The Blame Game

Chapter Four

"Holy mother Mary and Joseph." April swears. I turn to look at her.

"You aren't religious." I say.

"Well I bloody well am now! Hey God? If your up there, can you like, make the super scary crazy dude not kill us please? Well maybe Vicki..." she says, putting her hands together in prayer.

"April!" Li cries.

"Sierra!" Brodie suddenly yells, and rushes out the back of our hiding place. We follow him cautiously, not entirely sure what we're walking into. I notice that we're inside the tent, but it's mostly empty except for a few boxes of supplies... and Sierra. When I see her, my blood freezes in my veins.

Sierra is lying strapped onto a table inside a large glass box. In the box with her, are countless numbers of fire ants. They are milling around the floor of the box, but several have slowly started climbing up the legs of the table. I rush to the box and bang against the glass.

"Sierra!" I yell, terrified for her life. There is duct tape over her mouth, so she can't tell us how we might be able to free her. Her eyes are wide with fear.

"Guys, what the hell do we do? How do we get her out?" Victoria screams hysterically.

April and Alaska rush towards the boxes, pulling them open and searching through their contents.

"Hey! I found a hammer!" Alaska yells, and rushes back to the box. "Close your eyes Sierra!" she says, and raises the hammer above her head. Then she brings it back down down again with all the force she can muster. It simply bounces off the glass, and doesn't even leave a scratch.

"I think we're going to need a bigger hammer." April muses, pausing to watch Alaska's attempt to free Sierra.

"Hey, what about this?" she says, pulling a crowbar out of one of the boxes. She gives it to Brodie, who tries to wedge it in the glass, but there are no joins. He tries to use to smash the glass, but has no more success than Alaska did.

I notice Li staring at the box, studying it. "Guys, there is no floor of the box. If we could lift it, we'd be able to get Sierra out." She says suddenly.

"Oh my God, Li you're a genius!" I say, relieved. Thank god for her curiosity.

We crowd around the box, positioning ourselves ready to pick up the glass box.

"Ready everyone?" Li says. Everyone says "Yes!" and Li continues, "Okay, on the count of three! One, two, three!"

We heave, straining to lift the box. We barely manage to lift it up five centimetres.

"Hang on you guys." April says. She runs back to the boxes of supplies and grabs the crowbar out again. Then she runs back to us. Okay, Vicki can you wedge this under the box when we lift it up?" she asks, handing the bar to Victoria.

"Aw, but I just got my nails done!" she whines. But she takes the crowbar anyway, and positions herself near the box.

"Okay, again! One, two, three!" Li says, and we all lift the box. Victoria quickly slides the crowbar under it. Finally, something is going right. And then I look at Sierra.

The fire ants have climbed up the table and are starting to swarm all over her. "Guys, hurry! We're running out of time!" I cry, panicking again.

"I thought I saw a car jack in one of the boxes before, I'll see if I can find it again." April says. She runs back to the boxes and starts searching through. "I found it!" she yells excitedly.

She comes back holding the jack in her hands, and she positions it next to the crowbar.

"Okay, Brodie can you push down on that end of the crowbar? And April, you need to slide that jack under the box really fast." Li says, taking control of the situation.

"Okay, ready? Alright, on three. One, two, three!" Li says. Brodie pushes down on the crowbar with his strength, and April slides the jack under the box as soon as it can fit under it. Then she starts pumping the jack, slowly pushing the box higher and higher. Once she gets it to the highest point, April slides under the box and starts untying Sierra. Everyone on the outside is cheering for her, and for a second, I let myself hope.

April gets the straps undone and pulls Sierra onto the floor. The poor girl manages to crawl out from under the box, and April quickly slides out too. Everyone is safe.

"Huh. I guess three is a lucky number." April says to no one in particular.

I move to Sierra's side and help her sit up. "Are you okay?" I ask.

She nods, and smiles. "Just really scared, that's all."

Hey guys, check this out." April says, standing up. She walks over to what appears to be a door in a frame, probably a prop for whatever act was meant to be in this tent. She walks behind it and knocks on the door.

"Who's there?" I ask, deciding to entertain her for the moment.

"Banana." April answers.

"Banana, who?" I ask.

Then she knocks on the door again.

"Who's there?" I ask.

"Banana." she replies.

"Banana, who?" I ask.

Then she knocks again.

"April, seriously?" I say, agitated now.

"Just ask the question." she calls.

"Fine. Who's there?" I ask.

"Orange." she says, giggling.

"Orange, who?" I ask, glad the joke is coming to an end.

No one answers. A chill runs down my spine. "April? Orange, who?"

Suddenly the door swings open and the clown is there, holding April close to his chest. There is a knife resting against her neck, and a small trickle of blood is running down her throat.

"Orange you glad I didn't say banana?" he says, then laughs crazily.

A/N; Did you expect any of that? And, what do you think will happen to April Raine? Leave your answers in the comments box, and- as usual- don't forget to vote! :)

-Thanks so much for reading :)