by Lauren Salem
I sat up and scooted close to the bars to get a better look. The tunnel was dark and didn’t light up like it did last night, which made it difficult for the guards to detect.
A guard squatted down and peered into the darkness with a flashlight. “What’s down here? It seems like nothing but dirt,” he said.
How does a tunnel just disappear like that? Collins must have escaped to freedom and destroyed the tunnel so that no one else could use it. He was such a selfish bastard; I wanted to strangle him for leaving. Veronica was blind and didn’t know Collins at all. He wasn’t going to help us…All he cared about was himself. When he left us, he didn’t think about how his leaving would affect everyone else. Now that he was gone, everyone would die a day earlier than expected, giving us one less chance to avoid the chair. I was expecting to die early but not as early as tomorrow or the next day.
“We’re going to have to tell the boss,” a guard said. “Who wants to call it in?” The guards hesitated, tapped their feet, twiddled their fingers, and whistled, trying not to make eye contact with one another. “He’s going to be really mad. Bob, you do it.”
“No I did it last time!”
“No you didn’t.”
“Yes I did. I called Kenneth when they escaped the first time, so it’s not my turn.”
“He’s right,” another guard chimed in.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” the first guard sighed as he pulled out a touch screen device from his pocket. “ComCon, I need you to send Kenneth Quinton a message. You are needed in the Chair Trials studio. One of the contestants escaped…send.”
Two minutes later, Kenneth barged through the back door, wearing a mint-green bathrobe with matching slippers and a towel twisted around his hair. The guards stood up straight with their hands at their sides like toy soldiers. As he quickly passed them and turned into the cell, I could see that he was in the middle of an avocado facial treatment when he was interrupted. “You idiots! How could you have let them escape again?” Kenneth yelled.
“We didn’t let them all escape, sir, just one of them,” a guard said in a terrorized voice.
Kenneth’s green face started to bubble with fury as his hands clenched into fists. “Come here right now!”
The guard shuffled his feet as he walked inside the cage and approached Kenneth.
“Everyone gather around.”
The guards gathered around the outside of the cage near the entrance.
“Inside, you dummies!”
The guards walked inside the cage and lined up against the brick wall between cells, as far away from Kenneth as possible.
“This is what happens when you let one of them escape.” Kenneth grabbed the guard’s uniform with both hands and pushed him into the hole, head first. The guard’s head punched out a few more bricks on the way in before he fell down the drop, screaming.
I heard a slicing sound, which made the screaming stop, followed by something rolling against metal. Maybe the tunnel was still usable. Even if it was, I didn’t see how anyone else would get the chance to use it to escape, now that Kenneth and the guards saw the hole in the wall. Why couldn’t Kenneth and the guards see the tunnel?
Kenneth stormed out of the cell and into the hallway. When Kenneth left, the guards gathered around the hole and started whispering something into it. As Kenneth walked down the hall in his fuzzy attire, he quickly glanced into each cell and jiggled the doors. When he got to mine, I backed away from the door. His eyes were bloodshot with anger, and his neck was almost as red as his eyes. After he checked all the cells, he turned around and walked back to the hole. “Move!” The guards split apart into two groups against the two remaining brick walls. “Phillip, if you find Collins down there, let me know,” Kenneth shouted into the hole.
“I think he’s dead, sir,” another guard replied.
“No shit! You’ll be dead, too, if I hear another word out of your mouth,” Kenneth said before he did some breathing exercises. He walked in front of my cage, closed his eyes, and pulled out a squishy, pink ball from his bathrobe pocket. As he breathed in, he squeezed the ball. When he breathed out, he released the ball. He repeated this exercise ten times before he lost his temper again and threw the ball forcefully at my head, which I blocked with my forearm.
That was going to be a big bruise tomorrow…if there would be a tomorrow. The ball fell on the floor next to my feet, and I picked it up.
Kenneth stormed off toward the stage and started breaking things loudly. I scooted as close to the barred door as I could to view the temper tantrum.
The guards watched intensely as Kenneth threw the chairs against the wall and tossed them into the empty audience seating. When he finished with the chairs, he moved on to the microphone. I covered my ears as he bashed it into the floor and broke the stand. “What are you all looking at?” he yelled. “Clean up this mess.”
The guards scrambled to the stage to put everything back in order.
Kenneth walked back into the hallway again. “The remaining three of you listen up. Your friend, Collins, has already ruined my plans for a consecutive, five-episode Chair Trials, so I’m going to make a deal with one of you. Whichever one of you tells me in detail how Collins escaped, I will spare your life, and you will not compete in Chair Trials anymore.”
Veronica, Vincent, and I sat silently in our cages as Kenneth paced around the hall.
“What, none of you want to talk? Let me make this more clear…You get to fucking live! You all should be jumping for this opportunity.”
“I’ll tell you,” I blurted out.
“No, Laura, you can’t trust anything he says. He’ll never let you go,” Veronica shouted.
Kenneth walked over to my cage.
I stood up with his ball in my hand and met him at the barred door. “What are the terms and conditions if I give you this information?”
“You will live, and I will wipe your slate clean of abandonment as long as you never do it again,” Kenneth said.
I sighed and turned away.
Kenneth grabbed my hand and gently pulled me closer to him. His hands were soft like a baby’s skin, but strong like a bear’s paw. “Tell me what’s troubling you.”
Well, the first thing that was troubling me was that I just saw you wreck the stage during your temper tantrum and now you were holding my hand and talking to me like a salesperson. Kenneth seemed scary, but something told me he liked to negotiate. I turned to face him. “I don’t want to work as a gatherer anymore, and I want to be allowed to redesign the uniforms.”
Kenneth rolled his eyes.
“Also, if I have to stay in Walnut Cherryville for the rest of my life, I don’t want to work for shower coins or share the bathroom with anyone else. I want a tub and an actual bed, not a sleeping bag, and I want my own room. Also, if you could spare Vincent and Veronica’s life, I would appreciate it a lot.”
“That’s a tall order,” Kenneth replied. “Let’s refine that list. I will accept everything except sparing Vincent and Veronica’s life. Do you still want to make a deal?”
I paused, and my eyes watered. “Can you give us a second to talk about it?”
“Sure thing,” Kenneth said as he took his ball back. “I’ll be back in five minutes, and I’ll need a decision by then. If you don’t have one, then the deal is off.” Kenneth walked down the hall and out through the back door.
“Laura, stop this right now; you don’t know what you’re doing,” Veronica pleaded.
“Well, I don’t see you guys doing anything! Collins hopped out scot-free, and that’s not fair. He doesn’t have to deal with any of this!”
“God has chosen him for something greater than us, Laura. You need to give him a chance to come through for us.”
“Relying on people is a waste of time, Veronica. Collins didn’t tell us he’d send help, and even if he does, who knows if it will save us before we’re all dead! Someone needs to do something and stop waiting for things to happen. I’ve thought about dying, a
nd I’m just not ready. There’s so much to life that I haven’t explored yet. I know I’ll probably only live until I’m thirty, but I had my life all planned out, and I know what I want to do now. I still want that chance to make it happen. You understand, right?”
“I understand that you’re a traitor and that you make deals with the devil,” Veronica replied. “Vincent, could you help me out here? Maybe you can convince her to cancel this deal.”
“I don’t know how I could do that,” Vincent said. “I can’t even convince her to be my girlfriend. Laura, I will do anything for you because I care about you. Just tell me this: will you ever love me?”
“I don’t know right now, Vincent; we hardly know each other. Just to let you know, I’m not pushing you away because I don’t like you or don’t care about you. I need time to develop something deeper than a physical relationship. I’m looking for true love, and finding it takes time.”
“We don’t have much time left, but I understand. I’ll support whatever decision you make, but just know that you’ll have to live with it. Will you be able to go on with your life, knowing that everyone who ever cared about you is dead? Yes, Kenneth’s word may sound good to you now that you’re facing the electric chair, but is he going to stay true to his word? How do you know he won’t kill you later? I’m not saying that I want to see you die, but everyone might be able to handle it easier if we all die together.”
“With Kenneth, everything comes with a price,” Veronica added. “Don’t think that he’ll just give you something for nothing. He’s going to make you work for it, and I bet you won’t like whatever he makes you do. Also, think about what this will do to your soul once you finally pass away. When God evaluates your sins, he’s going to know that you betrayed your friends…You probably won’t be spending your afterlife in heaven.”
“That doesn’t matter to me, Veronica. I’m not a religious person, so I don’t believe any of that.”
“That’s your choice.”
“What’s the problem here? Are you upset with me that I didn’t give you the chance to speak up to Kenneth?”
“I’m not upset,” Veronica replied. “I’m just trying to help you. I would never talk to Kenneth about anything, and if I were you, I’d be thankful that the Lord spared at least one of us.”
“That doesn’t make sense. You’re getting prissy at me for wanting to leave, but you’re not mad at Collins? What’s your point?”
“Collins left in a dignified way, and he wasn’t a traitor. He didn’t find his way out by being a tattletale; he found his way out because he was chosen.”
“This is how I see it…You two will die either way,” I explained. “If I agree to Kenneth’s terms, you both die, and if I don’t, then we all die. It doesn’t make much of a difference, except one less person dies.”
“Well, it does make a difference what you tell him,” Vincent said. “He might be able to find Collins with the information you give him.”
“Collins has a head start…He’ll be all right.”
“Sounds like you already made your decision…save yourself,” Vincent said.
“Yes, Laura, choose the easy way out,” Veronica added. “Johnny just died, and you’re giving in to the person who killed him. We’re supposed to stand strong together and fight the authority…That’s what Johnny would have wanted us to do.”
Kenneth walked back into the building, headed over to my cell, and gazed at me though the bars. “So, Laura, what’s your decision?”
“I’m going to take the pass; sorry, guys,” I said.
“Good choice,” Kenneth said as he unlocked my door. “Guards, help me escort Laura to my office. We need a quiet place to talk.”
When I stepped out of the confining cage, I felt free, and a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I’m not going to die today, tomorrow, or the next day…phew. The bullet was successfully dodged. As I followed Kenneth down the hall, two guards followed behind me. When I passed Vincent’s cell, he reached out and firmly grabbed my hand. We eyed each other for a few seconds before the guards pushed me onward. His eyes were deep blue seas of depression, and I couldn’t bear to look at his sadness. Without crying, begging, or trembling, he somehow managed to make me feel bad about myself when I did nothing wrong. This was probably what he wanted for me. When the Titanic sank and there was only enough room on the raft for one to survive, Jack wanted Rose to use the raft so that she’d have babies, watch them grow, and live long enough to become an old lady. Jack cared about Rose so much that he put her needs above his own. I wasn’t sure if Vincent was my Jack, but I did know that he wouldn’t live long enough for me to ever find out what we could have been. While I was marching toward Kenneth’s office, he would be marching toward death…I didn’t want to think about that. I blinked and erased the image from my mind.
On the other hand, Veronica looked pissed. She stood by the door with her arms folded, giving me a disapproving look as I walked by. The walk to Kenneth’s office felt like a walk of shame, but thankfully it only lasted for two minutes.
“Have a seat; make yourself comfortable,” Kenneth said as we walked into his office. I sat down at the round table in the corner of the room while Kenneth pulled out a cold water bottle from the mini refrigerator by his desk. “You must be thirsty.”
The minute Kenneth placed the water bottle on the table, I grabbed it, twisted the cap off, and chugged it down. As the chilling, crisp, delectable water flowed through my body, I imagined I was naked floating in an outdoor pool. The golden sun tanned my front as the crystal-clear water chilled my back. There was no one else there, just me floating away in the smooth water. All of a sudden, my mind snapped back to reality when I realized the water bottle was empty.
“I was going to say ‘have a water bottle,’ but it was gone before I could say that.”
“Do you have any food?”
Kenneth looked into his desk drawer and found a pack of crackers. “This is all I have, but there’s more where that came from if you just answer a few simple questions first,” he said as he handed me the crackers. “Describe to me what you saw last night when Collins escaped.”
“Collins pushed in the bricks on the back wall, and they fell down a steep drop. Everyone else tried it, too, but it only worked for him. Last night there was a light coming from behind the bricks. Collins talked about a tunnel, which I think was made out of metal. He used the tunnel to get out.”
“Tunnel…huh,” Kenneth said as he sat down across from me. “I didn’t see a tunnel when I looked down there.”
“Maybe you should try looking at night. I think the tunnel is still there…I heard it this morning when you pushed the guard down the hole.” I nibbled on the crackers one at a time to maintain my ladylike manners.
Kenneth paused for a long time while he thought.
My stomach growled, which sounded as loud as a lion’s roar in a quiet room. “Do you have any more questions for me?”
“No, I’m going to have a team investigate.”
“So can I have something to eat and a bath now?”
Kenneth stood up, walked over to his desk, and opened a drawer. “Yes, but I’m going to have to blindfold you,” he said as he pulled out a handkerchief.
“Why is that necessary?”
“I’m taking you somewhere special, and I don’t want you to know where that is or how to get there. It was part of our agreement.”
“So you’re saying that everything I want is in this place you’re taking me?”
“Indeed,” he said as he wrapped the handkerchief around my eyes and tied it behind my head. He tied my hands behind my back and walked me to the special place, which took about five minutes.
I had a feeling that the special place was located somewhere in the glass building because my feet never touched the sand.
“Here we are,” he said as I heard a heavy door shut behind me. He untied my hands and took off my blindfold. “Behold…the imagination room.”
W
hen I opened my eyes, I saw a blue lagoon surrounded by lava rocks and endless mountains. He called this place a room, but there were no walls to be found. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky was clear of clouds. It felt like I was really outside, but I kept telling myself that I was still in the glass house. I walked along the wooden dock, which brought me to an umbrella table that had a place setting for one, but four covered silver platters. A bottle of ice wine chilled in the middle of the table. Under the cover of platter number one: whole Cajun crabs…My mouth started to water. I lifted the covers from the rest of the platters and revealed filet mignon with truffle butter, grilled mixed vegetables, and chocolate molten lava cake with a side of vanilla bean ice cream.
The aromas of the hot food triggered an animalistic instinct inside of me that wanted to ditch the place settings and chair and just go to town on those platters, eating everything with my hands standing up. I didn’t give into those urges…It wasn’t ladylike. I pulled out the only chair at the table, sat down, and served myself a plate. Just a little bit of everything. Don’t want to come off as a pig. As I began to eat, I peered at the blue water and watched as an island carrying buckets full of spa products floated on top. “Wow…This meal is delicious, and the view is lovely. Where are we?”
Kenneth stood next to the table. “We’re in your imagination.”
“So none of this is real?”
“It’s real as long as you’re imagining it.”
“How does it work?”
“The room detects what you’re thinking about and simulates that environment.”
“Holy shit! It all feels so real.” Another chair appeared at the table. “What was that?”
“I imagined myself a chair so I can sit with you.” As Kenneth began to sit down, I imagined the chair was a pillow, and it changed instantly, causing Kenneth to fall backward.
I laughed as he changed the pillow back into a chair.
“That wasn’t very nice.” Another place setting appeared on the table, and Kenneth served himself a plate.
The sky quickly changed from day to night and became lit with the northern lights. Lines of purple, blue, green, yellow, red, and orange filled the sky, and when I looked beyond the colors, I could see the stars.