posted
I have this idea for how one of my characters may be bumped off by my serial killer. But not sure about the plausability.
Say if somebody were stuck in a completely dark room & there were a number of bear traps scattered around the place. Would the guy be able to just sweep the floor with his hands / feet & if he touched the side of one be able to avoid it. Or would the slightest amount of touch set one off and take his arm or leg with it?
posted
I think it could be done easily, but would still be very harrowing and take a lot of guts. If you look at this one Antique Bear Trap, you can see that only touching the pan in the center of a set trap will trip it and grab a limb. There are a lot of parts there in a 44", 50 lb. trap that can be touched gingerly without setting it off and losing a body part. If the character kept his wits about him and slid his hands along in contact with the floor, then contact wouldn't be made with the pan, but the trap's arms or chain. He needs to keep his head up and back to avoid catching one in the face or having an accidental trip throw something into his eyes, but arms stretched forward to full extension and fingers flat on the floor should do the trick. Of course, accidentally tripping one without bodily injury would still be quite alarming in a dark room, so he would have to be very careful any way he proceeds. If he panics and jumps back, falling into another trap, it's all over for your character.
(Sorry, the first URL didn't take. Corrected with another one.)
Uh, I got off track a bit, but you can see by all the ways one could avoid the trap killing them that one might delay the inevitable just enough for tension before offing the character as you intend.
[This message has been edited by Warbric (edited September 05, 2005).]
posted
Remember, a 44" long trap has jaws about 14" wide. How wide is your victim's head? What's the distance from the top of the victim's head to his throat? What's the circumfrence of his head? If you let him get caught just right -- or wrong from his viewpoint-- you can probably be fairly certain of death.
I like the way you're thinking. Build some tension, let the victim gain a little hope, and then snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the end.
posted
It's fairly easy for a human to disarm a bear trap by feel in a dark place...as long as that human knows how to disarm bear traps, knows the type of bear trap in question, and knows where the bear trap is.
You can figure some of that out by cautious exploration with your hands, but it would be rather harrowing. Some people could do it, some people couldn't. The real problem is that most people that couldn't do it know they can't do something like that, so they're more likely to huddle in the corner and do nothing at all. And for a lot of those that can do it, you'd be giving them access to a number of lethal weapons that could be used against you.
On a subtly different note, it doesn't sound like a very serial killerish plot. Even assuming that you've got someone foolhardy enough to start playing the game without being at a relative advantage, it doesn't sound like much fun for the killer. It isn't interactive enough.
Well then, how about if the killer sat in the room and made bear noises and threw rocks at the victim. While wearing night-vision goggles, of course. Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
|
posted
In addition to the bear traps? It sounds okay, but I'd rather duct tape a bear costume on the victim rather than fool around with night googles in the dark.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
|
posted
How about if you hang the bear traps from the ceiling at head height--or varying heights? Even if he feels around with his hands out in front of him, he's MORE likely to trip one off accidentally. And if there are LOTS of traps hanging from the ceiling...
Ooh, isn't it fun when sick minds brainstorm?
[This message has been edited by djvdakota (edited September 05, 2005).]
posted
I think mouse traps scattered between the bear traps would be more...traumatic. Bump one, get snapped, jump in surprise and pain...right into one of the big, nastier ones.
Geez, that's sick. I'm gonna go talk to a shrink now.
Inkwell ----------------- "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp." -Anonymous
posted
Make sure it's an old-fashioned bear trap. The new ones are designed with rubber pads -- really!
I think it would hurt, but not take a limb off. (After all, if it really severed a limb, and the bear wandered off, it wouldn't help the trapper much.)
I used to live next to a guy who was paranoid, to say the least. (Nice guy, but definately on the weird side.) He planted his entire back yard to blackberry bushes, which are thick and have wicked thorns. He put a bunch of old mattress springs scattered around in the yard. The purpose of this arrangement was to catch any criminals who would be running down the street, jump his fence, and try to be making a get-away from the cops. They would get their feet tangled up in the mattress springs and then be lacerated by the blackberries. I don't recall he caught anyone this way while I lived next to him. He DID have one conversation with the burglar who was in the process of stealing my children's bikes and didn't think anything of the fact that he was walking down the street at 2AM carrying kid bicycles.
I should think if someone wanted to trip someone up in the dark, mattress springs are an excellent way to do it. You get them tangled just long enough to come in with something more effective, and lethal. Something other than blackberry bushes.
posted
If it's an older trap that has teeth, instead of a smooth edge, it could cause some pretty significant damage, and depending on the tension, it would probably be enough to break bones. Can the tension on traps be adjusted? Uping the tension would increase the danger...
The only sort of qualm I'm getting about this, is that it sort of sounds a bit like the killer in the movie "Saw". Serial killer who toys with his victims, giving them an opportunity to escape...I'm sure your story is much different, but some of the discussion made me think of it.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
