Snow

Snow                Twenty-five

 

I heard a loud bang echo throughout the room before hearing a scream, a girl’s scream. The white wall behind Justin was sprayed with vivid, red droplets. Justin’s body crumpled to the floor, a loud thud sounding through out the room as his head it the floor, barely audible over the ringing in my ears. His legs lay twisted at an odd angle and his hand lay open, the black gun he had just used a minute before laying a foot away from it, bullet-less.

          The girl was still screaming, but there was no one else in the room besides Justin’s body and I. Is that me? My mouth is hanging open and I have to grab the metal cart in front of me to pull myself to my feet. My limbs don’t want to work though. The sharp edge of the cart cuts into my fingers as I pull myself up, only to look over at Justin again and sink down to my knees again. I feel the warm streaks running down my cheeks but I don’t care, they don’t matter.

          Justin’s brown eyes are open, staring at the ceiling. He would look like he was pondering a deep thought if it weren’t for the seeping hoe in the side of his head. I hear a door open and spring to my feet, a man in a black suit is standing in the doorway, watching me through the tinted visor of his black helmet.

          Ever so slowly, he takes a step towards me, resulting in me stumbling backwards to get as far away from this monster as I can. He stops but now even if I wanted to move, I couldn’t. I have gotten myself trapped against a wall. I raise my small, shaky hand and glare at the man.

          “Stay away from me!” My voice surprises me, I was expecting it to be quiet and shaky but it is loud and full of power. Tears are still making their way down my cheeks and I finally wipe them away so I don’t lose focus on this man. He tilts his head slightly to the side and looks at me, reminding me of a killer out of a movie.

          Shaking my head, I stare at him as he advances again, quicker and more hurriedly this time. “Stay the f**k away!” I keep my hand up but in no time the man is in front of me, picking me up and slamming me back against the cement wall behind me. I let out a strangled cry, pain shooting up my spine. Black spots fill my vision as the back of my head collides with the wall. I realize my feet aren’t on the ground and blink several times to clear my vision, looking at the man.

          He looks back at me and I began to kick my feet at him until my legs are flattened against the wall firmly by his legs. I start to use my fists and hit, pull, and scratch at whatever I can reach. I manage to get his helmet off and halfway across the room before the young man in front of me pins my hands above me and I scream. I’ve seen it in movies and on TV, this is how people get raped.

          I scream for help, but my pleas are fruitless. I scream louder as he buries his face in my neck and I squeeze my eyes closed. I can feel bruises forming under where his hand is gripping my wrists. Both of my wrists and fit into one of his hands easily. I brace myself for any sexual action that might be coming, but none come.

          Instead, I hear a growl in my ear, and a hand comes over my mouth. His chest smashes against mine, compressing my lungs and making it difficult to breath. Well, more difficult.

          “Relax, sweetheart. I’m not here to f**k you. I’m going to help you.” The curly blonde haired man whispers into my ear and I let out a whimper, struggling to get out of his grip. ‘Helping me’ might be his definition of ‘raping me’. I shake my head when his hand tightens over my mouth, whimpering again. I look at the man, he looks annoyed. Impatience is resting in his dark brown eyes. Now that I think about it, his crotch is pressed against mine, and this man doesn’t have a boner in the slightest.

          Slowly, I nod and see him relax slightly. “You’re going to go back into that room with all of your little buddies, but I’m not going to lock it once you’re in there. You better not open that door otherwise you, and all of your little friends are as good as dead. Do I make myself clear?” I stare at him, confused. What is he talking about?

          “Do I make myself f*****g clear?” He shouts it this time, right in my ear. I whimper and nod, struggling to get out of his grip again before he pulls me away from the wall and slams me against it again. This time any oxygen left in my lungs gets ripped out of me and I gasp for air as he drops me to the floor before sending a swift kick into my side.

          I scream in agony, feeling pulsing, burning pain in one of my lower ribs. It is most definitely fractured. The door that leads back to the room opens and he kicks me again, lower this time, before walking to it. “Get back to the room.” He picks his helmet up and looks at me coldly as I throw up from the pain. My pain tolerance is not high. He walks out of the door before vanishing to the right through a black hallway.

          Curiosity gets the better of me and I force myself up, gritting my teeth and holding in an agonized scream as my ribs shift. I have to follow him. I wipe my mouth on the back of my hand and squeeze my eyes shut before walking to the door as quickly as I can. I refuse to look at Justin’s lifeless corpse.

          When I get into the hallway, the passage the blonde haired man went through is gone, white wall illuminated by pale, yellow light is in its place. I frown but decide to walk down to the room, following his instructions so I don’t receive another kick to my side. I glance at my wrist and see angry red marks where his hand was gripping my wrists, forcing them together above my head.

          I rub them and approach the heavy door, pulling on it lightly until it opens, seemingly by itself. I shake my head and step inside, biting my lip and casting my eyes to the ground. Justin would have wanted it this way. He wanted to die for me.

          When I lift my eyes again, Elias is in front of me, pulling me into a tight embrace. I let out a pained cry before clamping a hand over my mouth, not wanting him to question me. I don’t want to talk to him about anything, but it is too late. He heard the cry. His chocolate brown brows are furrowed, his bright green eyes focused on my face, searching for something that I don’t know.

          “What’s wrong? What happened?” He pulls my hand away from my mouth, his hand grabbing the very place on my wrist where the man had grabbed. Now that I think about his voice, he sounds like the red team’s captain, Jackson. I wince from Elias’ hand on the bruised part of my wrist and he narrows his eyes at me before he looks at his hand on my wrist, sliding it down and holding my hand with his other hand so he can look at my wrist.

          “Who the f**k did this?” He looks at me, pointing to the bruise that is already fading from angry red to a light purple hue.

          “I-I don’t know.” I look at Elias before looking back at the door. It never locked when it closed. Does Jackson control that? Does he control when the door opens? I take in a deep and shaky breath, resulting in a sharp pain in my side. I bite my lip and nearly pass out from the pain, falling against Elias. He catches me and I cry out as I crash against him, sending jolts of pain through my ribs.

          “What is wrong, Snow? Tell me. Where does it hurt?” Elias is looking at me with true concern but I can only bite my lip harder and reach to my side. Picking me up as carefully as he can, bridal style, he brings me over to the spot by Ryan before setting me in Ryan’s lap. He lays me on the opposite side of the one I was grabbing at before yanking my shirt up to just above my bra before he hisses through his teeth. “What the f**k!”

          I look up at Elias to see his eyes darkened with rage, a hatred for the man who did this to me. Slowly, I draw my eyes to Ryan’s soft, cornflower blue gaze. He’s looking at me with a fear, not a fear of me, but a fear for the people with the power to do this. He blinks and his eyes go to my side, fueling my curiosity. I have to look.

          And look I do, even though I regret it. My ribs are bruised a deep purple color, the area around my fractured rib is practically black but is red, like blood is pooling underneath the skin, in the immediate area of the rib. I bite my lip and shift a little bit, biting my thumb. For some people this pain might not be so bad, but I feel like I was hit with a semi-truck.

          “Don’t move so much,” Ryan whispers to me and I look up at him again, tears in the corner of my eyes. I nod a little and tip my head back so it is resting on Ryan’s knee. I look over at Elias, he’s pacing back and forth, his fists clenched and his arms crossed over his chest.

          I jump to my feet as I hear gun shots out in the hallway. Four gun shots, to be exact. I run over to the door but remember what the man told me, he told me not to go out or we’re as good as dead. I lean against the door, trying my best to prevent anyone from going out the door. Even though none of them know its unlocked but me, I can’t take the risk. Elias is staring at the door, Ryan right a long with him, as well as everyone else.

          Roughly five minutes pass before I hear a soft knock on the metal door and Elias grabs me, pulling me away from the door as it opens. The blonde guy stands in the doorway, still wearing his black suit but this time holding a gun. He looks crazed. Beside him are four bodies, scattered down the hallway. I gasp and he looks at me, and then everyone else.

          “Everyone. Lets go.” He motions down the hall with his gun, looking at us all when we don’t move. He rolls his eyes. “Or stay here is you want to stay in this maze forever and eventually die of dehydration and hunger.” He starts to go down the hall, gun in hand, and we all exchange looks before nodding. We’ve agreed that following him is better than rotting in this room.

          Mason and Tobias are the first ones out the door, Elias pulls me out with him a seconds later. I grab Ryan’s hand as we pass him and drag him with. I know he would hesitate before leaving, he needed me to pull him out with us.

          “Where exactly are we going?” Tobias has crossed his arms and is now looking at the man with the gun, Jackson, and clenches his jaw.

          Jackson smirks at him and c***s his head to the side, just like he did before he attacked me. “You want to f*****g follow me and find out or do you want to join my brothers here on the ground?” Jackson motions the to four bodies behind him that we’re about to step over. Please let them be dead and not zombies.

          Tobias backs off, but his arms are still crossed and his jaw is still clenched, defining his sharp jawline even more. These men on the floor are the other people that helped put us here, that helped in making the game a reality. I feel a sickening feeling in my gut and it takes all I have not to bend over and be sick.

          “That’s what I thought.” Jackson smirks and starts walking again, his knuckles white as he grips the gun. We’re headed to the end of the hallway when he turns right and continues on as if we were going through the maze. I wouldn’t be surprised if  this crazy guy trapped us in a room full of zombies.

          I frowned as Jackson turned left and walked through a black passage way that appeared out of no where, just as he did before. Would we be able to go through it? Jackson looked at me as stood in the doorway, motioning me and everyone else through the doorway. “Hurry up.” He sounded annoyed with how slow everyone was being. Did he expect us to act like we hadn’t just been trapped for six or seven days?

          The only light in the narrow hallway was the dim yellow light from the hallway. When Jackson moved out of the way the light vanished as the passage way closed. I felt an elbow connect with my ribs, receiving a yelp in pain from me, before my eyes adjusted and I saw that it was Jackson who did it. He was pushing through us, making his way back to the front of the group.

          “We’re almost out of here and I swear to god if you don’t listen to what I say I will shoot you so you turn. I won’t hesitate to make you an Infected.” Jackson emphasized his statement by pointing his gun at each and every one of us, lastly landing on me. I reached for my side in remembrance at what he did when I didn’t listen to him as closely as he had wanted.

          “What you guys were in is called the Holding Room. The door two people would go out from every day was called The Door. Don’t even make a comment about its originality, it wasn’t my idea.” He shakes his head as if remembering the person who named it’s stupidity.

“Anyway, you all know the maze is called The Maze. The big circular room? That’s The Containment Room. The room with the guns in it is called The Virus Room. Zombies, as you know them, are called Infected. The Infected with half a body, like the one your gorgeous friend Bria saw, are called Draggers. We kept the Infected in the room called The Infected Holding Room.” Jackson turned around again and started to make his way down the dark hallway again.

Tobias cleared his throat. “Did you say kept? As in you use to but not any more? Where are they now?”

Jackson let out a crazed laugh, his head being thrown back as he laughed until he through his head forward and used his hand against the ball to brace himself as he laughed. No one was sure what was funny. “Yes. We use to keep them in there. I released them, they’re long gone by now. Out in the world, spreading their virus. Of course, there’s only five of them, not including the one I had to shoot when it came right back and tried to attack me. There would have been eight Infected if you little s***s hadn’t figured out that if you shoot yourself in the head you wouldn’t turn.” He pretended to shoot himself in the temple. I had to look away.

“No more questions. Follow me quietly and do as I say, or stay here and die.” Jackson shrugged and walked again. Withing minuted there was a click and Jackson opened a door, a cold gust of the Autumn air chilling my skin.

Jackson ushered us out the door, it lead to a brightly lighted parking lot. I looked behind me at the building. It was an old, broken down warehouse. I looked around, we were out in the middle of no where. Jackson cleared his throat and was holding out a phone. “Which one of you wants to call the cops and tell them where you are?”

Everyone looked at each other until Bria walked up and snatched the phone from his hand. “We Don’t have to know where we are. The cops can track the phone’s signal.” Bria narrowed her eyes at Jackson before dialing and putting it up to her ear. She stepped back several spaces before starting to speak.

She explained how we were the teenagers abducted from a club on a Friday night about a week ago. She told the operator how the Captor was willingly letting her do this and that he was willingly letting us go but some of us had been killed. Half of us to be exact.

A minute later Bria hung up the phone and held it out for Jackson. He took it and then looked at all of us. “Now you may ask questions.” Jackson still had the gun in his hand. He crossed his arms and looked at us all, daring us to ask something.

“Why would you put me and my sister together?” Ryan looked at him, looking a mixture of angry, sad, and tired. Hell, I was tired. I think about how Ash was Ryan’s little sister and then how they said they’d hurt our families if we refused to play. Jackson told me that. Only your team captain can communicate with you through the ear pieces. Question after question flood my mind.

“Why do you think?” Jackson laughs and shakes his head, Ryan knows why.

“Did you hurt any of our families?” I look at Jackson, knowing he remembers screaming it at me through the earpiece.

“No, doll, I didn’t. None of us did. Emotionally by taking you, yes. Physically, no. Besides Ashley and Samuel, we didn’t hurt any of your family physically.” Jackson smirks at me for a reason I don’t know.

“What about our earpieces? Will they come out?” I bring my hand up to my ear, covering it protectively.

“In time, yes. They will come out. The glue we used will wear off in about five or so months.Taking it out manually would be painful and would damage your hearing.” He shrugged as if he were talking about an everyday thing. I scoffed.

“And what about the numbers on our wrist? Will they ever go away? Or are we just cursed with this constant reminder of what we’ve been through.” My voice started to raise, sirens could be heard in the distance. I was running out of time to ask the questions I desired answers to.

“No, they’ll never go away. They will always be there, glowing and reminding you. You can try to cover it up as much as you want with other tattoos but it is too bright. Now how we got them to glow like that, I can’t tell you. My brothers Cole and and Luke were in charge of that.” Jackson looked in the direction that the sirens were coming from before uncrossing his arms and walking over to me slowly. Elias had let me go once we got outside, wanting to look around for himself.

I looked over, seeing maybe five squad cars pull into the parking lot before Jackson grabbed me and pulled me flush against himself. He put the gun against my temple and his muscular arm around my small neck. He could snap me in half like a twig.

“Don’t shoot!” Elias was staring wide-eyed at the squad cars and then at me, frantically looking between me, Jackson, and the police.

“I will not hesitate to kill this girl if any of you make an advance. If I am shot anywhere, she will die, have no doubt about it.” Jackson looked at Ryan. “Get you and your friends over to those squad cars, keep your hands up. Snow here will be fine if you do as I say.”

I had wrapped my hands around his bicep as best I could even though he wasn’t blocking my air way, he was just holding me against him in a head lock. Would he shoot me? He killed his brothers, idiot. Of course he would shoot me.

“I’m going to release her. Do not shoot me!” Jackson shouted to the cops, I heard him growl in annoyance when they trained their guns on him. The barrel of the gun left my temple and I looked up to see it has found a spot on his. He already had the gun cocked so he could shoot anyone who didn’t listen to him, all he had to do was pull his index finger back.

I looked away, not wanting to see what would happen. I couldn’t do it twice in one day. Jackson tightened his arm around my neck before I was dragged to the ground. My ears were ringing again, I knew he had killed himself. He couldn’t handle the consequences of his crime. I struggled to get out of his grasp, the only thing I could see was the dark night sky and a bright white parking lot light above me. I heard hurried footsteps, muffled under the ringing in my ear. Two heads entered my line of sight. By now I was gasping for air, the dead weight of Jackson’s arm crushing my wind pipe. I was so exhausted and disoriented that I couldn’t move it.

An hand reached down and pulled me out of Jackson’s dead grasp, it was Elias, the ringing was stopping and I was starting to see better. Elias began searching my body for damage, bullet wounds probably. When his hand passed over my rib I shrieked in pain, Elias quickly muttering an apology before continuing his search for nothing. I felt myself wobble and the police man that had ran over with Elias grasped my shoulder, steadying me.

Looking around, I saw all of my friend held back by police men, their faces having worry written all over them. Elias finished his pointless search and picked me up just as I started to wobble again when the police man let go. He carried me over to the car, but all I could think about was how this is finally over. I didn’t hear what Elias was saying to me.

“Snow, are you okay? Talk to me.” Elias moved my chin up so I had to look at him as we neared the cars. I nodded even though I wasn’t fine. I didn’t like my nickname anymore. I never want to be called anything that came out of those monster’s mouths.

I made eye contact with Ryan as he was shown to the back of a police car that Mason was already sitting in. He nodded to the officer and got into the car, my friends were scattered among the other five cop cars beside the one that Elias was getting into, setting me in the seat next to him and buckling me in. I stared at the head rest of the seat in front of me before turning to look out the window, at the warehouse where my friends has died and sacrificed their lives in.

“Snow?” I looked over at Elias and shook my head. I didn’t want to be called the nickname that had taken the place of my real name. My friends called me Snow because I looked like I has skin as white as snow and I kind of looked like Snow White.

“Call me my real name. Please.” I look at him, my voice sounds weak and sore. I have screamed too much today. Elias nods and takes my hand.

“Winter, everything is going to be okay now. We’re going home.” I tried my best to smile at him.

“Its protocol that we take you kids to the hospital, sorry if that’s not really your cup of tea but hey, it’s better than a noisy police station where criminals are coming in left and right, twenty-four seven.” The police man’s voice was deep and rough, kind of sounded like the stereotypical cop’s voice. I nodded and turn to look out the window as we pull away from the warehouse and onto the long gravel road.