# Identify Short Story?: Starvation, Couple, Thwarted Scenario Engineer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 31, 2020, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337 "2020-12-31T08:15:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/1 "2020-12-31T08:15:10Z")
I forget some of the backstory but somehow a wealthy and/or powerful guy gets a couple to consent to play his game. And he deprives them of everything. And they’re reduced to fighting over the tiny scraps of food. And when there is just a tiny scrap of food remaining, one of the couple feeds some (or all) of it to the other and the powerful guy / gamemaster is thwarted because they cared more for each other than for their individual survival after all, which was his bet. What was that story? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/2 "2020-12-31T12:17:19Z")
There was a movie, or some TV short, sort of a horror flic where someone trapped several people in an old mine. He gave them limited supplies to study them and wanted to see how it played out. I really don’t remember much but the ending, which is a spoiler. Lite spoiler: In the end the antagonist wanted to see if every member of the group, deprived of food would resort to cannibalism. Heavy spoiler - give away the ending: At the end it was revealed the antagonist as a child was in a car accident which killed his mother. He was trapped for days in the wrecked and off road car and started to eat her for substance. Once the child was rescued and through the years after it haunted him, and he wanted to find peace in knowing that everyone in such a situation would resort to cannibalism. So he made that experiment to prove to himself that what he did was normal. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/3 "2020-12-31T17:38:44Z")
Sounds interesting, but not the same story as the one I’m seeking. In the one I’m after, the the antagonist _does_ have a desired outcome — wants to show that deprivation will turn everyone into animals and strip away our veneer of compassion for each other. But not cannibalism and no mines were involved. Also no backstory on the antagonist’s own personal history. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/4 "2021-05-16T17:23:24Z")
Reminds me of “Dread,” by Clive Barker, but not exactly the way you describe it. ETA “El hoyo”, also, but that was a film and merely in the general category. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/5 "2021-05-16T17:50:36Z")
‘Elementals’ by Stephen Vincent Benet. It was broadcast as an episode of the radio show Escape, #225 available at: ``` https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Escape_Singles ``` ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/6 "2021-05-16T21:00:04Z")
!! Thank you !! I appreciate that! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-short-story-starvation-couple-thwarted-scenario-engineer/929337/7 "2021-05-16T22:57:54Z")
Too late to ETA, but yeah that’s definitely it based on other online description of it.