MELT: A Psychological Thriller

by Shane M Brown

  Chrissie flicked open the two latches. Snap-Snap!

  'I'm not wrong.'

  Alex grabbed Megan's shoulder. 'Move back.'

  Megan didn't resist.

  'Please don't open it,' pleaded Megan.

  Chrissie glanced over her shoulder at them. 'I'm saving us.'

  Alex could barely keep watching.

  He didn't have to wait long.

  Chrissie hefted open the lid by its latches.

  Nothing happened.

  No acid sprayed in her face.

  No poison darts punctured her flesh.

  No hissing gas filled her system with brain-destroying toxins.

  Chrissie just stared down into the chest, speechless.

  Oh, my God, thought Alex, hardly daring to believe. Was she right?

  'What is it?' called Megan. 'What's in there?'

  Chrissie didn't answer. Whatever lay in the chest had her complete attention.

  'Chrissie?' prompted Megan. 'Is it safe? What's in there? Answer us!'

  Alex found it hard to tell, but Chrissie seemed to shake her head slightly.

  'Something's not right,' warned Megan. 'She's shivering. She’s scared.'

  'Stay behind me,' said Alex. 'Maybe she's too scared to move.'

  Alex approached cautiously. With every step, Chrissie looked more peculiar.

  She wasn't shivering.

  Her entire body shook all over.

  Is she shaking in shock? wondered Alex. What's in there?

  Reaching her side, Alex smelled burning hair. 'Chrissie? You all right?'

  He saw Chrissie's face.

  She wasn't all right.

  He barely recognized her. Her convulsing face twisted through a dozen agonizing expressions a second. Her body shook so fast her outline blurred.

  Worse, Alex saw the awareness in her eyes of what was happening.

  'It's electrocuting her!' Alex shouted.

  'Don't touch her,' Megan yelled, yanking Alex back. 'The chain will kill us all!'

  She was right. If Alex touched Chrissie, the metal slave chain would become an electrical death trap.

  One trap would kill all three of them.

  But I have to help her.

  'The latches,' cried Megan, pointing at Chrissie's hands. 'They've crushed her fingers!’

  Oh, God.

  The designers of this trap had made sure that whoever opened the lid couldn't possibly let go. Like two powerful rattraps, the clasps Chrissie had used to lift the lid had clamped down with pulverizing force on her fingers.

  Her mangled fingers made perfect electrical conductors.

  I've got no choice.

  Alex pulled Megan close to make some slack in the chain. Before Megan could object, Alex took one step and jumped in the air. He slammed both his shoes into Chrissie’s side.

  His full body weight hit Chrissie.

  His rubber shoe soles couldn't conduct the deadly electricity.

  He glimpsed Chrissie collapsing sideways, torn from the chest by the impact.

  Hitting the floor himself, he felt Megan hauling him away from the chest.

  'Stop! Stop! I'm all right,' Alex yelled as Megan nearly wrenched his shoulder from its socket.

  She helped him stand.

  Together they approached Chrissie. She'd landed on her back, staring up at the fluorescent lights.

  Megan covered her mouth, pointing at Chrissie's neck.

  Chrissie's gold chain had liquefied around her neck. The molten metal had scalded an inch deep channel into her throat.

  'What did that?' asked Megan.

  'Her chain,' explained Alex. 'The gold. It melted on her.'

  The hardening gold sealed the trauma. Not a single drop of blood escaped.

  Alex peered inside the chest.

  It's full of large batteries and voltage multipliers.

  A voltage multiplier and a small nine volt battery could disable a grown man, so God only knew what extended agony Chrissie had suffered.

  Whump!

  The lid of the chest fell shut.

  Chrissie's severed fingers scattered across the floor.

  #

  They sat close to the ice.

  Alex picked up a strange little red thing.

  He showed Megan.

  ‘What’s this?’

  Megan made a disgusted face. ‘It’s Chrissie’s toenail.’

  Jesus Christ.

  Alex threw the horrible thing away. He wiped his fingers on the ice.

  The ice repelled the heat, but not the smell. He tried breathing through his mouth to avoid the stench.

  'What now?' asked Megan.

  She rested her face sideways on her knees, probably not expecting an answer.

  Alex hated hearing her like this. Megan's will to survive had been bullet-proof until now. Alex hadn't realized how much he’d depended on it.

  They all had.

  Without her, Alex doubted he'd still be alive. He couldn't let her give up now.

  ‘Tell me about your dad,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t want to, Alex.’

  'I already know he must be strict.’

  Megan looked up. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you don’t swear.'

  'What are you talking about?'

  'You haven't sworn once,’ said Alex. ‘And I've seen you get an acid haircut.'

  Megan touched her acid stubble. 'No, it's not because of Dad. Not the way you mean.'

  'How then?' prompted Alex.

  Megan shrugged. 'When I was nine, Dad burnt his hand and swore while fixing our lawnmower. He didn’t know I was standing behind him.'

  'And?'

  'And when I asked what ‘fuck’ meant, he brushed me off. Later I checked on the internet. Big mistake.'

  Alex hissed between his lips. 'Yeah, no pictures of people fixing lawnmowers.'

  'Not the way my dad was fixing ours.'

  They both grimaced.

  Alex wanted to steer the conversation toward getting home and seeing their families, but Megan surprised him.

  'What happened to your leg?'

  'Why?'

  Megan rested her head back against the ice. ‘Because this is my last chance to ask.'

  Good answer.

  Alex hadn’t told anyone the truth yet. He’d even found his bottle and destroyed the note without anyone realizing. No one had noticed the extra bottle.

  I’ll decide who I share my secret with.

  Megan deserved to be the first.

  'I have two cousins. George and Samuel, remember?'

  'And your aunt's name is Beth.'

  Alex nodded. 'George is three and Sam is five. I used to look after them all the time. Last year I watched them while Aunt Beth took Mom Christmas shopping. Anyway, they wanted to play hide and seek. I said okay and sent them off to hide in the house. While they hid, I took out our garbage. I remember washing my hands and then hearing Samuel screaming outside.’

  'He followed you out?' asked Megan.

  'He must have, but I didn't see him. I didn't see the dogs either. Not until I found them trying to tear him apart.’

  Alex remembered trying to wrestle the savage dogs off his baby cousin. The black dog had Sam's face. Alex had thumped the squirming black bundle of muscle. When that failed, he tried to pry open its jaws. In desperation, with both arms around the dog's neck, he'd bitten off a chunk of its ear.

  'What happened?' asked Megan.

  'They both attacked me. The brown one had my leg. The black one bit my shoulder. I was already on the ground by then. The brown one had been attacking my leg the entire time.'

  'Did anyone help you?'

  Alex shook his head.

  'No. I gouged out the black dog's eye with my thumb. I remember it squealed. It squealed like a puppy and ran off. The brown one ran after it.'

  'So the brown dog did all that damage to your leg?'

  Alex nodded. 'I didn't realize until I tried to lift Sam.'

  'Did he...?'

  'He
didn't die,' said Alex quickly. ‘He spent weeks in hospital though. He needed reconstructive surgery on Christmas Day.'

  Alex tapped the ice. ‘That’s why I’m here.’

  Megan looked confused. 'What do you mean?'

  'I lied about what happened. I told Aunt Beth that Sam let the dogs into our yard.'

  'But you left the gate open?' asked Megan.

  ‘I must have.’

  'Why lie?'

  ‘That’s just what I did,’ said Alex. ‘There’s no excuse. I guess it seemed easier.’

  Alex rested his head on the ice. After a minute, cold water began dripping down his back.

  Megan asked, ‘You’ve already found your bottle, haven’t you?’

  Alex nodded. ‘You were too tired to notice and Chrissie wasn’t watching.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Before we pulled out the chest. Just before we rested.’

  ‘Did you find mine?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Honestly?’

  ‘Count the empty bottles,’ said Alex. ‘There’s only six. There’s still one bottle missing.’

  Megan sighed.

  'You don't deserve to be in here,' she said.

  Alex closed his eyes. 'Someone thinks I do.'

  Megan touched his arm. 'Well, not me.'

  Alex remembered the last time he'd been with Sam. 'We had a party to celebrate when Sam first came home from hospital. I made a dog-shaped piñata. We bashed that thing to pieces.'

  'What happened to the real dogs?' asked Megan.

  'Same as the piñata,' replied Alex. 'My uncles found them two streets away.'

  #

  Megan pulled her bag closer. 'I have a surprise for you.'

  Megan's bag bulged at the seams.

  Alex raised an eyebrow, curious. What's she got in there?

  'But first take those stupid long pants off.'

  Alex shrugged and untied the drawstring. He peeled them off, tossing them aside, glad to be free of them. Megan didn’t even glance at his leg.

  'Better?'

  'Much better. What's the surprise?'

  From her bag, Megan offered a square package bound with string.

  Alex accepted the package. 'What is it?'

  'It's food, Alex. Open it.'

  Alex tore it open.

  Biscuits?

  'They're ship's biscuits,' said Megan. 'Rations for sailors on long sea voyages.'

  Alex felt his hands trembling with the desire to eat. 'Are they safe?'

  Megan answered by picking up and biting a biscuit, and then biting harder, and then twisting the biscuit until it cracked off in her mouth.

  'Ouch. Not safe for your teeth,' she mumbled. 'But not poison.'

  Alex tried one. He'd almost forgotten how good it felt to bite and chew. He liked the biscuits being rock hard. It really felt like eating.

  After they both finished a biscuit, Megan opened her bag again.

  'Wow,' said Alex.

  Megan drew out an ornately decorated flintlock pistol. 'It's heavy. Be careful. She almost hit me with this one.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Chrissie threw this stuff at me while you were asleep. She was furious.’

  Alex held the weapon in his fingertips, amazed at the intricate detail. The flintlock pistol looked too beautiful to be a weapon. He set it aside as Megan reached into her bag again.

  She handed him a small tin.

  'Apparently we used to kill whales to keep our watches running. Did you know that?’

  Alex read the label.

  Whale Oil Watch Lubricant.

  Another ancient treasure appeared from Megan's bag. 'And every whaling boat needed one of these.'

  Either brass or bronze, the complicated A-frame device sported an eyepiece, two adjustable mirrors and a curved sliding ruler.

  'It's a ship's sextant for navigating,' said Alex.

  'I know, but read the engraving.'

  Alex found the engraving on the frame below the eyepiece.

  HMS BEAGLE

  Megan touched the engraving. 'This might have belonged to Charles Darwin.'

  'Probably worth millions on eBay,' said Alex, balancing the sextant on the whale oil.

  Megan opened her bag. 'Here, you choose next.'

  Alex reached in and pulled out something small and heavy. It was an old gear from a machine. The word 'Draper' was stamped onto it.

  'The industrial revolution?'

  'That was my guess,' agreed Megan. ‘Probably from a steam engine or water wheel. Maybe even cotton processing.'

  'How many more you got?' asked Alex.

  'Just this. I found it just before you woke up.'

  Megan carefully drew a small glass object from a side pocket.

  'Oh, that's an old vacuum tube,' said Alex.

  'What's it for?'

  'Early radios used them. Early computers did too.'

  Alex pointed at the glass bulb. 'This represents the beginning of modern electronics. Your iPhone came from that.'

  Clank

  ‘What was that?’ Megan looked past Alex.

  Alex looked down beside his leg. Something else had fallen from the ice.

  A little cube, not much larger than a dice.

  It looked safe enough.

  He picked it up. It’s little, but heavy.

  ‘What is it?’

  Alex searched and found ‘U92’ stamped on one surface.

  'Did you study chemistry at school?' he asked.

  'I hated it. Why?'

  'It's uranium.’

  ‘Is it dangerous?’

  ‘Not like this.’

  Megan looked unconvinced, so Alex tossed the little gray cube away. It slid across the floor and hit the wall.

  'So we've reached the age of nuclear power,’ Alex announced. ‘The time when we really started fucking up the world.'

  He turned and studied the remaining ice. Two feet high and barely larger than a child's inflatable pool, inside the rapidly melting ice not a single artifact remained.

  'I guess that's the end then.'

  Chapter Thirty-one

  'I'm sorry, Alex.'

  Alex passed Megan another two ice chips. One to suck and one to cool her skin.

  'What for?'

  'Victoria was right. Digging the ice was stupid. It just got people killed and made the ice melt faster.’

  Megan pointed to artifacts. 'These artifacts weren't testing us. They were condemning us. The Roman Empire fell. The Titanic sank. Chernobyl exploded. Do you realize that if we'd never touched the ice, the others would still be alive now?'

  ‘Humans always explore,' said Alex. ‘People still would have died.’

  Megan counted on her fingers. 'Seven days. God made the world in seven days. Our world only lasted seven days.'

  Megan’s words unlocked something in Alex’s mind.

  It felt like she’d handed him the last few pieces of a confusing puzzle.

  Everything came together so quickly he felt panicky.

  He sat up straight, his mind racing.

  'Megan, what you just said. You're right. I think I've worked it out.'

  'Worked what out?'

  'Everything. The artifacts. The ice. The heat. Our abductions. I think I know what this place really is.'

  Megan said, 'Please don’t tell me it’s a life raft.’

  Alex stood up, turning to face her.

  'What's the biggest threat to our species right now?'

  ‘What?’

  ‘Come on, Megan. Just answer.’

  'Global warming, I guess.'

  'And how did we prove global warming existed?'

  Megan answered automatically. 'The heating atmosphere and melting ice caps.’

  Alex pointed at their remaining ice. ‘Our atmosphere is heating and our ice cap is melting.’

  Megan looked confused, but Alex wanted her to reach the same conclusion herself.

  ‘Come on, Megan. You’re an expert at this stuff. It’s your job. How wi
ll global warming effect humans?’

  'Food and water will run out,' Megan answered quickly. 'People will fight over resources. People will die.'

  Alex pointed at their pyramid of corpses. 'Well, they're dead, and we’re running out of food and water.'

  He shook his shackled wrist. 'Look how Chrissie fought for resources. She made us her slaves!'

  Alex was right.

  He knew it.

  He pointed at the artifacts.

  'Since caveman days we've searched for new technologies, right? But technology discovered too early is dangerous. Just like the artifacts in the ice. Any we discovered too early were deadly.’

  Megan waved at the chamber around them. ‘So what is this place?’

  ‘We're locked inside a model of the outside world,’ answered Alex. ‘This chamber represented our atmosphere. The ice was our Earth. It provided our resources and life support system. And we destroyed the thing that was keeping us alive. You said it yourself. If we'd left the ice alone we’d all still be alive.’

  Alex watched Megan steadily.

  'So if we hadn’t repeated the mistakes of the past, we’d all be alive?’ asked Megan.

  Megan had solved it.

  They had been punishing themselves by repeating the mistakes of the past. They had been given a little world of their own, and they had destroyed it.

  Alex shouted at the ceiling, 'Okay! We get it! Killing the planet is killing ourselves! Message received loud and clear! We’re sorry! We’re sorry for everything! For God's sake, please let us out!'

  Nothing happened.

  Alex didn't really expect any reward for solving their sadistic puzzle.

  He sighed and looked down.

  That’s when he saw it.

  Holy Shit! A hatch in the floor. Right behind Megan.

  'Look!' he pointed. 'Look at that.'

  Megan spun around. She stared into the ice.

  'I think it's a way out!’ she cried.

  Their chain rattled as Megan polished the ice.

  'I can see a handle,' she said, pointing into the ice. 'It is a way out. It was under the ice this whole time!'

  'Where else could it have been?' asked Alex.

  Megan jumped up and wrapped Alex in a fierce hug. 'I can't believe it. A way out! A way out of this place! And we were just sitting here with it right under us. Should we dig?'

  'No!' said Alex. 'No more digging. No more messing with the ice. That's brought us nothing but trouble. It will melt by itself in no time. Just don’t pass out.’