by Shelly Crane
I turned to the double doors in the alcove and pushed them open as I didn't have anywhere else to go. I pulled his body into the room so no one would see him.
I wanted to look for Marley, not get into a shootout. Not yet anyway. I blinked in the bright lights and looked around the empty room. It was a lab. Patient charts were lined up on a rack behind a bunch of medical stuff and supplies that I knew nothing about. I leaned on the table for support and pulled one down. No patient name, only the letter D and a date.
I shook my head. The bastards couldn't even call them by their names.
The chart was handwritten notes, pages of them.
…alert and vital signs good. Was asked to walk…
…blood drawn. Patient showed mild discomfort…
…platelets counted. Procedure discussed…
…child was shown pictures of the disease…
…told male child others would die if he didn't…
…bone marrow. Patient will be awake for…
…child wanted to save others, but not give blood…
…child kept asking for mother. Was told she left…
On and on it went, page after page, chart after chart. They were taking blood, marrow, and organs from those kids and then testing them, using the research to make drugs, vitamins, and medicine for sick people was what I could get from it. Kids seemed to be the ones they wanted to experiment on most… But they wouldn't…
I slammed the charts down, catching my breath as I held on. That would have been me. That would have been Marley.
I went through to the next lab with the connecting door. I was starting to feel a little dizzy. I poked my head back out into the hall and, finding no one, went back down the hallway, listening as I went for voices so I could find her. My hand trailed the wall to help keep me upright. The dizziness was blurring my vision in waves.
Why did they take her? What did they want with her now? She was an adult. I went up and down the main hall twice and didn't hear anything. I prayed she was still there and they hadn't left the compound with her. I'd never get her back.
My walkie crackled to life. I turned it down and pressed it to my ear to hear him. "Michaels give your ETA, over."
I groaned when he asked again and I knew he was talking to the guy I'd just incapacitated. I put my mouth on the speaker, thought fast, and talked deeply, "Male target in my custody on the first floor. He found a way up the stairs. Over."
Silence proceeded. And then, "Why didn't you radio your position?"
"Son of a bastard was fighting me hard."
"On our way. Detain for debriefing and termination. They don't need him, they've got the girl."
My heart stopped beating for a whole five seconds. No…Marley. "My orders were to bring him to the girl," I tried.
"Negative. Orders are to debrief and terminate. The girl will be taken to the Los Angeles facility for testing and creation."
Creation? I tried to chuckle into the mic, but it hurt my freaking soul to do it. "Well, dang. Sure was a pretty one. Was hoping she would stay for a while."
He laughed. "She'll be back soon enough, Michaels. You still going to want her with a big ol' belly? Huh?"
I froze. My hand gripped the radio so tight, I thought it might shatter. They were going to inseminate her and force her to have another experiment baby for them. Hell no. "You're right. No point anyway since they're just going to toss her afterwards."
"I thought that was your favorite kind?" he joked. "Almost to your location. Over and out."
I didn't answer the bastard. There was no telling what they'd done to the women staying there. Speaking of…where were the women? From the way they talked, they always had women in and out, so where were they? At another facility probably and I hated to think that.
Then I remembered those kids. I couldn't leave them. I needed to find Marley, but those kids… I dove back into the observation room to find it empty, but one of the rooms had several people in it.
"No," I heard myself say and raked my hands through my hair in agony. I pressed my hand to the glass to keep myself up. Lab coat guy had her strapped to the bed. She was being prepped for something and I remembered the button so I could hear them. I pressed it, coming back to the glass to see my handprint of blood from my head. I pushed all thoughts of that away—it didn't matter right then—and listened to him.
"…you see, the government wouldn't give us grants for what we needed because they said it was inhumane. My team of researchers wanted to be known for saving the world though! Use stem cells, they told us. But no, we needed live hosts, live cells, live bodies to test on."
The suit interrupted. "You thought we were looking for you to harm you. We just wanted to make sure you were safe. Your blood is dangerous," he hissed overdramatically. "My associate, Vincent, went too far in his antics to bring you both back, and but you see, you're the last two. None of the others who have ever escaped survived and we had to bring you back for you own safety and ours. We've steadily upped security measures, and we thought sending Tatum with him telling you that he was one of you would help coax you in, but…you're content to do things the hard way."
He patted her head, causing her to jerk as far from him as she could get. He left. The doctor bent down to her level. "See? You just don't know the things we're doing here to save lives, and you're a part of that!" he said excitedly.
"But you're killing people," she said, defeated. "How can you kill people to save others? How is that fair?"
"In the course of the program, the terminated only reach the thousands. About seventeen thousand to be exact from the very beginning. How are seventeen thousand people worth more than the billions we'll save with our new line of drugs?"
"You haven't cured anything!" she yelled at him. "Have you? Have you cured cancer? Have you cured Leukemia? Tell me what disease you've cured. Name it." He stared, twisting his lips. She shook her head and slammed it back to the mattress. "It's all trial and error and you're murdering people, no matter what you tell yourself."
"But it's not. We've helped pregnancies with our vitamins and have lots of promise with our anti-body boosting drugs. When you were a baby, you were full of the special vitamins given to you by your mother in the womb from the medicine she shook from us. Your blood could save lives if you just let us test on you. You just can't see it because you're strapped to the bed instead. You're thinking like a victim instead of a miracle that can save-"
"What if I was one of your daughters? Would you sacrifice her for the greater good?" She stared him down and I was so daggum proud of her.
He placed a chart on the table and left, just like that. Biloxi stood from the corner chair. I hadn't seen him there. When he turned where I could see his face, his eyes and cheeks were red and splotchy. He kept blinking and grimacing. I smiled. I couldn't help myself. My girl got Biloxi with her pepper spray.
When he rolled his sleeves up and pulled a tray out from under the table with tubes and needles, I knew his crazy side was coming out to play.
I backed away and darted out the door. I wasn't giving him the opportunity to hurt a hair on her. I wasn't going to let her down again. I ran, though I was dizzy, I ran. I pulled the gun from the back of my pants and pushed open the first door that was open. Empty. The next was locked. I didn't wait—I just shot the doorknob and took it hard with my shoulder.
As soon as I saw Biloxi's face, I stood straighter to get my aim right and fired two shots right into his chest. No begging, no pleading, no thinking. His eyes were so swollen from the pepper spray, he hadn't even seen me coming.
But I didn't feel a lick of guilt. The man had ruined my life, taken my mother from me, and was trying to take my girl. I couldn’t even muster up a sigh for him.
I didn't know where the doctor was, but I was positive that he would coward away. I leaned down to unbuckle Marley's arms. I felt myself sway a little. She touched my cheek when she got one hand free. "I didn't think you were coming for me." I looked at her sharply,
feeling as though she slapped me.
"You thought I'd just leave you?"
"I thought you believed him when he said I was… And then your head," she sobbed and touched my hair. "I thought you were…"
Her eyes were bloodshot, still wet from tears, and not from pepper spray. She really thought I wasn't coming back, for one reason or the more morbid one.
"Marley," I leaned my forehead to hers, "you belong to me. Remember?"
"Yes, I do," she countered with a sob.
I helped her off the table and knew first-things-first, we needed to find a phone and call the police. Then we needed to get those kids topside.
Before I could move, she pulled my face down to hers and kissed me so deeply. We both pulled and grabbed at each other like we never wanted to part again. My heart sighed at being home…in her. I found the only place I ever wanted to live again in this girl, right here in my arms. I leaned back just barely, ran my thumb from her brow down to the tip of her nose and stopped at her lips, loving the way her eyes fluttered. "I'll always come to you."
She pressed her lips together and nodded. I took her hand, but before we left the room, I stared at Biloxi on the floor, his tray of needles and medicine bottles strewn around him. I never got to know why my mom, or me for that matter, was so important to him that he'd made it his life's work to kill us. It seemed like I'd never get the closure, never feel like it was finally over because I'd never know.
But it was over with Biloxi if nothing else.
I kept Marley behind me as I took us back down the hall. If someone else decided to make an appearance, I wasn't sure I'd be able to fight them off. My vision was blurring and staying that way.
I heard her speaking, but couldn't focus on it. My ears were muffled or ringing. Then she touched my cheek, "Jude!" she hissed.
I focused on her face and it all stopped. "Huh?"
"I've been talking… Your pupils are dilated, Jude." She huffed an angry breath. "They gave you a concussion," she growled. "We've got to get you out of here."
"We can't leave those kids."
"We can't just walk them out of here either. We need to find a phone or…" she shrugged quickly, "I don't know. Something."
"I never saw any phones in the offices we were in. I bet we have to go topside for that. They wouldn't want them to have access to the outside."
She wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Well, then let's go topside."
She started taking me the opposite way, past all the kid's rooms that I hadn't known were back there. "I saw a few of them go this way. We may run into some of them," she said and nodded to steel herself. "It'll be OK."
"Here," I told her. We stopped long enough for me to put the handgun in her hand and show her how to shoot the first round. "Just point and shoot."
"No cocking or loading or…swiveling something?"
I laughed, even in my state. "No, sweetheart. Not this one."
This must've been where the other wings were because we came upon another hallway of doors. I heard Marley's gasp as we passed the first room. They were doing a medical procedure on a small boy, maybe eight or nine. He was screaming, we could tell, but the soundproof glass kept the sound from us.
The awful image of his mouth in the shape of a painful, silent 'O' would be with me for the rest of my life.
The doctors were busy and hadn't heard or seen us, but the boy and Marley were staring at each other. Marley pressed her hands to the glass and failed at holding in a sob.
The doctor pulled a long needle from the boy's back and turned to see us. He looked at the other one and he ran for something. To press a security button, I was sure.
Adrenaline shot through my veins. I raced him, opening the door and jamming my fist into his jaw and then his gut before he could make it to the red panic button by the door. The other one held his hands up, looking stricken, like we were the bad guys in this scenario. Marley helped the boy, putting the bandage they had laid out for him on, and helping him stand.
He didn't know Marley from Eve, but he clung to her and stared at the doctor, shivering so badly that his teeth were banging waiting for his next move. I couldn't help myself. I reared back and punched that doctor, too, but not enough to knock him out, just enough to piss him off and feel an ounce of what he'd done to that boy needlessly.
"We don't have money or drugs here, you stupid kids." He stood from where I'd knocked him and glared at me, holding his cheek. "We're not a hospital. We don't have pain meds here."
"Yeah," Marley spouted. "You torture your patients, so why would you need pain medicine?"
"Torture?" He shook his head. "No, little girl, you don't know what you're talking about. We are doing good work here."
"We know all about the mission statement," I spouted. "And that little boy just gave you his permission to poke and prod him?"
"His mother did-"
"For one," I cut in, "I highly doubt that, and two, you're an idiot if you believe that holding kids down and making them suffer is a respectable way to make a living."
"We are saving lives here, young man. We're gonna cure cancer someday."
"OK, so you are an idiot. What to do with you now?" I growled and lifted my gun a little. He gasped.
The doctor on the floor woke and yelled, "Stop! Don't! You can't hurt him! He's the best doctor we have and the only one who can perform the Mohs surgery to give the specialists the samples they need!"
I didn't know what Mohs surgery was, but if it gave the guy samples, I didn't think I wanted to know. But it did give me an idea.
I ticked my head toward the door, hoping I was hiding my pain well, and told the super special doctor to come with us. He glared at the doctor on the floor for the ammunition he'd given us. We thanked him by tying him to a steel table leg under the window line where no one would see him.
SIXTEEN
Marley held the boy's hand. He seemed embarrassed to be in a hospital gown and kept tugging at the back, but she assured him he was covered. As for the doc, well, he walked with my gun to his head. I told him we needed a phone and he said there was none.
I was barely holding on. He was so focused on the gun that he didn't realize I was about to keel over, but if he'd just get a real good look at me, he'd see. I blinked and opened my eyes wide to clear them. We passed a fire alarm on the wall as we exited the medical wing and into another hall. I told Marley to pull it. If it was hooked to the system like it should be, the fire department would come and so would the police.
The doctor showed the first signs of fighting back when he tried to stop her. I pressed the barrel to his cheek. "Wow, you really are an idiot, huh?"
"You don't realize what you're doing!" he roared just as she pulled it.
She had to beat the glass with the butt of the gun several times before it broke. She pulled the lever. The sirens went off in the form of red flashing lights on the ceiling and a whir so loud, my ears were ringing. The boy covered his ears, but Marley hugged him to her and looked around.
I dragged the doctor over with me to the rooms on that wing. We didn't know who were in those rooms, but we couldn't leave without checking. They were all locked and I was afraid to shoot at the door for fear of hitting them. Dang. We'd have to get topside and then get the police down there as soon as possible to let them out.
I started down the hall, leading the way, but Marley yelled my name. I stopped and she tried to yell over the siren, but I couldn't hear her. She pointed down the hall we'd just been from and I felt my heart lift at what we saw. The siren must have triggered a safety measure from the building's system. All the doors down the hall had unlocked and opened automatically, and into the hall spilled several pregnant women along with more children and even some women that had babies in their arms.
I counted at least eleven. They all looked around curiously, and at seeing us, they understandably looked spooked. Marley raised her hands, pulling the boy who wouldn't let go with her, and tried to tell them something over the siren. I l
eaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes.
I felt sick to my stomach. We needed to get out of there.
When I opened my eyes, Marley was coming back and looking at me worriedly. I shook my head at her. I didn't want the doc to know all he had to do was give me a good elbow and I'd be down for the count.
The women seemed on board so I led the way, opting to put the gun into his back instead so we could move faster. I yelled into his ear, "I will shoot you if you run. Don't think for a second that I won't."
Around the corner ran two minions and they skidded to a stop at seeing the doc with us. I put the gun into view at his head and they looked at each other before going back the way they came.
When we came to the kid's ward, I only hoped that pulling the alarm got the officials on the way. Things were underway now.
I wondered why they didn't just keep making the same women grow kids instead of getting new ones every time. It would seem, from a logical standpoint, that it would be easier to cover up less missing women.
As a huddle, with me leading the way, we trekked down the hall back to the stairs leading up topside. The last corner revealed the reason why I had started to think it was all too easy.
They were waiting for us.
He somehow had the siren turned off and started talking, but my ears were ringing again and it took a few seconds to focus and catch up. The suit had a couple of his men with him, but the rest were leaving out the stairwell.
"So, you found our secret weapon." He seemed upset, but resolved. That scared me more than anything at that point. "You just had to come here, just had to know everything, didn't you?" He stepped forward three small steps and was so angry that he spit when he talked. "You just think you need to know everything. That it would ease you and tuck you in at night knowing that your mothers loved you. That by coming here and learning the truth that all the hurt would just flit away. You're fools. Vincent was justified to chase you so vigorously. He told me you'd be trouble. That by you being out there, you put our whole program in jeopardy. If anyone finds out about what we do here, they would shut us down. They wouldn't understand the good things we're doing because they can't get past the gruesome parts that have to happen for cures to be found. You're not going to cure cancer by working on monkeys and mice. You want to cure human cancer, you need to study human subjects. We work very hard to keep everything under wraps. Your mothers escaping was a fluke, an accident, and we needed to correct it. Vincent was the reason your mother got away. It's why he chased her and now you so diligently." I felt my lips part at his statement. "She slipped right through his fingers, on his watch, but I won't be letting you. And then finding out that Marley, who we've also searched for all her life, was right there with you? It was as if we were destined to find you and bring you both here, back to where it all started. Fated to die so that others may live. I can't give you the chance to ruin all this. You two being alive is evidence against us." I was confused by that. "I won't allow it. I can't allow it."
