"No." The word leaves my lips in a shaky breath. I slam my hand on the door that's keeping us from Chia.
"What do we do?" Luke says beside me.
Will still has his arms wrapped around me. If he hadn't pulled me back, I would have been trapped in the room with Chia. Her eyes are wide and trembling as she stares at us.
"Hold on," I say. "We'll get you out."
Will is looking around. I know there's a long corridor behind us, but I only want to focus on Chia. "How do we get this open?" Will says, easing off me.
I can't help but feel cold and alone without his protective arms. I hold my upper arm to keep some of the lingering warmth.
Luke runs his hands over the door frame, looking for something, while Will also looks around. There is no handle or anything to take hold of on this side of the room. I don't even remember if there was a handle on the other side. Maybe it's only automated by a switch or something. Luke gives up and kicks the door in frustration.
Chia nods decisively. "It's okay, guys. Just go. I'll look around here for a way out. But you guys need to keep going." Her voice is muffled through the door.
I well up as I sniff and wipe my eyes. This can't be happening. "No. No way. We're not leaving you."
"You have to," she says.
Bella shifts by us to get to the door. She still looks exhausted but I think she's doing a little better. She places a hand on the glass window and says, "Thank you, Chia. You saved my life."
Chia gives a shaky nod and a smile that looks odd on her distraught face. "I'll have to give you your jacket back later." She points her chin behind us. "Go. Hopefully I won't be far behind."
Luke puts his good hand on my shoulder and gently turns me. "We'll come back for you, Chia. I promise."
I feel dazed as we walk away from the door, still not believing that we're just going to leave her there. This nightmare keeps getting worse.
I'm finally able to focus on the corridor ahead and see there are stairs several feet away, leading up.
"She'll be okay," Will says, rubbing my shoulder comfortingly.
I wish I can believe him, but who knows what will happen to her, trapped in that room. What if she triggers something like another spike in the wall?
Bella is less hunched over now but still looks drained and pale. "Did it work?" I ask her. "Are you feeling better?"
She slowly nods and looks like doing so has hurt her. "I think I'm better. I think it worked. Yeah. I'd kill for some water."
I rub her back. She looks cold. I only have a thin cardigan over my top and consider giving it to her.
We get to the foot of the stairs and stop. They lead up to an open doorway where a large, bright room can be seen beyond. It's hard to see what's up there, but the light feels the most natural we've seen since we entered the antique store. I have no idea what's waiting for us up there, as the other rooms haven't seemed to have made any sense together.
Hanging my head, I find myself staring at Luke's blood on Will's desert boots. I feel myself being drawn into the blood splatters, like I can drown in them.
"I'll go first," Luke says in a thick voice. He takes a step forward but Will holds him back.
"You're hurt. I'll go first."
Luke nods. The heavy tension in the air fills the silence as we all glance at each other. Will looks determined and severe, like he's psyching himself up. He takes the lead and we head up the stairs.
We come out into a huge room that looks like an old, abandoned factory or warehouse. Tall girders reach a ceiling that's crisscrossed with beams. The ground is littered with bits of scrap metal and wood shavings, with very little else around the bare-bones of the giant room. The harsh smells of dust and old paint sting my nostrils. Light is coming in from a row of small, dusty windows near the ceiling. Seeing the daylight outside gives me a burst of hope. We have to be near the end, now.
"Keep your eyes open," Luke says to no one in particular. "Be ready for anything."
I wonder what kind of clues and puzzles would be in an area like this. I have a feeling that we've left the escape room behind us and are heading into something a lot more dangerous, but I also know that I can never be sure of anything in here.
We pass by a section of ground covered with wooden slats and boards. Debris is piled in places all over the open space. There are a few open doorways along the walls, but no clear indication of where to go next.
Will puts his hand on Bella's shoulder and asks how she's feeling. He seems genuinely concerned, despite not knowing her very well.
"I'm good now, thanks," she says. "No idea what got in me, but whatever was in the syringe definitely helped." She gives him an odd look. "You didn't feel anything?"
He shrugs. "I guess my one wasn't poisoned."
Bella sighs and shakes her head. "I can't believe we left Chia."
My throat seizes up thinking about Chia being all alone. If anything happens to her...
Bella almost died. We all could still get really hurt. Tears fall as I squeeze my eyes, wishing I had never brought us here. I start whimpering as the floodgates open.
"Hey." It's Bella's voice. "Andi, what's wrong?"
We both know it's a stupid question. I wipe my nose with the back of a hand and rub my eyes, trying to compose myself. "It's all my fault," I whisper, hardly able to talk. My tongue feels twice its size.
Bella rubs my back. "Oh, don't think that. We didn't know what was going to happen."
"We all came here willingly," Luke says. It sounds strange for him to sound supportive. "It's not your fault, Andi. It's no one's fault, except for the sick psycho that's been messing with us."
"Hey," Bella says soothingly. "We just have to keep working together and get out of this place. Yeah?"
I want to lie down and keep crying, but it's a weak feeling and I push it quickly away. I force myself to think of the present. The only way to help Chia is to get ourselves out and call for help. I give Bella and the others a reassuring nod, stifling my lingering tears. I don't even care about crying in front of Will.
"It's not your fault we're here, hun," Bella says, rubbing my back again.
I nod. "I know. It's Luke's fault." I smile at the look he gives me. "You were the one that first suggested doing an escape room, remember?"
"Oh, right. That's true," he says.
Bella slaps his arm lightly. "See what happens when you talk."
The mood feels lightened for a moment. Will has a nice smile that shows his white teeth.
As I look over the old factory, I wonder where in London we are right now. I don't think we've gone that far from where we started, but I can't be sure. I do feel like we're back on street-level, though. The idea of the outside world on the other side of a wall fills me with hope, which I desperately cling to.
I notice that Will has his phone in his hand. He shoves it in his pocket when he sees me looking. He shrugs and says, "Still no signal. I thought we might have a chance here, so close to the outside. But, nothing."
I nod and check my own phone, thinking that my service provider might have some bars even if his one doesn't. But there's nothing. Not even a trace of a signal. Feeling like it's a hopeless thing to do, I check for Wi-Fi connections, and unsurprisingly don't see any options.
There must be something blocking our phones. It seems as though there is a lot going on behind the scenes to keep us here. A lot of thought and preparation must have gone into this twisted escape room maze, and I can't even begin to imagine who would have done this to us.
Bella's scream ignites the air and sends a spasm of fear through me.
I spin around, looking for the danger and half-expecting to see something swinging down towards us. I don't see anything, but Bella is crying and sounds completely hysterical.
Luke grabs her and forces her to look at him. "What is it? What's wrong?"
She whimpers and moans, trying to compose herself. It takes her a moment to speak. "I saw someone. I saw someone."
Luke's head shoots up and he scans the area. I'm afraid to look around, but I do.
"Where?" he asks.
Bella points a shaky finger at one of the open doorways across the way. "A... a man was standing there. I-I couldn't see him properly, but he was there. In the doorway. Then when I looked back, he was gone."
Luke shakes his head. "Babe, there's no one there. I didn't see anything."
Bella looks completely distressed. She buries her face in her hands and sobs. Luke pulls her into a tight hug, and I stare at his bandaged hand, caked in dried blood.
When they pull away from each other, Bella says, "He was holding something long. Like an axe, I think. I swear I saw him."
Luke nods. "I believe you. I believe you." I don't think he does, but I can see he doesn't want to argue with the hysterical girl.
I don't blame her for jumping at shadows - but a man with an axe? If that's true, then we're all in a lot more danger than we thought. Was that the man responsible for all this? I don't want to think about what he's doing, watching us, waiting for something...
We head in the opposite direction of the doorway but keep looking back and all around us.
"Maybe he wants us to go this way," I say, keeping my voice low. "Like he's leading us in the direction he wants."
"I'm not going back there," Bella says, shuddering.
"Exactly," I say. "Which means, maybe the way we want to go is where he was standing."
Luke looks unsure. "That's a big maybe. I think we should keep going."
"I think we should keep going forward too," Will says. "Whatever we do, we should stick together."
I look around for anything that could be used as a weapon, but all I see are long planks of wood and I don't want to risk getting a splinter. There must be a metal bar or something around here.
As I look around, feeling exposed out in the open, I keep expecting to see someone step out from behind one of the pillars. Or turn to see an axe flying at my head.
It takes me a long while to realise I'm hearing something. A repeating sound in the air. I exchange an apprehensive look with Bella. We can definitely hear it. Boot steps, softly echoing around us. Someone is walking nearby. I can't be sure which direction the sound is coming from - it seems to be all around us - and I don't know if it's getting closer or farther away.
Will tenses and jumps behind us. "There's someone there," he shouts, pointing ahead.
I have no time to look before we're all turning in a panic and running back the way we came. Fear and adrenaline push my leaden legs into action. Luke calls out. I think he saw something too. I just know that we're running and I can't risk looking back and tripping over.
"Over there," Luke says, pointing to our right where we can see large double doors. They're tall and wooden, reminding me of barn doors. The doors are down from where we entered from and I can't help but feel like we're going back towards the escape room. Ahead of us is where the man with the axe was seen, behind us is where Will and Luke saw something, and there are no doors on our left side.
Luke leads the way, running ahead. Boards crack like thunder and he calls out as the ground gives way under him. Bella screams as Luke falls out of sight amidst a cloud of dust.
We get to the large hole in the ground, and through the broken wooden boards, we can see Luke several feet down. He's mostly hidden in darkness but I can see that he's lying on the ground, groaning and turning to face us. I wave away the heavy dust in the air, trying not to breathe it in.
"Lucas!" Bella calls down. I have to hold her back to stop her from leaning in too close.
Luke coughs. "I'm fine, babe. I-" He gasps sharply and curses. "I think I've broken my ankle."
"Don't move," Will says. "We'll get you out of there, buddy." He looks around for something that might be helpful.
"We're coming for you, Luke." Bella turns to me and adds, "Here, hold my hand and ease me down. I can reach him."
"No way," I tell her. "Then you'll get stuck down there, too."
She glares at me. "I'm not leaving him down there, Andi."
Luke calls up, "No, babe, don't come down. It's too dangerous."
I can still hear the boot steps echoing around us. They sound like they're getting closer. The man with the axe could be on us at any moment.
"Keep going," Luke says. "Get out of the open. I'll find my way to you guys."
"Luke," Will says. "Stay strong, man. Once we find something long enough we'll come and pull you up."
The steps are definitely getting louder, and picking up pace.
Bella looks on the brink of breaking into tears. "Luke! I love you."
He calls back, "I love you, babe. Stay safe."
Will puts his hand on our backs and urges us on. He's right; we can't stop now. I feel terrible for leaving Luke down there. First Chia; now Luke. I tell myself that we're going to call the police the first chance we have and get us all out of here.
Will takes hold of one of the doors and pulls it to the side. The other door slides open automatically as he pulls.
A huge corridor around twenty-feet wide is ahead of us, leading into complete darkness.
I can't believe there's only three of us left. I can't believe any of this is happening. My heart races as we stand on the threshold, about to step from the daylight into the unknown darkness.
2519 words (16736 total words)
********
Thank you for reading!
Now they've lost two players! What do you think will happen with Chia and Luke next, if anything?
Thoughts on who this mysterious man with the axe could be? Or was Bella just imagining things?