Drug

by O'Rourke, Lynda

  “Get him to the floor!” Jude shouted, aiming his fist toward Fred’s stomach. He punched him. Max lost his grip and toppled back.

  “You’re gonna have to do better than that, lads,” growled Fred, smacking his fist into Jude’s face – launching him into the wall. Fred turned and kicked out – his boot thudded into Max’s cheek. Spinning around, Fred ran for the knife. I had to stop him – I had to get to the knife before he did. I threw myself across the room. I landed on the floor and slid across the cold tiles. Fred clattered into me – our hands snatching for the knife. I felt the back of his hand strike my face and I fell back.

  “You want the knife, girly?” he spat. “I’ll give you the knife.”

  The blade glinted as it was thrust toward me but stopped just before it reached my throat. I looked up, surprised to see Raven standing over Fred – her black-claw-like nails dug into his neck. She lifted him off the floor with ease. He hung in the air, legs flopping about like they were on elastic. Surprised at Raven’s strength, I stood up – mouth hung open.

  “Raven, how can you do…?” I stopped mid-sentence. Raven’s eyes had turned black, her face full of anger. Jude and Max now stood – eyes wide.

  “What the hell…?” Max whispered, walking around slowly, staring up into Raven’s face.

  “Hey, Raven. Can you hear me?” Jude asked, clicking his fingers in front of her face.

  She seemed to snap out of her trance-like state, and realising what she was doing, she gasped and dropped Fred to the floor. Throwing her hands up to her face, Raven backed away.

  Fred lay unconscious, his body sprawled across the floor.

  “Help me tie him up. We need to secure him with something,” Max said, rolling Fred onto his front and pulling his arms round to his back.

  I looked around the floor. There was so much rubbish but nothing to use to tie Fred up with.

  “Check the cupboard that Fred opened, there might be something in there,” Jude said, frantically searching the lockers but finding nothing.

  I searched the top shelf. It was full of candles and bars of soap. The second shelf had boxes of tools, and it was in one of them I found two rolls of thick duct tape. Taking them out, I handed them to Jude. Turning back to the cupboard, I continued to search the last two shelves. There was nothing worth taking, and as I went to walk away, I noticed four photographs stuck to the inside of the cupboard door. They were photos of staff members. Porters and domestic workers from past years. The first two had 1980 written on the back. The third was from 1984 and the last one I snatched from off the cupboard door. Stunned, I checked the date on the back – 1996. Shaking my head, I took another look at the faces in the photo. Standing amongst the staff was my dad.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I stared at the photo. Had I made a mistake? No – it was definitely my dad. A feeling of dread filled the pit of my stomach at the realisation that he had worked here – at Cruor Pharma. I flipped the photo over and checked the date again. 1996. I would have been only one year old – too young to remember. Thoughts of my childhood swam around in my mind as I tried to think back – search my memories, but no matter how hard I tried, the earliest memories were of play school and my dad forgetting to pick me up after downing his usual bottle of whiskey. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him go to work.

  I was stirred from my thoughts by a low moaning noise. Fred was rousing – his mouth had been stuffed with a screwed up piece of dirty material. Jude and Max had secured his arms tight behind him and had taped his ankles together with the duct tape. Raven sat on a wooden bench staring at her hands, turning them over as if in search of some explanation as to how she had got the strength to lift a man up with one hand. I folded the photograph in half and placed it in my pocket. I didn’t want the others to see it. How would they react if they found out that my dad had worked here? Would they treat me differently – not trust me? It wasn’t just those thoughts that plagued my mind. I felt a kind of shame knowing that my dad had worked for such a place. Had he known the horrors that went on here? If he had then I couldn’t even bear the thought of it, it was too horrific to comprehend.

  “It’s time we left,” said Max, hoisting Fred up against the wall. “Who knows when someone will come looking for Fred. He’ll be missed by someone soon, and I don’t want to be here when they come looking.”

  “Is everyone ready?” asked Jude, looking at each of us in turn. “We don’t want any fuck-ups. Do you know where to go when we get out of here, Kassidy?”

  I thought back to Ben, his directions to the chapel played through my mind. “I think so.” I nodded my head.

  “I hope so,” said Max, looking at me with a worried expression over his face. “When we get outside we don’t want to hang around.”

  Not wanting Fred to hear where we were heading, I whispered the way to the chapel to the others.

  “Let’s go then,” said Max, walking toward the door.

  Raven stood up. “Here, take these,” she hissed at me, shoving the iPod and passport that I had taken from Ward 1 into my hands. “I’m not carrying dead people’s belongings so they can follow me about and haunt me.” She turned away and followed Max to the door.

  “Better not argue with her,” winked Jude, “You don’t want to end up like Fred over there.”

  I looked at Fred. His eyes were open and he stared back. He mumbled something at Jude but it sounded like a load of nonsense to me. Probably pissed off that Max and Jude had tied him up.

  I crouched down in front of Fred, and checking over my shoulder to make sure the others couldn’t hear me, I whispered, “Did you know Robert Bell? He’s my dad.” Fred nodded his head slowly. “Did you work with him?” Another nod from Fred. “Did he know about the drug trials?”

  Before Fred could nod or shake his head, Jude tapped me on the shoulder.

  “Come on, Kassidy, we have to go,” he said, glaring at Fred. “There’s no point talking to him. He’s one of them, he tried to stab you with that knife, remember?”

  I stood up – down-hearted. I wanted to know more. I wanted to ask Fred if my dad was a part of these awful drug trials. Fred mumbled again. His eyes angry. I bent down and went to pull out the dirty material from Fred’s mouth but Jude grabbed my arm and pulled it away.

  “We don’t have time, Kassidy,” he said. “If you take that material out from his mouth, he’ll start screaming and shouting and letting everyone in this building know where we are. Leave him.”

  Reluctantly, I walked away.

  Pushing open the door and checking to see if the corridor was clear, Max stepped out followed by Raven. I shoved the iPod and passport into my jacket pocket.

  “You go in front,” said Max, looking at me. “You know the way.”

  Turning left down the corridor, I followed it round to the old fire exit. Taking the rusty key from my pocket, I slipped it into the lock.

  “Shit,” whispered Jude from behind me. “I’ve left that I.D. card back in the locker room. Wait here while I go get it.”

  “Hurry up”, said Max. “I just want to get out of here.”

  Jude turned back and disappeared round the corridor. We waited nervously. Butterflies churned away inside my stomach. I was scared that something other than Jude might come back round the corridor and catch us, and then there was the fear of what we might find outside. Raven suddenly slumped down against the wall. Her eyes had rolled back in their sockets and her mouth hung open.

  “Raven, what’s wrong?” I asked, crouching down beside her. She didn’t answer. I took hold of her shoulders and gently shook her. She flopped over to the right like an unconscious drunk.

  “Max, help me,” I said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

  He knelt down beside me and held Raven’s chin, tilting her head up.

  “Can you hear me, Raven?” he asked. “It’s Max.”

  Jude suddenly appeared from around the corner waving the I.D. badge about. “Got it”, he smiled. His eyes darkened when he
saw Raven. “What’s wrong with her now?”

  “She just collapsed,” I said.

  “Let me take a look,” said Jude, pushing me aside. He took hold of her shoulders and shook her roughly. “Raven, wake up.”

  “Careful, Jude,” whispered Max. “You don’t want to make her worse.”

  Raven suddenly let out a sigh. “You took your time,” she hissed, glaring at Jude, her eyes now staring angrily at him.

  “What the hell…?” whispered Max, “Raven, you just collapsed and now you’re acting like nothing happened.”

  She looked at Max confused. “What? I don’t remember.”

  “Do you feel okay now?” I asked, helping her back up onto her feet.

  Raven stood and shrugged her shoulders. “I feel fine. Just fed up with having to wait for him to come back. We could have been outside by now.” She glared at Jude.

  “I couldn’t find the I.D. at first,” said Jude, frowning at Raven. “It had fallen on the floor. I must have dropped it when we were fighting with Fred. Look what else I have though.” He waved another I.D. badge about, a big grin on his face.

  “Where did you find that?” I asked, knowing that Max had searched the locker room earlier for I.D. badges.

  “It’s Fred’s,” Jude smiled. “I’m sure he won’t mind us borrowing it. I took it from his pocket. You can use it, Max. There’s no point in Raven or Kassidy having it with a man’s name written across the front.”

  “Thanks,” said Max, taking it from Jude. “Now let’s get out of here.”

  I turned back to the fire exit. Gripping hold of the key, I turned it slowly. The lock was stiff and it creaked as the key went round. A sharp click and the lock opened. Taking hold of the handle, I pulled down. The door groaned on its hinges. I held my breath as I felt the cold morning air against my skin.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Hidden from view under the large oak tree, we stood in silence. The dark, menacing atmosphere of the hospital that had haunted my steps had lifted a little. And although the relief of escaping to the outside felt like a victory, I knew that there was still trouble to come. A dense fog hung lifelessly over Strangers Hill and the grounds of Cruor Pharma, like smoke trapped under a glass dome. Apart from the odd crow screeching overhead, there was nothing but a deathly silence.

  I peered through the drooping branches. Another week or two and the trees would be bare, with autumn approaching. The ground was a soggy mess of fallen leaves and mud from the storm last night. The leaves stuck to my shoes like wet sheets of paper.

  “I can’t see a thing,” I whispered. “The fog is too thick.” I turned round and looked at the others.

  “You said we had to follow the path to the left,” whispered Max. “We can see the ground so the path should be easy enough to follow.”

  “What if someone comes?” hissed Raven. “We won’t be able to see them until it’s too late.” She hugged her arms tight across her chest, shivering.

  “It works both ways,” said Jude. “They won’t spot us until it’s too late.”

  “Let’s go then,” whispered Max, thrusting his hands into the leather jacket he had found, trying to keep them warm.

  “Shhh,” I hushed. “Can you hear something?”

  We stood still. Max shook his head as if to say he’d heard nothing. Raven had frozen – eyes wide. Jude suddenly pointed to our right. Heavy footsteps were squelching toward the oak tree. There was nowhere to hide other than under the tree so we waited – hoping that whoever it was would pass by. Crouching down, I held my breath as a pair of booted feet stopped just on the other side of the branches. A waft of cigarette smoke filtered through.

  Someone spoke. A male. “Can’t see any sign of them, boss. They must still be inside the hospital. Me and Charlie have walked around the perimeter several times over the last few hours and not caught sight of one of them.”

  Another voice. This one crackling as if coming via a radio. “Keep walking, Steve. You don’t stop until someone has found them.”

  “I don’t know why the police don’t get called in to deal with them?” asked Steve.

  “Doctor Middleton wants this kept quiet, the police still haven’t forgotten the last time some of the volunteers escaped. No one wants this getting messy,” the second voice hissed and crackled again.

  “I didn’t work here when that happened, but I’ve heard the stories. Doctor Middleton had to pay out a bit to the local police in Holly Tree, didn’t he?” asked Steve.

  “He paid out big. Inspector Cropper wasn’t gonna stay quiet without a bribe,” the voice hissed.

  “Did they ever catch the three volunteers who escaped?”

  “Only one... Sylvia Green. It was too late for Middleton to get his hands on her though. Derbyshire police caught her when she tried to kill herself jumping off Millers Dale Bridge. She got sectioned under the mental health act and sent to Carden Mental Institute.”

  “I bet Middleton shit himself,” sniggered Steve.

  “Not really. The girl was written off as insane. Whatever she said about this place, no one believed her.”

  “I guess I’d better keep looking then,” said Steve. His cigarette dropped to the ground by his boots and he crushed it into the wet, muddy leaves.

  “Keep me up to date, Steve, if you see any of them. Make sure you keep your radio on, just in case I need to get hold of you.”

  “Will do, boss,” answered Steve, the sound of static filling the quiet morning.

  We watched from under the tree as Steve strolled away, following the path to the left – the way we needed to go. When he had disappeared into the fog, I turned to face the others.

  “Let’s give him five minutes to get well ahead of us. I don’t fancy bumping into him or his mate Charlie,” I whispered.

  “At least they still think we’re inside the hospital,” Max said. “Did you hear what they said about the other volunteers? My brother might be one of those who escaped.”

  “Let’s hope so,” I smiled. I pulled out the passport in my pocket and opened it up onto the page with Sylvia Green’s photo on. “Look, this is Sylvia’s passport. I have her consent form from Cruor Pharma in the back. Do you think if we escape we could help her? Get her out of that mental hospital?”

  “No chance,” said Jude, looking over my shoulder at the passport. “You heard what they said, she’s gone mad. There’s nothing we can do to change that. And anyway, they’d never let us in to see her.”

  “She shouldn’t be locked up in there. It’s not her fault. Whatever happened to Sylvia here is the reason she tried to take her own life. I bet she isn’t even mad. No one believes her because what happens in this place is just too far-fetched – unbelievable. But it’s all true,” I snapped. “What she says sounds crazy to the outside world but to us and the other volunteers, it’s real.”

  “Calm down, Kassidy,” Jude smiled, taking my hand. “What’s the point in even talking about this now, we haven’t even escaped out of the grounds yet.”

  I pulled my hand away – anger flared up inside of me. This whole situation was wrong. This place was fucked up and the local police didn’t care as long as they were getting a payoff. I was about to tell Jude to shut the hell up when I noticed the grey nails on my right hand. They looked more like claws – like Raven’s did. Yanking up the sleeve of my jacket, the black veins had spread down to my wrist and twisted round the top of my hand, like a coiled, venomous snake. The sight of it brought me back down to earth and I felt my anger fade. Jude was right. What was the point of planning to free Sylvia when we weren’t even free ourselves?

  I took another look at my hand. What could I do apart from let it take its course? I couldn’t stop this drug from travelling through my body. I was helpless. But I could still get out of here – escape. I wasn’t going to let Middleton have me. I would do whatever it took to get away from him, the Cleaners, and the police.

  Pulling the branches aside, I peered through the fog. There was no sign of Steve
. I looked at the others. “Let’s go”.

  Stepping out into the open, I felt uncovered – exposed, but at least with the fog it gave us some shelter from anyone or anything watching from the hospital windows. I looked up at the building with its crumbly, vine-covered walls, broken windows, and missing roof tiles. It towered over us. Through the fog it almost seemed to be waiting to pounce –capturing us forever amongst its vile grip. Its evil history kept well hidden from the main entrance where I had waited in line yesterday. I remembered how nervous I had felt when faced with the building of Cruor Pharma with its barred windows and overbearing structure – its unfriendly – clinical appearance. But I’d take that half of Cruor Pharma any day, than have to endure this part of the building ever again.

  Keeping close together, we followed the path to the left. I recalled Ben telling me to look out for some steps that led down a slope. After five minutes of walking I was beginning to think we had missed them when I suddenly spotted a break in the path.

  “There’s the steps,” I hushed, not wanting to make too much noise. We huddled at the top. The first two steps were all I could see. They were worn and broken and looked slippery from the damp air.

  “I don’t like this,” hissed Raven. “It looks like we’re stepping into something unnatural. Who knows what’s at the bottom of these steps.”

  “It can’t be any worse than what we’ve already seen,” I whispered, although I had to admit, it did look like we were walking into the unknown.

  “Let’s not hang around. Keep going and watch yourself on these steps,” said Max, walking in front and leading the way. “At least we’re that bit further away from the hospital. The greater distance we put between us and that place, the better.”

  I turned around and looked back at the hospital. All I could see was a dark blotch through the fog where the hospital stood. Turning to face the steps, I saw Jude disappear into the murky haze. Max and Raven had already vanished – swallowed up in the fog. Taking my time – careful not to slip on the stone steps, I reached the bottom.