The P.U.L.L || #Wattys2017

Chapter 34: The Wire

W-where am I? Rick asked himself as he regained consciousness. He couldn't see anything at all due to the utter darkness. Fearing that he had been confined in a mysterious place, he felt his way through the floor. Swet trickled on his forehead as he tried to keep his calm.

Anyone? Anyone here? He asked himself, alarmed. But he knew that he's probably the only one in the room. He had never felt so alone in his life. I should not let this get into me. If I'm imprisoned, that means Joshua and Emma were imprisoned as well. I just need to think of a plan.

Motivating himself, he continued to feel his way through the whole room. Pretty soon, his eyesight adjusted and he could barely recognize a few figures in the room.

Suddenly, he bumped into something. It was a figure of a teenage girl, lying on the floor and probably unconscious. When he finally realized who it was, he began shaking her.

"Hey, hey Emma! Wake up! You okay?" Rick anxiously said as he shook her up. "Emma! Wake up!"

"J-j-joshua...no...no..." Emma muttered in her sleep.

Rick continued to shake her up, although he was quite relieved that Emma is still alive. He began to slowly remember what had happened to the two of them just before they were thrown into the dark room.

.....

"Aargh!" Joshua exclaimed.

The knife was still stuck on his shoulder. Somehow, he was able to lessen the bleeding. But the longer the knife stayed there, the more sensitive his shoulder gets. Joshua squirmed as he tried to suppress the pain on his shoulder. He knew that suppressing it wasn't enough.

I should pull this knife out of here. Even though it hurts. he gritted his teeth as the thought came to his mind.

Red streaks began forming to the floor due to Joshua's blood. Pretty soon, dizziness slowly crept into him. Realizing that he doesn't have enough time to stay conscious due to his blood loss, he set to work.

Ripping his shirt in half, he wrapped the cloth around his arm as lightly as he could. The blood might come spurting out if I just removed the knife from my shoulder. But if I prepare a piece of clothing to wrap it before I remove it, then, I have a better chance of not losing more blood. He said to himself.

After preparing the fragment of clothing and wrapping it on his arm, he grabbed the knife's handle after mustering up his courage. The knife had stayed on his shoulder long enough to make him feel even the slightest touch to the knife's handle. He closed his eyes as he tried to endure the pain.

It's now or never. He grimly said to himself as he pulled the knife using all his strength. In a split second, the knife was removed, making the blood flow freely from his deep wound.

That hurts! He thought.

Enduring the pain and his dizziness he began wrapping the cloth around his wound. After taking a look at it, he realized that the wound was deeper than he thought, but thanks to his operation, it didn't seem fatal anymore. With every wrap that he did around his wound, he began to feel the pain more than ever.

Still, he knew that this is his only hope for survival.

.....

"Rick?" Emma muttered as she finally regained consciousness.

"Emma, you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a little headache. Anyway, where are we?" Emma asked back in return.

"You don't remember? We were electrocuted and probably thrown in that room behind that huge metallic door." Rick recalled. 

"Seems like we're stuck here, huh."

Murmur.

Unexpectedly, the room was suddenly filled with voices of people, making Rick and Emma jolt upright in surprise. They thought that they were the only ones in the room but it seems that they were wrong. Although they couldn't quite hear what the voices were talking about, the two of them got the feeling that the voices were talking about them. Chills ran down their spine as they tried to search for the sources of the murmurs.

Emma's sight had already adjusted in the dark. She looked at Rick to see what his reaction would be.

"What? I'-I'm n-n-not scared, o-o-okay!" Rick defended himself but his shaking voice made it quite evident.

Suddenly a figure began moving right in front of them.

Click!

To their surprise, the room brightly lit up. The figure probably moved towards the light switch to turn the light on. Rick and Emma both weren't surprised by the light, though. Both Rick and Emma were surprised at the sight that lay before their eyes.

"Rick?"

"Emma?"

.....

Joshua heaved a sigh of relief after seeing his clearly wrapped wound. He didn't expectanyone to stab him in the first place but he was quite grateful that the stab wasn't that fatal. He glanced around the room, thinking that a few cameras were watching him since its a cell. 

However, to his disappointment, he couldn't see nor sense any cameras at all.

Micro cameras? Camouflaged cameras? I couldn't see anything. Maybe the mastermind has a way of monitoring without the use of cameras. I wonder how, though? Joshua wondered. Oh, now that I think about it, there's a probability that he could read our minds even from afar. He's done it to me just awhile ago before I was put here, so maybe, he could really do it.

But how do I escape from here if he could really read our minds? That would make it impossible!

Well, if I'm going to stay here, I guess I should get to work on cleaning all these bloodstains. He sighed once again.

Joshua tore a piece of cloth from his shirt one more time so he could wipe the blood off the white floor. Some time had already passed, making the blood harden on the floor. But Joshua didn't mind it, he began cleaning it easily.

Probably because I'm bored. He told himself as he cleaned the last of the bloodstains. He picked up the bloody knife from the floor as he thought of spending his last moments in a cell.

Wait?! Whats this?!! Joshua exclaimed in his mind as he looked at the knife's blade. Wait? I shouldn't think of it right now, or else the mastermind will find it out!

From afar, the knife looks like  a regular kitchen knife, Its brand-new look and its unscratched blade and handle didn't look that suspicious at all at first glance. But as Joshua took a closer look, he saw that the tip of the knife is somewhat odd. 

A ball-point tip? What's this? A pen disguised as a knife? He curiously asked himself.

Joshua tipped it downwards, to see if anything  different will happen. 

Unexpectedly, a six inch wire, with a half-millimeter diameter, came out of the tip. It smoothly slid out of the tip of the knife, like a slender bullet coming out from the barrel.

A...a wire?! Joshua remarked.