Last Moments - Cari Arthur (book club recommendations .txt) 📗

feelings became worse when their captor repeatedly told them how their friends and family had given up on the search. No one was looking for them. They would never be found. Cassidy had almost given up hope, but somehow everyday she found just enough to get her through. She clung to that hope. She had faith. Until, she saw the news. Their captor had been ecstatic when he heard of the asteroid. So much so that he put a television in the dungeon.
As the girls watched the news and heard that the end was near, defeated tears slowly fell down their cheeks.
“Ha, you will never leave. And no one will ever know what happened here. I have an evacuation plan. I am headed to a new world where I can live a long happy life. And where will you be” he asked as he slammed his bat against this makeshift cage. “You will be here, stuck in this dungeon, like you disserve. You will die with the planet. Things couldn’t have worked out better for me.” He snickered and clapped his hands. His eyes twitched with the crazy in his head.
Cassidy crawled over to where Michaela was huddled on the floor. The two girls held each other. There was nothing they could do. No one would find them. Their soft whimpering would never be heard.
Over the previous few months, or what the girls imagined were months because time was hard to tell when you couldn’t see the sun or moon, the girls tried to escape. They even got close once when they used a hair pin to pick the locks. But he had found them. He had thrown them back into what would now be the place they spent their last days. As the last days of the evacuation approached their captor had not been to the dungeon but he left the television playing. It seemed like he would never come back. From the lack of food the girls became weaker and weaker; too weak to try to leave. They accepted their fate. As the moments they believed to be their last passed, images of their lives drifted through their thoughts. Cassidy lay by the prison door face down in a puddle; Michaela was huddled in the corner passed out. Cassidy was dreaming of the night of the party. She dreamt that she and Brendan had fallen madly in love and that they got married and had a daughter. She smiled in her semi-consciousness. A loud noise interrupted her temporary bliss. It was her captor. He had returned. He unlocked the door and walked in, kicking Cassidy as he passed her. He kneeled next to Michaela and said something that Cassidy couldn’t hear. Then he kissed her on the forehead. Turning he smiled at Cassidy. He moved over to where she was on the ground. He knelt down and said “Goodbye, my sweet. May death be painful and horrible as I imagine it will be for you.” And with that Cassidy mustered up her last bit of strength and tackled him. She had a plan, a last minute insight to their situation. The key to the lock was on his belt. If she could just get it. He hit her in the face. A painful burst spread through her eye. She yelped and then passed out onto the floor with the key clutched in her hand. How he didn’t realize before he left the room that she had the key, was surely a miracle. He slammed the door behind him. That would be the last time Cassidy saw the man that was her and her friend’s captor. He left on the last evacuation unit that night. Everyone was gone except for “The Left Behind.”


Freedom
It was slowly coming back to me. I started to remember everything. The beach, the party, the van, the dungeon, and the end of the world. My eye hurt. It wouldn’t open. My body felt weak but I knew I had to do something. I had to get Michaela and me out of this. I crawled to where Michaela was huddled. She was screaming.
“Mic… Michaela, it’ssss me. Cassidy. I’mmm gonna get us out of here.” I said weakly, barely able to get the words out. I crawled to the door and reached up to the lock. I used the key to open it. We were free.
“Michaela… Get up. We have to get out of here.”I crawled over to Michaela and we used what little strength we had left to push each other up. We were out of the dungeon. One task complete but the stairs ahead of us could have been Mt. Everest. We moved together on hands and knees, and slowly inched our way up the stairs. When we reached the top we were exhausted. We needed to eat and drink.
The house where they were kept was not in good shape. Their capture had been a messy beast. The food in the refrigerator was moldy. Dirty dishes were in the sink. The floor was littered with newspapers, trash, and dirt. Their captor must have had an appreciation for old weapons for the house was littered with different types of weapons fastened to the wall. It was dark and dusty. In the air there was a stench some mixture of mold, dust and death. The smell of death came from the half gutted boar on the kitchen counter. Its head was partially detached and its guts were oozing out of the abdominal cavity. Cassidy thought… that could have been us. He would have done that to us. Why did he pick us? It was a question that lurked on the edge of her mind since this whole thing began. Why did he choose us? Why couldn’t we have been the prettiest girls at that party and laughed and flirted all night. Then when it was time for the world to evacuate Earth because of this asteroid, we could have been with our families. Cassidy hit the floor on her knees and cried so loud and so hard she didn’t know where she found the energy. Where would she find the energy to survive even just a few more days?


The Last Supper
Cassidy and Michaela somehow managed to leave the house where they had spent such dreadful days. They stumbled out of the wooded area that hid the house of torture and came across a small house in the distance. This house was a treasure. It was abandoned as were many houses due to the asteroid. But the kitchen was full. Obviously people had left everything. They left food in the refrigerator, clothes, blankets, even the electricity was on. When you are planning on never coming back, things like the electricity don’t mean anything to you. There was a picture on the counter of a family. A husband and wife with two children had lived here. There was a picture of an older lady in a rocking chair on the mantel. Near the picture was a letter. The front of the letter read one word Goodbye written in the small print of a child. Cassidy picked up the letter and held it to her heart. First she would eat then shower and change her clothes. Then she would sit and read this letter and try to come to terms with the fact that she and a handful of people, including criminal masterminds, were the only ones left on this planet. Thankfully the criminal masterminds had not been released yet. Cassidy remembered reading about the local jail. According to the article it was made up of mostly men. A small number of women were kept there as well. The crimes committed varied from murder to petty theft. Hopefully they would not encounter any convicts. At the moment this was too much for Cassidy to think about. She pushed these thoughts back in her mind and concentrated on finding food.
Cassidy pulled everything from the refrigerator to the table where Michaela now sat. There were apples, lunch meat, left over mashed potatoes, some hamburgers, and baked beans. Surely this was the last supper for the people who called this their home. The last supper they shared together as a family. The last supper they shared on Earth. Cassidy and Michaela ate in silence.
The shower felt amazing. It felt warm and as if it could take away all the dirt and pain Cassidy had suffered. She pictured herself in her childhood home, with her family. She pictured what her life might have been like if she had never been kidnapped and if she had been able to go to the new planet Aurora. When she stepped out of the shower, the mist followed her and so did the realization that she would never have her dreams. She would have a few days, just a few days of freedom.
Cassidy and Michaela had taken showers and found some clothes to wear. Their bellies were full and they were regaining their strength. However, they couldn’t forget the awful things that had happened to them. Michaela’s spirit was broken. She would not even look Cassidy in the eyes. She wouldn’t even speak to her. She just lay on the couch in that cottage and gave up. Cassidy covered her up with a blanket and rubbed her shoulder.
“It will be quick. They said it on the news. It will be fast, we won’t even feel it. Then all of this will be over.” Cassidy wanted to comfort her friend, but how do you comfort someone when the world around you seems to be without hope.
“Michaela, do you believe in heaven?” Cassidy didn’t expect an answer. The question was more for her anyway. The pictures on the walls caught her attention again. And Cassidy thought about the letter in her pocket; the letter to a beloved grandmother. She thought about reading it, but that was the only thing she was looking forward to doing. She decided to save it for a special time. Cassidy found herself traveling through the house. She ran her hands over the trinkets on the bookshelves. There were little ash trays and pictures made by children. She walked up the stairs that was lined with pictures. The evolution of a family could be showcased down a single hallway. This family knew love. They knew about trips to Disney, family BBQs, graduations. They were not much different than the family she once had. Cassidy and her only, older brother Tim had similar family experiences. They went to Disney when Cassidy was nine; Tim was fourteen. He was now married to a beautiful woman. The last time she saw them his wife was expecting a child. Has she had the baby? Cassidy reached the top of the stairs. To her left was the room she and Michaela had raided for showers and clothes. There were two other rooms. The doors where closed.
The first room was directly in front of the stairway. Cassidy opened the door and walked in. It was the children’s rooms. They must have shared. Toys were scattered on the floor. The beds were unmade. Drawings and children’s posters hung on the walls. There was a battered teddy bear on one of the beds. Why hadn’t they brought it with them? Why did they leave it behind? It mustn’t have been on the list of “acceptable items.” If only that bear could talk. What would it say? What stories would it share with everyone? Cassidy held the bear to her chest, as she walked out of the children’s room.
The last room was to the right of the stairs. It was the last room to explore in the small house. Cassidy wanted to