Dead End

The blaring alarm, the desperate cries, the metallic roar of heaters blasting air into the room, sweat pouring down my back as waves of heat licked up my side—“Wanda!” I screamed, “Where are you?” I had lost sight of my partner when the iron door slammed itself shut, but through a vent near the ceiling, I could dimly hear her yelling back at me, “Get out as soon as you can!” God knows what was happening on the other side. I tried to block it all out and focus on one thing: finding a way out of this hell.

I pulled off my shirt to cool down. I knew that pretty soon, I would get overheated and lose all my energy. I shut my eyes to concentrate, then opened again to rescan the room. Everywhere I looked, shimmering waves of heat caused my vision to go blurry. There! Against the wall was a table, and under the table was something I hadn’t noticed before.

I scrambled over to it, shouting to Wanda that I’d found something. She made no reply. I groped around under the table, closed my hand around something gooey and slimy—a translucent glob of what felt like cookie dough, but warm and sticky, like a wad of freshly chewed gum—and gave it a yank. Underneath: a bright red button, about the size of my fist. I slammed my other hand down on the button and heard the heaters whine and slow and grind to a stop.

I let out a sigh. My whole body relaxed. I slid down to the floor.

I was ready to pass out when I heard a small clicking noise from above. I looked up at the heaters as they started rotating around, possibly revealing an exit. But my heart dropped as the empty slots behind the heaters began pumping the room full of water.