Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

27

Maya pulled on the thick zip ties, sending a sharp pain through her wrists. These were much stronger and thicker than the ones that had been used on them earlier.

“Let us go!” she said again. “You can’t keep us here against our will.”

“Calm. Calm,” Janine said.

“I swear, when I get out of these…” Reno said.

Janine chuckled. “And you will. Once you both calm down and realize what’s best for you.”

“Are you still trying to pretend we aren’t your prisoners?” Maya asked.

“You’re not.”

Reno spat, and then spoke. “Yeah, right.”

“I need you to understand that keeping you below ground is your best chance at surviving,” Janine said. “There’s nothing left for you up above.”

“That’s not for you to decide,” Maya said. “You don’t know a damn thing about us. I have family on the surface—my children.”

“They’re gone. Everyone you’ve ever known or cared about is gone. There is nothing you can do for them now.”

Maya saw the haze in the woman’s eyes, a distant stare at a stone wall. Reno glanced at Maya and gave her the look he’d use whenever they came upon a victim in a dark alley.

I know. Dangerous.

She couldn’t believe Janine, and she couldn’t use force to escape. Maya would have to rely on her intellect if she ever wanted to see her kids again.

Janine pulled the familiarly folded piece of paper out of her pocket. She paced back and forth reading it. Then she stopped in front of a candle.

“I don’t think you’ll be needing this.”

Janine held the map over the flame, then lowered it until the corner caught fire and quickly spread. She tossed the paper to the ground and stomped on the flames until nothing was left but thin smoke and a trail of ashes.

“It’s for the best.”

Maya held her anger inside, trying her best to keep a calm face. Without knowing exactly where they were, the map was useless anyway. Even so, it would be that much harder to retrace their steps and get back to the original tunnel without it.

After the map burned, the group seemed to ignore Maya and Reno. They sat in a circle on the other side of the space and had a service which appeared to be religious in nature, complete with song, though what they sang was unfamiliar to Maya. They snacked on cereal as they worshiped and prayed. The only interaction anyone in the group had with Maya and Reno during this time was to offer them each a few handfuls of cereal.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Reno asked quietly as they both ate the stale cereal.

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Do you think you can get to that knife in my boot?”

“I don’t know if that’s the best plan.”

“Why not? We can probably cut the zip ties, and then we wait for the right time to escape.”

“They’re going to have eyes on us, even when they’re sleeping.”

“Yeah, but, we’ll be armed.”

“With nothing but a small knife.”

He sighed. “Then what’s your plan?”

A girl, around ten years old, got up and stepped away from the group. She walked with a limp, clutching her stomach like she was about to vomit. She groaned; even in the dim light, Maya could see the sweat on her face.

“Maya? Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah,” she said, although she had been watching the girl—something was wrong with her. Very wrong.

“What are we going to do?”

Maya looked at Reno. “We’re going to tell them what I’ve observed and who we are. And then they’ll have to let us leave.”

The group had disappeared for six or seven hours. Maya’s arms ached and Reno had dozed off a few times, despite the fact that they had been bound to the wall.

Janine led her people back into the space with a silent procession.

“Amen,” Janine said with a glowing smile on her face. “And praise the Lord for our safety. Let’s get some more food in our bellies.”

Everyone stood and went to the side wall to rummage through the food boxes—everyone except Janine, who walked over to Maya and Reno.

“I do hope you enjoyed our service.”

“I did,” Maya said.

Janine smiled warmly. “That’s good. It’s good to know we’ve brought God-fearing people into our home.”

“I prayed for that little girl over there,” Maya said.

Janine looked over her shoulder, following Maya’s gaze. She wore a cloak of tattered t-shirts that had been sewn together and walked with no shoes on her feet. The girl’s stringy hair hung in front of her face in long, greasy strands, and she looked like a stiff wind would knock her over. Sores on the girl’s face festered, and some oozed pus. Her hand moved to her stomach and then over to a spot just off of her right hip. Maya thought the girl looked to be about five or six years old.

“Cassie? She has an upset stomach. She’ll be fine.”

“What do her parents think?”

“Cassie is my daughter.”

“Your daughter has more than just an upset stomach, Janine. She’s sweating profusely, and her condition has been worsening since we got here.”

Cassie was shivering despite her sweat-slicked face, and both her hands clutched the right side of her stomach now.

“I don’t understand,” Janine said.

“She’s sweating, but she’s shivering. A fever.”

“So?” Janine asked. “Children get fevers and flu bugs all the time.”

“Come here, Cassie.”

Cassie ignored Maya until Janine looked at the girl. She stumbled over and rested her forehead on Janine’s leg.

“Touch her stomach. Lightly. Where she has her hands.”

Janine looked at Maya with tight, hard eyes. Then, she used her left hand to pull Cassie’s hands out of the way, and used her right to touch her daughter’s stomach. The girl screamed and collapsed to the ground.

“Your daughter has appendicitis,” Maya said firmly. “If she doesn’t get medical attention soon, she’ll die. We can get her to a doctor.”

Janine pursed her lips. She stared at Maya, trying to read her.

“How do I even know you’re telling the truth? And how do I know you can get her to a doctor?”

“She’s right,” Reno said. “We aren’t surgeons, but we’re paramedics. We’ve been on calls where we’ve helped people whose appendixes have ruptured. Believe me when I say that you’ll be burying your daughter down here if that happens and she doesn’t get medical treatment.”

Janine ran her hand over Cassie’s forehead. She looked at Maya and Reno, and then to the people in the tunnel who had gathered around them.

“I need to ask her some questions,” Maya said. “You don’t have to take off my zip ties. I just need to talk to her.”

The confident grin slid from Janine’s face, replaced with the tired eyes of a concerned mother. She nodded at Maya.

“Hi, sweetie,” Maya said. “It’s Cassie, right?”

The girl averted her eyes and nodded. She had both her hands on the lower right part of her stomach.

“I’m Maya.”

“Maya is a paramedic,” Janine said. “She’s going to ask you some questions. Okay?”

“Does your stomach hurt?” Maya asked the young girl.

Cassie nodded without looking up.

“Can you point to the exact place where the pain is coming from?”

The girl pulled her hands away and grimaced as she pointed to the lower right side of her abdomen. Her hand was shaking.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever felt, what number are you now?”

“Ten,” the girl mumbled.

Maya nodded. “I see that you’re sweating, but you’re also shaking. Are you cold?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl said.

“Feel her forehead,” Maya said to Janine.

The woman placed the back of her hand on her daughter’s forehead, then on both of her cheeks. Maya didn’t have to wait for Janine’s reply to know the young girl had a serious fever.

“Have you been sick?” Maya asked. “As in vomiting or diarrhea?”

“I’ve thrown up a few times.”

“All right.” Maya smiled gently, adopting the calm persona she’d used a thousand times before in her job. “Why don’t you lay down and rest while I chat with your mom?”

Head bowed, still holding her stomach, the girl walked away. A woman swooped in and guided Cassie to a corner where a pillow and old sleeping bag had been spread out on the stone floor.

Janine wrung her hands and bit her bottom lip as she waited for Cassie to lay down. “How is she?”

“I’m fairly certain your daughter has appendicitis.”

“If I free you, can you help her?”

Maya shook her head. “Not down here, we can’t. We don’t have a clean operating room and sanitized instruments. And like my partner said, we aren’t doctors. Your daughter needs the kind of medical attention that can only be obtained at a hospital.”

Tears filled Janine’s eyes. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t go back up there. But I don’t want my daughter to die.”

Maya could see the pain in Janine’s eyes, and she felt a twinge of empathy in the way that only another mother could. She knew Reno was skeptical of this entire plan, but he wouldn’t understand the difficult decision Janine faced. He wasn’t even married, let alone a father.

“Look, if I was in your position, there’s no question what I’d do. You have to trust us, Janine.”

The woman looked at Maya with teary, bloodshot eyes. Then she drew a knife from her pocket. And with shaking hands, she cut the zip ties from Maya’s hands.