Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight

by Andrews, V. C.

  M'Lady One came down the steps casually and looked at the insect. “What'dya know about that, you've been stung by a scorpion, too.”

  “A scorpion?”

  “Big deal. Put your shoe on and get back to work.”

  “But shouldn't I be given some medicine?”

  “No. Now get moving or I'll assign you that cesspool digging instead of permitting you to return to the horses.”

  I looked in the shoe and shook it out and did the same with the other. The pain started to increase in my foot. It was traveling up my ankle. I felt it rising in wave after wave, the tide of it already reaching into my stomach.

  “It hurts a lot!” I moaned when I stood up.

  “You'll get over it. You're tough, a girl of the streets with a big mouth. What's a mere scorpion sting to you?”

  “I want to see Dr. Foreman.”

  “I'm warning you to get moving and get moving now.”

  “She should know what happened to me.”

  I started for the stairway and she blocked me. M'Lady Three appeared in the doorway, a bottle of Coke in her hands. She sipped from it, her cheeks going in and out as she sucked on the bottle. Then she stepped down.

  “What's going on?”

  “She's refusing to return to her work detail,” M'Lady One said.

  “I was stung by a scorpion. There it is.” I pointed to the ground.

  M'Lady Three continued down the steps, picked up the dead scorpion, put it in her pocket, and turned back to me. “Refusing to return to her work detail after you told her to do it?”

  “Yes.”

  “That's insubordination.”

  “I'm not trying to be insubordinate. I want to see Dr. Foreman. I've been stung I tell you! My foot is on fire.”

  M'Lady Three put the bottle of Coke down on the ground and stepped beside M'Lady One. They were like a wall now between me and the steps to the house.

  “Start walking,” M'Lady One said, pointing to my right.

  “I can't walk. It hurts too much,” I cried.

  “Stop your whining. No one cares about your little pain. You're insubordinate. That's a ten-​point demerit. You're not going back to your soft chores. You're going to the Ice Room.”

  “No! ” I screamed.

  Dr. Foreman finally appeared in the doorway. “What's going on, girls?”

  “Phoebe refuses to return to her work detail,” M'Lady One said.

  “I was stung by a scorpion. It was in my shoe.” I looked at M'Lady One. “I bet she put it there.”

  Dr. Foreman didn't move. “Where is it?”

  “She put it in her pocket.” I pointed to M'Lady Three.

  “Is that true?”

  “Of course not, Dr. Foreman.”

  “Make her empty her pocket,” I cried.

  “We don't lie to each other here,” Dr. Foreman said. “My girls and I have an unbreakable chain of trust among us. If she says it's not in her pocket, it's not.”

  “But... it is. Wait, look at my foot.” I took off the shoe and my stocking. Then I lifted my foot so she could clearly see the swelling.

  “I don't see anything unusual,” she said dryly.

  “What?”

  “I'm like you, Phoebe. I see and I hear what I want. Insubordination means a session in the Ice Room. M'ladies, do your duty.”

  “Yes, Dr. Foreman,” M'Lady One said.

  Dr. Foreman glared at me a moment. I was frozen, my foot still dangling before her. She turned and went back into the house.

  “Get the shoe back on and move,” M'Lady Three ordered.

  I shook my head.

  M'Lady Two came walking across the yard. 'Trouble?"

  “Not much. Phoebe here was insubordinate and is to be spending a session in the Ice Room. She's continuing to be insubordinate, which means that session will be longer,” M'Lady One explained calmly. She could have been reporting the weather.

  I turned away. I couldn't run from them, not with the pain in my foot. I was unable to put any weight on it, and where would I run to?

  “You know what one of these is?” M'Lady Two asked, bringing a small, black metal thing out of her pocket. It looked like a man's electric razor. “It's called a stun gun. Ever see one used?”

  I had. Willie Sturges had bought one and as a joke used it on Dennis Hampton, a fat boy in our tenth-​grade class who was always the butt of jokes. I couldn't believe how fast he went down and how he writhed in pain. The sight made me sick and I ran. I really thought Willie had killed him. Afterward, I saw Dennis, still looking stunned, his pants showing where he peed on himself, stumbling along home. Everyone but me thought it was pretty funny.

  “Please,” I said. “I really did get stung.”

  “And you're about to be stung again, only this will be far worse,” M'Lady Two warned.

  “Move,” M'Lady Three said, pointing.

  “I can't walk,” I cried.

  “Hop,” M'Lady One said. “Now.”

  They closed in on me. I started to my walk, but merely putting my toe to the ground increased the pain. The tears were streaming down my cheeks. I could feel my shortened breath straining my lungs. My stomach churned.

  “I'm getting sick,” I moaned.

  “Poor little Phoebe bird,” M'Lady One chimed, and they all laughed. “What's happening to the tough girl we all knew and loved?”

  “Where are we going?” I screamed, or at least I thought I had.

  When we rounded the corner, M'Lady Two rushed ahead and opened a door. I hesitated and looked back. Where were the other girls? Where was Natani?

  The room inside looked dark. All I could think about was the way Robin had been after she had been put in the Ice Room and the things Gia had said about it, too.

  “Listen to me,” I pleaded. “I just found out that my mother died. I don't mean to be insubordinate. I'm upset.”

  M'Lady One pretended she was playing a violin.

  “I'm sorry. I'll go back to my work. I promise I won't say anything nasty to any of you.”

  “It's too late for promises, Phoebe,” M'Lady Three said. “Weren't you told that? When you came here, you left all your promises and excuses behind you. You're naked here. It's reality. You are rewarded for good and punished for bad. It's simple and it never changes.”

  I looked through the door. All I saw from where I was standing was the foot of a bunk. What was the room, just a solitary confinement? I'll get through it, I thought. I'll show them.

  The sting was singing louder, however, and the churning that had begun in my stomach turned into nausea. I faltered and M'Lady One came to my side and kept me from falling.

  “This is going to be good,” she said. “The Ice Room on top of it all. I tell you, Phoebe, I couldn't do it.”

  “Me neither,” M'Lady Two said. “Glad it's you and not me.”

  “You're all a bunch of wimps,” M'Lady Three said. “Phoebe's going to show you up. Aren't you, Phoebe? Girl of the streets, tough.”

  “I think I'm going to throw up,” I said.

  “Get her in there before she does. I hate the smell,” M'Lady Two said stepping back.

  M'Lady One twisted my arm and pushed me through the doorway. There was a bunk, but at the head of it, there was what looked like a helmet with wires attached.

  “What is this?”

  “We've told you before. It's your worst nightmare,” M'Lady One said.

  I tried to resist, but her hold was so firm, I thought her fingers would break through my skin and flesh. She turned me into the room, and together she and M'Lady Three forced me to lie down.

  “I'm sick!” I screamed. “I need a doctor, medicine!”

  They put the helmet over my head and strapped it on tightly. I resisted but I couldn't keep my arms from being straightened and then a strap was fixed over my chest, just under my breasts. It was just as it had been when I'd woken up in the plane that had brought me to this hell.

  A visorlike part of the helmet was lowered over my face.
It was dark and their voices grew more muffled because of the earphones over my ears.

  “Enjoy,” I heard, and heard them leave the room, closing the door behind them. Their voices drifted away and there was only silence.

  What was this? A helmet over my head with a visor to keep me in the dark and in the quiet? It was stupid. The coffin was worse, I thought. This isn't so bad except I felt so sick and the pain was still as sharp as ever in my foot. I was getting hot, too, and it wasn't just from the stuffiness in the room. I knew I was developing a fever. The nausea built up until I started to vomit, but I could only turn my head a little to spit to the side. Finally, that stopped, but it left me feeling so tired, so weak.

  I'll just sleep, I thought.

  I'll beat them. I'll sleep and get better and beat them. This wasn't so terrible.

  Ice Room?

  There was nothing icy about the Ice Room. It was just as I had suspected, a lot of intimidation, a lot of scary talk and nothing else. Robin just couldn't take being locked up and strapped down and forced to be in darkness. I'm stronger than she is. I can wait it out. I'm stronger than the whole lot of them, even the buddies, I told myself. I am special. Dr. Foreman was right about that.

  I'll sleep, I assured myself. I'll sleep and I'll get better. Keep telling yourself that, Phoebe, I chanted. You'll get better. You'll beat them. Think about something good. Think about Wind Song and Natani and the beautiful desert sky and the horizon and tomorrow. Tomorrow, yes, getting out of here, getting away from here. Remember what he said about the hogan. Don't let them into your house. I wouldn't.

  I can do this. I can win, I thought.

  And then.

  It began.

  Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight

  Dr. Foreman's Spy

  At some point your screaming becomes so high-​pitched it seems to be coming from someplace else. It's like someone else is screaming in the distance and you can barely hear it, but that sensation doesn't happen immediately. First, you practically blow out your lungs with the effort and your vocal cords strain and you grow hoarse.

  It all began with the sound I heard through the earphones in the strange helmet, an all too familiar squeaky sound that quickly built into a horrific chorus. First, I could hear only one, then another and another until I knew there was a pack of them.

  Rats.

  I don't know what the helmet and the visor were, but what I saw and heard was truly lifelike. I soon realized it was something I understood to be called virtual reality, but to me no virtual was involved. They were all over me, crawling, sniffing, nibbling. It was reality. I could actually feel their cold noses, their tiny teeth, their slimy tails, and their little claw feet.

  They didn't just run over my body. They gathered and began to explore every part of me, going up the leggings of the coveralls and over my thighs, between my legs, under my panties, then under my shirt, pushing themselves under my breasts, sniveling around my nipples and climbing up my throat to my mouth, pushing between my lips, shoving their heads into my mouth. They were at my ears as well, worming their way into my head. Their fur was wet, their tails long and slimy, the tiny nails in their claws painful.

  I could even smell them, smell this putrid, stale odor that they picked up from wallowing through piles of garbage and dead animals. Waves of revulsion traveled up and down my entire body to add to the nausea I was experiencing from the scorpion sting.

  And I could do nothing to drive them off. Because of how tightly I was strapped onto the cot, I could barely wiggle, not that it would have helped, of course, since they weren't actually on me.

  It was no good closing my eyes. The images were projected through my lids, and in these images, the rats were at the lids, forcing them open. I screamed and screamed.

  And then suddenly, as quickly as they had come, they were gone. I don't know how long they were there, but they were gone and there was just darkness, the relief of total darkness.

  Moments later Dr. Foreman's voice began softly.

  “Phoebe, my poor Phoebe. I'm here to help you. You believe that now, don't you?”

  All I could do now was whisper and I was afraid she wouldn't hear me.

  “Yes,” I said, my throat straining with the effort. “I do. I believe it.”

  'That's good, Phoebe. We need trust between us. It's what I have been telling you ever since you were brought here. You can trust me and I can trust you now, can't I?"

  “Yes, Doctor, yes.”

  “That's good, Phoebe, so good.”

  Her voice was so soothing. I was actually afraid she would stop talking.

  “I was so worried about you, worried about your bad behavior.”

  “I'm sorry, Dr. Foreman. I'm sorry.”

  “Sure you are, Phoebe. You never mean to hurt anyone. You're a good girl. Let's get back to our little talk, okay? You were going to tell me about Gia and Posy. Remember?”

  “Yes, yes.”

  “What exactly did Gia say about Posy, Phoebe?”

  “She said she was your daughter and that you couldn't stop her from lying and breaking rules and inventing imaginary people, and she was an embarrassment to you so you locked her up in the basement,” I rattled off.

  “I see. Anything else?”

  'That she was adopted."

  “Adopted. Yes, that makes sense. This is very good, Phoebe. This is a real breakthrough. You and I are going to depend upon each other a great deal more now. Would you like that?”

  “Oh, yes, Dr. Foreman, yes.”

  “We can't have you ever being insubordinate again, Phoebe.”

  “I won't be. I promise. I know promises are not considered important anymore, but I do. I really do.”

  “I believe you, Phoebe, but as you've seen already, only action means anything.”

  “I feel so sick, Dr. Foreman. I'm so sick. I'm nauseous and I threw up. I was really stung by that scorpion. I'm not lying.”

  “I know. You'll be fine, Phoebe. Don't be concerned. I want you to sleep now.”

  “I'm nauseous again.”

  “I said I want you to sleep.”

  “Okay, I'll sleep.”

  It was quiet enough for me to hear the rhythm of my beating heart thumping in my ears. I held my breath. Was that the sound of squeaking again? Were they returning?

  Despite my terror, I did fall asleep, but right before I did, I told myself I had been so stupid. I had put my fear in that biography I wrote in the orientation room. I had given myself up before I had even arrived here. She's too smart, I thought. She will get what she wants. M'Lady One was right. Dr. Foreman doesn't fail. There was no Posy. There couldn't be anyone she didn't change or mold into the person Dr. Foreman wanted her to be.

  I didn't realize it until much later, but before the door was opened again, I had slept all day and through the night, waking and then becoming nearly comatose repeatedly. The helmet was unfastened and light burned through the shadows. It was so painful. I grimaced and closed my eyes, but the light was too strong.

  “What a mess she is,” I heard M'Lady Two say.

  “Let's get her to the showers.”

  “You're disgusting, Phoebe bird. You've spoiled your coveralls and you stink so badly, I don't think the buzzards would even bother with your remains,” M'Lady One said.

  I was weak. I couldn't lift my head, but they pulled me up. My legs gave out immediately. They scooped their arms under mine and dragged me out of the Ice Room. M'Lady Three was there with a wheelbarrow.

  “I thought we would need it,” she said triumphantly. They all laughed.

  They lifted me and dropped me in the wheelbarrow, my legs twisted,, my head hitting the metal sharply. I moaned and tried to get more comfortable, but they were rolling me along and bouncing me over the dirt and gravel so hard, I did all I could to keep my head from repeatedly smacking the inside of the wheelbarrow. When we reached the showers, they began to tear off my clothes. Then they put me under the shower and ran the cold water. I screamed, but
I had lost my voice the night before, and all I actually did was open my mouth. I welcomed the water in my throat.

  They stood by watching me squirm.

  When they decided I had had enough, they shut off the water and tossed me a towel. I was given new panties and a new pair of coveralls and a new shirt. They barked their displeasure at me. It was taking me too long to dress, but I had no energy. My foot still looked quite swollen. I put my clodhopper shoe on as carefully as I could and they scooped me up again.

  “You'll walk on your own now,” M'Lady One charged. “Dr. Foreman wants you fed, so head for the house.”

  I limped forward. I didn't see any of the others, but I thought I caught a glimpse of Natani watching from a corner of the barn. The buddies kept chiding me for moving too slowly, poking me in the ribs and back. I shuddered but kept moving, accepting the pain every time I put my foot down, swallowing it back and moving ahead, driven now by my need for something more to drink. My mouth still felt as if it had been turned into sand and my tongue into one long razor blade. I touched my lips to see if there was any blood, but they were so dry, it was like touching wood.

  They had to help me up the stairs and then direct me to the table where I was given juice, some soft-​boiled eggs, toast, and jam. I was still too nauseated to eat much, but I knew I would need something to build my strength, so I made as much of an effort as I could. Only M'Lady One remained behind to watch. When Dr. Foreman appeared, I felt myself flinch. Every cell in my body, every part of me, was afraid of her now.

  She smiled. “How's my girl? Those spider bites can be so devastating.”

  I wanted to ask why she didn't believe me when I told her then, but 1 didn't even move my lips.

  “You're going to need a little TLC now. Just like Teal did, only Teal thinks the world owes her TLC.” Dr. Foreman told M'Lady One, “Take her to the guest bedroom. Give her two Tylenol and the ice pack for her foot.” She turned back to me. “You'll be a lot better by this evening. I need you to be strong for me, Phoebe. We have a lot of work to do together now, you and I, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Good.” She looked at M'Lady One. “Send me Gia after you see to Phoebe,” she ordered sharply.