Dennis was walking home from work when he heard the plaintive cry from the alley.

“Somebody help me… please…”

He didn’t even think. He went straight over to see what he could do…

He was searching all over, but he couldn’t see anything. Then he froze in shock…

A pair of eyes was looking at him.

“I’m over here”, came the voice. “Please, help me! I can’t move…”

Dennis just started backing away, in shock and revulsion…

“No, come back! Please! Help me!”

Dennis forced himself to walk forward. He then crouched down by the box…

The young woman was naked and sealed in some kind of transparent cube; her arms were pinned behind her, with globes on her hands stopping her from using them. She was also held down by the box in a kneeling position.

Dennis had been in shock because he could see the box was welded shut. The woman was completely sealed inside it. There was a collar round her neck, with a hose running from it to a small compartment at the back of the box, as well as another hose running from between her legs to a small drain hole at the back.

“My so-called boyfriend shut me in this, because I wouldn’t have sex with him!”, she cried. “Please, can you get me out?”

Dennis examined the cube from all sides, but his initial thoughts had been correct. The woman was well and truly stuck. The whole cube was moulded round her.

“I’m sorry, there’s no way I can free you”, he said. “I’m not going to just leave you here, though.”

He singlehandedly managed to carry the cube back to his car, which was luckily parked just round the corner as he had been almost home.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to go in the boot”, he said. “You won’t fit on the back seat.”

“It’s ok”, the woman said. “You’re trying to help me; that’s all that counts.”

With an effort, Dennis fitted the woman into his boot. Tying the lid down with a bungee cord, he slowly drove to the hospital. Once there, he parked outside A&E and yelled for help…

It was a shock to the staff when they saw the woman in her cube. Especially to one of them…

“Shannon! Oh god! No!”

One of the nurses was Shannon’s sister…

It was a problem trying to work out who to treat; Shannon in the cube, or her sister, who was hysterically clawing at it from the outside. In the end, her sister was sent to bed and sedated, and the rest of the staff then went to work on the cube…

Hours later, Shannon was still stuck.

“You’d better connect something to my outlet”, she said. “I’m dying for the loo, and I can’t hold out any longer…!”

They found some hose and fittings that matched the outlet exactly, and ‘plumbed’ Shannon into a sink. She was then able to relieve herself a bit.

“Who did this?”, asked one of the nurses.

“My boyfriend; my ex-boyfriend now, Martin Harris. He works at the research centre just outside town.”

This gave the hospital a lead…

It turned out that the cube that Shannon was sealed in was a variant of a device that the firm had been working on for probe testing in space. It was actually meant for a chimpanzee…

Shannon let out a real shriek when she found that out…

The problem was, as the firm’s probes weren’t expected to return, no-one had designed a release system for the cubes. They still hadn’t…

The director of the centre was horrified to hear that a human being had been sealed in one of the cubes, especially by an employee!

“That explains why Martin hasn’t been in for days”, he said. “We haven’t been able to reach him by phone or email, either.”

The police raided his home, that evening.

His body was found lying at his desk, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suicide note blamed Shannon for everything but said that he had ‘taken care of the problem first, and the little bitch wouldn’t be bothering anyone again’.

That sorted out who had put Shannon in the cube, as well as closing the criminal case. The problem now was one of how-to free Shannon…

Dennis paced up and down in the waiting room. For some reason, he didn’t want to leave her.

To his surprise, one of the nurses came up to him.

“Are you the young man who found the woman in the cube?”, she asked.

“Yes. How is she?”

“Still trapped, I’m afraid. However, she’s asking for you.”

Dennis was taken onto the ward and into a private room.

There, on the cot, was Shannon, still trapped in the cube.

“Hi”, she said, simply.

“Hi”, he said back.

“Come sit with me”, she said. “Please. I don’t want to be alone.”

Shannon was justifiably terrified. She thought she was never getting out, and most people agreed with her.

“This is my life now”, she said, sadly. “I’m never getting out of here.”

She started crying.

“You have to get out of there”, said Dennis, quietly. “I’m in love with you…”

The director himself from the research centre came into the hospital to help; he met with Shannon, examined the cube and confirmed it was ‘one of theirs’.

“I’ll give you access to all our facilities, and all the drawings”, he said. “I’ve also got a team working on the problem. I like your innovative solution for the waste; only other problem is Shannon will need feeding soon, and you haven’t got any food cartridges. That’s why I brought some with me.”

Dennis paid attention as the director explained how to change the food cartridges over.

“I can do that”, he said. “Leaves you free to work on the problem of getting her out.”

Shannon’s sister was also back in the room with them. She had recovered most of her composure and was acting as a nurse again.

The director pointed to a small connector on the back.

“I’ve also brought a ‘break out box’ for that connector”, he said. This means you can connect your blood pressure and heart rate monitors to Shannon. Looking her over I could see that Martin has connected all the electrodes to her as if she was going on a space mission. He must have done it from habit.”

Shannon was soon connected up to a monitor.

“Right; now we can keep you going for a bit longer in there, we don’t have to worry about you starving to death. There must be some solvent or something we can use…”

He wandered off, thinking about the problem.

Shannon was still terrified. She was sure she was never coming out of the cube. Also, the cramps that had set in from being stuck in the same position for so long were really painful…

“Sis, can you think of any way to get some painkillers in me?”, she asked. “My limbs really hurt…”

Her sister had an idea and added some liquid Paracetamol to her feed. The pain gradually went away.

“I can’t keep doing that, though, or you’ll OD on the stuff”, she said. “We’ve got to get you out, soon…!”

“If you can’t, you might as well let me OD”, said Shannon. “I can’t go on like this indefinitely…!”

“That’s enough talk about that!”, said Dennis. “You’re not giving up, and that’s final!”

Her sister agreed.

Everyone then tried to get some rest…

Dennis awoke during the night to hear Shannon sobbing again in her cube.

“Dennis, please! You said you loved me. Kill me!”

“What!” shrieked Dennis, waking up Shannon’s sister.

“Please, Dennis! I can’t live like this! Stick some poison in my food, or something. Kill me!”

The heartbeat monitor was going crazy. Shannon was really hysterical, screaming, crying and raging, pleading for someone to kill her.

At the same time, the director from the institute came racing in, out of breath.

“We think we’ve got an answer”, he said, still trying to breathe. “It is very risky, however. There’s a 40% chance of success; if it fails, you’ll die. However, there is a 100% chance that you’ll be able to carry on living as you are now.”

“The fuck I will!”, cried Shannon. “I’ve already been asking people to kill me; if they don’t do it, I’ll find some way to do it myself. I can’t stand this much longer.”

“Ok, I’d better get started on my plan, then”, the director said. “I need the room. Everybody else, out.”

Dennis and Shannon’s sister protested, but he simply said, “Do you want her released, or not?”

They both left the room.

“Shannon, when I say go, I want you to take a big breath in and hold it for as long as you can.”, the director said. “I’ll be ok, I’ve got a mask, and this suit I’m wearing is shielded from this stuff.”

“Ready… NOW!”

Shannon breathed in heavily, then held it.

The director sprayed the cube with the canister he was holding.

Nothing happened for a few seconds. Was it going to work?

Suddenly, cracks appeared all over the cube.

“Shannon! Shake yourself, NOW! As much as you can!”

She did.

The cube flew apart…

It was the work of a few minutes after that to undo all the straps and fittings from Shannon and soon, the naked woman was lying free on another cot.

Dennis and her sister came rushing in.

Shannon was still very weak; she still managed to fly into Dennis’s arms, before she passed out…

A week later, Shannon was released from hospital.

She had almost completely recovered; she had reason to.

She was going home with her new boyfriend, Dennis…