Game On - Part 4
A brief respite from reality. A minute of serene tranquillity, of escape, of imagining a faraway land where the summer air is as fresh as the grass that grows under it’s warm haze. The relaxation of lying on a field, birds singing their sweet song under a clear blue sky. All the happiness anyone could ever wish or hope for. The pure bliss of complete contentment.
Ben caught hold of himself as his perfect fantasy shattered into a thousand pieces. He peered over his shoulder to see the dim silhouette of his wife in the corner. He began crawling over to her, before suddenly realising he had enough energy in his limbs to walk upright. He now understood the true meaning of "institutionalization". Ben struggled to his feet and shambled towards her.
“Sheila. Are you alright?”
His lips had already begun to dry up and crack once again. It felt like a sheet of thick paper permanently glued firmly to his mouth. He nudged at her lightly. She gradually turned away from the wall to face him. For a split second he was shocked at her appearance. A ghostly, pale face with flaccid skin and black, soulless eyes glared back at him full of hatred and venom. He recoiled away for a few moments before looking back again. The hideous hallucination had all but gone and Sheila appeared before him once more.
“Sheila, you’re OK.” he said with a relived smile, then bent over and hugged her. She didn’t acknowledge the gesture. He backed away, still gripping her in his arms. “Sheila, darling, we don't have much time. I’m sure you heard the captain. We must keep fighting. Let me bring the iPad over and try to learn this new…”
“We’re dead, Ben.” she interrupted. “There’s no way out. All I want is this nightmare to end as fast as it can.” He watched as a single tear travelled down the side of her sullen face.
“Please don’t give up now. We must push on while we still have breath in our bodies. Please, Sheila.” he begged.
“To what end, Ben? Another sick task setup for us? To buy us another hour or so of this pitiful existence? Can’t you see that we are nothing more than a twisted game for him? We are dogs. He was at least right about that. Sit, roll over, now play dead. What’s so difficult for you to figure out, Ben?”
After all the years of living, knowing and understanding the woman sitting in front of him, it was clear to see. There was no going back now. She was ready to die. Possibly even looking forward to it.
He was at a crossroads. The base human instinct to persevere and survive is inherently built into our very core. However, everyone has a breaking point. A limit that when reached will force a person’s hand in the opposite direction. He knew, deep down, that she was in fact absolutely right.
Ben took her by the hand. They were clammy and moist to the touch. “Right then, what do we do now? Just sit and wait to die? Just like that?”
“Just like that.” she said in a resigned, sombre tone.
He felt a sensation he was unacquainted with for quite some time. The feeling of peace. An acceptance of the situation at hand and a desire to stop running away from inevitability. An amicable reconciliation with fate of their plight and misfortune. Ben smiled and nodded his head knowingly. There was only one truth and one option left.
“Right.” He said calmly as he planted himself next to her, both of them resting uneasily against the wall, drained and wasted. “I just wish time would speed up, you know. Just get it over and done with. It’s the waiting that’s bothering me now, Sheila. Even more than the end result itself.” he joked.
Ben looked casually around the room that they had inhabited for such a long period of time. He could hardly recall any memories of the previous life they once enjoyed. The single, solitary light bulb glowed inconspicuously in the background. It's radiance was dull enough for the naked eye to view directly. Ben looked at it with disgust. “This measly substitute for an actual sun is a part of what has sustained us all this time. Without it, we’d be crawling in the dark, deranged and defunct. Lower than an animal, in fact. Something that used to be human but now devolved into some type of…”
“Ben, just stop it. I’m sorry, I can’t spend the last few minutes I have left listening to this. Please, I just want to enjoy the silence, for as long as it can last.” She looked up at the light and sighed. “Goodbye, sunshine.” She said dolefully.
That was the catalyst. The spark to ignite a hidden flame within a tormented soul. Ben scrambled to his feet. A sharp pain ran up his legs causing immense pain but he managed to overcome it. He shuffled to the centre of the room and reached for the light bulb.
“What are you doing, Ben?” she called out. He was surprised to be tall enough to actually grasp it in his hands.
“God damn it, things seem so much higher up than when living on all fours.” he muttered to himself in disdain. He began unscrewing the warm bulb, which actually felt strangely pleasing to the touch.
“Ben, what’s going on!” she shouted as in an instant the room was plunged into total darkness.
“Close your eyes, darling. I’ve got an idea and if I’m going to have one last shred of satisfaction from this tortuous ordeal, then so be it.”
“What the hell are you doing?” she exclaimed. A barely audible tinkle of glass spread through the blackness.
“Taking control of the situation, Sheila." A determined voice called out. “We're dead anyways, right? So, I’m going to wait by the door and when he enters, I’ll slit that son-of-a-bitch’s throat in two.”
“Ben, have you gone mad! We’re in pitch black now, I can’t see a thing.”
“Which is exactly why we’re not waiting anymore. He’s on our watch now! If this really is our time to depart from this world, I’ll make sure that bastard is coming with us. I’ll drag him kicking and screaming straight down to hell if I must!” Though Ben couldn’t see it, she was scared out of her mind. He had lost it and she had no time to prepare for what lay ahead. The suddenness of being thrown face to face with death itself was too much to bear.
“Ben, no! What have you done! I’m not ready yet! I need light! I need the light!” she yelled.
“You’ll have it just as soon as that door opens!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “The light isn’t coming back, but the captain sure is!”
She could hear him shuffling carefully along the wall toward the door. In all his insanity, she had an inkling of what he was about to do. She didn’t make a sound. Finally, Sheila saw the silhouette of his foot against the light filtering in through the gap of the door.
“Ben?” she said softly.
The silence split clean in half as a thunderous scream came from Ben. He pounded against the door like a crazed man, yelling with all the strength he could muster.
“Help! Help me! Please come and help! Help! You must come now!” he howled repeatedly. Sheila clasped her hands forcibly over her ears in terror as the walls seemed to shudder around her.
Then, everything stopped and fell silent again.
“You hear that?” he whispered across the room. Sure enough, footsteps could be heard hastily making their way toward the ominous metal door. Ben held on to a long, sharp shard of glass collected moments ago from the fragments on the floor. He steadied himself, readying for the attack.
The footsteps grew louder and louder until they were right outside the door. A second later, the familiar screech of the metal bar as it was raised and the door flew open with a gust of wind.
Ben roared as a shadowy figure burst into the room. But it was too late. The man grabbed his hand as Ben lunged forward to cast the lethal blow. He threw him over his shoulder with ease and Ben landed with an almighty smack on the ground. The world instantaneously transformed into a vague blurry mist.
Ben’s head moved lethargically on the dusty, stone floor. In the distance, he could hear the muffled cries of Sheila, pounding in his head.
“Kill me… quickly. Just do it.” he said sluggishly as he swung his fists pathetically through the air in delirium, still with a few ounces of fight left in him.
Someone descended upon his battered body and uttered the words. “Hey Ben, you alright?”
Convinced he was dreaming or already dead, everything quickly faded to black…
Ben opened his eyes. It took a little time to focus back to reality, but there was something decidedly odd that troubled him somewhat. A soft surface beneath him. He ventured to sit up but was quickly met with an excruciating pain in his lower back. He wailed in agony.
At once, he could feel two presences suddenly surround him. He blinked repeatedly attempting to adjust and converge his vision back to normality.
“Ben, how are you feeling, my love?”
As he slowly regained his sight, the image before him almost caused another blackout. To his left, Sheila standing over him about to place a damp rag over his forehead. On the other side, one of the guards who assisted him during the captain’s "pleasure trip" around the facility.
“I… recognise you.”
“Ben, I’ve been so worried. How are you feeling?” Sheila said softly in his ear whilst drenching the cool, soaked rag above his brow. The feeling was immeasurably gratifying. That's when he realised what that soft texture was under him. A mattress. A mattress for a bed. He could hardly grasp the concept anymore.
“What’s going on? Where am I?” he said, almost fearfully.
The guard finally spoke in a soothingly gentle tone. “Ben, I am so sorry if I hurt you earlier. I was just defending myself as you looked like you meant business. How are you feeling?”
“Please.” Ben repeated, close to tears. “Someone tell me what’s going on. Please.” His head ached still, but the rag relived the pain greatly.
“Of course. Listen, the war. It’s over, Ben. The P.L.A. are finished and the wheels are now in motion for the restoration of our fallen lands.” The guard had changed into baggy, civilian clothing.
“I don’t understand. How did this happen?” Ben enquired, in deep shock at his newfound knowledge.
“Well, actually, when you both first arrived around three weeks ago, the plan had already…”
“Hang on a second. We’ve only been here three weeks?” Ben said in disbelief.
“Yes, that’s all. But as I was saying, a plan of action was already launched against the P.L.A. via a coordinated effort from the United Nations Security Council and other allied foreign nations. Their armies have swept across our country, eradicating any P.L.A. military bases they could find. It was impossible for the P.L.A. to put up any kind of workable resistance against the firepower they used to decimate their camps.”
Ben was listening intently, remembering that there were in fact pistons in the outside world pumping away for a solution to this global affair. After all, it was a bigger problem than just the two of them holed up in there.
The guard continued. “Well, several days ago as word got out that the P.L.A. were now a lost cause, almost the entire camp deserted us overnight. Only myself, the other guard named Rico and the captain remained.”
“But why didn’t you flee with the rest of them?” asked Ben.
The guard’s face fell as he heard this. “My family are held as traitors in one of their prison camps a few miles from here. If I left as well, they would have surely been executed. I had no choice but to stay behind and serve the captain.”
Sheila got up off the bed and walked over to a basin at the far side of the room and proceeded to filled three glasses of water for all of them. Something so simple as fetching some water from a tap almost brought her to tears.
“So, this afternoon when I was ordered to help out with the captain’s deranged game he was playing with you, I was sick to my stomach. I thought he had gone stark raving mad. The brutal torture of innocent civilians. I just couldn't take it anymore. Something had to be done and fast. I knew had there been any outside military intervention, he would have killed all of us and then himself. I am sure of it. He was fighting for his own depraved personal agenda which was insanity and irrationality. He had lost it, Ben.”
Sheila came over to the men and gave them each a glass before taking one herself and sitting on a wooden chair beside the bed.
“So, when you were back in the cell, I took Rico to one side and explained to him what I had in mind. Overpower the captain and release the both of you. I had no intention of killing anyone. That didn’t go down too well with Rico. He threatened to tell the captain everything with immediate effect. I had no choice but to shoot him. The captain came running into the room and I shot him as well, point blank in the head.” The guard looked down at the floor and sighed deeply.
“Long story short, Ben, you’re free.”
Sheila looked at him with an indescribable joy. Her heart raced as she saw Ben weep with happiness and exhilaration. Ben’s outstretched arms prompted her to run into his embrace with a deep, heartfelt love. A feeling of freedom the likes of which they could have never conceived of. Tears of pure delight ran down their faces as it slowly sunk in.
The nightmare was finally over.
The truck was loaded with fresh supplies and topped up with gas. They all sat in the front, turning around one last time to look upon the hellish compound that almost proved to be their final destruction.
Ben looked cautiously at the guard. “So, just a few miles from here, eh?”
“Yes, not too far. I pray they are all still alive but there’s only one way to find out.” He kissed the cross hanging around his neck, started the engine and drove onto the long stretch of road before them.
“By the way, I never got to ask you what your name is?” Ben inquired as Sheila sat in the middle between both men, elated at finally leaving the horror behind them.
“Oh, sure. What was I thinking?” he replied with a small chuckle.
“Nice to meet you both. My name is Carlos.”
(The End)
