by Holly Hook
More muttering. Footsteps shuffled.
Away.
They were leaving us in here to fall victim to the sun. Alana pressed against the wall, but the window was narrow and long and made of thick glass, nothing we could ever break. It was too late to go outside anyway. The three of us could duck and hug the toilet, but there wasn't enough room for all of us, especially Jerome, who was a head taller than me and Alana both.
"David!" Jerome roared.
"Can we please let them out?" Mina asked. Finally someone was on our side.
David said something that I couldn't make out, and then she didn't protest any more. I wondered what he'd threatened her with. The guy had Tony and Eric and most of the tour group on his side. No one wanted to be the ones who were going to rebel. That was the job of the three of us and now everyone else was seeing what was going to happen to us. We were the examples.
David hadn't just decided to punish us. He wanted rid of us. They'd fix the van and leave the three of us to die in burns and shock as they took off towards civilization, or what was left of it.
Chapter Nine
Jerome pulled off his shirt and climbed onto the toilet, squinting in the pale light and turning his face away. He spread it out over the window the best he could, blocking out a lot of the light. Alana sighed in relief and he let go. The shirt sagged a little, leaving a beam of light about half as big as before. It was some help, but not enough.
"What are we supposed to do?" Alana asked.
I tried to calm the spinning in my mind. I couldn't hold a thought together. No one ever taught you what to do when the sunlight turned deadly. Or more deadly, I should say.
"The toilet paper's not going to do much good," I said. "Or the paper towels." There were a bunch on the floor and some of them I didn't want to touch, but an urge to survive rose up inside of me, something ancient and powerful. It was chasing away everything else. The towels would block some sun but there was no way they'd actually stay in the window.
I reached down and started pulling down my pants.
"What are you doing?" Alana asked as Jerome turned away.
This was going to be the most awkward experience of my life. I was pulling my pants down, showing off my flowered underwear to a guy I had never even talked to before today. "We have to keep the light from getting in." It was better than my shirt and my bra, I supposed. At least it would be dark.
"You don't have to do that, Laney," Jerome said. I was shocked he knew my name. I didn't think I had ever spoken to the guy. He was a good listener in class, maybe.
"We're going to die a painful, long and drawn out death if we don't," I said. "Trust me. You don't want to die from too much sun exposure." I stood on the toilet, pants in hand, careful not to let them touch anything too gross, and shoved them on top of Jerome's shirt.
All the clothes started to topple and it took some time for me to get everything in place enough to allow only a few cracks of early morning light to peek through. Darkness filled the bathroom and Alana breathed another sigh of relief. Out in the lobby, everything had gone quiet. It seemed that David had left with the rest of the tour group in tow. No one had the bravery to let us out.
"There," I managed, stepping down from the toilet, glad that I had put my shoes back on before using it as a step stool.
"I hope David lets us out after they're done messing with the van," Alana said. "They can go from building to building. It only takes a few seconds. That won't be enough time for the sun to start burning them."
I knew the truth and I didn't want to say it, but I had to. "They're not going to let us out of here," I said. "David expects us to die or at least get really hurt. What use are we going to be then?"
"She's right," Jerome said. "People suck. Especially people like him. I think I know what he is. David knows I know what he is. That's why he wants to get rid of me. And he threw the two of you in here because you're not impressed by him. We're a threat."
"I'd rather be a threat than someone who follows a cult leader," I said.
"He's not really that," Jerome said. "I think he's a narcissist. Full of himself. Has to be the best. Gets pissed when someone points out that maybe he isn't right all the time. Then they like to make others look like they're worse."
"What do we do about him?" Alana asked.
"Get away," Jerome said. "You can't reason with people like that. We've got to get to the Cat and get out of here ourselves."
"We can't just leave everyone behind," Alana said next to me. I could barely see her. My pants and Jerome's shirt were still holding out about ninety-five percent of the light, but I was getting used to the bathroom. I knew where everything was now. The cramped space wasn't even bothering me as much as I thought it would. We had other threats to worry about.
"They're willing to leave us," Jerome said.
"In case you haven't noticed," I said to Alana, "Kindness and compassion are discontinued until further notice. We have to think about ourselves. If they want to hang out with David, it's only a matter of time before he turns on them, too."
"I agree with Laney," Jerome said. "People like him want to be admired and worshipped. They'll step on people to get what they want. Once we're gone, it'll be someone else."
"Which is why we need to get everyone else out of here and leave David," Alana said.
It was the first time I'd heard Alana mention that she wanted to hurt someone. She'd grown up managing her little brother, resolving his fights and coming up with solutions. Even she was beginning to realize that there might not be another solution here.
"Or get David out of the picture," Jerome said. "I don't know what that's going to make everyone else do."
I pushed against the door, but the knob was tight. Tony had wedged the chair under it just right, almost like he had done this before. They had us way trapped in here. No one spoke outside. I got on my hands and knees (brave, considering that the floor wasn't the best and Jerome could probably still make out my underwear) and peeked under. Carpet met my eyes. I saw a few pink beams of light, stronger now, against the opposite wall. Everyone had moved to the maintenance building to work. If we were going to get out, the time was now.
But where would we go?
The question got bigger and bigger. I wondered if there was a possibility David would let us live, but that was a tall order. I imagined him in the maintenance shed, telling everyone how dangerous we were. It would get worse by the hour.
"They're gone," I told the others, straightening up. "Now's the time to break out, but we need another way to escape. I can't see us getting the Cat."
"Would something be down in the mine?" Alana asked. "There was a service ladder next to the elevator shaft."
I thought of that shaft and the long, long service ladder that made me dizzy.
"Something we could use to shield ourselves from the sun?" she asked. "A tarp, or something? Or radiation suits?"
"There could be," Jerome said. "Wait. There are suits down there. I'm not looking forward to that climb. There's no water down there, that's for sure."
"Those suits," I said, thinking of that room with the radiation symbol. "All the scientists must have one." Those white suits were supposed to protect the workers from the particles going through the collider. "They'd work for the sun, right?"
"Well, since radiation suits are supposed to keep out gamma rays, I'm sure they'll work for ultraviolet," Jerome said. "They'll keep the sunlight off us at the very least." Then he kicked at the wooden door. "Ouch!"
For the first time since last night, hope rose inside of me. If we could take the flashlight, some water and a bit of food, we could reach the suits before anyone else got back in here. We'd even make it look like we were still in the bathroom, to keep David from getting suspicious.
Jerome kicked the door handle again, and again. It was one of those long metal ones that you had to turn in order to get in or out. He panted and took a breath, then sent another kick towards it.
And it snappe
d. The handle came loose from the door itself and hung there, busted.
"Yes!" Alana shouted.
"David doesn't know anything about how flimsy doors can be," Jerome said. He reached through the new opening and turned something. He worked for a while as we waited. At last, he flicked something and there was a click as the door came open a bit.
The chair fell to the floor as Jerome pushed it the rest of the way open. The lobby was completely empty. Some distant pounding noises came from the outside, where they were probably working in the other building. I realized how lucky we were. If they hadn't been doing that, David might have heard this.
We'd be dead for sure. Eric might just hit us over the head with the crowbar and all because David was the best person in the world, the one who could save them all.
"Okay," Jerome said, facing the elevator. "How do we get to the ladder?"
"That's a good question," I said.
Alana looked around. "I don't see anything we can weigh the elevator down with. And if it falls, we can't get to the bottom of the mine. The ladder goes down I think, but we won't be able to get around the elevator itself."
"Or can we?" Jerome asked.
I followed his gaze. The Visitor Center had been dark for most of the time we'd been here, so I had missed the narrow door next to the elevator until now. There was a big yellow sign on the front with an exclamation point and I was sure it was locked, but the desk had some keys in it. "Check the drawers again. And if the flashlight is still there, we're taking it."
Alana did the honors. After a few very tense minutes, she found the keys and the flashlight, which David and the gang hadn't taken. "They must be using the big industrial one in the other building," Alana said, holding up the little one. She clicked it on. The thing still worked. It would be very, very dark in the mine and the thought of going down there was almost as terrifying as the thought of being burned alive by the sun.
But the preservation instinct--it was making me want to go down there.
Strange, huh? I knew things would change as soon as I hit the bottom or as soon as I saw the shaft going down into nothingness. But I walked over to the dangerous door, which was about where the ladder would be. Alana shined the light on it and I could read the words. DANGER. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. I took the key ring and tried every key I could. At last, the fourth one fit and turned. The door clicked open with a final sound.
"We're good," Jerome said. He whistled looked down. "I'm not ready for this climb. I hope we're physically fit enough."
"We have to be," Alana said. For the first time, she sounded really terrified. She had every right to be.
"Wait," I said, running over and closing the bathroom door. The stench still wafted out and my nose had gotten used to it during the time we spent in there. Now it was present again, an invader. I then pressed the door back against it.
My pants.
I wasn't heading out into the desert without my pants. It wasn't just a vanity issue. I needed all the protection I could get from the sun. I opened the door again.
"What are you doing?" Jerome asked.
I grabbed the clothes out of the window, letting the light stream in. I squeezed my eyelids shut as the sun tried to stab into me. My skin burned and I backed out, closing the door on death. A little bit of exposure wouldn't kill me, would it? I just had to keep it to a minimum. I wasn't a vampire, though I felt like one.
"Here." I tossed Jerome his shirt.
We got dressed and then opened the scary door all the way.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
It was worse.
Jerome whistled again as the three of us stared down into a narrow abyss and the ladder rungs that sank right into it. The abyss opened up right after the bottom of the elevator, making it even more terrifying. The elevator hung there, shiny and new in the light Alana was shining. The rest was darkness. We were going to have to go down there and pray the flashlight didn't puke or we were going to be in the dark.
"Anything else we can do to delay?" Jerome asked. "I don't like heights."
"I don't like tight spaces," I said. This was the worst of the worst. A tiny space. Darkness. Real death creeping. I couldn't escape from it. I thought of my sketchbook back on the bus and had an urge to go back and get it, but it didn't matter anymore. There was no room in this new world for art. Survival was all that mattered right now.
"Grab the water," I said out of nowhere.
Jerome raided the vending machine, stuffing bottles and bags of chips into his huge pockets, which soon bulged with precious water and food. I was thirsty, but it needed to wait until we were at least at the bottom.
"What are you guys doing?"
I jumped.
Gina stood there in the doorway, holding the door closed with one hand to block out the sun. She had her shirt pulled over her head like that Beavis and Butthead character and her arms inside it as well. She had obviously been trying to keep the sun off her.
"Don't tell anyone," I said. "We're trying to escape." It was obvious, so why lie?
"I won't," she said. "David doesn't want you with us. At all."
"I know," I told her.
"The others think you guys are trying to kill us and take all the food," she said. "David's playing victim. He thinks you guys are just jealous of him. He sent me to check on you. I told David that I thought you were dangerous so he'd let me out of his sight. I was coming to let you out, but I didn't have a plan past that. I wasn't supposed to open the bathroom door at all."
"He knew the sun would come into the bathroom," Jerome said.
Gina shook her head. "I didn't think a guy like David could be like that. Are you really going to climb back into the mine?"
"Come with us," Alana said. "There's got to be an exit out of there. A hatch, or something. These people wouldn't have built the place if there wasn't another exit."
"She's right," Jerome said.
I thought about our food and water supplies, which weren't much. Gina would be another mouth to feed. "Let's keep it to the three of us," I whispered.
"No," Alana said. "If we don't take her, David might hurt her for letting us get away."
I didn't want anything bad to happen to Gina, but I didn't want to be responsible for another person who may not survive the trek to civilization. I didn't want to have another body on my hands. But I nodded. Staying here would be death for her now. Anger rose inside of me but I pushed it down. There wasn't any time for that.
Another thought hit me. "If we do take her and she doesn't return to David, he'll come after us," I said.
Gina's face fell. "Please. You can't leave me with this psycho. He really has everyone believing you're trying to steal all the food."
"Either way, you're in trouble," I told her. "David will want to kill all of us."
Gina shifted leg to leg. "Can't you lock that door after we get down that ladder? You have keys. He doesn't. There's got to be a way to lock it from the inside."
I checked. There was a lock on the inner door. She was right.
"Come on," I told her, feeling horrible. "Hurry. The ladder goes down a long way."
"Ladder?" she asked.
"Yes," Jerome said. "Ladder. You ready?"
He went first. Maybe he felt obligated, being the only guy in our group. Gina went down next and I decided to get it over with and go down third. Alana was the last onto the ladder, and it took her a while to get the door closed and locked. It clicked, leaving us with nothing but the dark and the flashlight. It was cold in here, as cold as a grave. I held my breath and descended, trying not to think about the abyss. The only sound was our shoes touching the rungs, making little pattering sounds. We sounded like rats in a tunnel.
"God," I muttered, trying not to look down. We were headed into a shaft that went hundreds of feet into the earth.
It was just then that someone pounded on the door.
"Gina!" David shouted. The metallic pounding sounded again. "Where are you? I told
you to check on them and come right back!"
Jerome swore. "Good thing for the lock."
I took a breath. I'd been getting dizzy. The tunnel closed in. I imagined it pressing on my chest...no. I had to keep going. The air opened up and I knew there was nothing but an elevator-sized pit behind me. I thought about flowers and kittens and anything that wasn't horrible instead. Things that might not be in the world too much longer. It did nothing to calm my nerves.
"Keep going," Alana said. Her feet were right above me. Her shoes were dusty. Old. Ripped. I hadn't realized Alana had to walk around in those until now. I kept my focus on that as the four of us crept down, one rung at a time.
"I know you're in there!" David shouted. "You're never coming out again. Enjoy your time down there!"
"We will," Jerome muttered.
Alana managed a laugh. It was the farthest thing from my reality. One rung. Another rung. It took two seconds to go down one. That meant I'd do ten rungs in twenty seconds. Thirty rungs a minute. They seemed to be about eight inches apart. That meant I'd go down a hundred feet every few minutes or so. In maybe ten minutes this torture would be over. I wasn't estimating right. My mind wasn't working that well in this suffocating fear.
"Can you see the bottom?" I asked.
"Nope," Jerome said. "I'll let you know when I reach it."
That didn't help me any. I stopped counting, then started again. It was the only thing keeping me even partly sane. David stopped raging and cursing at us from the top. His voice was getting fainter.
They would have the Cat and the road.
We would have protective suits. Daylight was running out. By time we got on the road--if we even managed to get out of the mine--dark would be approaching. Our situation had just reversed.
One minute.
Thirty rungs.
Another minute. Sixty rungs.
I kept my mantra up. Alana breathed heavily. My legs were sore, but I was able to keep my feet on them okay. I had to. There was no other choice.
A hundred and twenty rungs.