Chapter 37: Ambushed

Instead of leading straight to the next area, the door at the end of the spiraling path lead to a ring-shaped room where there was an open doorway to a cylindrical room that was made completely of white bricks and was void of anything that might hint at what it was for.

We went in, and a pair of doors made of bars automatically slid closed, startling us. "Hang on," I told Eileen, having a vague notion of what was coming.

Despite my warning, she gasped and jumped as a motor suddenly started up somewhere and the room jerked. She grabbed onto my arm as we felt the familiar sensation of descending and we could see only a white abyss outside the door. We were in one of the cylindrical elevators that I'd noticed in the distance when we were on the spiral path that connected the subway station to the forest.

The trip was long, and uneasy at best—the motor was so loud and the movement was so shaky, that it was hard to not imagine it suddenly breaking down, causing us to either be trapped in there permanently, or plummet to our deaths (or even both)—so we held onto each other for comfort during most of it.

Thankfully, it eventually slowed as it reached the end of the trip, then it came to a full stop, jerking once more, as the motor shut down and the doors slid open, revealing that we were in a room identical to the one we were in before.

I began to open the door, but I barely had time to make out the blinding fog that was characteristic of the Water Prison before the door was quickly pulled open from the outside, where a hand grabbed me by the shirt collar, and violently pulled me through the doorway. I was then pushed against the door, slamming it shut, with Eileen locked inside.

She screamed and banged on the door. I hated for her to be stuck alone in that small room, but at least she was safe.

I looked ahead and saw that I was face-to-face with none other than Walter Sullivan. I quickly started to raise my axe, but his left hand shot out and grabbed my injured forearm roughly.

I screamed and the flaring pain caused me to involuntarily drop the axe, which clattered noisily to the floor. He managed to get me right on the spot where I'd been burned earlier, where there was only a layer of fabric and a layer of bandages between his powerful grip and the exposed tissue. The pain was so great, it may as well have been on fire again.

Walter released the grip, but before I had time to do anything else, he pushed the barrel of his gun against my forehead, just above my eyes, pushing my head against the door. I stood perfectly still, frozen with fear.

Once again, he had me right where he wanted me. But this wasn't quite the forest incident all over again—that time, he had me pinned so I couldn't move. Now I was only afraid to move because I had a gun pointed at my head and it was all too easy to imagine it going off, even by accident.

I had to do something. I couldn't suffer that humiliation again—there had to be a way to defend myself and somehow win this stand-off.

He said nothing at first, and merely stared into my eyes—into my very soul. I guess he just wanted to see what I'd do, if anything. I couldn't stand to look back into those emotionless eyes, but I couldn't look away, either.

I waited for an opening.

"This is the part where you beg for your life," he said in that soft, monotone—and, in this case, condescending—voice of his.

We both stood perfectly still in this stand-off. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of a response ... until he cocked his gun, snapping me out of my trance. I shut my eyes and drew in a shuddering gasp.

He chuckled, coldly. Apparently my cowering in fear was endlessly amusing. But, barely missing a beat, the humor suddenly disappeared from his voice. "Then maybe I'll just blow your brains out." he said, his voice turning deeper.

"You won't do it," I said, through gritted teeth, hoping I that the terror in my voice came across as angry intensity, "You need me alive for some reason."

"Wrong answer." Suddenly, I felt the back of his gun slam into the side of my head behind the temple. I wasn't knocked out—only in a lot of pain with my ears ringing and briefly disoriented.

I'd been waiting for an opening and, with the gun momentarily pointing away from my head, this was it. And yet, I wasn't even thinking about that—or pretty much anything, really—as I acted out of sheer rage and found myself taking a blind swing at him with my fist.

Somehow, it landed on target and connected with his jaw, causing his head to snap back. It didn't faze him much, but it did cause a momentary distraction.

I realized we were standing on a raised platform and that there was a stairway behind him. Taking advantage of this, I gave him a hard shove, causing him to tumble down the steps. He may have been supernaturally strong and resilient, but he wasn't immune to gravity.

This bought me the time I needed to pull out my gun, and I started firing the second he hit bottom.

He stood and looked up at me—I expected him to look pissed off, or at least surprised. Instead, he only stared calmly back at me as I fired. It was chilling. I think it was his way of conceding that I'd won that battle. But, of course, he couldn't be killed, so why should he worry?

After several shots, he collapsed.

I did as well, once the adrenaline wore off, and I was overcome with dizziness from the blow to the head I'd received. I grabbed the railing as my legs buckled under me and managed to fall only to my knees instead of ending up sprawled on the ground.

I wasn't aware that Eileen had come out of the room she was locked in, until I heard her call my name and felt her hand settle on my shoulder.

"I'll be okay," I said, the dizziness already subsiding.

I tried to stand, but she discouraged it by pushing down on my shoulder. "No, not yet. You're bleeding pretty bad."

Apparently he'd hit harder then I thought—I touched the spot, and when I looked at my hand, it was covered in blood. How I'd managed to stay conscious was nothing short of a miracle.

"I'll take care of it," she said, kneeling beside me and taking the small first-aid kit from my pocket.

"Okay … just be quick about it," I said, looking at Walter's corpse that I knew wouldn't remain a corpse for very long.

After the wound on my head was cleaned and it was decided that I would be able to go on, we went through the double doors, which lead to the spiraling path that wrapped around the building.

Eileen looked out over the edge and gasped, almost immediately beginning to waver.

"Look out!" I said as I grabbed onto her and pulled her close. She hadn't gotten that close to the edge yet, but if she had passed out, she probably would have pitched over the side.

"Oh god!" she exclaimed, as she clung to me and shivered. "Where are we?"

"We're outside the prison," I said, simply.

"Is this … the place where they kept all those kids locked up?"

I sighed and nodded. "Let's keep moving," I said, changing the subject, "Will you be okay?"

"I … I think so," she said, wrapping her arm around mine.

"It'll be okay," I said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible, "just stay close to the wall and stay focused on where you're going. Try not to think about … the height."

With Eileen with me, there would be no ladder climbing, so we had some walking to do. It was quite a ways to even the top floor, so I decided to give her a break and we went through the very next set of double doors we came upon, which lead to the third story of the prison.