Author's Note: When I thought of this story, this was the chapter that convinced me to write it.
TDI: Torture Cruise
Chapter Seven: Sharkbait!
"Once you vote off the camper of your choice, their chair will drop into the pool and release her so she can meet all her new friends, the hungry, man-eating sharks, unencumbered! While the loser walks away free! So who will it be...Lindsay? Or Heather?" the cruel Voice offered.
Without hesitation, Tyler, Bridgette, Geoff, Justin and even Gwen said the name of TDI's Queen Bee.
"Looks like it's unanimous. What a shocker! I'll give you a moment to say goodbye to all of your 'friends', Heather!"
"No! Wait! You can save both of us!" Heather cried. "If you change your vote to Lindsay and free me, I can save Lindsay from the sharks!"
Heather saw Gwen hesitate, as if thinking it over, so she continued.
"Gwen! You know I learned how to do things like this in spy school! Free me, and save both of us! Don't let me die!"
"I...She does have a point. Heather probably could save Lindsay!" Gwen said.
"She couldn't even save herself!" Tyler reasoned. "I say no."
"I didn't know the stakes, so I didn't even try to get out!" Heather pleaded. "Please! Don't condemn me to die! Not when I can save me and Lindsay!"
"Sharks are survivable." surfer girl Bridgette said. "If anyone can pull this off, it's Heather. I'm changing my vote."
"Are you sure, Bridge?" Geoff asked.
After Bridgette nodded yes, Geoff changed his vote, too.
"Me three." Gwen added. "I'm changing my vote, too."
"Are you sure?" the Voice asked.
Gwen, Geoff and Bridgette assured the cruel torture master that yes, they were voting for Lindsay to be dropped into the shark tank.
With the final vote 3 for Lindsay and 2 for Heather (Tyler and Justin), Lindsay's fate was sealed.
Lindsay bawled her eyes out, causing the Goth, the surfer and the cowboy to avert their eyes.
"Lindsay! Listen to me!!" Heather commanded, speaking through the pane of glass separating the two. "Sharks are attracted to movement. So once you're in the water, go to the side of the pool and stay perfectly still! If they get too close, hit them in the nose or the eyes! I'll be in there right after you to rescue you! Do you understand?"
"Uh huh." Lindsay said through the tears running down her face.
Then the sinister villain at the controls pushed a button...
...And Lindsay's death chair plunged into the shark tank below.
It quickly sank to the bottom of the tank and released the blonde girl, who swam as gently as she could to the surface of the pool near its edge to avoid the notice of the terrible predators circling nearby and await her promised rescue.
At the same time, Heather was freed from her confinement.
She tried with all her might to break the glass that separated her from the shark's prey, but the glass was too strong.
Since Lindsay was safe for the moment, Heather figured she had time to solve the puzzle.
However...
...The devious master of misery wasn't letting them off that easy!
From out of nowhere, lasers sliced through the water and cut Lindsay's tender, bikini-ready skin!
The blood from her wounds quickly attracted the man-eaters, and they tore into the blonde in a feeding frenzy!
"Oh my God! No!!!" Gwen cried.
"Lindsay...No..." Bridgette uttered. "I'm so sorry."
Heather was shocked, also, but rather than wallow in grief, she was spurred to action.
Grasping the metal chair that moments before had been her death trap, Heather grunted and tore the chair loose from its moorings!
Then, exhibiting an adrenaline-fueled strength borne solely from the crisis at hand, Heather flung the metal monstrosity at the glass wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces!!
KRASHHHH
Without even thinking about what she was doing, the teen spy dove into the shark pool 30 feet below and knocked the sharks away from Lindsay!
Taking refuge from the vicious man-eaters behind Lindsay's chair, Heather looked up and noticed the other game players had been freed from their tubes (since their tormentor had taught them all the futility of escape, there was no reason to keep them contained any longer. And, also, to brutally give them a good look at the expected carnage). "Hey! Toss a rope down here for us, why don't you?!" Heather rather bitchily requested as the sharks pounded away at her only defense. She had one arm wrapped around the prone form of Lindsay while the other held the metal chair between her and the sharks.
Once the five 'Beautifuls' had done as ordered, and hauled up her and Lindsay, Heather laid the lifeless corpse of the vivacious blonde on the floor and said "I'm sorry. She's...gone."
"You goddamn bitch!!" Bridgette whaled her fists on Heather while she kneeled next to Lindsay's body. "You said you could save her!!"
Gwen had to pull the enraged surfer chick off of Heather who, oddly enough, took no action to defend herself.
"Stop it! That won't bring Lindsay back! And Heather did all she could! You saw how she dove into that tank! She risked her life to save Lindsay! We have to stay together!" Gwen talked the angry girl down.
Meanwhile, the other trapped ex-campers were wading in water up to their waists, with no way out!
"Harold isn't back yet!" LeShawna wailed. "Something must have happened! I'm going to find him!"
But as the urban girl prepared to dive into the water, someone stopped her.
Sadie!
"How well can you swim?" she asked.
"Well, ummm..." LeShawna sputtered.
"That's what I thought. I'll go. I was swimming champ in school, after all! Well, fifth grade, but hey, it still counts."
"Thank you, Sadie!" LeShawna hugged the plump girl. "Bring my Harold back to me!"
"Yeah, like that's going to make any difference!" Duncan jeered as Sadie swam away. He spun the switchblade in his hand and laughed.
LeShawna glared at him, which shut Duncan up real fast!
Following the current of water, Sadie soon located Harold at the bottom of a nearby water-logged compartment.
Upon surfacing, she ascertained Harold was still alive and rescue-swam him back to the other TDC contestants.
After a bit of first aid (CPR and pumping the water from his lungs), Harold came to.
"Hey, man. What happened to you?" Trent asked.
"I must have hit my head and passed out...Sorry if I worried any of you." Harold answered.
"I'm just glad my baby's safe!" LeShawna cheered.
"I...found a way out." Harold gasped. "It's not far from here."
"Yeah? That's great, man!" Trent replied.
"Alright! We are out of here!" DJ rejoiced.
"LeShawna..." Harold stopped his lady love from following the others swim out of the flooded compartment. "You should know. I didn't hit my head. Someone knocked me out. And there's more. Noah gave us a clue to who killed him. He was pointing to keys. I didn't get it at first, until I remembered this movie I talked about with him online. The Usual Suspects, where the killer is a guy named Keyser Soze."
"Harold...my man...what are you sayin'?" a confused LeShawna inquired.
"I'm saying...One of us is the killer. We can't trust anybody!"
Dum dum da dum!
Next:
Bridgette and Geoff!
This won't be pretty.
At all.
Plus: The trapped ex-campers make a shocking discovery!