The earpieces went silent and Bethany was left alone. Fighting back tears, she tried to think. There was no way she was going to accept being stuck in this tank forever. She was a successful college student and a talented journalist, and up until the catastrophe of last night she'd had a promising future. She refused to be reduced to a limbless fish with nothing to do, ever, but swim around and stare at the glass walls of her tiny prison. She had to think of a way of escaping.
The first thing to do was investigate every square inch of her tank closely. She kicked her encased legs experimentally, and moved forwards faster than she expected. She nearly bashed her head on the glass again. Hm. She figured her mysterious captors would expect prisoners to try to smash the glass with their heads, so it must be hard enough to withstand that sort of thing. She might succeed in cracking her own skull, but probably not the glass. That left the floor and the lid.
Carefully wriggling so that she faced downwards, Bethany moved towards the floor. It appeared to be concrete, reinforced with metal wire, and covered in a layer of smooth glass. No way out that way either. She turned around to get a look at the ceiling. It was made of metal, and had three features. There was the glaring spotlight that illuminated her prison. This was probably useless as a means of escape unless she was considering suicide by electrocution, and she didn't feel that hopeless yet.
There was the nozzle where her breathing tube entered. Again, there was no obvious way that would help her escape. Finally there was a small hatch in the top of the tank. This appeared to open upwards and Bethany guessed it was a way for her captors to put things into the tank. But it was too small for her to wiggle through. Nudging it with her head, she found she couldn't move it at all.
Now she knew the full contents of her prison, and there was nothing to do but think hard about how to get out. It seemed hopeless, but she refused to give in to despair. She'd think of something.
Suddenly her earpieces crackled to life again. |