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any of the men were still alive, I didn’t want to cause them further pain by shocking them into movement with any sudden noise.
    My heart sank further when I noticed the lack of any anaesthetic on the table. Clean these bastards may have been, but they clearly had no qualms about causing the men pain.
    “Who…” Cough. “Who are you?”
    A simple but very obvious question. I turned from the table, and my mouth fell open. Seeing the men hang there, skin torn to shreds, was one thing, but to have one actually speaking to me was another. My eyes drifted to the shuddering rise and fall of his tattered chest. I lifted my gaze onto the man’s face, and was hit by the sheer pain etched there. Totally understandable, of course, but I never knew you could really feel someone else’s pain the way I could then.
    I told him my name, not that it was of much use to him. I wondered what I could do for him.
    “Are you with them?”
    “No,” I replied in a whisper, the anger and disgust bubbling in my tone. “They trapped me down here.” I looked around. “Although I have no idea why,” I added, not bothering to hide the fear that had ridden up in me.
    The man coughed. “Divine retribution… That’s what they’ll call it.”
    “They?” I asked, although deep down I knew the answer to that.
    He nodded upwards painfully. “Up there, in the…hotel.”
    I approached him, and reached up for the manacles around his wrists. “Let me get you out of this.”
    “No.” He coughed again; this time it came out all ragged, and was followed by a dribble of blood. I reached into my trousers pocket and retrieved my hankie. I dabbed the blood from the side of his mouth, and he smiled at me. It hit me that this was probably the first sign of human compassion he had felt in a long while. My eyes watered at the overbearing sadness of it all.
    “Please…kill me.”
    I pulled back, a spasm of shock shaking me. I shook my head. I couldn’t kill a person. No matter what. I just didn’t have it in me.
    “Please. Before they come back and finish…this.”
    “Look,” I said, a sudden urgency gripping me, “I came here to find a friend. I’m sure they’ve brought him here. Is there another cavern like this?”
    “Kill me.”
    I looked back at the mouth of the cavern. He was sure they were going to return, and that only made me certain, too. I had to find Mr. Wyndham before they returned. I sniffed. The smell of salt was stronger now, so I couldn’t have been too far from the sea. This meant there had to be another exit from these caves. If I could find Mr. Wyndham, then we could…
    “It’s too late.”
    My attention snapped back to the man, and my heart was stopped by the look of pure horror on his face. “What do you…?”
    I didn’t need to finish my question. I heard the lift doors open a short distance away.
    “I have to go.” I reached up a hand and wiped a further dribble of blood off the man’s chin. “I’m sorry.”
    With one final look of apology I turned to leave him to his certain death. That brief moment of humanity was going to cost me, since it had given them enough time to reach the mouth of the cavern. A small group of them stood there, completely blocking the only way deeper into the caves. My only escape route.
    I recognised them all. Meg the receptionist, the man who kept the tennis courts in order, the waiting staff from the dining room, the chef, and at the head of the small group the manager himself. Each of them was smiling, and the sheer delight in those smiles made my skin squirm.
    “Hello, Mr. Jensen,” the manager said. “So nice of you to join us.”
    *
    I’ll admit I screamed. Not because of what I saw, so much as because I knew what was coming my way next. They manacled me to the wall, right next to the man I had spoken to. He’d not said a single word since they had entered; he didn’t even look my way once during the whole time that they forced me against the wall and ferociously