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

by Richard C Hale

  “What the hell do you sickos want with me?” John asked after a moment. The blood continued to drip silently down his chin and onto his chest. It made him look like a horror flick actor.

  “Just your memories,” Bart said.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. I need your memories. Actually, just one memory if I’m not mistaken. That shouldn’t prove too difficult, should it?”

  John looked frantically back and forth between him and Elise and blubbered, “I’ll tell you anything.”

  “I know you will.” Bart turned to Elise who smiled sweetly at him. John started thrashing again against the restraints.

  “Come now, John. You need to simmer down. Do we need to sedate you again?”

  “Don’t touch me,” he shouted. “Keep her away from me!”

  Apparently John had not taken a liking to Elise and her abduction techniques. Bart sighed. Most men could not appreciate her talent. It had been a wonder he had even found her, but then again he always imagined they were destined to find each other.

  She had seduced John Miller at a bar in his hometown of Billings, Montana, and taken him back to her hotel where she proceeded to beat him to within an inch of his life. For a big man, he hadn’t been able to fend her off, much less injure her. She had been very effective. That was two days ago. He spent the last twenty-four hours bound, gagged, drugged and abused as she drove him to the lab in Jackson Hole. It had not taken much to learn to fear her.

  Bart and Elise went to either side of John and picked him up, carrying his thrashing body to the chair. “You need to simmer down, John. Elise is growing impatient.”

  John stopped squirming and let them tie him down to the chair. They then began hooking wires and sensors to various points on his head and body. This took about ten minutes and John remained mostly still during the procedure.

  “That wasn’t too bad, was it?” Bart asked.

  The man said nothing. But if he could read his thoughts, Bart was sure they were full of expletives. He didn’t blame him.

  After the leads were attached, Elise pulled down a tan, body length mold from the ceiling and lowered it so it covered John’s body from feet to the middle of his face. His eyes and the top of his head were all that could be seen. The body mold had numerous connections, which snaked up into the ceiling of the chamber and fed the massive computer system that served as the brain of the device.

  “What the hell are you people going to do to me?” John asked quietly.

  “We’re going to read your mind,” Elise said.

  John winced at her voice. “You have a machine that can do that?”

  “You’re in it,” Bart said and smiled. “Now relax and do as we instruct and this little experiment will be over before you know it.”

  He and Elise exited the chamber and sealed the door. The six-inch thick, clear, polycarbonate plastic making up one whole wall of the structure allowed them to view what was happening inside the chamber, but kept it soundproof. The only way to hear and communicate with the test subject was through an intercom system piped into the room and console area.

  “Will he do what we ask?” Elise said.

  “What choice does he have? We can tell what he’s thinking. He can’t hide from the Machine.”

  Bartholomew Guillott held a PhD in biomedical engineering and a Master’s in computer engineering. He had been at the top of his class, but had little use for the scientific community. He wanted to be famous and was doing his best to promote that wish. In his own way.

  He had heard of a technology developed by an engineer in Florida and studied what he could find on the subject. The man was either a genius or largely lucky. This is what Bart had been waiting for. He hacked into the databases at Encephalographic Systems and CRAY computers and basically stole everything he needed to reproduce the technology—only vastly improved. At least in his eyes. His Machine was more powerful and without the encumbrances in place at the Florida lab. He wouldn’t be holding back.

  It had been fun testing the system on each other. Bart had been first and as Elise watched the monitors display his thoughts in a video representation, she smiled and removed all of her clothing, masturbating to his fantasy played out in living color. She told him it was like watching herself have sex on TV. Her mind reading display was something he couldn’t believe she could imagine. He had told her afterward they needed to act it out for real. He had been sore for three days.

  The Machine worked flawlessly but the true test would be tonight. He pressed the intercom button and said, “Can you hear me all right, John?”

  “Yes.” His voice sounded small and afraid.

  “Good. This is easy on your part. All you have to do is relive your Near Death Experience in your mind and everything will be peachy.”

  “No.” On the video camera, which perched over top the chair, John Miller began to sweat.

  “Now, John. Why are you being difficult?”

  “I’m not going back there.”

  “John…”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  John’s eyes flitted around, panicked. “I just can’t.”

  Bart hadn’t expected this response and he was concerned they were not going to get what they needed. He turned to Elise. She shrugged and leaned over into the microphone.

  “John?” Her voice made him flinch. “I’m ready to play again if you are? How would you like that?”

  “Eat shit!” he yelled. “Keep her away from me!”

  “Time for a trip back in time, John,” Bart said.

  John took a big breath and exhaled shakily. “Okay.”

  “Fine,” Bart said. “Begin anytime.”

  The video screens in the console displayed a driving rainstorm pelting a windshield so hard the wipers could not even make a dent in the water. It was night and headlights threw glare onto the glass hampering John’s vision even more. Drunken singing could be heard as John enjoyed his buzz from the bar. He never saw the semi coming.

  Blinding light filled the screens and then a horrific tearing sound blared out of the speakers. Bart and Elise actually ducked. It was so real. The scene changed to one from above the accident and suddenly horrible music could be heard through the speaker system as John’s death was announced. He floated above the scene and watched the truck driver run through the rain to his car and pull his body from the wreckage. The man shouted into a cell phone and then started performing CPR on John, trying to revive him.

  John looked around the dark void he was in and could see a light appear in the distance. It glowed blood red and grew in size as a murmuring of urgent voices penetrated the horrible clashing of notes. The voices grew in volume and demand as John’s life began whizzing by him into the glowing red orb. He watched, mesmerized, as everything he had ever done in his life was replayed in all its wonder and monstrosity for him to relive. The deaths of the three college co-eds were the main feature and the vision of the murders slowed for his review. Suddenly, a loud thud could be heard in the air and John watched the paramedics who had arrived shock his body with a defibrillator. Lightning shot from within the red orb and struck John in the chest. He was dead but felt the terrible burning pain stronger than any pain he had ever felt before. He moaned. The defibrillator fired again and another electric bolt shot from within the light and struck him again. He fell from his lofty place and sank back into his body. He was alive.

  The vision ended and John could be seen panting in the camera, gasping for air as he lived through the memory of the event.

  “Stop! Stop!” he shouted. “What are you doing? It’s like I’m living through it again. Please make it stop!” He sobbed as tears ran down the side of his face.

  “Now for the fireworks, John,” Bart said into the intercom and he pressed the replay button on the console causing the recorded session to be played back. Bart was still not quite sure what was going to happen. He had seen a video of the system in Florida, but it was just a video. This was the re
al thing.

  John’s video played back and as the horrible music began, the sound was so deafening, Bart’s ears felt as if they were going to bleed. Elise pressed her palms to her head trying to block the cacophony of noise that permeated the air, but her pained expression told Bart it made little difference. A rumbling grew and he could feel the floor vibrate, then shake as if from an earthquake. Everything shifted suddenly to the left and Bart fell to his knees. Elise fell into him and he caught her but not before she banged her head painfully into his shoulder.

  “Are you all right?” he shouted above the horrendous noise.

  She nodded slowly, holding her head in her hands.

  In the chamber, a bright pinpoint of light appeared above John and then ruptured into a gash of purple sparks as the rip in the dimension opened up above the chair. John could be heard screaming through the intercom as wind whipped his hair, whirling dust and dirt in a small tornado inside the chamber. Blood red light pulsed from within the void that had opened over him and murmuring voices could be heard through the speakers. They grew in volume as Bart could now hear John’s name being called over and over again, mockingly.

  Elise pointed to the temperature gauge that monitored the cooling system for the computer and he was shocked to see it at 99%. It would overheat. The video screens caught his eye and he watched as hundreds of arms and hands reached through the void and pulled at John in the chair. He thrashed back and forth shouting “No!” but they would not be denied. Bart turned to the chamber window but could discern not a single hand, or arm, groping at John. It was only on the video monitors.

  The paramedic’s defibrillator was firing in the vision as lightning shot out of the void, striking the side of the chamber. Sparks flew but nothing else was damaged. The chamber was holding. The next defibrillator fired and a second bolt of lightning vented from the red void striking the door. It flung open and slammed against the wall with such force the hinges failed and the door crashed to the floor. A maelstrom erupted from within the chamber and the horrible noise of it drove Bart flat to the floor as his senses were overwhelmed. Elise was screaming. With one last whoosh of dust and dirt, the dimensional rip clapped shut and silence settled into the lab as the whine of the cooling system spooled down.

  Bart looked at the monitors. John Miller was gone.

  Near Sighted is available here at Amazon, and most online bookstores.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Richard C Hale has worn many hats in his lifetime including Greens Keeper, Bartender, Musician, Respiratory Therapist, and veteran Air Traffic Controller. You can usually find him controlling Air Traffic over the skies of the Southeastern U.S. where he lives with his wife and children.

  Drop by his website and give him a shout. He’d love to hear from you.

  http://richardchaleauthor.com

  Or connect with him on Twitter and Facebook

  http://twitter.com/Richard_C_Hale

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