MELT: A Psychological Thriller (32 page)

'How's your leg?' asked Carl.

Alex twisted the Rubik’s cube. 'Megan says it’s healing.'

'I've found something to help,' said Carl.

Tablets?
thought Victoria.
Please be tablets.

Carl hadn't found tablets.

What Victoria had thought was a measuring stick was actually a walking stick.

Only the handle remained in the ice. 'I've almost got it out.'

Victoria watched Carl work.

Tsk...tsk...tsk...

Alex asked, 'Do you think there's much chance of rescue now, Carl?'

Carl kept working. 'Definitely.
They have the footage of Megan's abduction. Imagine the press coverage when a pretty young blond working for Greenpeace gets kidnapped from a shopping center. The entire country is looking for us.'

Alex nodded and looked around the chamber as though for the first time.

Victoria knew exactly how he felt.

Isolated.

She
stepped closer to study the walking stick’s silver handle.

'A frog?' guessed Carl.

'I don't think so,' said Victoria. 'Maybe a turtle.'

One unblinking eye stared back.

The wooden shaft looked smooth and polished. Through the varnish Victoria noticed a pattern of scales carved into the wood.

Fish scales?

'Perhaps the handle is a fish,' Victoria predicted. 'To match the scales on the shaft.'

Victoria remembered her grandfather's walking stick with its leaping hound handle.

'Let's find out.'

Victoria stepped back just in time.

Carl yanked out the stick.

'Megan!' Carl called. 'Bring the camera!'

'You shouldn't be touching that yet,' warned Alex.

Megan and Chrissie came around.

Carl examined the stick carefully. Holding it with two fingers, he shook it gingerly away from himself. He whacked it three times on the ice.

'It's just a walking stick,' he said.

'If you can't eat it, I don't care,' said Chrissie dismissively.

'It's for Alex.’

Carl tossed the stick to Alex.

Alex caught the stick before it hit the floor. 'Shit, Carl! Don't throw it. What if it's a trap? It could be full of dynamite for all we know!'

Carl shook his head. 'You've got an imagination, Alex. First scorpions and now dynamite.'

Megan held up her iPhone. 'Can you get that ice off the handle?'

Alex nervously tapped the handle on the floor. The ice fell off in chunks.

'It's a snake,' he said, checking the handle. 'Just lovely.'

Megan screwed up her face as she took the picture.

'A cobra,' said Victoria.

'I can't tell if it's safe,' said Megan.

Victoria didn't know either. 'Put it in the dangerous pile. We don't need it.'

Alex carefully handed the stick back to Carl. 'Thanks for the offer, but too risky.’

Carl nodded. 'Better to be safe than — OUCH! Shit!'

Carl dropped the stick.

Blood welled from two puncture wounds in his palm. 'The fucking thing bit me!'

 

 

#

 

 

Everyone stared at Carl's hand.

Alex reacted first. 'Shit, Carl. It's probably poison! Venom!'

'Give me your knife!' demanded Carl. 'Hurry!'

Alex thrust the knife at Carl without hesitation.

Carl stabbed the knife into his palm. He dragged the blade across the two puncture wounds.

‘Suck out the poison,’ yelled Alex.

Carl dashed for the drain, sucking on the wound.

Sucking out the poison won't work
, thought Victoria.
He needs a compression bandage and an ambulance.

They had neither.

Victoria followed after everyone, in time to see Carl spit blood down the drain.

'Maybe it's not poison,' said Megan desperately. 'Maybe it's just meant to hurt you.'

Megan is wrong. She knows the rules. The traps are lethal.

Victoria backtracked to the walking stick.

Two thin spikes gave the cobra horns.

The spikes matched Carl's wounds.

Using Carl's icepick, Victoria rolled the stick to examine the spikes.

Hollow.

Like a hypodermic needle designed for injecting liquid.

Using the icepick to lift the stick, Victoria strode the long way around the ice. She tossed the walking stick onto the burial mound with the other things that killed or died.

Carl will be on this mound soon.

Further around she saw Carl stagger back from the drain.

His face looked pale as new paper on the first day of school. Megan and Alex tried supporting him.

Carl began violently jerking.

They couldn’t hold him up.

He tumbled sideways, hitting the floor hard.

Chrissie stood a few paces away, hands on her head, mumbling, 'No, no, no, no, no.'

Here we go again
, thought Victoria.
Just like Glen.

But Carl was still lucid. He hauled Alex close and hissed something.

Megan yelled, 'Victoria, how do we treat snake bite?'

Victoria studied Megan.
Look at her. She never gives up.

'How!' Megan yelled.

'Antivenom,' replied Victoria.

Megan looked at Victoria as though she was insane.

'You need a tourniquet,' shouted Chrissie. 'Use his belt!'

Alex yanked off Carl's belt and wrenched it tight around Carl's forearm.

Victoria retreated a few paces, remembering Glen's violent reaction. She doubted simple snake venom circulated within Carl's veins.

This could get worse.

Much worse.

'Do it,' Carl insisted. 'You have to!'

'I can't,' replied Alex, buckling the belt tight. 'This might work.'

'Cut it off!’ Carl yelled. ‘Do it, Alex!'

Alex hesitated a second and then opened his pocket knife.

He pinned down Carl's wrist.

'No!' cried Chrissie. 'That will kill him faster. The venom's already in his system.'

Victoria agreed, but for different reasons. Carl had radiation poisoning. Fatal radiation poisoning. He’d rallied today, but tomorrow he'd endure an excruciating death. The snake bite would spare him tomorrow’s torment.

‘Hurry, Alex!' hissed Carl.

'Megan, hold his arm down,' instructed Alex.

Without hesitation, Megan threw her weight onto Carl's arm. Her body blocked Victoria's view, so Victoria moved for a better one. Two days ago she'd have fled around the ice covering her ears, but not now. Now she wanted to watch. She doubted either man could finish the grisly amputation.

Alex pressed the blade to Carl's wrist.

The tourniquet made Carl's veins stand out like swollen pipes, ready to burst.

It's going to be messy,
thought Victoria.
Messy and pointless.

'Do it!' shrieked Carl.

Alex threw his weight onto the knife.

The blade sliced deep into the side of Carl's wrist, severing the thumb tendon and grinding through the cartilage underneath. Alex screwed up his face but immediately lunged into his second cut.

This cut would surely sever the larger veins.

Here it comes
, thought Victoria.
This will spurt.

But at that moment, the venom found its target.

Carl jolted like a man in the electric chair. All his limbs thrust outwards.

His partially severed hand struck Alex in the face.

The knife flew from Alex’s grasp.

Megan fell sideways as Carl bucked and thrust like a man possessed. His UPS cap flew off. His big yellow phone jerked free from his belt and tumbled away.

The poison has reached his nervous system
, Victoria realized.
It's almost over.

Carl thrashed even faster than Glen had. He barely touched the floor. So intense seemed his agony, Victoria almost expected smoke to rise from his clothes.

She counted the terrible seconds in her head.
Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

All at once Carl stopped.

Eight seconds.

Victoria couldn't remember eight seconds ever taking so long.
How long had it felt for Carl?

Carl lay still.

Dead still.

Megan reached toward his neck.

Her hand shook, but her fingers found his carotid artery.

'He's dead,' she pronounced.

'No, he's not,' said Alex. 'Do you know CPR, Megan? Megan!'

Megan slid away from Carl on her bottom.

'Chrissie! Victoria! Someone help me!' Alex shouted.

Alex gave up yelling for help and started pumping Carl's chest. After five quick pumps, he moved to blow air into Carl's lungs.

'Don't touch his mouth!' Chrissie yelled.

Alex looked at Chrissie for a moment and then sealed his mouth over Carl's.

He blew his breath into Carl's lungs.

For the first time, Victoria saw some good in Alex. Carl was beyond saving, but Alex kept trying, even at risk to his own life. Victoria realized that Alex would probably do the same for her.

There is some good inside everyone.