“What did you do to me? Are you turning me into some kind of TORO?”
He laughs, perching a butt cheek on the bed and leaning closer. “Not quite. We have merely fitted a Scrambler. It’s a kinetic reader. Any use of your ability will kill you... poof.”
“Why would you do this? Why do you hate me?”
He looks perplexed for a moment. “I don’t hate you, Theyda. I think you are magnificent.” He takes my face in his hands, much like Adam would do, and I cringe, pulling away from him. “Why do you turn away from me?”
“Because your hands on me make me sick to my guts.”
“Does that TORO touch you like this?” He strokes his thumb along my cheek, and I twist under his grip. “I appreciate what you are, Theyda. I accept it. You are an incredible creation of nature and that’s why I want you.”
I’m not sure why he’d say that. He doesn’t eye my naked body, or touch me inappropriately. I’m a trophy to him, nothing more.
“I will never be yours,” I spit.
“Do you know what I do with the things that I adore, Theyda? I control them. And that is why this next bit is necessary.” He gets up and bangs on the door.
The room fills with people, some in white coats, most in fatigues. The restraints pull tight, pinning my wrists and ankles to the bed and parting my legs in a vulnerable, indecent manner.
Towley strokes my face, hushing me like a baby. “I don’t get joy from this. However, like I said, it’s necessary.”
I jerk my head to the side and bite down on his hand until I can taste blood and hear his screams. “None of this is necessary,” I shout.
They wheel me from the room.
***
“She’s a biter. Get the muzzle on her,” says a doctor with thick rim glasses and a moustache. He stands aside as the soldiers wrestle a leather contraption around my mouth, tying it at the back of my head. My jaw is clamped shut. I’m only able to breathe through my nose and my screams are muffled to inside my throat.
They slide a hospital gown over me, leaving it untied at the back. At least I have a little dignity restored. I look around to find Towley, but he’s not present. One of the soldiers slams my head back down onto the bed, and I scream out as blinding pain surges through my skull.
Large chains hang down from the ceiling above me; thick, monster chains that entice fear just from the mere sight of them. One soldier pulls them down toward the bed; the sound reverberates in my teeth, and another soldier starts attaching them to my wrist restraints.
“When you are ready,” the doctor says to him.
He nods to the other soldiers and they untie my bed restraints. There is a clunking sound and the chains pull tight, dragging me up and out of the bed. My shoulders almost tear from their sockets as my weight hangs from my wrists. I cry out though the muzzle, trying hard not to be sick.
The bed is quickly wheeled from beneath me and the soldier lowers the chains until my toes graze the floor. They say nothing, acting like they’ve just strung up a pig carcass and not a human being.
“That’ll be all for now,” the doctor tells them, and they file out of the room.
Moving to the far side of the room, he presses his palm against a panel, and then looks into a retina scanner. Taking one final glance over his shoulder at me, he taps another button. The whole wall recedes into itself, opening into a larger, laboratory type room. He rips open a hospital curtain to reveal Wheeler and Cooper hanging from chains. They both wear hospital gowns identical to my own, but no muzzles. They do, however, wear collars. Whatever Towley has done to my brain, he has only done it to my brain.
“Teddie,” Cooper shouts, thrashing against his chains. His shoulder joints bulge under his skin.
Wheeler lolls his head to the side to see me. “Are you okay, baby girl?”
I nod, sobbing through the muzzle. Seeing them both makes my stomach clamp. If I’m sick, I’ll choke and die before anyone will have realised anything was wrong.
“Be brave, okay. You are so so brave,” Wheeler adds.
Cooper lets out an angered growl. “What is on her face? What did you do to her head?” He screams at the doctor. “Answer me, you son of a bitch.”
The doctor barely offers Cooper a backward glance. “The muzzle is a precaution. The device in her head… well, that’s a solution.”
“If you hurt her, I’ll—”
“You’ll what, Mr Cooper? Do not threaten me.” He picks up a metal rod with a bizarre, orange handle.
Cooper snorts, rolling his eyes. “Do your best,” he hisses through his teeth.
I want to scream at him to shut up, to stop playing the big man before he ends up dead.
The doctor walks toward him, stopping in front of him, and twisting the device between his fingers. He’s toying with him, getting off on torturing him. “You don’t fear physical pain, Mr Cooper. So, it would be worthless to use this on you,” he says.
“Damn right,” Cooper roars in his face.
“Her perhaps.” He looks over his shoulder at me, and swivels on his heel. He marches toward me with the rod outstretched.
“Don’t you fucking touch her. I said it, not her. If you want to punish someone, punish me.” Cooper screams.
The doctor places the metal against my stomach and volts course through me. I scream into the muzzle, my body convulsing on the chains, and my skin blistering under the rod. Then, it stops just as suddenly. I try to suck air in through my nose whilst my shaking legs try to get a footing on the cool floor.
Cooper’s shouts almost sound sob like. I’ve never seen Cooper emotional to this extent and my heart shatters.
“You fear her pain, though, so that’s useful,” the doctor says, nonchalantly. He sticks the rod against my inner thigh and I jerk painfully against the chains.
My eyes water and the agony eats at my aching skull. ‘Please stop,” I try to cry, but it’s incoherent through the muzzle.
“Enough!” Wheeler bellows. “You’ve proved your point.”
The doctor laughs to himself. “I’m not here to prove points, Mr. Wheeler. I’m here to break you.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
Cooper thrashes once again. “You’re sick. This is fucking sick.”
“This is science. This is to protect the future of the human race.”
“We are humans!” Wheeler shouts. “We are humans!”
The doctor merely laughs. “As of now, you are just a number in a system- test subjects for the greater good.”
“Testing what?”
“Whatever we like. For starters, let’s see how long it takes for EVO to become subservient and controlled.”
“I can save you a whole lot of time. The answer you are looking for is never. We will never be controlled,” says Cooper. “You will see that. I promise that you will see that first hand.”
The door opens and two soldiers enter. “That one,” the doctor says, gesturing toward Cooper. “He’s got a mouth on him.”
They round on him. Cooper tries to get a better footing, but his chains rise a foot off the floor. He cries out as his weight threatens to dislocate his shoulders. One soldier punches him in the face, sending him swinging precariously. The sound of their fists meeting his face and torso cuts straight through me.
I scream against the muzzle, drawing the doctor’s attention. “He means a lot to you too, doesn’t he?”
“Thank you, gentlemen.” The doctor writes something on his clipboard, and then nods to Wheeler.
They turn their attention to Wheeler. Cooper hangs bloody and hurt. Spit falls from his lips onto the floor. Wheeler cries out as a boot slams into his chest. A hit to the face renders him lifeless, and his nose has exploded with blood.
I cry out, scrunching my eyes against his torture. “Both men have an importance to the female,” the doctor says. “This threesome may prove advantageous in our tests.”
“Who are you talking to?” Cooper asks, spitting blood onto the floor. Th
e doctor doesn’t reply. “Towley, right? Hey, Towley, are you there? You will never control EVO. Do you hear me you scummy, little scrote? We may be few, but it’s quality over quantity, and if you mess with us we will annihilate you.”
A pride swells in my chest. Maybe it won’t be Cooper, Wheeler, or I, but EVO will survive. The Towleys of the world will get what is coming to them; strength and no mercy where they are concerned.
I smile at him, giving him a little ‘damn right’ nod. Doctor Death slams his clip board onto his desk with a purposeful thud. Wheeler comes around to the noise, his head lolling and bleeding.
“You okay, mate?” Cooper asks. Wheeler groans inaudibly.
The doctor races the length of the room, spins me, and wrenches my gown fully open, so my rear side is on view to everyone.
He lashes my back in one flash. I know my skin splits; I’ve never felt a pain quite like it. Even my eye didn’t hurt to this extent. Screaming, I launch forward with my arms pulling the chains. I want to allow my abilities to do what they want to do- protect me. Self-preservation makes it difficult to fight the urges.
Cooper spouts every cuss word known to man, and Wheeler screams at them to leave me alone. Another lash lands between my shoulder blades, and another, and another. The pain is unbearable. I can’t get enough air through my snotty nose, and I feel my legs fall from beneath me. My shoulders must strain from the weight, but I don’t notice as a cloud of darkness smothers my vision.
Water fills my nostrils and mouth. I scream, inhaling the stagnant, warm liquid in the process. A hand around my throat wrenches me out of a trough. I fall forward, still hanging from the chains, spluttering and vomiting up water and bile. The muzzle has gone and I can breathe freely.
“You bastards,” I scream, flailing my legs, hoping to connect with the doctor or his minions. A guttural, angry, pain filled cry spews from my mouth until I have to catch breath.
“Teddie, are you okay,” Wheeler asks. His voice croaks through sobs.
I nod, but tears spill over my cheeks and I hang my head to keep them from the doctor and Towley.
“Ten second, Teds,” says Cooper, a stern edge to his voice. “I’m going to count to ten and you’re going to get your head back in the game. One, two, three, four, five—” A fist meets his face, blood spraying from his already broken lips. I take a deep breath, and try to wipe my face in my arms. “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” he continues, despite his attacker.
On ten, I raise my head and set my bitch face in place. I flick out my head, clicking my neck like a boxer ready to enter the ring, or should I say cage fighter?
“That’s it, you whiny asshole,” he says to me, grinning through a mouth full of blood.
I throw my head back and laugh. How can I be laughing right now? I’m being tortured and I’m laughing. The thought only makes me laugh harder.
“You too, shithead,” he says to Wheeler.
Wheeler snorts and lifts his head a little higher. “Who are you calling shit head?” he says, grinning.
“Separate them,” says Towley over a speaker.
Dr Hollister exhales loudly. “But I have a system—”
I can hear Towley sigh in annoyance. “Separate them- now. This isn’t working.”
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
The doctor reluctantly draws the curtain around Cooper and Wheeler. He glares at me as he types in the code for the sliding door.
“I love you guys,” I call.
I’m alone on this side of the wall. I strain to hear what is happening on the other side, but it is silent and that doesn’t ease my fears in the slightest.
The door behind me buzzes open and Towley enters. I know it’s him from the sound of his boots clinking like high heels on the floor. Standing behind me, he waits for a few moments. He can think again if he thinks I’m going to look for him. He whispers something to the soldiers, and then his footsteps draw closer. The door closes and he is alone with me.
I keep my head hanging onto my chest. My back consumes me with a throbbing pain, and I know he can see my butt, but I couldn’t care less.
He stands in front of me, sliding a finger under my chin, and tilting my head to look at him. All his actions are slow and gentle. His eyes search my face, something similar to concern on his own. Taking his sleeve, he wipes at my tear streaked, snotty cheeks and mouth.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” he says, loosening the chains.
I’m lowered onto my stomach and just sprawl out, allowing my shoulders to relax. Towley opens the back of my gown up fully. I flinch, but I’m too tired and in too much pain to move.
“Don’t touch me,” I say into the wet floor.
He sits beside me, dabbing at my wounds. “These wounds need tending, Theyda.”
“Stop acting like you care. I have these wounds because of you.”
He continues to wipe at my back. “You have these wounds because of Dr. Hollister. As you heard, I had no say over what he did to you. Let me clean these for you.”
“You had a say over when it ended,” I say.
“I’m sorry to see you in pain, but this is necessary.”
I snort into the floor, but I know what he’s trying to do; the good cop, bad cop routine won’t work on me. Whatever he is doing to my back is numbing the pain, so I don’t fight him or question him any further.
I lay thinking of Adam. I want to link with him, to hear his voice in my mind. I want him to tell me that it’s all going to be okay. For a moment, I wish he was TORO again and working for Towley, so he could come in and rescue me. It’s a cruel, selfish thought and I feel guilty as hell. Why hasn’t he tried to link with me? The question plays on my mind. I know that logically Adam would restrain himself if there was a risk of putting me in danger, but I’m not thinking logically.
“All done,” Towley says, resting his hand on my shoulder. I start from his touch, and he laughs to himself. “It’s been said that I have a relaxing touch.”
I could tell him that I was daydreaming about Adam- it wouldn’t do me any good. If he wants to play nurse maid, I’ll let him.
“You are very brave, Theyda,” he says into my ear. Again I snort. “I’m being serious. You have a loyalty that I’ve never before seen in someone... someone in their right mind.” He’s referring to the TORO. Still I say nothing. “I envy him- the TORO- the one you love. He has your undivided loyalty and that makes him a very powerful man indeed.”
He envies the loyalty I have for Adam, not the love. This is a mind trip. One moment, I think he is playing a part, and then he says things like that.
“You never asked me how I found you at the woods.” I still won’t look at him. I want to know, but I don’t want him to know that. “Lizzie Roscoe.”
My stomach sinks like I’ve swallowed a stone. “Lizzie?”
“Don’t look so distraught. She didn’t betray you, although, the moment she had my phone linked with hers was the moment she handed you to me on a plate. The Roscoe’s have a way of screwing you over.”
“You knew we’d go after the kids.”
He rolls me over onto my side, and I cry out as my back smarts. “Oh, I know, I know. You’re hurting,” he soothes. Lifting me into his arms, surprisingly easily for a weed of a man, he places me on the bed and ties the restraints. “The whys and wherefores no longer matter. You look exhausted. I shall escort you back to your room and stay with you until you fall to sleep if you wish?”
I close my eyes and will sleep to hurry the hell up.
***
“It’s not normal. He’s obsessed with the prisoner. You’ve seen how he is with her.”
“And is that any concern of yours, marine?” I recognise the doctors voice. “Would a man under infatuation order the torture of the object of his said infatuation? I think not. Towley’s motives and game plan are not to be discussed by you.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The door closes and I exhale in relief. I think I’m alone, but I’m wrong.
; “He’s right, though. Towley is either playing a twisted game or he has lost his marbles,” whispers another voice.
“Shut it. We don’t know who can hear in this place.”
“Don’t you feel sorry for them at all?”
There is silence for a moment. “She is Isaac Woodman’s daughter. Don’t forget that.”
“I’m not his daughter,” I say. My throat is scratchy and hoarse.
“Shit,” says one of the soldiers. I don’t turn my head to look at them. “I told you to shut it, man.”
“What do you mean you’re not his daughter?” asks the other soldier.
“My Dad was a good man, Rob Leason. Isaac played me because he wanted to use me to help him, but he was sick. He killed my friends, even his own family. I couldn’t let him continue.” I cough, the action jars at my back and skull. “That’s why I had to kill him.”
“Special Ops killed him,” the dubious soldier says. Although, he sounds a little curious.
“Isaac Woodman was found in the bottom of a swimming pool with not a single bullet wound. Do you know how I know that? Because that’s where I left him after I drowned him.”
“Bullshit. We have no way to justify that and you know it. She’s playing us. Come on, man.”
“Gregor was there in Italy that night. He’d know,” says the second soldier.
“Like hell are you asking Gregor. Have you lost your bloody mind? Do you want to have us locked up?”
“You won’t be locked up, you’ll be executed,” I say. I roll onto my side and stare at the wall with the restraints biting into the flesh on my ankles.
The soldiers leave, talking in hurried whispers. “Why would that Syndicate group have her working for them if she was E.N.C?”
“Because they’re all in cahoots. EVO are dangerous, and that one is playing you. I don’t want to hear you mention it again.”
***
I’m not sure how long I’ve been left alone. I know I’ve drifted off to sleep and woken at least twice. A hand taps on my shoulder, bringing me out of trance. I don’t look to move or react in anyway. The hand taps me again. I know who it is from the clink of boots.
“I come bearing gifts,” says Towley, “Bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and even some black pudding.”
EVO Shift: EVO Nation Series: Book Two Page 23
