Trevor Collins

Oddly, they all seemed to think that they could win the trust of the experimenters by turning over their comrades, the other subjects, in captivity with them.

At first, the researchers suspected that this was the effect of the gas itself.

After nine days,

The first of them started screaming.

He ran the length of the chamber repeatedly, yelling at the top of his lungs for three hours straight, at which point he continued attempting to scream, but was only able to produce occasional squeaks.

The researchers postulated that he had physically torn his vocal cords.

The most surprising thing about this behavior was how the other captives reacted to it.

Or rather, didn't react to it.

They continued whispering into the microphones until the second of the captives started to scream.

The two non-screaming captives took the books apart, smeared page after page with their own feces, and pasted them calmly over the glass portholes.

The screaming promptly stopped.

So did the whispering into the microphones.

After three more days passed, the researchers checked the microphones hourly to make sure that they were working, since they thought it was impossible that no sound could be occurring with five people inside.

The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive.

In fact, it was the amount of oxygen five people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous exercise.

On the morning of the 14th day, the researchers did something that they said they would not do to get a reaction from the captives.

They used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping to provoke any response from the people they were afraid were either dead or vegetables.

They announced, We are opening the chamber to test the microphones.

Step away from the door and lie flat on the floor or you will be shot.

Compliance will earn one of you your immediate freedom.