by Jon Sauve
"Back up a little," Ben said.
I did so.
As soon as I was at a safe distance, Ben called out. "Hello?"
The sound echoed behind us, through the ball room. But it seemed to bounce back off the kitchen opening like it had hit a brick wall.
All still, all quiet in the receding echo.
"Whaddya think?" he asked me.
I shrugged.
"Well, can you think of any way to get in?"
I looked toward the hinges. They were out of our view, set on the other side of the doors. We might be able to break out the windows, but the openings were too small for either of us to fit through.
"I got an idea," Ben said. "How about this?"
He put his shoulder against the door, holding it open, and used the ax handle to push against the lip of the table on the other side. He started to grunt and tremble after a few moments. Nothing moved.
"Damn!" Ben said, giving out. "They must have stacked fuckin' gold bars on that thing! Shit, I need a drink. Liable to die of thirst before anything else. Now what?"
We stared at the door together, waiting. Hoping that someone would come through. And at the same time, hoping they wouldn't.
"What are you doing?" someone said behind us.
Ben jumped so bad one of his shoes came off. I turned around, saw a tall, dark shape standing there, and put a hand over my heart to try and slow it.
"Jesus!" Ben said. "How the hell'd you sneak up on us? Weren't you watching, Orin?"
I shook my head, and held up the lantern. Beth cringed in the light. There were deep pools of shadow over her eyes, cast by her cheekbones. There was another shadow, stretched high across her forehead; her nose.
"Get that light out of my face," she said.
I did so, feeling like a little kid who did something stupid.
"Christ, Beth, where were you?" Ben asked. Used her name and everything. This guy was much cooler than me.
"Around," Beth said. "What are you doing?"
Ben rapped his knuckles on the kitchen door. "They've got Mary in there. Captive."
"Alive?" Beth asked.
Ben looked at me.
"Don't know," I said. "Probably. I think they just took her to bait us in."
"Okay," Beth said. "Then let's go in."
"It's blocked," said Ben.
Beth scoffed, shook her head, and came to look. I shined the light through the crack again so she could see. Then she nodded, put her shoulder against the door, and heaved. Nothing happened at first, but then there was a huge screeching sound, and the door moved about an inch.
"Holy shit," Ben said. "She's strong. Must work out."
Beth stepped back. "Can't get it to move more than that. It might be wedged against something. By the way, I'm not that strong. You guys are probably just stupid."
Ben shrugged. "Can't argue with that. But I would say we're all stupid. Why else would we be here?"
"Fair point," said Beth. "Have you actually seen anyone in there?"
"Well... no."
"Tried communicating?"
"Yeah. No one answered."
"So, it's possible that no one's actually in there."
My turn. "It wasn't blocked earlier. Someone's gone in there in the past hour."
Beth put her hands on her hips, and stuck out her lower lip to blow a lock of hair out of her eyes. She stared at the door a while, tapping her foot. She looked statuesque, posed there in the stark light of the lantern. I noticed that her clothes were filthy, and torn in a couple of places. It made me wonder what she had been getting up to since midnight.
"Alright," Beth said finally. "Let me try."
She went back to the door, shoved it as far open as she could, and stuck her long arm through. Ben and I tensed up, both expecting Beth to scream and pull a bloody stump back through.
She shoved her face against the door and flailed her arm around a bit. I could see it through the window, just barely, waving around. Then her hand found something. She grabbed it and tossed it aside.
"Gotta get some weight off," she said. Her words were accompanied by the sound of something else flying off the pile and crashing somewhere, against a floor or wall.
Ben and I were in awe. This woman thought of everything. Also, she seemed fearless. We stepped back out of respect and let her do her thing.
Beth went at it for a few minutes, using her long arms to our great advantage, then she pulled her arm back out and waved us over. We all put our shoulders into the same door and shoved in unison.
The table didn't just move. It fucking slingshotted, flying out of the way so fast that we all three went stumbling through, getting tangled up in each other like cartoon characters. We went down in a sea of random kitchen objects, all sharp and made out of metal. It didn't feel very good.
Ben was the first on his feet, and he helped Beth and I out of the steel tide. The lantern light wasn't quite strong enough to go all the way through the kitchen, but it was immediately obvious that there was no one else here.
"Shit," Ben said. "Now what?"
"What do you think?" Beth said. "Someone stacked all this shit up, and they had to have done it from inside."
"Oh," Ben said. "Oh!"
Oh, indeed. Beth had reiterated what I had been thinking all along, and she was getting all the credit for it. That's what I get for holding my tongue and being humble.
It was less a sea of shit in front of us than a pond. Beth got over it in one step, Ben too, but I slogged through like the average-height peasant that I am.
On the other side, I held the lantern high so that we could survey the kitchen. I immediately saw two doors. One was dense and metallic; probably a walk-in fridge. The other was a single-wide version of the door we had just come through. We could actually see through the window, because the plastic wasn't there. Only a few dull shards remained.
"There," Beth said, pointing at the latter door.
Ben nodded. "Alright. I got the weapon, so I guess I'll go first."
"Careful," Beth told him. Talk about unnecessary advice.
But one can only be so careful when walking into a murderer-filled unknown. Ben held the ax like a shield in front of his chest as he moved forward. He used his foot to shove the door open. It went about halfway, then stuck in place. The hinges had all but fused into a single lump of metal.
Ben peeked through the window, probably to make sure no one was hiding behind it, then slipped through the narrow gap. Beth went next, and I was last.
We found ourselves in a wide, short hallway. There were doors to either side, and one at the end. The side doors just let onto storage areas, where a few petrified cardboard boxes remained. The end door, however, had the definite appearance of being an exit. It had the hydraulic arm sticking out of the top and everything. A heavy wedge sat on the floor nearby, for propping the door open.
"This is the only way they could have gone," Beth said.
"Outside?" Ben said. "That's fuckin' cheap."
Beth shrugged. "See if it opens."
It did. The latch was broken, and the door was loose and floppy in its frame. I moved to my left as it swung outward to the right, and held the lantern so we could see what stood beyond.
A dumpster. A tall, green dumpster with dents and rust spots on it. It was facing away from us, and the lids were up, propped against the wall above the door. I assumed this meant the snipers wouldn't be able to see us, and my theory was proven by the fact that none of us were shot.
It was just the dumpster, though. Nothing to either side of it; no protective fences.
I took a cautious step out with the lantern. Beth nudged my arm and pointed down. There was a manhole cover there, set in the cracked asphalt. It was a little rusty, but did not appear unmovable.
Appearances can be deceptive. We all tried together to lift the goddamn thing, but we just couldn't get enough of a grip on it. We went back into the kitchen to find something to pry it with. The closest thing we could find was a ladle
with a long handle. We all took turns with it, and experienced no success; the handle started to bend with probably only half the force required to make the manhole cover move.
"Fuck!" Beth said, straining at the handle. It was the final attempt. Shortly after her outburst, the ladle bent in half like it was made out of soda-can aluminum. Beth pulled it out and tossed it into the night. I heard it clatter across the parking lot. All our hopes and dreams went with it.
"Now what?" Ben asked, staring into the darkness.
"We need to find a better tool," Beth said.
Despite her words, no one seemed in a hurry to move. Probably because we didn't know where to go. Finally, we stumbled back into the hotel like shell-shocked moviegoers emerging into a bright afternoon.
First, we mounted a more thorough search of the kitchen. Concerns about noise were out the window. We threw things around, even deliberately smashed them. More than a few more "fucks" were uttered, and I think at least one "cocksucker."
When we stopped, sweating and breathing hard, the silence of the hotel reimposed itself. This is what Hell would be like, I think. All silence and darkness. And hopelessness, above all.
"You know what," Beth said. "I bet they didn't even go down in the sewer. Jeremy must have hired the snipers himself. He knows them. Probably just walked right outside."
Whatever the case might be, we were being fucked with. Hard.
But even as we waited in desolation, the Jeremy-Elden dream team was preparing to throw us a hint.
The sound came right as Ben was opening his mouth to throw Beth a reply. A huge bang, echoing through the hotel. All at once the three of us were back in the moment, staring with our eyes wide open.
"What was that?" Beth whispered.
"Someone slamming a door," Ben said.
"Where?"
"Couldn't tell. Upstairs, maybe."
I thought so too. The sound had a certain echo to it which suggested vertical as well as horizontal distance.
We went out into the ballroom and crossed to the door to the common area. The lantern was still on, but I had it muffled against my side so that only a tiny sliver of light leaked out. Beth stood behind me. My shoulders made a nice shelf for her breasts. Awkward. On the other side of the door, Ben had his back to the wall and the ax at the ready.
We peeked out into the common area. Beth spotted something.
"Top of the stairs!" she whispered.
I already had my finger on the lantern button, and her words caused a reflexive response that killed the light. Without the sensory load of my eyes taking up all my brain space, I could suddenly hear everyone's breathing. I could feel Beth's heartbeat against my back, too. It was fast and fluttery. Her rib cage seemed to have turned to a wire one full of butterflies.
I stared into the dark. By the time my eyes adjusted, the figure was halfway down the stairs. He had stopped there, leaning casually against the railing. He was humming a tune to a popular song. He had probably heard it on the radio on his way to the hotel earlier. It was obviously Jeremy.
"Alright," he said quietly, like a private little pep talk. He stretched his neck to either side. Then he raised his voice. "Hello, down there. Anyone home?"
Beth grew rigid as steel behind me. Ben was now shoving so hard with his feet, pushing himself into the wall with such force, that his muscles were shaking. I was surprised the wall held up.
"Listen," Jeremy said. "I saw the light. No point hiding. I've been listening to you for a while now. You haven't been very quiet. What have you been up to, anyway?"
I almost wanted to answer, but Ben and Beth were both mute. Being totally uncertain myself, it seemed logical to go along with them.
Jeremy rapped his knuckles on the railing. "Listen, now, kiddos. Or is it just one of you? I doubt it. Anyway, I imagine at least one of you is... what's your name? Owen? You want the girl back, probably. She's still alive, though I can't really vouch for her overall condition. Elden has been keeping an eye on her. You can never really predict what that guy might do. But she is alive, trust me. And trust that the money prize is still on the table. Why don't you come out, and we can talk about it? You can stand wherever you want, and I'll just stay where I am, and we can talk like adults. Whaddya say?"
Beth made a weird growling sound behind me. Ben had his eyes closed. Without thinking about it, I turned the lantern back on and stepped through the door. It wasn't until after I had already moved that I considered the possibility of an ambush. Luckily, there was no trick. No Elden hiding nearby.
"Good!" Jeremy said. "What's up, guy? Having fun?"
His grin was almost enough to make me gag. What kind of a fucking loon can just smile like that?
"Has it been you killing all these people?" Jeremy asked. "Christ, man, someone's been cleaning up! Now, by my math, there are two other people left in this hotel. The black guy, and the tall bitch. Are they in there too, by any chance?"
I guess my move had forced Beth and Ben's hand. They stepped out to back me up, though I could tell by the looks on their faces it was the last thing they wanted to do.
"Hey-ho!" Jeremy threw his hands in the air. "The gang's all here! Damn, I gotta say, you three were the last ones I expected to make it this far. All our hunts have been chock full of surprises. You know the first one was won by a big fat guy? Fucking priceless!"
"Where's Mary, asshole?" Beth asked.
"Asshole?" Jeremy said, leaning on the railing again, the same grin on his face. "That's all you got? Jesus Christ, it's like a PG 13 movie in here. What about 'nasty piece of shit'? I've gotten that before. Or maybe 'motherfucking cocksucker.' No? Come on."
"Anyone ever call you a cunt?" Ben asked.
"Hm." Jeremy blinked. "Actually, I don't think I've ever gotten that one. Good job. Anyone ever call you a nigger?"
Ben went stiff. He didn't answer.
"Where have you even been this whole time?" Beth asked. "Hiding like a pussy somewhere?"
"Like you?" Jeremy asked.
"I didn't set up this game. I'm not a murderer."
"And you think I am? That's fucking rich. If I was, why would I have ever hired Max and Elden? Idiot. Oh, and by the way, whoever did Max in... nice! I didn't think anyone would ever get the better of him. But I guess he got sloppy. You know, it's been a while since the last hunt."
Beth looked over at me. Ben did not. He seemed to be off in another world, probably trying to suppress a homicidal instinct.
"To answer your question," Jeremy went on, "I haven't necessarily been in the hotel the whole time. I'm not technically a player, after all. Neither are Max and Elden. That's how this shit works. Max and Elden are just there to advance the game. You know how hard it is to get ordinary people to start killing each other?" He shook his head. "Well, the game rules were simple. The last one of you alive gets the money." He gave an exaggerated shrug. "Simple as it gets, really."
"We don't want the money," Beth said. "We don't fucking care about the money, we just want to leave."
Jeremy have her a pouty look. "Poor you. It's too bad you're already here, huh? And too bad I got six snipers out there who will blow your head off if you try to leave. But I guess you already figured that out." He laughed and shook his head. "There's always one dumbass, every time. I swear. Fuckin' Christ."
I had been mostly scared up to this point, but the way he talked about Luke made me feel a little angry.
"Okay," said Beth. "We got the point."
"Do you, though?" Jeremy started tapping his fingernails on the railing. "Do you, really? Am I really that good of an actor? Shit. We already have a whole hotel full of dead people. One of you already has blood on your hands, and probably a lot of it. Truth is, I'm a bit scared. We've never had a hunt go this way, before. Usually they're fast and furious, and the winner is usually the one you expect... usually. But this time..." He shook his head. "Listen, I really wanted to make it clear that I am not a participant. There is no reason to attack me or kill me."
I guess it was my time. I forced myself to be brave, opened my mouth, and was very surprised when words actually came out.
"Give Mary back, and we won't," I said. A simple phrase, but I was and still am very proud of it. It's a reminder that I'm not a total loser.
"Okay," Jeremy said. "That's kind of what I came down here for, and kind of why we took her in the first place. Bargaining chip. I think we can all act professionally. Also, we can all walk out of this hotel alive and well. I have a proposal for you."
"Let's hear it," Ben said, staring at Jeremy with his eyes as wide open as they could get.
"Okay." Jeremy showed us his hands. "Okay, I've been thinking, and I've decided it might be time to change the rules a bit. Cut my losses. Yadda, yadda. Listen, just so you understand, I've put on six of these hunts already. Through all of them, Max and Elden have been my right and left hand men. Never changed. Now one of them is dead. So I gotta adapt to the situation, you know? So how about I just give y'all the money. You can split it or do whatever you want with it, I don't care. Then I can call off the snipers, and we can all leave."
"Aren't you worried we'll just call the cops?" Beth asked.
"Not really. I'm sure all three of you have your own reasons why you wouldn't want to do that. I'll bet you would all rather forget about this, put it behind you. No point calling the cops. It'll just be a big inconvenience." He fixed his eyes on me, like he knew something, and his grin turned nasty. "You know how much legal bullshit you have to deal with when you kill someone? Even in self defense? It's almost better just to let the other bastard kill you to begin with."
Beth looked at me, then at Ben, then at Jeremy.
"Okay," she said. "I can't speak for them, but I just want to get out of here."
Jeremy clapped his hands. "Swell! And what about you two? Owen and Benjamin?"
"Not 'nigger'?" Ben replied.
"Oh, come on! You're taking that personally? Get over yourself. You called me a cunt, and do I let it bother me? No! Look." He pointed at his own smug grin. "See? I'm happy as a kid in a candy store. And you know why? I get to walk out of here alive!"
"You could have already gotten out," Ben said. "You already said you've been outside."
