The Uprising

CHAPTER FOUR

So there I was, standing in a room that was around thirty by thirty feet across and just as high. There were only three significant differences in the flat – and I’m guessing thick – concrete, the two recesses for the hydraulic lifting mechanism and the alcove in the corner of the room. The alcove appeared to me as my only method of escape, unfortunately, the ledge was about twelve feet off the floor. I was posed with a problem.
I was trapped.
Realistically there was no other way that this could have gone down, once the two men were alerted to my presence it was survival of the fittest. Or in my case, the luckiest.
My breathing was still heavy from the exertion of pillaging the two dead bodies of anything that I may find useful. Unfortunately there was nothing electronic on either of them, so I was left with weapons, nearly a full change of clothing and some painkillers, which were a little too strong for me to take at the moment, I needed my wits about me and whatever remaining strength that I had.
I walked around the room, and stood pondering for a few moments, it had been nearly an hour since I killed the two guards – well technically, they killed each other – and the bright light of the magnesium flare was ebbing. There was only one flare left, each man had one each, I couldn’t take the risk of using the other so quickly, there might be a time when it will be needed, and this wasn’t worth wasting it on.
Thinking of every possible scenario, there was no way that I could move the car chassis beneath the ledge, it was too heavy for me even without the engine. There might have been a chance if it never had tyres on it, it was too big a risk for me to take, my energy levels needed to be used wisely.
Trying to attract attention was another option, but that was way too risky given my current predicament, last time luck was on my side, it may very well be running out as fast as this red flare.
An hour…
Somewhere in the back of my mind, be it through common knowledge or through my survival training, my thoughts went to the two dead bodies.
The onset of rigor would take about three hours, give or take.
“Nah forget it.” I was surprised to hear my voice jump in unannounced.
I would have to sit here in the darkness for the next two hours, place the bodies in a position that would give me sufficient leverage to jump onto the ledge, also the bodies wouldn’t be in full rigor until around twelve hours anyway, chances were that they would just crack and fall over on my initial contact. It was out of the question to wait around for twelve hours, something told me that these two men wouldn’t be missed for that amount of time, in fact, there was no telling when, who or what might come looking for them should they fail to report in.
They were also talking about a woman being held captive here, if she was nearby and as important as the two made out, then someone would be keeping close tabs on her status. It had also occurred to me that she may prove to be a useful ally.
That is, if she were Canadian… Like me.
If the woman was a different nationality from me then there was no way that she could be trusted. If I were to rescue her, arm her, she might simply turn around and put a bullet in my face, that would not be a good way to finish the shitty day I was already having. It was just the way things were in the world – if that’s what you could call it anymore – today.
Without a thought I climbed onto the cars hood and swiftly as I’ve ever moved in my interesting, event filled life, my feet slid away from me.
Now, I wasn’t too sure how I managed it, maybe it’s a natural thing that you’re born with, but I landed without breaking anything or even hurting myself. Shocked more than anything and gingerly getting to my feet, I looked around to see what the hell had just happened.
The cars hood was lying on the concrete floor, still gently swaying with a big dent where my size ten feet had clumsily lumbered on to.
Things were starting to look up, literally.
I moved as quickly as my body would allow my, a sharp stabbing pain in my foot reminding me that I wasn’t completely okay. Placing the metal hood against the wall at a slight slant and at its longest points, it gave me around five feet of leverage, it might just be enough for me to get a decent grip of the ledge above. I rubbed my eyes to try and regain focus on the scene around me, and realised that it wasn’t my weariness taking over, but the signal flare beginning to burn out. I had to be quick.
Dragging the two dead bodies, whose limbs began to crack and groan with the stiffening muscle tissue, I wedged them to secure the hood from sliding away from me as I stepped on it. I placed the half naked South African on top of his English counterpart and could have sworn he let out a sigh!
“Fuck!” I jumped back, almost shitting myself, staring at his fading face for a few moments I couldn’t help but laugh at the preposterous thoughts I was having.
I tested my footing, stepping on the two bodies that were gurgling and creaking beneath my feet, hoisted myself up onto the car hood and was relieved that my hands easily reached the ledge, in fact I could get one elbow up onto it if I moved myself properly.
It was decided that I could make it just as the light faded to black, and apart from my scuffling there wasn’t a noise to be heard.
One thing that could make a man go insane down here was the darkness, but if you were to combine that darkness with a total, deathly silence it would definitely increase the chances of someone mental. Training my mind not to let the imagination run wild, I threw the rifle, flare and pistol up onto the ledge. And braced myself for the final push.
“One, two…” On three I groaned as I leapt up onto the ledge, managing to get both my elbows up without too much trouble and grateful not to hear the makeshift metal step give way, I remained there, resting on my elbows for a moment in the darkness. I didn’t know what was around on this ledge that was worth grabbing hold of for leverage, so I couldn’t risk falling back into the abyss, one man had already learned that falling from this height into the darkness can really put a mark on your day.
I ‘sniped’ forwards, edging my left elbow forwards, then the right, after what seemed like an hour, I was on my stomach, almost there. Refusing the great temptation to reach out and grab something, I continued the action until I was up to my knees in solid concrete ledge.
It was amazing, the relief at being out of that potential trap, and ever so slight closer to safety. My body rolled over onto its back, then slid into a sitting position with my back firmly against one wall and my feet against the other. It was then that I did the only thing that I could think of…
I wept.

CHAPTER THREE

Closing my eyes in the darkness, there was no telling what damage would be done to them if this wasn’t done right. I held the cold length of tubing in my right hand and looked away in the opposite direction, crouching down on my right knee, I brought the end of the pipe down firmly on the concrete floor.
It was easy to tell even with my eyes closed that nothing happened, my limbs ached and weakened, but my resolve didn’t. So flipping the tube in my hand and repeating the process, what I was expecting to happen, happened.
There was a thunderous roar, multiplied tenfold by the enclosed confines of the room and an explosion of bright light. Kneeling for a few moments, remaining absolutely still with my eyes closed until the light died down a little, I winced as the bright light shocked my retinas with its harsh intrusion.
It took a few moments, which seemed to last forever as the silence around me began to creep back into my senses. My ears were still whistling their disgust at the loud noise they just had to deal with, sorry guys.
I slowly opened my eyes, and saw the two dead bodies lying in front of me, it was a disturbing sight but one that I had sort of grown used to in my recent history. One man’s head was facing an awkward direction, his neck very clearly broken, I guess that was the South African that had fallen from the ledge above. What was more disturbing was the fact that the acid still continued to eat away at his skin even after his untimely (or in my case, timely) death.
It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
But what was more interesting was the injury inflicted to the ‘Englishman’ lying next to him. He lay looking at the ceiling through one eye, his faced twisted with a look of surprise that almost had me laughing in my delirious state. The right eye was missing, along with most of the forehead just above it.
He was shot by his friend.
I almost laughed out loud in the confines of the room but didn’t, what luck was on my side at the moment? I throw a bottle of acid at two armed men, one of which then goes on to shoot the other in the head, before falling and breaking their own neck, along with a couple of other bones as far as I could see.
There was only one thing to do, I fell on my ass, the relief and the outrageousness of the situation tickled my gullet. Before long I was giggling wildly in the room now lit in a foreboding shade of red, thanks to the signal flare that I had found on one of the dead bodies.
The moment of happiness soon subsided as there was still a lot to be done before I was on safe ground, if there was such a thing down here. I couldn’t risk extinguishing the flare for what I had to do, it was probably burning at too low a temperature anyway, I had to find a source of heat, my ransacking of the bodies had to continue.
In luck again! There was a lighter in the Africans jacket pocket, wrapped in a stretch of cloth that would also suit my purpose, flicking the oil lighter into action and waiting a few moments to let it get to its full heat, I folded my legs with the heel of my injured foot facing the ceiling. Unsheathing the combat knife from the Englishman’s left leg and raising the blade to the flame, I waited.
It gave me a few moments of reflection, the unanswered question as to my being here was still troubling the back of my mind, but what was also interesting was the fact that, despite me being here, no one was watching me.
No-one knew I was here??
Then what the hell was I doing here? With the burning magnesium flare placed next to the rusty old car (which was actually cut in half!) I managed to take more of the scene in around me. The doorway that the two men had fallen from was just an opening in the top corner of the room, covered by a badly secured metal mesh that had completely detached itself as the two men fell. All four walls were solid concrete, with no doors save for the opening above me and the ceiling…
The ceiling was made of metal, two huge doors came together in the centre and looked just as sturdy as the concrete that held them. On to of the walls, facing opposite each other there were metal recesses. I appeared to me in some sort of lowered platform and couldn’t see the control mechanism from here, it must be located somewhere behind the doors. Meaning there was no possible way for me to get in here unless via the twelve foot drop from the opening, which may go to explain why I was aching all over. Or it meant I was lying here before the platform got lowered.
There was nothing else of value on the platform, half a car, two dead bodies, burning fluid and broken bottles were the only things that accompanied me.
Satisfied that the knife in my hand was as hot as it was going to get, I quickly moved the blade onto the wound in my foot, almost trying to tell myself it wasn’t going to hurt.
“Fuck!”
It hurt, big time, but I kept the knife on the cut just long enough to sear the skin together on the surface. As far as I could tell, there was no other glass in the wound, so apart from the sharp pain I was going to feel for the next few days while walking, it was okay. A first aid kit would have been more preferable, but given the circumstances finding one of those anywhere except in an infirmary would be like looking for a needle in a stack full of needles. It simply wasn’t going to happen.
Gingerly getting to my feet, without scruple I moved to the dead Englishman’s feet, I needed to find boots, and semi-clean socks. I could tell immediately that his feet were too small so I limped, wincing at every step towards the South African.
“Sorry buddy.” I wasn’t really, his boots looked like a nice fit so there was no time to waste, untying the laces and pulling them off, I saw to my amazement that his socks were clean, almost fresh considering the filthy state that I found myself in.
Excellent, I was now fully clothed with comfortable boots, my chances of surviving this hell were increasing by the minute.
“Now… I’ll be needing those weapons.”

CHAPTER TWO

The footsteps echoed loudly in the darkness as the two shadows approached from above. Blocking out whatever light there was left by the open doorway in the top right hand corner of the room, opposite where I was now with my back pinned against the wall. I was sure it wouldn't take them long to find me, all they would need to do was flick on a light switch and my game was over.
But I knew that they would not do that, these people preferred to operate under the cover of darkness, and I’d be surprised if any of the lights in this place actually worked anyway.
The bottles of glass had stopped making any noise, but they now posed another problem…
I was barefoot.
But that wasn’t all, the pungent odour that was now scorching my nostrils and the back of my throat informed me bluntly that the content of the bottles was far from friendly.
So here I was, trapped in a dark concrete room, two armed men moving in on the commotion that I had stupidly created, barefoot, unarmed and weakening by the moment…
Great…
I did the only thing that I could think of, I gingerly moved my right hand through the darkness and felt for an undamaged – hopefully full – bottle from the crate that I had knocked over. Luck was on my side, if only in a faint sense of the word, there was a bottle left in the wooden box, the liquid on the floor was beginning to sizzle loudly in the silence broken only by the harsh English accent.
“Who the fuck is down there?” there was a short pause for a reply as I wrapped my fingers tightly around the bottleneck, there was one chance, and it was a slim chance at best. The sound of the thugs’ rifle mechanism being cocked broke the silence, not a good sign, my window of opportunity opened slightly for me, albeit slightly ajar, “Show yourself, slowly and you won’t be harmed.”
“I can’t see a bloody thing man!” the South African shadow appeared closely behind that of the Englishman, that made my target slightly larger, so in my weakened state I wouldn’t have to be as accurate as I once thought.
“Give it a moment you fool, your eyes will focus to the light.” Englishman reassured him. He was right, it wouldn’t be long before the two men could see me clearly, then it would be bottle against bullet, in that scenario there would only be one winner.
Mustering all the strength that I had left from my aching limbs, I slowly moved myself away from the wall. The last thing I wanted was to make the effort, only to smash the bottle against the wall I was standing next to. I’d deserve to be shot if that happened, luckily avoiding the burning liquid on the concrete floor, I poised myself for action.
“What’s that?” The Englishman pointed in my direction, luckily for me he wasn’t pointing with his gun, I had run out of time.
Taking a step forward for leverage, I felt the skin on my left heel grow hot almost instantly. The searing pain shot up my ankle and almost took me off balance, but I was determined to see this action through, even if it was my last.
“What the…” The South African saw the glimmering object floating through the air, his eyes widened at the realisation that the aforementioned object was swiftly moving in their direction. He raised his rifle and took aim, with his English comrade still wondering what the hell was going on.
I found out at that moment that the African man was a great shot, the green bottle that was flying through the darkness exploded into a thousand pieces, the contents continued in the direction I hoped for.
Both men shrieked in agony, and then something surreal and unexpected happened…
The South African man was holding a pistol, instead of a rifle like the other thug was holding, a more sensible option considering the enclosed passages and dark areas, but with the burning acid already eating out his eyeballs, all reasonable actions were out of the window, shuddering in pain, he began firing randomly into the darkness, I dived for cover towards the only place I knew, the ‘car’. I pushed with my left foot and the agonising pain multiplied tenfold, the thought occurred to me then that it wasn’t the acid eating into my heel that was causing it.
It was broken glass.
Bullets ricocheted off the wall where I was standing, and then a muffled cry rang out, it sounded like it came from the Englishman before a dull thud reverberated on the floor nearby in the darkness. The shrieking from the African also died down, ending with a deathly gargle as and a crunch of broken bones. They had both fallen into the room I was in!
Feeling my foot for the pieces of glass, there were no more sounds and no backup arriving, at least for the moment. There it was, the shard of broken glass sticking into my foot a little deeper now thanks to me putting my weight on it, there was little acid on the shard so the pain from that was minimal.
Dripping with sweat, breathing like I’d just been on a 5 mile hike since the fallout, I gritted my teeth. The glass had to come out and it had to come out now, before anyone else arrived.
Screaming through my teeth I pulled the shard of glass out of my foot without care or consideration, nearly passing out with the pain as the inch long piece of glass clattered to the floor. Panting for breath and mustering up any energy that I could, a thought occurred to me.
Limping around the other side of the cars frame, I located the two dead men lying on the floor below the open doorway. One thing that was noticeable was the lack of stairs leading down from it, it was just a sheer drop, it didn’t make any sense. Saying that, not a lot did at the moment as my fingers traced over one of the dead bodies, it wasn’t long before I found what I was looking for.
Holding the object in my hand, I knew exactly what it was, and exactly how to use it. The sizzling acid melted into the faces of the two dead bodies but I was oblivious to the fact now, one thing I needed to do...
One last surge of pain…

CHAPTER ONE

The cold…
That’s what hit me first as my lungs drew in the dusty, fetid air around me. The smell was making the gag reflex work overtime, but most of all the feeling of the cold, stone floor was what hit my senses first.
That was, until I tried to get up, “Shit!” I managed to whisper with a bloated dry tongue, the pain was searing. Pushing all other the senses out of my system the pain started in my fingers, then spreading the arms, chest and legs. It was at that precise moment the revelation came, the starkest of all realisations hit me like a lightning bolt.
I was blind.
“What the hell is going on here?” I mumbled as the dry tongue feeling began to fade, managed to lift myself into a sitting position, luckily there was a wall nearby made of what felt like solid concrete, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
Were my eyelids closed through some sort of injury, or was I really blind? Lifting my aching hands to my face to feel for a blindfold and finding none, the adulation sweeps over me as I see the silhouette of my fingers against the darkened background, at least I’m not blind then. So where the hell am I??
The room was incredibly dark, almost bordering on perpetual, yet there they were, my fingers dancing slowly and painfully in front of my face. Shaking my limbs to find out if any of my injuries are serious, I’m glad to find that there is nothing broken nor torn.
Giving myself a once over to see if I’m leaking fluids of any serious nature, turns out sweat is the only dampness I feel, dripping off my forehead and down my back. Unusual in such a cold room, makes me wonder how long I had been lying there, could have been hours, minutes or merely moments.
Wearing what feels like a grimy T-shirt and loose denim jeans, the feel of the floor on my feet tells me that I’m barefooted.
“What were you saying man?” a voice echoed in the distance, very faint but discernible at least. It sounded as though the guy who just spoke was from Australia, or maybe South Africa. Whatever it was it made me freeze like a rabbit in headlights, I had no idea where I was, therefore I had no idea where to run and hide, if that was even an option!
“I cant remember, Benedict wants us to keep an eye on her, turns out she’s a troublesome little bitch.” The other voice said, he was definitely English and the other was South African. What the hell was I doing here stuck in the darkness?
Looking toward the source of the noise, there was a lighter shade of darkness. The eyes now began focusing in the distance saw what appeared to be an open doorway about twelve feet off of the floor, in what I guessed as being the corner of the room.
The shadow of what looked like one man holding what could only be a rifle, was looking to his right. The other man was just out of sight, so there must be a corridor running in that direction.
Taking a deep breath of the musty air around me, my right leg moves forward, with one hand on solid wall I test the area around me to make sure I’m safe to walk. Deciding that would more than likely lead to injury, I get myself back down on all fours, desperately trying to remember the location of the open doorway. Moving my right hand forward and testing the floor in front of me with my fingertips, which are greeted with more cold stone. Time for the left hand…
Thud.
My left hand knocked into something solid and bounced off again, although there was no real noise the sensation caused my whole body to freeze and listen for the voices above.
“Then why don’t we just kill her man? Heller-Fontaine wants her dead, we can say she tried to escape and we shot her. Then we can get out of this shitty place.” The South African man stated coldly, the determination in his voice sent shivers up my spine and drove my senses into action once more, there had to be a way out of here.
Heller-Fontaine, where had I heard that name before, it certainly sent some bells ringing, but they were more distant than the two voices that were debating the future of some helpless female prisoner.
“Because Benedict wants that filth kept alive, don’t ask me why, but she’s pretty important for some reason. Just be happy that we got to rough her up a bit before throwing her in the cell.” The Englishmen said as he chuckled with his South African comrade.
The chivalrous nature within me began to bubble to the surface for a brief moment before settling down again, I had to be realistic about the situation I was in.
So my left hand reached out again for whatever it was it had just touched, this time making contact softly with the alien surface. It was certainly warmer to the touch than the stone cold floor I was crouched on, the surface was smooth, but also had angular ridges running in straight lines over its surface. Feeling further around the surface I realised at that moment that it was a tyre.
A vehicle!
I raised my hand slowly at first to find the front left wing of the car facing my direction. The cool metallic surface of the cars hood now reflected the faint glowing light from the open doorway above. Now that my senses had recovered almost fully, I saw that there was a chain link fence between this room and the two men.
There was a car here, in this room, that meant only one thing, there had to be an exit! And from the dimensions of the room that could be seen and felt, with the car in the vicinity the exit must be nearby. My initial thought was to break cover and try to find some sort of doorway, then common sense got a hold of me in the cover of darkness, telling me if I was to escape on foot, I wouldn’t get far.
Not with my now rapidly deteriorating energy levels, the adrenaline coursing through my system was now beginning to wear off. If I was to leave, the car was coming with me, I just prayed that this fucker was working.
I moved around to where I thought the door of the car would be, feeling for a door handle that couldn’t be found, the main reason for that being that there was no car door.
It was missing!
No car door? Surely not, feeling around the chassis hoping this was some kind of modified car or jeep, my optimism faded rapidly into the darkness that it arrived from. The car wasn’t in one piece, if anything, this was a work in progress, or a dumping area for wrecked cars, either way, that method of escape had dwindled.
I let out a deep sigh, remembering to keep quiet as to not be heard by the two men chatting idly above me in the distance. Needing to find another hope of escape I moved carefully back to the wall that I had come from, when I felt my right knee nudge something...
CRASH!
“What the fuck was that?” The South African spoke with sudden alarm at the sound I had created, my body shrank against the concrete wall, next to the glass bottles that jangled and smashed loudly in the darkness, the noise soon followed by the footsteps of the two men approaching above…