by Palvi Sharma
“It’s like fifteen feet tall.” Keith said. “Where did it come from?”
Melissa noticed Sara put her hand tentatively on the metal and wince. “It’s pretty strong. I don’t remember it being here before.”
“Find an exit, guys.” Rafe said.
Melissa put her hands on the cool steel and tried to push on it without much luck. Her hands travelled all over it, but found no opening.
“Let’s just go around the fence.” Jennifer said.
“It’s not a fence.” Shane said, coming back. In the dim lights of the torches, Melissa could see how pale has face had gotten. “It’s a cage. It goes all around. I couldn’t find an opening.”
Rafe let the light from his torch move upwards and whistled under his breath. “We can’t scale it.” He said. “There’s nothing to climb on.”
Melissa caught a movement on the other side and pulled on Fiona’s sleeve. “What was that?”
“Hey!” Keith called.
Melissa peered through the gaps and saw a young man in a uniform. “It’s a cop.” Melissa told them.
“Get us out of here!” Shane called to him. “We need help!”
Melissa took Fiona’s torch and shone it through the gaps at the young policeman. She saw him looking through the steel fence at them with frightened brown eyes. “Can you help us?” she asked.
The policeman almost jumped and started to run, hesitated and then turned towards them.
“Hey!” Shane called. “Get some metal cutters, and get us out of here.”
The policeman took off his hat and just stared at them in fear. For a second, Melissa thought he was about to say something, but the policeman continued to look at them with fright and pity in his eyes.
“Help us.” Melissa said softly. The policeman was probably a rookie on his first day and had gotten a little nervous. If she kept talking to him soothingly, he might help them find a way out of this cage. “Can you call for back-up? You have a walkie-talkie.” She pointed at his belt.
“I wish you guys had just listened to me!” Rafe said and kicked the fence. Melissa saw the policeman take a couple of steps back immediately.
“There must be something you could do.” Melissa told the policeman.
“He’s not going to help us!” Rafe said and Jennifer tugged on Melissa’s t-shirt.
“I’m sorry.” the policeman mumbled and took a couple of steps back.
“What are you sorry about?” Melissa asked.
“There was no other way.” The policeman said and took a few more steps back.
“You locked us in on purpose, didn’t you?” Rafe screamed. “If you don’t get us out in the next minute, I swear I’ll kill you!”
Melissa walked over to Rafe and nudged him back. “Don’t say that!”
“You have no idea, what’s going on!” Rafe said.
“Dude, that’s a load of...”Keith started to say, but Rafe pushed him away.
“I’m so sorry.” the policeman said and ran away as quickly as he could.
“Come back!” Melissa called after him. She pushed herself against the fence and almost lost her balance.
“Get back here you scumbag!” Rafe screamed.
“Will you stop throwing insults at him?” Melissa said. “You scared him! He’s gone now!”
“Of course, he’s gone.” Rafe said. “I told you guys that we should have left when we had the chance.”
“What are you talking about?” Melissa asked.
Rafe punched at the fence and then rubbed his forehead. Melissa saw his skin break on the knuckles.
“They’re feeding us to the wolves!” he said and wiped his bleeding hand on his shirt.
Melissa looked at him, not understanding and then suddenly she heard the roar of motorcycle engines again. Someone or something was coming and by the looks of things, something terrible was about to happen.
Chapter Three
Melissa leaned on the fence and listened as Rafe and Shane argued about the same thing over and over again. Rafe had warned them, they should have listened, end of story. But now they were all trapped. Couldn’t they stop complaining and find a solution together?
She spotted Jennifer leaning against the railing, sobbing quietly. She considered going up to her and try comforting her, but found herself being unable to even move. Terror had its icy grip on her heart, making her incapable of even thinking straight. The only thoughts that entered her mind provided little solace. Something weird was happening here and by the looks of things, something dangerous was about to happen. Why else would the cop look so frightened?
“Why don’t we...”Melissa started to say as an idea occurred to her and then realized no one was listening to her. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth again. “I think I have an idea!” she almost screamed.
Everyone looked at her in surprise and Melissa decided she should have used a different approach to get everyone’s attention. Screaming at them while something strange was going on wasn’t a good idea.
“There is no way out of here!” Rafe said angrily, quickly composing himself after her outburst.
“Will you just give her a chance?” Fiona snapped at him. “Go ahead. What is your idea?”
“We could put our legs over the railing, hang onto the other side and push ourselves to the left. Then we can climb back in once we’ve made it away from the fence.” Melissa said, without pausing for breath.
“That’s an idea!” Keith said. “It could work.”
“It’s too risky.” Rafe said quietly. “We could hurt ourselves.”
“It’s a plan and we’re going with it.” Fiona said determinedly and walked towards the railing.
“What if we fall in?” Jennifer asked. “I was never even good with the monkey bars.”
“You do know how to swim, right?” Sara asked.
Melissa saw Jennifer looking at her with fear in her eyes. Jennifer had never learnt to swim, because she had a fear of water too. Especially since what had happened with her sister.“We’ll help each other.” Melissa said and forced a weak smile at her friend.
Melissa started to put her leg over the railing when she heard the sound of motorcycles approaching.
Her new friends all turned towards the noise and huddled together. There were five motorcycles and five figures in dark riding on them. Melissa reached for Jennifer’s hand and let a moan escape her throat.
One of the figures on the motorcycle was holding a flaming object in his hand. As he crossed the grocery store, he hurled the object at it and uttered a loud cheer as the store caught on fire as if he had just scored a basket.
Jennifer started to cry as the other riders followed suit and hurled stones and bricks at the store windows. The glass cracked loudly on impact and shattered into pieces, throwing shards all over the roads.
“Just a couple of vandals.” Keith said, but Melissa could hear the fear in his tone.
She turned to look at Rafe and saw him with a grim look on his face. He seemed distracted by something else entirely and didn’t even flinch when the glass shards fell closer to his feet. She wondered what else he could be worried about. Was there more to the story than what he had already said?
“Let’s get out of here!” Fiona whispered to all of them.
Melissa pulled herself up on the ledge and swung her legs over the railing. She held the railing fast with her hands and started to move sideways. Just then, she heard a small clicking sound in the dark. She saw Keith follow her with his flashlight and peered into the darkness.
“Go back!” Someone said.
Melissa blinked as Keith’s flashlight shone on a man’s face. The man was in uniform and unlike the other policeman; he was much older and appeared fearless.
“Go back!” He repeated. “If you don’t I’ll shoot you!”
Melissa stared at the gun he was holding and almost felt her fingers slip off the railing. “Help us.” she said.
“What the hell is going on?” Keith asked.
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The policeman brought is gun forwards and pointed it at Melissa’s head. “Go back and stay in.” he said curtly but Melissa also heard a hint of pure terror in his voice. The finger on the trigger of the gun was also quivering.
“You can’t do this!” Keith screamed. “You’re supposed to serve and protect us!”
“There are only seven of you and seven hundred in this city.” the policeman replied.
Melissa looked at the policeman’s face and saw how scared he looked all of a sudden. When he waved the gun at her again, Keith pulled her back by her arm. She went backwards and Fiona helped her get back in just as Keith swung his long legs over the railing, so that he could lean over to talk to the policeman.
“Did you purposely trap us here?” Keith demanded. “We’re all innocent here. How is our life any less important than the rest of the people in this city?”
“Stay in.” The policeman warned.
“No, we want answers!” Keith said stubbornly.
Melissa turned to look at the riders and saw that they had stopped and grouped outside the grocery store which was undoubtedly going to burn to the ground in a matter of minutes. The riders still had their helmets on and were discussing something quietly. She saw them look in their direction several times.
The policeman hesitated as Keith lowered himself. “Stay there.” the policeman warned again. “I will fire my gun if you don’t do as I say.”
“They’re just vandals!” Keith said. “Get a few policemen and arrest them.”
“Keith, just come over.” Rafe said and reached for his shoulder, but Keith shrugged him off and almost lost his balance in the process.
“What you’re doing is completely illegal.” Keith told the police officer. “We could lodge a complaint against you and have you suspended.”
“This is your last warning!” the officer said. “I’ll count till three and if you don’t go back in, I will shoot you!”
“Keith! Please! Just come back!” Sara sobbed.
“One...”the officer said.
“We’ll figure something else out.” Melissa said and offered her hand to Keith, who completely ignored it.
“Two...”
“You can’t do this to us!” Keith screamed at him. “You won’t get away with…”
“Three!” the officer said and seconds later, Melissa heard a loud gunshot echo through the night.
Chapter Four
When the gun had gone off, Melissa had thought that the police officer had only shot in the air to scare off Keith, but Sara’s screams proved otherwise.
“Keith!” Sara shrieked and Melissa heard a loud splash.
“You killed him!” Fiona screamed at the police officer and pushed against the fence.
“Stay back or I’ll kill you!” The policeman warned.
Melissa looked at the flickering light of her cell phone, as a cold shiver went up her spine. She leaned against the railing and tried to suppress the scream that was building inside of her. Keith wasn’t standing there anymore and Shane’s flashlight showed a bright red stain on the side of the metal railing.
“Oh my God!” Jennifer whimpered as she joined her. “Did he really...is he dead?”
Melissa shook her head. This couldn’t be happening, could it? It had to be a dream. It just had to be!
“You freakin’ killed him!” Shane yelled. His words cut through her and she choked on her sob. It was real! Whatever was happening around her was real!
“Stay back, son!” the police officer said. His gun was still raised and aimed at Shane’s chest.
Melissa saw Shane getting ready to charge at him, but Rafe pulled him back roughly. “It’s no use Shane! He’s gone!”
Sara and Jennifer were still crying as Fiona kept looking at the lagoon in the darkness. Melissa peered down and tried to search for Keith’s corpse, but to no avail. Keith must have sunk to the bottom. Out of all the things going around her, Melissa found herself trying to remember if corpses floated or sunk in water.
“He just killed an innocent!” Shane cried. “What the hell is wrong with the people in this town?”
Melissa heard the roar of engines again and swallowed. She looked towards where the riders were grouped and saw that they were waiting idly, as if contemplating whether to attack them or not. She felt her heart beating faster at that very thought.
“Guys?” Melissa tried to say, but all that came out was an inaudible whisper.
Rafe and Shane were still arguing, but Melissa didn’t pay any attention to them anymore. Her eyes were fixated on the riders across the street. The flames from the store provided her enough light for her to notice that one of the riders was reaching for a metallic object from a compartment in his bike.
“Will you guys just shut up?” Sara yelled at them.
Melissa held her breath as the rider came up with a chainsaw. As he pushed a button and started it up, she uttered a low cry. What was he going to do with that? Kill them? Her skin broke out in goosebumps and she tried opening her mouth to warn her friends, but stifled a scream when she noticed the other riders.
They were all pulling out objects from their carriers and she gasped when she saw one of them pulling out a sword. Melissa turned to Jennifer, trying to point them out to her, but she found herself unable to resist looking back at the riders. They were laughing now. All of them- as if they were going to pull off a silly prank instead of killing them.
“I can’t take you guys arguing anymore!” Sara said suddenly and started to walk away from them. “Keith is dead!” Sara said, still stepping away. She was so distracted that Melissa noticed Sara walking right towards where the riders were!
“Sara!” Melissa called. “Come back! You’re walking towards…them!”
“I bet those guys are way better than all of you!” Sara said angrily.
“Sara, they have weapons!” Melissa yelled.
Sara turned around then and looked at her. “What?”
Before Melissa could open her mouth to explain, one of the rider’s had closed in on her. He had a chainsaw in one hand and was maneuvering his bike with the other.
The movement caught Rafe and Shane’s attention and they stopped arguing. They looked at Sara in horror.
“Hey!” Shane said, recovering from his shock. He rushed towards Sara and grabbed her arm. “What are you doing? Let’s go!”
But before they had managed take a step back, the other riders had already encircled them and Melissa let out a whine.
Jennifer lowered herself on the ground and hugged her knees, sobbing softly and covering her eyes. But Melissa found herself unable to look away from the scene that was unfolding before her.
“We have to help them.” Fiona said, but before she had taken a step, Rafe had stopped her and was gesturing her to remain quiet. He pushed Fiona on the ground next to Jennifer and motioned Melissa to do the same.
“We need to do something.” Fiona whispered.
“They’ll kill us before we even try.” Rafe said quietly and pushed a dustbin in front of them as silently as he could.
“They’re our friends!” Fiona retorted.
“They’re as good as dead now,” Rafe said.
“I can’t believe you!” Fiona said and started to get up, but Rafe pushed her down.
“Shut the hell up!” he barked. Melissa almost jumped at Rafe’s tone and then turned back to the riders.
“Let us go!” Shane cried as the riders got off their motorcycles.
Sara hugged Shane and the two of them stood in fear as the riders inched closer towards them.
Melissa looked around her and wished she could find something to use as a weapon. She hated to admit it, but Rafe was right. They were trapped in a cage with no way out. If the riders spotted them, they would probably kill all of them.
The riders said absolutely nothing as Shane looked all around him for an exit. Melissa peered through the gap in the dustbin and saw Sara starting to cry as one of the riders switched on his chai
nsaw.
She covered her ears as the chainsaw sprung to life. She had never felt so helpless before. Here she was hiding like a coward when she should be thinking of something to help Shane and Sara. But the will to live was all too overpowering. The riders looked dangerous and they had weapons! What chance did they really have?
“Please!” Sara begged. “Help us!”
Melissa uncovered her ears. She couldn’t just sit here and do nothing as two innocent people were slaughtered before her. She would never be able to forgive herself if she didn’t at least try.
