Trap - Part Two

TRAP
PART TWO

“Sarah, Marcus, let the games begin.”
Those words echoed in the heads of both Sarah Bush and Marcus Pitt. Kill the other and get the phone; that was the game. Marcus was fueled with anger, staring Sarah down, thinking of how best to kill her. Slowly? Painfully? Both seemed like a good idea. Sarah looked back at Marcus, but not with anger and hatred burning in her eyes. Her eyes were full of tears. Sorrow was in her eyes, she didn’t want to take Eva’s life, she was forced out of self-defense to do so, and now she was going to be killed because of it. There was no way she could beat Marcus in a fight, he was big and strong. She was quite petite.

“Marcus, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to kill her,” explained Sarah quietly.
“It doesn’t matter whether or not you meant to do it, the fact is you did it,” Marcus replied angrily.
He’d had enough talk; it was time to end this. Marcus charged as fast as he could towards Sarah, his fist clenched and ready to strike. Sarah stood completely still, too scared to move. Marcus’ fist connected with her face, jerking it violently backwards, sending her falling to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Marcus slowly walked over to where Sarah lay, gasping for air, and stood dominantly over her. Sarah tried to crawl away, but Marcus stopped that by kicking her hard in the stomach, knocking her against the wall. Sarah was battered and bruised, crying her eyes out for two reasons. Marcus’ assaults were bloody painful, and she was about to die.

Marcus knelt down next to her. “Time to die, bitch.”
Marcus grabbed Sarah by the throat and squeezed hard. Sarah’s eyes felt like they were going to pop out of her head. She wanted to scream but Marcus was literally crushing her throat. Then she remembered she still held the knife in her hand. With every ounce of strength she had left, which wasn’t much, Sarah swung her hand with the knife towards Marcus.

Marcus instantly loosened his grip on Sarah’s throat, stumbling backwards from his current stance; the handle of the knife sticking out of his chest. Dumbfounded, Marcus looked down and saw the blade imbedded in his chest.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered quietly, before falling over backwards, hitting the wooden floor in a crumpled heap.

Sarah, still gasping for air with tears streaming down her cheeks, got to her feet and saw that Marcus was dead.
“Fuck me,” she muttered.
That was the second person she had killed in one day. Whoever the hell was keeping her in this hellhole meant business.

Another panel in the wall flicked open, revealing a small section on the inside of the wall, like a safe without a door. Inside lay a small cell phone. Sarah scurried over to the wall and picked up the phone. She flipped it open and dialed 911. She pressed the phone to her ear and listened to the phone ringing.

Not too far from 152 Pinewood, Agent Lee Riley got a call on his own cell phone. Parking the car to the side of the road, Lee answered it.
“Riley here,” he answered.
“Is this the police?” asked a frantic Sarah.
“FBI, how did you get my number? This is a private number,” said a confused Lee.
“I need help, please. I’m in a -,” started Sarah before the phone line was cut off.
Lee had no idea what the hell was going on. “Hello? Hello?”

“Hello Lee. Planting evidence is not a nice thing to do, even if the people you catch because of it deserve justice. I would strongly suggest that you get over to 152 Pinewood at soon as possible Lee. It would be a real shame should something happen to your daughter. See you soon, Agent Riley,” said a shady voice over the phone before the owner of the voice hung up. Gideon.
“Hello? Hello?” Lee asked furiously. “Fuck.”
Snapping the phone shut, Lee drove the car as fast as he could to 152 Pinewood.

* * * * *

NAMES: ANDREW THAYNE, AL VERSEN
AGES: 32, 29
CRIMES: DRUG TRAFFICKER, CONMAN

A small room with steel walls and a cement floor contained two men, Andrew Thayne and Al Versen. Andrew Thayne had been a trafficker of drugs for countless years. He’d only been caught once, and that was with evidence that wasn’t exactly solid. Al on the other hand was a conman. Working in mostly the local area with a good friend, Al conned many into losing their money, mainly in rigged games of luck. Today, the two were going to be tested to see if they were truly sorry for their sins.

Each of the men was unconscious. Both of them stood in the room, held up by a large metal collar, or noose, around each of their necks, much like the collar that had been around Sean Threin, just without the knife. Connected to the back of these collars were chains that went up and over a large support pole, coming down on the other side. The chain would hang in front of the opposite man. The pair, still knocked out, faced each other, each with the opposite man’s chain connected to their collar in front of them.

Al’s eyes snapped open. They stung like hell as they adjusted to the light. Al saw the unconscious Andrew standing in front of him, seeing the odd looking contraption around his neck. Then he noticed he had the same device on himself.
“Oh Jesus! Hey! Wake up! Dude, wake up!” yelled Al to Andrew.
Andrew slowly opened up his eyes and looked around, seeing Al and noticing the two devices.
“What the fuck is this all about?” yelled Andrew, immediately using his hands to try and take the collar off, but to no avail.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Al curiously, examining Andrew up and down.
“My name’s Andrew, who the hell are you?” asked Andrew back coldly.
“Al,” he replied quietly. “You’ve got a tape player or something on your neck.”

Andrew looked down at his neck and saw a small tape player hanging off a tiny chain on his collar. He picked it up and pressed the play button.
“Hello Andrew, hello Al. Both of you are men of dishonesty and crime. Today, we will see how far you’ll go to change your life. You’ll notice you each have a metal collar on your neck attached to a chain. Andrew, the chain to your collar hangs in front of Al, and vice versa. The key to your collars is on the opposite man’s feet. You can only reach it by pulling their chain and lifting them into the air. Once they’re in the air, you can reach their elevated feet and retrieve your key. Do you see the door to the right of you?” asked Gideon’s voice.

Both Andrew and Al looked to the right and saw an open door, which exited the room. It was connected by a weird pulley system attached to an electronic timer, with three minutes displayed.
“The moment this tape finishes, the timer will start to tick. Once it reaches zero, that door will shut forever. You’d better get the key before then. Have fun.”

The tape finished and the red timer started to tick down.
3:00…2:59…2:58
“That can’t be good,” said Andrew looking at the timer.
“Fuck this, time to get out of here,” said Al, yanking the chain in front of him.
Andrew was instantly pulled up into the air, about a foot off the ground. The metal collar strangled Andrew, cutting off his air. Al let go of the chain, not using enough strength to get him high enough. Andrew hit the ground, gasping for air.
“Fuck you!” screamed Andrew.

Al pulled on the chain harder a second time. Andrew went up into the air over two feet this time. Al reached out for the small brass key he saw dangling from Andrew’s feet, but it was just out of reach. Al let go again, Andrew falling back to the ground. Now it was his turn, lifting Al up into the air with a strong pull of his chain. Al went up, Andrew was reaching for the key, but was not able to reach it.
2:12…2:11…2:10

Andrew let Al back down to the ground, gasping for air. Both men stood preparing to pull the chains as hard as they could. Al yanked first, Andrew being sent high into the air, his neck jerking violently as he went up. When Al couldn’t reach the key again, Andrew plummeted back to the ground. This gave Andrew an idea. Gripping Al’s chain tightly, Andrew yanked the chain hard, but didn’t do it to lift Al high enough into the air, just hard enough to hurt Al.

Al was brutally jerked up and then put back to the ground in almost an instant, only to be jerked back up a moment later. Andrew mustered all of his strength, and with one mighty pull, Al was lifted up and then crack! Al’s entire neck snapped viciously to the side, his head going limp as his neck broke. Andrew smiled and lifted Al into the air; it was a lot easier if the person was dead. Reaching out to Al’s feet, grabbing the key hanging from his feet.

0:54…0:53…0:52
Andrew had the key in hand, trying to locate the padlock that held the collar onto him. Finding it at the back of the collar, Andrew quickly unlocked it and slipped his head out of the collar. With thirty seconds to spare, Andrew exited the room. He was safe…for now.

* * * * *

Lee pulled his car up outside of 152 Pinewood. He noticed something odd, an old Camaro parked just up the road. It looked similar to his old partners car, Callum Morris. Lee shook the thought from his mind and got out of his car. He was concerned about the person that rang him. How did they know that he’d planted evidence on someone to get them convicted? And how’d they know he had a daughter?
Lee moved up the front steps of the house, gun drawn, and knocked on the door. No reply. Lee opened the door and peered inside. He nearly gagged at the sight. A body stuck out of the floor, snakes surrounding it. The body was pale, white as snow, apart from the red areas from the bites. Lee couldn’t look at the sight anymore. It made him sick.

Lee saw a small piece of paper attached to the wall just beside the front door. It read ‘PUSH ME’. Lee examined the wall and saw nothing special. He gently pushed into the wall and amazingly, a large section of the wall, about the size of a doorway, slid backwards and to the side, making a small doorway within the wall. Lee went inside and looked around. He found himself faced with another door. Lee twisted the knob and opened the door, only to have to sliding door in the wall snap shut behind him.

Lee spun round and saw that he could no longer go back, only forward. Moving through the door, Lee found something he didn’t expect. A young woman crouched down in the corner of the hallway crying, and a man’s body, a knife sticking out of his chest.
“What the hell happened here? Did you do this?” asked Lee furiously, pointing the gun at the woman in the corner.
The woman nodded and looked up at Lee. “Get me out of here.”

“Who are you?” asked Lee, approaching the young woman.
“My name is Sarah Bush. This man tried to kill me, it was self defense, I swear,” explained Sarah, tears streaming down her cheeks.
For some weird reason, Lee believed her.
“How’d you get here?” asked Lee curiously, helping Sarah to her feet.
“I woke up here. There was a tape player with a voice on it. He’s saying that I need to pay for what I’ve done. He said I’m part of a game,” she wept.

Lee looked around the hallway, noticing a small video camera, more like a security camera up in one of the corners.
“Whoever put you in here, I think he’s watching you,” said Lee, pointing to the video camera.
Sarah looked up and gave the finger to the video camera. Lee looked around the hallway for an exit. The door he’d come through was shut solid, and there appeared to be only two doorways in the hallway.
“C’mon, we should get moving,” said Lee. “I don’t think it’s healthy for you to be here.”

Lee led Sarah cautiously down the hallway towards the door that Marcus had originally come out of. Just before Lee opened the door, something at the bottom of it caught his eye. It was a cassette tape. Lee picked the small tape up and examined it.
“Do you have something to play this in?” asked Lee.
Sarah passed him the tape player she’d used to play her tapes in. Lee inserted the new tape and pressed play.

“Hello once again Lee. I see you found the house okay. Your trials will be shown soon enough, Lee. Just be sure not to reveal yourself too soon. Are you ready to play?” said the voice.
Lee’s tape was unusually shorter than everyone else’s tape; even Sarah noticed this, even though she didn’t understand what the voice had just said.
“What the hell is he going on about?” asked Sarah.
Lee slipped the tape player into his pocket and looked at Sarah.
“You know how you said you were part of a game? I think I’ve just become a player,” muttered Lee.

Another hidden door at the end of the hallway suddenly snapped backwards and slid away from the wall. Lee and Sarah approached the doorway and peered inside. This one was different, and led down and then out, like a tunnel. Hesitantly, Sarah and Lee entered the tunnel.

* * * * *

NAME: SUSAN BRIDGE
AGE: 28
CRIME: EXTORTION

Lying face down on the cold concrete floor, Susan Bridge wearily pulled herself up, her eyes adjusting to the light, wondering where the hell she was. A sharp pain stung throughout her neck. Susan rubbed her hand against her neck, hoping to soothe the pain, but instead she knocked something out of her neck: a syringe. The syringe fell to the ground and shattered. Susan stared at it in horror.
“What the fuck!” she screamed.

She knew she’d been injected with something, but what that was she didn’t know. Susan got off the ground and looked around the room she was in. There were four walls and one door. There were two things in the room with Susan. Standing four feet tall and a foot and a half in width was a large glass vat, filled with water. Next to the vat on the floor laid a silver tape player, which Susan picked up and played.

“Hello Susan. For countless years you’ve weaved your way in and out of getting into trouble through extortion. That’s very dishonest, Susan. For years you’ve burned people from the lies you’ve told to save yourself, but today, it is you who will be burned. The large vat next to you contains your key to exit this room. It lays at the very bottom of it in a thick, plastic case. Don’t be fooled though, Susan. Your game looks easy enough, but I can assure you, it isn’t. That isn’t water, but a mild acid. It takes time to have an effect. Ten seconds to burn human skin, but only several minutes to burn through plastic and eat up your key. I’d hurry Susan. Have fun.”

The tape clicked off and Susan’s eyes were wide with horror. She would have to get to the bottom of the vat, which appeared to be bolted to the ground somehow to get her key. The only problem was, her arms were long enough to just reach in, and she’d have to put half of her body in to reach the key.
“Oh shit,” she muttered.

Susan moved over to vat and saw the case containing her key bubbling and sizzling. The voice was right, it wasn’t going to be long before the key was gone and she was trapped in here. Susan peered down into the vat and held her shaking hand above the acid. She hyperventilated as she prepared to plunge herself into the vat to retrieve the key.

Holding her breath and closing her eyes, Susan vaulted herself up and sunk herself into the acid. Nothing happened at first, it seemed as though she’d just put herself into water. Then it began. The sizzling of her skin began, the acid eating away at her flesh. Susan wanted to scream so badly, but she knew she couldn’t open her mouth underneath the acid; it would burn her throat out. Blindly, Susan moved her hands around, trying to get a hold on the keys container. Finally, she felt in and gripped her burnt hand tightly around it.

Moving as fast as she could, Susan edged her way backwards out of the vat, collapsing on the floor, crying and horribly scarred. Her body from the waist up was nearly completely red raw from the burns, and it hurt like all hell. Her shirt was half burnt away and the other half had burnt into her skin. Susan struggled to breathe properly, her neck supporting some of the worst burns along with her face. She could barely see out of her eyes, everything appearing slightly blurry.

Half blind, Susan released the key from its container and stumbled slowly over to the door. It took her two minutes to locate the lock on the door and release it. The door was open and Susan stumbled out, burnt, blind and bleeding.

* * * * *

Moving slowly through the dark tunnel, Lee and Sarah finally found light in the form of the exit. The tunnel was a good two hundred feet long, meaning that wherever they were, they were now out of the house. The pair emerged through a doorway and found something very unexpected: a guillotine. Placed inside of the guillotine was a man. His skin was dark and he wore nothing but a pair of white briefs. He was unconscious and looked like he’d been beaten quite savagely in the face, blood trickling down it. Lee examined the guillotine and found it was different from a regular one. The main part had three holes, one for the head and two for the hands. Only this one had three blades instead of just one, one for the head and two smaller blades for the hands.

Another new feature of this guillotine was two red buttons on small black panels, placed under the unconscious mans hands on both sides.
“We’ve got to get him out of this, look for a key,” said Lee, moving around the room, searching for a key to release the man.
Sarah and Lee looked around the room, looking for something to get the man out, but the room was completely empty, bar the man and the trap.

After a while, the man finally came to. He screamed loudly when he noticed he was placed in a guillotine.
“Help me! Help me! Get me out of this!” screamed the man.
“There’s no key! What’s your name? You need to calm down,” said Lee quietly, trying to calm him down.
“L-Liam Warrinor,” replied the man.

Lee’s eyes went open wide and he stumbled backwards. Lee now knew what his game was. Just be sure not to reveal yourself too soon. Lee had planted evidence on Liam in order to convict him; otherwise he would never have been caught. Lee’s game was to conceal his identity from Liam.
“Who are you?” asked Liam, looking up at Lee and Sarah.
“I’m Sarah and that’s –,” started Sarah before Lee rudely interrupted.
“And I’m Michael,” said Lee hurriedly.
Sarah raised an eyebrow and looked at Lee cock-eyed. Lee shook his head at Sarah, saying, “Just leave it” with his body language.

Lee pointed to the small tape hanging on the chain below Liam’s head. Lee moved over and pressed play for him.
“Hello Liam. The common man and woman work a standard job to come into money, which they use to survive. Why is it you think you can just take that money, Liam? Your years as a pickpocket have led you here today. After this message finishes, you’ll have two minutes to escape your trap. Do this by clicking the buttons beneath your hands. To escape, you’ll need to give up your tools that you use in life. Have fun, Liam.”

Sarah and Lee noticed that the voice was the same as the one that played on their tapes. After it had finished, a ticking sound, like a clock, could be heard.
“What did he mean? Give up my tools?” asked Liam confused.
Lee looked at the guillotine closer and saw that the buttons were triggers to the blades above his hands. To escape, he had to press the buttons and cut off his hands.
“Press the button, and then you’ll get out,” explained Liam, not saying what would actually happen.

Liam pressed the first button and slice! The first blade above his left hand dropped down and removed his left hand in a swift movement.
“AHHH! Fuck!” screamed Liam in pain.
His hand lay on the ground before him, blood spurting out from his injury. The ticker grew louder and faster as the time continued to run down.
“You have to do one more, Liam,” said Sarah.
“I can’t! I can’t!” wept Liam, his eyes tearing.
“You have to or that blade will come down and cut your fucking head off!” yelled Sarah.

Liam braced himself and hit the second button. The blade came down and removed his right hand in the same fashion the first one had. Instantly after that, the part of the guillotine holding Liam’s head in clicked open and Liam removed his head from the trap. Seconds later, the main blade came down and halted after the head hole.

Liam lay on the ground, bleeding and weeping. Sarah and Lee came to his side and used Lee’s jacket to bandage up the ‘stumps’ on the end of his arms. Pretty soon, they had the bleeding stopped.
“Come with us, buddy,” said Sarah, Lee raising an eyebrow and gulping.
“O-Okay,” muttered Liam, his arms still hurting.
The trio continued on into the mysterious building.

* * * * *

Andrew moved through several empty rooms, looking for a way out of the confusing place. It seemed like a huge maze of rooms, going around in circles. Andrew opened another door and was met with a surprise, a bleeding and crying woman on the ground. It was Susan, just outside of the room she’d escaped from earlier, and she hadn’t gotten far, the pain was too much.

Andrew slowly approached her. “Are you okay?”
Susan peered up at him.
“Do I fucking look okay?” she said coldly.
Andrew looked around the room for a way out, and saw one door on the other side from which he’d come in. He went over and tried to open it but it was locked. Something then happened that Andrew did not expect. A small cassette tape slipped out from under the door. Someone was on the other side!

“Hey! Who’s there! Let me out of here!” he screamed, but all that answered Andrew was the sound of running footsteps, leaving the room on the other side.
Andrew swore in his head. He knelt down and picked up the tape, putting into the tape player he’d brought with him from his earlier game. He pressed play.

“Congratulations, Andrew and Susan. You’ve made it out of your first game. But I’m a bit bored. I want to see some action. The key to the locked door is hidden in the room in which you stand right now. I will help one of you find it, only when the other has stopped breathing. Kill the other person in the room, and you’ll find a way out. Have fun.”

Susan and Andrew sighed. Why wasn’t anything simple? Andrew saw that Susan was too weak to fight him, a fact that Susan knew as well. Andrew looked around for a way to kill her, something catching his eye. Andrew went over to Susan and picked her up and dragged her into the room from where she came earlier. Seeing the vat, Andrew grabbed her head and dunked it underneath what appeared to be water to Andrew. He shoved her head underwater with his hand, only to have his hand burnt by the acidic liquid. He pulled his hand back out in pain and examined the minor burns to it. Susan weakly lifted her disfigured head out of the vat and gasped for air.
“I’m sorry,” said Andrew as he grabbed her again and prepared to shove her under again.
“F-fuck you,” muttered Susan.

Andrew lifted Susan up and threw her entire body, headfirst into the acid vat. Susan didn’t scream this time, she couldn’t, her throat was burnt away and her lungs were pretty much fried. Within the minute, Susan Bridge was dead.

Andrew moved back out the room to start the search for his key. Suddenly, all of the lights in the room went out and Andrew was left in pitch-black darkness. He couldn’t see anything; the room was completely engulfed in darkness. Then something lit up in the room, a small X on the floor. Andrew saw it and moved towards it, just as the lights turned on again.

Andrew went to the spot where the X had appeared and found a small chip in the cement. Andrew scratched up a loose piece of the cement floor and found a small key underneath it. Picking it up, Andrew went to the door, unlocked it and went through.

* * * * *

The FBI building was buzzing; agents running around with important documents, answering phones, and talking to other agents and other stuff of the sort. Sitting together at either side of a desk sat Agent Alex Bronson and Agent Fiona Chester. The pair had been trying all afternoon to reach the phones of Agent Callum Morris, whom they had not been in contact with all day, and Agent Lee Riley, who seemed to have just disappeared. “Where the hell are these idiots?” wondered Alex, punching the number of Callum’s phone in on his phone, but he received only a dial tone in return.
“I don’t know. I’ll email them to see if they’re online somewhere,” said Fiona, punching in their email addresses on the computer.

An instant message suddenly appeared on the screen.

Judgment_Day: Harter Warehouse

Fiona looked at the message puzzled. She had no idea who the hell ‘Judgment Day’ was, or how they got this email address. Fiona decided to respond.

Fi_Chester: Who is this?

The response came almost immediately from the other end.

Judgment_Day: Harter Warehouse

“Alex, have a look at this,” said Fiona pointing to the screen.
Alex moved over to the screen and had a look.
“Who’s that?” asked Alex curiously.
“I don’t know, but they only say Harter Warehouse, is that a place?” asked Fiona.
“I think it’s that abandoned one, near Pinewood street,” said Alex.
“Want to check it out?” asked Fiona.
Alex nodded a yes.

The pair grabbed their jackets and went straight to Alex’s car, soon driving off to the warehouse.

* * * * *
Sitting in a darkened room, with over thirty computer and TV screens sitting in front of him, an old man, in his late fifty’s, watched the screens with great interest. One screen showed a dead man on the ground, a knife sticking out of his chest. Another had a dead man sticking out of the floor, several snakes moving about him.

Breathing heavily, the man saw a young woman enter in the room behind him. He turned to greet her.
”Hello, are you ready?” he asked weakly.
“Yes I Am daddy,” replied the young woman.
“Good. Make sure they suffer. Gideon has a name to live up to,” he muttered.
The young woman chuckled and smiled.
“Don’t worry daddy. These people know nothing of pain…yet,” said the woman.
“Good luck baby, you’d better get in there,” said the man, Gideon.

The young woman nodded and exited the room. Gideon turned his attention back to the screens and saw a small screen of a room containing four unconscious people. The door to the room opened, and the young woman who had just spoken to Gideon lay down next to them.

Gideon smiled. The trap was set.