MELT: A Psychological Thriller (8 page)

Victoria's eyes blazed. Her face and neck flushed bright red. She stepped closer, pointing at Alex like a teacher points at a belligerent student. 'You lying arrogant little...little...fucker!'

Megan glanced around the group.
Did Victoria really just say that?

The surprised expressions confirmed it.

'I hope you didn't speak to your students like that,' said Glen, moving closer to Alex.

'But he’s lying,' blurted Victoria. 'I can prove it.'

'Bullshit,' said Alex. ‘You don’t know your ass from your elbow.’

Victoria pointed up to the phone.

'What was the name of that piece of music?'

I hope he knows it
, thought Megan.
Just to calm her down.

'Come on then,' insisted Victoria, glaring at Alex. 'You said it was your favorite. Who was the composer?'

Alex shrugged. ‘It is my favorite, but I haven’t a clue what it’s called.’

'See! Do you all see now?' Victoria cried. 'He admitted it. He's a liar and a thief!'

Everyone was looking at Victoria, at her explosive spectacle of livid rage, not at Alex.

Victoria looked unhinged.

‘That was Beethoven,’ she said. ‘An excerpt from Symphony number 5 in C minor. That’s not his music. Look at him!’

'It’s not my music,' said Alex. ‘I didn't choose it.’

'Who chose it?' asked Carl.

'My psychologist,' replied Alex. 'It's part of my treatment.'

'Treatment for what?' spat Victoria.

Alex rubbed his hands together. 'For your sake, Victoria, let’s just hope we’re not in here long enough for you to find out.’

 

 

#

 

 

 Walking laps barely kept Megan from constantly shivering.

‘This is ridiculous,’ said Carl, rubbing his bare arms. ‘We can’t walk in circles forever.’

Chrissie walked in Ericsson's fatigues and Carl’s sneakers. She'd rolled her skirt into a neck sock. Still wearing her original tan business jacket, s
he looked half soldier, half banking executive.

‘You can freeze if you want,’ she said. ‘I plan on surviving.’

The group split up to walk around the Mayan calendar again. Megan looked away from Ericsson's partially headless corpse. He lay pushed up against the wall, stripped to his underpants and shirt.

‘We’ll
have to rest eventually,’ said Carl. ‘We’ll have to sleep. What then?’

‘Sleeping is suicide,’ warned Victoria. 'Hypothermia will kill us.’

‘I’m talking about the bomb,’ said Carl. ‘
We’ve called for help. Now what about that bomb?’

‘We leave it,’ stated Victoria.

‘We can’t just leave it,’ said Carl. ‘That’s crazy! We have to do something.’

'We
are
doing something,' insisted Chrissie. 'We're staying alive. We’re broadcasting an SOS signal. We’re surviving until they find us.'

‘What if we can’t last that long?’ asked Carl. ‘Or what if that bomb cracks through the ice and falls?’

No one answered because the answer was obvious.

They would all die.

Megan glanced over her shoulder.

Alex was trailing the group.

Is he all right? He’s just staring into the ice again.

Alex suddenly rushed forward to catch up.

‘I have an idea,’ he said.

Everyone turned and puffed steam toward Alex. Megan even saw steam rising off people’s clothes now.

‘Just ignore him,’ said Victoria, her voice like acid.

Alex pointed into the ice.

‘What if the ice is here to help us?’ he asked.

Victoria shook her head and kept walking.

‘Is that supposed to be a joke?’ asked Carl.

‘Look inside it,’ pointed Alex. ‘It’s full of things. Maybe it’s all for us. To help us survive.’

Megan remembered having a similar feeling about the Mayan calendar.

Alex pointed at her. ‘Remember what you said about the calendar?’

Megan nodded and thought,
Of course I remember. Everyone said I was being stupid. Everyone except you.

‘You said it was
meant
for us,’ continued Alex. ‘I think you’re right. I think everything inside the ice is meant for us. We just have to reach it. Work for it. That’s how we survive.’

Alex waved around at the chamber. ‘Look at the effort made to build this place, abduct all of us, and then seal us all in here. We’re here for a reason. A purpose.’

Carl nodded. ‘He’s right about one thing. We weren’t put in here just to walk around in circles.’

 

 

#

 

 

Megan scanned the cloudy shapes in the ice. Many lay near the surface.
Is Alex right? Was I right?

Carl and Glen peered into the ice.

Victoria hadn’t gone far. She backtracked to pass judgment.

'Ignore him,’ she said. ‘He’s a kid. He wants attention. We need to keep moving.’

‘We need water to survive,’ said Glen. ‘We’ll have to get that from the ice. Alex is right about that.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Victoria. ‘We’ll collect melt water from around the drain.’

Alex screwed up his face.

'I'm not sure how things work in your house, Victoria, but I'm not drinking from our toilet.'

Toilet?
thought Megan.
The drain is our toilet?

Victoria pulled a disgusted face.

Glen said, 'Even third world prisons provide a bucket.'

‘Maybe we’ll get toilet breaks,’ said Chrissie hopefully.

'How?' asked Megan. 'There are no doors. No slots. No anything.’

Carl still stared into the ice. ‘Alex is right. This ice is all we have.’

Megan let that thought sink in. It didn't sink in. It was too big to fit.

'I hate to say this,' started Chrissie. 'But I need to pee. I can't put it off any longer.'

'Me too,' admitted Megan, realizing she’d been holding on for hours now.

‘I think we all do,’ said Carl.

Alex and Glen nodded.

Everyone needs to go
, realized Megan.
But no one wanted to be the first.

Carl said, 'There's already a steady flow of melt water running down the drain. A few more trickles won't
matter.'

'I can't go in front of people,' declared Victoria.

'None of us want that,' said Glen. ‘Trust me. We won’t be looking.’

Megan had an idea. She fetched her umbrella and handed it to Chrissie.

'You can crouch behind this.'

Chrissie snatched the umbrella and rushed around the ice.

'I'm next,' said Megan.

With everyone shuffling for warmth they couldn’t hear much, but an awkward minute passed as the steel walls reflected every intimate sound.

Megan
really
needed to go.

Here she comes. Thank God.

Victoria snatched the umbrella from Chrissie.

'She just stole your turn,' said Glen, pointing at Victoria’s back.

'And your umbrella,' added Alex.

'I'm sorry, Megan,' Chrissie whispered. 'She grabbed it from me. I didn't want to set her temper off.'

 
It's like we have two bombs in here,
thought Megan.
The real bomb and Victoria.

'That's okay,' said Megan, even though it absolutely wasn't.

Alex and Glen put their fingers in their ears to block out the sounds coming from Victoria.

Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!

Victoria finally returned.

'Who’s next?' she asked.

‘Me,’ spat Megan.
As if you didn't know, you sneaky hag
.

‘I washed my hands on the ice,’ said Chrissie. ‘We shouldn’t act like animals just because they treat us that way.'

Actually
, thought Megan.
Animals are treated better
than this.

When Megan returned, Glen rejected the umbrella she offered.

 'No thanks,’ he said. ‘I can't hold the umbrella and aim at the same time.'

Chrissie blocked Glen's path to the drain.

‘Hold on a second, Glen. You can't pee standing up. It'll splash everywhere.'

Chrissie was right. Megan had grown up with male cousins.

But who wants to tell a stranger how to pee? Not me, that's for sure.

'For Christ's sake,' said Glen, looking Chrissie up and down. His face reddened with embarrassment or anger. Probably both. 'I'll pee however I like, thank you very much. That drain’s the size of a manhole!’

‘But the slots aren’t!’ Chrissie didn't take a backward step, even though Glen's tall frame towered over her. Her head barely reached his shoulder.

'I’m
not
joking,' she said, raising her voice. 'This place will smell like a house with a hundred cats. If we women can keep the drain clean, then so can you men.'

Glen gaped at Chrissie. 'Who do you think you are? The pee-police? Do you want to hold it for me?'

Chrissie poked Glen's chest through his pajamas.

She poked him hard.

'I
will
if I have to,’ she threatened. ‘Don't think that I won't.'

Megan winced.
Glen’s chest is hurt where I fell on him. Chrissie knows that!

Glen slapped Chrissie’s hand from his chest. 'Don't fucking poke me. Keep your hands to yourself. I didn't tell you how to take a piss!'

Just let him go
, thought Megan.
This is too much already.

But Chrissie didn’t look one bit intimidated.