A4: Stick around and find out who’s there
The effervescent call of a girl more clearly was carried over the moist and bright air. “Yeah, that’s definitely someone calling,” said Andrea. Orrin just looked at her with the full gas canister in his hand. He was ready to head back to the car.
“Seriously? You’re not going to do anything about that,” chastised Andrea. Orrin just groaned uncommitted to her idea.
“What? It was just someone’s voice. She could be calling for anything, and she’s certainly not calling for us. She shouldn’t even know that we’re here. In fact, we’re not supposed to be here.” He lifted the canister and dangled it, as if it were evidence that they were sneaking off with it.
“What, now you’re stealing the gas? I thought you were just borrowing it,” she snapped at him.
Orrin groaned again, “It’s not like that, Andrea. I guess it just feels sneaky and now that we’ve got the gas, I just want to get back to the car and …”
“Come back! Help!”
As clear as could be, the two stared towards the barn across from them. There was no mistaking that there was someone in the barn who was calling out for help. Putting down the canister hastily, Orrin leapt forwards, striding over puddles in the gravel driveway. Splashes rose up around his soaked sneakers as he strode up a small incline towards the large sliding barn doors.
Andrea watched him head out, and it took a moment before she realized that she was caught up in the moment just watching Orrin jump into action. Giving her head a small shake, she ran to catch up and follow behind him. The two met at the side of the large wooden sliding door and began to push it open. The runners that the door slid on were worn and rusted, and the wheels were muddy and stiff. The door moved slowly and their hands got slipped along the dirty door.
As it opened, light waned through the doors. The light rain fell damply on the thick straw and hay that carpeted the floor of the barn’s interior. The large cavernous opening was dark and musky, smelling heavily of manure and compost. The creaking door rolled past a notch in the slide, securing it open. The smell rolled over Orrin and Andrea like a thick fog, causing Andrea to shrivel her face and Orrin to choke.
“Jesus,” he coughed. “Hello? Is there anyone there? Hello?”
They began scanning the barn. There was a homemade wooden ladder fastened to a musty wooden wall leading up into a loft where a series of cat’s eyes beamed down at them. The high ceiling had rafters arcing from one side to the other. Under the loft there was a dark and musky room covered in cobwebs. Water that had leaked through the old roof dripped down off of the high beams with dull and audible thuds in the hay. The drops were large and cold.
“Hello?”
“Come back!”
The girl’s voice sounded desperate and panicked and permeated from out of the dark room. “We’re coming,” Orrin yelled back at the voice. He cautiously approached the room, using a handful of hay to stroke away the thick cobwebs that surrounded the entrance. The cats above him scattered across the loft with a padded cacophony shuffling above him. He didn’t see any spiders, but knew that they were watching him from every angle, their attention piqued with the tingles in their webs.
“Orrriiin,” whined Andrea. “I don’t know about this. Don’t go in there. Isn’t there a lightswitch or something? Come on, you don’t have to go in there.” She pleaded with him to be careful as he stepped forwards.
“Man, this is too spooky,” he laughed to himself, trying to ease the tension and lighten the mood. “Inching forward in the near absolute darkness, he squinted along the walls and strewn hay. It was so dark, and as his figure penetrated deeper in the dark, Andrea grew more and more anxious, watching the blackness surround and envelop him.
“Just come back, Orrin,” called Andrea. She was getting scared now. Almost pouting, she whined and wringed her hands trying to deal with the discomfort she was feeling.
Orrin touched one of the walls that were on his side, and the damp heavy wood was slick and slimy. His fingers slid along just briefly until a sharp nail caught her finger and caused him to jump. “Shit,” he yelped, drawing his hand back and waving it back and forth.
Andrea jumped, worried that something terrible had happened. “Orrin, just come back, what happened? Come back here!”
“It was nothing,” he called back. Lowering his voice, as if he was just speaking to himself, he said, “I just pricked my finger on a nail.” He stepped a little deeper into the darkness.
“What was that?” Andrea called after him.
“I said I just pricked my fing… iuuhhh, fuck!”
Andrea screamed and rushed to the dark entranceway. It sounded like Orrin fell. There was a heavy thud and a splash, and after that Orrin didn’t make a noise.
“Orrin! Answer me! What happened? What happened in there? Orrin?”
She followed into the darkness, creeping forwards, shaking with fear. Andrea hadn’t been much of an adventurer wasn’t comfortable thinking that Orrin could be seriously hurt. Why wasn’t he answering her? What had happened to him? She crept closer keeping her eyes on the ground. She kicked the hay that was down on the floor forwards into the darkness. She could sense that it wasn’t hitting anything, she could sense where the walls and the floors were with each push.
Then she heard the hay fall away from the floor and a wet landing just a few moments later. There was a hole ahead. Did Orrin fall down? Was it a well? What the hell did he fall into? How as she going to get him out? Her voice trembled, “Orrin. Where are you?” She was almost whispering, fearing that there was something in the dark. She couldn’t see the hole, she knew it was right in front of her. It was so damned dark.
She glanced back behind her and saw the entrance to the barn. The light waned through the entrance but just didn’t carry through the old barn. She turned back to the task at hand, and her dilated pupils struggled to make any sense of her tepid and opaque surroundings. Orrin must have hurt himself. Why wouldn’t he say something? What happened to him?
She inched her feet forwards in the dark and found the lip of a ledge. She was standing at the top of the hole, and used her right foot to feel around it. She tried to make sense of what was below her. Her heart was pounding so hard that it made her breath quiver. Her toes found three sides, the hole appeared to be a square, perhaps a hatch? There was space enough to walk around the hatch, and she found a ladder on the other side.
“Orrin. Are you down there? What happened?”
She heard a gurgle and a choke from the blackness. Some swishing in the water echoed as if there were a cavern below the barn.
“Orrin,” she whispered. “What happened,” she sobbed. Her breaths were in windless sobs. She was too scared to take it. The splashing below her increased, and a wicked cough carried up through the dark. The coughing increased, and Andrea could hear Orrin’s voice through the fit of choking. The splashing swished around and the sound of dripping could be heard over Orrin’s fit of coughing.
“Aaahhhh,” he screamed.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Andrea wept out.
“Shit! Oh, my leg,” Orrin called out. “Damn it, my leg, my leg, my leg, aaahhhhh,” he yelled some more. It sounded as though he were rolling around in a cavernous pool of water.
“I’m coming, Orrin. Hang on,” Andrea called after him. She touched the metallic ladder and slowly began to descend down to help her boyfriend. The ladder felt rough and cold, almost abrasive on her soft hands. Amid her panic, Andrea admitted she’d never been on a ladder in all her life. It just seemed odd that after over 20 years that this was something that she had somehow been sheltered from. She could sense in the darkness that the hatch wasn’t against the walls, but rather in the centre of a room. It didn’t feel like a very large room, though. She splashed down onto a firm concrete floor that was drowned by about four inches of water. It was cold.
“Are you there, Orrin?” she whispered.
“I think I broke my leg,” huffed Orrin. “It hurts so much. And I can’t see a thing.”
“I know. Orrin, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said impatiently. “I don’t know if I can climb that ladder or not. I guess I should be able to with just one leg.” Orrin rolled onto his side, put his hands down on the floor through the water and lifted himself up. He ached everywhere, and realized that he had a burning pain in his left side. He had slammed into the ladder before he fell down the hole, and must have cut himself pretty deeply. He grimaced, not that anyone could see that in the dark. He shut his eyes closed as tightly as possible to bear the stinging he felt in his side.
He rested his weight against the wall and panted. The pain in his side and leg was so intense that he had to stop and focus before moving forwards with any course of action. But that wasn’t in Andrea’s plans. She was worried and looking for consolation.
“We have to get out of here. I’m scared Orrin. What are we going to do? We’re not anywhere near our car! We’re not near a phone! Can you climb up the ladder?”
Orrin couldn’t respond. The only thing that he could concentrate on was the intensity of the break in his femur. It was just too much for him to handle. He wondered if the pain would ever ease.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do just yet, Andrea. I just need a second here to rest. My leg is killing me right now,” he strained.
“Who’s that? Help, I’m over here!”
The strange girl’s voice carried through a long tunnel towards Andrea and Orrin. The room apparently wasn’t as tiny as it felt. Maybe there is an exit down the hall? Perhaps they didn’t have to climb the ladder after all.
“Where are you?” Orrin called out to the voice.
“I’m locked up over here,” the voice pleaded. There was a hint of anguish and a hint of hope in her voice. “Please, you’ve got to get me out of here.”
“Locked up? What the hell is going on?” Orrin asked Andrea.
“I don’t know. Orrin, we’ve got to get out of here. We’ve got to go, Orrie. C’mone! We’ve got to go,” cried Andrea.
“We’re coming.” Orrin winced and began hopping towards the sound of the voice. The soaked sound of his pants splashing up and down in the shallow water while he progressed through the tunnel echoed around them. The sounds splashing around them helped to give a sense of how narrow the black tunnels were. He could tell they weren’t too far underground and hopefully they weren’t far from another exit.
What the hell was someone doing down here in the dark? This was fucked up. Of all the places, what the hell were they doing down here in the middle of the pitch black on a strange farm, miles away from their car? Jesus, Andrea, though Orrin. Why didn’t you just fill your goddamned car up! This was all her fault. Damn it! Pain flashed up through his leg and his side. He gasped at its sudden flare through his body. After a deep breath, he returned to pushing through the pain.
Up ahead in the tunnel there was some rustling in the water. It wasn’t something big, and it wasn’t moving quickly. In fact, it sounded like something squatting in the water. As Andrea and Orrin wobbled closer to whatever was ahead of them, it began to move around more. The small splashing anxiously increased.
“Orrin, what is that?” whispered Andrea.
“I don’t know. It might be a rat or something,” he answered.
“What’s it going to do?”
“Nothing. I don’t know. Hopefully it just stays away from us.”
A squeak and a flurry of splashes whipped up the water, and created a panic in Andrea. Orrin felt the panic, too. Whatever it was came running towards them. Andrea grabbed at Orrin and clawed at him as the noises splashed towards them. Orrin winced as the additional weight of Andrea pulled down on his only good leg. He habitually went to put his other leg down to support himself, and collapsed under the pain.
Orrin dropped to the floor, the splash jumping up into his mouth. The water tasted thick of mud and filth, hay was floating on top of it, and he cried out from the flaring pain in his leg. He immediately rolled onto his side to take the pressure off his leg, and spat the water away from him.
The splashing rodent was right beside him now, and he felt the scratching pinching claws scatter onto him. He didn’t know if it were biting him or clawing at him, and he didn’t know how many there were, but he panicked and rolled around in the water flailing his arms and kicking his legs to get the little bastards off of him.
Andrea screamed at the attack. She couldn’t kick, she couldn’t run, and tears welled up in her eyes and she yelled in anguish. A squeal from the rat ripped through the darkness as Orrin managed to swipe at it and toss it a few metres away. It splashed down in the darkness and scampered away.
“Fuck!” Orrin shouted.
He struggled to his feet. “Let’s go, let’s just get the hell out of here,” he commanded. It was more of a command to himself, as he put his will to work, and started off. “It can’t be much further. Then we’ll get some help.”
He began to hop quickly, determinedly, and fearlessly. Andrea worried that he might bump into something terrible again, but Orrin wasn’t thinking about consequences. He was just pushing himself to the limits of pain that he could bear to get him and Andrea to safety.
The sound of the splashes indicated that they were coming to a dead end, and he bumped into a door in front of him. It wasn’t a heavy door, and light was barely visible through the loose shims in the frame of the doorway. He reached to find the knob, and spun it around. It wasn’t connected to any mechanisms, and spun around uselessly.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he scowled. “The door knob is busted.” Orrin slammed his hand against the door and it rattled with a thud. Defeated, he hobbled backwards against the wall. Andrea walked up and found the knob for herself. She gave the door a small push, and discovered that it wouldn’t budge, just as Orrin had. She then pulled on the door, and it opened right up.
Light beamed brightly into the darkness, and she squinted and turned her face. Water washed out into the brightly lit hall. Daylight shone in from barred windows into the subterranean hallway. It was painted white many years ago, onto stone walls. Chips of paint had fallen away from the walls revealing dark stone underneath. Painted white bars segregated stalls all along the hallway. As Andrea stepped through the threshold, she saw that the cages were all facing towards the centre of the broad room which held a series of feeders in the middle.
Orrin hopped forwards using the wall as a crutch, and looked around himself.
“It looks like a dairy farm, or something,” said Andrea. There were no cattle in the stalls now, but they ran up and down the filthy aisles. They could see the water now, and realized that it was full of cow shit, hay, bits of oats and feed, rust, and all types of filth. Andrea looked at her soaking boyfriend, and saw that he was drenched in that filthy water. She squirmed at the sight, and wiped her hands up and down her shirt to wipe the sewage off of herself.
Orrin dragged his forearm across his mouth attempting to wipe away all the septic waste that was all over his face. His leg was feeling devastated, and it was all he could think about. The pain was so excruciating that it consumed his every thought. Wincing, he staggered forwards, hoping to find a way out of this basement. At least they were trapped in the dark anymore.
“Hello?” called out Andrea. She listened for a response as she waded through the flooded basement.
“I’m over here,” called out the girl’s voice. “Please, come get me out of here, please.” Andrea couldn’t move too quickly, as the water was awkward to wade through, like running through the surf at the beach. As she peered through the bars and stalls in the barren basement, she noticed the girl closer to the back.
She waded through the murky sludge towards the girl. From a distance, she could tell that the girl was dark haired and wearing a very dirty white t-shirt. She was thin and bent over. The splashing through the floating hay was getting disgusting, and the smell of the barnyard was much stronger now.
“I’m over here, please, come get me out,” plead the girl. Andrea rushed towards here and paused at what she saw. In the stall was a small mirror, a dilapidated cot that was furnished with a thin, stained mattress, and nothing else. She was locked in the cell, and she was sitting in the filthy water. Shit and piss floated around her, as hay swirled towards a small hole that lead out of the basement foundation.
“What are you doing down here?” stated a shocked Andrea.
“Just get me out of here! Get me away from him! We have to get out before he comes back!” Her face was bruised and dirty. Her hair wasn’t uncombed. Her skin was pale and pruned. “We have to get away from here, now,” she stressed.
“Hey, the door’s over here! It’s not locked,” called Orrin. He was lagging far behind because of his lame leg, but had found the door. He was relieved. Although the encounter had been only brief, this was the most unusual thing that he’d ever experienced. He’d never broken a leg before, and wasn’t sure what to do about it, just yet. But they had a long walk ahead of them before they got back to the car, they would have to stop and get gas before they went to the hospital, and he wasn’t sure that Andrea was going to be able to carry that gas canister all the way back, or not. If she couldn’t and it was too heavy, he wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to carry it, either. Perhaps this girl could help, and then they’d get her to the hospital to be looked at, as well.
Clinging to the bars with pale and frail hands, the girl was rocking back and forth, anticipating her next move once she was free. “Please, it’s so cold. The flooding is washing all the rats out of the walls. Please, you’ve got to get me away from here.
“Well, where’s the key? How do I get you out?” asked Andrea. She was emotionally distraught with the vision of a fellow girl incarcerated like an animal. She felt sick in the pitch of her stomach – she couldn’t believe that another human being would be trapped this way. It was one of her worst fears, of being abducted by someone and being held prisoner!
“I don’t know where they are! He might have them in the office or something. I’ve been here for over a week! I think he’s going to kill me, she wept. You have to get me out! We have to get away from here. If he finds us, he’ll kill us all,” she screamed. She was frantic, afraid, nearing psychotic. Andrea felt an overwhelming sense of dread. She spun around, staring at the door. What if the man was coming back right now?
“Please, the rats were biting me before you showed up. There’s dozens of them! They’re not afraid of anything,” she wept. Sobbing, she continued, “They attack me in my sleep. Just get me out of here.” She was so overwhelmed with her situation, she was starting to scream and shake at the bars of the cage.
Andrea tried to calm her. “It’s going to be okay, shhhhh. Shhhhhhh. We’re going to find the key and get us out of here. You’re going to be okay. Stay quiet and we’ll going to be right back.” There were tears in Andrea’s eyes. She was emotionally overwhelmed with the whole situation! What if the man comes back? Orrin couldn’t protect them with his broken leg. If this girl has been here for weeks, this guy must be psychotic. Who does this to someone?
Andrea splashed away from the cage. The girl started protesting. She plead for them not to leave her. She plead for them to let her out. She wept and sobbed and cried for their help. Andrea was crying fully by the time she reached Orrin at the door. He was pale and astonished with their discovery.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Orrin began thinking out loud, and panicking. “What kind of man holds someone prisoner in these conditions? We’ve got to get out of here before this guys comes back, Andrea. We can’t stay here. I can’t carry here, I can’t carry the gas, and our car is miles away. We’ve got to just get out of here. We’ve got to run.”
“We can’t leave her here, Orrin. We have to get her out!” Andrea insisted.
LOOK AROUND FOR THE KEY TO GET HER OUT – TURN TO PAGE: A5
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