“Getting To The Point”
by Cindy Reacherfan

The first thing that she felt was the pounding in her head. Feargirl grabbed her forehead, feeling the heat pulsating from her forehead back to her temples. It was intense, as if someone had a vice on her skull.

Next was the sweat. She was in a total sweat, which made no sense given how cold she felt. Her forehead was soaking wet, and her body felt wet and sweaty under her suit.

The suit was a whole other thing – a tight red and black suit of some odd material, stretched across her taut, firm body. Her feet were bare, and black leggings came just to her ankles. It was something unfamiliar to her. How the hell did she get here?

As the pounding in her head started to subside, Feargirl took a look around her surroundings. It was dark, bare, foreboding. This was somewhere she had never been before, and despite her best efforts she couldn’t pull from the recesses of her memory and thought as to how she had arrived here. Squinting her eyes to try to pick up on any detail only served to bring the headache back to the front of her consciousness.

“Where am I?” she asked herself, rubbing her eyes. “How did I get here?”

“You’ll never find out,” came a voice from in front of Feargirl. “Anyway, that’s a useless question. It’s not how you got here, but how you’ll survive.”

Feargirl looked up and saw a young woman standing in front of her. The woman was dressed in a gray sweatshirt, tight black pants, and boots. She held a gun in one hand, and a small electronics device in the other.

“Who are you?” Feargirl asked, slowly rising to her feet, “and where am I?” She felt no fear or concern regarding this new person, but she also wanted to clarify what was going on here. “Just call me Girl X,” the woman said, smirking. “That’s all you need to know about me. Where are you? You’re in the Panopticon.”

“Panopticon?” Feargirl asked, holding up a hand. “What…I don’t even know what to say. I mean, what is the Panopticon?”

Girl X laughed and rolled her eyes.

“It’s the place where we live, and it’s the place where we’ll die. It’s just a matter of whether we go alone or whether we take a bunch of motherfuckers with us,” Girl X said.

Feargirl looked at Girl X quizzically.

“Here’s the thing,” Girl X said, kneeling down. “This world, I don’t know what it is, or where it leads. I’ve been here for what seems like months, killing and trying to fight my way home. What I’ve discovered is that there’s no way to get home. There’s no victory here.”

“We’re alone here,” Girl X continued. “There is this thing, this beast, that I’ve seen around. It has friends, it calls itself the Minotaur. I’ve seen it from a distance as I was killing its minions. It’s strong, strapping, all black, with horns. Half man/half beast. It has followers that seem to pop out of the walls.”

“How have you survived?” Feargirl asked.

“Good question,” said Girl X. Holding up her gun, she smiled and said “By taking out the Minotaur’s army. One by one, I’ve stuck this thing into their chests, held the button, and let it fly. I’m so used to the smell of burning flesh now that it’s second nature. It’s not enough though.” Feargirl pointed to the other item, the small device.

Before she could even get out a question, Girl X interrupted her.

“This is the secret weapon,” she said confidently. “I’ve hooked up explosives in different areas. This will activate them. It’s the doomsday scenario and will burn this place to the ground. Come on, let’s get the hell out of here before it finds us.”

Feargirl hesitated slightly. What other choice did she have? She rose, grimaced at the pain, and the two women started to walk.

Within moments, the women heard a thumping. It was loud, ominous. Girl X raised her gun and put a finger to her lips. She started to lead the way, when a larger thump was heard. It causes Feargirl to stumble back, into a wall. As she tried to remove herself, she realized her back and arms were stuck.

“What the shit?” Feargirl asked. She pulled at her arms and back, but a slimy goo bound her to it.

Girl X turned around and mutterd under her breath as she walked towards Feargirl.

“What did you do?” Girl X asked, disgusted. “You have to be careful!”

At that moment Feargirl saw something bounding towards her and Girl X. She could not say anything, but her look was one of pure fear. Girl X quickly turned, getting her gun into position.

“Minotaur!” she yelled as the beast came up and delivered a mighty punch to Girl X’s stomach. This caused the device to fall from her hand. The Minotaur then picked up Girl X and slammed her to the ground, causing the gun to skitter from her other hand.

“No!” Feargirl screamed. She pulled at the goo, as hard as she could, but she remained held tight.

The Minotaur started delivering body blows to Girl X, one after another, punishing her sides and her back. Kneeling down, he wrapped one hand around her neck as he used the other to strike her repeatedly, slamming into her tight body. She stretched out her arm for the gun, but it was inches beyond her outstretched fingertips.

Feargirl kept pulling at the goo, feeling it seep into her clothing and to her skin. The cold substance sent chills down her body, and yet she tried to ignore it as she strained against it. Her muscles burned through her arms and back, the sweat running down her back and causing her clothing to stick to her skin.

Girl X’s fingertips were less than an inch away from the gun, just about to touch it, when the Minotaur swept it away, far out of reach. Girl X was sweating profusely, the salty liquid running into her eyes, and she could feel pain coursing throughout her torso, arms and neck as she put every ounce of effort into survival. Looking behind her she saw the detonation device, and stretched her arm to it. She simultaneously looked up at Feargirl with a wanting expression.

It was clear what was needed. Feargirl needed to kick the device to Girl X, or at least activate it herself. She stretched out her left leg, bare toes straining, but the device was inches out of her reach.

As the Minotaur continued to punish Girl X, the detonation device, the women’s only hope, sat mere inches beyond Girl X’s fingertips and Feargirl’s toes. The two women were grunting and groaning, putting forth all of their effort, and yet it was futile.

Suddenly the Minotaur picked up Girl X and tossed her to the side, and walked towards Feargirl. Feargirl, with narrow focus, continued to strain, her toes achingly closer to the edge of the detonation device. Just as her toes were about to touch it, the Minotaur reared back and sent the sharp objects on its fists into Feargirl’s stomach, running the blades through. Feargirl gasped, the intense and searing pain stopping all movement. There was a gasp, and Feargirl expired. The Minotaur pulled its bloody blades from Feargirl’s torso and turned around. Girl X had disappeared, without a trace. That kill would have to wait another day…