Page 57

FIFTY-SIX

RUTH

What was happening? Ruth must have fainted. How long had she been out? It felt like ages. She’d had so many weird dreams. She prised an eye open and realised the hell she’d fallen unconscious to hadn’t miraculously disappeared.

An emergency red light started to flash on and off as the dark figure pulled Ruth into another room. The door clicked again, locking them both in. Ruth reached up and pulled at the mask that had been pressed to her face and flung it across the room.

‘Get off me,’ she murmured, as she pushed the frail figure away. Whoever was trying to kill her had backed off.

The emergency light went off again. She listened as the other person in the room began to scrat around on the floor, before retreating back to the far end. Then the hissing noise started again.

Ruth gasped, unable to take in much air. Her head felt clammy and her mouth dry as a bone, despite the bit of water she’d drunk from the tap.

The figure began to scurry close by. Ruth’s stomach clenched as she held her breath in the hope that whatever strange creature of a person she’d encountered would back off. The red light flickered again, shining a light on the straggly-haired figure. The pale bruised face stared back, the mask sealing her mouth. It flickered off again.

Screaming, Ruth reached for the door handle and kept pulling and pulling to no avail. She was locked in with whoever that was. When the light flickered red again, she tried to take in her surroundings. The human in front of her had an open sore on the hand that clasped the mask in place.

It went dark again. The girl was upon her, touching her hair, touching her face and her arms. Ruth flinched and shuffled out of the way, tears pricking from her eyes.

It wasn’t Elissa. The girl in the room was a child.

Gasping for air that wasn’t satiating her lungs was using up the last of Ruth’s precious energy.

The hissing sound got closer and, once again, something was pressed around her mouth. Only this time, she knew it was a mask and she knew that the unkempt girl was trying to help her, not scare her. She greedily breathed in several times, taking in all the lovely oxygen.

The light flickered again and Ruth shivered at the sight of a chessboard on the table. The girl placed an arm around Ruth and began to rock her.

Who was she? This girl with the birthmark on her cheek and arms so frail they could be snapped like twigs.

‘I’m Ruth,’ she said as she pulled the mask aside.

The girl took the mask back and inhaled a few puffs of air.

‘Luna,’ she replied.

Ruth coughed and inhaled sharply. ‘How do we get out of here, Luna.’

‘I live here,’ she replied in a drawn-out way. ‘We never go out. It’s too dangerous because there is nothing out there. The world has died, silly.’

Ruth took another breath through the mask. ‘Sweetheart, there is a whole world out there. The world hasn’t died.’

Her eyes watered up. She knew exactly what she was dealing with now. A young girl who had lived here for so long she believed there was no world out there; a girl who had never seen the light of day, and a girl who had never been hugged tenderly by a parent.

Ruth was sent to be her mummy in their dying moments.

‘No, we are all going to die. We have run out of everything and this is all we have left.’ She placed the mask over Ruth’s mouth again. ‘When this runs out, we will die, too.’ The girl paused. ‘I’m happy not to be dying alone.’ The girl’s cracked lips spread into a smile.

Ruth’s heart rate picked up as she realised she was never getting out.

She held the girl as they took it in turns to use the mask. As time passed, all she kept thinking was, how much oxygen did they have left? She now knew that this had been her daughter’s end, and that thought hurt her the most. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

The light flicked on again and the girl had pressed her head against Ruth’s chest, so Ruth began to stroke her tangled hair. If this girl had been Elissa and someone else had found her like this, Ruth would want that person to offer her comfort and love to the end.

She hugged her even closer and kissed her head. ‘I’ve got you, sweetheart.’ She used to call Elissa sweetheart. ‘Where is your mum?’

‘She died.’

‘What was her name?’

The girl took another breath through the mask. The hissing began to simmer a little. Ruth knew what that meant. The oxygen was running out. Both of them were gasping as they talked now.

‘Her name was Mum.’ She paused. ‘She was good at drawing.’

Elissa had been good at drawing.

She hugged the girl closer. Maybe this frail child was her granddaughter. ‘Does anyone ever come down here?’ She grabbed the oxygen mask and took a little breath. Perspiration began to drench her clothes, yet she was cold.

The girl trembled against her chest. Her voice broke as she tried to force some more words out. ‘He doesn’t come anymore.’

‘Who doesn’t?’

‘Daddy. He died out there. He said if he doesn’t come back, it means he can’t get home because he died. That’s how I know he died. I wrote a note on a sheet that he took with him telling anyone who found him that I was scared he would die but it was silly, because there is no one. I just dreamed there might be.’ The girl pressed the mask against Ruth’s mouth again, and as she breathed in, the light flickered on.

Ruth stared at the oxygen tank and saw that the needle was pointing to red. It was almost empty.

The girl reached around her and hugged her. ‘I’m sc-scared.’

‘Don’t…’ Ruth felt like her chest had a huge band around it, and it was tightening with every passing second. She began to panic as she tried hard to suck in more air, but the panic just made it worse. The light-headedness was beginning to make her dizzy and nauseous. She closed her eyes. ‘Don’t worry…’ she croaked. ‘We have… each other…’

A faint whisper from the girl’s mouth, and what she said sent a final chill through Ruth’s body.

The girl didn’t speak again. She lay still in Ruth’s arms. Ruth didn’t even have the energy to cry another tear. ‘I’m here… sweetheart .’