by catt dahman
They watched Carl and the heavy cart.
Carl pretended to think. “Prissy, use these nippers, remove the first joint of your pinky finger, just the first joint, and swallow it. Do so, and I will reward you.” Carl held the nippers out to her cage.
Prissy stared at him and shook her head so hard her hair flew. She made strange noises and rolled her eyes.
Randy giggled and replied, “As I said, I only ask once. Your chance is over. Your reward was the steaming hot bowl of chili, and it had little oyster crackers on top…mmmmm. It’s beef by the way.”
Prissy’s head stopped shaking, and she cocked it.
“Too late.”
They knew it was chili. With crackers. They would have drooled over a plain pretzel stick, but the aroma was intoxicating, and they knew what it was. Chili. Hot, protein rich, delicious chili. A whole bowl. With crackers!
Kim wept loudly for want of the reward. Jake wiped drool from his chin. Ruth rubbed her eyes as hot tears burned them. Would she get the same offer? Was Prissy smart or a fool? How could these men demand Prissy cut off a finger and swallow it?
Carl shrugged and removed the clippers. He held them out to Skot and said, “The same thing. Last joint on the last finger.”
“Fuck you.”
Randy snickered and replied, “I guess that was a no. Your reward was all the fixings for a pitcher of bloody Mary drinks with all the extra veggies and one of these keys we took from Vinnie.” To tease them, Randy pulled back a cloth and revealed vodka, tomato juice, tiny tins of spices, a small tray of vegetables, and a few big, fat, juicy limes, and in the middle, lying on a lime, was a dusky key, taken from the ashes.
They knew what circle of hell was the worst for each.
“I changed my mind; I’ll do it; let me have the nippers,” demanded Skot as he reached out a hand, begging. His mouth watered so badly that saliva dripped off his chin. He couldn’t imagine how wonderful, how perfect that would taste. He would spike it so heavy with vodka….
“You lost out,” said Randy.
Carl laughed and added, “I would let you do that: cut it off and swallow, and then tell you the rules again but not give you a reward for meanness, but Randy has a bet on you. I said you have one chance. You can’t change after I have told you the missed prize.”
“I wouldn’t have cared; that would’ve been funny,” Randy said, “you should’ve.”
“I know. Damn, that would have been funny. Okay, Skot, you want to snip?” He offered the nippers, and Skot used the spit he had and spat at Carl, barely missing. Carl ducked just in time, laughing. He walked around the other way and said, “Come on, Vinnie. A fingertip for a reward. Want to do it?”
Had it been an hour earlier or later, Vinnie would have taken the deal, but he was furious and frustrated and in a lot of pain. His temper got the better of him, and he threw a caltrop at Randy’s head, cutting the man’s forehead.
Randy frowned and said, “You are dumber than dirt. Your prize was some wine and one beautiful .38 bullet for your gun. I thought you’d use it on Lovie, huh? Can’t have it now.” He wiped away thin droplets of blood.
“I’ll get her pretty easy, yo. I gots a knife. No more than a few hours and she’s done. Laughed at me, Bitch.” Vinnie played it off, but he thought of wine and a bullet. Beautiful. So beautiful.
Carl shrugged. He walked back around and said, “Ruth. Same thing. You are playing for a gift for Nick. Hurry. Three seconds.”
She tried to think like a madman and hoped she was right. “I have my own nippers,” she said. She didn’t think, just put her finger into the clippers and snapped them hard. The skin and bone parted like magic without any real effort. She did sink some, and she screamed and had to fight to stay conscious as she slid the tiny finger bit into her mouth and swallowed it whole. It went down as a lumpy, bloody piece of something, and she also puked it back up, but she had come too far.
She was dizzy. ”No. NO. No. NO. NO. Oh, my God, no,” she said as she held her bleeding hand against her stomach and cried. Why had she done something so stupid? Was she that crazy? She had already decided the answer was no, but she did it, for reasons she would evaluate when the pain eased.
Carl handed her gauze, and some tape that she used at once to cover the stub, wrapping it securely before she fainted. “Here is a baggie with more gauze, tape, and tea tree oil that Julia swears is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-microbial, so then you will have antibiotic salve. The tea tree smells strongly. Everyone gets a baggie if he does the deed. Oh, and look, this is really cool; see at the bottom under the gauze? Yeah? We put in a few pain pills. Aspirin only for some. You never know when I reach for a bag, but see yours? Pain pills…they’re green. Those are heavy ones. Yellow are middle. Orange are weak, and well, aspirin doesn’t do shit, right?
“We have a winner!” Randy cheered. He walked over to Nick and handed him something in a medium-sized cloth, wrapped, and then two small bags: one of trail mix and one of beef jerky. Nick sobbed and called Ruth’s name over and over, but she couldn’t look at him. She felt too sick. ”Not for me, Ruth, not for me. They’re yours, not for me.”
Nothing else could have hurt him so badly. Amazing how these men knew how to cause the most pain. He’d rather have had it been him and not Ruth suffering for him. He realized he hadn’t cried like this in years, but the tears streamed. “Not for me.”
Carl laughed and said, “For you. It was a test in the game. That why she got the good pain pills because hers was a harder test. She is more bad ass than Skot and Vinnie, huh? I should’ve bet on her.”
“Ruth….”
“She can’t talk, Nick. Give her a minute or two so she can get the blood back into her head; she about passed out. It’s painful.” Andre saw that she was suffering. The nippers came down and were made so that a little pressure caused a huge force to the blades, and it was simple to cut through rose bushes, wooden dowels, and fingers. What she felt was the skin being cut wide open, the nerves and blood vessels being severed, and, worst of all, the bone being cut right through so it was like a completely broken-in-two bone break, only more horrible. It was exposed.
“Andre? Will you do it?”
“Hand me the clippers.” God, Goldie. Hey, can you both help me here? I need strength to do this and buy some time before I come join you. Please help me not to scream, okay? Amen. I will fear no evil. He prayed fast in his mind. He clipped, groaned loudly, went white-pale, swallowed, and tried to smile, but it was a grimace of pain. He wrapped the stub with the gauze and tape. “What’s my prize? A trip out of here? Am I free?” He tried to joke around but was in severe pain.
Maybe in his prayer, he should have asked for a little less pain? No, that would have been wrong. He could pray for strength and guidance but not gifts. Oh, but he needed more help. He needed a little less pain.
Carl handed him a large bottle of rum and a bag of coconut, pineapple, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, and two bright yellow bananas. And Andre got a baggie with two boiled eggs, salt packets included. He got a medical baggie with orange pills. He sucked a pill down and motioned Ruth to do the same. She offered him one of hers, but he said he wanted a lighter pill.
Andre drooled and could make no more jokes. He turned away and demanded Ruth’s hand. He used the needle and Novocain he had kept all this time and shot them both full so their fingers went fully numb. The pills hit fast, and with the Novocain, there was no pain.
He respected Ruth, pitied her and cared about her, and that was a deadly place to be. He knew it. It was going to be the reason he would die, but even in that, he hoped it would cleanse his soul and give him good karma or at least peace. Maybe in his weakness was strength. He hoped.
Carl gave him a nod of approval.
Andre made Ruth eat some seeds and pineapple and then a whole egg. Ruth licked her fingers like a mad woman for every bit of flavor. She reacted quickly to the medicine, and by the time they had finished eating, she was floating. Of course, the shots of delic
ious rum probably made the pills twice as strong. Andre sure didn’t mind. He started floating, too. Good drugs.
Randy leaned forwards, “Kim? Care to gamble?”
“I…I…no...please….” She sobbed. Watching Ruth and Andre do it had terrified her. She saw the pain they felt on the faces and especially in their eyes. She wasn’t ready.
Randy smiled, “You lost the key and the chili…wow…those would have been nice. Those would have been your prizes, Kim.”
“I want chili,” said Kim, sounding like a small child who was denied something.
“You can’t have it. You missed out.”
“But….”
“Come on, let’s do this,” Nick said. He hated seeing Kim humiliated.
“Yours is for fair, sweet Ruth. Will you do something so she gets a reward?”
Nick glared at the men, snipped, and swallowed without making a sound. He only flinched once, but he shook with the pain. He got his baggie and had green pills. Andre passed the rum over to Nick to have a drink; Andre said Kim could have a few swallows. Nick noted that bravery and chivalry were painful. He shuddered as he waited for the pills to help; before this, he would have laughed if anyone had told him that he would cut off part of his finger for anyone.
Carl walked to the cart, and with a flourish, he revealed a pillow and three blankets that he gave to Ruth. Then to her shock, he released her leg from the shackles. It was the hardest she had cried, and she wept and sobbed as she rubbed her leg and bent it under her painfully, but happily. She had a tiny bag of peanuts.
“She didn’t get much food, so you can share, or she can chomp Skot, right?”
They walked around. Moving the cart along. Terri’s cage and Owen’s cage were ignored.
“Mattie what say ya?” Carl asked.
She took the snips and did the deed with no reaction. She wrapped the stub with a blank face and held her hands out for her prizes. Carl grinned, “How about a nice vial of coke for you? Yeah? You like that. You have that needle? That unmarked vial…I’ll tell you what it is. That’s Horse.”
“Horse?” Mike asked as he watched and worried about his turn.
“Heroin. And Mattie, here are some cream and antibiotics for that little painful issue you have.”
“For my rooty tooty cooty?”
“Yep. Should clear it up. Take the pills correctly. Here is a little bottle of tequila, yum, and here is a taco loaded with meat and cheese and the lettuce stuff.”
“Oh, wow, thanks, Carl,” she said as she looked at him with almost love and awe. Nick cursed under his breath as he watched. Mattie shoved the taco into her mouth and washed it down with tequila. She got only aspirin, but what did that matter when she had serious drugs?
Nick didn’t know where his own mind was. He hated Vinnie enough to kill him, he was envious of a hooker with drugs, he had cut off part of his finger in order to help someone else get a prize, and he wanted the taco that Mattie ate more than he had ever desired anything before. He wasn’t sure how he felt about much, anymore.
“Mike?” Carl said. He grinned and spoke like a favorite uncle trying to talk a kid into something .
“No.”
“Just no?”
Mike said, “Just, hell no.”
“Chili and a key you missed.”
“Yeah? You say that to everyone who refuses, but no one wins it, do he?”
“That’s why it’s a game, Mike-o.”
“It’s stupid and false. I refuse to play.”
“Others are playing.”
“That’s their choice, isn’t it? This is mine. I can’t do it. I refuse to play and give all of you a thrill. Doesn’t that irk you?” asked Mike as he grimaced.
Randy shrugged and said, “I don’t care one way or the other.”
They went by Carina’s cage and past Vinnie’s and stopped by Lovie. “If you will do it, you will get something that Jake will want, too. If Jake does this, he will get something you will want, too. So what will you do, Lovie?”
“I’ll do it.” She did and watched them for her prize, wondering. She had a lot of trouble swallowing her finger and gagged it up several times, but she kept trying even as her finger poured blood. She finally managed to get the piece down. She cried and screamed; she did the usual because bravery aside, it hurt more than anything, but she had to take the pain because the fear of missing something was far greater than the fear of the pain. As soon as she did it, had anyone asked if it were worth it, she would have screamed no.
“Impressive. You look like you’re about to faint.”
“I might.”
“She does, and I kill her,” Vinnie yelled, waving his knife.
Carl and Randy laughed.
Randy said, “Only one more and you will advance. You get a little break for a day. Might as well be her. Your prizes are a full medical kit and another little bear. He was holding a little bag of nuts.”
“Okay,” said Lovie, narrowing her eyes.
He turned to Jake, “Well?”
“Sure,” Jake cried out and almost passed out, but Lovie slapped at him until he finished the deal, swallowing the small finger-part. He slumped down, hurting, but he had left a tiny bit of finger sitting on the floor of his cage. Unless he finished the trial, there was no prize. Lovie was intent on his finishing and winning the prize. “Eat it.”
“I can’t; oh my God, it hurts.”
“I know. You think I can’t feel anything? I know it hurts, but if you don’t finish….”
“I can’t.”
“You do it. Do it right the hell now. Just do it,” Lovie yelled at him. She slapped him again. He glared and swallowed.
He and Lovie looked expectantly for the prize. They both got yellow pills.
Carl handed Jake a huge bowl of steaming chili with oyster crackers to put on top, a small bag of beef jerky, and a key.”
“Ahhh,” Lovie stared and inhaled the aroma.
Jake considered eating the chili all alone, but he forced that thought away. He wasn’t like that. He was better. He shared.
“That’s not fair! You asses. That isn’t fair.” Vinnie shook his bars and tried to stab at Lovie again. It was a matter of a short time before he caught her relaxed or not watching and then would kill her. She tried to avoid Vinnie’s knife and eat at the same time.
Carl and Randy pushed the cart away.
“Hey.”
They turned back.
Nick let out a breath and asked, “One more and we advance, right?”
“Huh?”
“One more person dies? Right? You said it.”
“Yep, I think big V will get the girl soon,” Randy said.
“I thought that, too. Not gonna happen.” Nick took the medium-covered object he had gotten and snapped his one bullet into the chamber. Jaws dropped, and every eye was on him. Jake and Lovie stopped eating to watch.
Kim covered her face but peeked. Mike made a humming sound that he wasn’t aware he made as he watched, fascinated, wondering, scared to look away.
People wondered if he would shoot Randy or Carl? Which one? Would it hit them? Was he a good shot? What would that accomplish? But Ruth didn’t look at the two men. She nodded at Nick.
He raised his gun, and without a word, he fired, hitting Vinnie in the chest.
Vinnie didn’t move except to fall back in his cage. He was dead in seconds.
“That makes four,” Nick said. He felt nothing.
“So it does, and I half expected that,” Carl confessed.
Jake and Lovie went back to eating.
The men left, and the lights went lower.
Jake released Lovie from her cuffs and then himself. “I’d send it around, but I don’t trust Mattie on one side and Skot on the other.”
“Good shot. Thanks, Nick,” Lovie said.
“I don’t know if that was what was best….”
“It was,” Andre said, “and you are doing the best you can, like most of us. He would have killed Lovie. Carl an
d Randy can wait, right? Find a way to get them later.”
Skot cursed Jake with flowery words; some he made up as he went. Mattie had injected herself and wasn’t listening.
“Kim and I can survive,” Andre said.
Ruth sent a blanket to Kim. Andre gave Ruth food, and Nick shared food with Kim. Jake and Lovie ate what they had. Nick made a tight, hard ball of some of the jerky in the condom Terri gave him, weighed it with the empty small rum bottle and threw it to Mike. Surprisingly, Mike caught it and had rum, jerky, and a stick of gum.
“Did you forget me?” Skot asked.
“No, we wish we could. If we have anything left, we might share,” Ruth said.
“What’s wrong with you?” Skot demanded.
“I cut off my own finger and swallowed it, you idiot,” Ruth shouted. “I’m in pain…well…not too bad with medicine, but I hope we have enough, and you didn’t do anything! You have your fingers, and you want what we got for giving up fingers? What is wrong with you?”
“And you did call me and Mike racial slur-words. Maybe I am still offended.” Andre shrugged.
“And you called me a slut,” Lovie piped up. She and Jake felt so much better and more hopeful. Medical supplies, food, and freedom were nice. And one other thing: Lovie called out, “Nick? Thank you. Bless you. I owe you my life.”
“I owe you as well.” Jake said it, but he was smiling at Lovie. She had trusted him and gone into a partnership to get the prizes. She was brave and smart. He had missed seeing that for a while.
“I don’t deserve this,“ Skot grumbled.
“Idiot. I don’t deserve this. Look at my hand! Look at my finger. See? It hurts, and we’re suffering, so don’t tell me what you deserve or don’t deserve because entitlement is dead, Mr. Personality.”
“What?”
“What?” Ruth mimicked him, “we’re in bad shape, so stop demanding and screaming at us. What’s wrong with you?”
Skot snorted, “Nothing that a little payback wouldn’t cure. I’d like five minutes alone with them. Fifteen with Julia or more. Yeah. I’d get me some payback. Slowly. I want to hear someone else scream a while.”
