Dreaming of Jim Pt. 3

Something happened in the third day near sunset. There was a heavy air in the place. I remember it was unusually quiet, then the intercom made a high pitched noise. Our host proposed that 2 of the 6 rooms were going to be eliminated because not enough of us have been taken down by each other yet. At that, more screaming. I just remember Jim grasping my hand and pulling me to the corner with his back to the door. I was touched at this gesture, and the woman in red just screamed and begged to be killed. The suspense was too much for her, and she couldn’t take it anymore. The last gentleman tried to calm her down and slapped her out of it.

Then the gun shots fired, and Jim held me close and told me that if they came in and shot us, if i wasn’t hit, to pretend to be dead, and find a way out. I only stared in horror, and i noticed he was shaking harshly, and i knew something was wrong. Then we heard foot steps, and they were heading torwards us! I remember i cried and clung to Jim’s chest and shut my eyes. Whatever happened, i didn’t want to see it. I just wanted to go with only the memory of Jim’s scent and the feel of the flannel of his shirt on my forehead.

I heard the squeak of a metal door open, and held my breath, and we jumped at the loud shots of their guns, it lasted for a few seconds, but felt like an eternity, then……….silence. Neither Jim nor i moved. We just sat there, holding each other, not feeling, just……waiting. Then the chick in red laughed and bawled like a maniac. It was that sudden sound that made us look up and realize the we were not the ones that they gunned down. It was the room next door.

She lost it completely, and began to kick violently at her left hand that was still handcuffed to her dead companion. We told her to stop, but she was able to break her hand and squeeze it out of the cuff. That was a mistake on her account, for she headed for the door and banged and banged with her good hand and demanded she be let out. We couldn’t-no. Wouldn’t stop her. There was no point, then after a minute of furious and frustrated sobs, she stared at the opposite wall, and the gentleman told her to stop, but it was too late, she bolted for the wall, and crashed head first onto the wall, and bounced off, knocked out cold, or so i wanted to believe.

The gentleman reached to her, pulling on his dead companion, and checked to see if she was alive. She was still breathing, but it was shallow, and he pulled her head onto his lap. I think i saw him shed some tears.

All of a sudden Jim pulled away from me as far as he could towards her and went to her, pulling me along. He reached for the one strap of her dress and tore at the fabric, and the gentleman, shocked and embarrassed, pushed his hands away and asked what he was doing. Jim said he noticed something on her dress, something shiny. He hoped that it was a metal wire or something that he could use to pick at the hand cuffs. At that response, the gentleman let him continue at the fabric, and he was right. One of the flowers was held on by a safety pin. Jim took it, and he was successful in getting the cuffs off. Had he have noticed the pin sooner, he wouldn’t have let this girl break her hand to get the cuffs off.

When he got our cuffs off, he moved away from me, and stayed away from me. He retreated back our corner and clasped his knees to his chest like he did when we first met. He was soaked in sweat, and the shaking was worse. I tried to comfort him, and find out what was wrong, and as i tried to touch his forehead, he sprang away and cursed at me. I was scared, and the gentleman leaned protectively over the unconscious woman on his lap.

Jim eyed us with cold hard suffering eyes, and i knew somehow, that we haven’t seen the worst yet.

To be continued…..