Frazer Lee - Panic Button

“Hold it together, please!” Jo said.

She clenched her fists, pushing her arms down each side of her body. It was the only physical act of control left to her. Raising her head to the ceiling, she shouted at Alligator.

“You can’t do this! What about my baby girl? What about…”

Dave regarded her with an impatient look. “Banging on about your kid again. You think that just because you’ve got a daughter, we’ve got less at stake than you?”

Jo’s voice faltered. His words were harshly spoken, but true. They all had someone special to lose from their friend list. Her thoughts turned to Maddie. The last she’d heard of her sister, via a collect call to Dawn, she was in Thailand. Jo hoped she was safe. She should be — Maddie was possibly the only human being alive not to be an All2gethr user. Hell, she didn’t even own a mobile phone.

“Nothing can save you now,” Alligator said, as calm, firm and clear as an onboard safety announcement. “But you do have a chance to save your loved ones’ lives. Discuss your assignments and they will die. Fail your assignments and they will die. Complete your assignments successfully, to the letter, and they will live. You each have your instructions. No conferring.”

The screens fizzed with digital noise, distorting the Alligator’s jaws into a vile gash, before snapping off again. His words hung in the main cabin like a sickness, their weight bearing down on the frayed sanity of the passengers.

“What do we do now?”

Jo looked around the cabin in panic. Dave fixed her with a look, catching a glimpse of guilt in her eyes as she looked away.

“What choice do we have?” he asked, “We have to do what we’re told don’t we? Or else…”

“Why me, what have I done to anybody?” Gwen sobbed.

“Why any of us?”

Dave’s question was loaded at Jo. That flash of guilt in her eyes was the real thing; he hadn’t imagined it. What was she up to?

Jo shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling Dave’s gaze bearing down upon her.

“What did he say to you, in there?” he asked, his voice lowered but pregnant with accusation.

“Nothing.”

“Rubbish. You’ve been acting weird since you came out of the bathroom. What did he say?”

Dave closed in on Jo, intent on an answer. She turned her back on him, leaning on the bar again for support, a sea of alcohol inches from her nose. Dave grabbed her wrist, pulled her arm forcing her to face him.

“Get off!” Jo wrestled free from his grasp, rubbing her wrist. “Keep away from me, you have no idea what I’ve got at stake.”

“We all have,” Dave said, “If you’ve got the impression that I don’t care about my fiancée, then you’re dead wrong!” Rage crept into the blacks of his eyes.

Jo swallowed. She’d seen anger like his before, been on the receiving end of a man’s uncontrollable temper — never again.

“He’s got my little girl,” she protested, her voice choked with emotion, “She’s just a baby…”

Jo’s eyes filled with tears.

Dave glared at her coldly, as if assessing her feelings and checking they were genuine.

“No, no, no, no!” Gwen made a fist around her scarf, tugging at it in frustration. “We shouldn’t even be talking about this, don’t you see? He said no conferring.”

Dave ignored her wild eyes. “He said we can’t reveal our tasks, that’s all.”

His eyes bore into Jo’s again. “What did he say?”

Jo slowly shook her head in defiance. “Nothing,” she snarled.

“Bollocks! I don’t trust you.”

Jo took a step back from Dave’s sweaty bulk. Then it struck her.

“You know what I think? You’ve got something to hide and you’re trying to cover up by pointing the finger at me.”

Gwen tried to be the voice of reason. “Guys, please, we should be thinking about how we can get of this…”

Engrossed in their argument, they didn’t notice Max retreat quietly to the crew prep area behind the curtain.

Max bit down on his lip as his eyes scanned the little metal cupboard compartment doors. It had to be there somewhere. He looked again, and saw it, high up above the others. Recalling Alligator’s grim words in the bathroom, Max reached out and popped the catch on the metal door. It read: ‘EMERGENCY USE ONLY’.

Back in the cabin, Dave’s mood had escalated. He looked desperate, cornered by Gwen and Jo who were both trying to reason with him, to make sense of their predicament. But Dave could only see as far as his own concern for Sarah.

“We’re rats in a cage here!” he yelled. “We are fucked! And if we don’t play by his rules, a lot of people we know will be too!”

Jo levelled her gaze. “You give up if you want. But I for one am not dead yet…”

Max burst through the dividing curtain, back into the cabin, with an angry roar.

Jo and the others recoiled.

Max was brandishing an emergency crash axe, swinging it above his head like a berserker charging into battle.

Bang!

He smashed the heavy metal blade into Gwen’s touch screen. It broke away from the cabin wall, showering Jo and the others in sparks.

They all backed off as Max continued smashing with the axe, not stopping until the screen was shattered and its wiring severed like an umbilical cord.

“Jesus!” Dave exclaimed.

Max looked up them, panting. He looked crazed clutching the crash axe, eyes red from stinging tears.

Jo looked at the axe — the main blade formed a ‘P’ shape, with an ice pick protrusion at the back. It looked lethal.

“Where… did you get that from? Jo asked.

“He told me where to find it…” Max moved toward Jo’s touch screen. “Stand back!” he commanded.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dave asked.

“Cutting them off. These things are rigged. Webcams, microphones… so I’m de-rigging them.”

Seeing Dave take a step towards him, Max held the axe aloft.

“I said stand back!”

“Don’t…” Gwen started.

As Max glanced at her, Dave used the opportunity to step forward, blocking Max from attacking Jo’s touch screen.

“For fuck’s sake, sit down,” Dave said. He sounded almost weary.

“No!” Max protested, “If they can’t see or hear us, then the game’s over.”

Careless of the axe, Dave pushed his face right into Max’s.

“Don’t you give a shit about anyone other than yourself? Sit down, now, or I’ll knock you out you little prick!”

Max swallowed dryly, Dave still right in his face.

“I can’t do this…” he muttered, “My task…”

Gwen covered her mouth with her hands.

Jo shook her head. “Don’t say it…”

“That sick fuck told me…” Max went on, “I’m supposed to kill whoever he tells me to — when he tells me to.”

Gwen wailed, hysterical — this was too much for her to bear.

“Don’t you see?” Max said, “He doesn’t just want us dead, he wants to punish us! You think they’re going to let your loved ones go because you followed the rules? You’re idiots if you trust him….”

“Yeah, but he’s got the upper hand here,” Dave said, “We have to do what he says.”

“I don’t,” Max said.

As if in answer to Max’s challenge, the Alligator reappeared on-screen.

The animation glitched momentarily and his smiling face juddered, grotesque slit eyes stretching across the screen like dark chasms.

“Yes you do Max.”

For the first time during their voyage, there was a trace of anger in the Alligator’s voice.

“Put the axe down and return to your seat, otherwise someone else will face the consequences of your stupidity. And we both know who that is, don’t we? Your brother — Mike…”