MELT: A Psychological Thriller (33 page)

Alex moved to pump Carl's chest, but Victoria knelt beside him. She put her hand gently on his shoulder. 'You're just pumping the venom around his body, Alex. Even if you revive him, the venom's still inside him. Do you want him to die twice? Like this?'

Alex kept pumping, but each time with less effort.

Finally Alex slumped forward and rested his head on Carl's chest. He mumbled something Victoria couldn't hear. Victoria patted him on the back.

CRACK
—
clatter, clatter!

Everyone but Alex glanced at the new artifact.

It might be there to kill one of them, but it would have to wait its turn.

Chapter Twenty-three

 

They had too few ice chips to bury Carl.

They didn't speak over his body. They just dragged him to the burial mound and laid him against the ice.

Megan put his cap back on.

They didn’t need Carl’s clothes, but Alex took Carl’s big yellow phone. He clipped the phone to the back of his pants.

Beside Carl, Glen and Ericsson lay partially exposed like two polar explorers found decades after they’d perished.

'A block and tackle,' announced Victoria, standing over the contraption that clattered from the ice.

Alex trod past Victoria.

'Alex,' said Victoria. 'It's a pulley system. For construction.'

'I heard you,' said Alex dully. 'It's rest time.'

Victoria kicked a frozen rope with her shoe. First the Indian God Ganeesha, then the making of paper, then the Viking horseshoe, and now a block and tackle. They were all invented between 100 and 500 AD. If they’d melted from the ice themselves, they’d have emerged in the right order. They all fit the timeline perfectly.

Too bad Carl didn't find one of those instead of the walking stick.

Chrissie and Megan both trudged past Victoria.

'Come on, Victoria,' said Megan. 'It's time to rest.'

Victoria stalled a while longer, pretending to study the artifact. She spread out the stiff rope with her shoe, isolating the two heavy wooden pulleys from the mess.

This will work.

Now she just needed to choose her resting place carefully.

As expected, she found the others already lying down. Victoria chose her spot and joined them.

Carl's absence felt strange.

'Why did he touch the snake?' asked Alex.

Megan said, 'Do you mean the handle?'

'Yes. I passed it to him carefully. He didn't need to touch the handle. Touching the snake was crazy. He knew that, but he just grabbed it anyway. It doesn't make sense.'

'It was an accident,' said Megan.

'He wasn't thinking straight,' said Victoria. 'He was still sick with radiation poisoning. He was trying to hide it. He rallied today, but it was going to overwhelm him tomorrow.'

Chrissie said to Alex, 'He threw that stick to you. Imagine if you’d caught it by the handle. You'd be dead now.'

'I know,' said Alex. 'And I've got the sore leg. That walking stick was meant for me. It feels like I've dodged a bullet that hit Carl.'

'Me too,' admitted Chrissie. 'That’s how I felt when the Trojan horse killed Glen instead of me.'

'That snake trap was meant for me,' said Alex.

'That's ridiculous,' said Megan. 'It was random.'

‘Was it?' asked Alex. 'Is it random that all the men are dying first?'

He's right,
thought Victoria.
First Ericsson, then Glen, and now Carl. Alex must feel like an endangered species.

Chrissie sat up. 'What are you saying?'

'That I can do math,' replied Alex. 'And this isn't random.'

'But it has to be,' argued Megan. 'Our abductors can't influence us in here.'

'Not our abductors,' said Chrissie tersely. 'He means us. That we're doing it. The women.'

Megan sat up, staring at Alex. 'You don't think that, do you?'

'Explain to me why only men are dying,' said Alex.

'There were more of you to start with,' said Chrissie. 'And women are more cautious. We don't take stupid risks.'

Victoria hadn't seen this coming.
Alex thinks we've made some kind of pact to keep the women alive by sacrificing the men.

Megan's voice became shrill. 'Answer me, Alex. Do you really think that?'

'He does,' coaxed Chrissie, fanning Megan's anger. 'He thinks we’re all against him.'

Victoria sighed. This could wreck everything. A blistering man versus women free-for-all would spoil her plan. No one could sleep filled with anger. Worse, they might split up and sleep all over the chamber.

Alex turned to Megan, propping himself up on an elbow. 'Only you and Victoria know which artifacts are safe. And now I'm the only man left. I'm not blind. Something's going on.'

Megan started to rise to her feet, livid with outrage.

I have to stop this
, thought Victoria.

'Megan!' shouted Victoria. 'Carl hasn't been dead even ten minutes. Alex is right. Only the men have died. We'd feel exactly the same in his shoes. This place messes with your head. Alex isn't immune. Leave the boy alone.'

Victoria usually attacked Alex. Hopefully the shock of hearing Victoria defend Alex would subdue Megan’s outrage.

It seemed to.

Megan lay down with her back to Alex.

Chrissie looked disappointed. She looked on the verge of trying to breathe life back into the argument, but then she slumped back, too exhausted to cause any more trouble.

She hates them both
, thought Victoria.
She loves seeing them fighting. I wonder if she'd love to see them die?

 

 

#

 

 

Victoria faked sleep.

Her mind felt crystal clear. For days she'd endured clouded thoughts, but not now.

She'd swept those aside.

Those wretched depression pills weren't helping me. They just confused me.

Now her body had purged the drug. She felt a different woman.

She smiled across the floor toward the pulley and tackle.

Megan was right.

The artifacts did hold the secret to escaping.

How long should I wait?

To pass the time, she thought about Graham.

After thirty minutes the sound of constant fidgeting to find comfortable positions on the steel floor had stopped.

Victoria’s knees cracked painfully as she rose. That was normal.

She needed something sharp.

Where does Alex leave his knife?

She spotted the knife clipped to his pocket. She couldn't risk waking him.

I'll have to use this icepick.

She also took the umbrella.

Halfway around the ice, the statue of Ganeesha’s face poked from the ice like a submerged baby elephant stealing a breath of air.

The remover of obstacles. That's what I'm doing. Maybe you cleared my mind and inspired me, Ganeesha.

The block and tackle lay as she'd left it.

I don’t even need to cut it.

Working quietly, she unwound the rope from the wooden block.

She tested the heavy block.

Perfect
.

Solid, but not so heavy she couldn't manage. None of the other artifacts suited. She carried it the short distance easily.

The bomb lay naked of ice.

Victoria sat on the bomb so its nose cone protruded between her knees. She rested the heavy block on the bomb to catch her breath.

Before now, she'd never understood how Graham could take his own life. Now she understood. When life became too dark to bear, death beckoned like a welcome relief. A back-up plan. An emergency exit.

Now Victoria was jumping through that emergency exit.

The others won’t feel a thing. They’ll die in their sleep.

A quick death was a mercy compared to what this chamber had planned.

Victoria heaved the block above her head.

I won't even feel it.

Three. Two. One....

 

 

#

 

 

'STOP!' yelled Chrissie.

Victoria nearly dropped the heavy block.

She looked up.

Chrissie stood just meters away, her hands raised as though Victoria was about to throw a baby off a cliff.

'This is for all of us,' said Victoria. 'You know that.'

Chrissie shook her head. 'You can't just murder us all, Victoria.'

Megan and Alex appeared.

'Oh, no,' cried Megan. ‘Victoria, please don’t. We can still escape. Don’t give up hope.’

Stupid girl
, thought Victoria.
Even the final moments of my life are plagued with stubborn children.

'The ice is the trap,' said Victoria. 'And hope is the bait.'

Alex turned his back on Victoria. 'I'm going back to sleep. Goodnight, Victoria.'

Victoria nodded.

Alex understood. Why couldn't Chrissie and Megan?

Megan warned, 'Your arms are shaking, Victoria.'

'I'm doing this for all of us,' said Victoria.

Chrissie fumbled with a cargo pocket. 'Look at this, Victoria.'

She yanked something free.

Is that a gun?

Chrissie aimed the pistol squarely at Victoria and thumbed back the hammer.

Click

 
Where did she get that?
It didn't matter. They'd all be dead in moments.

Victoria hadn't the strength to hold it up a second longer.

'Goodbye,' said Victoria.

Three things happened at once.

Chrissie fired the pistol.

Victoria swung down the block.

And Alex slammed his body at full speed into Victoria from behind.