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On the day of the class trip, excitement filled the air. For the first time in quite a while they had a full turn out. All 26 students had turned up, even serial class skipper Liz had arrived on time and raring to go. Apparently, a school paid trip to the nearest theme park was too good to miss even if they had to take static’s while they were there.

Before long the coach was on it’s way and the children were busying themselves with gossiping, playing and messing around. The teacher, Mr. Stanton, had to yell at Adam multiple times for running up and down the coach. He was being as disruptive as ever.

The Coach had been on the move for almost an hour when it parked up on one of the smaller mountain side roads that lead to the highway. The driver got out without warning and walked off down the road. You wonder why he would do such a thing, then Adam yelled out “I bet he’s going for a piss” and you just had to smile.

You look across the coach and notice Esme fast asleep with her headphones blaring in her ears. How could she sleep with all that noise you wonder. Then you notice that a large number of the other students seemed to have drifted off as well. In fact you begin to feel tired yourself. You smell something…Gas! What is going on?! What is happening…

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You awake in a classroom. You are seated at a desk. Lifting your head off of the surface of the desk you look around you, your classmate are all sitting at desks identical to yours. Some of them are fully awake and others, like yourself, are only just regaining their senses.

You notice something around your neck. It appears to be some kind of metal collar. Everyone else has them too. What is going on?

((There you go people have a quick talk among yourselves before I introduce ya’ll to your host and the rules of The Program :D))

"Un...", Toki arched her shoulders, letting them rise then drop. Her head was pounding ever so slightly as she lifted her head up off the desk, her hair in her face, "Wha...?", she blinked a few times, the room still slightly spinning as she looked around the classroom.

"A classroom? Weren't we just on a coach....?", she groaned softly and rubbed the back of her neck to find the collar attached, "What in the blue heavens?", she pulled on it softly, but decided not to fight with it too much, noticing that the other kids had them as well, "If this is some sort of fashion, I don't think I like it too much..."

~Across the Room~

Serberus found himself waking up to his usual pile of drool on the desk, "Ack...", he wiped it up quickly with a cloth he always carried around just in case. He had a habit of falling asleep in class. Even at one point the teacher made him stand up cause of his constant drifting, only to find that he can sleep while standing. The fall that followed wasn't too great of a memory.

His vision was regained faster than Toki's and he looked around the room wondering why everyone had collars. Reaching at his neck he felt the one around his, "I don't like fitting in."

--Ere--

Ereshkigal awoke in a groggy state, rubbing her head. Whatever had happened, it left her with a slight headache. She looked around, down at her desk, and back around the room. "What the...?" she said, not quite all the way awake yet. She reached up to scratch her neck and felt something on there... A collar? Why did she have a collar on? She reached down and checked to make sure she was dressed. ...You never know what happened while you were unconscious. "Good. At least whoever did this wasn't a perv..." she said quietly.

She began to think, trying to reason out what happened. 'Someone knocked me out, put some collar on me, and put the rest of us in this classroom... What could be going on?' She rubbed at the collar absentmindedly. "What is this thing?" She stopped thinking, and leaned back in her chair. Whatever it was, she didn't know what to do about it, and as far as she could tell, her classmates were the only ones in the room with her, so no real danger yet. Unless Dante went stir crazy. She blushed slightly at the thought of him.

--Marcus--

He began to "run" in his sleep, his paws moving back and forth as though he were chasing something no one else could see. He seemed to be smiling, and began to lick his lips. He stopped abruptly, either having caught whatever it was, or had woken up. He glanced sleepily around the room. "Are we back as school?" he asked, not really thinking, or really remembering what had happened. He scratched at his neck with his hind leg, as he often did after waking, and felt something attached just above the spot that itched most. 'Dammit...' he thought, reaching up with his hand to scratch beneath the collar.

It was then he realized that something was amiss. Now that the annoying itch was gone, he could actually think. "Where are we? Someone tell me! Anyone!" He was growing frantic, still groggy from whatever had knocked him out. "Boss! Tell me what I'm supposed to do!" he shouted out, hoping the Discipinary Committee's head would hear him and guide him through this. He could think and act on his own, but figuring stuff out was the alpha's forte, not his.

Rick had woken up a bit earlier than Toki and Serberus, and was looking around at all the classmates, whom had been wearing the same collars as he. He waited for another one to wake up and saw the Serberus was next to him, his head up,"Hey, do you have any idea as to why we're wearing these collars, and why almost everyone is sleeping?"

Zix was still asleep, a ripped off chunk of her desk in her mouth.

Other students began to join in the discussions round the room. TeeTee, CK, and Charity were talking among them selves and Tail's had gotten to his feet to wake Alex up.

Tag sat silently at the back of the class, sitting on his desk. He caught a glimpse of Toki pulling at her collar and or the first time that day he spoke "Don't tug at them...trust me..." he said in a low, eerie tone of voice.

Garret-

Waking up was a extremely unpleasant sensation for Garret, akin to crawling through molasses. Confused, he strained his heavy eyelid and forced them to open. He noticed the room full of his classmates, including the collars around each of their necks. He gingerly felt his own neck, discovering that there too was a collar. He nervously slid his hand along the contraption, feeling its contours.

Sheri—

Sheri responded much worse to waking than anyone else, though hin a very quiet way. Not looking at anything, but rather staring straight ahead she drew her legs to her chest as stared blankly into space. Immobile.

Serberus looked over at Rick, still half asleep. He was never good at waking up, "No idea.", she put a hand on his head, "Normally it's just me that's passed out. But for everyone to be passed out, that's another mystery on it's own.", he popped his knuckles, his neck with the lack of mobility it had, and his back.

"I sure can't wait for an explanation. I was pretty sure we were on a field trip.."

~Across the Room~

Toki had already stuck the nail of her thumb between her teeth. The usual thing she did when she was worried, and was thinking at the same time. She glanced towards Serberus and Rick, pouting her lips a little in thought. Looking over, she spotted Sheri, "Hey... are you okay?", she tilted her head in worry, still not taking her nail out of her mouth.

Jake woke up in the classroom. He felt something on his neck, and then looked at his collar, and then noticed the tag.
Oh [censored] [censored] [censored]. he thought, this is bad. He looked around and everyone else had a collar on as well. This is not good, this is just like that movie. I am going to have to kill these guys, I just know it.

____________________________

Diana woke up as well, felt her collar and was extremely surprised.
She slowly raised her head and looked around at the rest of the class.
Then she looked for an exit.

Tails had had enough, the stepped on top of a nearby desk, Alex watching from below, and waved his arms about. "Ok what the [censored] is going on here! Have we been, like, kidnapped or some [censored]!?"

Just then the door to the room opened and a man in his late 40s/early 50's entered. He was wearing a suit with leather pads on the elbows and by all accounts kinda looked like a teacher.

"Hello class" he said. He then looked at Tails. "Get down from there" he instructed

"Not till you tell me what is going on"

"I SAID GET [censored] DOWN!" the man screamed.

Tails did as he was told. The guy was frightening. The man walked over to a TV that was placed in the corner and slotted a video into the vhs player. He turned to them with a smile. "I suppose you are all wondering why you are here. You are all very fortunate, we will be playing a little game, you may have heard of it...it's called The Program". He pressed the play button on the vhs player. "Now pay attention this is very important"

The video flickered into life and on it was a young women wearing a pink tank top and pink camo. Round her neck was the same collar the children where wear. She bounced around the screen like a hyperactive bunny rabbit and practical shouted the instructions out so hard was it to contain her excitement.

"Welcome to The Program" She squealed "You have been selected from thousands of classes from around the country to compete in this years Battle Royale. I'm Psyched for ya'll!"

"Name of the game is to be the last one standing. 26 of you compete untill only one remains. Basic subtraction class. 26 minus 25." She beamed. As she continued on a group of soldier entered pushing a large convoy of trolleys, each one stacked high with rucksacks.

"I bet ya'll wanna know where you are. Well that would be telling now wouldn't it" she joked sticking her tongue out and flicking her pig tails back and forth. She poked the camera with her finger and the picture changed to a map of an island. "now if you look inside your desks you'll find a copy of this map, a compass and a marker pen. Keep hold of them they will be really important later." she giggled, and then she was back on screen once more.

"I bet ya'll wondering about the collar thingies ain't you. Well it's not a fashion statement. Even if it does match my eyes" she said pouting and fluttering her eyelids. She then tapped the little red display on the front of the collar "nope they are to keep you girls and boys in check. You see inside here is a small explosive charge that when activated by the right signal will... KASPLAT!" she made a hand gesture of her head being blown off. Then she laughed again.

"Lets look at that map of yours again." she said "Now every 12 hours your head teacher is gonna announce danger zones. If you are within a danger zone when it goes active, well the collar will go off. Soooooo make sure you pay attention yeah!"

"Well that’s all from me, I'll let teacher take over!" she said waving and then the screen went black.

The man tapped he hand on his desk lightly..."Any questions?" he asked

--Ere--

She raised her hand, trying to draw some attention to herself. "Umm... sir? If it's last one standing..." she paused, if explosives were involved the answer wasn't gonna be pleasant, "how are each of us eliminated? A series of competitions?"

--Marcus--

His ears perked up. Finally, someone to give orders!

The man smiled at her "Not familiar with The Program eh?" He walked over to her and grabbed her lightly by the lower half of her face, pushing her head back slightly. "you are going to kill each other my sweet" he said with a sickly sweet voice.

The room then went terribly silent. What had he just said…they were in THAT program!

At the sound of "You are going to kill eachother my sweet." Jenn sprung up and rubbed her eyes saying, "Err... What now!?" She finished rubbing her eyes, suprised, then said, "Can we go home? did the bell ring yet?" thinking that what she heard was just a dream, or just her immagination. She remembered hearing stories of this "Program" but never thought it to be real.

Rick clutched the edge of his desk with his right hand tightly as the videotape progressed,What? And than Ereshkrigal asked a question, and he realized the show and stared at the teacher.

Zix had just woken up as the video had begun, and barely cared about the collar, thinking it was video day. When the video finished and the teacher answered Ere she muttered,"Whatever."And tried to continue napping on the desk.

The man slammed his fist down on Zix's desk waking her up instantly. "Wakey wakey little girl, no time for napping...there will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dead" he said with a big grin on his face.

He then turned his attention to Tag who had been keeping as quiet as possible. "Oh Tag, how unfortunate to see you again...so soon. I like the new hair do, very becoming of you. Well I don't need to explain the rules to you at least" he turned away and then faced the rest of your class.

"Watch him boys and girls he knows what to do. he put in a real 'killer' performance last year" the man sniggered and snorted at his own joke.

"[censored] you" Tag sneered

The man spun around and pulled a handgun out. He pointed it in Tag's face. "Watch that potty mouth, there are children present".

He then ruffed Tag's hair with his free hand. Eventually he put his gun away and strood to the front of the class. "Look at the time we must be pressing ahead. Now then class take out you maps and markers" he said

Zix glared at the one who had awoken her, and she took out the map and pen, stabbing the pen into the desk, and leaving a very small hole.

Rick complied almost instantly, taking out the two items as the he had ordered and guessing the others had followed, but he watched the man carefully, barely able to contain himself by what the man had said.