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“Fuck it,” Bri spat and got to her feet. “Lead on, New Chick.”
Payton barked out a howl of pain and doubled over, cradling his arm in his stomach. Liam jumped to his feet and ran to the dinner table; he grabbed a heavy wooden chair and ran to the false wall. The one that had slid aside to allow Kaden entrance. Swinging the chair overhead, he slammed it into the wall. Surprisingly, a split appeared. And part of the wood cracked.
“Hurry!” I screamed.
The others, spurred on by my words, Liam’s action, and desperation, everyone grabbed various pieces of furniture and slammed them into the wall. There was a heavy metal spoon on the table beside a pot of soup. I snatched it up and ran to the others. Using it as a hammer, I beat at the wood, trying to tear apart the wall at its weak point. Elise screeched and hit her knees as she was shocked. Liam was next, but all he did was wail in rage as the pain pushed him on. My own arm was being shocked, and possibly blistered by the pain. My knees went weak with it, but my hand kept beating at the wall.
Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. “Housemates. You will stop immediately. Stop now or punishment will be severe.”
“Fuck off, cunt,” Bri shrieked at the speaker and slammed an end table into the wall.
The split was nearly big enough to fit through now. I could even see the front door. The others could as well, but we were having trouble breaking the wall the rest of the way down. We weren’t strong enough, even together. My strength was fading as I tired myself and tried to fight through the agony of the electrical shocks to my arm. Payton had already dropped his chair and shook on the ground. We didn’t have much time.
“If we get through and get away from the house,” I shouted, “we might put enough distance between us and the house to nullify the bracelets.”
Another shock, stronger than any other blasted through me, and I dropped the heavy spoon. I’d been right, he couldn’t shock us all at the same time, but even then we were failing. The window was slipping away as we weakened.
An inarticulate roar came from behind me. I turned in time to see Drake running full speed at the wall. He held a massive stone bust in his hands, a piece of artwork that sat on an end table in the dining room. I’d barely noticed it in my time here. The statue had to weigh two hundred pounds. The thing was huge, and solid marble or granite, but he was able to hold it over his head in his thickly muscled arms as he ran.
“Move!” he yelled.
Elise and Liam leaped aside right as he brought the bust down on the wall. With a snapping crack, the false wall burst nearly in two, leaving more than enough room for us to get through. Rallying and ignoring the pain, all six of us climbed and scrambled over the ruined facade and pressed against the door.
Liam and Payton kicked at the door, trying to break it off its hinges. Elise and Bri were beating on the opaque windows on either side, but no matter how hard they hit them, they didn’t break or even crack.
“Even if we can’t get away, we can call for help,” Payton said as he kicked.
“Are there even neighbors nearby?” Bri asked as she beat on the window.
I stood, hands on my knees, heaving for breath and wincing from burns on my arm. Something was tickling at the back of my mind. Why wasn’t he shocking us anymore? Had there been some bit of electronics in the fake wall that nullified the cuffs? Surely he’d be trying to punish us still. It made no sense. Also, why hadn’t he used the gas? I’d almost forgotten about that. He could’ve knocked us out at any time. Why hadn’t he?
Before I could voice my concerns, Drake raised his foot and kicked at the door. It rattled in its frame, but a moment later an audible click came from the lock, and it swung open a single inch. We all froze, staring at it in shock. Our paralysis broke an instant later as we tore the thing open and piled outside.
As everyone tripped and fell over each other, I tumbled to the side. The view outside was obscured by the arms and legs of the others and blurred by the spinning as I fell. I saw the flashes of green. The trees I’d glimpsed when Kaden had come in. Even in our panic, a smile was forming on my face. We’d done it. We’d gotten out. Now, we had to get as far away from here as we could. I breathed deeply, wanting to take in fresh air for the first time since before I arrived. My breath caught in my throat when Bri howled.
“What the fuck? What the fuck? No. God damn it, no!”
“Holy god in heaven,” Payton said in almost a whimper.
“Shit,” Drake hissed. “I fucking knew it.”
I lifted myself up to my hands and knees, tearing my face away from the wooden planks of the front porch to see what they were talking about. Behind me, the yellow wood siding of the house looked so benign, so harmless that I had a hard time believing that was the place where so much blood had been spilled.
Out front, the trees were all around the yard. Trees and shrubs and grass, and I froze, not believing this shit. They were fake. I could see it now. All the plants were fake. Raising my head, I looked above us. There was no sky. No clouds. Just the steel roof of some kind of warehouse and to the right, walls the same as the roof. Sinking back on my heels, I put my hands to my mouth and fought the tears already running down my cheeks. We hadn’t escaped. We were still prisoners.
