G is for Game Change

 I have joined the group  "Blogging from A to Z" .  This is a  a month long challenge to write a short story everyday and each day corresponding to the letter of the alphabet.  I have linked up the site - simply click on the name so that you might read any sort of short story from the huge line-up available.  the stories are supposed to be short so that many can be read, quickly.  Simply a titillation of talent.  Happy reading, and thank you for joining me.

G is for Game Change

Looking around, she sized up her situation.  Her “Prince Charming” wasn't coming to save her after all.  He just wasn't going to come to her rescue.  He wasn't “up” for it.  Time to re-evaluate her goals.  Time to change gears.

The rat hole she had been taken to was more than disgusting.  It was probably the worst smelling place she had ever been.  As a meat inspector for the USDA she had smelled some pretty nasty places.  Now she needed to know why she had been “taken” and where had she been taken to.

Straining at the tethers on her wrists, she cupped her palm then dislocated her thumb.  It was an old trick taught to her by her grandmother.  Grandmother had brought jade bracelets back from a vacation. Once on, they are meant to stay on forever.  She slipped her right hand out of the bindings.  These amateurs really should have used a zip tie or duct tape.

The room was dark, no windows to let light in.  This told her, if nothing else, she was in a warehouse of some sort.  Now the question became, where.  It was hot too.  Wisconsin isn't very warm right now, so what is the heat source.  Her mind was reeling.  Why?

Her boss had sent her to inspect a couple of packing plants on Terrance’s normal turf.  Everything seemed to be in order.  The employees seemed amiable enough.  They appeared to be up to code.  Everything had been washed, clean, organized and overall friendly.  Even the employees seemed “in their right mind”.  Why?

Feeling her way to the wall, she began the slow process of following the wall with her hands while stumbling over items on the floor, trying not to make too much noise.  The dark didn’t frighten her, but the things she was stumbling over did. 

She didn’t want to touch anything on the floor with her hands…she poked with an exploratory toe.  Limbs.  There were limbs and bodies on the floor.  Was this part of the slaughter house?  Was she still in the same building?  What type of bodies lay on the floor?  Her mind spun, jumping quickly between questions and expletives. 

Finally finding a door, she slowly tried the handle.  Moving the handle by millimeters, after what seemed an eternity, she was able to begin the task of opening the door.  “Handle,” she thought, “means I’m probably in an office.”

As the door began to open, voices floated to her.  She recognized a voice. Terrance.  He had come for her after all!  She began feeling guilty for the awful things she had cursed about him as she felt her way around the room to the door.  He had come for her! 

“Kill her!  Feed her to those god-awful hogs you keep as pets! What were you thinking?  Why did you panic?!”  Could those horrible words be coming out of her Terrance’s mouth?  What?

Pulling the door closed again, she started feeling her way around searching for a window.  “Time for a game change.”  She thought.  “Time for some self reliance.”

leigh