Hell’s Fear (Hellfire MC #11)

Chapter Two.

Team One: Sunny and Smokey (Hellfire). Fish and Marsha, Willow and Grey (Rage). Davies (Hawthorne’s). Inglorious (Unwanted Bastards).

Sunny.

H ow the hell did I end up in this lunatic asylum? This was sheer lunacy.

We should be getting ready to beat the crap out of the Fangs, and I still had to find the dirt inside Hellfire. There was somebody left who meant the club harm. I had to root them out because Hellfire was near enough clean. Anderson was convinced rot remained in Hellfire, but I’d not seen anything.

From what I witnessed, the brothers were tighter than ever, and they certainly lived in each other’s pockets. If someone was rotten, then they were fuckin’ good at hiding. Hellfire was a far different club from what I left, and Phoe was one of the biggest surprises. A woman wore a cut and sat in our church. That didn’t sit well with me. Shotgun had taken the time to explain that Phoe was their conscience and soul. I didn’t understand that.

What made Phoenix so crucial to the brothers? It was beyond my understanding. Phoe was rich, kind, and giving, but she wasn’t anything special. Yet Chance and everyone seemed to believe she walked on water. She was a mere woman who, in my eyes, had somehow wheedled her way into a Hellfire cut.

“What do you think the theme will be?” Marsha asked Fish.

“These places have themes?” Fish replied, startled, and Marsha glowered.

“Do you listen to anything I say?” she inquired and turned her back on him.

“There’re usually different backgrounds, and we have to solve the puzzles to escape,” Inglorious offered, and Marsha beamed at him, causing Fish to glower.

“Someone notices me,” she said in a dig at her husband.

Fish nearly made me laugh with his indignant expression. “I listen!”

“Yeah, you hear very well when I say I want to get laid,” Marsha hissed, and Fish took on a mulish expression.

“Always pay attention to a beautiful woman,” Inglorious teased.

“Shut the fuck up, cocksucker,” Fish retorted.

The guide who’d been waiting with us looked at a clock and spoke. “You have four hours to discover the main room. Remember, refreshments are provided in room three, but the countdown doesn’t stop while you eat and drink. Once you reach the final room, when everyone else arrives, you have an hour to escape there. Have fun. Your time starts now.”

He opened the door, and we entered. I was the last to enter, and as soon as I crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind me.

“Okay, so I guess we start with the table,” Willow said, heading towards it.

Marsha and Davies joined her while I took in the first room. The walls were made of corrugated sheet metal, and there were several lockers and a wall of shelves with toolboxes and other stuff. The floor was plain wood, and there was a bright single bulb hanging from a wire.

Inglorious stood near a stack of boxes with strange marks on the sides. Fish was examining a pile of different lengths of pipes while Grey looked at the door. He reached out and touched the handle and twisted. He offered a rueful smile when it didn’t open.

“Worth a try,” he said, amused.

“So we’re in a factory?” Inglorious asked.

“Judging by the décor, either that or a warehouse, a garage maybe?” I agreed.

“We need to find two batteries for this box. It has a clue,” Marsha called.

“How do you know that’s where we begin?” I inquired.

“Because it says so,” she retorted, and I walked over to the table.

Marsha smirked as she pointed to a plaque, saying, ‘Start here.’

“Well, I suppose that couldn’t be any more obvious,” I said, chuckling.

“What are those weird marks?” Willow asked.

“Do we just open stuff randomly?” Fish inquired, rattling a toolbox.

“There’re two symbols here. A triangle with a circle inside, and the second is a snake with two lines above it,” Grey described, peering at blocks on the table. “I think we need to find the matching figures, and then we’ll discover the batteries.”

“I found the key,” Davies called, opening a lockbox by the door. “It’s locked behind this Perspex frame, which needs a key itself to open.”

“Are those symbols over there?” Marsha asked as I walked over and began studying each box.

“Fish, you check those toolboxes,” Willow said.

“Houston, we have a problem,” Smokey replied, searching a locker.

“Oh shit,” Grey agreed.

The locker contained loads of containers, all with the same markings as the blocks on the desk.

“Hey, over here, there’s a base and a drawing of a shape made out of those boxes,” Smokey called.

We all wandered over and studied the picture.

“So, we build these into those images and get the key?” I asked.

“I don’t think it would be that easy, but it looks like the first step,” Willow agreed as she started collecting the boxes. Grey helped collect the rest of the triangle ones, and then I watched, amused, as everyone argued about how to make the shape.

Finally, Willow smacked everyone’s hands and began building it. “Who’d have guessed spending hours with the Hellions and their Kego would come in handy?”

Fish groaned as Willow continued. “I’m so tired of stepping on those damn Kego bricks.”

“Those fuckers hurt,” I agreed, thinking of when Olivia used to play with them. I was happy Olivia was long past them.

Willow swiftly created the two images, and then we all stepped back.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Something should have happened,” Marsha said. Fish reached over and pressed on the snake, and the entire thing moved backwards, and a key appeared. He repeated the actions with the second and discovered a battery. Davies snatched and connected it while Smokey rushed to see if the key fit the lockbox. It didn’t.

“This has to go somewhere,” Inglorious mused, peering around.

“This is locked,” Willow called. “Hey, Smokey, bring it here.”

A panel on the wall opened, and we all winced. The damn thing held a winding mechanism that needed gears to twist.

“I hate shit like this,” Grey complained.

“They could have provided the gears,” Smokey bitched.

“They kinda have,” Grey said, looking at four little ones.

“Okay, so, everyone, search for cogs. Who’s good at puzzles?” I asked, turning to stare at Marsha. Everybody else followed suit.

“I do crosswords, not these pains in the ass!” Marsha exclaimed.

“Not my problem,” I replied with a grin.

We spread out and began hunting for missing gears.

“Anyone got an idea how many are needed?” Willow inquired after we’d found three.

“There’s a number six here,” Marsha called as she placed cogs to see how they fit.

We searched for another ten minutes, and Fish discovered the final piece.

Marsha had been moving gears back and forth and we prayed the last one fit.

It did.

Marsha wound the little handle, and the machinery moved, and a section in the wall popped open, and Inglorious crowed as we located the second battery.

After fitting it to the box on the table, I pressed the on button and almost groaned when another symbol lit up the ceiling.

“Guess we have to find this one,” Davies said, sounding grumpy.

Everyone spun around and began hunting. Fish remembered the toolboxes had keys inside, but we had to discover the container with the correct image. Inglorious found it, grabbed the key, and headed for the Perspex box. We all sighed as the lockbox unlocked, and Inglorious handed Marsha the key. She opened the door, and we stepped through.

The next room was pitch black, and then suddenly, a light flickered into existence.

“This looks like fun!” I said dryly, looking at the now-familiar metal walls and wooden floor. There was a worktable alongside one wall and another full of manuals. Lockers stood against the third and contained cans, and the door was in the fourth. There were several trunks under the table, and above the door, a red timer began a twenty-minute countdown.

“Why do I sense that’s bad?” Willow demanded.

“Anyone see a clue?” I asked.

“The door’s missing a handle. Maybe we have to find that?” Grey announced.

“Start searching,” Inglorious said.

Willow had us begin searching while Marsha hunted for another clue. We began with the trunks when the lights flashed off for a few moments and back on, but they kept flickering.

“I’ve got a flashlight,” Smokey called and flicked it on. A green light emerged.

“Turn it to the ceiling,” Davies said, and we all frowned at the symbol that formed.

“What is that?”

“A handle?” Inglorious said.

“I found another!” Marsha crowed from the second trunk and switched on her flashlight. The lights flashed off, and Marsha’s red torch showed a screwdriver.

“There’re no tools here,” Willow said, frustrated.

“Are there symbols on or inside the tins?” I suggested.

Two minutes later, Fish replied with a no.

“Got another torch, and it’s showing screws,” Davies stated, holding up a blue flashlight.

“We’ve got thirteen minutes,” Inglorious announced.

“Start opening the cans,” Smokey advised.

That wasted three minutes, and we discovered nothing.

“Screws, screwdriver, and a handle,” Willow muttered, her gaze roaming the room. “They’re tools, and those are tool manuals.”

She raced towards the bookshelves, and as she reached them, the lights flashed off, and a sign flashed up above the books.

“Do not mess up the order of books,” Inglorious read.

“Guess that means we have to look and replace on the shelf,” Willow said as Grey and Marsha joined her. They started pulling books off, and Willow gave a triumphant cry.

“The books are hollow inside!” Grey announced and placed his back. They worked their way down the shelf and onto the one below.

“Seven minutes!” Inglorious informed them.

“Handle!” Marsha yelled, waving it in the air.

The lights flashed off, and we waited for them to return. They didn’t.

“Shit, we’ve got to do this in the dark, where’s those flashlights?” Willow cried, and they carried on.

Smokey, Fish, and Davies held the torches on the shelves to give the searchers some light, and Grey found a packet of screws. It was another minute before Willow discovered the screwdriver. As she stood up from the second from bottom shelf, Willow stumbled and pulled the books off.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got two minutes. Give me those items,” Inglorious called.

Smokey rushed them over to him as we moved our torches to illuminate the area on the door. There was a rumbling sound, and I jumped as two panels slid aside, and two people appeared dimly lit in them.

“I don’t like the look of that!” Willow muttered, backing away.

“Nearly there!” Inglorious said.

“One minute!” Fish yelled.

“Thirty seconds… twenty… ten…”

“Done!” Inglorious exclaimed as the door swung open. We all dashed through, and it slammed shut.

A scream followed us into the room.

“Where’s Marsha!” Fish cried. A TV flicked on, showing the books falling and Marsha being grabbed as we ran through.

“Shit, she was taken as punishment for disobeying the rule on the wall,” Davies exclaimed as the warning words flashed up last.

“We’ll get her back at the end? Right?” Fish inquired, looking worried.

“Yeah. I believe that’s how it works. How long do we have?” Willow asked.

“Two hours and thirty minutes, and this one looks a doozy,” Grey said, gazing down at a table.

The room was completely barren, apart from a pile of tins, an empty shelf, and two tables. Along a wall was a table full of food and drinks while the centre table held jigsaw pieces.

“We have to piece the puzzle together?” Inglorious inquired.

“Yes, and there are words on the back,” I replied. I leaned in to inspect the pen marks in the dim light.

“We aren’t all gonna fit around the table. Why don’t half eat while the rest start, and then we’ll swap?” Davies said.

“Do you think Marsha is getting something to eat?” Fish asked.

“Of course,” Willow soothed. “Marissa wouldn’t starve anyone.”

“No, she tortures us instead!” Davies complained.

I smirked as Smokey, Fish, and Grey all stepped up to help me. Meanwhile, Willow, Davies, and Inglorious grabbed food, a can of drink, and sat on the floor.

“This is different from Phoe’s normal shit,” Davies said to Willow.

“Something here will terrify us. Marissa won’t let us go without a scare or two,” Willow replied.

I guessed Willow wasn’t wrong. Marissa loved scaring friends and family as much as Phoe, and both were far too imaginative.

Marissa had provided a small feast, and we ate quickly before taking our place at the table. They’d completed one-third of the puzzle.

“Wait,” Willow said and carefully lifted a completed section. “Sunny’s correct. There is a message underneath.”

“How do we read it?” I asked from where I was sitting, eating.

“We’re going to flip it.”

“And if it breaks?” Fish inquired.

“That’s an issue. Unless…” Willow broke off, and we watched as she cautiously separated a tiny part of the puzzle and flipped it over.

“Can’t flip bigger than that,” Davies commented as Willow pushed a few pieces back into place. “Wanna keep doing that while we get started?”

Willow nodded. I sat back and relaxed. While I couldn’t say I was having fun, it was keeping me interested. When we’d finished eating, we returned to the table and swapped with the other team to give their eyes a rest. Willow continued flipping over sections that were done.

Finally, we were able to read the message.

“I hated science!” Willow exclaimed and frowned.

“Match the symbol to their element to escape. You’re allowed five errors,” Davies read out loud.

“Where’s Magic when you need him? I bet that fuck aced this,” Inglorious said, and everyone laughed.

“Okay, the cans have the symbols of the elemental table. The display screens on the shelves are lit up. This one says Hydrogen, which is H. Does anyone see a H?” Smokey asked.

We hunted through the pile, and I handed Smokey a tin labelled with H. He placed it on the shelf, and the red light on the screen turned green.

“Okay, together, we should get through this,” I said hopefully.

It wasn’t as easy as I hoped. After we’d just made our fifth mistake, we still had three left to go, and we all looked at each other, worried.

“What happens with another error?” Grey asked.

“I suspect we lose a member,” I replied and studied the remaining letters.

Pr, Pa, and Pd remained. On the shelf, protactinium, palladium, and praseodymium remained. I picked up the Pr. “Let’s vote,” I said.

We voted to put Pr on protactinium, and I winced when a siren sounded, and the walls flashed red.

“That’s creepy,” Fish muttered.

“And wrong,” Davies stated. A panel slid aside, and a man appeared. He carried a hammer in his hand, and we all froze. When he didn’t move, Fish grabbed the can and shoved it on praseodymium. It turned green, and we sighed.

“Pa?” Fish asked. We voted to put it on palladium, and once again, the fucker lit up red. A second panel opened, and another man materialised.

“I really don’t like the look of them,” Willow muttered, moving behind Grey.

The men were dressed in blue overalls with heavy boots and wore a welding mask covering their faces. The second guy held an axe.

I grabbed Pa from Fish, dumped it on the shelf and stuck Pd on palladium, and the shelves glowed green. With a click, the door opened slowly. We headed there, keeping a wary eye on the men. As we approached the doors, the lights went out, and I was shoved through the door as it locked behind me. I spun around as a dull light came on and swore.

Smokey and Grey were both missing. We weren’t going so well.

“Um, this looks bad,” Willow whispered.

Standing inside of glass pods were people all wearing overalls, boots, and welding masks. There were about ten in all.

There was Fish, Willow, Davies, Inglorious, and me remaining. Above the escape door, the time showed an hour and a half.

“How many more rooms?” I demanded, and Willow let out a low chuckle.

We searched for a clue but found nothing. The walls were bare, devoid of boxes or any objects or any clues. The single bulb flickered as we scratched our heads.

“Well, I’m stumped,” I said and leant accidentally on a pod. The pod shifted, and I jumped away.

Inglorious looked intrigued and shoved another pod. That moved, too.

“Here!” Fish called and pointed to a circle on the floor.

“I think we have to put the pods on the circles,” I suggested.

“That’s too easy,” Willow muttered. “Look at the ground.”

The ground held ruts, which potentially allowed the pods to slide around.

“I hate these puzzles!” Inglorious whined.

“This is a physical puzzle, not mental. Let’s get moving, boys,” Willow stated.

She wasn’t wrong—those fuckers were heavy—but finally, we got them on their circles. Wiping sweat from my brow, I realised we only had forty minutes left as the next door opened.

We entered the room and stopped. The door behind us didn’t close, which confused everyone.

This one was full of junk. To the side was a platform containing ten holes. Willow quickly darted across and inspected the holes.

“Something fits inside,” she said, and everyone began looking.

“Here, I found two of these,” Inglorious called out, holding up iron bars with a circle on top.

“Oh, no!” Willow groaned as Fish held up another. “They’re all different lengths, and we have to place them in the correct spots so they all hit the same height.”

“We need ten of them?” I asked, and Willow nodded her head.

“Just over half an hour left before we’re locked in. Let’s get our asses moving,” Inglorious ordered, and we all got busy. Five minutes later, we had ten poles of varying lengths.

“Any idea?” Fish inquired.

“None. Stick them in and see where we’re at,” Davies said, and he and Willow shoved them into slots.

From the other room, a red light appeared and caught our attention.

“Why am I so worried?” Fish drawled, looking warily at the door.

I stuck my head around and swore. “Some of the pods have opened slightly. And two are lit green.”

“What?” Willow shrieked.

“Only the green two haven’t moved,” I replied.

“Let me think,” Willow said, stopping Davies from pulling them out. “Ten rods and ten pods. Two haven’t opened, which must mean two are the correct level. See which one’s match.”

Four did. Willow sighed and picked a pair to pull out. The red light disappeared, and she and Davies placed the remaining eight into holes. The red light flashed again, and I gazed at the pods.

“Two have remained closed, and a third didn’t lift,” I announced.

Willow pointed to three, and Davies ripped the others out.

“We’ve got fifteen minutes!” Fish called as Willow found the fifth rod.

“Bad news. One more mistake, and five of these fuckers are free,” I shouted.

Eerily, their heads turned to face me, although nothing else moved. It was fuckin’ freaky in their stillness.

“What happens then?” Fish demanded.

“They take us?” I offered.

“Barricade the doorway,” Inglorious suggested and began dragging some boxes over.

“We can’t wait for you to do that, we’re running out of time. We’ll keep going,” Davies said as Fish rushed to help Inglorious as he and Willow began the next round.

This time, they got seven correct, but three pods opened, and people stepped out of their pods. They hissed creepily and started moving towards us. Fish yelped and shoved more boxes in the doorway as a panel popped open on their side and axes and other weapons appeared.

“Willow!” I yelled as I helped pile boxes up. Inglorious began dragging a heavy table across to help trap the boxes in place.

The lights flashed red again, and I noticed the other pods lift.

“Shit! Now that some are free, all the pods are opening!” I called out.

No sooner had the words left my mouth than the room went dark, lit only by the glowing timer counting down and glow from the pods.

“That is not helpful, Marissa!” Willow yelled as she dropped a rod with a clang and shrieked in pain. “Davies, you’re standing on my foot!”

“Sorry, kid. Hold on, I have the wrong rod and was the other the fourth?” he asked.

“No, fifth, I think,” Willow replied.

The freed captives began shoving against the boxes and pulling them through the door on their side.

“Just shove it in!” I yelled.

“How many times have you heard that?” Fish demanded, and I rolled my eyes.

“Shut up!” I retorted and grabbed a box Inglorious offered me and shoved it where a captive had removed one.

“Shit, it was the fourth, Willow!” Grey snapped as red lights flashed again.

“Three minutes!” Inglorious shouted.

Grey let out a triumphant yell, and the door slid open. We all raced for it and dashed through. It shut behind us, and we found ourselves in a room with chairs and nothing else.

“Is this the main escape room?” Willow asked, puzzled.

There was a timer still ticking down. As it hit zero, another door opened. Our gazes met, and then we pressed on.