THE INDUSTRY

BY THE ONE
wordzwizardz@hotmail.com

[ part 9 ]

NOTE: ‘The Industry’ is a series of 11 chapters. It will only make sense if you read them in order!

Revolution

Nicole felt water droplets splashing up the backs of her legs as she ran as fast as she could down the dim hallway. Amy’s screams were getting louder. Nicole knew she was getting close, and increased her speed. It was beyond uncomfortable to run while wearing the strict corset, but she didn’t care. Amy and Katrina were all that mattered.

Suddenly, a faulty fuse box exploded with a blinding flash directly in front of Nicole. Unable to stop in time, she was showered with sparks. She fell and rolled into a ball to protect herself from the burning hot points of fire that landed on her skin. The lights connected to the fuse box went dead, plunging Nicole into darkness. After a moment of recovery, she picked herself up continued on toward her friend’s ever-more-desperate cries. She could make out words now; she was getting very close. Amy was begging Smith not to kill her.

As Nicole left the darkened section of hallway and entered an area where a different fuse controlled the lights, Amy’s screams suddenly stopped. Nicole feared the worst but didn’t slow her pace. Finally, she turned a corner and saw her friend. Smith and Katrina were nowhere in sight.

Amy lay, still chained on the table, her head sealed in a balloon-like black rubber mask. It latched around her neck to form a tight seal and was secured with a padlock. Hoses leading from a tank were sealed to valves under her chin. Muffled screams drifted out to Nicole as she sprinted the last twenty yards to Amy’s side.

Skidding to a halt beside the table, Nicole looked through the Plexiglas plates that served as windows for Amy. They were fogged over considerably, but Amy could see enough to identify her friend. She pleaded for Nicole to save her, and as she thrashed her head from side to side, Nicole saw what the hoses were for: water was pouring into the sealed mask, slowly drowning Amy. Already, the back of her head was submerged. A little water drained from imperfections in the seal, but it was coming in much faster than in was going out. The mask was filling up.

Immediately Nicole thought to just turn off the source of the water, but found to her dismay that the valve controls had been broken off, allowing an uninterrupted and unstoppable flow of water into the mask. Nicole saw Amy’s fingers frantically pointing toward the end of the table. A key ring! Nicole grabbed it and tried a key in the locks on Amy’s hands.

Amy screamed something Nicole couldn’t understand.

“What!?” she cried back.

The reply was muffled, but Nicole could make out “Unlock the mask!!”

Of course! The key to the mask must be on here somewhere! Randomly Nicole tried one in the lock. It didn’t work.

The water had now covered Amy’s mouth.

Nicole tried a second key. It didn’t even fit.

With less and less air volume left, the mask was filling up faster now. Amy was desperately drawing huge breaths, trying to take in as much oxygen as possible while she still could.

The third key didn’t work, but it got stuck in the lock. As Nicole struggled to pull it out, Amy drew her last breath before her nose was submerged.

The fourth and fifth keys didn’t work. As Nicole tried to bring the sixth around, she dropped the ring.

The mask was now totally full.

The sixth key didn’t work. Neither did the seventh.

Red spots flashed in front of Amy’s eyes. She was running out of air.

The eighth key didn’t work.

Amy caught one last glimpse of Nicole as her vision darkened. If this was to be her last sight, she was glad it was of her loyal friend. Her head swam in a haze and her thoughts dimmed. No more air………

There were still five keys to go. Nicole fit the next one in line into the lock. It didn’t work. Nicole began to cry in frustration as she tried the next. She twisted it desperately, and the lock popped! With the seal broken, water gushed out of the mask and splashed on the floor. Nicole pulled the mask off and tossed it to the floor. It landed with a wet flop.

Amy was pale and limp. Her eyes were closed. She wasn’t breathing.

“No!” cried Nicole, “No! Not after all this! Amy? AMY!”

Nicole bitterly wished she had paid more attention in her CPR class. When she really needed that knowledge, it wasn’t there. So she resorted to what she had seen a million times on BayWatch. She braced her arms against Amy’s chest and shoved downward, compressing her friend’s waterlogged lungs. After several repetitions of doing that, she sealed her lips around Amy’s and exhaled. Nothing. Again. Nothing. A third time. And Amy coughed. She began breathing shallowly, but to really recover she needed off the table. Nicole frantically cycled through four keys until she found the one that unlocked the cuffs bolted to the table.

With help from Nicole, Amy rolled off the table and lay on her stomach on the floor. Again she coughed, and this time cleared her lungs of the water and drew a deep gasping breath. Slowly she drifted back to reality. Her vision cleared, and her eyes focused on Nicole. Amy smiled weakly and gazed lovingly into her rescuer’s eyes. “Nicole?…” she murmured.

“Amy! You’re alive!” Nicole cried. She blinked and tears spilled down her cheeks. “You’re okay!”

“I think so…” Amy was examining herself when Nicole threw her arms around her. Amy returned the embrace. Both forgot that Smith was still somewhere near.

A gunshot made them both jump and scream. Something hit the floor with a heavy thud, and Smith emerged from a doorway a few yards down the hall.

Looking in their direction, he sneered, “I thought I heard a voice out here that didn’t belong!” He saw Amy, huddled in Nicole’s arms, and was suddenly furious. “You’re supposed to be dead!!” he screamed at her.

“Where’s Katrina?” demanded Nicole.

“Katrina has gotten what she deserves,” he said smoothly. Amy and Nicole remembered the gunshot and the thump of something falling. “Now,” Smith continued with a smile, “If you two will be good little girls and come with me, I’ll let you live. I intend to start a new Industry, bigger and better, and in a new city! Fresh pickings for my kidnappers! And the two of you can be the first girls. It will be an honor! You’ll have your own cell together; no one else to bother you! I’ll even give you time off every now and then, seeing how you two seem to like each other so much. I thought you might want some…time alone together, if you catch my drift.”

“I’ll never again be an object for you to sell,” Amy said as loudly as she could with her voice weak from inhaling so much water.

Nicole added, “I’d rather die than let you use me for your own profit.”

The smile left Smith’s face in an instant. “So be it,” he said, low and menacing.

He advanced on the girls, backing them against the wall. Amy was still too weak to stand, but she curled up against Nicole.

“Before I dispatch you, I’m going to give you one last good look into my eyes.” He seemed to capture both their gazes at once. Nicole felt herself strangely falling toward his black orbs.

She wondered, Is this how Amy felt? She found all her muscles to be void of strength; even her tongue was too numb to form words.

Smith began, “A year before I started the Industry, I was in an accident that scarred my eyes and left my vision milky and blurred. I had surgery to correct the problem, but my eyes were permanently discolored by the laser procedure. The whites had become red and would never return to normal. I learned of a technique used by those obsessed with modifying their bodies; a cutting-edge process in which metal ions are implanted directly under the eye’s first layer. The area is then exposed to weak magnetic fields, which polarize the ions and line them up in a certain way to give them the desired color. Afterward, I discovered that my black eyes instilled fear in people. Deep fear, which manifests into the hypnotic trance you are both in right now. And with both of you helpless, I can force you to come with me! I don’t have to kill either of you!”

Even when she was aware of what was going on, Amy couldn’t break out of the stupor she was in. It was like trying to wake up from a dream. Impossible.

Nicole however, was a different story. She had always thought Smith’s black eyes were natural; that he was a mutant of sorts. Now, when she knew his terrifying stare was artificial; man-made; it didn’t seem so frightening anymore. She felt the trance lifting; her muscles were back under her control.

“And now, girls, we must be going. We will forge the new Industry together! You might even get a share of the profits if you cooperate.”

It was then that Nicole made her move. Free of the hypnosis, she surged at Smith, catching him off guard and sending him careening into the wall. Nicole whirled and grabbed Amy’s arms to try and escape. Both now free of the trance, they made about ten yards of progress when Amy was torn from Nicole’s grasp. Smith had caught her by her ankles and dragged her back. Nicole leaped after her but Smith kicked her in the chest and sent her flying back down the hall. Still holding the struggling Amy, he drew a wickedly curved knife from within his coat. Amy gave a piercing scream as he raised his blade to end her life---

And a single gunshot echoed down the hall. Nicole was the only one who saw Katrina emerge from the room she had been in, holding what Nicole assumed had been Smith’s gun.

Smith was frozen in his position. His grip on Amy loosened, and she scrambled away back to Nicole. His knife fell to the floor with a clang. He turned slowly to look at Katrina, who was still standing with the handgun pointed at him. He gave a low rasp and collapsed. Katrina sauntered up to him and said flatly and without emotion, “Fuck you.” She threw the gun to the ground and moved toward Nicole and Amy. And she smiled! It was the first time either of the girls had seen Katrina smile.

“You’re free, kids,” she said in conclusion to her triumph over the man who had tormented her for five years.

“Didn’t…” Nicole stammered, “Didn’t he shoot you!?”

“Yeah, he did,” Katrina said sadly, gingerly touching a dark stain on her corset that Nicole assumed was blood, “But I have enough fight left to show you the way out of here.”

Just then, Amy looked at Smith. He was aiming a shot at Katrina! “Look out!!!” Amy screamed.

All three girls dove to the ground and the shot went wild, ricocheting off the wall and rupturing a pipe on the ceiling. As Smith collapsed to the floor again the pipe began emitting a hissing sound

“Oh shit!” Katrina cried, “Gas! Follow me; run!!!”

They took off down the hallway.

“I hope everybody’s out upstairs, ‘cause this place is getting blown to hell!” Katrina panted as she struggled to keep going, wounded as she was. She knew that she and her two former roommates didn’t stand a chance if she couldn’t get them to Smith’s secret back door in time. She counted off doors until she reached the place.

“In here, quickly!” she coughed. Her injuries were taking their toll.

The girls rushed through the door, which opened into what was once the truck loading bay for the warehouse. Katrina ran to the garage door but couldn’t open it by herself. The little strength she had left just wasn’t enough.

“Help me!” she cried. Amy and Nicole added their efforts to Katrina’s, and the door slid up enough for them to crawl out underneath. Once out in open air, Katrina collapsed. She was completely drained, and fading fast. Nicole and Amy rushed to her side.

“Come on, Katrina!” Amy pleaded, “We’re almost free!”

“You are free, Amy,” Katrina said, “And you too, Nicole. Go. Run for the hills; this place is going up! Don’t worry about me.”

Nicole couldn’t accept that. She grabbed Katrina’s arms and tried to pull her to her feet. “I’m not leaving you here!” she said determinedly.

Katrina could see that arguing was pointless so she tried her best to walk. Their progress was agonizingly slow, but they slowly gained distance from the warehouse.

Most of the hallway had filled up with natural gas leaking from the ruptured pipeline. If Smith had spent more of his money on maintaining his facilities, there would have been no problems. But as it was, faulty wiring ignited the explosion. In a shower of sparks, time seemed to stand still in the hallway for Smith. In slow motion, it seemed, a fireball grew where the wiring had sparked. Then that moment ended, and all hell broke loose. The hallway erupted into flames. The trail of fire entered the pipeline, and from there traveled throughout the warehouse.

Outside, the fleeing trio heard a low rumbling, then night turned to day as half of the building was consumed in a burst of flames. The remaining half, left without support, imploded, and all that remained of the Industry was a pile of furiously burning rubble. The heat blast from the collapse hit the girls in full force, but the explosion itself never touched them.

“And good riddance,” Katrina said. She leaned on the younger girls for support, but felt some strength returning to her. Maybe she wouldn’t die after all.

They stood together for a long moment and watched the blaze in silence…