Silence Falls

Otep and Bam merely nodded to each other in a way strangers would upon meting for the first time before Otep turned her attention to Bert with a look of uneasiness in her eyes. “Bert, I need your help! We have to get him out of there right now, and fast.” Before anyone could ask her who she was alluding to, Otep pointed to the huge ominous cross in the room with them, an urgent tone in her voice. Her eyes bore into Bert’s expecting him to do something about the adornment on the wall. Bert followed the direction of her finger with his eyes to study the macabre symbol, but it was still too dark to understand what she was articulating about specifically.

Bam and Cris were just as puzzled as they two shared a look of confusion. Cris spoke up first to ask her the question they were all going to say. “Um, Otep…what are you talking about? Help who? The cross?”

Otep turned around to gawk at Cris with an incredulous look. “Excuse me? Why the FUCK would I want help with the fucking cross, man? I meant what’s ON the damn cross!”

Bam’s blue eyes widen as he wondered to himself if this chick was crazy? Did she seriously want to bring Jesus Christ with them, hauling the god-knows-how-many-pounds cross on their backs?! A glance at Bert told him he was wondering the same exact thing.

Scared to death that he may be losing Otep to lunacy, Bert placed his hands on her small shoulders and turned her around to face him again, lowering his head so he can look her right in the eye when he asked her of her state of mind in case she’d try and lie her way out of this ridiculous request. “Otep, tell me the honest truth now, honey. Are you finally fucking losing your shit?”.

Otep glared at him, aggressively shoving him off her with rage before she began shouting at him. “You fucking asshole, I’m not fucking losing it! You dick!”

Bam threw his arms up defense as he argued in Bert’s defense. “Well what the hell do you expect us to think when you demand a request like that!? I mean, you’re basically telling us you want us to rip Jesus Christ off the cross and take him with us?” He threw a hand in the religious icon’s direction. “You gotta be fucking crazy to think we can fit him through the vents we’ve been skulking through all night with us! It’s not like we can bend his outstretched arms when he’s made out of…who knows what!”

Rolling her eyes, Otep strode over to the cross, and when she was standing beside it she then turned to face the three guys. Reaching out, she placed her hand on Jesus’s thigh. “Yes, we fucking can, you three blind dumbasses! He’s not a fucking statue, he’s a fucking human being and he needs our help!”

Bert’s eyes widen as he his eyes lift to stare at the immobile stature for a long time. After a long moment of silence, he slowly walks forward to join her by the cross in a mix of bewilderment and awe. Cris soon followed alone behind him, hoping as well to find proof that Otep hasn’t finally been lost to insanity like everyone else trapped in this place. Simultaneously, they both tentatively reached out to place their hands alongside Otep’s on Jesus’s thigh…

“You got to be fucking kidding me! Why the fuck would there be a human all the way down here in the hells of nowhere!?” Bam argued back with his hands on his hips, not humoring her ludicrous story at all.

Together, Cris felt the thigh Otep and Bert had their hands gently placed on was horrified to feel the soft warm flesh of a living person beneath the cloth instead cold hardness. Letting out a gasp of shock and fear, Cris tore his hand away from the being and jumped aside, his blue eyes lifting to stare up at the box and bag that was concealing the identity of who this person was and what medical condition they were in. “Holy fucking Christ!” Quickly, he spun around to face an anxious Bam who was gripping onto denial like it was a lifeline. “S-She’s right, Bam! That isn’t some kind of Jesus stature made of wood. That’s a human being restraint up there!”

“Are you fucking serious right now, man?” Bam demanded in a uneven tone, his voice sounding more fearful than doubtful.

“Dude he’s really fucking serious, right now! This feels...like a fucking human being, not some stone or wood-made holy relic.” Bert confirmed, his voice sounding strong and steady as his other hand joined in to feel up the person’s body to detect what was holding him up exactly. Soon, his hands gently glided over the hard metal hardness of the chains, careful in their investigation to not cause the poor abandoned soul left for dead any more pain. Just as he was lifting the chain to find a padlock of some sort that could be holding the things togehter, a groan broke out in the room.

“Oh my fucking god, what the fuck are you bitching about now, Bam?” Otep exclaimed, not having any more patience for the new member of their team. Both she and Bert shot him a glare over their shoulders where he was standing next to Cris with his arms now crossed over his chest. “I swear, I’ve only known you for .5 seconds and you’re already getting on my bad side!”

“Bam, didn’t say anything, you guys!” Cris cried out in defense for Bam before he could stand up for himself.

“Thanks, Cris.” Bam grumbled as he openly flipped the Bert and Otep off with each hand.

“Then who the hell groaned?” Otep asked them all, ignoring Bam’s rude gesture to peer around at all the men in the room with her who only shook their heads in response. When it all finally dawned on them that the sound had to come from somewhere, each one of them slowly glanced up at the crucified body still strapped to the cross. “Oh my god, it was him! He’s still alive! Quick, we need to get him out!” Otep ordered them, trying to tug the chains off his feet by herself.

“Whoa whoa whoa, hell no am I helping whoever the fuck that person is!” Bam arfgued, holding his hands up to display that he was indeed not helping as he stepped back put distance between him and the person on the cross.

His action earned a glare from Otep who had no issue with striding over to him and sizing herself up against his taller frame. “What the fuck are you talking about, asshole!? We need your help to get this person down from there!”

“Uh oh.” Cris shifted cautiously away from the battle that was brewing between those two so he wouldn’t get hurt. Bam had just refused to help release the person they thought had been a wooden statue this entire time but was instead a live breathing human being, and Otep was close to murdering him for it.

Meanwhile, Bert was still occupied with searching for a way to release the poor soul from its chains…that was until he heard a tiny beep go off near his foot. “Shit.” Crouching down, Bert lifted his pants leg to reveal a small handkerchief tied to his ankle. Cris frowned at the odd fashion accessory, wondering what he was doing with it down there. His question was answered when he saw Bert undid the cloth and revealed a small circular object hidden underneath it. Crouching down himself out of inquisitiveness, Cris saw that it was a small silver clock attack to a matching chain, or more specifically a pocket watch.

“Where did you find that at?” Cris pried, glancing at his friend just in time to witness a pained and angry expression cross Bert’s face.

Bert’s hand closed around the watch into a tight fist shaking with rage. “Belongs to that fucker who put us all down here.” Brushing the reminder of his father aside, Bert put the watch back to where he had it hidden before then stood up and strode over to Otep and Bam with the intention of interrupting their argument, leaving Cris to stand by the crucified boy by himself.

“What the fuck is your problem? You can seriously walk away from an innocent person like this?! They need us, you selfish prick!” Otep shouted, jabbing a finger in his chest.

Bam smacked her finger away. “Look, his life has nothing to do with me, ok!? I just want to get the fuck out of here, not stay and make friends with the fucking insane gang that resides here. For all you know, he could be a fucking psychopath put up there for good reasons!”

“Enough, both of you! Time’s up!” Bert shouted as he forced his way in between them and roughly pushing the two away from each other. “Look, we have enough time to decide together what we plan on doing with him after we get him down. What we don’t have is the time to stand here and argue about it any longer. In an hour or less, the staff will be waking us up for our morning pill, and if we aren’t there when that happens, then you better kiss our plan to escape goodbye cause it’s as good as over from there on out.”

“But Bert, we can’t just leave him! He needs us.” Cris called out to him, glancing back up over the poor man.

“I know, but like Connor, he’s gonna have to wait!” Bert informed him sternly in a tone that told them all he was in charge.” I promise, alone or not, I’ll come down here and get him down…and find out if he’s insane or not, ok?” His attention turned solely to his roommate. “Otep, we’re having breakfast in the cafeteria today instead of our room. We need to discuss with everyone else about what happen here tonight.”

Otep reluctantly nodded, crossing her arms over chest as she glanced shortly at the hanging body. She didn’t want to leave him in this state but seeing as she had no choice because they ran out of time there was nothing more she could do for them. Bam nodded, leaning against the wall, not particularly wanting to stick around any longer to rescue this helpless stranger or not.

Cris leaned over to the body, whispering ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you out if you’re not crazy enough to try and kill. So please… don’t be crazy.”

“Come on, Cris! We need to move, now.” Bert said, standing by the door with Otep and Bam already out in the hall waiting for them.

“Coming!” he called before he hurried over to the door to join them.