Village.
    What’s next? Oh yes, Carnival is decreed, there will be music, dancing, happiness, by order! And yet where is there the happiness? It’s

manufactured! All you had to do was look at the emotionless faces of the citizens. No-one is cheering, no-one is laughing! This time Number Six is placed on trial….for the possession of a transistor radio. Everyone seemed so concerned as to how Number Six gained the radio, that no-one seemed to care how Number Thirty-four attained the radio in the first place! ‘Dance of the Dead’ was a bit of a nothing for Number Two, and yet in that there is a kind of victory. Because she showed Number Six that he can never win. She tried another way, because Number Six is seen to have a future with the Village, even if it is as a life-time prisoner! And so now to the outside world, Number Six is dead!
    Checkmate! Number Six finally discovers who the prisoners, and who the warders, little good it does him! Number Two is a good enough Administrator, but as to anything else, he’s happy to leave it to other people, like that doctor-Number Twenty-two. She showed the desire to find out Number Six’s breaking point, perhaps if it had not been for the protective Number Two, she might very well have done, or worse. But with Number Six there has to be another way, he’s too important to be treated like the others! And yet, if it had not been for the Rook…….well lets just say Number Two got lucky. But then even luck could not save him!
    ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ what a bloody fiasco that was! Who’s idea was it to recruit that Thorpe as the next Number Two? The man was nothing more that a paranoid! He was seeing non-existent enemies all over the place, and conspiracies where there were none! He was asked if he needed an assistant, mind you had already had one, that Number Fourteen. He was seen, acting all yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir! Pretending to be alert at all times, when he was actually dozing in that armchair in the foyer of the Green Dome. He may have fooled Number Two, but he didn’t fool me! It was a complete breakdown for Number Two, fit for nothing more than a bed on the psychiatric wing of the hospital
    ‘A Change of Mind,’ Number Eighty-six, a doctor specialising in leucotomy operations, which are carried out in a clean scientific manner, not with unfeeling brutality. Number Two put his trust in Number 86, and he paid the price for it!
    ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ if one is to see the success of a plan, the best thing to do, is not involve Number Six in it! A retiring Number Two who was going to be assassinated/executed, escapes the Village with the help of Number Six, who cannot escape this time, not even if he were to try. But much to the surprise of the new Number Two, because the helicopter turns back to the Village. It seemed that the retiring Number Two knew which side his bread was buttered, and spent a quiet retirement in the relative comfort of the Old People’s Home.’ As for the new Number Two, as an interim Number Two he was a right crawler. He failed, and had to go!
    I’m not exactly sure which episode ended the most badly for Number Two, ‘The General,’ or ‘Do Not Forsake Me oh My Darling.’ The Colonel dead, Seltzman escaped, but at least the Village retained the Seltzman machine. Oh but then the Village administration had that to begin with. Ah, there was the so called reversal process, but when you think about it, and consider the mind reversal process, we didn’t really need that either! It was a bloody disaster!
   But then came ‘Living In Harmony,’ Twenty-two dead, no not 22 dead, Number Twenty-two dead, strangled to death by Number Eight, who then committed suicide. Murder and suicide, mixed with the failure to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. This is almost as bad as ‘The General,’ for which Number Two paid the price. Well there wasn’t anyone else, both Eight and Twenty-two were dead!
    ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ a blessed fairy tale, is this the best they could do? Well I suppose it was worth a try, nothing else seems to have worked. Of course Number Two again had to pay the price, well it was his idea.
For ‘Once Upon A Time’ another Number Two was given a second bite of the cherry. Degree Absolute, it had to be either one of them, Number Two or Number Six. For one week Two and Six were time locked in the Embryo Room, without surveillance, and during that time all Number Two had to do was to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. And look what happened, Number Two died, and taking with him to the grave, that very reason why the Prisoner resigned! Well that couldn’t be allowed to happen…………..
    ‘Fall Out,’ and the resuscitation of a “late” Number Two. A previous Number Two had been brought back to the Village as President, for the final manipulation of Number Six. It was our last chance to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. This in the hope that facing Number Six with himself would finally break him…….it didn’t!
    These words I have written in this place, this place of my confinement, are not so much a confession as something to do to pass the time, of which little remains. My fate is sealed, as the hatch is jammed against me! It must be the heat. I’m here in orbit, orbit Number one, or “the man out there.” It’s getting much hotter now, the G forces are incredible. I’m pressed up against the bulkhead. I hope that people will not think too badly of me………….I think the end is near…….it’s difficult to breath………the heat………...I………..I…………

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