The Chamber

The Chamber

  By Brett J. Talley

  Copyright 2012 by Brett J. Talley

  Discover other titles by Brett J. Talley at https://www.brettjtalley.com.

  It had been a good dream. When he woke, he had been standing in an open field. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky, and the breeze was blowing through his hair. A small child, his daughter, was running towards him, while his wife watched from behind, her hands on her hips, grinning. Yes, it was a good dream. But then the dream changed. There was a booming sound, like the sound of a bell tolling, one boom after another, starting in the distance, but growing louder with each strike, until finally, there were no more.

  He awoke to bright lights; bright, piercing lights, a light so cold and harsh that he knew it couldn’t be the sun. He shivered. The freezing steel floor beneath him had stolen the heat from his body and the light, though bright, provided no warmth. He was staring up at that light, glowing white orbs set in a flat, silver sky. His mind was confused now. Was he dreaming? He was awake, but he wasn’t quite conscious yet. And then suddenly, it struck him.

  He sat up quickly, inhaling deeply as he did. Panic rolled through him now. This was no place he should be, no place he had ever seen. He looked around. Four bodies lie on the floor. They moved slowly, jerkily, as if struggling against sleep that was not at all natural. Four people. A girl, young, a teenager. The other his age or younger, pretty but with the scars of age. A twenty something man, his clothes fashionable, his hair perfectly styled to appear as though it had not been styled at all. And finally an older man, a grandfather probably, the elder of the group.

  He looked around quickly, his eyes darting from the metal floor beneath to the metal ceiling high above. Three walls were identical. Solid metal slabs. If there was a door, he didn’t see it. The fourth wall was the same but for a large window. Not a window, a mirror. But if he judged right, not a mirror either, but some combination of both.

  Had he been arrested? He didn’t know. It was then he realized that he had no memory of coming here. In fact, he had no recollection of anything that had happened before he awoke. No, that wasn’t quite true. He remembered the day before, or what he guessed was the day before. He remembered waking up, remembered taking a shot of vodka to steel him against the day. He remembered going to work. He remembered the tedious minutia that made up his day. He would be late. Yes, that was it. He was working late. Of course he was late. He had no one to wait on him anyway. And then he was walking through an empty parking deck to his car. But then what? He couldn’t remember. It was as if a wall rose and everything behind it was beyond his view.

  Did he even reach his car? He couldn’t say he did, but he couldn’t be sure he didn’t either. Had there been an accident? Had the police brought him here? But no, it couldn’t be that either. He had been arrested before, long ago. Brought in by an overzealous cop who didn’t believe he had only drank one beer. And he knew one thing for sure – this was no jail cell. No jail cell he had ever seen at least. Not then, not on television. This was something different. And then he felt fear.

  He stood up on shaky legs. He walked over to what he guessed was a two-way mirror.

  “Hello?” he called. No answer. He knocked on the glass. Nothing. He banged harder, but still nothing. He turned and looked around again. He walked over to one of the sides of the room, his footsteps echoing above the metal floor. He ran his hand along the wall, all the way along, until he reached a corner. Then he continued to the next corner and then the next. No crack, no seam. None he could tell at least. His mind went back automatically to that old saw about the room with no windows and no doors and a mirror. But that had been a riddle, a joke. This was bizarrely real.

  He turned around and looked at the four people behind him. The woman was moaning now, and they were all about to wake. Then in one quick movement she pulled herself upright. She looked at him, but he could tell that there was still nothing conscious behind her eyes. But in an instant they cleared and there was the cold recognition that something wasn’t right. Next there was fear. She gasped, and then she was skittering backwards until her body was flat against the opposite wall.

  “It’s OK,” he said, taking a step forward, his right hand extended in the universal symbol that she needed to calm down.

  “Who are you? What have you done?” she screeched as she looked around the room and then at the three slowly rousing bodies beside her. There was panic in her eyes now, that raw, raging fear of a caged animal.

  “It’s OK,” he repeated, now squatting on the floor at her eye level. “I’m Nathan,” he said, in the most calming voice he could find. “I don’t have any answers for you right now, but I’m sure someone will come soon.”

  There was another scream from beside him, the squeaking cry of a youth. The teenage girl was awake now, and she was equally distraught.

  “Where the Hell are we?” he turned again to see that the younger man was conscious too. He was also staring at Nathan, his eyes accusing. In fact they were all awake now, though the old man simply sat on the floor looking around at the other four, studying them, but not yet speaking.

  “Look, I don’t know,” Nathan said, standing again. “But we are all in the same boat here, and I’ve gotta think somebody is going to come explain all this soon.”

  The younger man stood up now, walking quickly over to the two way mirror and banging sharply against it.

  “Hey!” he yelled. “Hey I want to talk to somebody. I want to call my lawyer!”

  “I already tried that,” Nathan said, now getting frustrated. “If there’s anybody in there, they don’t want to talk to us yet.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” the woman said, her eyes filled with tears. “I went to bed in my home and I wake up here.”

  “Is that what happened?” Nathan said, taking a step towards her. “Is that what you remember?”

  She looked at Nathan for a moment. “Well,” she said, her eyes looking off to the side as if she was trying to see into the past. “Actually, no, that’s not what happened. I got home late and I was tired. I was going to go straight to sleep. I remember I opened the door. But then...” She looked up at him. She was confused, but somehow everything had become clearer at the same time. “I don’t remember anything after that. The next thing I remember, I was here.”

  “Yeah,” Nathan said after a moment, nodding his head. “Yeah, same here. What about you?” he asked, pointing at the girl. Instinctively he knew that talking through it would help them all.

  “It’s Ashley,” she said sweetly. “I had just left cheer leading practice,” she continued, a surprise to no one given the WHS sweatshirt and pants she was wearing. “I had just said bye to a couple of my friends. I remember putting my key in the door of my car.” She looked up at Nathan. “And that’s it.”

  “And you?” he said, nodding to the man still standing in front of the mirror.

  “Jason,” he replied. “I needed cigarettes. I still need cigarettes,” he grunted, banging his hand sharply against the mirror. He stood there for a moment with his hands on his hips and then said, “Anyway. I was walking down the street to the store. I’ve made that walk a thousand times. One minute I am walking to the store and the next I wake up in here. With you fine people,” he said, letting his hand smack against his pants.

  “And what about you, sir?” Nathan said to the man who had yet to say a word.

  “Jake,” he replied. “And I hope you will all call me that. Something tells me there is no need for formality in a place like this. I had just dropped my granddaughter off at her mom’s house. I was walking back to my car. I guess I neve
r got there.”

  “OK,” Nathan said. “OK. I’m Nathan.”

  “And I’m Cathy,” the woman sitting against the wall said. Everyone looked at her. She smiled, for the first time. “I just realized that I was the only one who didn’t introduce herself.”

  “Cathy, good,” Nathan said. “Well, it goes without saying that something strange is going on here.”

  “No shit,” Jason interrupted. “And judging by the looks of this place, it’s some damn government operation gone wrong. Apparently we are all terrorists or some shit,” he spat. “Including that one,” he said, pointing lazily at Ashley.

  “Well, we don’t know anything yet,” Nathan said. “So there is probably no point in jumping to conclusions.”

  “You got a better explanation?” Jason asked with more than a little bit of sarcasm.

  Nathan ignored him. “Well it’s a quarter past midnight. Or Noon,” he said, looking down at his watch. But it wasn’t his watch. In fact, he had never seen it before.

  “This is not my watch,” Ashley said, looking down at her left arm.

  “Mine neither,” Jason replied. “Me neither,” Cathy added. Jack simply raised his hand. It was then Nathan noticed.

  “They are all the same,” he said. The other four looked down at their arms and then over to