by Mark Gordon
Chapter 75
The Doctor Sleeps
Once the main entertainment was over and the marauders were bored with watching the creatures devour the man and the woman outside the fence, the ringmaster gave a signal and everybody stood, as Scarface and Montana were escorted away from the arena. Instead of being led back to the office she had been in earlier, however, the guards took them to a classroom on the second floor. The room was unlike any other she had seen inside the school so far. It had been furnished like an apartment and it even had a basic kitchen and its own bathroom. Montana knew that this had once been a special education classroom, but its previous function was now almost completely disguised by luxurious furnishings and shelves full of books. Scarface walked across the room and threw a bulky ring of keys onto a table before asking Montana if she was hungry. She looked at him with pure disgust.
“How can you expect me to eat after watching that?” she challenged. “It was the sickest thing I’ve ever seen! And that’s saying something, isn’t it? Especially after everything that’s happened.”
The Doctor poured himself a large tumbler of scotch and gulped it down in one mouthful before speaking. “Montana, I needed you to see the show tonight so you understand what you’re dealing with here. These people are animals. They will kill for me. Luckily, though, I like you. You’re very fresh, and you have an energy that I find invigorating. I want to keep you around as my ... companion, but it’s important that you respect what I’ve done here, for these people. I’ve found a way to survive these feeders. Do you understand how important that is?”
Montana understood, all right. She understood that the man standing before her was as crazy as a shithouse rat! There was no way that she was getting out of this madhouse by pleading for reason or kindness. She was going to have to escape this mess by being as wild and ruthless as her captor was.
“I understand,” she said, trying to sound as genuine as possible, while inside she was trying to work out how she could kill this psychopath.
“Will that happen again tomorrow?” she asked. “The entertainment, I mean.”
“Oh, no. We don’t do it every night. By making the rewards random, I keep them interested. I wasn’t planning on having a contest tomorrow night. Why do you ask?”
“I’m worried about my friends. Do you think I could see them tomorrow morning?”
“Mmm. Still worried about them are you? I think they’ll make excellent contestants. They look very strong and resourceful. How about this? I’ll make you an offer. I’ll allow you to see them one last time, but you have to agree to one thing?”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I want your friends to fight together.”
“That’s not fair! It might not be their turn! That’s a terrible offer!”
“That’s it though Montana. You can see them tomorrow morning, but in two night’s time they fight as a double act. Take it or leave it.”
She studied the cruel face of The Doctor, and considered her options. Eventually both Matt and Dylan’s numbers would be chosen and they would face the feeders in a battle that they couldn’t win anyway, so maybe they could find some advantage in being paired together as a team.
“Okay then, but I get to see the boys in the morning.”
“Very good, that’s settled then,” he said as his face wrinkled into an awkward smile. “Now come and sit down next to me so we can talk.”
Montana sat down next to the madman, and for the next half hour pretended to be interested in his disjointed monologue about the new world order and how he was going to build an empire to serve his will - or something. At one point a guard brought meals to them, which Montana forced herself to eat, but by the time The Doctor had finished two thirds of his bottle of scotch, he was snoring loudly on the couch in a drunken stupor. Montana went to the door and opened it a crack, but when she saw the guard sitting opposite with a shotgun resting on his lap, she smiled and closed the door again. She wandered around the room as The Doctor slept, trying to find some clue to get herself out of this nightmare, but there was nothing to suggest a way to either sneak out, or to overcome the might of the marauders. She considered using the comatose Doctor as some kind of hostage, or even killing him, but she rejected that idea almost immediately, knowing that she would never be able to get past the guards. Then, just as she was beginning to think that her situation was hopeless, and that she and the boys would perish in this hellhole, she saw something that gave her an idea. It was a dangerous and unlikely plan, but given her options, Montana knew that she would have to try. She went over to a desk that was piled with assorted junk and found a pen and piece of scrap paper, on which she wrote a long message. Then she folded up the note and tucked it away in her bra, before crawling onto the bed to try to sleep, as the sounds of The Doctor’s snoring continued from the couch.
-
When Montana woke the next morning, she realised that The Doctor had taken his leave sometime during the night, but not before covering her with a blanket. The thought of it creeped her out, but at least he hadn’t tried anything while she slept. It did make her wonder, though, if the burns he received in the car accident as a child had affected more than just his face. She climbed out of bed and went to the door. A different guard was stationed across the hall this morning, and when he issued a gruff, “Come with me,” Montana followed without argument.
He led her by the arm to the same bathroom she’d used the previous afternoon, and gave her a few minutes alone before taking her downstairs to a large hall, which was being used as a communal dining room. A clock high on the wall said it was 7:16 and Montana guessed that most of the marauders liked to sleep late, because there were only around a dozen people in the room eating breakfast. The guard walked her to a door on the far side of the room that led to the sunny space they’d spied from the back of the school a couple of days ago. They stopped just outside the door, and Montana could see that The Doctor was sitting at a table loaded with all kinds of food, sharing breakfast with two of his inner circle, while they talked very seriously about something or other. When The Doctor looked up and saw Montana, he gave the guard a signal, and Montana was brought over to his table as the two marauders made their exit.
“Good morning my dear. I hope you slept well. Sit down and have something to eat.”
“Thanks,” she said, taking up the position opposite.
“Now, do you know what day it is today?”
Montana tried to think, but had absolutely no idea what day of the week it was. Since the event, calendars seemed to have lost their importance. Matt kept one at the farm, which he used to check the days off, but as far as Montana was concerned, living in the new world was just a case of just getting through one day at a time. It wasn’t as if they had anything in particular to look forward to.
“No,” she answered. “What day is it?”
“Today is Sunday, and on Sunday we rest.”
“Isn’t every day a rest day?” asked Montana.
The Doctor laughed. “Of course not. We might look like a bunch of disorganised misfits to you, but we are building an army here. Each day more people arrive, and once I’ve assessed them as being suitable for our group, they need to be initiated and trained and shown the truth and purity of our mission.”
“Your mission? What is that? I thought you were just satisfied being the leader here. What mission could you possible have, apart from just staying alive, that is?”
“Montana, there is so much more to this new society than just the feeders, you know. All around the country, and probably all around the world, new alliances are being forged and new enemies are being made. The rise of feeders was seen by most as a global catastrophe; but there are many of us who saw it differently. For us, it was like a rebirth, much in the same way that most of the world’s population was reborn as feeders. We see the feeders as our allies; they have given us an opportunity to become masters of the daylight hours. In time we will become the dominant force
, and will create the world in our image, living by our own doctrine and philosophies.”
As The Doctor outlined his psychotic scheme, Montana’s mind raced with fear and anxiety. She knew The Doctor was insane from his drunken ramblings from last night, but she had no idea of the extent of his grand vision. She needed to keep him talking, because the more he confided in her, the more he would trust her, and her plans to escape might be easier to execute.
“Why did you assume my friends and I wouldn't want to join your group? Wouldn’t we be a great asset for your team?”
“No you wouldn’t, actually. I don’t know if you are aware, but there seems to be a whole new range of skills that people have now, one of which is the ability to sense innate good or evil in others.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” she replied casually. “What do you mean?”
“I think you might have noticed, but we’ll let that slide. There are people now who are getting strong feelings about things like who they should trust, or where they should be. Lots of people are heading west, for example. You must have noticed.”
Montana had noticed, but she wasn’t going to tell The Doctor as much. She thought about her own strong initial sense that Gabby was special when they escaped from Carswell the first time. She thought of Kate’s instinct about Gabby being unique, and how Bonnie knew that Gabby was still alive, even when it seemed like an impossibility. Then she considered Gabby and her unusual abilities, not only to deter evil, but also the way she sensed outcomes of some events before they happened. All of these thoughts went through Montana’s mind in a split second, but she didn’t utter a single word of them, as she waited for The Doctor to continue.
“Anyway, I think most people possess these new psychic skills, at varying levels, but some are more powerful than others - we actually have a few of these here with us. For some reason the ones with the strongest abilities are usually women. We call them 'psychs'. Not very original I guess, but it seems to describe what they do. When we bring survivors to our compound the psychs tell me what end of the spectrum the new arrivals belong to - like choosing teams I suppose. Anyway, our kind, the marauders, stay with us and join our mission, while the others, decent people like you and your male friends, are used as labour, or as combatants in our entertainment evenings, like last night. There is one other thing, though, that my psychs have been picking up on. There is a person - a girl - somewhere not far from here, who seems to be a figurehead, a talisman, if you like, for your side. Do you know anything about that?”
The Doctor was talking about Gabby.
Montana tried to hide her shock as The Doctor waited for the answer.
“No. I don’t know what you mean. I’ve only seen people trying to survive the feeders. I don’t know anything about this other stuff.”
“Well never mind. Wherever this girl is, we’ll find her. We don’t know why she’s important, but she needs to be eliminated. She is becoming very powerful. In just a few days we’ll be sending a small army to the west. The psychs will lead us straight to her, and she will be executed. Now, I’ve talked enough. Eat some breakfast.”
Montana was horrified by this new turn of events. Everything was escalating rapidly, and now Gabby’s life was directly threatened. Also, this megalomaniac doctor was building an army of the wicked, and from all accounts he wasn’t the only one. She wished that his story had been the deluded ranting of a madman, but deep inside she knew that it was true. She tried to think of something to say that might keep the conversation going, but her mind was in overload.
“How do I fit in?” she blurted finally, unsure of where the question had even come from.
“Montana, there is an old saying. “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” I’m afraid you’re the enemy. It won’t be long before almost everyone on earth has chosen their sides in this upcoming battle, and both teams will want to win. The victors will rule the world, ushering in a new dawn of unity and strength! I want to be on the winning team. It’s as simple as that. I always keep a foe by my side to remind me not to be complacent. Also, as I said last night, there’s an energy within you that I find rather invigorating. So, until I become bored with you, you will stay by my side and I will try to learn as much from you as I can. Now, I think it’s time I took you to see your friends for the last time, as promised, because tomorrow they fight the feeders.”
