|
|
|
“This isn’t happening.” Rachel still sat against the wall and tearful turned to desperate denial. “It can’t be happening, it can’t be.”
Lori was hit by another burst of an asthma attack. She tried her best to stand up straight and open her airwaves as much as possible whilst holding the bag to her mouth. Ryan felt helpless. And he did all he could by putting an arm round her.
“Oh God Lori I’m sorry.” Shannon said, sounding deeply regretful. “I can’t believe I’ve just accused you of being in, on this sick plan.”
Lori could only respond by making a friendly eye gesture towards Shannon. She wanted to let her know she wasn’t holding any grudges against her.
“This plan is so sick that anyone of us could still be in on it”– Mick bluntly pointed out.
“Come on Mick, give us all a break. You heard the freak on the loudspeaker”– Shannon replied with some anger.
“Why all of a sudden are we believing anything the freak says?” Mick countered.
“My, my this is fun”– the voice boomed out over the loudspeaker. “Bit rude calling me a freak though. But I’ll let that go for now considering the situation you’re in. And believe me, you have no idea just how bad is the situation you are in. Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting. You see there is a bomb under the dining table.” The voice paused for effect. And this gave Mick a chance to glance under the table to confirm that this time at least the voice was telling the truth. “There’s a question on a piece of paper attached to the bomb. You have to get the question correct to stop the bomb going off. Oh, and you have just over four minutes to work out the answer. By the way, if any of you try to escape the house you will be shot dead.”
“Now, do you believe we are all innocent in this mess?” Shannon aggressively asked Mick as Lee dove under the table to locate the question.
“Mick’s right”– Ryan announced solemnly, getting everyone in the rooms undivided attention. “None of us can completely trust any of the others. But the paradox is, that we have to trust each other if we are going to somehow stay alive here.”
“Good point”– Shannon agreed. “Now what’s this question?”
“It’s a riddle”– Lee told them. “If a farmer has three pigs and four enclosures, can he put an odd number of pigs in each enclosure? There must be at least one pig in each enclosure. If you think the answer is no, then cut the yellow wire. And if you think the answer is yes then cut the red wire.”
“That’s got to be fairly easy to work out”– Mick suggested. Then he looked around the room as if he wanted somebody else to do the thinking.
Shannon started pacing up and down and running her hands through her hair. “Well you can’t go one, one, one. Because that will leave six pigs for the last enclosure.” She began her calculations. “One, one, three would leave four. One, three, three would leave two.”
“And three, three, three would mean there’s no pigs left for the last enclosure. So that doesn’t work either. Cut the yellow wire Lee”– Mick finished of Shannon’s workings.
Lee had already picked up the pair of scissors that had been left by the bomb. “Are you sure?” He checked.
“Yes, it’s pure mathematics”– Mick dismissed Lee’s uncertainty.
“Hang on”– Ryan said. “Is there a clock counting down on the bomb, Lee?”
“Yeah, there’s still just over two minutes left.”
“Well I think we should use that time to make sure of our answer. Because that does seem way too simple to be true.”
“Just because you can’t think as quick as us doesn’t mean its not right. Just trust us”– Mick snapped back.
“Who decided you’re the boss?” Rachel got up off the floor and asked Mick. “What Ryan said makes sense. There’s no point giving our answer until we have to.”
“I agree”– Shannon added. “It does seem to easy too be true. Let’s just have a minute or so of silent thought time.”
“All right, whatever you say”– Mick conceded.
Just over a minute’s silence was ended by Lee. “Thirty seconds left guys. Shall I cut this yellow wire or not?”
“It’s still got my vote”– Mick replied quickest.
Lee took a sharp intake of breath and put the scissors to the yellow wire.
“Oh wow, I sure hope this is the right thing to do”– he said as he slowly began the snipping action.
“No!” Ryan screamed.
 |  |  |
|
|
|