Sanctuary

by Courtney McPhail

“‘Sides comin’ out for food, when ain’t he down in that hole?” Jackson asked and Janet had to admit he had a point. According to Quinton, the man barely even left to sleep in the cabin he shared with Nas.

  Veronica moved away from the door and stalked towards Elaine. “Unlock the door.”

  Elaine looked nervously to the others and took a step back from Veronica. “I don’t have the code.”

  “You’re lying,” Janet said, taking a step away from the woman. “I was visiting Quinton here a couple days ago when you were doing your radio broadcast. You had a problem with the equipment and you went down to ask Harold for help. You know the code.”

  The others turned suspicious looks on the woman.

  “I-I-I don’t--” Elaine tried to stammer out but Veronica cut her off.

  “Open the fucking door!” she screamed at the woman who cowered away from her but Jackson stepped up behind her, not letting her shrink back.

  “Ya open that door or I’ll get a blow torch and cut it open. Either way we get in there but I’m gonna be fuckin’ pissed I had to waste all that time. Might hafta take it out on your buddy down there, ” he threatened and Elaine stared at the ground for a moment before nodding.

  She walked a wide circle around Veronica and went to unlock the door. As soon as she pulled it open, Veronica and Jackson charged down the stairs, the rest of them quick to follow.

  The stairs led down to a small room with another steel door with a window and an electronic lock. Veronica was already looking through the window while Jackson tried to open the door.

  “I don’t see him in there,” Veronica said and Jackson looked up at the top of the stairs where Elaine was standing.

  “What’s the code?” he demanded.

  “Eight, five, nine, nine zero,” Elaine told him, her tone resigned.

  Jackson entered the code and opened the door. The lab was all stainless steel and fancy science equipment but there was no sign of Audrey or Harold anywhere. A dozen cages were stacked on one of the tables, half of them containing tiny brown mice that were peering out at them with beady black eyes.

  Veronica circled the room, looking under tables, her anger and frustration filling the small space as she realized that Audrey wasn’t there. Jackson had crossed the room to the far side where a metal door just like the one they had come through was placed. He cupped his hands against the glass as he looked through the window.

  “The fuck?”

  “Is it Audrey?” Veronica cried out, running up to try and pull him away from the window so she could see.

  “Ain’t Audrey,” Jackson replied. “It’s a room. They got a cot in there with restraints, like in the looney bin. Buncha IVs and other medical shit in there.”

  The chill that had washed over her grew colder and her blood turned icy as Janet looked at Elaine, who had reluctantly joined them.

  “What is Harold doing down here?”

  “He’s already told you,” Elaine replied. “He’s working on a cure.”

  “And why exactly does he need some torture chamber to work on a cure?” Claudia asked.

  “It’s not a torture chamber,” Elaine replied. “It’s a...holding cell.”

  Veronica rounded and stormed across the room towards Elaine but Jackson reached out to stop her. He was right to do it. Janet could see a blazing rage in her eyes and she was sure that Veronica was ready to do physical violence.

  “Was this where he was going to take Audrey? Lock her up here to do experiments on her?!”

  “You’re crazy!” Elaine said, no longer afraid as defiance lit up her eyes. “Harold would never do that and we’d never let him even if he tried.”

  Veronica tried to break free of Jackson but he held her as she cursed him. Elaine shook her head and sighed.

  “Please, just listen to me for a moment. Even if Harold was looking to experiment on somebody-- which he isn’t--why would he take one of your people? And a child, no less. Of course you would be looking for her. It would be the worst plan in the world.”

  “Then why do you have some holding cell?” Janet asked, still not understanding what the hell went on down here.

  “That room wasn’t meant to hold any healthy people, it’s meant to hold someone who is infected so Harold can do his research.”

  “Ya planned on stickin’ some freak in there so Harold can experiment on it?” Jackson’s face was twisted in disgust. “Ya really that afraid of torchin’ his delusions that ya’d be willin’ to let some poor sick freak be tortured.”

  “It’s not a delusion!” Elaine snapped. “You don’t understand. There are things we haven’t told you.”

  “Then tell us!” Claudia cried out.

  Elaine looked like she was near tears and she shook her head, fighting with her indecision but then she sighed, resigned to her fate.

  “Harold is the one who created the virus.”

  Janet felt like her knees were going to go out from under her. Harold had created it? She had shaken hands with the man who had caused all those people to die? He was the reason for all of this?

  “Harold infected all those people?” Claudia asked, her voice soft and disbelieving.

  “No, he didn’t let the virus out,” Elaine explained. “Years ago, under the direction of the CIA, he engineered the virus but it was deemed a failure so the agency shut down the project. They knew it was dangerous and Harold assumed the virus itself had been destroyed along with his files.”

  “We don’t know who put the virus out in the general population and, honestly, it doesn’t matter now. What matters is that Harold built the virus. If anyone can cure it, it’s him. That’s what the room is for: to hold an infected person so he can figure this all out.”

  “None of this matters,” Veronica said, shaking Jackson off so she could head for the exit. “I’m going to find where Harold took Audrey.”

  “Veronica, I’m telling you, Harold didn’t take Audrey,” Elaine said but she still moved out of the woman’s way, clearly afraid of her.

  “Why should we believe anything you say?” Janet asked, crossing her hands over her chest as she glared at Elaine. “You’re a liar.”

  “I’m not lying about this, I swear,” Elaine said. “Think about it, what possible reason could he have to take her?”

  Veronica paused in the doorway and looked back at them. Her face was red, tears streaming down her cheeks, her entire body shaking.

  “There’s a room full of reasons right here and God help all of you if he’s harmed a hair on her head.” Veronica looked over at Janet. “Keep her here. I’m going to go make Angela tell me where Harold took Audrey.”

  Veronica ran up the stairs and Claudia was quick to follow, calling out her name and pleading with her to slow down. Jackson wasn’t far behind, glaring at Elaine as he passed her on his way out the door, leaving Janet to face Elaine alone. Elaine moved towards the door but Janet stepped in front of her, shaking her head slowly.

  “You stay here.”

  Tears formed in Elaine’s eyes as she pressed her lips together and let out a frustrated sound.

  “Harold didn’t do anything!” she cried out, banging her fists against her thighs in a fit of frustration and anger.

  “Then where is he?” Janet asked. “Jackson is right. Harold is never out of this place but the one time we need to find him and he isn’t here.”

  “That room in there...we didn’t put it together so we could put someone in there,” Elaine said. “We put it together because we had to put someone in there. His name was Glen. He was an agent and he came with us when we left Langley. We were trying to find a boat and he got bit. We brought him here.”

  Janet thought she couldn’t be any more shocked than she already had been but a feather could have knocked her over in that moment. When Elaine had explained the room’s purpose, she had thought it was something they had planned to use in the future.

  “Wait, are you telling me that you guys actually had a freak tied up in here the whole time?
”

  “He wasn’t a freak!” Elaine snapped at her, anger burning in her eyes. “His name was Glen and he was a good man!”

  “Where is he?”

  Elaine seemed to deflate and the tears were back in the corners of her eyes. “He died last night. That’s where Harold is now. We were trying to sneak his body out to the boathouse so we could take him to one of the other islands to be buried. Harold must have taken him out already.”

  Janet could not believe what she was hearing. All this time they had been on the island--her children had been on the island--there had been a freak here. This was supposed to be their safe place, a sanctuary from the freaks.

  “There are children here and you kept a freak on the island,” Janet said, as if she needed to hear it to know that it was true.

  “He was sedated and restrained behind three locked doors, he was never a danger to anyone,” Elaine said but Janet didn’t want to hear it.

  “If you really felt there was no danger, you would have told us. You should have told us.”

  “After everything that you had seen on the road here, would you have been willing to keep him alive?”

  It was true. Fresh from the road, having lost people to the freaks, none of them would have agreed to it being on the island. Though what she said might have been the truth, Janet had no desire to listen to it.

  “You should have just told us the truth up front,” she told the woman. “Now they won’t believe a single thing you say. If they see Harold and Angela with a dead body, they are going to think the worst.”

  “But he didn’t do anything,” Elaine pleaded with her. “I know he’s strange but he would never hurt a child.”

  “Then you better pray that we find Audrey before they find him,” Janet said. “Now let’s go look for her.”

  Subject File # 750

  Administrator: Subject number seven-five-zero has declined any further sessions with this administrator. At this time the file will be closed.

  “Veronica, slow down!”

  It wasn’t the first time that her sister had called out to her as they ran down the path towards the boathouse but just like the other times, she ignored it. Jackson hadn’t called out to her once, simply marching alongside her, his face as grim and determined as hers.

  He got it. Every minute that Audrey was still missing was like a knife twisting in her heart. They had both failed in their promise to her. They had let some mad scientist get a hold of her and take her God knew where to do God knew what to her.

  She swore the second she laid hands on that man she was going to make him hurt for every moment of fear and pain he’d put her through.

  She never should have trusted this place or these people. She should have listened to what her father had told her, her whole life. You couldn’t trust the government. They saw the people as their pawns, to be used and sacrificed for whatever gains they deemed worthy.

  Whatever had happened to Audrey was all her fault. She was supposed to protect the girl and she had let this happen to her.

  Her hand was shaky as she dropped it to the holster on her hip when the boathouse appeared up ahead. She could see Angela standing on the end of the dock, looking out at the water as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  The sight of the woman that had convinced them to bare their deepest secrets while hiding some chamber of medical horrors from them stoked the rage inside her. Before she knew it, she was barreling down the dock, her gun already in her palm and pointed at Angela.

  “Where is she!” Veronica screamed as she skidded to a stop in front of Angela.

  Angela put a confused look on her face and glanced over Veronica’s shoulder at Jackson and Claudia.

  “Don’t play innocent,” Veronica said, shifting over to block her from looking at the others. “We know what’s going on around here. We saw that room in the lab. We know exactly what you’ve been doing here.”

  “And what is it you think we’ve been doing?” Angela asked, her voice calm, the same voice she used when she’d met with her in the loft. Her shrink voice.

  It burned her up inside that she was trying to use her tricks on her.

  “You took her for your experiments!”

  She lunged towards Angela, her gun forgotten as the need to hurt her with her own hands filled her. An arm wrapped around her waist, holding her back as another arm reached out to push her gun down to her side. She didn’t need to look back to know that is was Jackson that had stopped her and she cursed at him, digging her fingernails into his arm but he didn’t let go.

  “Took who? Who are you talking about?” Angela asked.

  “Audrey!” Veronica spat at her, struggling against Jackson’s hold.

  “Nobody took Audrey,” Angela told her. “Why would you think that?”

  “Audrey has gone missing,” Claudia said, stepping around Jackson. “Early this morning the twins saw her talking with Harold and we wanted to ask him what they were talking about. When we went down to the lab, we didn’t find him but we did find that room.”

  “Who let you down there?” Angela demanded.

  And now she thought she could be the one making demands?

  “Where the fuck is Harold?” Veronica practically snarled at her.

  “Harold is busy doing something I asked him to do,” Angela replied, unfazed. “He’s been dealing with that since we saw the others off which, if I remember correctly, Audrey was at so perhaps you should channel your anger into looking for your runaway daughter.”

  Veronica saw red and she tried to lift her gun up but Jackson kept it pinned to her side and in that moment she hated him.

  “Let me go!” she yelled out, trying to throw him off of her but his grip just tightened.

  “Not ‘til ya calm down,” he growled in her ear. “Ya shoot her and we ain’t gonna get any answers.”

  That tiny bit of logic dug its way through the rage and fear inside her and she used it to calm her racing heart and she stopped fighting against his hold on her.

  “What exactly did ya ask him to do?” Jackson asked.

  Angela pressed her lips together and her eyes went hard. “That’s classified.”

  Everything her father had told her flashed through her mind at lightning speed and she cursed herself for being so naive. She had been taught to be better than that. These people didn’t care about them. They were emotionless robots who would sacrifice anyone at the altar of their power.

  And suddenly the rage inside her faded, no longer making her feel out of control. No, now she was filled with cold calculation. She was going to make them hurt for what they had done.

  “Do you swear you had nothing to do with Audrey disappearing?” she asked, keeping her voice soft and sad.

  Angela nodded fiercely. “I swear it.”

  Veronica let her body relax as she sighed. “Will you help us look for her?”

  “Of course,” Angela replied, her eyes turning sympathetic and it stoked the rage inside her again to see that false sincerity.

  But she fought to maintain her docile posture, glad for her self-control as Jackson loosened his hold on her. She holstered her gun as another sign of good faith and he took the bait, stepping back from her.

  None of them expected it when she lashed out with a hard right hook, hitting Angela in the jaw and sending her down to the planks. Veronica fell on top of her, swinging her fists wildly, barely feeling anything as they connected with flesh and bone. All she could feel was the firestorm of anger that had been brewing inside her long before today finally become too much for her to handle.

  She screamed unintelligibly, more grunts and screeches than actual words. She raged as she pummeled Angela, her anger not just about Audrey but for everyone they had lost. For her parents, for Jose, for Travis, for the girls’ parents.

  It felt like it had lasted hours but it must have only been moments because she felt arms pulling at her and she was hauled off of Angela. Both Jackson and Claudia had a hold of her and though
she tried to fight them, she wasn’t strong enough and they pulled her back to her feet, the two of them holding her arms behind her back.

  “I’ll water board your Fed ass if you don’t start talking!” she yelled down at Angela, the fury inside her still alive and wild. “Where is she!”

  Angela cradled her jaw in one hand and spit blood on the dock before she glared up at Veronica. “I don’t know!”

  The sound of a squeaky wheel caught her attention and she turned her head to look back at the path. A wheelbarrow was coming up the path, something large inside it, wrapped in a blue sheet. Pushing the wheelbarrow was Harold, his face red and his shirt soaked with sweat. His eyes went wide when he saw them all and he attempted to turn the wheelbarrow around but all he managed to do was upset it. The contents spilled out onto the ground and Veronica recognized the familiar shape of a dead body beneath the sheet.

  It was as if everything slowed down in that moment for her. She could hear the wild cry that tore from her throat, a terrifying howl that had the hair on even her arms standing up.

  Somehow she had enough sense to knock Jackson in his injured shoulder, taking a moment to send him a silent apology as he cried out in pain and released his hold on her. Claudia, much smaller than her, was easy to shake off with a leg sweep that sent her sprawling on the dock.

  Finally free, Veronica ran down the dock, pulling her gun once again as she ran over to where Harold was hastily trying to get the body back in the wheelbarrow.

  “Get down on the ground!” she screamed at him and he obeyed, dropping to his knees with his hands in the air. She pushed him face down on the dirt and knelt so she could press the muzzle of her gun against the bald spot on the back of his head.

  In the back of her mind, she heard the sounds of running feet on the dock and she knew the others had joined her but all her focus was on the sniveling man at her feet.

  “Why did you kill her!” she howled at him. “Tell me and I’ll put you down quick!”

  Part of her was screaming to put a bullet through the back of his skull but she needed to know why. Why Audrey? Why did it have to be her? Why not one of the adults? Why did he have to kill a child...her child?