Not
waiting for the others, Edward charged ahead into the water. He stood in the
middle where the water reached up to his knees. He looked up. Louise also gazed
upward but couldn’t see anything. In the darkness above, she couldn’t even see
a ceiling in the open, endless space. Then she heard a shrill clanging noise
originating from somewhere above them, echoing throughout the basement. She
couldn’t figure out what or who was making the awful noise; it sounded like a
large machine was about to fall on them.
Instead,
huge metal cages—suspended by thick metal chains—came crashing down from above.
Sharp metal spokes extended from their bottom corners, to better catch any
unsuspecting intruders with their ultra-sharp claws. The cages seemed to be
targeting Edward, swaying close to him. He had to dodge their sharp rods, which
were threatening to ensnare him and crush him to death. He dove into the water
and eluded them—one after another.
Then
all was quiet. The empty cages that had missed Edward were lying in the pool of black water. With his legs still submerged, Edward stood
panting on the far side of the water.
Tom
broke the bleak silence by his hysterical shrieking.
“Watch out, Edward!” Then he jumped into the
dark water.
Loud
swooshing noises screeched from above. Huge circular saws descended to sweep
the water between the submerged cages, searching for heads to slice off. Their
sharp edges glinted in the dim light of the basement.
In
his desperation to reach his beloved Edward, Tom tripped and fell face first into the water. A
huge saw was rotating toward his slumped over body. Louise stood stunned in place.
She knew unhappily that there was no way she could help him in time. She was
even too far away to see if he was still breathing. The saws were sweeping the
basement floor, lined up in methodical rows with only about a foot of space
between them. There was no way anybody could reach Tom without having their own
head chopped off.
