Frazer Lee - Panic Button

“So you think that was faked too?”

Dave shook his head, eyes vacant. “I don’t know what to believe anymore…”

Jo approached Max, who was glancing around the cabin with an expression of pure paranoia.

“Why are they doing this… to us?” she asked. “What’s going on here?”

Max shook his head, taking deep breaths and drowning his anger in recycled oxygen. He glanced over Jo’s shoulder at the others. Gwen looked dreadful, her face pale and drawn after her ablutions. Dave seemed more on edge than ever — his clown’s facade had slipped and gone.

“Got to keep our heads…” Max whispered.

Jo nodded her silent agreement.

Blink, blink, flash.

Something beyond the darkened porthole window nearest Max caught her eye.

Jo moved toward the glass, zombie-like and numb, peering outside. Her quick breath fogged the window. Through the haze she saw distant lights, glittering in the dark beyond the clouds.

“We’re close to land,” she realised.

“What?!” Max turned sharply.

Dave and Gwen moved to the window nearest them, on the same side of the plane as Jo, peering out, curious.

“We should be over the Atlantic now. But we’re not. Look — there’s land, over there.”

“What does that mean?” Gwen asked.

Max answered. “Whatever our destination is…”

“It’s not New York,” Jo finished.

“So where are we going then?” Dave asked. “Jesus.”

They all looked to one another, mortal fear in their eyes. Alligator’s games had diverted all their focus onto the victims of their forfeits. It hadn’t occurred to them that they themselves might be in danger aboard the jet — until now.

Max turned and looked at the flat panel TV screen on the wall at the front of the plane. Maybe, just maybe, he thought. The thing had been inactive for the duration of the flight so far. He approached the screen, tapping the power button a couple of times. Dead, totally dead — yes, maybe.

His fingertips found the groove behind the screen’s casing. He pressed with his fingers, working them down into the gap, and pulled. The wall bracket moved, only a centimetre or two, but enough for him to get a purchase on it. He twisted and pulled with all his might, wrenching the bracket back out of the cavity wall. The screen tipped forward into his arms, heavy all of a sudden, and he crouched, dropping it to the floor.

Gwen looked horrified. “Don’t! You’ll piss Alligator off and he’ll…”

But Max was intent on his newfound task. “No power cable,” he said, excitement in his voice as he checked both the hole in the wall and the cable ports in the back of the TV.

“What are you doing?” Dave asked.

“This screen should show our flight path, ETA, weather systems, all that stuff…”

His eyes, sharpened with purpose, darted around the cabin and settled on Dave’s touch screen.

“The lead,” Max said.

Dave looked dumbfounded.

“Disconnect the lead,” Max clarified. “Pass it to me!”

Dave disconnected the power lead from the back of his screen and tried to hand it Max. It didn’t quite reach.

“I said don’t! You shouldn’t be doing this,” Gwen said, her voice laden with dread.

Ignoring her pleas, Max wrested the monitor from its bracket and dragged it across the floor, closer to the power cable. Still a couple of inches too far.

Dave yanked at the cable, snapping it away from its wall housing, pulling with all his might until he could plug it into the monitor. The screen fizzed into life, the Deppart Airlines logo appearing briefly before dissolving to a computer-generated map display.

“What?” Max said, as a GPS flight path marker appeared over the map, a little pixelated plane showing their position.

“Where the fuck are we?” Dave asked.

“We’re over Denmark,” Jo said.

Max nodded. “According to this we’re bound for Oslo. What the hell is in Oslo?”

Jo cut in. “All2gethr headquarters are in Oslo.”

“Why are they doing this to us?” Gwen asked, lip trembling.

“I don’t think this is All2gethr,” Max said.

“What?” Dave snapped.

“You think a social network is doing this? No, it can’t be them, can’t be.”

“Who is it then?” Dave railed on, “It’s all legit — this trip…”

“You read it in an email did you? It’s got to be legit then hasn’t it!?” Dave’s idiocy was beginning to grate with Max.

“This is their competition — we were contacted through their site, remember.”

“You think a social network is out there killing people? For what reason? Profit margins not high enough so they’ve moved into hit jobs? Snuff videos? No mate, whoever it is, it isn’t All2gethr.”

Dave shook his head in disbelief. Max looked past him at the cockpit door.

“We’ve got to get to that pilot,” Max said.

Dave looked defeated. “I bloody tried, door’s sealed tight.”

“People are dying because we broke the rules.” Gwen was now at the bar, helping herself to some chilled water. “Maybe we should just think about playing along before someone else gets hurt.”

“They can’t wipe out everybody can they? I’ve got over a thousand people on my friend list…”

“Oh, go you , Dave. This isn’t a bloody popularity contest!” Gwen shouted.

“That’s not what I…”

“Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats…”

Alligator’s voice interrupted Dave’s protest, the reptilian voice making the speakers rattle.

“It is time for Round Three.”

“Why the hell are we flying to Oslo?” Max demanded.

He was standing in the aisle next to Jo, both of them looking defiant.

“All in good time,” Alligator teased.

Gwen began to sob from her seat, pleading with them to sit down, to just do as Alligator said.

“No more,” Jo said, “We’re not playing any more.”

The speakers crackled faintly, then Alligator made his next move.

“Very well, you give me no choice but to initiate another forfeit. Let’s see…”

The touch screens flickered into life, rifling through Jo’s friend profiles. She watched in abject terror as familiar names and faces scrolled across the screen. So many innocent people.

“No!” Jo shouted. She couldn’t allow him to harm anyone.

“Then take your seats,” Alligator said as the screens flickered into life.

“Please,” Jo said to Max as she sat down.

Last man standing, Max looked around the cabin at the others — at Jo’s pleading eyes boring into his. She’ll be the death of me, that yummy mummy , Max thought as he reluctantly sat down.

The words ‘ROUND 3: DO OR DIE’ appeared on the monitor screens in front of the terrified passengers. An atmosphere of dread fell over the cabin like a dying breath.

Dave shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the animated Alligator returned to their screens.

Gwen glanced out of the dark window at the stormy night sky, biting her fingernails.

Jo and Max exchanged frightened glances — no brave faces to put on this time.

“You will each be given an assignment,” Alligator instructed. “Failure to complete your assignments will result in more deaths. I will gladly kill more of your friends if need be. Or your families.”

Blank terror fell across Jo’s face. She thought of her little Sophie and Dawn, all alone at her home. Her mind conjured screams of terror from her loved ones, and she put her hands to her ears as though to block them out.

Max looked at Jo, concerned. “And if we refuse to play along?”

“Please — don’t cross him,” Jo said.

“Finally, Jo makes a constructive comment. Better late than never…” Alligator purred.