Survive or Die - Chapter 3
Crouching he sat beside you, holding the cell phone in front of the bars that separated him from you, while you said the probably last words of your life to your boss. Shortly after you asked that he should find you, the cell phone was aggressively closed and the man stood up laughing.
The phone found it's way to the floor with a bang and with another, it had jumped into thousand of tiny electrical particles under the sole of his shoe. βIβm going to prepare our little game outside and look for a playmate. Enjoy the last hours of your miserable life.β
You sat squashed in a small dog cage with your hands tied behind your back and looked around in panic. Even if you tried to stay calm and think of something to get yourself out of here, you couldnβt withstand the pressure you were under.
You were a trained agent and had already experienced worse than that, but this time it was different. You were never the main victim in a case, you always stood there as a minor character, observing and trying to find out what had happened.
And now you were in the middle of the action. You were the one who now had to experience firsthand how bad it was and what an incredible fear everyone must have felt who was once in such a situation.
You desperately tried to break the zip tie on a broken wire of the cage, but the only thing you destroyed was your own palms with this hopeless attempt. The burning and throbbing in your hands, the red liquid that ran from your arms made your hands too slippery to break free from the shackled and so you saw it as a waste of time to continue destroying them. You stopped, even if unintentionally.
Fidgeting, however, you managed to get down on your knees and look around. The small wooden hut was full of rubbish, the furniture was covered with brown, dried blood and you couldn't shake the visions before your eyes of how the others died helplessly here.
And now it seems it was your turn. But you didn't give up that easily, you would fight to the very last breath. Until then, you had to collect all your strength and energy and use it for your protection and safety.
Within a very short time your survival instincts that you were taught at the academy kicked in and your eyes wandered along the room until they stopped on a hook that held nothing but the key to this prison in which you were stuck.
Always paying attention to the door and the noises around you, you looked for something wide and thin that could access the keys like and arm substitute. But even if there was all sorts of rubbish lying everywhere, nothing like that was to be seen far and wide.
Annoyed and carelessly you let yourself fall back and noticed that the cage wasn't as strong as you thought. The thin iron was slightly rusted and probably several years old, it could no longer withstand tremendous force.
Tremendous force, that was it.
It was very risky and loud, but it was the only possible way out of this situation. You had to be quick; kick in the bars, somehow crawl out and run.
With the first kick you bent the door and with the second it popped open.
You escaped your prison crawling and were now standing in the cabin. Once again you looked around the upper level of your field of vision and found what you needed to destroy the bonds. The secateurs were the only thing you saw and took, so you cut them open and didn't often miss a few areas on your arms, but you didn't care.
You had to leave.
The door was open, he hadn't locked it before, thinking he was sure you couldn't leave. You ran out quickly and stopped shortly afterwards to examine the area. The cold air of winter and the snow that was falling made it difficult for you to have a clear view to see where you were at all.
You only knew that you were in some forest through the wooden hut and that it was freezing. You only had a thin coat on that was not prepared for this temperature. The ice-cold air ached in your lungs when you took deep breaths and the fine and yet so sharp wind cut like knife stabs into your already reddened cheeks.
To warm up, you crossed your arms under your chest and rubbed your upper arms before you set off into the unknown distance. Your boots sank into deep snow and made it harder and harder for you to move. Your energy also dwindled with every minute you spent out there, but far and wide you couldn't find anything where you could get help or hide.
A few meters deeper into the forest, you heard a female voice, followed by a male laugh. Quickly you ran as best as you could to the next big tree and hid behind it. You put your head on the cold wood and looked to the side in the direction where the screams were coming from.
The woman you heard earlier was scared for her life, away from her tormentor. But she didn't get far. Instead, he caught up with her, grabbed her and knocked her down.
Helplessly but defending she tried to push him away but he was stronger than her, she had no chance. You hid again and closed your eyes while you listened to her cries for help before you took another deep breath and released yourself from your little hiding place.
You walked to the place they were standing, only a small river separated you. "Leave her alone. Come and take me, but let her go!" your lips were already blue and trembling, your words were just a mix of chattering teeth and slurred words.
The focus of the two fighting on the ground was now on you. In the woman's eyes you could clearly see the fear but also the liberation that she was not alone. While you tried to keep his attention and talk to him, the woman below had become too impatient and began to tear the stone out of his hand, with which he presumably, like all his other victims, wanted to kill her.
Inwardly, you cursed her for making an unnecessary attempt that left her even more of a mess. You ran at them both through the freezing shallow water that cut through your skin with full force and threw yourself on him.
When your weight hit his body, he fell forward and you landed in front of him, barely able to move due to the cold. "Bitch!" he yelled and crawled over to you once he had collected himself and processed what had happened.
Only your arms had the strength to fight him off, your legs were almost useless and you cursed yourself for your decision to run through the river, but it was your job to help the others.
Your panicked gaze wandered from him to the woman who was still on the floor and dared not to move; she acted like a deer in the headlights. "Run!" you screamed at her before his fist collided with your face and she took the time to realize what you said before leaning on her legs and moving towards freedom.
You hoped that she would get help as soon as possible, if it wasn't too late by then.
