I glanced back up again, my curiosity getting the better of me.
The water had turned the body the right side up so I saw her face. Her eyes.
They were red and whispered of a diseased mind. Her hair was gone, the memory of beautiful golden hair remained. Her teeth were black and rotting, her face filled with yellow spots that decorated the once beautiful female face. Her mouth was open in a silent scream, and her body was horribly disfigured.
“Oh Lucy…” whispered Sunny, stroking my hair as I stared at the body, unable to tear my eyes away.
“Oh my God...” was all I could say. Sunny grabbed my face.
“I will never let that happen to you Grace. Don’t you worry.” His voice firm and reassuring. I nodded, eyes glistening with tears. I wanted to believe he could protect me so bad. But somehow, I knew that no-one could protect me. I still might end up like her. He dragged me away from the body, and we marched on. We were silent. I knew that Lucy's body was burned inside Sunny's mind just as it was mine. And would most likely be there forever.
Fifty blisters and one long awkward silence later, finally,oh finally, we stood under a metal grate. It was much like the first one, it's metal bars brown with rust. Sunny gave one nervous glance back before climbing up the slimy steps. He peered anxiously through the gaps in the grate. He looked back at me, his eyes big and bright in the dark.
“There’s no-one there… We can pull the switch. You stay here.”
“No! Sunny!” Before I could finish, he had pushed aside the grate and was hauling himself out of the tight space. I couldn’t properly see what the room looked like, but I saw a fireplace. It looked very fancy and a bit old fashioned with its ruby red walls and Persian carpet. As he said, there was no-one there. Its was creepily silent.
Sunny took nervous steps towards a box shaped thing. Upon closer inspection, I could make out the huge red button, and the many wires that surrounded it. It looked dangerous, and like one wrong switch could ruin the whole system. You couldn't mistake the big white words across the red button though:
In emergency, press button.
Sunny hovered his hand over the red button, and pressed.
A huge rumble sounded, like hundreds of doors opening, and then a wailing alarm.
I ushered for Sunny to get back down here quick, and I stood there ready to pull him down here in the safety before one of the guards realized what was happening. But the contact of his hands never came, because he was yanked back violently. A big pale hand was clamped on sunny's gray shirt, Sunny's eyes widening with fear.
I saw his face and knew why he was so afraid.
“Gotcha you little brute." The man looked a little like Sunny.
“Wait no. Uncle!”
I wide spread grin festered on his face, and Sunny’s mouth opened his mouth in a silent scream.
I choked for air as the metal object protruded from Sunny’s chest, blood gushing out in streams. I couldn't move. I could barely breath. Everything was happening in slow motion, and the only thing that existed was the red liquid that was escaping Sunny's body. No….no. Dead.
“NO!” I screamed. The man’s head whipped around, his eyes furious. I slammed a hand over my mouth but it was too late. The words had got out. I'm not sure how, but they did.
So I ran. I ran like death was on my heels.
My feet slapped and hurt with every rock I hit, but I ignored them. I scrambled up the steps and threw myself out of the grate, tears blurring my vision. Sunny's dead body flashed across my mind like a long, torturous movie. He saved us, but he sacrificed himself. Why didn't I do something? Why did I let him go up there?
Sunny was dead. My only friend here was dead. The boy who had rescued me and got himself killed, was dead.
My fault....all my fault.
I looked up and through my tear filled vision, saw kids screaming and running. The open cell doors stretched down the hallway, a picture of freedom. Their feet thump, thump, thumped against the linoleum floor and I saw what they were running to.
There was a descending door that opened out into the ocean, and kids were fighting to get to it. The only exit out of here. Now I was happy I'd had swimming lesson's. I was about to jump when a frantic looking man ran over to me, grasping my shoulders. It was Tom, and for the first time, he looked scared.
“Do you even know what you’ve done? That button was a self-destruct button. We're all going to die!” He said, before taking off and joining the children in the sea like an oversized walrus. His scream was more high pitched than the girls.
It took a minute to comprehend what he was saying. And then it hit me. This ship was going to blow up. Right now.
I ran as fast as I could, towards the water that would save my life. I leaped up in the air, and barely had a chance before I landed. The water hit my face like a blow. I went down, choking into the freezing darkness. I was blind in the dark water asI searched for the surface. I saw the tiny patch of light and swam to it like a moth flew toa lamp. When I broke the surface it was like the shock of breaking through a layer of ice. The stump on my shoulder weighed me down, but I could still swim. The waves rippled and the sounds of the children started and stopped abruptly as the water covered my ears. The next thing I realized, was that it was cold. So cold...
The children laughed and floated in the water, blissfully unaware of their imminent death.
“QUICK! SWIM AWAY! THE SHIPS GOING TO BLOW UP!” I yelled. They all stared at me in shock and their giggles morphed into blood curdling screams. I swam away from the ship as fast as I could, the others following behind me.
A flash of light and a deafening noise of exploding metal sounded, a burning sensation hitting me like a knife to the back. I turned around slowly and heard screams as I watched kids getting pulled into the propellers, their serrated blades cutting them apart like a knife cut butter. Their arms and legs were strewn across the blue landscape, dead bodies rising to the surface. It was like a war zone, except we lost this war before it even started.
All I could do was watch as more explosions sounded and the billowing flames rose higher and higher. They reflected on the water, giving it an orange glow. It was almost pretty, but I just couldn't block out the sea of dead bodies. The metal from the boat hit the water with a splash as it gave one last burst of fire. The engines exploded and that, was that.
I scanned the sea for the body I was looking for. And then I saw him.
Sunny floated there in the middle of the sea, face ruined but otherwise unharmed.
“Oh Sunny…” I whispered, holding him as the current threatened to take him away from me.
An obnoxious horn silenced the screams, but it was the best sound I had heard in my entire life. A fog horn.
It was a rusty red boat that burst through the fog, an average looking boat to most people, but a picture of hope to us kids. Children waved, shouting for help, but they didn't need to. The ship must have heard the loud explosion and had come to our much needed rescue. I looked down at Sunny, his dark eyes devoid of the light they once held.
"You saved us all Sunny...You did it." I said, and grabbed him by the shoulder as I pulled him along with me to the rescue boat.
Song - The Royal We, Silversun Pickups.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Experiment 21
हॉरर'Know what Its like to be experimented on? well, I do...' Grace wakes up in a dark room with no light but a tiny window. No food, No water, for god knows how long. And a 21 burned to her forehead...
