The Remains of Tomorrow #wattys2019

Chapter 10

Waking up in a dark, cold room I realized that I'm freezing my arse off as there was not a stitch of clothing on my body. I heard in the distance the song "Easy Street" playing over and over again, but it was far enough away I could ignore it for now. Trying to block out the music I felt around the room I was in and realized it was barely 6 feet by 8 feet; even prison cells have more room than this. 

Standing up on sore legs I felt my way to the door and banged on it hoping someone would come and let me out. Placing my ear against the door I heard the music had finally shut off and someone was walking in the distance; but still far enough away not to hear my banging in. Giving up I sat on the cold floor pulling my knees up to my chest for some warmth and wait until someone came to see me.

After was seemed like hours I heard someone finally outside the door and cover my eyes as the sudden light blinded me. Slowly I pulled my hand away and saw Simon silhouetted in the doorway. He had a look on his face that was almost evil, so I shrank myself into the corner as far away from him as possible.

"Now, now don't be like that?" He said coming into the room but blocking my escape out of the door, "I just want to talk!" He said crouching next to me to place a hand on my knee. Seething I spat in his face and cringed as his open hand came flying back at my face sending me sprawling to the floor where I knocked my head on the floor. As the darkness started seeping in around the edges I felt him above me, "No wake-up...I wanna hear you scream." With that thought I let myself pass out; I'd rather not face the next 5 minutes awake.

Again I woke up lying on the floor with the feeling of wetness between my legs. I knew what he had done but I'm just glad I wasn't awake for it. Feeling around me I felt a bowl with some type of food in and a bottle of water next to it. But feeling sick to my stomach I turned away from the food and faced the corner, taking the bottle with me.

As it cracked open and I took a sip to ease my hollow stomach when I heard the sound of fighting in the distance. Crawling my way to the door I tried and peer out the tiny crack at the bottom of the door to see what was happening, however apart from the shadows of running feet I cannot make out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. Using my fist I banged on the door hoping whoever was out there would hear me but my knocks go unanswered. Finally, it quietened down and I sat back against the wall with my bottle of water, hope had finally left me an empty shell.

**

I don't know how long I've been in the cell as the seconds merged into hours, days and quite possibly weeks. Every time a meal turned up and Simon came into the cell I'd mark it as one day and hope I was right. Yes, he kept me fed but not enough to give me the strength to fight my way out of this place. My body felt bruised and battered, while my heart also felt like it wanted to give up. He took great glee in telling me that Daryl had escaped, that he knew I was here but never came back to get me. Also, being in the dark for so long had caused my eyes to become more sensitive to even a pinprick of light so that opening my eyes when a little light did come into the cell made my head feel like it was going to explode.

On top of this, my whole body was feverish and burning hotter every day, if Simon didn't kill me the fever most certainly would. I'd taken to laying by the door to get some sort of cold breeze from the crack by the floor to cool my raging temperature but even now that was not starting to help me. In my fevered haze, I could hear voices on the other side of the door but it wasn't my tormentor it was someone else, a voice I should recognize but didn't. 

Mustering all my strength I started banging on the door with my fist in the standard SOS that we had all been taught as children until the voices came closer to the door, once the light started creeping in from where the door was opening I placed my hand in front of my face wanting whoever was there to see I was alive and not some walking corpse.