The Cage
By Chris Buchanan
Jack woke up in a dark room. The first though that went through his head was" Damn, that's the last time I drink six margaritas in one night. Where the fuck am I, anyway?" he realized that he wasn't in his apartment, but in a cage held about ten feet above the ground. But this wasn't a normal cage; the individual crossbeams that made up each side were made out of barbed wire.
"What's going on? Why am I here?" he asked himself, "Who the fuck is doing this?" that's when he found a tape recorder attached to one of the walls of the cage. He quickly grabbed for the tape recorder, but as he grabbed for it, he felt some of the barbs pierce his skin. "FUCK!" he yelled as he felt the pain shoot throughout his arm." What kind of sick mother fucker would do this to someone?" Then he noticed that a clock had lit up. It read 10:00 and then started to count down
09:59
09:58
09:57
Before he wasted anymore time, he pressed the play button on the tape button. A deep voice spoke from the recorder.
"Hello Jack, by now I'm sure you're wondering why you're here, it's simple, I want to play a game. The rules are simple, but breaking them is dire. The penalty for breaking the rules is death. But if you succeed, then you're life will have a meaning. For years, you've been living life like a prisoner, denying yourself the help that numerous people have been trying to give you. Instead, you turned to drugs, which you would do anything to get, even sell you own daughter out as a prostitute. Now, you're outside appearance will reflect you inward one.
"Right now you are in a cage that could easily become you're casket, but if you can find the right key, you can escape the cage and live. But be aware, if you don't escape by the time the timer on the wall reaches zero, then you will be killed by the shotguns that are surrounding you right now." Lights then turned on, revealing two shotguns on each side of the cage. "The keys to unlock the cage are all around you, but you're aim in this game is to figure out what keys will unlock the locks at the bottom of the cage. Live or die Jack, make your choice. Let the game begin." And with that, the tape ended.
Jack looked around the cage in the newly lit room and realized that each time the bars of the cage intersected, there was a key. And there was about a hundred or so keys on each of the walls, and the clock continued to count down.
07:32
07:31
Quickly he looked around the cage to find the locks. After a few second of searching, he found the locks; they were at the bottom of the cage, just like the tape said. There were eight locks total, one on each corner, and one in the middle of each side. Quickly, he grabbed a handful of keys off of the walls, stabbing himself on the barbs as he did. The pain from the wound shot through his arm, causing him to drop some of the keys that he had grabbed. He tried to catch them before they fell through the bottom of the cage, but couldn't grab them in time.
Blood ran down his arms and legs as he watched them fall to the ground. It was then he realized that he had to be more careful otherwise the rest of the keys would also end up out of his reach permanently.
6:08
6:07
He took the keys that he had in his hand and tied them all in each lock, but none of them would turn. He threw the keys down in anger, as more blood poured from the open wounds. He went for more keys, but with the mixture of rage and loss of blood, he crashed into the side of the cage. The barbs now piercing the side of his head, he grabbed the few keys he could reach. When he tried to pull away from the wall, the barbs ripped his skin, causing even more blood to escape his body.
5:24
5:23
He tried the new keys in each lock. And just as he was about to throw the keys down to the floor, one of the locks opened. It was one of the side locks. "I can win this!" he thought to himself as he took the lock off of the cage and dropped it down to the floor, "This isn't impossible!" and with his new since of motivation, he went to grab more keys, and like every other time he went for the keys, he crashed into the side of the cage. The barbs went into his chest this time, but he couldn't feel the pain anyway, his body had already gone into shock. He wiped the blood that was leaving his head with his hand, but it didn't do much good, because that arm was just as bloody as his face was.
2:09
2:08
He took the key that he had and tried them in the locks, praying that they would work, but none of them did. As he threw down the keys, he realized that the side the keys were on maybe had something to do with the side the locks were on. The key that unlocked the first lock was on the same side that the lock was. Quickly he grabbed the rest of the keys off of the side of the wall that had the lock that he had removed.
0:30
0:29
He tried each one in the locks, and the ones that didn't work, he threw to the ground. He stuck one key in a lock on one of the corners, opening the lock. As the lock fell to the ground he stuck the last key he had in his hand in the other lock on the corner.
0:10
0:09
As he turned the key the lock opened.
0:06
0:05
He tried to work the lock of the cage.
0:03
He finally got the lock off.
0:01
He tried to slip through the opening, but the barbs on the bottom of the cage stuck in his back, preventing him from leaving the cage.
0:00
Then the clock shut off, and simultaneously with the clock shutting off, the guns fired. Blood erupted from his body as the ammunition left the guns, shredding the body in the process. Brain matter flew from the skull from the impact of the shot, as the body was stuck on the barbs from the cage. Jack failed his test.