The Fools of Amphidor

Alfie and Max's Big Finish

Well, it's not like any of us had a better idea. So, we took down the painting. Nobody was stopping us.

"Now..." Alfie drew his pocket knife and plunged it into the painting. We all yelped a little.

He cut out the chunk that we had. The paper wasn't flat. There was something inside. He carefully cut it open. Inside was a figurine of a seahorse.

"...Huh?" Claire murmured.

"...I saw a building with that exact seahorse as a statue outside," Max grabbed Alfie's hand and began to run. We ran after him.

We ran outside and all the way down the street. We ran all the way to the building that Max had seen earlier. Over the door was a sign that said 'City Morgue'.

"...I don't wanna go in there," I admitted.

"Neither do I," Claire had a look of determination on her face, "But we have to, in order to get home."

I held my breath as I pushed open the door. Nobody was at the front desk, but the door behind the desk was wide open. I could see two doors behind that. They were labeled 'embalming room' and 'refrigeration'.

We hesitantly walked through.

"Which one first?" Claire asked.

"Refrigeration," We all chimed in unison.

"Alright," Claire nodded, "I agree."

So we walked into the refrigeration room. It was more like a walk-in freezer. There weren't any of those cubby things that you see in human morgues. Bodies were covered with white sheets. The room smelled distinctly like rotten fish.

"Ugh- It's freezing in here..." Max murmured, "I doubt whatever we're looking for is in here..."

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Claire turned to open the door. She jiggled the handle, but it didn't open.

"Huh...?" she murmured, "It's-... It's frozen!"

"What?! What do you mean it's frozen?!" Alfie was holding his arms close to his chest. His nose and cheeks were already pink.

"I mean it's frozen!" She tried to open the door again. Nothing happened.

"Well, use something to get it open!" I huffed.

She dropped her backpack and started to rummage through it to find something to pry the door open.

Alfie stepped up to the door with his pocket knife and started to try to use it, pushing it through the crack in the door and wiggling it, "Come on..." he grumbled.

Max and I started looking around for something to break the handle with like a brick.

As he was sliding the knife out of the crack in the door, Alfie accidentally sliced his wrist open. He was shaking from the cold and his hand slipped the wrong way, "ACK!" He cursed under his breath and held the wound.

"Let me see," Max held his wrist, then winced when he saw it, "Hmph... I need something to wrap it with. It's bleeding pretty heavily..."

"Here!" Claire ripped a strap off her bag and handed it to him, "Use that as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding."

Alfie looked terrified. Blood gushed from the deep cut he'd made. Max tied the backpack strap just about 2 or 3 inches away from the cut, tightening it as much as he could without hurting him.

Alfie looked up at Max, eyes filled with worry, "You think that'll do it?"

Max nodded. He wasn't sure, though. His own fingers were starting to become a bluish color.

"They... Okay- So they store bodies at a temperature of around 14 degrees Fahrenheit. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to freeze to death, at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So I'd say we have about 3 minutes to get out of here before we all become human popsicles!" I huffed, "Just stay calm and try and find whatever you can to get out." 

Alfie didn't look too good. He was becoming paler by the second, both from the cold and from the cut on his wrist. Max whined worriedly and pulled him closer to his body in order to try and preserve his body heat.

"Alfie... Alfie you gotta stay awake..." Max murmured.

Alfie shook his head a little, "I can't... I..."

Max shook him, "Alfie?! ALFIE!" he yelled hoarsely.

Alfie didn't respond. His eyes were starting to gloss over.

"No! NO! Alfie! WAKE UP!" Max yelled. Tears were starting to run down his cheeks, freezing almost immediately. He looked just about the same as Alfie. Claire and I were getting there.

"You have to wake up! We have to go on our date, Alfie..." Max murmured, "We have to..." He leaned on Alfie's chest.

Claire let out a noise of triumph as she pulled out the tea from this morning. It was still hot. She poured it on the door handle. It unfroze and she ripped it open. Her fingers froze to the door handle. Warm air rushed in and hit my face, but Max and Alfie didn't sit up.

Claire gasped. I shook Max, but he didn't sit up. 

"..." I swallowed hard, "I think he's dead... They're both..."