Vincent 'Vinnie' Stanier slowly opened his eyes; his body ached and was completely wet from the puddle of cold, green, pungent water he was lying in. On top of that, his head ached with a throbbing that was hard to ignore. He reached up to touch a bruise on his forehead. It felt about the size of an egg, was badly grazed and stung as he made contact, leaving traces of blood on his fingertips. He struggled painfully to his feet, woozy and unsteady.

Looking around, all he could see were four green walls. The floor, also green, was covered in puddles of rank-smelling water and rotting vegetation, whilst above, a cloud-strewn sky peered down at him.

It appeared as though he was in one of those 'get out of that' quiz shows and despite the pain and discomfort, he chuckled as he envisaged himself running round and round until he was puffed out, but his smile left his face as he realised this was very real and very serious.

The 'room' was about fifteen feet by twenty, with four large round grates about two and a half feet in diameter, no more than a few inches above the floor; two on each of the longer walls, all of them green with algae and God alone knew what.

The walls rose about fifteen feet vertically and there was evidence that at one time, a maintenance ladder ran down one of them, though sadly, all that was left were a few rusty bolt stubs.

He shook his head, attempting to ward off the sense of impending panic and formulate a plan for getting out.

"It'll be fun," his schoolmate Simon had said at school one day. "We can explore the tunnels. Just like old times."

Vinnie was all for it. For one thing, he liked exploring and he and Simon had spent many hours wandering the tunnels at the old military fort in Newhaven. It had been a while and it felt good to be doing something with his friend once again.

As they made their way up to the Pond Lane Water Treatment Works, Vinnie began having second thoughts. As they passed through the main gate, He became less sure about it being such a good idea. It was private property after all, and whilst the danger aspect didn't really bother him, the idea of getting into trouble did. "You sure about this?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," Simon replied as they climbed the hill. "Dead sure. Ben told me about it. The tunnels go on for miles and come out by the river. They stopped using it years ago and now hardly anyone ever comes out here."

That settled it and Vinnie followed his mate up the hill with renewed vigour.

"Tunnels, my arse!" Vinnie grumbled looking at the heavy iron grates as he limped round the large concrete enclosure, sloshing through the puddles and slipping occasionally on the slick algae, dead leaves and other detritus, which apart from the light above, resembled a scene from one of the Quake games. "They're just pipes and probably sewer pipes at that. Anyone wanting to spend any time slithering through those wants their head examined."

He stopped as the penny dropped.

"You fuckin' idiot!"

He shook his head as it dawned on him that there were no tunnels, never had been. There was no exploring either. Simon's sole objective had just been to get him there. It was that simple.

"I must be getting slow," he said under his breath. "Must have been that bang on the head."

The walls of what Vinnie guessed was a water tank of some form, were every bit as slick as the floor, at least near the bottom and the idea of climbing out of there seemed a remote possibility at best. Perhaps there was a way of getting into the pipes and maybe they really did come out by the river. It would be a possible way out.

He tugged on each of the grates in turn and not one of them would budge an inch, so he tried turning and pushing on them before spotting the six enormous rusty bolts around the edges, securing them to the pipes.

"Shit!" he spat and leant against the wall.

Staring at the top, he once again considered the idea of climbing out. The bolts from the maintenance ladder weren't ideal hand or footholds, but if he tried, he might just be able to get enough purchase on them to climb up and get out.

He looked at the two rows of stains that led from about two feet from the floor to the top of the wall. The first three pairs were missing entirely and all that remained of them were rusty holes. This meant that first actual bolt was about shoulder height from the ground.

"No way," he whinged and slid down to the floor against the wall, sitting in the putrid water with his head on his knees, wondering what he was supposed to do.

He took out his mobile phone and frowned — no signal. Not that that was surprising. He was more surprised that it worked at all, but in a submerged concrete structure that was doubtlessly reinforced with steel, creating something of a Faraday cage, the likelihood of getting a signal was pretty remote.

He cursed again, slipped his phone back into his pocket and with his head still pounding, he considered the predicament he found himself in.

"Looks an awful long way down," Vinnie observed. "Imagine getting stuck down there. You'd never get out."

"That's the plan," Simon, who was standing a few feet from Vinnie, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, replied.

"What? Simon, you can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm serious, you bastard. In fact, never more so."

Vinnie started to move away from the edge of the sunken tank.

"You couldn't leave her alone, could you?" spat Simon, scowling. "You said you were my friend, but no, you just had to take her away from me, didn't you?"

"Simon," Vinnie gasped. "I didn't take her. She dumped you ages ago, remember?"

"Yeah, well, friends don't go out with their friend's ex-girlfriends."

"Look, mate. This is stupid. You weren't going out with her, she likes me and I like her. Get over it."

"We were going to make up; just like we always have."

"Not this time."

"You don't know that," said Simon accusingly. "Now I have to do something about it."

"Have to? What do you mean have to?" asked Vinnie. "There's nothing to do. She's with me now and nothing you do's going to change that."

"Oh, I can think of something," he said, with a smirk. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. I don't want her anymore."

"So then what's this all about?"

"I have to teach the two of you a lesson. There are rules and this is what happens when you break those rules."

"Oh?" Vinnie wondered just what he had in mind.

"I'm going to make sure you and she are together — forever," he said, laughing.

"Don't be stupid, Si. You'll never get away with it."

The two of them continued to circle one another as Simon, full of venom explained further.

"I told you no-one ever comes up here. It might be months before they find you and by then, there won't be enough of you left to tell them it was anything other than suicide or an unfortunate accident." He laughed hard. "Once I've dealt with you, I'll go and get Alison and make sure she sees just how she's going to end up. It's a brilliant plan; so simple, but brilliant."

"You're mad, Si. Off your trolley, mate. You need help."

"Mad, am I?" Simon snarled and with that he rushed at Vinnie, his larger frame carrying the momentum he needed to virtually lift Vinnie off his feet and carry him towards the edge of the tank.

Vinnie fought back, trying for purchase on the ground around the edge of the wall. "Simon," he shouted. "For God's sake; think about what you're doing."

"I've done nothing but think about it," Simon replied as they struggled.

Vinnie's feet slipped and Simon pushed him further towards the edge of the tank, both of them huffing and blowing as they grappled with each other. Vinnie tried to side-step, but lost his footing.

He could remember the feeling of weightlessness as he spun round on the edge of the wall, his arms wind-milling as he attempted to regain his balance, but to no avail. He felt another shove in the back from the person he thought of as his friend, pitched forward and saw the ground rushing to meet him as he fell in a head-first dive towards the floor of the concrete tank.

"Simon, NOOooooooooooooooo..."

Vinnie sat bolt upright, his eyes going wide, the words "I have to teach the two of you a lesson... " screaming in his brain. "Allie!" he shouted. "I've got to get out of here."

The pain he felt in his body from the fall was nothing compared to the thought of leaving Allie in the clutches of that madman, Simon. So with grim determination, he got up and went back to the stubs left of the bolts that at one time had held the ladder in place.

Weathering had done little to round over the sharp edges that had been left as the iron corroded, making holding them painful and dangerous.

With an almighty effort he managed to get to the second nub, grinding his little finger against the concrete and feeling the skin being abraded from the middle knuckle. The pain almost caused him to let go, but again, the thought of Alison and Simon, or more precisely, Simon's plans for Alison, kept him going.

Despite the stinging, he hung on and began pulling up. He searched with his feet for the last stub, his grip becoming less firm, but at last, his foot found the brown metal shaft and he pushed.