CAPTURED

Chapter 13: Til Death Do Us Part

The crumbling tunnel seemed to continue on forever with only a small light passing them every five minutes. By now, they've only passed three lights that were dimly lit, perhaps only running on a flimsy, dying generator. But the lack of light wasn't the source of fear that Charlie and Max were sharing. It was the constant tremors that were wracking the tunnel. They would come and go, only lasting for about five seconds, but they were strong tremors. Strong enough to cause chunks of rock to fall from the ceiling and roll off of the walls.
As they made their way deeper into the tunnel, the tremors grew stronger and gradually became a rhythmic pattern. It started off as a random tremble and then became a heartbeat-like bang that grew slower, but louder.
Something or someone was doing this and it definitely wasn't the Earth.
Quietly, Max and Charlie steadily made their way down the cave with their hands tightly entwined. Another light approached them, shaking steadily with the beat of the tremors. Rubble continued to fall from the ceiling and crash against the moist ground.
"Get behind me," Max whispered as he softly pushed Charlie behind him.
Charlie now held on to Max's arm with both of her hands, dreading the moment of finding whatever was causing the tremors. Her grasp tightened as they grew closer to the terrible banging.
The sound grew clearer and was now morphing into a sharp noise that sounded like metal colliding with stone. It was starting to hurt their ears.
Terrifying thoughts started to flood Charlie's mind. Her brain came up with distorted images of a giant creature with a hammer so large, it could crush an elephant in an instant.
But when they approached the noise it wasn't a giant creature. It was a large mechanism that was designed to squash someone like a bug. Blood covered the spiked side of the contraption followed by a carpet of dried blood on the stone ground.
The large trap lifted itself to the ceiling making a loud squeaking noise before again dropping to the floor causing the tunnel to rumble. It made the same metal noise that they were hearing before.
On the other side of the trap Charlie noticed something else on the ground. Numerous holes were lined up in a star pattern and in the holes were small slivers of metal. It was a spike trap.
As soon as the smasher fell to the ground, the spikes instantly shot up from the floor with blood dripping down the rusted metal. But behind the spikes was a lever, possibly for turning the traps off. One of them would have to pull the lever without dying.
"I'll go first," Max instantly stated before Charlie could say anything.
Before she could stop him, Max marched up to the smasher and waited for it to fall again.
When it fell and began to lift itself up again, Max quickly moved past it hoping that he would make it in time. But the contraption was larger than they thought.
Instead of it being a small square, like they thought, it was a large rectangle that stretched out for what seemed like forever. Max began to sprint and as soon as he reached the spike pit, the mechanism came down and crushed a part of his ankle. He screamed in pain as he was thrown across the spike pit, thankfully not getting hit by one.
Slowly, he pulled himself up and stared at the lever, not noticing the flaming hole sitting on the wall behind him.
But Charlie immediately saw it and warned him, "Max! Behind you!"
He whipped around, his eyes widening at the sight of the flaming tube. It was heating up and preparing to fire at him.
Max flipped back over to the switch and grasped it with his mud covered hands. He pushed down with all his might causing the lever to slowly move down. It was a tough switch.
Charlie nervously dug her nails into her prison garb and squeezed. "Hurry up, Max!" She shouted again.
He grunted and pulled harder hoping that it would move faster. It was halfway there, but so was the flaming tube. It began to hiss loudly as small flames spurted out of the tube.
"Max!" Charlie shouted, holding her arm out. She could see the flames growing larger.
"Come on, stupid lever!" Max grunted through clenched teeth. He could feel the heat of the flames. They were getting closer to him.
He pressed his entire body against the wall as he pulled harder on the lever. He began to grow tired and he felt as if his muscles were going to pop. The flames were beginning to roast his back.
Finally, just as the flames touched his garb, the lever was pushed all the way down and all of the traps turned off. The flames went out, the bloody spikes stopped popping out of the floor, and the smashers still sat near the ceiling. Everything went silent.
Charlie sighed in relief and ran over to Max, giving him a big hug and almost knocking him over.
"That was close," she cried into his shoulder that was stained with mud.
Max winced at his injured foot and Charlie stepped away from him, staring down at it. A large chunk of skin was torn from his ankle with his blood mixing with the filthy mud of the cave.
"Shit, we have to get that fixed as soon as possible," Charlie said as she knelt down to get a better look.
But Max grabbed her arm and stopped her. He shook his head. "We can deal with that later. We have to get out of here first," he replied sternly.
Charlie agreed silently and allowed Max to pull her up. He wrapped his muddy arm around her waist as they continued walking.
They were getting close, Charlie could feel it.
10 MINUTES LATER
A large metal door stood at the end of the death filled cave, waiting to be opened to reveal a new challenge. They knew it wouldn't be a direct exit to the outside world, but they would, in no doubt, be closer than they were before.
As soon as they approached the door, it hissed and opened automatically. Bright light poured into the cave revealing the Underground Lab they have been searching weeks, perhaps months for.
Dried mud fell from their feet and covered the smooth, crisp floor that was so clean they could see their own faces in it.
They stared into the large room that was before them and wondered if anyone was still here. Lifeless machines lined the walls and sat blankly in the center of the room leaving only a narrow path that led to a set of stairs. The stairs went into another room full of computer desks and larger machines that sat near the ceiling.
Everything was silent except for the continuous beeping of the surrounding machines.
Something felt off to Charlie. She could feel the presence of something and it felt very cold. Her ears began to ring and her vision became blurry causing her head spin slightly. However, she said nothing about it and made her way through the small room with Max still by her side.
As they moved out of the small room and into a long hallway that curved to the left, Charlie's condition grew worse. The ringing grew much louder and her head began to buzz violently on the inside. Her entire body turned numb until her feet were the only parts she could feel. Still, she pushed on down the hallway until she could see another set of metal doors sitting wide open at the end. Only a single light sat above the doors flickering on and off. The hallway gave off an extremely eerie vibe.
As they grew closer to the doors, a loud pulsing noise filled Charlie's ears. It wasn't a normal pulse, it was like the pulse of a vile creature with an appearance so disturbing it could kill God himself. The pulse echoed and had a static sound to it like a broken television.
Suddenly, Charlie and Max saw it. It was standing in the doorway, peeking from the side of the doorframe, watching them with empty eye sockets. A black mist shrouded the tall skeletal figure with a disgusting ooze that dripped from every bone and orifice of its body. It had the structure of a male skeleton with small chunks of black skin that was still attached to some parts of its body.
"It's...the Silhouette," Max whispered as he stared into the depths of its eye sockets.
The Silhouette saw the two moving closer to it and decided to quickly fly away, almost disappearing into thin air. When it was gone, the buzzing and pulsing in Charlie's head died down, but it was still there. She could also feel the slight presence of the creature, but it wasn't as noticeable.
"I haven't seen the Silhouette in forever," Max stared at the empty doorway in awe. His eyes were wide and his heart was racing.
"I see it all the time. It would follow me everywhere," Charlie mumbled in response. "It's like it's...attached to me."
Max ignored the second part of her sentence and continued down the hallway. They cautiously approached the next room and peered inside, seeing nothing but darkness.
"Hold on, I have a light," Charlie whispered to Max as she went to reach into her pocket.
In an instant Charlie found the small flashlight that Abe had given her before he was killed. She stared at the light and sighed quietly before pressing the button to turn it on.
But as she turned it on, Charlie and Max were violently pulled into the dark room. The tall figure wrapped an arm around her thrashing waist and pushed another hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream. She wiggled violently, but stopped when the lights inside the room slowly came on. The figure behind her began to speak.
"Sh, sh, shh, we aren't going to hurt you. Just remain calm and we'll let you go."
The voice was muffled, but spoke in a reassuring voice. For once, Charlie decided to obey. She stopped thrashing her body around and waited for the figure to release their grip. They did.
Charlie flipped herself around and put her arms out in case they decided to attack again. Thankfully they didn't.
The other person released Max and the first person began to speak again.
"I'm not going to hurt you. We just want to help you escape."
"Who are you?" Charlie asked, still holding her guard up.
He replied, "We're the Search and Rescue Team. We've been searching for you and Max for a long time."
Suddenly, Charlie's surroundings finally came to her when she saw another man walk down from behind a large machine. It was the Death Machine. The machine that started this whole nightmare; and the man who appeared from behind it was Ben.
"It's you," Charlie said to the approaching man.
"I know you're probably mad, but let me explain—" Ben was cut off by Charlie who had quickly approached him with a huge hug, just like she said she would.
"You don't need to explain anything. I know you mean no harm," she said into his crisp suit.
Ben stared at the other three people and then stared at Charlie with wide eyes. He suddenly noticed how beat up she was and felt extremely bad. Her garb was soaked with blood and mud with huge rips in her sleeves and along her stomach. Her skin was bruised and huge cuts covered every inch of her bare skin.
Charlie suddenly pulled away and began to speak again, "I know, I look terrible. But I know your story. You still have the evidence?"
Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out a small hard drive. "Every piece of evidence is on here. You get this out to the world and Korbitron will be done."
He handed it over to the girl and she quickly accepted it. She stuffed it into her pocket with a small grin on her face.
"Let's get out of her—" a loud explosion rang out and debris suddenly shot everywhere.
Everyone screamed at the gaping hole that now sat on top of the set of stairs. From the smoke of the explosion, a handful of Korbitron soldiers swarmed into the room pointing their guns at all five of them.
"How did they get in?!" Ben shouted at his own soldiers.
They shrugged with wide eyes and stared at the other marching soldiers.
"This is where it all ends!" One of the enemy soldiers shouted. "Put your hands up!"
"We will not surrender! Not now!" Ben shouted back while raising one of his arms, "Fire!"
Even though the two soldiers were way outnumbered, they still continued to fire at the others, killing three out of eight. The other five quickly killed Ben's soldiers and then advanced towards them with their guns still raised.
Charlie clenched her teeth with anger quickly filling her body.
"Get on the floor with your hands behind your head!" The captain of the team shouted.
All three of them looked at each other with pain in their eyes before reluctantly getting on their knees. They finally surrendered.
The captain approached them while holding a finger to the ear piece inside his ear. He nodded silently and then looked at the three of them with a grim look.
"Boss just called. Gave orders to just end it right here. Won't be much of a challenge," he scoffed.
Two other soldiers joined the captain and pointed their guns at Charlie, Ben, and Max. They positioned their fingers on the triggers and stared at them with no mercy in their eyes.
Charlie glared back at the soldiers and clenched her teeth, preparing to scream. She made fists with her hands and finally opened her mouth, releasing a loud screech that was full of anger. But what happened next surprised everyone including Charlie.
The Silhouette, appearing from the hole in the wall, dashed towards the group of soldiers and grabbed one of them by the arm, tossing him into the rest of the soldiers. The creature hissed loudly and flew over to the fallen soldiers, but instead passed them and moved towards Charlie. She stared at the floating skeletal creature with fear paralyzing her. She tried to move, but her body wouldn't budge.
Suddenly, the Silhouette grabbed Charlie by the throat and pushed her against a tube that was connected to the machine. She coughed violently and tried to kick at the ghost, but soon she realized there was nothing she could do.
"Charlie!" Max shouted as he started to run towards her.
Ben grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away. "We have to go! Grab the hard drive!" He shouted, pointing to the floor where the hard drive was resting.
"No, we have to save Charlie!" He screamed while fighting Ben's grip.
He ignored Max and rushed over to the hard drive, scooping it up and pulling Max towards the hole in the wall.
"I was afraid this would happen," Ben mumbled quietly.
"CHARLIE!" Max screamed again. He held one of his arms out hoping that Ben would let go so he could save her.
But he continued to move up the set of stairs and the Silhouette continued to torture Charlie.
It slammed her against the tube multiple times until she was too broken to fight back. Once she was weakened, the ghost squeezed both of her sides and stared into her fading eyes.
Max's eyes widened when he realized what the Silhouette was doing to her. It wasn't trying to kill her. Instead it was trying to fuse with her. It was going to possess her like a demon.
The ghost began to screech loudly as it slowly fused itself with her. Its body turned into a misty ball as Max watched it disappear inside her body.
It was finally done. The Silhouette was inside Charlie and it would control her now.
Ben dragged Max into the next hallway. Just two more hallways and they would reach the elevator that would take them to the exit. The exit where his journey would finally end.
They reached the first long hallway and then curved right where the large ritual room sat. Through the ritual room was the final hallway. Max could already see the elevator waiting for them at the end. Piles of corpses were piled up near the hallway and an alarm blared from somewhere in the ceiling.
Soon, the elevator was right in front of them. They tumbled inside and quickly pressed the button that read "First Floor." The elevator gates creaked shut and it quickly moved up the shaft just as Max caught a quick glimpse of Charlie's misty body at the end of the hallway. He could feel his eyes tearing up.
Ben sighed and silently pulled the hard drive out of his pocket. He stared at it for a second and then handed it over to Max who was leaning against the wall.
"Take this and protect it with your life. I know it might get us killed, but it's the only way to stop Korbitron," Ben said as he handed it to Max.
Max reluctantly took and said quietly, "I'm doing this for Charlie."
The rest of the elevator ride was quiet except for the loud squeaking of the mechanism going up the shaft. It seemed like a long ride, but soon later they finally reached the first floor. The exit sat on the other side of the administration room with a gloomy light casting through the doors. Both doors were wide open and the asylum seemed even quieter than usual.
They walked steadily over to the exit with a cool breeze meeting the both of them as soon as they walked out.
Suddenly, however, a loud gunshot rang out from behind them and the sound of flesh breaking open ripped through Max's ears. He gasped loudly as he turned to the side to see Ben topple over onto his stomach. Blood immediately began to pool around him with the source coming from his chest. He gasped for air as Max quickly approached his side and knelt down.
"What the hell?!" Max screamed. He flipped Ben onto his back and held the bloody man in his arms staring into his dying eyes.
Ben grabbed Max's arm weakly and whispered, "You have to get out of here."
Before Max could say anything else, another bullet ripped through Ben's skull, killing him instantly. Max screamed harshly and stared at the approaching soldiers who were standing with the boss of Korbitron. Max cowered away, almost tumbling down the short set of stairs behind him. The face of Ben stared back at Max with an expression of fear and defeat.
"No, no, no, please. I can't die now," Max pleaded while trying not to sob.
"You thought you could get away from us, didn't you?" The leader asked as he quickly approached Max. He pinned him against the sidewalk with his foot and dug his heel into his cheek. "Well, it's over now. We have won."
Max tried to push his foot away, but he was too weak to do so. He just kept digging his foot into his face. Until she came.
A loud buzzing noise filled the room and from behind the soldiers came Charlie who was still shrouded in mist. Ooze dripped from her black skin and her eyes that were completely black, stared at the man with hate. She roared so loud the walls began to shake and the windows began to rattle.
She shot towards the soldiers like lightning and sliced into all of their throats in an instant. They all fell to the floor, choking and coughing with red blood pouring out of their necks like a waterfall.
Then, she made her way over to the leader who was trying to back away, but Max wouldn't let him. He grabbed the man by his legs and pulled him down with all his might causing him to tumble down. Charlie grabbed the man by one of his arms and easily tossed him back through the doors of the asylum where he again tumbled to the floor. She then wrapped both hands around his neck and, without even moving a finger, somehow made him bleed black blood out of all the holes in his face, including his ears. He screamed in pain sending strings of thick, black ooze flying everywhere. Max realized that she was literally squeezing the life right out of him.
She continued to squeeze him until his skin turned white and every vein in his body was protruding through his pale body. He coughed one last time which left a glob of red blood and black ooze on his pale chin. Finally, his arms fell to his sides and his eyes sunk back into his skull showing only the lifeless whites.
Charlie took a deep breath in as she slowly turned her head towards Max, staring at him from the corner of her dark eyes. She began to move towards him.
He stared at her dumbfounded. "Charlie, I'm so sorry I didn't save you. I'm sorry I left you behind. If you kill me, I will understand why. Just please know that I—" He took a deep breath in, hoping to keep himself from crying before he continued, "I love you, Charlie." Tears filled his eyes and he squeezed them shut to prepare himself for his final moments.
Charlie moved closer until she was hovering directly in front of him, towering over him as if he were a child. She stared into his closed eyes and gently placed a finger underneath the tip of his chin, lifting his gaze to meet it with her own.
"Max," she spoke in a voice that sounded completely different than hers.
He carefully opened his eyes and was surprised to see her standing this close to him. The black mist from her body encased the both of them like a magical shield.
Charlie gave him a small grin before speaking again, "I love you, too."
The conversation was quickly cut off by more Korbitron soldiers who were now pouring into the Administration room. They swarmed around the reception desk with their guns aimed at Charlie; they were waiting to fire.
The ghost quickly put her arm out in front of Max, trying her best to shield him. "Leave," she spoke in a much deeper voice.
Max realized she was speaking to him and he quickly made his way into the driveway. The soldiers began to fire at him.
Behind him he could hear Charlie screeching followed by the sounds of flesh tearing from bone. In the front, multiple SWAT cars were swarmed around the asylum, one with the doors fully open. He climbed into the open one and turned the key immediately igniting the engine. He slammed his foot into the gas pedal and rammed trough the front gates where the dirt road was waiting for him.