Stunned, I sat rocking back and forth in disbelief at what I’d just witnessed. Georgie was gone. My best friend had just evaporated before my eyes and my heart was completely broken.
The light dissipated and the room went dim again. My eyes adjusted and I could see Roderick and Reese’s shocked faces.
“Ariah, I know you’re upset, we are too… but we’ve got to move. We have to get out of here before it starts up again.” Roderick said urgently as he put his arm around me. I looked up at him and Reese. She was pale and had her arms folded over her chest in an effort to protect herself and I could tell Roderick was panicked by the way his eyes were flicking back and forth, alert to danger.
I felt numb and cold like stone. My brain was dancing between thoughts and I couldn’t hold one in place for more than a second. Shaking, I moved slowly towards the stairs and looked at the pile of dust that had once been my best friend. Nausea rose and I turned my head and vomited, bile burned the back of my throat as my heart and stomach emptied themselves. As I wiped my mouth, a sudden feeling of extreme determination took over and adrenaline surged throughout my entire body.
“You’re right, we need to get out of here. We need to find Mom.” I said, my fists clenched into balls. Digging my fingernails into my palms took the pain away from my chest and helped keep my focus out of my head.
“If we can get to my car, we could get across town to the art gallery and see if Mom’s there.” Roderick agreed.
“She might be on her way here to look for you too. Maybe we should go to your house and if it’s safe, wait for her there? You can drop me at my house, I’ll get my parents and bring them to yours.” Reese said shakily. “They had a day off from the bookstore today so they'll be at home.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to split up, but you’re right. Going to our houses is probably the best idea because then we can collect supplies and clothing. We’ll go to yours first, get your parents, then onto ours.” Roderick walked over to Reese and enveloped her in a hug.
“Why do we need supplies? Why can’t we just stay there, at home? And what if the car doesn’t work or has been destroyed?” I started to feel panic rising, but I clenched my fists tighter and managed to hold it at bay.
“Whatever this is Ariah, I don’t think it’ll spare homes. I think we need to get to the lake and go up into the forest. And as far as the car goes, I guess we’ll have to see. We need to get to the carpark.” As Roderick finished his sentence, the piercing noise started again and sent Roderick and Reese diving into the dark corner of the room. I ducked down as the light hit the stairs above me and I scrambled across the floor, throwing myself into their outstretched arms. We huddled together, quivering in each other's embrace and watched as the light scanned the stairs up and down again.
“It looks like it’s searching for something.” Reese whispered.
“It also seems like it’s coming in waves.” I said, suddenly aware of the timing of the pulses of light. “If we can time the pulses, maybe we have a chance of getting out of here in between them?”
“Good idea. I’ll time them with my stopwatch.” Raising his arm, Roderick started playing with the buttons on the side of his watch, but then stopped and looked at us. “It’s not working, my watch isn’t working.”
“That’s odd. I’ll try the timer app on my phone.” Reese said as she took her phone out of her pocket and pressed the screen. “That’s weird, the only function working is the torch.”
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“We’ll just have to keep count the old fashioned way, I think we need to get out of here as soon as we can. It already feels like we’ve been down here far too long.” I looked around the room trying to see if there was any other way out.
“Agreed.” Roderick nodded. “After the next set of pulses, I’ll stack some boxes to help us reach the window so we can climb out. It might be a tight fit, but we should all be able to get out of it.”
We sat quietly for what seemed like an eternity, all just focusing on breathing and staying calm. I tried not to let my thoughts return to Georgie and I kept my gaze away from the staircase, choosing instead to think about hugging Mom when I saw her. I always felt safe in her arms and smiled softly at the thought of her warm embrace.
“Okay, here it comes again.” Reese said.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“I’ve noticed there’s a slight popping sound before we hear the high pitched one and before we see the pink light itself. I just heard the faint popping noise coming from outside the window.”
We went quiet and listened closely. Reese was right, we could hear the popping sound. Then just as that went quiet the high-pitched sound started again. I covered my ears in an attempt to muffle it and stop it from vibrating my brain.
“Remember to count!” Roderick yelled over top. I nodded and began to count slowly in my head. Each second feeling like an eternity as we slowly counted and waited.
Finally the sound and the light disappeared again. I pulled my hands away from my ears and started counting from zero to time out the duration in between. We all looked at each other as we quietly counted upwards.
I looked at my hands while I ticked off numbers in my head, they were still clenched tightly and where my fingernails pierced my skin just felt numb. My heart felt sick with worry but I buried it deeper so it wouldn’t reach my thoughts and send me spiralling.
We kept counting upwards, for a brief moment I thought it was over and that the light wouldn’t return, but it seemed to read my mind and within an instant had started again. I stopped counting and covered my ears once more. The pink light broke the darkness above us again and scanned the staircase. We still seemed to be safe in our dark little corner.
Once again, the light and sound retreated, like violent waves lapping at a shoreline, coming and going.
“Okay, what did you guys get? Each wave itself was about 2 minutes then 5 minutes in between.” Roderick said, looking at us.
“I got that approximately too.” I replied.
“Me too.” Reese responded.
“Right. Let’s quickly get these boxes into position. After the next wave, we go okay?”
Reese and I nodded in agreement. We all got to our feet and quickly made our way to the spot under the window. Reese and I pushed boxes full of gym equipment over to Roderick who then moved them into position. Working together, the three of us lifted the lighter boxes and stacked them on top of the heavier ones.
My arm brushed against the concrete and it was cool on my skin. “The light doesn’t affect the concrete, the concrete was still cool but you said the metal and wood were hot, correct?” I noted as I helped push a box higher.
“Yes, scalding hot.” Roderick answered.
“So to get out and then across to the car park will potentially take longer than the five minutes we have.” I said thoughtfully.
“Possibly.”
“I think we need to get to the shower room in the gymnasium by the car park to help give us more time.” I suggested.
“Because the shower room is concrete and tiles? Good thinking.”
“The popping has started again.” Reese said hurriedly, grabbing Roderick and my arms and pulling us back to the corner. We quickly huddled again and waited for the wave to pass.
Nervousness filled my stomach, this was it. We had to go, suddenly the basement seemed like the safest place in the world and I didn’t want to leave it.