Runner stumbled into the slaughterhouse and Troy shut the double doors immediately. They both went behind a table at the centre of the room and began to force it towards the door.
“Push!” Runner screamed.
Troy pressed his shoulder on the side of the large table and they pushed it to bar the door. A loud thud went off as the butcher slammed his hammer on the door from the other side. Runner retreated backwards.
They were trapped.
He scanned the room with his eyes, searching for another way out, but there was none. Troy cuddled the little girl to ease her shivering.
“Hey, you,” Runner brought out the energy bar he wanted to eat, “you must be hungry, have some.”
“You suck at cheering up a child,” Troy said, “Her name is Angie, and she was a child slave to Ishmael’s gang. Believe me; you don’t want to know what they did with her.”
Runner gazed at the bruises all over her and then passed the food to girl. A sudden slam on the door made him shudder involuntarily.
“We need to find a way out of here or when that door comes down,” Runner pointed at the door, “our flesh will fill the butcher’s bucket.”
Troy left Angie and walked to one end of the room, “there is a way out of here, but you won’t like it.”
“Try me,” Runner said.
Troy bent down and pushed away a pile of bones to reveal a hatch. He held its handle and forced it to open, but it proved too strong.
“Where does it lead,” Runner joined him and grabbed as they combined their strength.
One hard pull and the cover sprang open. An odious stench wafted out of the dark tunnel that ran deep and Runner covered his nose with his hand.
“I warned you might not like it. I saw Ishmael’s gang use it to dispose unwanted parts of the human’s they cannibalised on.”
Runner spat, “this just gets better and better,” he said. He took a peek into the tunnel and withdrew almost immediately, “God, this stinks.”
“I will go first,” Troy came forward, “when I get down, then you send Angie.”
Runner nodded and stepped away for Troy to stand at the edge. He watched as his friend went down a ladder. With each step downwards, Troy grew continuously vague in the dark tunnel. Suddenly his hand slipped from the ladder and down he went.
“Troy!” Runner yelled.
All he heard was his voiced echoing back at him.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Runner glanced behind to find the butcher has broken half the door. The man pushed his dreadful head through the opening he made, but the bar on the door still proved an obstacle. He scratched, slammed, and chewed at the door, like a rabid dog, he wanted nothing more than to tear his way in.
The Butcher paused for a moment and his fiendish red eyes were locked with Runner’s. The way Runner saw it, if he did not find a way out the butcher would carve his flesh out slowly for putting him through hell.
“Runner!” a voice came from the black depth.
“Troy,” Runner called, “you are alive.”
“You won’t believe what I found down here, come on…quickly,” the voice returned in echoes of enthusiasm.
Runner grabbed Angie and pushed her towards the tunnel. “Okay, kid. I know it looks scary down there, but you have to be brave.”
The butcher slammed on the door again and Runner glanced back in shock. Quickly, he helped Angie down and she held tight to the ladder.
YOU ARE READING
Liberation (Remnants of Men)
Science FictionWhen seventeen year-old Runner was sentenced to death for stealing a loaf of bread in MegaCity One, his dreams were literally at an end. But then he opts to sign up for the Remnants of Men, a government sanctioned search for a rumoured fresh water l...
