Chapter Six - Needle in a Haystack

Co-written with Renegade Vic

The coughs followed the spasming- deep, heavy coughs that punished Mike's diaphragm and lungs relentlessly. A familiar metallic taste filled his mouth, the force of his coughs splashing blood across the dusty floor in dark patches.

"Yeah…guess you could say that…" Mike finally managed to force out, wiping the blood from his lips on the back of his hand.

"I've seen you before, too." Before he had the chance to process where the voice was coming from- or whose it was- Amanda had pulled him to his feet and wedged herself beneath his arm to keep him upright.

"It was a long time ago." She steered him toward the collapsing sofa near the wall, allowing Mike to fall back onto the moth-eaten dust cover. His head rolled back over the backing, his eyes fixing on a wooden handle.

Shovel.

What was it doing here? It was so out of place…

Mike rolled onto his stomach, grasping the shovel's rough handle and pulling it to himself.

"Fuck me running, guys. This shit isn't fuckin' around…" He pushed himself to a standing position, leaning on the shovel for support. "We've…we've gotta get out of here. Get the antidotes and get the fuck out…"

"Leave those two to find their own door," Laura murmured. "They'll come back…"

She was sitting almost as Obi's feet, who was leaning against the wall behind him. For a moment, Ava was reminded of a servant sitting at the feet of her master. Was that what the blonde thought Obi was? Admittedly, he had saved her life, but it still seemed redundant.

It was there that Ava made the decision that any antidote that she injected into her veins was going to be from her test, and not some pity-donation. She didn't need any help getting what she needed to survive in this fucking place.

And they had a weapon now. Well, Mike had a weapon, but it was better than no weapon at all.

"Maybe we should wait for those guys to come back," Daniel muttered, looking around at the others. "And then start looking."

"And if they get to an antidote first?" Addison looked mutinous at the thought, a red flush creeping up her pallid neck.

"That won't make a difference," Ava said quietly, the cogs turning in her brain. "That isn't how Jigsaw wants it." She sighed heavily, more in annoyance than defeat this time. "He wants us to work together, we've figured that much out. If those two find a 'test', they'll have to work together to get it and I think we all know that Xavier isn't the 'teamwork' type."

"She makes a fair point…" Obi murmured. "Our 'fearless leader' will probably come back to show us anything they find." He chuckled. "He's at least got a moral backbone."

There was a long pause.

"So…" Daniel began cautiously. "We wait?"

"Yeah, kid," Ava nodded at him. "We wait and die a little more before we make our next move."

"Why just wait? There's still somethin' we don't know about all this…" Mike mused, hefting the shovel over his shoulder and taking an unsteady step toward the center of the room. The gas was kicking in worse than he'd anticipated…but he would master it. He had to. The others needed him to. If they were left to Xavier's "mercy," they'd all be dead. He'd stop looking for antidotes as soon as he found his own.

"Now, I get we've all probably got shit we don't wanna talk about, but the way I see it…this Jigsaw guy, he knows all our fuckin' secrets. We can't hide from him, might as well not hide from each other. It's not like any of our shit doesn't stink…and like we just saw, this guy likes building shit that can kill you based on what he knows about you. Might just save a life, if we put it all out on the table." A long breath followed.
"I'll start this thing off. I'm a street racer. Bit of an adrenaline junkie. Feels like bein' alive, sideswiping death at a hundred and twenty. Been in prison for a few years…'convicted' of murder. Never saw the fucker in my life, and no, it's not bullshit, I was framed."

Take it or leave it. Addison would probably believe him- she knew him well enough to know he wouldn't have killed anyone…well, anyone who wasn't Jericho or Xavier. Hopefully, the others would get it too.

Mike hated death. Sure, it was natural. He knew that. It still didn't change the fact that it fucked things up. Took people away before their time really came.

"Fuck if I know why, though. Guess I pissed off a few too many beat cops. It's what the precinct gets for havin' archaic squad cars…if they wanted to catch me, they'd upgrade!"

"Cops don't get upgrades until they catch the bad guys, Mike," Ava smirked, brushing her hair behind her ears. She had no intention of participating in this little…Pow-Wow. The less people knew about what she'd done, and what Jigsaw had put her in this place for, the better. And besides, it was for their benefit too.

Thankfully, Addison chose to speak first, throwing her arms out in exasperation.

"The fuck d'ya want me to say? I'm a fuckin' hooker and an addict."

"And that wasn't obvious at all," Ava shot at her.

Addison glared, but didn't respond, not to her insult anyway.

"I got…busted, few years back now. Served three months." She chuckled bitterly. "Been fuckin' careful ever since."

"So, we've got a streetwalker and an adrenaline junkie." Daniel was running a hand through his hair, the look on his face nothing less that feverish. "I haven't…been in jail or anything. Bit in trouble a few times, y'know?"

"Too bent for school, too straight for prison," Obi muttered.

"What about you?" The kid directed his question at Amanda. "You said…you said you'd played before. Why're you back here?"

Amanda regarded him carefully for a long moment, eyes glittering. Her gaze lowered to the bandages around her wrists.

"I wasn't being very good to myself," she murmured, a thumb rubbing over the white material. "That's why."

Cutter…

Ava frowned at the other woman as she fell silent. She had nothing more to say.

"What about you?"

The kid was looking at her now and Ava reacted instinctively, her guard crashing into place.

"What about me?" she growled.

"Why're you here?"

"I know the fucking question…and believe me, you're better off not knowing what I did, kid."

"So we know we're not all criminals, or at least there's a pretty fuckin' huge gap in who Jigsaw's going after if that's the deal," Mike cut in, as much on Daniel's behalf as Ava's. He had no intention of seeing her pissed off- she was more than a little scary in a normal mood. It wouldn't do anyone any good to get at one another's throats.

"Then what is it, 'fearless leader'?" Addison snapped. "This isn't getting us anywhere except fucking pissed off. It's stupid, Mike. You wanna play detective? Go find more-"

"We found a door. C'mon." Jonas' sudden return seemed to catch them all by surprise; Mike's grip on the shovel shifted slightly, as if to use it as a weapon- but relaxed a hair's breadth when he caught sight of the older man. Wordlessly, he joined the others as they filed up the stairs, following closely behind their "guide."

"It's the only one without a lock, but we can't get it open," Jonas explained, stopping at the end of a long corridor and gesturing to where Xavier stood, trying to force the door open.

Maybe they really weren't meant to get in? What if it was another death-rig, like the door to the room they had started in? Jigsaw didn't seem to like it when people did things they weren't supposed to…and if the door was staying this stubbornly closed, it was a good bet that they were being told not to go in.

At least if something happened, it would be Xavier's neck on the line, and no one else's. The thought that they could potentially be rid of the man who had been nothing but a thorn in everyone's side brought cold comfort to Mike.

Wouldn't have to worry about him goin' apeshit, at least…

It was a close save.

Thanks to Mike, no less, she wouldn't need to divulge her reason to the rest of the group, whether it was intentional or not. She wouldn't tell them, it was better that way.

A loud THUMP threw her from her contemplation as Xavier threw himself against the door, with no results. The idiot was going to hurt himself if he kept it up, not that this was an unwelcome idea. The less chance that the drug-dealer was in good nick, the better chance the rest of them had to survive.

"It looks like it's stuck on something-" Addison tried to get in to 'help' open the door, only to be shoved aside by the irate Latino.

"Hey! Take it easy!"

"Just back off, alright?" he snapped back at her, pushing against the door-and suddenly doubling over as harsh coughs racked his body. Ava watched as he raised the hand that had been covering his mouth to eye level and even she could see that it was splattered with blood.

Apparently, the All-Immune Xavier was no longer impervious to the gas that was slowly killing them all.

A look passed over Addison's face as she looked at Xavier, so fleeting that Ava almost missed it.

Sympathy. Pity.

She was sorry for the lumbering muscle-head? After all the shit he'd put the group through, she pitied him?

Stupid fucking streetwalker, Ava thought, shaking her head. She'll be dead in ten minutes, tops.

The sight of the blood on his hands seemed to give Xavier a boost of strength…or panic.

"If it's stuck, it's a trap," Amanda said, leaning against the opposite wall and rubbing the sleeve of the leather jacket she wore.

"Maybe this whole house is a trap!" Xavier shot back.

"Obviously he didn't want us getting in this room without a fight," Ava mused.

With yet another full-on body slam against the door, it opened a crack.

Results!

As if inspired by the movement, Xavier pushed harder, forcing the door open.

The sound of a wire being retracted sounded the moment the door flew open, revealing the room behind it.

Everything was washed in a sickly, yellowish light- almost as if the bare bulb overhead was filled with fresh oil, or the room had been coated in it. Even the walls themselves looked greasy, slick- dilapidated. What sparse furnishings were left in the room did little to contrast with the stark, bleak…yellow.

"Now what?" Laura asked, hanging back in the hallway, clearly ill at ease with whatever was in the room.

"Whatever we do…we got three minutes to get it done," Jonas remarked, eyes fixed on the door across the room. Another odd fit, another industrial-strength locked door.

"What the fuck?" Mike wondered, pushing past the drug dealer and examining the room. An envelope sat speared on a jutting bit of exposed wire- but before Mike could get a good look at it, Jonas had snatched it up and torn the envelope open, pulling a tape from within it and sliding it into the tape player.

"Hello, Xavier. I want to play a game. The game I want to play is very similar to the one that you've been playing as a drug dealer. A game of offering hope to the desperate for a price. I think we can agree that your situation is desperate so I offer you hope. The price you pay is that you must crawl into the same pit of squalor you force your customers into…" the voice on the tape rasped.

"Hey…" Daniel murmured, his voice barely audible over Jigsaw's recorded monologue.

"You find somethin'? Let me see," Mike replied, stepping over to the rusty bed frame Daniel had been examining. He had pulled the blanket away to reveal the framework…

And the pit just below.

"By entering this room," the tape continued, "a timer has been started. When the timer expires, the door in front of you will be locked forever. Only in finding the key before the timer runs out, can you unlock it and retrieve the antidote inside."

There was an antidote…a chance to survive. Yes…

"I will give you just one hint as to where that key is…"

Xavier had moved over to the bed frame by now, and was looking through the framework. He paused for a single second before he pushed it out of the way, revealing the pit below it in full.

"It'll be like finding a needle in a haystack," the voice of the tape chuckled. "Let the game begin."

Ava stared at the pit, her stomach twisting in discomfort. Needles…so many dirty, grimy needles. She almost pitied Xavier, but better him than her.

"Somebody's goin' in there…" The drug lord's voice, hoarse with rage and desperate rang out into the silence of the room.

All the blood drained from Ava's face and her hand curled into a fist at her side. She knew it. There was no way in hell that this fucker was going into his own test. He'd proved earlier than he'd rather someone else do the dirty work for him and collect the profits that came from their suffering.

A cold presence flooded her body, turning her bones to solid steel. Purpose rose up in her mind and Ava inhaled the poisoned air like it was pure oxygen.

It was starting…

"Somebody's going fuckin' in there, man."

"Yes…I think they are…" Ava said, in a voice that wasn't quite her own. "But it's not us." She grinned at the hulking Latino. "It's you."

"Fuck you!" Xavier spat, his already-limited power of reasoning reduced to absolute zero in the face of his own test. He started toward Ava- but then stopped abruptly, turning his attention to the rest of the room's occupants.

His eyes settled on Amanda, and he lunged, grabbing her arm just above the elbow. She struggled to break free-

-and in that same half-second, a number of things happened.

Jonas and Daniel, seemingly in shock at Xavier's sudden move, backed away, clearing a path between Mike and the drug dealer. Laura screamed, sinking to the floor and pulling her knees to her chest.

Mike threw himself at Xavier, bringing the shovel up in a blinding arc toward the drug dealer's stomach.

"Your fucking test!" Mike bellowed, a blazing rush of adrenaline and rage kicking his body into overdrive as the flat of the shovel's blade collided with Xavier's torso, knocking the wind from his lungs and doubling the hulking dealer over. "Now get in the fucking pit, you candy-ass motherfucker!" He swung the shovel again, this time in a downward strike across Xavier's mid-back- and followed through with a kick that sent him headfirst into the needle pit.

"FUCK!" Xavier screamed, thrashing wildly in the pile of filthy needles. "Fuck you, King! You hear me? I'm gonna fuckin' kill you!" His hands found the edge of the pit- but before Xavier could pull himself free, Mike drove his heel down on Xavier's exposed fingers, the heavy tread of his boots grinding brutally against the drug lord's hand.

"Cowardly piece of shit! Finish your fuckin' test!" Mike lashed out with another kick, aimed squarely for Xavier's face- and connected, sending the behemoth of a man back into the needles.

"Stupid, worthless cocksucker! FIND THAT GODDAMN KEY!" Mike shouted, part of his brain faintly aware that he had slipped into the voice he used while "singing" with Ripjack- if the death-metal growls could, in fact, be called singing.

Whatever was boiling beneath his skin, it wanted out.

And it wanted Xavier dead.

Numb with cold, blinding hate, Ava glanced towards the timer on the wall and then down to Xavier, who was digging through the needles…screaming…god, she loved the screams more than any other sound.

Blades through flesh sang, but screaming echoed, consumed. It was beauty in the highest form imaginable.

"We haven't got much time left," she said coldly, circling the opposite side of the pit, her eyes on the man below, but her sentence was directed at Mike.

"If he doesn't find it, then what?" she nearly purred, on the verge of openly salivating as the needles dug deep into the drug lord's skin, sticking into his flesh. If he didn't die of the nerve gas, whatever kind of horrific diseases on those needles would kill him anyway.

She couldn't find it within herself to feel sorry for him.

"What the fuck is the matter with you?"

A voice. Female. Addison.

"Shut up," Ava snarled. "It was his test. This is what Jigsaw wants to happen. He wasn't gonna get in there on his own." She chuckled, her eyes glinting through her fringe. "Sometimes…people just need a little bit of incentive to move along."

0:25…0:24…0:23…

"You're running out of time, Xavier," Ava called down to him. "If you don't get that key, you'll have died for nothing!"

"Fuck you, bitch!" he roared up at her, eyes wild as he searched through the needles. "I'll kill you too! I'll kill you ALL!"

"Quit your bullshit and keep fuckin' looking," she retorted.

With a sudden cry of triumph, the Latino grasped something in his palm and raised his hand. The key!

He slammed his closed fist down on the edge of the pit…only to have his hand crushed under Mike's boot.

"Thanks," the rocker growled, delivering a bone-shattering kick to Xavier's face, sending him sprawling back into the pit.

"Hurry up!" Ava snapped. "Mike, come on! MOVE!"

With the speed born of desperation, Mike lunged across the room, the all-important key clenched tightly in his grasp as he felt around for the hole in which it fit. It took no more than a second, if even that, before he found the hole and pressed the key to it, fitting it into the slot and twisting in one fluid motion.

Thankfully enough, both sides of the key were cut the same way- it was a simple fit. The door swung open slowly, the timer displayed on the front frozen at fourteen seconds.

They had cut it close…but now, someone else would live. Mike pulled the heavy door open to reveal a small closet- barely wide or deep enough for him to stand in. Dangling from a fine chain, positioned at eye level, was the syringe.

Full of antidote, as promised. He pulled it from the chain, turned back to the others- and froze.

All eyes were on him. Jonas, on edge but hopeful. Addison, terrified. Laura, scared stiff. Obi, unreadable as before. Daniel, uneasy. Ava, looking like she would leap out of her skin for the antidote. Amanda, taken aback, but…grateful.

Xavier was still in the pit. Exactly where he belonged.

"And now what to do with this thing, huh?" Mike asked, already well aware of the answer to his rhetorical question.

Someone had to take the antidote. Someone would get their shot at surviving.

But who?