38;
Riley was woken by a nudge from Ellie in the middle of the night.
After rubbing her eyes Riley nodded and climbed down the ladder to where Ellie was waiting, opposite their roles from the night before. She grabbed hold of one of the blankets on Ellie's bed and tied it around her waist before sneaking their way out through the bedroom.
Ellie closed the door behind them and waited by the office door while Riley moved around the desk and started digging into its upper drawer full of miscellaneous items. She quickly grabbed the tape from the back of the drawer and met back with her.
"Got it. Should make things a bit easier."
"You never said how that'll help."
"You'll see."
They silently opened the front door and slipped out through the slight gap they allowed themselves. They hurried around the building and stopped next to the first hole they came across. Riley headed down first and motioned for Ellie to do the same.
"You don't want me keeping watch?"
"I need you."
Ellie gave a last quick couple of looks around. "Alright." She climbed down and saw that Riley had already untied the blanket and had the tape rolled out between both hands. "What do I need to do?"
"You're going to just ho-" Her head fell backward with an annoyed grunt. "Shit, forgot the rock. Can you go find one that can break through this?"
She responded with a sigh. "Yeah, give me a second."
Ellie climbed back up, crossed her arms, and hustled over to a small line of trees at the edge of yard. She scanned the ground near each of the trunks looking for something decently sized. She spotted a hefty sized one with enough weight to warrant some effort to pick it up.
By the time she got back and climbed down the ladder Riley had already spread tape on the window from corner to corner in the shape of an 'X'. Multiple strands were layered on top of each other and the blanket was laid at the base of the pane.
Riley turned around at the approaching noise. "Alright, let me see." Ellie passed her the rock and began examining the peculiar setup.
"What is this?"
"It's how we're gonna stay quiet."
"Okay..."
"Breaking glass doesn't make much noise. What does make noise is when the glass shatters after hitting the ground." She turned around back at the window and gestured at it. "The 'X' will help keep the glass in triangle pieces when we break it. We just need to make sure to they don't hit the ground hard."
"Which I assume is why you brought the blanket."
"Yeah. We won't be able to grab all of it, so whatever we miss will hopefully hit soft enough."
"Hopefully."
"I'm all ears for something else."
"Sorry, sorry. What do I need to do?"
"Just keep your hands up against the glass on the left two sections. If you can make them tilt toward you."
"…I'll try."
"Alright, ready?"
Riley received a nod before going ahead with the plan. She put a shred of the blanket that she tore off earlier against the center of the 'X' and started slowly tapping at it with the rock. She slowly grew the tapping into hitting, making sure to build up to the least amount of force needed to break it. After several hits a crack began to form.
"Almost there."
They both held their breath as Riley continued tapping at it. With another three hits the glass suddenly gave way and split at the tape lines to create four large deformed triangles. The top piece stayed in place but the bottom three fell loose. Riley reacted quickly by sticking out her foot as the right shard fell to ease its fall. Ellie's left piece fell towards her, which she softly stopped, but the middle piece snapped in two. The lower half fell onto the blanket while the upper half hit the pane on its way down and shattered onto both sides of it.
They both closed their eyes and clenched their teeth as they waited for the noise to dissipate. They stayed quiet and still in hopes of not hearing anything further.
"That wasn't that bad."
"Could've been worse."
"Let's just be quick."
They carefully stepped over the window pane and peered into the darkness of the basement, most of it impossible to see. They walked in the direction of the food cooler near where the foot of the staircase lay. As they approached it the surrounding blackness gave way and some of the features of the room came into view, as did a realization that caused immense unease.
"There are three of them…"
Ellie scanned with intensity between the two new identical coolers that now lay immediately next to the original. "Come on, let's do this and then get the fuck out of here."
They stepped up to the door of the cooler closest to the staircase, the same one they had originally found the notebook and chair in. As expected a padlock was closed tightly through the metal rings of the door and of the cooler itself. Riley tilted it upward and let it rest in the palm of her hand.
"Let's see if he bothered to change it." She twisted the lock's face around to 17, then 53, and finally 6. It fell loose and caused Riley to let out a scoff in disbelief. "Surprised that worked."
"I'm surprised you still remembered that."
"Never forgot it." She pulled the lock off completely and stashed it in her pocket before swinging the door open.
They flicked on the light, revealing the inside that looked almost untouched since they last saw it. Meats were still organized and sitting on the metal shelves lining the room. Some dry food and other products were scattered throughout as well.
The most glaring detail was that the chair they remembered with such vividness was gone, instead replaced with a metal stool with arms half hidden in the corner. Their attention was immediately drawn toward it for a second before looking back at the each other in worry.
"Start looking."
They began lifting and pushing aside everything that they could in search of anything useful. Ellie checked the same spot where she found the notebook the first time, off to the left side and behind a bag of potatoes, but came up empty-handed. Riley finished her searching her half with the same outcome.
"Anything?"
"Nothing."
"Figures. Last two."
They switched off the light and moved on to the next in which they caught a small break.
"No lock on this one." Riley glanced off to the left towards the other. "What about that one?"
Ellie followed her gaze and walked over to the third cooler and peered closely to see nothing attached to its handle. "This one neither."
"Good. Check that one and I'll get this one."
They both unhatched the handles of their own and pulled the doors open. Ellie reached over and felt for the light switch, finding it slightly shifted to the side from the other cooler, and flipped it up. A single light bulb hanging by a wire in the center began to buzz and gradually grow brighter.
As her vision adapted she could see that the room was essentially the same as the first. Metal racks lined the walls with enough storage to feed an entire orphanage, though the actual amount that was stored seemed exceptionally limited.
A quick metallic noise pulled her attention away from the few final boxes she was checking.
"Already forget the whole trying to stay quiet thing again?" She waited for a response but scrunched her brow when she didn't get one. "Riley?"
She turned around and started heading back out to check the noise when the door slammed shut just inches from her face. She stared wide-eyed in shock as her heart sank and every emotion possible bombarded her at once.
"Riley?"
She yelled in panic as she ran towards the door and shoved her shoulder into it. It didn't budge and no matter how much force she used all she accomplished was bruising herself up. She began pacing back and forth rapidly, her breathing just as fast. She pushed her trembling hand up against her forehead and slid it through her hair as her mind raced.
"Fuck… fuck, fuck, fuck! What do I do, what do I do? Come on, Ellie, think. Something. Anything!"
After moments of panicked pacing she reached the door again and started slamming her palms into it over and over again. She screamed until the pain in her throat became too much to tolerate and her hands started going numb.
"Riley!"
She quickly exhausted her energy and collapsed against the door sobbing, panting, and hyperventilating. Her entire body was shaking and her eyes were blurry as she sat staring at the cell of a room she was locked in. Her thoughts raced back and forth between her own situation and that of Riley's. Not knowing was horrifying.
She wiped her eyes and locked onto a spot at the side of the room. She frantically walked over to the wall that was closest to the other cooler and started ripping off the racks and throwing them to the other side. She stopped once she pulled enough off and was able reach the wall unhindered. She took another quick look at it before starting to hit at it with the sides of her fists, the only part of her body that didn't hurt yet.
"Riley!" She continued banging and yelling with a broken and terrified voice at the wall until her exhaustion overtook her again and forced her to the ground.
After a few moments of catching her breath she felt a dull thudding coming from the wall she had her back against. She took a deep breath and laughed out of a desperately needed feeling of relief. She knocked back the same amount of times and let her head fall back against it.
She forced herself to rest and allowed her breathing to slow and her pulse to normalize. The inactivity, however, gave the realization of her situation a chance to fully sink in. She looked around helplessly at her cage, examining everything she could that could be of some use. The light bulb was still glowing bright, fortunately, and though she had some food most of it was either raw meat or just the ingredients to actually make the meals.
Not long after the hopelessness enveloped her, the accumulation of her adrenaline crashing, the expending of most of her energy, and the time being shortly after midnight caused her eyelids to grow exceedingly heavy. She shook her head and started rubbing at them to try and keep awake though the effects of her severe lack of sleep for the last few days were coming down hard. She finally gave in when she knew she couldn't fight it any longer, banged against the wall a couple more times for comfort, and drifted off.
Riley sighed on the other side of the wall after hearing the hits and knocked back herself. She laid against the same wall as Ellie, exhausted and sore from yelling and hitting at the door for as long as she could. She stared around at the ransacked room in defeat with her mind darting back and forth between the thoughts of her and Ellie, who locked them in, and what's going to happen.
The only sense of comfort she had now was with the knowledge that Ellie was okay and that she still had the small bullet-shaped bottle that she was currently fingering. She pulled from her pocket the padlock from the cooler door and placed it on the shelf nearest her before carefully stashing the spray in its place.
She managed to keep herself awake slightly longer than Ellie had, expecting that whatever locked her in would try something that night. But nothing did. Not that night, not even the next day.
Throughout the hours she was awake, which themselves seemed like days, she would alternate between whatever methods of distraction she could come up with. She would pace back and forth to keep her legs from stiffening up, hum whatever tunes popped up in her head, or just sleeping on and off. She would interrupt her activities in regular intervals by hitting against the wall several times and waiting for a response so, only once she received one, she could continue on.
After what seemed like the second day she had felt herself grown noticeably weaker. She started to ration off the edible food that she found, eating only just enough of it to satiate her stomach pains. Though food was enough of an issue, water was even more so. With none that she could find, her activities that required any sort of energy were cut off in hopes of conserving what little her body currently had.
"Hey!" She hit the door several times while uselessly yelling at it. "Even prisoners get some fucking food and water!"
She gave it a solid kick before falling back down against the wall and knocking against it. She sat and waited a moment, but when waiting for such a vital response even a moment could seem like an hour. And when that hour passed her heart sank and a panic set in again.
"Don't do this to me, Ellie."
She hit against it several times more and then repeatedly until a quick series of dull and essential vibrations interrupted her. She let her head fall back against the wall with a sigh and a confusing muddled laughter.
Almost immediately after the reciprocated knocking, as though her request had somehow been heard, a grinding noise against the outside of her cell startled her out of her temporary relief. She stared straight at the door and, after realizing what was happening, struggled to get to her feet. She frantically patted her pockets until she found the outline of the spray bottle and grasped it in her hand. She took a few sluggish steps toward the right side of the door and held her arm straight out with the small canister pointed directly where it would pivot open.
She suddenly became heavily aware of the silence of her cell. Her breathing harshened and her pulse quickened as she waited in anxiety.
"Come on… come on…"
The grinding stopped, and with it her heart beat grew thunderous. The door let out a moan as it loosened from its stiffened state and began to crawl outwards.
It was clear that it was night as the gap between the door and its frame widened and revealed pure blackness. Her vision was greatly limited of the room beyond. After a few more seconds a face came into view and Ellie's story about the dream she had came flooding back as did the one very specific word she had requested of her. 'Guess.'
As soon as she saw the gray haired man clearly she held down the tab until his face appeared as though it had been spray-painted orange.
He yelled like an animal as he grabbed at his face and stumbled backwards in blinding pain. He crouched over and began coughing violently, preventing him from retaliating in any manner.
She shoved open the door the rest of the way with her left shoulder and pushed David to the side and out of her way with her right. She immediately side stepped to the right and grabbed at the bar like object made of metal jammed in between the locking rings of the cooler door next to hers. Her hands were uncontrollably shaking which made it near impossible to pull upwards. She eventually resorted to hitting at it from the top in hopes of dislodging it.
"Ellie!" She yelled as her panic hit a maximum.
Within a split second after her frantic act for contact she was slammed forward into the outside of Ellie's door. She lost all strength in an instant and collapsed to her knees, the spray sliding out of reach from the impact. She tried to push herself up but her hands were instead grabbed by a figure she hadn't seen a moment earlier and was dragged and thrown violently back into her cell. The door was slammed shut followed by the same metallic grinding.
"Let me the fuck out of here!"
She managed to hobble toward the door with what minimal energy she had left and pushed herself against it in a desperate last attempt but with no result. She collapsed to the floor and slumped over before breaking down into screaming and crying.