Danni stopped wriggling and kept her weeping eyes on him.
Damien reached out a hand and moved his fingers toward her face. “Don’t move and don’t blink.” He grasped the stinger between his thumb and forefinger and plucked it from Danni’s eyelid.
She flinched.
Damien held the insect appendage in front of her. “It was stuck in your eyelid.”
Danni groaned. Her lips were fat and swollen, like she’d had a collagen injection. “That really sucked,” she said.
“I know. But who pulled out first? When I pulled out and opened my eyes, everybody else was out too.”
Danni shrugged.
“HOUSEMATES JADE AND DANNI. YOU WILL BE IN TONIGHT’S HEAD TO HEAD ELIMINATION.”
“Guess that answers your question,” said Danni. “Looks like it’s finally my turn.”
2
Danni and Jade were standing outside the door to the elimination chamber and waiting for the go ahead. Danni was holding herself nervously, so Damien went over to give her a pep talk.
“Just keep a level head and you’ll be fine. Jade is erratic, you can benefit from that.”
“If I benefit then that means Jade dies.”
“If you don’t, then you die.”
Danni nodded. Her face was still very swollen from the wasp stings. She had the features of someone six stones heavier. “Good point. I feel really sick.”
Damien put his hands on her shoulders. “Just breathe slowly. Don’t think about anything but what you’re doing right now.”
“HOUSEMATES DANNI AND JADE, PLEASE ENTER THE ELIMINATION CHAMBER.”
Danni gave Damien a last fleeting look and smiled. “Here I go. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck.”
Damien went and took a seat on the sofa. He could see everything inside the cube room via the viewing screen in the living area.
Danni and Jade stood in the white room, side by side. In front of them was a large metal disc. It was a circular saw. Damien groaned when he spotted it. On the floor next to it, hooked through a series of steel rings, was a sturdy rope.
“HOUSEMATES DANNI AND JADE, PLEASE PICK UP THE ROPE IN FRONT OF YOU FROM OPPOSITE ENDS.”
Reluctantly, the two women did as they were asked. They held the rope up between them like they were about to engage in tug-of-war.
The metal saw disc started spinning. After a few slow revolutions it kicked into gear and became a lethal blur of sharp teeth.
“HOUSEMATES, THE GAME IS SIMPLE. PULL YOUR OPPONENT INTO THE CENTER OF THE ROOM. PLEASE BEGIN.”
Jade and Danni just stood there and stared at one another with terror-filled eyes. Then Jade yanked the rope. Danni went stumbling forward, towards the spinning blade.
Damien lurched to the edge of his seat in the living area and let out an anxious breath.
Danni managed to stop herself just in time. Less than half a foot away from the saw blade she managed to dig in her heels and pull back on the rope. Jade stumbled forwards in response and the two women were back to where they started.
Both of them started to pull and strain, the effort making their already red faces turn beetroot within seconds. They were in a physical battle for their lives.
“Come on, Jade,” Chris shouted. “Give that skinny bitch a ride on the wheel.”
Damien stood up from the sofa and faced Chris who was standing behind it. “I’d be quiet if I were you.”
Chris just smirked.
Jade began to gain a slight advantage and Danni started to slide along the floor. Her bare feet kept turning and adjusting as she tried to gain purchase, but she was slowly losing.
Jade’s teeth showed as she grunted with effort. She yanked the rope like a dog with a chew toy. The more she began to gain a few steps, the more determined she seemed to get. The fact that she was pulling an innocent woman to her death was apparently not in her mind.
Danni gritted her teeth and leant back, almost horizontal. She managed to get the rope going the other way. Jade began to slip and slide; she lost her footing and fell down to her bottom.
Danni yanked harder and dragged Jade to within inches of the whirring blade. Her eyes stretched wide as she stared into the spinning death.
Jade managed to pull back a few feet and a stalemate ensued. Both women groaned and huffed as they fought desperately to gain an inch on their opponent.
Damien and the others watched breathlessly from the other room. Even Chris had his mouth shut.
Jade yanked, Danni stumbled.
Danni got a grip.
Danni yanked.
Jade stumbled.
“HOUSEMATES DANNI AND JADE, YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES TO DECIDE A VICTOR OR BOTH OF YOU WILL DIE.”
Neither women could afford to show a reaction to The Landlord’s statement, but the increased effort showed on their faces. They had now gone bright purple and their eyeballs bulged.
Jade was the first to slip. One of her ankles turned inwards and she lost her purchase. Danni took advantage and summoned the last of her strength reserves. Jade slid on her heels, unable to dig in. The spinning saw blade got closer and closer.
Jade managed to strike her heels into the ground just a few inches away from the lethal metal teeth. She looked at Danni, her eyes wide and pleading, her chest heaving in and out. “Please!” she said.
Then Danni gave the rope one final yank and Jade went stumbling forward.
Watching the viewing screen, Damien cried out in horror. He had expected the blade to saw Jade clean in two, but it didn’t. Jade fell onto the blade and it quickly hollowed out her insides. Her head and neck and waist and legs remained intact, but her middle was gone. She slumped to the floor with the saw blade continuing to spin inside of her. It almost looked like a part of her torso.
The bracelet on Danni’s right hand snapped open and fell to the floor.
3
Danni came out of the elimination chamber covered in blood. She had a faraway gaze on her face that suggested she may have lost a part of herself to the horror. Damien led her over to the sofa and gently sat her down. Jade’s video had already begun to play on the television screen.
“My brother was stabbed twenty nine times and left to rot on the bathroom floor,” said a middle-aged woman with brown hair greying around the temples. “His head was almost hanging off. I knew that Jade was the one who did it. She was a manipulative bitch from the day my brother met her. They argued and fought all the time if she didn’t get her way, and I had seen her lose her temper several times. All the drugs they were doing together just made things worse. When Jade had been doing coke, her temper was insane. She’s the only one who could have killed my brother.
But the police found nothing to stick. They found the knife but no fingerprints. They caught Jade out in a few lies, but nothing conclusive. The fact that she was high all the time meant that anything she said could not be verified one way or the other. No one was ever brought to trial and my brother’s murder is still unsolved – officially. I know that Jade did it, though. And now she’s going to face my trial…my punishment.”
The viewing screen went blank. The Landlord’s voice came over the speakers.
“CONGRATULATIONS REMAINING HOUSEMATES, TOMORROW IS YOUR FINAL DAY INSIDE THIS HOUSE. SOME OF YOU WILL DIE, SOME OF YOU WILL GO FREE. GOOD LUCK AND SLEEP WELL.”
Day 10
Everyone worked together at breakfast to fry up sausages, eggs, bacon, toast, and mushrooms. For some of them – perhaps all of them – it could be their final meal. They all ate their morning feast in silence.
They all felt the loss of Jade harder than any of the other housemates. She had been loud and ever-present, the mouth of the house. Her loss was a silent hole in the atmosphere.
Can’t believe she was a cold blooded murderer, Damien thought. I had her more pegged as a reformed drug addict or a thief. Well, maybe what happened was what got her straight. Maybe she was trying to put the past behind her.
Well, guilty or not, at least I can stop worryi
ng who the ‘murderer’ is. All that’s left is the ‘peddler’, the ‘crusader’, and the ‘traitor’. I wonder which one is Danni and which one is Richard?
“I wonder how long we have,” said Danni, placing down her knife and fork on her empty plate. “I mean until the tasks begin.”
Richard shrugged. “Not long I suppose. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. Think it’s the first time I’ve ever been afraid.”
“That’s quite an admission,” said Damien. “You’re not really the vulnerable type.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I plan on leaving you all for dead, but I can’t help but freak out about what I’ve just lived through and what’s still left ahead of me. There’s no way to truly survive this thing. Even the winners can’t exactly just go back to their old lives like nothing happened. This crap will stain our souls forever.”
“Maybe that’s the point,” said Damien. “Maybe we’re supposed to learn a lesson and be better people than we were.”
Richard nodded his head, almost imperceptible, and then went to say something, but Chris cut him off.
“When I get out of here, I’m going to be rich – with balls of steel to boot. Surviving this thing is going to make me feel like a fucking legend; walking away when everyone else is dead…pretty epic!”
Danni huffed. “I guess some of us aren’t capable of changing.”
Chris shrugged. “Some of us don’t want to. Who gets to decide what’s right and wrong? We’re all born on this earth the same way and it’s up to us what the fuck we do with our lives. Just because someone wears a uniform and tells me something is the law don’t make it so, as far as I’m concerned. I never once agreed to live by anybody else’s rules. I never agreed to pay taxes or obey the law. Other people just made that assumption. I do what the hell I want with my life and I’ll be damned if I’m ever going to feel bad about it.”
“You know,” said Damien. “There’s something liberating about what you say, Chris. Maybe we should all follow our own moral compasses and do what we personally feel is right. The problem is that you have the moral compass of a brain damaged Hitler.”
Chris grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Take it any way you want. Just know that the world will be a better place without you.”
“World would be better without a lot of things, mate. Shame life ain’t perfect, nor is it ever likely to be.”
“Not as long as people like you are in it, no.”
“Weren’t you a bit of scumbag once?” Richard commented. “So who are you to judge?”
Damien nodded. “But I was a scumbag by circumstance, not by choice. When push came to shove I took a better path.”
“Good for you,” said Chris. “And yet your path led you to the exact same place as mine. Guess that would be proof that nothing we do matters, so might as well do whatever we feel like.”
Damien said nothing.
“Seems like he’s finally run out of self-righteous juice,” said Chris, nudging Richard in the ribs and laughing. Richard joined in the laughter but seemed to be hiding some sort of regret behind his eyes. Maybe the guy had actually done some thinking and didn’t like the conclusions he had come to.
Damien still chose to say nothing. There was no need for words any longer. The only thing that mattered now were the tasks ahead. He could deal with Richard and Chris simply by winning.
“HOUSEMATES, TODAY THERE WILL BE NO ELIMINATION TASKS, ONLY A FINAL GROUP TASK THIS EVENING. THIS WILL DETERMINE THE VICTOR.”
Richard and Chris whispered something to one another and then nodded conspicuously.
Damien did the same with Danni. “Those two are going to be working together. We should do the same.”
“Of course. You don’t even have to say so. I have your back.”
Damien smiled and kissed Danni on the cheek. “That means a lot to me.”
“Shall we head to the garden? That’s usually where the fun and games take place.”
Damien nodded. They left Richard and Chris conspiring in the kitchen and went out into the garden. It was raining moderately but it wasn’t a problem. The days of worrying about things as mundane as comfort were long gone.
Damien took a seat on one of the perimeter’s benches. Danni stood in front of him and stroked her fingers through his hair. Nothing was said between them. They both just held each other in the rain as they waited for their fates to begin.
2
Night had fallen and spotlights came on and lit the garden as the platform began to rise. Damien and Danni were both still together, sitting side by side on the bench and leaning in against one another. The mutual warmth and the comfort of having each other near had lulled Damien into a relaxed daze. He quickly snapped out of it when he saw the platform coming up out of the ground.
Here we go. Return to Thunderdome.
“HOUSEMATES, ASSEMBLE IN THE GARDEN.”
Chris and Richard strolled out from inside the house, both of them smiling confidently.
“Let the games begin,” Chris said, grinning. “I think I owe you one, Damien, after our first head to head.”
Damien nodded. “Try not to get disqualified this time.”
“Don’t worry. I’m going to be winning this one.”
On the platform was a wooden tool rack. On the rack were four handheld axes, not much bigger than hatchets.
“HOUSEMATES, EACH OF YOU MUST PICK UP AN AXE AND THEN RETREAT TO A CORNER OF THE GARDEN.”
Danni looked at Damien nervously. “I don’t like this.”
Damien sighed. “Me either. Come on, let’s just go along for now.”
All four housemates marched up to the platform and took one of the hand axes from the rack. Then they each picked a corner and retreated to it.
“ALL OF YOU HAVE DONE WELL TO BE HERE. YOU HAVE BEATEN YOUR OPPONENTS IN VARIOUS ENCOUNTERS AND HAVE PROVEN YOURSELF WORTHY. YOU ARE WARRIORS. NOW YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR ULTIMATE SURVIVAL. TO WIN, YOU MUST MURDER TWO OR ALL OF THE REMAINING HOUSEMATES. YOU HAVE THE TOOLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL, NOW USE THEM. GOOD LUCK.”
Damien stared down at the axe in his hands with disbelief. This whole thing had been a nightmare from the beginning, and many people were dead, but Damien had not been made to directly take the life of another until now. There had been competitions where he‘d needed only to focus on winning. Now he was being told to actively murder his opponent.
I can’t do it.
Danni screamed. Damien looked up and over at her.
Chris was hurrying towards her without a shred of remorse as she cowered and begged in her corner of the courtyard.
He’s going to hack her to pieces.
Damien bolted, racing across the grass. He had to get to Danni before Chris did or she was dead.
But there was no way he was going to make it. Chris had had too much of a head start.
He’s going to kill her. Then those two bastards are going to team up and come after me.
Chris came within feet of Danni who was cowering on her knees. If she hadn’t clammed up in terror, she might have been able to get away, but the danger had frozen her in place.
Chris reared back with the axe, ready to strike.
Without thinking, Damien raised his own axe from several yards away. Then he flung it as hard as he could. The weapon tumbled and spun through the air towards its target.
The weapon struck Chris in the side of his head. It didn’t embed itself like in the action movies. It just thunked against his skull and fell to the floor.
Danni screamed in fright as Chris hit the ground. His head had been split open and a wide open gash travelled from the top of his skull all the way down behind his ear. He lay on the ground convulsing and yelping. The axe might not have sliced his head in two, but the blunt force trauma alone had been enough to put the man down.
Damien made it over to Danni and dragged her upwards to her feet. “Come on,” he said. “Snap out of it.”
Richard was standing near the
centre of the garden. He had been watching what had happened and seemed worried. His partner had been taken out of the game and suddenly the numbers were not in his favour.
Richard held his hands up and smiled. “Hey man. We can’t go around killing each other just because of their say so. You ain’t no killer, man.”
Damien glanced down at Chris who was on his back and staring up at the sky dazedly. His breathing was irregular and laboured.
“Well,” said Damien. “In a couple of minutes when Chris is dead, I will be a killer.”
Richard nodded and an atmosphere of mutual understanding formed in the air. They each understood the situation. There was no compromise to be had.
Chris moaned on the floor, still dying.
“This is pretty screwed up, huh?” said Richard.
Damien nodded. “That’s an understatement.”
Richard sniffed, readjusted the grip on his hand axe. “We’re going to have to go for it, aren’t we?”
“’Fraid so. Sorry.”
Richard threw his axe to the ground at his feet and shrugged his shoulders. “Tell you the truth, I probably deserve it.”
Damien frowned. “What are you doing?”
Richard got down on his knees. “Taking responsibility for the things I’ve done. Just do it. Make it quick.”
Damien took a few steps forward, but kept the axe by his side. “You can’t just give up. That’s suicide.”
Richard nodded. “I guess. Tell you the truth, I was contemplating it anyway. The reason I signed up to be here was because my life sucked. You two should take the money. I don’t deserve it. You’ve already seen the kind of man I am. I’m full of anger and violence. To be honest, I’m tired of feeling that way. I never meant to be the man I am, but…. Well, there’s not much else to say, so just get it over with.”
Damien took another step forward, raised the axe above his head. But lowered it again. He looked at the painting of the eyeball and felt like it was watching him. “I can’t just kill you, man. It’s not right.”
The Housemates: A Novel of Extreme Terror Page 16