Alex squinted and jerked her head around as the fluorescent lights turned on. She wasn't sure she could trust what she saw; she was in a swimming pool. Up until this point, being in the darkness and shoulder deep in cold water had played with her mind quite a bit. She wasn't sure what was real anymore. She was given a few clues prior to the room being flooded with light. She could hear banging and occasionally a yell from somewhere in the building so she knew she was not alone.
Waking up was a shock. She had had plenty of alone time to analyze the events and she was certain that she must have woken up in a slouched seated position in the shallow end of the swimming pool. She was disoriented from whatever drug that had been forced on her and when she scrambled around in the darkness, she had rolled down the slight slope of the pool into the deep end. The foul water snapped her out of the drugged grogginess very quickly. Once she overcame a bout of absolute terror, she had groped around in the darkness in search of something to climb on but if there was something, it was too high. When she shifted in the water, she could hear the echo of water rippling throughout the room so she knew it was a big area. She moved back to the slope of the pool and attempted to climb. At first she thought that the slimy sludge was preventing her from making a progress. She felt stupid when she realized that a shackle was around her ankle and a chain would give her a fierce tug whenever she moved too far.
Everything was confirmed when the lights flickered on. Filthy water was maybe four feet deep at the end of the swimming pool and the rest of the empty pool was stained a scum colored green. Alex still couldn't see the sludge her feet slid on when she moved or the shackle or chain. The water was a dark brown. The paint on the walls and grit on the sides of the pool told her no one had been here in awhile. When the lights flicked on, a video monitor had also flicked on and when the static had settled on the old machine, she saw the source of the bangs and cries.
"Jay," Alex said in a tone that was half a statement and half a question. She watched him run towards her, his shoes squeaking on the pool linoleum. She moved over to the pool ladder.
"How are you doing?" Jay asked as he surveyed her environment. He had run towards her simply out of instinct of protecting the girl who was probably the most important in his life. Yes, this situation had the potential of softening him, especially since two people lay dead in another room because of him. Now he was faced with the challenge of making an attempt to save her, which might result in killing her, or leaving her to her own devices. He had hurt her because he was selfish once before. He would never be selfish when it came to her again. There was no way that he could walk out of this room without her.
"The tape," Jay declared. He grabbed onto the chain that was suspending the tape player above Alex's head. "He will tell us how to solve this. It's almost like a puzzle. It's that guy on the news…" He decided not to finish because he was seeing a side of Alex he had never seen before. He knew that she was a tough girl. In knowing that, he knew that if she ever broke, she might not come out of it.
"You should go," Alex said. "He wants us dead."
"This might tell us how to save you."
"You don't understand," was the only thing she could say. It was obvious to her that someone was bound to play a role in her situation. She couldn't shake the idea that being left in the half full deep end of an abandon swimming pool in the dark required interaction. She couldn't find the player on her own or the solution. At least when she was alone she was in charge, even if that meant she was doing nothing.
Jay clicked the player on and she cringed at the voice.
"Hello, Alex. Your lifestyle indicates that you only do enough to stay afloat. While you are guilty of petty crimes and the unruly behavior of the rebel group at your school, your true crime is the failure to realize your own self-worth based on circumstances you live in. A wasted life is the outcome when you behave badly because others have told you that you will never be as good as someone else for whatever reason, perhaps they judged you based on where you grew up or your clothes. Instead of them, you should have believed in yourself. This is your wake up call. Either sink or swim."
"Keys. Keys," Jay muttered as he looked around the room.
"What happened to you?" Alex whispered as she stared into his eyes.
"Hey, move around a bit again," he demanded. She waved her hands across the surface of the water. "To your right and maybe 5 feet over, see the key. It's under now but…"
She did see it and made an attempt to slide over to it. The next thing she knew, she had felt a tug on her ankle and had dirty water in her mouth and eyes. She managed to pull herself up and tried not to vomit from the aftertaste in her mouth.
"Okay, I'll help," Jay said.
"You are moving too fast. Just…stop…something happened to you. You are scared," Alex managed to say but he was lowering himself into the shallow end of the pool now. "You could look for something to cut me free. You could just get the hell out of here and come back with help."
"Keys," he muttered. He moved too hastily and did not judge the slippery sludge on the slope of the pool.
Alex screamed when she saw him go under the brown water. She didn't have to wait for long to see him reappear, spitting and wiping his eyes. She watched him intently as he began to cross over. When he went under again, she didn't panic, assuming he had slipped. Her heart rate picked up as she felt the water begin to move.
Jay had never even considered a pool drainage gate, much less the possibility of falling into one. He didn't have much time to think before the water began to pound down on him. He knew from the pain and the glimpse of silver razor wire that this killer had thought of everything. If it wasn't in this room, it was in another room. He was the type of guy who always knew where the exit was. It was the first thing he found when he entered a room; he had to know the quickest way out. And there was no way out of here.
Alex couldn't keep her feet on the ground as the water began to push up against her as the pool slowly drained. She could only keep trying to get to her feet every time she lost her balance. She just had to keep her head above the water, she told herself, its almost over. She didn't even think about reaching for the key. It was hard enough to stay above the water, much less calculate how to inch over to the key. She coughed as she choked on the dirty water. The sensation distracted her as she struggled to get on her feet and this time she struck her head hard on the concrete of the pool.
