“You can’t be awake,” she said again, and quickly turned to go.
“Sarah, please wait,” Josh said, putting every ounce of desperation he could summon into his voice. He didn’t have to dig very deep.
She stopped and looked back at him again. He saw it all in her face — uncertainty, fear, and the thing that gave him the most hope—conflict. He was counting on that, on her not wanting to do this. Her apologies to Gaby a few seconds ago, her embarrassment when they had thanked her in the kitchen hours ago, all entered into his equation.
God, please don’t let me be wrong about her.
“What’s happening here, Sarah?” he asked, looking around, eyes wide. Sell the desperation. Sell it! “Please tell me what’s happening here?”
“You shouldn’t be awake.” Then, quickly, her voice falling a bit, “God, I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be awake. I have to tell them.”
“No, please don’t.”
She hesitated. He knew she wanted desperately to go, but something held her back. Something kept her standing there, looking back across the darkened room at him. Probably the same thing that had brought her here in the first place, even knowing Gaby would never know.
“They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?” he asked softly, keeping his voice low.
Sound travels these days.
“No,” she said.
“No?”
“No. We don’t…do that.” Her voice drifted off.
Josh lifted himself slightly up on his haunches and slid his zip-tied hands under his butt, then kept going along the length of his legs and finally pulled them free. He was shocked it actually worked.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she said, even more alarmed than before.
“They’re going to kill me if they see me like this, aren’t they?”
“No, but they might hurt you.”
“Help me, Sarah. Help us.”
She glanced over at Gaby, then at the others. “I can’t…”
“I know you don’t want this to happen.”
“I have no choice. Jenny…I have to look out for Jenny first.”
“Please, Sarah, don’t let them do this. I need your help. We all need your help. Gaby needs your help.”
“I have to go.”
This time she turned completely around and walked the short distance to the door.
“Sarah!” he shouted after her, raising his voice. He had no choice. He had to stop her. “Please! We’re going to die unless you help us! Don’t let this happen! You can stop this!”
She shook her head, but didn’t look back, didn’t stop, and before he knew it, she had opened the door and stepped through, closing it sharply behind her.
Wow, that didn’t work.
Josh sighed but didn’t look away from the door. A part of him expected to see it dramatically open back up and for Sarah to rush back inside.
But the door didn’t open.
Defeated, Josh lowered his arms back into his lap and listened to the silence in the ballroom. It was quiet, except for the soft breathing of the others behind him.
Gaby, next to him, soundlessly asleep, peaceful in her heavy, drug-induced slumber. And the girls, Elise and Vera, snoring farther in the back, unaware that the same people who fed them last night, that poured them cold soft drinks, were now plotting their death.
Or something worse than death. He could think of lots of worse things out there right now that didn’t involve dying.
“How long before they show up?” Marcus had asked.
Soon. Soon…
He had no other choice. Maybe Tom and the others had heard him imploring Sarah and were coming right now to make sure he went back to sleep — and this time stayed that way. Even if they weren’t, something else was coming for them.
Either way, he was still stuck in the same situation — shit out of luck.
He looked over at Gaby, then looked behind him at the others again. They hadn’t stirred, didn’t even look as if they had heard anything or were any closer to swimming up from whatever dreams or nightmares they were mired in at the moment. They certainly looked like sweet dreams, judging by the ghost of a smile on Gaby’s lips.
It had to be some kind of drug. Roofies, maybe. The date-rape drug he had heard about on the news. But he thought those drugs worked right away, not hours later. Something like roofies, maybe?
Whatever it was, it was effective. Except on him, because he was the only one who had barely touched his drink during dinner. Josh felt fully alert and wide awake now, and he tried to concentrate on the problem at hand. It was a hell of a problem, too. But he was a smart guy. He could think his way through this. Right? Of course he could.
We are so screwed.
He looked back at Will and Danny. What would they do in his position? Probably try to break the zip ties. How, though? These things were tough bastards. No. Strength wasn’t going to do it here. Will and Danny would know that. So what would they do if they couldn’t break something? How would a pair of ex-Army Rangers get around a problem like this?
God, he wished they would wake up already so he could ask them.
Josh took inventory of the room. It was big, and they had been deposited in the middle. There were no chairs or tables, and the big, expensive-looking chandelier above him wasn’t going to be much help. Most of the walls were still just Sheetrock, with electrical wiring sticking out everywhere.
He concentrated on his hands. His wrists were almost pressing against one another except for a half-inch space between the two loops, which were tightened by pulling the ends along a roller-lock system in the middle. The straps themselves were white, but the middle section, where the ends passed through, was solid black and looked like an ice cube.
He tried pulling at the zip tie, but it didn’t budge. He gritted his teeth and tried again, this time even harder, but gave up after ten seconds of heavy straining. The zip tie hadn’t moved even a little bit. If anything, it felt like the straps had gotten tighter around his wrists. Was that even possible?
Josh stared at them for a moment.
He couldn’t break the straps, so maybe there was a way around them.
He stared at the plastic device for the longest time, trying to understand how the zip tie itself worked. Everything passed through the block in the center. That much was obvious. But the roller system meant the end of the straps only went one way, pulling the zip inward and around the wrist, and not the other way, which would loosen the straps. Loosening the straps was the goal. But how to achieve it? The retainer block was the key.
He lifted his hands toward him and eyeballed the retainer block up close. Could he break it? How? He could probably smash it with a hammer. If he had a hammer. But why wish for a hammer when he could wish for scissors and just cut the straps? He didn’t have a hammer or scissors, so what did he have?
Eureka!
Brawn wasn’t going to get him out of this, but brains helped him to see his little sliver of hope. Literally. There was just enough space between the strap and the interior walls of the block that if he had something small enough to insert there, he could loosen the roller and slide the strap back instead of forward. That was the key. Finding something small enough to push inside.
Josh glanced around the ballroom again. This time he didn’t think about the things the room didn’t have, but paid attention to what it did offer.
Plenty of debris. There was dirt and chipped wood and dust everywhere along the concrete floor around him.
Debris. That was where salvation lay.
The chipped wood, though small enough, wouldn’t work because the bits weren’t strong enough to affect the roller. So it had to be something small and strong.