2 July 2012
"hello?" Lewis called out.
"help" came the voice again. I wriggled trying to free myself from the firm grip of Lewis. He lowered me down gently until I was stood and balanced on the floor.
"who's there? Where are you?" I spoke out, my voice catching in my throat causing me to retch. Lewis touched me on the shoulder briefly before gesturing back the way we had come from. Once I regulated my breathing and stopped the retching I followed Lewis back through the muggy darkness to where the voice was coming from.
"please - I - I'm - I can't-" the voice sounded familiar, but distorted...
There was an orange glow coming from somewhere and an increasing temperature, causing me to sweat and pant like I have just run a marathon.
I could only see Lewis as a black silhouette, contrasting the growing orange glow. He too was stumbling as he went, slowing down due to poor underfoot conditions. Then he stopped.
"what is it?" I rasped as I came up beside him. He was staring at a slumped figure, curled up against a wall, trapped by many boxes and planks of heavy wood. I couldn't see much other than that, and judging by the look on Lewis' face neither could he. Smoke was beginning to make it's way towards us from the orange glow, creeping along the floor like a silent, deadly killer.
"we have to get them out of here, fast." I breathed
"we don't have much time, the smokes coming fast, look what happened to you the first time, imagine that happening to all of us." lewis spoke with urgency in his voice and I began heaving boxes away from the person.
"I- it's- we - I don't-" the person began stammering before Lewis cut in
"hush. Don't try to speak. We'll get you out." he was very assertive.
"guys! We need to go, NOW! Holy..." Florence came up and touched my back, "Sarah?!" she choked out.
Oh. That's why I recognised the voice.
"ha! Well then, we don't have time for her. She's the one who got us in this mess, let's go." Lewis began to walk off. I wanted to join him, and just leave the heartless girl there, but I couldn't let her die. Not even after all she did to us. I know she would just run away and leave me if the situation was reversed, but I just wasn't that sort of person.
"Abby come on, we need to go!" Lewis called back
"I can't just leave her!" I cried. "you go, I'll catch up!" silence. No response, nothing. I assumed he had gone and left me, realised I was reckless and stupid and made a run for his life while he still had the chance. It would make sense.
I continued heaving giant heavy planks of wood off Sarah. My hands became covered in splinters and small cuts, shards of wood worked their way under my skin, but I didn't even care anymore. What I cared about most was getting Sarah and making it out of here alive.
It wasn't surprising that I hadn't recognised Sarah. Her hair was a matted mess, hanging limply in straggles over her face. Her usually pristine and perfect make-up was smeared, and she had grime on her face. Her clothes were torn and filthy, I wondered how long she had been here, and what had happened...
She began to cough, a rattling noise coming from her chest, and she heaved to catch a breath. I had nearly got all of the objects pinning her down away now, I was down to one last thing. It was a huge wooden pillar crushing one of her legs, I was going to struggle to move this.
"I'm going to need you to help me with this, when I lift I need you to pull your leg away, fast. I won't be able to hold it for long. Okay?" she met my eyes, and the Sarah looking back at me was not the same Sarah who had locked us in a cage. This Sarah was hurt, terrified and vulnerable. She nodded slightly and I positioned myself to lift.
"three, two, one!" I heaved it up at an angle so that part of it was still on the floor, I was using all my strength to hold it up, and when I was sure Sarah had moved her leg I dropped it back to the ground. It made a huge crashing sound that made me flinch away. I felt very light and dizzy for a second, and leant up against the wall to steady myself.
I wiped my face where the cloth wasn't covering and then made my way to where Sarah was still on the floor.
"I have a feeling that's broken." I motioned towards her leg. She nodded. I had no idea what she meant, so I just crouched down and grabbed her arm, placing it across my shoulders and the back of my neck and taking hold of her hand. Then I wrapped another arm around her waist and helped her to get up.
I looked around, and the orange glow was getting really bright now, the hear was intense, and Sarah could barely walk.
We were making it along, slowly, me taking a lot of Sarah's weight for her when a high pitched whistling sound started coming from the wall beside us.
Gas.
I looked behind us to catch a glimpse of flickering orange flames. The fire was coming.
At the speed we were moving there was no way we were making it out of this alive.
I picked up the pace and half dragged Sarah along with me, the whistling increased and then there was a pop.
I spotted a door to the right just a few feet ahead of us and made a charge for it.
I screamed as I threw Sarah inside and slammed the door shut, I grabbed Sarah under her shoulders and pulled her away from the door. As I was propping her up against a wall there was a deafening blast. My body was thrown against the wall leaving me winded, blinded and deaf.
There was no way out for us now.
New Girl - Part 18 • Opuss № I