January (21 page)

Kicking and screaming furiously, I was dragged out of the office and down the stairs.

Red Singlet hauled me over to the gaping black hole of the underground storage tank.

‘No!’ I yelled. But he was too strong for me. Despite my desperate struggles, he pushed me down and I half fell into the circular opening, bashing my shins painfully on the rungs of a steel ladder. I tried scrambling back up out of the hole, but Red Singlet kicked me hard then forced me back down the ladder, pulling the manhole cover into position, almost taking my fingers off as he did.

It was pitch black down there and I clung to the steel ladder, frantically trying to think of a way to escape. Once they’d gone, maybe I’d be able to open the lid and get out. I pushed it but it was firmly locked into place.

Blindly, I felt my way around the walls. It stank
of oil. My feet were slipping on the ground, and I kept struggling to get back up again. The tank was about the size of a small bathroom, and if I stood on my toes I could touch the roof.

There was no way out.

The sudden scraping of metal made me hope for a minute that my kidnappers had changed their minds and were letting me out. But what I saw filled me with unimaginable horror.

A small cover had been removed and now a steel pipe dangled through it. Within a few seconds, the pipe started spurting thick sump oil. They were filling the tank! With me inside! If I didn’t get out fast, I would drown.

Already, the oil was covering my shoes. I felt my way back to the steel ladder, clawing my way up. I banged my head on the manhole cover. I bashed on it, yelling, ‘Let me out!
Let me out! You can’t do this
!’

The stinking oil kept spurting in, gurgling into the tank. I crouched on the highest level of the ladder that I could fit on, pushing the manhole lid as hard as I could with my back and shoulders. It wouldn’t budge.

Squashed up on the topmost level, I begged for the oil to stop pouring in. But it didn’t. I could feel the stinking, viscous mess covering
my feet, then my shins and my knees.

I lashed out against the cover, with the full force of my whole body, but there was nothing I could do.

Now the oil had climbed my legs and was at my waist. I had to raise my hands to avoid its thick, suffocating clamminess.

The oil relentlessly poured in. I could feel it slowly creeping up my chest. I could hardly move my legs or arms through its thickness. The stench was stifling.

This was it. I would never see my family again.

I closed my eyes and thought of Gabbi, lifeless in the hospital. I prayed that she’d make it. I thought of my poor mum, so alone and so completely confused. I thought of my dad. He’d saved me from drowning before, but I knew he couldn’t help me now. He’d had such faith in me, and I’d failed him … Lastly, I thought of Boges, my friend, and hoped he’d keep his promise to me.

I took a deep breath and closed my mouth as the oil reached my chin. It quickly climbed my face. I spat the stinking oil from my lips and strained desperately to move higher. My head was already hard against the ceiling of the tank,
there was nowhere else to go. Any minute now, the oil would completely cover my mouth, then my nose … and then I’d be gone.