“Um, Steve, what happened to the basement?”, asked Kat. All 4 of us just stared out the door without going out of the room. “I don’t know, this is kind of weird,” I answered her. Meow,meow.=Danger out there. Meow.=Yep, I agree, can feel it. Before us was a long hallway, going both directions for probably 100 feet, then turned. There were no doors along the hallway, but it was well lit and painted white. I stepped out of the room, followed by the cats and then Kat came out. “Which way do we go?”, asked Kat. “I guess it doesn’t really matter,” I said, “so let’s go to the left for now.” Off we went, slowly, and I told the cats to just stay ahead of us. “I don’t like this Steve,” said Kat.

“I don’t really like it either,” I admitted, “that old couple must be part of a plan to trap us. But who is doing it and why?” “Are you saying you have run out of enemies Steve?”, asked Kat, “don’t forget there is still Gisela’s brother, and Anthony Jr out there. Anyone else I don’t know about?” “Well, the others are in jail still,” I said, “let me see if my phone works.” I decide to call Baldwin and had no trouble getting him on the phone. He told me to get out of here. But how? I could try blasting a hole through the bedroom wall, but I have a feeling that wouldn’t work. Using our code I asked Baldwin to try and track us and be ready to come to our rescue if necessary.

Hmm, I wonder if it’s an enemy of Baldwin that is after us? Probably not, I don’t think he has enemies. We continue down the hall. Meow,meow=Stop, something on floor. I get down to inspect it. I pull out an extendable stick from my pack and touch the floor with it. Several beams of red light shine across the hallway, one touches the stick and burns the end off. I pull the stick back and the red light beams stop shining. I wave the stick in the air over that same spot, but nothing happens. Obviously activated by stepping on the floor. It was a 4 foot section, so easy to jump across. “Can you jump that?”, I ask Kat. “That is barely a jump,” she answered.

Then the cats ran and jumped across easily, followed by Kat and I. We kept going to the spot where the hall made a turn. Really, it was just a door, which I opened, and there was our bedroom, just as we had left it. “That’s impossible Steve,” said Kat, “we just walked 100 feet, we should be well past our bedroom.” “Yes, I agree,” I said, “someone went to a lot of trouble here, but why, it makes no sense.” I decide to go over and check the regular bedroom door, but a steel door drops down closing it off. The same happened with the door we just came in. “Welcome PI Steve and crew, you are now trapped in a steel box with no way out, except by playing my game.” “Who are you and what is your game you want us to play?”, I ask.

“Who I am is not important right now, but if you want out you must play the game. First you need some more sleep, when you wake up you will have exactly 96 hours to find your way back to the nearest town. If you can do that, then you are free, if not, you will die. Have a nice nap.” I decided we should all lie down and we were asleep in no time. When we woke up, what a surprise! We were outside, in the forest somewhere. There was a canteen of fresh water for Kat and I, plus one for the cats, and 2 sandwiches each for Kat and I, plus some food for the cats. “My phone doesn’t work,” said Kat. “Hmm, neither does mine,” I said, “they must have locked them somehow. They don’t want us to use modern technology to find our way out of here.” “And where is ‘here’?”, asked Kat. “Good question,” I said. My watch said 4:05 pm, we have 4 days to find our way out…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.