Near Death (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 1)

by Richard C Hale

“Begin compressions!” Pierce yelled as he moved to the head of the chair and placed a mask and a resuscitation bag over Omar’s nose and mouth and began breathing for him. Jane jumped on a stool and started CPR.

  Peter saw the change in the display. “Are we going to get the data we need?” he asked Jake.

  “It’s not ideal, but it’s picking up most of it.”

  On the monitors, Jake watched an obviously different NDE unfold. The light they had come to associate with the others was now a diffuse, blood red color and he could discern no one waiting to greet Omar in the afterlife. Omar looked around, panicked, as if something was going to jump up and grab him at any moment.

  Then the displays went blank.

  Jake glanced at the cooling system and saw that it was at 99%. The system was overheating rapidly.

  “What’s happening?” Peter shouted.

  “The system is overheating! I have to shut it down!” Jake hit the abort button.

  Nothing happened.

  The video displays remained blank, but the discordant music continued to blare at them through the speakers. Jake hit the button over and over again, but the coolant levels remained at 99% and the noise actually seemed to grow louder.

  “I can’t shut it off!” Jake yelled.

  Bodey was up now typing something one handed into one of the workstations and Jake went over to see what was happening. Bodey was attempting to stop the software and shut the system down from it, but it wouldn’t let him access anything. The computer console was locked up.

  “The main power grid!” Bodey yelled over the noise. “Kill the main power grid!”

  Jake nodded once and ran toward the circuit breaker panel on the other side of the lab by the main doors. As he passed the chair, he heard a familiar ripping noise and could see the conduit between this plane and the other open up. Purple and red flashes of light burst out of thin air above Omar. He could smell ozone and the air crackled as he ran past.

  Jane and Pierce had backed away, frightened, and Jake had to stop and go back to them.

  “You need to keep trying!” Jake shouted. “It won’t stop until you bring him back! Hurry!”

  They glanced at each other and then slowly moved back, warily watching the growing rip in the air above the chair.

  “Give the Narcan and Epinephrine now!” Pierce shouted as Jake ran to the electrical panel.

  A wind started up inside the lab as he crossed the room. Reaching the panel, he yanked open the access door and started flipping breakers for the main computer system and power supply. Nothing happened.

  Frantic now, Jake started flipping all the breakers to the off position and hope bloomed in his chest as the lights went out and the emergency lighting kicked in, but the horrible noise still droned on all around them. The wind picked up steam and the hole over the chair grew larger. He turned and saw Bodey yell something, but couldn’t make it out.

  Jake started back across the room so he could hear what Bodey was trying to tell him when one of the coolant supply lines in the ceiling ruptured and boiling hot water and steam gushed from the roof onto Morris and Johnson who were standing off to the side near the back of the lab.

  Morris screamed and covered his face, but went down under the force of the pressurized steam. Johnson was able to jump to his left, but then the pipe itself tore free from its supports and fell on him, pinning him under its weight as hot water spilled from the break onto his trapped body.

  Jake turned back to the panel and grabbed the main breaker’s priming pump handle and began working it up and down so he could blow the breaker open. After five pumps, the panel was charged and he pressed the green button. The charge blew the contact open and all power to the building went out.

  It made no difference.

  The conduit was still open, the music blared, and the wind blew.

  Another pipe ruptured on the other side of the lab and the hissing of the steam from both breaks added to the symphony of noise inside the lab.

  Jake could see Pierce and Jane frantically working on Omar trying to ignore everything around them. Jane’s hair whipped around her head as the maelstrom from the open conduit sucked dust, paper, and steam vapor into it.

  Jake ran over and yelled, “I can’t shut it down! It has a life of its own. We have to get him back. What can I do?”

  “Take over bagging him while I push some drugs into his system. Squeeze this Ambu-bag every five compressions that Jane does. Hold the mask tight around his mouth and nose so it forms an airtight seal. Got it?”

  Jake understood and took over for Pierce.

  The room vibrated now from sound and pressure and then a loud explosion made him jump.

  Jake knew the main cooling tank had just ruptured.

  Pierce used a syringe and injected something into Omar’s I.V. while watching the battery powered monitors they had hooked up to him.

  After a few seconds Jane yelled, “V-Fib, We’ve got V-Fib!”

  “I’ll charge the defibrillator!” Pierce said, pulling a small pack out from under the cart and powering it up.

  Jake looked up and saw Maddy over by the console holding on to the counter. Bodey was next to her trying to get her to go with him.

  “Get her out of here!” Jake yelled at Bodey, but he wasn’t sure if Bodey heard him over the sound.

  Jake could feel the force of the vacuum pulling at his hair and clothes and he risked looking over his shoulder at the opening.

  What he saw terrified him.

  The opening was like a deep, bottomless, red void that pulled and called to him.

  Once he looked into it, it held him and wouldn’t let him go. The sounds of his lab coming down around him faded as he turned his whole body toward the opening. A humming thronged through his veins and he could feel heat pulsing forth onto his face as the blood red light pulsed inside the void.

  Slowly, a murmuring of voices started in low and then grew to a steady hum. He could not distinguish individual words, but the meaning was clear. They were calling to him. Calling him, only he didn’t want to go.

  This was not the calm, soothing sounds he expected to hear, but a chorus of wanting, demanding, and needing. It grew in intensity, like the whining of children on a playground.

  Not the happy sounds of laughing children, but the angry, whining, buzzing of spoiled adolescents denied their desires and then demanding them. A crowd of bullies, no, a stadium of them screamed now in his head, all demanding his attention at once. Then a voice louder than the clamor of the crowd called his name.

  “Jake!”

  He felt as if the voice was lifting him up off of his feet. He knew in his mind he needed to resist, but his strength had left him and his body felt foreign to him.

  “Jake! Jake!”

  He was floating, or at least it felt like he was. He could not feel the ground beneath his feet and the pulsing red light was all around him now, humming through his veins like blood. Beating to the rhythm of his heart.

  Something faintly struck his cheek.

  “Jake!”

  The noise of the discordant music briefly invaded his mind. His face was struck again, harder, and the angry buzzing voices seemed to grow angrier but fainter.

  “Hey asshole!”

  His whole body shook and then he was back.

  Peter was in his face yelling at him and Maddy was standing next to him holding onto the chair as wind whipped the hair around her face.

  “Bag him!” Jake heard Pierce yell, “We’re losing him again! Someone bag him!”

  Jake looked around dazed and Peter handed him the resuscitating bag.

  “You’ve got work to do! Come on!”

  Jake grabbed the bag and started ventilating Omar again. He could feel the opening calling to him again, but he refused to turn around. It wasn’t bad if he was looking away from it.

  “I thought I was going to lose you!” Maddy shouted. “You looked drugged and it was sucking you in.”

  “Don’t look into it,�
� he said. “It almost had me.”

  “We need to shock him!” Pierce yelled above the wind and sound. “When I say ‘clear,’ step back away from him and don’t touch the chair.”

  Jake nodded and bagged Omar again as Jane continued to compress his chest.

  Pierce grabbed the paddles and placed them on Omar’s chest and yelled “Clear!”

  Jake jumped back, as did Jane, and Pierce fired the defibrillator.

  Omar’s body arched up and purple lightning erupted from the opening above their heads followed by a clap of thunder. The lightning shot out across the room and struck one of the battery powered emergency lights and blew it to pieces. Sparks flew from it as shards of the shattered glass shot outward spraying Bodey. He ducked but came up with small cuts on his face and arms.

  Over the noise of the wind and discordant music came a throbbing and humming that vibrated the air.

  “We still have V-Fib!” Jane shouted. “Hit him again!”

  “Charging!” Pierce yelled.

  A green light on the pack indicated it was ready and Pierce placed the paddles on Omar’s chest again and yelled, “Clear!”

  As the defibrillator discharged, Omar’s body arched up again. A sound like a jet engine roared and the opening over him slammed shut with a thunderous clap as more purple lightning shot outward, striking Jane and Pierce in the chest. Peter was thrown back against the wall like a rag doll, and Jake and Maddy were thrown together against the console as a loud explosion rocked the ground underneath them.

  Then, everything went blank.

  66

  January 19, 2010 – 9:32 p.m.

  Orange Park, Florida

  Jake woke to hissing.

  As his eyes opened and came into focus, the sound of steam escaping from behind brought him back to the present. He was lying propped up against the console with one leg painfully folded underneath him.

  After maneuvering his leg into a more comfortable position, the only other part of him that hurt was his head. He reached up and gingerly touched the crown of his scalp, wincing as pain shot through his head and down his neck. His fingers came away red.

  He looked around trying to find Maddy but she was nowhere in sight.

  A loud crash sounded behind him as something broke loose from the ceiling. He stood, shakily, and was shocked at the destruction inside his lab.

  The only light came from a few emergency bulbs burning on battery power, but what he could see did not look good. The console was broken in two, probably from the impact of his own body. Had Maddy been thrown against it also? He couldn’t remember.

  Water was everywhere and steam still jetted from two ruptured pipes in the ceiling. The chair was lying on its side twenty feet from its original position and in its place a large gaping hole opened up in the cement floor. The edges appeared burnt and as he peered into it, steam escaped from somewhere down inside it. It was too dark to see the bottom.

  Pierce and Jane were dead.

  Large charred areas in the middle of their chests showed where the electrical current from the opening had shot into both of them.

  Their eyes were gone.

  Jake could see Morris and Johnson over against the wall and neither one of them moved. Maddy and Bodey were nowhere to be found.

  Jake hoped they had escaped and he was about to exit the building to find them when he heard his name.

  “Jake…”

  Spinning around in a circle, trying to locate the voice, he missed Peter crumpled in a heap by a pile of debris near the electrical panel.

  “Hey asshole…”

  Jake spotted him and rushed over.

  “You look like shit,” Peter said.

  Jake tried to grab Peter to help him up, but he pushed his hand away.

  “No—leave me. I’m all in anyway.”

  Jake looked harder and could see his legs bent at an odd angle, but the realization set in when he saw the piece of metal sticking out of his stomach. Blood was soaked through his shirt and jacket.

  “Oh, man…” Jake said.

  Peter coughed and a trickle of blood ran down his chin.

  “Listen,” Peter said, “you’ve got to go after him.”

  “What? Who? No! I’ve got to get you to a hospital and I need to see if Maddy’s all right.”

  “He took Maddy.”

  “Who?”

  “Omar! He took her and left. You need to find him.”

  “Omar! I thought he was dead.” Jake looked at the chair and noticed for the first time it was empty. “The last I saw, they hadn’t got him back.”

  “He’s back. And he’s pissed. He took Morris’s gun and Maddy hostage. He gave me this present before he left.” Peter pointed to the piece of metal sticking out of him.

  Jake shook his head. “I’m calling the police. They can handle this better.”

  “No! You can’t involve them. They’ll slow you down. They’ll see this mess and start asking questions and then they’ll detain you until they get the answers they want. After that, they still might keep you anyway. You have to do this yourself. You’re the only one left alive who even knows he’s here. I’d go with you, but I think my back is broken. I can’t move my legs.”

  Jake looked him over and knew it to be true.

  “How am I supposed to do this?” Jake said. “I don’t even know where to start.”

  “The chip in his knee, remember? Take the laptop and chase him down.”

  Jake nodded, remembering. Then shook his head.

  “I can’t do this alone. I’m not like you. I’m not a killer. What do I do when I find him?”

  Peter slapped him in the face, hard.

  “What do you think you do? You kill him! Stop being a puss and do what needs to be done. He’s got your girl! Now stop dicking around with me and get after him.”

  Jake looked hard at Peter. He knew he was right. No one else could do this.

  “Take my gun,” Peter said. “It’s in my back pocket. You’ll have to reach for it, I can’t get it. Take the extra clips too, in my pocket here.”

  “Where’s Bodey?”

  “I don’t know. He ran after them both, but I heard gunshots right after and I haven’t seen him since.”

  Jake found Peter’s cell phone as he was rummaging in his pockets for the extra rounds. He put it in Peter’s hand.

  “Call 911 when I leave,” Jake said. “I’ve got to go.”

  Jake stood, but Peter grabbed his arm.

  “For you, the best approach will be surprise. He doesn’t know you can track him. Get him in a place where you can sneak up on him and shoot him point blank. That way you can’t miss. He’ll kill you in a gunfight.”

  Jake nodded.

  “You can do this.”

  “I have to.”

  “Damn straight. Now get the hell out of here.”

  Jake turned and ran.

  67

  January 19, 2010 9:45 p.m.

  Middleburg, Florida

  Maddy’s wrists were tied behind her and her mouth was gagged.

  She was lying on the floor of a van heading God knew where with a terrorist screaming in Arabic into a cell phone. Tears sprang from her eyes thinking she would never see her mother, father, or Jake again. She wasn’t even sure if Jake was still alive.

  After the explosion that threw them into the console, she hadn’t been able to wake Jake. He had been bleeding from his head and she knew he was alive at that point, but then Omar had grabbed her by her hair and dragged her out of the lab kicking and screaming. He had only paused long enough to take a gun and then stab Peter with a piece of scrap metal.

  And poor Bodey. He had apparently chased after them and Omar had shot him in the parking lot. She had seen him go down, unmoving. She had no idea if he had survived.

  Omar had searched the vehicles in the back until he found this van with the keys in it and a cell phone left on the center console. He threw her in and drove off quickly, then stopped a mile or so away to tie her up and g
ag her.

  “You will be still and quiet, woman!” he had said. “If you cry or yell, I will cut out your tongue.”

  She knew he meant it, but she had seen something else in his eyes. Was it fear? He had said nothing to her since, but she could see he was very agitated and at one point it appeared he was crying, but she wasn’t sure if she had imagined it.

  He ended the conversation on the phone and cursed loudly.

  He turned in his seat and looked back at her for an instant, and then he pulled over and got out. She could hear him walking around behind the van and then the door slid open. He grabbed her and turned her toward him.

  “I must go to an island in the southern part of this state,” he said. “It is called Sanibel. Do you know this place?”

  She nodded slowly. He reached in and she flinched, but he only untied the gag and removed it.

  “Do not cry out. Do you remember what I said?”

  She nodded again.

  “Good. Can you drive to this island?”

  She nodded.

  “You may speak, but softly.” He looked at the ground, as if he were embarrassed. “I am injured and do not know the roads well. You will drive me to my destination and then I will set you free. If you do not do this, I will kill you now.”

  “Sounds like I don’t have much of a choice. I will drive you.”

  He indicated that she should turn around and she rolled over facing the other way. He removed her bindings and she sat up, rubbing her wrists.

  “How far is this island?” Omar asked.

  “About five and a half hours from Orange Park. I do not know where we are now.”

  He suddenly looked very tired.

  “Come,” he said, beckoning her out of the van, “you will drive now while I rest. Does the area look familiar?”

  As she stepped out, she looked around and nodded.

  “Yes, we are in Middleburg. At least you went in the right direction. Sanibel is five hours from here. That is if traffic is good.”

  He nodded once and then indicated she was to go first. She slid into the driver’s seat and adjusted herself. She started the engine and then turned the van south on SR21, accelerating.