THE SW CASINO
By Minimizer
Chapter 113
About five seconds after that happened, we heard the distinctive ring of the elevator coming up, and that was all the cue we needed. "Quick, everyone, into the vent!" I yelled, but Amber was already way ahead of me. She had started feeding ladies through in groups of two, so that we all moved inside swiftly.
Now, don't get me wrong, this was not as easy as it sounded. There was a lot of talking and worrying going on, and some of the girls (such as Marcy Collins) were reluctant to move. But when we all distinctly heard a scream coming in from the other room, that pretty much shut everybody up, and they practically stampeded over each other in their haste to follow the others into the imagined safety of the dark air duct.
I was the last one through, making sure there weren't any stragglers, and as I finally stepped into the shaft, I looked back to see a horrible sight. One of the women who'd chosen to stay, Pam Jones, came racing around the corner towards us, absolute terror in her face. She saw me in the darkness and started to yell for help, but what could I do? For one brief instant our eyes met, and then Victor's gigantic foot came down on top of her. All I heard was a muffled squeak and then the sickening sound of crunching bones.
I didn't wait around to see what she must have looked like after that, but I'll remember that scene for the rest of my life. And, God willing, the next time I heard it, it would be Victor under MY foot! I'd now seen him murder two helpless women, and show not the slightest bit of remorse in doing so. And how many others had he slaughtered in this place? A hundred? More? Just because we were tiny didn't mean we weren't real people, and the ruthless way he destroyed us when we no longer pleased him just made me ill. In all my years of law enforcement, I can't remember any case where I'd seen such pure evil, such absolute disregard for human life. Victor Santiago and the other men who ran this den of horrors deserved a slow and painful death.
I felt sorry for Pam and the other ten women who were now either dead or about to die, but once again, now was not the time for tears or regrets. I couldn't have forced them to come, after all, and they'd made their decisions for themselves. You can't make a horse drink, can you? No matter how important it was to quench its thirst.
I ducked into the darkness and behind me I heard Victor's footsteps come into the room and start tromping around. There was also a strange beeping out there in the main room, but I had no idea what that was. I stopped in the vent so my feet didn't make any noise on the metal floor, but he didn't quit walking back and forth. After a few moments he seemed to give up and head back out to start searching the rest of the prison area.
The beeping must've been coming from a hand-held tracking device, I thought, and he was using it to locate the other girls so he could take them out. Well, he'll have trouble finding the rest of us, I thought. In a few minutes, when he ran out of signals, he'd probably realize what was going on and go back to the computer room, where he'd discover all our tracers were gone. Who knows what he'd do then?
Well, I thought as I hurried to catch up with the others, no doubt he'd start patrolling outside, since they'd have to expect we'd try to get out of the house. What he'd do about getting us out of the walls, I had no idea. I had to wonder, though, if maybe it wasn't a better plan to just stay inside until my people showed up to get me. Unfortunately, though, we'd been forced to act a day early (damn that Victor to Hell!) and so the earliest we could expect rescue was 24 hours from now. Would they find a way to extract us before then?
Worse yet, because we'd had to make our break for it now, what was going to happen to Beth? Hopefully, Mark could still protect her, but if they kept their cool on the other end, they'd just pick her off when she came in to work the next morning. Or would they just let her go and flee for the hills? Who knows? The only thing I was sure of at this point was that they were abandoning this place--otherwise why start killing everyone?
Suddenly I slowed my pace. Behind me, I distinctly heard footsteps approaching! "Wait!" a desperate voice called out. "Please--don't leave me behind!"
I turned to look and a terribly distraught-looking woman in a tight jogging outfit ran up. It was Shelly Flegal, the choreographer, and she was cradling one arm stiffly. Her left elbow was twisted at an impossible angle. "Shelly!" I yelled. "What happened?"
"It--it was Lou!" she gasped. "He, Victor and Gary all came in and started killing everyone! He kicked me into a wall--but I got into the vent before he could squash me! Please--you have to help me!"
I just stared at her, horrified, as I suddenly realized the cold truth of the situation. I couldn't do anything for her, could I? If she came with me, her tracer would lead the men right to us! "I--I can't," I said sadly. "You should've listened to me before. I can't destroy your tracer now, and you'll get the rest of us all killed!"
"Then at least help me get out!" she begged. "I'll take my chances by myself! Anything's better than staying here to die!"
I slumped. "A-all right," I told her. "I can at least get you as far as the trees, but that's it, understand?"
"O-okay," she replied, and now I saw that she was crying. "Oh, Ashley, I'm so sorry!" she wailed. "I-I made this happen. I told Gary about how everyone was talking about you helping us escape. It's all my fault!"
"That's all right," I replied in a low voice. I should have been mad, but all I felt was pity. This girl had been completely taken in by Gary's machinations. He'd made her feel like she had a real home here, in much the same way that Victor had done to Heather. She'd honestly thought he would still protect her when the end came, and now, her little world had fallen completely apart. Actually, she had every reason to blame me for the destruction of that world, but instead, she felt only regret, which at least said something good about her.
We started moving, but I deliberately moved slowly, hoping the other girls would be down the rope and on their way outside before I caught up. I didn't want to lead Victor and the others along our escape route if I could avoid it. In fact, I thought, it would probably be wisest to just not go that way at all. I could always catch up to them later, since that huge gaggle of women would be a lot slower than I would. Besides...hmmm...the seeds of an idea began to occur to me, but before they could take root, Lori appeared out of the darkness in front of me.
"Kate!" she said with relief. "I thought you'd gotten lost! Hey--who's that with you? Shelly? Oh, God, no, you can't let her come!"
"Don't worry," I replied, letting a grin spread across my face. "The rest of you go ahead. I'm going to get her out, but much, much later. In the meantime, I'm gonna lead those giant bastards on a nice merry chase through the building."
Lori chuckled. "Oh, I see," she said. "Tell you what, I'll hurry on ahead and tell the others, then I'll join you. Besides, we still need a diversion, don't we? And I have an idea about that." She scuttled off before I could ask what she was talking about.
Shelly looked at me and wiped the tears from her eyes with her good hand. "I see what you're doing," she sniffled, "and don't worry, I'm happy to be a part of it. I should've listened when you offered, Ashley, or Kate, or whoever you are. I-I really thought G-Gary would..." she let her voice trail off, and I thought she'd start crying again, but she didn't. Instead she just fell silent as we slowly trudged along.
In due course we came to the rope, which of course was going to be a problem for her broken arm. Lori, however, had anticipated this already. She came climbing up quickly, carrying the end with her as she did, and we tied it around Shelly's waist. Then, while she held it steady with her unbroken arm, we lowered her down slowly. Once she was all the way at the bottom, we went down ourselves and set her loose.
Now Lori led us in silence away from the planned escape route. I figured out almost immediately what she was doing--she was heading towards the computer room! When we got there, we heard giant voices in the distance ahead, but we kept Shelly from getting too close. Instead, we just sat there and listened, glad for a chance to see what they were up to.
"See what I mean?" Lou was saying. "Look, there's only two blips left! But we've only accounted for ten of the forty-seven women. Two of them got in the vents, see? But where are the others?"
"God damn it!" swore Victor. "That bitch Beth must've smuggled in some way to jam them all. I don't know what I'm gonna enjoy more, wringing the head off Ashley Richardson or shrinking Beth down into oblivion along with her brainless daughter!"
"Calm down, Victor!" Gary spat. "You know they're still in the building. The fence is still on and there's no way past it. We'll just smoke 'em out the way we planned."
"I don't trust that Ashley," grumbled Victor. "If she's really a cop, she's got some kind of plan, I just know it! Maybe I won't kill her after all, I'll just break her arms and legs and tack her up on my wall."
"Vic," said Gary evenly, "I know you're pissed off and all, but we have to stick to the plan. No souvenirs! We confirm they're all dead, destroy the bodies, and go back to our summer homes. No one can pin a thing on us, right?"
I cringed at that. They were right, of course. If they offed Beth, and left no sign of us being here, who could prove anything? They'd get off scot-free! Of course, their little tiny slave ring would be broken, but the thought of them getting away with everything they'd done chilled my blood to the marrow.
Well, I told myself, if they think it's going to be that easy, they've got another thing coming!