Chapter Eight: Shae's POV

Will any of the four make it out alive?

Chapter 8

Shae

 

I swallowed with unease.

Up to this point, the orchestrators of the experiment had been interacting with us remotely, but they didn’t do something so bold as send someone in with us.  My hand rested on the butt of my gun: if one of those corrupted b******s was in the other room, then I intended to give him hell.  I edged toward the door and my three companions followed, though reluctantly.  They weren’t hungry for payback, at least not at the moment.  Arielle was too shaken up to consider the possibility, Jolie was too stuck up to care, and Donnie was… well, Donnie.  Leaning around the corner of the door, I quickly realized that the room beyond held a similar format to the ones that came before it.  There was a huge, open room with a closed door on the other side, presumably to open if we accomplished something.  This time, however, the walls were not simply silver metal.  They were painted in sporadic waves of white and red, like a carnival.

The voice continued to boom over us and I tilted my head to see a loud speaker mounted near the ceiling.  Rolling my eyes, I sighed.  Figures that they would be so cowardly, and part of me was rightfully disappointed.

“There’s nothing in this room,” Jolie jeered.

“I know,” I replied.  “It makes me nervous.  One of us has to go in there and test it.  Arielle, shove Donnie out there, would you?”

She gave my back a punch, and then tossed me a look of annoyance as I muttered to myself and ventured out into the open room.  What was the worst that could happen?  Knowing this experiment, it was hard to say.  I gave the floor a gentle pat with my foot, then a stomp, and still nothing happened.  Sucking in a courageous breath, I kept walking.  Suddenly, I caught sight of something in the corner of my eye.  There was a thick, vent-looking projection of metal sticking out from the wall.  However, instead of a vent grate at the bottom, it was just a slot.

As soon as I drew near to the odd piece of the room, a note drifted down and landed in the slot.  Quickly, I looked at the others as they followed my example with renewed curiosity.  Jolie came up close behind me and rested her body against the back of mine, “I remember those from my cabana!  Let’s hope it says something dirty!”

Arielle’s face harbored a devilish glare, and Jolie seemed to soak up the expression with something equally intense, though of joy and vindication.  Running my finger over the edge of the folded paper, I broke the wax seal that held it closed.  The type written words spelled out exactly what I feared that they might.

‘Kiss Jolie.’

Jolie was attractive, albeit snarky and overbearing.  I wasn’t so pompous as to assume that Arielle’s obvious distaste for her had anything to do with me, but that was a fight I didn’t want to be a part of.  It would only give them one more excuse to get at each other’s throats.  Being bait for a cat-fight didn’t strike me as fun, especially since we needed each other to progress. Truthfully, with Donnie as our weak link on the side of intelligence, having another girl on the team was a strong addition whether the two liked one another or not.

I folded the paper back to its original state, and then tore it in half.  Suddenly, Arielle gasped and nearly collapsed, Donnie managing to catch her before she hit the floor.  He fanned her with his hand, trying to bring her attention back, but as soon as she regained herself Arielle jumped back to her feet and looked around with an aggravated panic, “What the hell was that?”

I blinked a few times as she hugged herself and shuddered, “Something shocked me!”

I pinched the bridge of my nose in realization; it was called the room of consequences.  For the most part, we’d been following the specified orders of the notes, but I got the distinct impression that the experiment orchestrators wanted to remind us who was boss.  Against them, we didn’t stand a chance, and we couldn’t sneak off under the radar as I had previously hoped. They wanted us to play a makeshift game of Simon Says, just to be sure that we were paying attention.  Arielle tensed up a second time, looking like a startled cat.

Whipping around, she proceeded to yell angrily at the walls, as if they were a person who could understand or react to her comments.  Sighing deeply, I swooped in and looped my arm around Jolie before pressing my lips against hers.  After calming a bit, Arielle turned around and I peeked up at her with one eye.  Her expression dropped, and then her entire body assumed the most hateful, betrayed expression that I could have ever imagined.  Meanwhile, Jolie was eating up the attention, as well as a chance to get at the other girl’s nerves.  Jerking away, I scrubbed my lips as Jolie fluttered about.

She pranced over to Arielle, as I thought she might, “Well, did you see that?  Looks like I’m the new beta.  You don’t stand a chance against me, murderer!  It looks like Shae is mine after all.  You should stay out of our way, if you know what’s good for you.”

“I hope the next note says to break your s**t head open!”  Arielle howled before tackling the other to the floor.  When Donnie and I fought, it was quick and just.  I asserted my dominance over him, and he submitted.  However, with Jolie and Arielle going at it, there was a chaotic swirl of finger nails, hair, punching, slapping, and general destruction.  Donnie was biting his knuckle as he circled them, obviously trying to think of how he might neutralize the situation.

Another letter fell and I grabbed with quickly.  It was addressed to Jolie, but since she was indisposed at the moment, I took the liberty of opening it.  I read the note carefully before jumping in between them.  I received more than one accidental assault before I was able to outstretch both arms and hold them away from one another, “Jolie, hurry.  Pray for Arielle!”

She blinked, “Over my dead body!”

Donnie squealed and jumped before running around with almost a canine whimpering, “It got me! It got ME!”

Jolie crossed her arms and firmly looked away.

Again Donnie cried out and scrambled to run it off.

“You’re hurting him!”  I snapped.

Jolie sank into herself, looking guilty.  She didn’t want to hurt Arielle through innocent little Donnie, that much I could tell.  Grinding her teeth, she straightened up her hair from the now tangled mass that it had become, “I don’t know how to pray, Einstein.”

“Make something up!”

Arielle squared her feet and stood victoriously, and Jolie hung her head and closed her eyes, though she opened one of them on and off to glare at Arielle’s smug acceptance of Jolie’s humiliation.  She contemplated her words for a second, but sped things up as Donnie cried out a third time and nearly ran up the wall, “Uh, Dear Holy… guy.  Look over Arielle and, uh, protect her from harm?  May your grace protect and guide her throughout the experiment, or at least what remains of it.  Amen.”

Arielle sucked in a gratified breath as Jolie rubbed her arm in temporary defeat.  Donnie was clutching his chest, as if fearful that he could be shocked again at any moment.  However, she had fulfilled the request, and for now he was safe.  We all looked up as another note dropped down.  I assumed that we were systematically being targeted to cause the greatest possible problem.  They didn’t want us to obey them comfortably, because that wouldn’t be much of a test.  The next one was addressed to Donnie.

Donnie snatched the note up into his hand and unfolded the thick paper.  His eyes drifted up to meet mine as his mouth pulled into a malice filled grin.  A shiver ran through me.  I should have known that they would pit him up against me, and after our skirmish earlier, he was likely chomping at the bit for revenge.  Dropping the note, Donnie took off his collar and held it my way.  Shaking my head, I backed away from him.

“Listen here!”  Jolie snapped, “If I get shocked, I will end you.”

It was hypocritical of me to demand that she relieve Donnie’s suffering, only to inflict it on her because I was too proud to concede defeat.  I felt a blush of embarrassment as I leaned down and allowed him to fix the cloth collar around my neck.  Next, he unfastened his belt and fed it through the collar before closing it at the very last hole, creating a loop, “It says that you’re my new dog.”

I rubbed my forehead.  Arielle looked sympathetic and Jolie folded her arms, trying desperately to hide a smirk.  She seemed to feed off of the discontent of others, regardless of who it was or why.  Finally the last note dropped from the slot and Arielle slid up to take it, assuming that it must be hers.  She gently broke the seal and read it over a few times.  Then, she cringed, “It says… something awful.”

“Tell us!”  Jolie snapped, expecting retribution.

“It says… ‘hold on to me until you taste flesh and blood’.”

We stared at her blankly as she began to look increasingly uncomfortable.  Suddenly, she looked up, “I’m not killing anyone else.  I don’t care who gets shocked.”

I expected the jarring stab of electricity, but to my surprise the door at the other end of the room slid open.  Jolie bolted for it with Arielle close behind.  Donnie followed them, but took his time so that he could enjoy dragging me along like his pet.  The room that came next was small, with two hallways that branched off into a fork.  Arielle took initiative and pondered them.  They looked identical, dark and gray, except for spray paint markings a few feet inside of each.

To the left was a red arrow with a pair of animalistic eyes.  To the right were a green arrow and a quickly drawn, undetailed picture of a tree.  Arielle pointed right, “Let’s go this way.  It looks a lot more welcoming.  Of course… that could be the test.  I’m willing to take a chance, though, even if they end up being opposites.”

I rubbed the back of my head and gazed down at the floor in thought.  Arielle’s note suggested that we ought to go left, as it looked more like the ‘flesh and blood’ direction. Drawing my gun, I used it to point toward the tree, “You and Jolie go that way.  Donnie and I will go this way.”

She started to protest, but I insisted, “You guys take a break, relax, spend some quality time together.  Donnie and I will figure out what’s this way and report back.  Then we can all go the right way together.  If there’s a door on your side, wait for us.”

Arielle glared at me for my mention of ‘quality time’.  It was more of a joke than anything else, but perhaps if she and Jolie had to do a little team work, then they would see past their urge to compete and argue.  Reluctantly, Arielle ventured down the hall as Jolie folded her arms with a huff and followed.  Donnie blinked up at me a few times in confusion.  He could hold me on a collar, but he couldn’t take away my authority.

I walked forward, dragging him behind me via the makeshift belt leash.

“Where are we going?”  He asked.

Reaching into my back pocket, I produced a note, “Remember this?  It says that the next meal is on me.  I get the feeling that this is my indicator, not Arielle’s.  We need to hunt something down this hall and take it back to the girls.”

“You’re awfully presumptuous.”

“Presumptuous?  Yes, but usually not wrong.”

He couldn’t beat that logic, so he jogged to keep up with my long strides.  The hall stretched out about fifty feet before we encountered a door with a handle.  There was a thick, glass window in the door so I peeked inside.  There was a massive room on the other side, filled with thick pine and oak trees.  The floor was covered in dirt, such that if I wasn’t aware of our location, I would think that we’d ventured into a pine forest.  Donnie swallowed hard as I opened the door and stepped inside.

“Jesus, if it’s not the desert, it’s the rainforest.  If it’s not a rainforest, it’s the woods.”

“I think they like seeing us surprised,” Donnie offered.

“I think you’re right.”

He looked a little chipper that I would accept his explanation as a possibility.  When we entered the room it was dark, and a sharp, earthy mist drifted around us.  Yellow eyes glittered from the shadowed bushes, moving around silently.  Donnie moved in close to me, looking frightened as I scanned the perimeter for another door.  However, the room was shaped like a perfect square with no way out but the door from which we came.  Donnie jumped as one of the bushes beside us shuffled, and then fell silent.

“I don’t like this,” he whispered.

“Did you think you would?”  I jested before readying my weapon, “Whatever this thing is, and it’s what we need to shoot.”

A low, rumbling growl came up from the bushes as a pair of eyes drew near.  They shined hard against the darkness as a figure emerged and started to circle us.  I couldn’t tell what at first, but I could see that it was large.  The beast’s shoulder blades nearly reached my waist as it moved in behind us.  Drawing back its lips in a snarl, I realized that the threat was a wolf.  Fear rippled through me as I whipped around to face the bushes as more eyes came together.

I thought initially that we were seeing the same pair moving about all this time, but much to my dismay, there were many--somewhere between twenty and twenty five.

“Ten,” I whispered.  “There are ten wolves in here.”

Donnie nearly climbed up onto my back.  The animals moved in and I realized even through the darkness how skinny they were.  Each of them was sharp with jutting bones.  They were starving to death in this room, waiting for us to come forth and feed them.  This, as I had thought, was the real test.  My arm dropped and I leveled my gun with the floor; I’d doomed us both.  The largest wolf circled one last time, and in a single second, chaos ensued.

There were swirling bodies, fur, teeth, and gun fire.  I tried to scale one of the trees but a smaller female wolf latched onto my leg and dragged me out with surprising force.  I landed on my back with a huff before throwing my arm forward to receive the force of a bite, rather than my face.  Drawing a steadying breath, I lifted the gun and held it against the female’s head before pulling the trigger.  Her eyes glazed out of consciousness and she collapsed onto the ground at my feet.

Standing, I rubbed the blood from my arm and looked around.  There were five wolves surrounding me.  They varied in size, but not hunger.  I tried to aim my gun, but was without confidence.  Maybe I could kill one, or two, but the rest would dive in.  Suddenly, there was a strange sound.  It was something halfway between a scream and a whimper.  The wolves focused on it, then all bounded off into the bushes.  I saw Donnie as he attempted the same maneuver as I had, though he successfully managed to drag his bitten, mangled body into a tree.

The animals surrounded it, all snarling with anticipation and licking drops of blood from the bark as they dripped from Donnie’s wounds.  Unlatching the belt from around my neck, I affixed it to the neck of the dead wolf and proceeded to drag her with a huff.  She was heavy, maybe sixty pounds, but I could manage.  Donnie leaned against one of the branches with wide, startled eyes, “What are you doing Shae? Help me!”

The wolves were so focused on his scent and weakened state that they paid me no mind. Quickly, I paused and looked up at him, “Do you remember when we had that little talk in the pyramid?  I remember telling you that I was the top dog now, and I want to keep it that way.”

He shook his head slowly in disbelief.  He started yelling my name over and over again but I ignored it until his voice became a dull, pleading metronome.  Grabbing hold of the leash, I dragged the dead canine from the room and closed the door behind me, leaving Donnie to his own devices, and probably his demise.  I’d never had a desire to physically harm, or kill another person, but if I didn’t conserve bullets, then I wouldn’t be preserving my own existence.

I heaved the animal down the hall, around the corner, and down the hall to the right.  After only a few minutes my muscles were aching from dragging the dead weight.  When I reached the other two, they were waiting beside a room and a handled door that looked just like the one where I had come from.  I know that there must be a way out, because both were waiting for me as I had asked.  Arielle gasped, surveying my scratches and bloody bite wound with her eyes, though she appeared too surprised to speak.  Jolie, on the other hand, gagged and proceeded to run her mouth that we were crazy and that finding us was a mistake.

Ignoring her, I dragged the body to Arielle and stood to catch my breath, “Here’s your flesh and blood.”

Author's Note

I have co-wrote this story with Dog Meat Todd. All of Arielle's POV chapters have been written by me, Vanessa Rico; and all of Shae's POV chapters have been written by Dog Meat Todd! Constructive criticism is appreciated.

**Let us know what you liked or didnt like...or what you think about what is in store! We love the feedback!!**

Reviews

[Miss Sally Sunshine]

Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease continue this!!! It's one of the best stories I've read in a while and I would hate to never know how it ends!!!

[livinglifeloud]

Please continue this! it is so interesting!

[Fairytale]

Awsome! I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

[melissa]

Wow what amazing book I can't wait see what happends next keep up the great work thank you for sending this book to me I enjoyed it I hope to read more

[Farrah Grahm]

Still hooked! The action got a little jumbled when the wolves show up. I suggest clarifying in that area and your good to go!

[Hatchling]

very intertestin. Good work

[patricia]

The beginning of this piece felt like the description of a character in a computor game.
I loved the idea of a room of consequences.
I loved the pray for Arielle, what a weird surprise. Very entertaining writing.
I enjoyed the way you periodically threw in little quips, (she seemed to feed off the discontent of other)
dull pleading metronome...excellent!
An action packed piece of work, I could never shake off the feeling I was in some kind of Video game. I groaned at the length of this piece of writing I was about to review, but it was interesting and entertaining and before I realised I had read it all. Thanks.

[M Garcia]

I loved the fight between the two girls. Sounded like a real girly fight. All that was missing was the hair pulling and the little slaps. Good work. This seems like it has been an interesting one to write.

[Clay Feet]

I enjoy what appears to be the interactions between Pavlovian characters moving in rote by the electric shocks from a controlling force. The docile male and the dominant female are an interesting couple, as are the two fighting females who hate each other yet are forced by the controller of the experiment to stop fighting and pray. I'm really lost and drawing assumptions from the latest chapter of eight.

The story is well-written and the action exciting.

[Dragon]

I love the suspense you put into this. It gives the reader a lot to think about when you do that. Things like this don't always happen but it's funny in way. I loved it. Hope you keep writing more. :)