The monitor in the room that had been our prison went blank first and then a poster appeared....
"SOON THE FUN AND GAMES WILL BEGIN" came the cryptic message...
"Soon the fun and games will begin? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" asked Ginger...
"That is the million dollar question.."I said..
"Maybe we'll finally get some answers as to why we are here and maybe whoever will let us go."said Riley Queen...
"I don't suspect it will be that easy..."said Bonnie Shay...
I agreed with her...whoever was holding us hostage here...didn't intend for any of us to walk out of here alive...We knew something apparently that this person didn't ever want getting out....But what? I wondered.
Lance Flintlock and I looked at the doors...
''Wow...look at these doors...pretty thick huh...?" he said.
"And they're controlled by magnets....Look at the locks..."I said..
'So we find a way to demagnetize the locks and we are out of here."said Lance..
"Yes..Look around here..Think...There must be something..." I said...
''Look, the monitor has another message!"said Riley Queen...
"HOW DO YOU STOP A DOG FROM BARKING IN JULY?" was the question on the screen..
"What is this? One hundred riddles? I don't like this game playing..."said Ginger, very frustrated and irritable now..
"I don't like it either...but I know the answer to that riddle...You stop a dog from barking in July by SHOOTING HIM IN JUNE!" said Bonnie Shay...
Lance Flintlock, Ginger Stevens, Riley Queen and I all gave Bonnie the serious side eye...
''What? Okay..I'm no comedian...but that is the answer to that joke..or uh riddle.." she said shrugging her shoulders..
II-
I don't remember when I fell asleep...or when the others did...but it seemed like we all were waking up again....
I had no idea how long we had been out....but when I woke up...my wife Sepia was lying in my arms and Bonnie's ex husband...Ronald Shay was lying on top of her...
"Ohhhhh, where am I? My neck has a stinging pain.." said Sepia...
"Babes..what are you doing here?" I asked...rubbing her back...
"When you went missing,I was sick with worry...Ronald and I went looking for you...We found your car with your car keys,phone and your wallet at the corner of our block...In the trunk was all three of your guns..I knew something was horribly wrong then..."said Sepia...
"We traced the GPS on your phone and it led us to this place."said Ronald Shay who was waking up to the soft kisses of his ex -wife, Bonnie Shay...
"Ummmmmmm..Thank you for worrying about me babe.."she said and continued kissing him softly..
"I'm just glad you and my husband are still alive and alright Bonnie.."said Sepia..
"Yeah..me too..I'm just sorry all of us are caught up in this.."said Bonnie..
"Well one thing we gotta do is stop drinking those protein shakes...We are being drugged somehow...Which is how we all fall asleep and wake up and find more people in here...Whoever is behind this is slipping you guys in here...And I suspect that there is more than one person involved.."I said.
"But what are we to do for nourishment? There is no food....Who knows how long we are going to be in here?" said Riley Queen...
''We gotta start thinking about how we are going to get out of here..We gotta find a way to demagnetize those doors.."I said.
"Look ,over there on the floor...a gun?" said Riley Queen...
There was a .38 smokeless lying in the middle of the floor.. III-
"Well,look at that....Here is our way out of here.."said Lance Flintlock...
"How do you figure?" I asked..
"We can shoot the locks on the door or shoot the glass out of that window."said Lance..
"Babe...Whoever is behind this put that gun in here...They're playing with us...Why would they make it easy for us to get out ?" said Ginger..
"I don't have time to worry about that."he said picking up the gun....
"It's got three bullets in it...I'm gonna try to shoot the locks off this door first." he said and aimed it at the door...
''Are you crazy? put that gun down!!" I yelled. I could see that this guy was not the sharpest knife in the collection.
"Don't be a fool,put that gun down!!!!"yelled Bonnie...
"HEY MAN CHILL!!!."yelled Ronald..
"You chill!!!....I'm gettin out of here...I'm tired of being couped up."he yelled..
"That gun probably is full of blanks! Don't do this!!!"said Sepia..
"Only one way to find out for sure!!!!"said Lance who pulled the trigger..
There was a loud explosion....!!!!!
Lance had a look of shock on his face and a big hole in his side....
The gun had been rigged to fire backwards.... "I don't believe it.....I've been shot!!!!!.............................."he moaned and fell to the floor, face down in a pool of blood...
I felt his pulse....He was very,very dead....and bleeding out like a siv......
"OH MY GOD!!!!" said Sepia, gasping...
"OH MY GOD! LANCE YOU IDIOT...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"screamed Ginger.....
Bonnie hugged her...
''Turn away...don't look at the body!" she said gently...
I picked the gun up and took the remaining two bullets out....
"Well ,one thing for sure...These weren't blanks."I said.
IV-
Riley Queen, Ronald Shay and I found some tarp in another part of this room and covered the dead body of Lance Flintlock......
"This guy was a real tool" he said, which sounded strange coming from a priest....
"Wow....I can't..I can't believe it...He's dead! He shot himself."said Ronald Shay..
I said nothing...I knew now more than anything that we had to get out of here....In a few hours at room temperature...Flintlock's body was going to start decomposing and smelling and that wasn't going to be good at all..
"Let's get some paper and try to wipe all this blood up."said Bonnie..
"So much blood...Oh My God!!"said Sepia..
"He didn't have the brains God gave him...I knew it was too good to be true...A loaded gun in the middle of the floor.."muttered Ginger..."Which one of you brought it in here?" she asked.
"Neither of us!!!!...They took my purse and my phone, you think they'd let me have a gun?" asked Sepia..
"I-I-I didn't mean nothin by it...It's just funny a gun was there...None of us saw it before."said Ginger..
"Well whoever brought us all here left it there purposely for one of us to find it"said Ronnie.
"The electric window...the gun...This whole place is booby trapped..Whoever is behind this means for us to die...To kill each other."said Ginger..
She was right on the money...I could see that now.
Bonnie,Sepia and Ginger found some paper and attempted as best they could to wipe up some of the blood...but it was to no avail...He had bled out something terrible..
I pulled Bonnie,Sepia and Ronald over to me at some point during the afternoon...
"Look..everybody
in this room is not who they say they are..I suspect that whoever is
behind this has an accomplice..Someone amongst us...Since I know and
trust you three..I'm telling you...Don't drink anymore of those protein
shakes."I whispered to them.
"You may be right Kevin...The next round may be poison."said Bonnie..
"Oh My God...I'm not going to touch them.."said Sepia.
"You don't have to tell me twice......I'm gonna look at Protein shakes in a whole different light from now on."said Ronald.
"I suspect we are being drugged...Which is why we keep passing out..I
don't even have a concept of how much time I have been here...Don't
drink anymore shakes and see who is drinking and who goes to sleep."I
said.
I walked over to Ginger ,a little later...
"You aren't drinking a protein shake?" I asked.
"Hell No...I'm in no mood for one...Lance just ,just killed himself..."she sobbed...
"Look you guys...You might as well drink one...We aint gettin no food.."said Riley Queen...
"Man, we just watched someone die.....I'm not even hungry or thirsty.." I said.
"Suit yourself "he said and he drank one down...
I made a mental note....The only one besides my crew, Sepia,Bonnie and Ronald who weren't drinking was Ginger....What was up with her?
Another cryptic message appeared on the screen....
"WHAT DAY IS ALWAYS COMING BUT NEVER GETS HERE?"
"Oh My God...another one of these damn riddles?? I hate them!!" screamed Ginger....
She really was very upset or else ,She was the best actress I'd ever seen... She was crying profusely...
I looked at Bonnie..
"You know the answer to that?" I said smiling...
"WHAT DAY IS ALWAYS COMING BUT NEVER GETS HERE? Hmmmmmmm,I'm stumped."she said.
"I don't believe it."I laughed...
"I know that one.....it's tomorrow."said Sepia...
"Huh?" said Ronald and I in unison...
"What day is always coming, but never gets here???....It's Tomorrow...because when it gets here...It's Today!" said Sepia..
"You're a very smart woman..."said Riley Queen...
It was weird, having no concept of time ,not knowing how long we had been missing...Sepia sensed my concern and she whispered in my ear...
"It's going to be alright.." she said.
"I wish I had your faith.."I said,sighing....and thinking...maybe my guys were looking for me by now...
Sepia kissed me passionately...So passionately,I was a bit aroused....
She whispered in my ear...
"Trust me...everything is really going to be alright...We gonna be out of here soon." she said.
One thing I had learned about my wife over the years...She was a very smart and resourceful woman...
Bonnie sat on Ronald's lap.........
"Ronnie, did you or Sepia bring a deck of cards?" she asked...
Ronald Shay laughed for the first time...So did Ginger.....
"I could use a game of Blackjack or Pinocle right about now." she said.
Riley Queen paced up and down and looked out the window....He looked worried and surprisingly frustrated.
I thought about the riddle...
WHAT DAY IS ALWAYS COMING ,BUT NEVER GETS HERE? TOMORROW, FOR WHEN IT COMES....IT'S TODAY!
Tomorrow ,hurry up and get here...bring this deadly game to a halt...
