Apartment 905 by Sahin, Ned (readnow .TXT) 📕

Chapter 19

I can’t move my right arm. My right hand is chained to the red pipe of the fire sprinkler system attached to the wall.

I look around. Toshi and Kathleen are lying down, chained to the same pipeline a few yards away from me.

A weight drops in my stomach. We failed. I don’t know what they are planning to do with us, but I assume it’s nothing in our favor. I faced life and death situations a few times in the last two weeks, but this is a whole new level.

I see that none of us has a mask on our faces. I am not sure which one would be worse. Getting tortured by them or getting infected by the virus.

I unconsciously close my nose and mouth with my pajama’s sleeve even though I know that this won’t protect me at all. I wish I had my jacket at least. I am in the pajamas I found in the guest room just like Toshi and Kathleen.

I hear metal dropping onto the floor. I see a guy doing something around a table about 50 yards away. He is extremely skinny, and his face and arms are full of red bumps. His neck is chained to one leg of the table.

We are at some kind of a warehouse with a bunch of machines and tables surrounding us. The door is closed. There are only two small windows at the top of the high wall on both sides. It’s daylight.

Several light bulbs are dangling from the ceiling, but only two of them are working. It’s half-dark inside. I narrow my eyes and try to focus to see the far side of the warehouse. I can see two more men. From the iron clinks I hear when they move, I can tell they are chained as well.

“Kathleen! Toshi! Wake up!” I whisper to them. They don’t give a reaction. The guy closest to us hears my whisper. He looks at me with his dimmed eyes. He seems exhausted. I first thought he had red spots because he is a Rica, but he looks different. The red spots on his skin are a lot smaller and they are closer to each other. He doesn’t look like a Rica.

A few years ago, I saw a teenager in the news who was kept in a basement by his abusive parents for a long time. His skin became whiter and it got covered by acne. I think these three men in the warehouse are suffering from the same symptoms. They probably haven’t had sunlight for a long time. Maybe they have abusive parents as well. Another possibility is that they were some young folks living in the town or they took a break here during their road trip. It sounds very much like us.

He moves his eyes away from me. It seems like he felt bad for us.

“Guys! Wake up!” I say louder this time knowing that the guy doesn’t care about us. Toshi finally opens his eyes.

“What! What is this!” Toshi tries to straighten up. He notices the chain and tries to get rid of it by pulling and pushing.

“Shhh! Be quiet,” I tell him.

“We are in a warehouse. There are at least three men chained like us… I think… Harold and Bernice drugged us last night” I say.

“What the…” Toshi says. He gently slaps Kathleen’s arm to wake her up. She opens her eyes and immediately screams after feeling the coldness of the floor. Toshi tries to close her mouth. All three men look at us now.

“They won’t break,” the man nearest us says.

“Where are we?” I ask him.

“Welcome to Weldon Spring,” he says with a pouty face. It reminds me of Harold’s friendly greeting yesterday. My memory fast forwards from that moment to the last thing I remember before I woke up here—he and Bernice were looking at me as I pass out in their basement.

It was all a trap, and we jumped right into it.

I have no idea why they are keeping us hostage. They might be straightforward psychos who enjoy hurting people. Or they may have another plan for us. We might be the next slaves who will do whatever these three exhausted men are doing.

My train of thought ends with the door rattling.

Harold appears with two armed elderly men behind him. The mayor follows them. As soon as the mayor gets inside, he looks through the machinery. It looks like he is searching for something.

“You son of a bitch!” Kathleen yells at him as she tries to get rid of her chain.

Harold ignores her and walks toward me. He takes a piece of paper from his pocket.

“What is this?” he asks. The chained men around the table watch us while working on their tables.

I look at the paper. I recognize it immediately.

“December 7th, 2019”

“C19 DEPLOYMENT PLAN”

This is the part of a document I found at the National Park ranger house in North Carolina. I completely forgot that I had this note in my pocket all this time.

I stay quiet. I am not very enthusiastic to tell him the story.

He walks to Kathleen and grabs her hair. He pulls it while taking a few steps in the opposite direction. She follows him on her knees unintentionally, but the chain on her right wrist stops her. She screams with the pain as he keeps pulling her hair out coldheartedly.

“Okay, okay! Leave her alone!” I yell. I can’t stand seeing her in pain.

“Look, we lied to you... We are not going to the West Coast to see our families. We are... on a mission… We found some documents at a ranger’s house in North Carolina. This is planned... This whole virus thing is part of a plan. I don’t know who is behind it or what they want, but all I know is there is a bunker here with a stockpile of antivirus and vaccine,” I say. I am amazed at my speed of story creation.

I look at his eyes