The first round of men and women have been sitting in the chairs for about 2 hours now. The sweat is beading at their brow and their arms are beginning to quiver. Cassie, number 80, is pushing with all her might, her elbows are locked and she's got her back slammed against her chair. She holds on with such tenacity. because the moment she lets that bar go there is a possibility that a drill will extend from the floor and screw a medical screw into her shin bone, the tibia, and that won't feel good.
Scott, a corrections officer, who has had to deal with a lot of physical pain in his life whether it be fights on cell blocks, being maced by accident, or the one time he was working on his car and he burnt his forearm on the engine, had dealt with each of those in the same fashion. He would 'cowboy up' brush it off and get back to it, however right now he is currently still on the floor holding his leg wincing in pain with tears in his eyes.
Liz gets up from the area where the group is watching and approaches the young woman with short blonde hair. "Cassie, just try and lower it back slowly and see if the drill comes up, if it does, just push it back." Liz had remembered her name from all of the time she had spent with the woman's group early on.
"I can't...I can't, if I unlock my elbows its going to come crashing down on me. I know it, I just know it." She cries and her body shakes and the bar slightly moves, she gets scared and gasps, and then pushes harder.
"Honey you have to try now before you loose any more strength. Try and ease the bar back, if the drill comes up we'll just push the bar back up, you need to do it now while you have strength. What number are you Cassie, where's your tag?"
"80, I'm number 80, its in my pocket, I'm never going to make it."
"You're going to make it you'll be fine, but you have to try now, if you wait to try in a bit then for sure its going to crash into you, but now I think you have the strength, you can do it, just try." Liz rubs her knee. "It will be okay, you're killing yourself sitting here like this."
Cassie starts to cry harder, her elbows shaking, she lets them finally bend and she puts her tiny biceps to work. You can see the muscle shaking,they've been so deprived of good nutrition and are so fatigued you can almost see the fibers of the muscle vibrating individually. "I think, I think I'm going to be okay." she starts to let the bar move closer to her chest, no sight or sound of a drill. "I think, I think its stopping, I think I can let go." she moves the bar just a little bit more and she loses her grip and it comes slamming back into her and immediately the bar springs from the floor and just as quickly she let the bar go the tiny metal screw is drilled into her shin. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!" she screams and falls from the chair.
Her shriek startles several of the others holding on, two women, Amy and Shannon jump and lose their grip the bars come crashing back but lock just inches away from their chest. No drill springs from the floor and they jump from their seats. "OH MY GOD!" Amy screams over and over until she sees Cassie on the floor and runs over to her and Liz. "Get away from her!" Amy pushes Liz back.
"I didn't mean to, I thought she could..." Liz steps back, tears in her eyes Shannon steps between her and the other two women on the floor and leans down to comfort Cassie. Anne and Ross come over to Liz and go to help her back to where they were sitting. She pushes them off and heads over to the chair and sits down. "Can I just do this now?!" she screams out waiting to see if Cipher responds.
The monitor flickers on. "Certainly Liz, you can start at any time, two other may take Shannon and Amy's spots as well. Randy and Dale, two men who were close by hop in the two empty chairs they too are being driven mad by the wait.
"I have a theory here." Dale gets in position and pushes up the bar, it reaches its maximum length he takes a big breath, blows out a couple of puffs and then he slowly moves the bar back down towards his chest just seconds after he pushed it up. Inches from his chest it locks, he hears a click and he gets up from his seat. "I knew it, you just have to let it go slowly, if you drop it hard you get the drill, let it back slow." Randy begins to slowly ease his back and gets ready for it to lock just before it hits his chest, he pauses and just waits. "Just let go now, you should be set." Dale smiles confident he's solved Ciphers puzzle. Randy opens his palms and starts to pull his hand from the bar, he hears the click and smiles. His hands drop to the side and no drill appears from the floor. He gets up and high fives Dale. "Yeah! I knew it!"
Liz watches the two of them rejoice and sees Cassie still on the ground in tears, she pushes the bar all the way out and looks over at Anne. There's a pause and then she gives the bar a little shove at pushes it out from her as if she were throwing it away. Placing her hands at her side she closes her eyes and turns her head waiting for the crash of the bar and the drill to the leg. The bar slams back down, with a loud crash, everyone cringes and waits for the scream, but the bar locks and nothing happens.
"Elizabeth, when are you going learn, we play by my rules here, all the time. Doing something like that, hurting yourself because you feel guilty, I won't allow it." Cipher sits back in his chair.
Liz gets up from her seat giving the monitor the best death stare she can, she walks back over to Cassie who's still crying and holding her leg. She leans in "I'm so sorry." she drops her tag of the number 63 on the floor next to her and grabs Cassie's number 80 out of her pocket. Cassie stops crying and just looks at her.
"Thank you." she sniffles and whimpers, lets go of her leg and reaches out to Liz to hug her.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." Liz cries softly and the two women cry together for a bit. Liz stands up and wipes her face. She looks at her new tag and looks up at the monitor.
"See how I'm making you better people." Cipher leans forward.
"#%$# You!" she puts the tag in her pocket and walks back to Anne and Ross.
End of part 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment