Something Else

Claustrophobic

I've been never this cold in my entire life.

Seriously, what is it with evil lairs and their heating systems? I'd eat my own arm for a blanket- screw it, a pair of gloves. Not that I'd really need them with only one-

"Mills!"

I groan. The girl's voice is increasingly hard to ignore. "Stop daydreaming and help me!"

She stands in the room's icy corner, hands pressed firmly against a dark patch on the ceiling. I never noticed it before, but a few jagged edges stand out on the wall under it, handholds and footholds, maybe.

"Mills!" She repeats, and this time I'm on my feet. I run over and place my hands next to hers.

"What's going on? This is how we get out isn't, it?" A hint of panic seeps into my voice. "What's wrong? Is it stuck or something?"

"Yes. Obviously. It's a false patch in the rock. We lift it up and climb out. Now stop asking questions and push!"

I thrust my arms upward, putting in all my strength. It's impossibly heavy, like lifting a boulder. This can't be right. There's no way the girl could have lifted this much by herself.

"It's the whole structure," She groans. "This room is directly under EK-12's backup storage locker. I thought they never used it, but I guess I was wrong. If there's something blocking the exit, we either push it off or die slowly in here."

EK-12. I shudder at the name. It's a correctional facility at the southmost edge of Euphoria. How could she possibly have brought me here unnoticed? I was unconscious, and the cameras would have caught a teenage girl with no neck cuff dragging an injured man three miles in the middle of the night. One things for certain, this girl has far more of a network than she's letting on. All the more important I find out her secrets and report them to central command. And why here? Centers like EK-12 are used for criminals past the point of demotion, but not bad enough for the death draft. They say it's a middle ground.

They say.

I push again, harder this time. The muscles in my arms are screaming in pain. I groan, trying with all my might to fight through it. Please. Come on! I curse, something I'd never do above ground.

I feel movement under my hands, and the rock shifts a little.

"Yes!" She cries. "Come on!"

One final shove and I feel the rock give way. Nearly laughing with relief, I hear a crash above me and feel a cold wind brush my face. I pull myself out and lie gasping on a cold linoleum floor. The girl is out too now, breathing heavily, replacing the loose ceiling tile as best she can. I notice she's grabbed some sort of backpack from the underground room.

"Oh," She says, looking around.

The room certainly isn't empty, she was right about that. A plastic cart lies on its side, its contents strewn across the floor. It must have been the thing trapping us. I spot a dozen or so identical carts, all lined up against the wall. There's some kind of door in the corner, but everything else is white linoleum and blank walls.

"You can't go back, can you?" The question slips out somewhat unwillingly. The girl looks up, and I see the answer in her eyes.

"No," she says finally. "Not now that I know people use this room. If you hadn't been there I wouldn't have-" She stops, shuddering. "Let's just say you wouldn't be cleaning up any more graffiti"

I wince. The thought is terrifying. Unless someone up top moved the cart she would have starved to death down there. There's no way she could have pushed out without me.

"So kidnapping me has paid off, huh?" I mean for it to be a sort of dark joke, but I guess it doesn't come off that way.

Her face darkens. "You were going to attack me. I was just doing what I needed to protect myself."

Hypocrite.

"Well so was I! Try and put yourself in my shoes. What lengths would you go to keep yourself alive? You know what happens when you drop far down enough."

Her face flushes and she looks away. "Yeah," She says. "I do." With a quick inhale, she pushes herself up to a standing position. After a brief glance in my direction, she opens the door and walks through without another word.

I mentally kick myself. What an insensitive thing to say! I know I shouldn't care about offending my kidnapper, but its hard to look at her objectively and not the way I'd look at any Levorian girl my age, as a peer. Of course she knows what it's like. She knows better than I do!

"Wait!" I call after her. "Where are we going!?"

Like a lost dog, I follow.