51
Day Fourteen
Eighteen years ago...
Carrie has a fever and she’s sweating.
I hold her hand and say soothing things to her. She mostly groans and complains.
I don’t know how many hours it has been since we ate the burgers. Maybe she has food poisoning or E. coli.
If only we had water.
We are all very weak today.
Ellen scoots next to me. “Is she dying?”
I elbow her. “Of course not. She’ll be fine. The raw meat probably gave her a bellyache.”
Ellen sits down beside me. “I feel kind of sick, too.”
I feel the same but I keep it to myself. Maybe he or they poisoned us and now want to watch us die in agony.
What was the fucking point of the key?
At least we haven’t been forced to fight again and the horrible movies aren’t playing anymore. That is something to be thankful for.
A loud clatter snaps my attention to the left just as something falls from the overhead door. It clatters and slides against the dirty floor. Then a second object falls.
What the hell?
A third one hits the floor, clattering and sliding into the others.
I release Carrie’s hand and crawl to the pile and sit back on my knees.
Knives. Not just knives, butcher knives—the kind I remember from my grandmother’s kitchen. She used one like this to chop up a chicken once.
“Oh my God.” Ellen grabs my arm as if she needs something to hang on to.
The male voice commands, “Take a knife.”
Fear twists in my belly along with the raw meat. “No!” I shake my head. I don’t know what’s coming but it can’t be good. My instincts are screaming at me.
Ellen reaches out and picks one up. She turns it side to side, watching the shiny metal flash in the light. “Are we going to need these to protect ourselves?”
“Put it down,” I whisper.
Carrie manages to sit up and scoot over to where we are. “What the hell?”
“Take a knife!” the voice repeats.
Carrie reaches for a knife.
I’m not doing it. I innately understand the knives are not for protection.
A grinding sound jerks my attention to the right. The hole we’ve been using for a toilet suddenly closes. There must be a hydraulic door I couldn’t see, not that I’d stuck my head inside the hole. It was too little to use as an escape route so I didn’t bother.
A gushing sound came next. I glance around to see where it is coming from. Water pours down the walls in a thin sheet as if all four walls have suddenly turned into waterfalls. I remember seeing water walls like this in a restaurant once.
I look at the others and then at the walls again. I feel the water rising around my ankles. As if someone inside my head is speaking to me I hear the words: we are going to drown.
The male voice booms loud in the room. “All you need for your freedom is one thing...a single key.”
We stare at each other. Carrie grabs her stomach and groans. Ellen clutches her knife and scoots away from us.
I pick up the final knife before the rising water can sweep it away and I turn to Carrie. Like Ellen, she scoots away.
The water rushes and rushes. The water is up to my knees now. I ignore it. They’re trying to scare us. The water will stop. Or we’ll just float up to the top and hang on to that metal gate-like door. Except the gate is even with the ceiling on our side. The wall around the opening goes up about another ten inches. The bottom drops out of my stomach. The water will rise above the metal gate by several inches.
Ellen and Carrie stare at me as if they, too, have reached this same conclusion.
I shake my head. “I’m not hurting anyone.” I throw down the knife. It floats this way and that until it sinks to the bottom.
“Only two of you can survive,” the voice roars. “One must die. Make a choice. Take a key before it’s too late.”
No way.
The water is at my waist now. I am really scared.
Carrie is clutching her stomach again. I want to go to her but I’m afraid. She has a knife in her hand.
The water brushes the tops of my thighs. I back away from the others. Against the wall where the water oozes forth.
I will not kill anyone. I will not.
Ellen and Carrie are staring at each other.
My heart pounds. I need to say something, to stop whatever is about to happen.
“No!” I shout. “Don’t listen to him! He wants us to hurt each other.”
Ellen rushes toward Carrie. Carrie starts forward but stumbles and falls face-first into the water. Ellen stabs at her with the knife.
I rush toward them.
Ellen and Carrie are fighting. I try to pull them apart. Can’t. Water is at my waist now.
Carrie is under the water. Ellen kicks her in the stomach.
“Stop!” I scream and reach for Carrie.
Ellen holds her under the water. I pull at Ellen, first one of her arms and then the other but I can’t move her.
“Stop!” I can’t budge Ellen. How can she be so strong? Then it hits me, adrenaline. She is fighting to survive.
I grab her hair and yank her head back. She screams but won’t let go of her hold on Carrie.
I push her head under the water. We struggle and roll. Finally, she releases Carrie. I jerk loose from her and slug through the water to Carrie.
She isn’t breathing. Her eyes are open, staring at me.
Oh shit. Oh shit. I try to help her but the water is so deep. I hold her head up out of the water and try to squeeze any water out of her lungs. But it’s nearly impossible to keep her above the water level.
“She’s dead!” Ellen snarls. She stands in front of us with a knife in her hand. “Now hold her up so I can get the key.”
I stand there in a kind of shock, holding Carrie under her arms, her head sagging forward, while Ellen cuts into her. Blood rises up around us. Hot tears slide down my cheeks but there is nothing I can do.
It takes forever—the water is at our chins now. Blood swirls with Ellen’s frantic movements. The water sloshes back and forth, hitting me in the face. I taste the saltiness of Carrie’s blood. I stagger, almost fall. I don’t care. I hope we all die.
“Got it!”
Ellen pulls Carrie’s body away from me. I watch her sink to the bottom. Her insides floating all around her. Blood widening like a crimson cloud...
“Stand by the lock,” Ellen orders.
Instinctively my head tilts back to keep the water out of my nose. We are going to die. It’s too late to save ourselves. I don’t care.
“Do it, Joanna!” Ellen screams.
I move to the spot beneath the lock we cannot reach. It hangs from the cage-style door eight feet off the floor. The door is flush with the ceiling.
Ellen climbs my back. I stumble, nearly fall over, but I right myself and sputter water from my mouth and nose. She sits on my shoulders and works until she releases the lock. It splashes in the water next to me, sinking to the bottom with Carrie.
We should die, too. We don’t deserve to live.
As if the lock released more than the cage-like door, the water stops running in and immediately starts to drain.
The sound is deafening. The pull of the water almost drags me down.
Ellen is jerking and pushing. I peer up. She’s trying to push the cage-style door upward. Suddenly it starts to fall in on us.
We topple backward into the water.
When we surface again, the cage door is hanging from the ceiling like a ladder.
Ellen slogs through the water that is now only waist deep and grabs onto the ladder.
I rush after her and jerk her away from the ladder.
“Wait!” I put my face in hers. “We’re taking Carrie with us.”
“We have to get out of here!” Ellen cries.
I shake my head. “Not without Carrie.”
Only two of us are alive, but all three of us will get out.