Rescue - Roman Godfrey

Chapter 12

After driving down a rural dirt road, we arrive at the mill. It was very run down and beat up with vines and weeds covering the brick buildings. We pull up to a rusty chain fence and Roman shuts off the car engine.

"How does it feel to have your name on everything?" Peter asks, looking around.

"Like a fucking pimp."

I burst out laughing, but Peter doesn't even smile. "Isn't there somewhere around back we can park this? You know..."

"Nobody gives a shit what happens out here," Roman shrugs, lighting a cigarette. He gets out of the car as it dangles from his lips. He unlocks the rusty lock and opens the gate. Slowly, we walk on the gravel trail toward the building.

The inside smells like rat feces and rust. Tall structures towered over us as we venture farther into the dark mill. We turn on our flashlights and use them as a guide.

"Did you ever see this place when it was running?" I ask Roman, stepping over a pile of rubble.

"My old man closed it before I was born," he says as Peter and I trail behind him. "Lots of people died here - workers and shit."

We enter a large room, water pooling down from the ceilings. I look around and notice puddles and steal beams. The sound of our feet hitting the water echoed throughout the room. I stumble over a rock and luckily Peter grabs my arm to steady me. I say thank you and he nods before walking away. Roman quickly grabs my hand and keeps me close to him.

"You know when you close your ears, sometimes the sound of your heart is like a little man walking through snow," Roman points out and I wonder how he even comes up with stuff like that.

"Yep," Peter said, not sounding interested. "Hey, what was that, uh, big structure outside?"

"It's a Bessemer converter. At one point they made pig iron into money."

"Do you guys have any idea what we are looking for?" I question, bringing the attention back to the mill and why we were even here.

"Uh, driver's license, social security card, dream journal," Peter slowly explains.

"This is a joke," Roman huffs as we jump over a puddle and onto a dry rock that had formed in the ground. "Left or right?" He asks, looking around. Darkness was on either side of us, and there was no way we could cover it all.

"Let's split up," I suggest.

"I don't want to leave you alone, Elsie," Roman said sternly. "You could trip and hurt yourself like you almost did back there."

"I'm fine," I grumble. "I'm a big girl and chances are, we won't even find anything."

"Way to be optimistic!" Peter says sarcastically, giving me a thumbs up.

"Fine, but if you see or hear anything weird, just call for help," Roman explains and I nod. We go off in separate directions. I could hear their footsteps slowly fade away as I went further into the darkness. I shined my flashlight on the ground, walls, and ceilings and saw nothing out of the ordinary. A rat runs passed me and I jump.

"Fucking hell," I mumble, my heart still beating fast. I shine my flashlight to the side of me to make sure there were no more. Suddenly, my feet hit something and I stumble down, scraping my arm and head against some rocks. I slowly sit up, unable to process what had happened. I look up and see what I tripped on, my eyes widening in horror.

I screamed loudly as I watch rats and maggots feed on a leg. The shin and foot still had skin, but the rest was covered in blood with exposed flesh and bone. The smell was extremely unbearable and it made me want to throw up. I hear footsteps racing toward me with flashlights in every direction.