Circle Jerk

by catt dahman

  “A rock hammer, it’s small, and a knife. And that rubber tubing.”

  “It’s enough for everyone to have a weapon,” Ruth said. She didn’t bother to ask Mattie anything. Mattie had all the illegal drugs before and wasn’t worth including now that she broke and ate Mike. How long before all of them ate their cell mates? Ruth trembled.

  “I have it,” Nick said as he sat back, his hand trembling while holding the little box. What he saw inside was like pure gold but far more valuable. Two keys. He thought fast, looking up and around. “We hand them to Lovie. She lets herself out since her hand is free, puts on the flip flops, gets out, and releases everyone else.”

  “Those spike things….” Ruth said.

  “She climbs up on the cages and hands the shoes to the next in line. And then she climbs over to the outside. The one wearing the flip flops releases the next one and hands the shoes to that person. Repeat. That way all of us can get out.”

  “Okay, I can do that,” Lovie said.

  “They’re my keys,” Kim said morosely.

  “But she has the shoes. Kim, come on; it will work. I trust Lovie.”

  “Fine.”

  Nick unlocked his leg cage and his large cage and then passed the pair of keys to Ruth who unlocked her cage. She reached in and set the keys in the box again and shoved it as far across Andre’s cage as she could. Lovie was able to reach the box, and she unlocked her own cage and slipped on the rubber shoes. The soles were two inches thick, so the caltrops didn’t poke through as she duck-walked away from the small door of her cage, quivering as she stood and stretched. It felt glorious to stand up, but her muscles ached badly, and the sores on her rear broke open and oozed, but she felt great.

  She hadn’t forgiven Jake, but she unlocked his cage and told him to wait. She had decided to alter the plan slightly. She carefully walked down the inside square of the cages, still nervous about traps, and unlocked Kim’s cage.

  She hesitated as Skot watched her, afraid she would skip him, but she unlocked his cage as well. For several seconds, she stared at Mattie and then thinned her lips and backed away without unlocking her cage; the feral woman didn’t notice anyway because she was too busy eating.

  Mattie might come running out, stick her feet with the caltrops, and bring Carl and Randy running with her screams, or she might come out and attack, trying to eat again. There was no way to predict what the crazy woman might do.

  Lovie climbed onto Kim’s cage and handed the shoes down through the bars before turning and sliding off onto the bare floor on the outside circle of cages.

  “Get Ruth,” Nick said as he massaged blood into his leg, afraid to stand up until it felt better. He wished they had done this sooner, but maybe the time hadn’t been right before.

  Kim did the same as Lovie had, climbing and almost falling twice and handing the shoes down. Jake was ready, and Ruth went over to let him out, wanting to be in the clear and have those she liked out and safe before Skot was released.

  Jake climbed over Nick’s cage and made the drop.

  Nick hobbled a lot, but he went over to Mattie’s cage, his face set in a grim rictus of concentration and determination. “Mattie, I have a boiled egg.”

  She cocked her head like an animal, grabbed the bars, and leaned forwards. “Let me out. I want out. Gonna run away and eat everything. Let me out,” her voice became louder.

  Nick swiped his razor across her throat, pushed her backwards so she would fall on her back, and found the strength to roll over and onto Skot’s cage. “Move fast in case her death signals them to come. She’s number four, but I was afraid she’d make noise and give us away.” He was sure she would have alerted their captors. She would have run up the stairs and gotten everyone caught; she wasn’t capable of being quiet or listening.

  Skot grabbed the shoes, climbed out and up and dropped on the other side. He motioned for them to follow, and they went to the shadows from where Lovie waved.

  “Wow, Nick,” Skot said.

  “I wish we had gotten Mike and Andre out,” Ruth said. She understood Nick’s actions.

  Nick had waited a long time. He took Ruth and hugged her tightly. They were filthy, cold, tired, but motivated. He didn’t care if he were dirty or if Ruth were the same; he just wanted to hug her. She checked his finger, wincing as she wrapped it better so he could use his hand without too much pain.

  Maybe they moved slowly because of weakness and his having been cramped up too long, but adrenaline made them keep moving.

  Nick darted into the light for a split second to get the cart, and they pushed it into the shadows of a corner, one they figured they could defend with their weapons. They would die before going back inside the cages. Time became more clear as they found the food had not rotted but was cold, repulsive with congealed fat, but still good. There were another two steaks, a whole chicken with some fish-tomato-pepper concoction on top, a bowl of hardboiled eggs, a container of grape juice that should have filled their bottles, some cooked onions and boiled potatoes, and two bowls of chili. In another bowl was various kinds of fruit.

  Some wept as they ate, most groaned with the pleasure of being able to eat. Jake suggested they slow down so they didn’t get sick from filling their shrunken bellies, but no one listened, including him, and no one was ill.

  Lovie belched and giggled and said, “I feel stronger.”

  “Me, too. I wonder why they didn’t come? They always do after someone dies, and it was the fourth, Mattie was,” Ruth mentioned.

  “I don’t know. Maybe, she’s not dead,” Lovie said.

  “About that, I was scared she would start screaming and yelling to them that we were out of the cages. She wasn’t sane enough to keep her mouth shut or to trust to be free.”

  “We know, Nick,” Jake said.

  “She was a nut,” Kim agreed, “no, you had to. She would have yelled and told on us, or maybe, if she got out, she would have run up the stairs and got us caught. She was far too dangerous to bet on and depend on for help.”

  We need to get out of here, see where we are, and then get away, Ruth thought and then said, “She was too far gone, Nick; it was merciful in the long run.”

  Nick looked at Kim and said, “I know you think your plan will work, but it’s a bad plan. We have to see where Carl, Julia, and Randy are. I have my gun, and if they had two bullets, then they have more. I intend to kill all three. I’d rather all of you get away and let me deal with the problems. ”

  “Payback time,” said Skot while he grinned.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. My thoughts are that if we can’t just bolt out of this place, they will catch us, and we know they have weapons. They know this place and are stronger. I can’t see running down some road and having them pick us off or capture us again. We can’t make ourselves vulnerable. If we can find a way to somehow get them first and get the better of them, then we can get away at a slower pace and safely. Right?” Nick asked.

  “Plus, it’ll be payback,” Skot brought it up again.

  Nick nodded and said, “And it’ll be payback. I’ll handle that if everyone else just wants to make it out alive and fight only if needed.”

  “I want to make Julia suffer,” Lovie said simply, “as well as all the rest of them. I can’t wait until all of them are locked up forever.”

  Skot flinched and asked, “Locked up?”

  “Shot. Killed,” Nick said.

  “No, we can’t let them get arrested and hire lawyers and get off ‘cause of being nuts or something. Shootin’ them is too easy. I said payback. I am missing a toe. It hurts.”

  “You think a toe feels like what Nick has? Or what Mike felt like?” Ruth was irritated with Skot, again.

  “Naw, so say it’s for them. I don’t care why or for what, but I want to pay ‘em back for hurting me,” Skot said.

  “Well, for now, let’s find a way out.”

  Nick led the way until they found a staircase. Before they went up, they looked around for weapons, but n
othing had been left down there except the food. It was true that the basement was soundproofed and without windows. There was another door and a far staircase on the other side. Which one was best to try, they could only guess.

  They climbed the first one, picking at random. Opening the door would be a stressful action for Nick, but he motioned the rest to be ready, turned the handle, and was shocked to find it unlocked. Still, why would they worry when one of them was always on guard and their victims were in cages? He didn’t understand why no one had come to do anything when Mattie died. They didn’t come when Mike died, either. That made no sense.

  “They said Julia watched when they hurt us the second time. They have acted like there are cameras.”

  “So why not come when the other two died?”

  “Why did they let us escape unless to torture us?” Lovie asked.

  “No, that was secondary. They should have come after Mike and then Mattie. Sorry, that is three times they should have come. Two deaths and an escape,” Nick said.

  “It’s a trick,” Lovie continued.

  “Maybe not, but it’s strange and something I can’t figure out.”

  “I’m as scared as I was when I was locked in the cage,” Kim whispered.

  “It looks like a big house or something. It’s not a warehouse. I wonder how much they’ve lied?” Nick said quietly as the others climbed the stairs, and they closed the door behind themselves. The small hallways were square and had a wooden floor.

  Nick crept along the wall, his body poised to attack and fight, but no one was around the corner. There was a kitchen, a dirty room with the stove itself splattered with food and plenty of grease, and all four burners of the stove were covered with pots and pans that had dried food in them. The other appliances were scratched and dull looking, and the floor was covered in dried spots of food, blood, and crumbs.

  Nick pointed to the refrigerator and shook his head, warning them not to open it; he had a bad feeling that parts of people were in there, and if they knew their food had come from the same place, some would vomit. A pool of vomit left on the floor would indicate they had been there.

  Kimberly accidentally kicked a lone finger lying on the floor and almost screamed, clasping her hands over her mouth and shuddering. They had to be quiet and on guard.

  All of the counters, covered with worn, tired-looking Formica, were chipped, dirty, and covered with bowls, paper plates, and junk. Vegetables sat out. The sink was piled full of dishes and egg shells overflowing onto the cabinet. Flies droned as they flew in lazy patterns.

  Ruth started to complain that their food came from this filthy kitchen, but the memory of being hungry stopped her, so she didn’t say anything. It was interesting that Julia and her helpers were far less clean and organized than they pretended. A garbage can was stuffed full of fast food wrappers, soda cans, and containers that explained how Julia and her henchmen ate without using the filthy kitchen.

  Lovie exchanged her shot needles for butcher knives, clear or dirty, which she handed to the others. She wondered if their captors were too busy making up ways to torture people to wash dishes? It was revolting. Why had they expected better from people like Julia?

  The dining room was just off the kitchen, and the table and floor were covered by books and magazines, pads of paper, pens, and sticky notes. The books were all about psychology; some were older, yellow-paged books, and others were newer books. There were even college textbooks that Ruth recognized. There had to be fifty books and magazines lying around or stacked up with slips of paper sticking out like white tongues from the pages. A few lay open.

  “I guess she is interested in psychology and experiments,” Ruth said. “I suppose if I were dead or missing, then she might be hired for my full time position... wow…way to work her way up to full time. I bet she watched from here, and it’s connected to a camera down below. But if she weren’t right here watching, then that explains why they didn’t know we had escaped.”

  “Sick bitch,” Jake remarked, “she watched us for fun.”

  “Payback,” Skot whispered.

  A living room faced the front of the house, and resisting the urge to run outside was difficult, but there were locks on the door, and none of them had the keys, so they stayed at the doorway. There was no telephone, either, but everyone had been looking for one. There was a television with a grainy picture on the screen, an old black and white western; the sound was very low.

  “We can break a window and get out.”

  “No, breaking the window will not be as quiet as getting the door open. If we break a window, they’ll hear us. They locked the door because it was easy,” Nick told Kimberly.

  Another room located behind the living room had scores of plastic bins containing lighters, medical supplies, random junk, and a nice supply of illegal drugs sitting on several folding tables. Blankets and two pillows were lying on another table.

  “Our prizes,” Lovie said, “we know those cages and devices were expensive. If Julia is so rich and can afford them, why is this house so worn-looking and messy? Does that make sense?”

  “Sure,” Ruth said, “when they are finished, maybe they’ll burn it down or something…get rid of the evidence. It’s just a temporary place.”

  Nick didn’t find any more bullets. He thought they could be somewhere else, but even with everyone’s searching, it would take hours, and that wasn’t an option.

  Numerous other empty rooms were on the ground floor, all comparable to the roomy basement. It was disappointing not to find their enemies while they were ready for a fight and not to find the keys to the door. Nick started thinking that they would have to find tape instead, cover the window, break it, and hope that the noise was slight.

  Nick paused at the foot of the staircase.

  From upstairs came the sound of a cough. Nick held a finger before his cracked lips, urging them to stay quiet. “Jake, Kim, Ruth, and Lovie, watch down here. Skot, come with me, and let’s explore upstairs. Keep your ears open, and watch this staircase, okay? If we heard that, then we can’t risk breaking a window and being attacked by all three.”

  Jake nodded.

  Nick led the way with Skot behind him.

  “Payback,” Skot said softly.

  “One step at a time,” Nick warned, worried he had picked the wrong person, but he trusted Jake to watch the bottom floor and not to do something detrimental to the plan. Skot was a wild card.

  The cough came again from the left hallway. That was the way they went. The walls were bare of pictures and photos; nothing personal was in the hallway, no knick-knacks, no lamps or baubles or rugs. Skot nervously peeked into the first two rooms where he saw unmade beds and a few pieces of clothing. Julia’s room was easily discerned because her leather pants and other sexy pieces of clothing were tossed onto a chair. Other than that, the rooms were bare except for nightstands and lamps. Heavy drapes covered the windows.

  In the bathroom, Julia’s make-up, hair brushes, and other beauty items littered the counters next to the sink. A few towels were either draped over the shower curtain or crumpled into a corner, and a tall stack of clean, carefully folded towels sat on the other end of the counter, waiting to be used. Nick thought maybe they didn’t do laundry and had supplies ready so that when, for instance, a towel was dirty, it could be tossed into the corner and forgotten, and another one could be grabbed and used. Everything about the house spoke of throw-away.

  Even they had been a throw-away after each had finished serving Julia’s purposes. Nick felt sad that Mike and Andre hadn’t made it and were left to rot below. All of them should have been saved. That was fair.

  Looking at the labels on the shampoo bottles and make-up, Nick felt that they were very expensive brands from high-end department stores but wasn’t for sure. He lifted a small eye shadow case, and from the price tag, he knew he was right: one item was thirty-two dollars. For some reason, the price made Nick angry; Julia didn’t mind spending money for cages and make-up. S
he was shallow.

  They heard the cough again and hesitantly stood outside the door. Nick had an idea and removed the revolver from his pocket and held it at the ready. Nick gave Skot a wink and hoped he understood that he was going to try to bluff. Once through the door, Skot closed it at once, and Nick aimed at the only figure in the room.

  “Randy….” Carl began and broke off as he saw who it was and the gun that was pointed at him. His eyes widened.

  “Stay quiet, or you’re dead first,” Nick said.

  “Oh, damn.”

  Nick thought his bluff was working. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Carl lay in the bed and glared. He made a nod toward his arm that lay on top of the thick blankets, covering him. His arm was swathed in thick layers of gauze, but blood and a thick sticky-looking, yellow ooze covered the gauze where it had seeped through. It was the arm that Nick had sliced open.

  “Infected?”

  “Yeah.” Carl’s eyes were shining too brightly, and he was flushed with fever. He shivered with chills underneath the covers. “You fucked me up.”

  “Yeah? Well, you did the same to Terri, Owen, Vinnie, Carina, Mike, Andre, Mattie, and Prissy, so a little cut isn’t much in the way of payback. I’m glad it hurts. Payback isn’t fun, is it?”

  You cut me to the bone, asshole, Carl thought and then said, “Mike and Mattie huh? Got ‘em both?”

  “They died, yeah.”

  “Final six.”

  “The final six is here to give you some pain,” Skot snarled.

  “Where is Julia and Randy?” Nick asked.

  “Kiss my ass.”

  Nick waved the gun.

  “Go on. Unlike you people, I won’t have my arm cut off to save me. Shoot me. I don’t care; I hurt too much.”

  “So? You deserve it. Cheer up, and maybe you’ll live and go to the hospital before prison.”

  “Nah, Jules may get me gauze and ointment, but she’s not going to find antibiotics unless she finds some on the street, and I think coke and crack are sold instead of penicillin.”