Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

The stretcher sped through the white corridors almost knocking me to the floor. I rushed after it as Maria’s screams filled the air, they were worse than they had been, for the ten hour flight to Paris she had screamed on and off. Now they were the last desperate cries for help, screams of someone who knew they were dying.

I was glad that she sped by at such speed, I saw her exposed leg briefly flash in a blur across my eyes, it was dark purple, an infection had spread. I ran after her as the two nurses pounded their feet on the white lino. It was a typical hospital corridor, but it seemed never ending as the wheels of the stretcher threatened to break off from the speed they were going. The screams only rang out louder though, the further Maria got from me.

Even though it was the middle of the day all the overhead lamps were on and no natural light shone into the building, the heat was causing sweat to fall into my eyes. I heard no footsteps behind me, I saw no one following me, I only knew I had to get to Maria, she was going to die, and it was partly my fault. I should’ve taken her to hospital from the moment we saw her.

Finally the corridor ended, and I crashed against the door just a moment too late. It was slammed in my face and I pounded my fists on it, they didn’t know what had happened to her, I had to tell them. I saw Maria’s strained skeletal face and watched the doctors pulling on surgical masks. Then I saw a heavy circular saw, my dad had one in his shed, it revved like a motorbike as Maria screamed and the blind was pulled over the glass partition. I could see no more.

A hand on my shoulder made me leap out of my skin. I turned still breathing heavily to see a doctor with a smiling jovial face. He had the look of a friendly uncle or a family friend, but not in a creepy way, his blue eyes twinkled happily behind his glasses and the hand on my shoulder felt reassuring. This irritated me, there was a young girl’s life at stake and he looked so utterly calm and relaxed.

‘You have to stop them,’ I wheezed, I was still out of breath, ‘whatever they’re doing in there.’

He smiled calmly, ‘it’s okay,’ he said softly, his accent was smooth and educated.

‘It’s not okay,’ I insisted, refusing to be kept quiet, ‘they don’t know what happened to her, they going to kill her.’ I was aware of my wild waving arms and how white and crazy my face must’ve looked.

He smiled wider, as if at a private joke. He took a firm grip on my shoulder and pulled me around to face the empty corridor. I imagined he was in his early fifties, almost as tall as me, but much stronger. ‘Where do you think everyone is?’ he asked, in that same soft voice full of understanding.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I shot back.

‘How many Hospitals do you know that are this empty on the middle of the day?’ he said, ’they know exactly what they’re doing, this isn’t a normal hospital.’

I heard that monstrous electric saw start up again and I tuned back to the door as I heard Maria’s sickening screams. ‘No!’ I shouted weakly, bashing my hands against the glass.

The doctor’s hand grasped my shoulder, a little too firmly, and pulled. My palm mashed against the glass for the last time before he prized me away. The terror gripped me as I fought against him, the screams died to soft gurgles, but the roar of that saw still carried on. I heard surgical instruments being dropped with metallic crashes.

‘Please come away,’ he said softly, his voice was warm and understanding, but I hated him. I felt the beginnings of tears forming in my eyes, this was another person lost in this whole bloody mess, a young girl whose life had barely begun.

‘She’s going to die?’ I said, my voice thick and choked.

‘Maybe not,’ the doctor said grimly, ‘but she’ll lose her leg for sure.’

‘The poison,’ I managed to say, ‘she was poisoned, they need to know.’

‘They already know,’ the doctor smiled sadly. It was the controlled and rehearsed smile of someone who was used to death. ‘There is nothing they can do, she may live yet, but some would rather die.’

‘She’s going to become one of them?’ My voice shuddered in the middle, I didn’t want to say these things, I didn’t want to believe these things.

The doctor shuffled a little awkwardly, ‘not exactly,’ he said, ‘if she lives she’ll be neither one of them or one of us. The timing is too important, and this was all wrong.’ He shook his head in disgust, ‘this was the result of someone’s evil science experiment.’

‘Alex,’ I whispered under my breath, then I was hit with a new panic. ‘I don’t think he’s really dead,’ I gushed.

The doctor nodded gently, ‘we’re handling it,’ he said.

I stared around me, a cockroach scuttling across the floor would’ve sounded like a stampede of rhino, it was that quiet. I only then registered what the doctor had said about the empty hospital. ‘Where’s Lisa?’

‘She’s being questioned,’ he said.

‘But you know we had nothing to do with this,’ I said, anger creeping into my voice.

‘We know,’ he said, ‘but we just want to get a grip of the situation, and how you two know so much.’

‘You should be trying to save Maria!’ I shouted, ‘what we know isn’t important.’

‘I can assure you that Maria is getting the best possible care,’ there was impatience sliding through his words like slow moving dark clouds.

‘But what about Alex?’ I shot back angrily, ‘how much time are you wasting on us while he’s still alive?’

‘Alexander Donnely is detained, you can trust me in that.’

‘Detained is not enough,’ I snapped back, ‘I saw him getting shot in the head, and somehow I know he’s still alive,’ there was a shudder in my voice again, it was becoming familiar every time I had to speak about things which defied everything I believed.

‘We know how to handle Alex,’ he went on, ‘please believe me.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ I spat back. ‘You haven’t even told me your name.’

‘Dr Stewart,’ he said without hesitation, ‘Peter. I’ll be happy to answer any questions, it doesn’t matter how you found out about us, I’m guessing your world feels a little like it’s unravelling.’

I ignored his last few words, I didn’t want him to know he was right, ‘what is this place?’

‘It’s a rehabilitation centre,’ he said straight faced.

‘I know that’s a lie,’ I said rubbing my face in my hands, Maria’s screams still echoing in my head. ‘Stop bullshitting me and tell me where I am.’

‘A rehabilitation centre,’ he repeated, ‘our aim is to integrate these people back into society.’

I realised for one awful hopeless moment that he was telling the truth, ‘you’re going to let a monster like Alex back into society?’

‘Not immediately,’ Doctor Steward said patiently, ‘please, let me show you the monster, and maybe you’ll understand better.’

‘Maria,’ I muttered at my feet, knowing there was nothing I could do to save her but trying feebly to imagine there still was.

Doctor Stewart shook his head sadly and motioned for me to come away, I stole a glance back at the door. There was no movement or sound at all now, the chaos was all over as if it had never happened. I couldn’t even hear machines or voices, just deathly silence.

As we walked through the corridor I peered curiously into some of the rooms. Every door had a glass partition fitted into the white wood, Inside each room we passed I caught glimpses of the same smooth white boxes, like the storage units fitted to car roof racks, rounded and shinny plastic.

I was led into a new corridor with only one room sprouting from it, everything was just as white as the previous corridor, and the lights burned as brightly, the floors were spotlessly shimmering.

Doctor Stewart open the door and motioned me inside, it was a small windowless room without any decoration. On the floor rested one of those big white boxes I had seen passing through the corridors, the lid of the box was slightly open and there were tubes trailing along the floor attached to a drip on a highly polished chrome stand. The liquid in he drip was murky white.

Doctor Steward lifted the lid of the box. There was a boy sleeping inside, snoring softly with his mouth slightly open. He looked like he was in his early twenties, but he was younger than me, about twenty-one maybe. He had long light brown hair spread out over his shoulders and was sleeping with his arms sprawled over his bare chest, dressed only in faded jeans which were torn and patched.

‘Will he wake up?’ I asked in a whisper.

‘No,’ Doctor Steward pointed to the drip feeding the liquid through the tube into the young man’s arm. ‘A strong garlic solution,’ he explained, ‘he’ll be out for as long as we need him to be.’

‘A garlic solution?’ My head was spinning.

Doctor steward nodded calmly as if this were the most natural thing in the world. ‘He doesn’t look too dangerous does he?’

I studied the young man carefully; he looked like a student crashed out on a sofa, like he would wake up at any moment for a bacon sandwich and a can of Red Bull in front of daytime TV. He looked perfectly normal and harmless, I shook my head.

‘You always have to remember,’ Doctor Stewart began, ‘Alexander Donnely is someone’s son, someone’s boyfriend maybe. He had a job and friends and a life before all this, he didn’t ask to be what he is.’

‘But Maria,’ I said still whispering even though the doctor wasn’t.

‘Maybe he was evil already,’ Doctor Steward continued, ‘growing up he could’ve been the kind of boy who tortured his neighbour’s pets the way he tortured poor Maria. But just maybe, he’s new, reckless and he doesn’t fully understand yet,’ Doctor Stewart continued, ‘no matter what they’ve done, they’re still human.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ I asked, thinking about the white boxes in the rooms and the lack of daylight, looking at the garlic solution and picturing what this ordinary looking boy did to Robert Thompson.

‘Come with me,’ the Doctor said, ‘I have a lot to explain.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sorry for the long wait

Chapter Twenty-Three

I wasn’t too happy about the dark now, it was a stupid superstition, but ever since I heard the ‘V’ word I had been dreading the night. I could’ve kicked myself for being so gullible, these were code words, every company used them. Especially when the company was involved in what Project Forty Five seemed to be. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I was determined to find out.

That’s why I was tiptoeing out of the office, comfortable as the square of floor I had been given to sleep on was. I was armed with only a Spanish phrase book and my own patience, which was short at best. If I could find out more about Alex I might be able to understand exactly what Project Forty Five did, maybe he had confided in Maria.

I couldn’t do what Lisa would, use threats and lies to get the information I wanted, but I could be kind and gentle, maybe try and ease her pain somehow. That disgusting liquid seemed to work for that, I didn’t approve of taking medication that was left on a street corner, but Robert had said they were going to give her proper medical attention when they got to a secure location, I guessed they were taking her to France.

When I approached the van, out of place amongst the beautiful but battered cars. Old though it was, the van hadn’t been built with any of the skill and grace of the American cars. It stood out under the dim street, ugly and boring. Across the way a restaurant’s peeling paint glittered and the cobbled streets almost looked wet with the starlight, I looked up and saw a giant moon. I sighed as I shivered, trying to chase the childish thoughts from my mind, picturing all the things I had seen like a horror moving playing only in my head.

A long glance all around me, staring deep into the alleys jutting off from this road, before I slid the key into the lock and turned it as quietly as I could.

Robert really shouldn’t have kept the key with the van’s logo on it, it was a giveaway and a stupid mistake for such a secretive organisation. Lisa had taught me how to take things from under people’s noses without them even noticing, of all the things she had been in her past life, apparently pick-pocket was another one of them. I felt a little stab of guilt thinking of Lisa, I had gained some of my humanity back since the meeting with Robert. I had decided that maybe I did care about her, just a small bit.

Instead of throwing the door open I slid it back slowly, trying to create as little noise as possible, I glanced out every so often onto the dark streets, just to check. There were no screams from behind the doors, which meant two things, either she had been given a dosage of that liquid, whatever is was, or she had been moved. I thought the second unlikely given the secrecy and how her stretcher was bolted to the van. At least that meant she would be lucid, even if the van did stink.

Of course it was pitch black inside as I crawled in, but I wanted to wait until I was sure there was no one else around before I used my torch, even the tiniest light would show through the cracks in the door. The van didn’t smell at all, well, it smelt faintly of damp, but not of open drains stuffed with week old food. I wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or not.

My right foot stuck to the floor as I moved in my crouched position, ‘Maria,’ I called out softly. There was no answer.

The floor was wet, I could feel something soaking into my trousers where I was kneeling. I started to feel a cold panic slide over me, something wasn’t right here. There was one thing I knew for sure, Maria wasn’t here. There was so smell, no screams, and for some reason I felt alone. I reached a hand down to steady myself and I felt something squelch under my fingers. It felt like a soft mushroom, or soggy bread, it was warm.

My heart jumped into my chest, I snatched my hand away from the floor and wobbled trying to balance on my toes. I didn’t want to do it, because I already knew what I would see, but that horrible dark curiosity took over me and even though I should’ve been running in the opposite direction I didn’t, I took out my torch.

I instantly regretted it. I shone my torch up the walls of the van, they were smeared with blood. The whole floor had been flooded with blood and it dripped steadily from the roof, there didn’t seem an inch not covered. I shone the light on my hand, the golden beam glistened over the deep red, too red, almost purple. I looked to my left and saw what I had put my hand into.

It was a human chest, or what was left of a human chest. The ribcage had been punched in, shards of bone lay scattered over the floor, floating in the dark puddles. I shone the torch over the rest of the body with a shivering hand.

Robert Thompson’s face was frozen in shock, his mouth hung open and his eyes were wide and staring, dried blood stuck to his moustache. My hand was shaking so much everything I saw came through in hazy shapes. I swung the torch as I began to feel dizzy from the blood, through the funnel of light with its undefined edges I saw the stretcher, Maria was gone. But in her place there was a leg, blood dripped steadily onto the floor. I swung the torch back to the body, the flesh under Robert’s knees was torn, there were teeth marks in the skin.

I found myself hyperventilating and staring at my bloodied hands with eyes that were hurting as they strained in their sockets. The torch shone on Robert Thompson’s open chest and I felt my mouth fill with bile. I leaned into the bloody river and vomited, the stinging in my throat was strangely real and reassuring. It almost controlled my shaking.

I took a moment crouching in all this filth and death to slow my breathing. I closed my eyes and turned off the torch, regulating those deep rasps. Just as I was pulling myself together a flash ran through my mind, a mouth dripping blood in a deep snarl. I snapped my eyes open and my knees wobbled. I held the torch close to my body and tried to calm down. As I held the reassuring light against my chest I realised that I didn’t really know what could be crouched in the darker corners of the van, had I shone the torch over everything?

The sense of helpless stillness passed me over at that thought and I immediately turned to the door. I started to claw at the edges of the van. I felt drops of blood on my neck as I saw Robert Thompson’s beaurocratic sneer, his giant moustache twitching, his chest ripped open.

I fell head first onto the hard pavement, gasping for air as the concrete scraped along my cheek leaving a ragged scrape. In the darkness I saw my jeans blackened with blood, already beginning to dry. I bent close to the wheel and tried to hold back another stream of vomit.

Footsteps were approaching and from somewhere close and I held myself low, keeping against the side of the van. There were more than one set, more than two. All wore heavy-duty boots bashing furiously against the pavement like an army marching. The street was deserted apart from me and that old brass statue still mocking me, the steps echoed out like thunder.

There were four men, and they were dragging someone with them. The person they were dragging was screaming and twisting against the strong hands that held both her arms firmly. She was wriggling like a worm on the hook and speaking in a sharp pleading voice. Each man looked unimpressed and blank, all four wearing a grey suit embroidered with the same garlic symbol. Behind the marching group car lights shone brightly over the scene as a slow moving four by four crept behind them like a monster.

The woman was Lisa. My first feeling was annoyance, she had found me again somehow. But as they got closer I saw how scared her eyes were and how hard she was straining against the men dragging her. I grew some sympathy for her, after all Robert Thompson had spoken about her as if she were a large threat, and I knew she didn’t have anything to do with this mess except for Angelica’s sake.

I still didn’t move to help her, even though that twinge of sympathy was worsening. The car behind them came to a slow stop that somehow made me shiver, I thought it was the way the headlights flashed like eyes. Lisa saw the blood on the pavement and in the heavy glow her eyes looked like a wild frightened animal, darting around, wide and thickly veined. I had never seen her so utterly devoid of control in a situation.

I stayed crouched close to the ground, pressed into the van’s side. I hardly dared to breathe, anything which could scare Lisa that much was not something I could confront easily. She was still kicking out, her legs flailing in every direction. The men had glazed expressions, they weren’t answering her shouted questions or responding to her in anyway, they just kept dragging her

The doors of the van were thrown wide open. The blood spilled onto the pavement in a dull splash, trickles of it crept into my hiding place as I shifted my hands away. Lisa screamed, a desperate, hollow sound. The men spoke then, they shouted in coarse and guttural French, making hard vowels on every word.

One man’s voice sounded out louder and fiercer than all the others. Lisa pleaded with him but none of the men paid her any attention. Heavy hands pushed Lisa to her knees and she screamed again. Now was time to do something, ideally, I should’ve done something the moment I saw her, I should’ve charged in and saved her. But I hadn’t, and no matter what I thought about her, she had never lead me intentionally into danger.

When I finally sprang to my feet the man were shoving Lisa’s face close to the blood. I saw Robert Thompson in the full glare of the headlights, ripped apart and mutilated. The blood on the van’s sides had dried to the consistency of treacle and was slowly oozing down the grey metal.

‘Hey,’ I shouted lamely, uncertainly. The four men all turned to face me in what seemed like one singular movement. The lights almost blinded me and I swayed weakly on the spot, also experiencing a head rush. A narrow pistol was pointed at my chest and I realised I couldn’t be the hero, there were four of them and they seemed heartless. The blood pounded past my ears.

‘Fucking P.V.R,’ he spat at my feet. He spoke like a dirty chimney clogged with ash, his deep accent was so thick and buried in tar. He lit another cigarette as one of the four men clicked open the four by four’s expansive boot.

‘This is your fucking God.’ The body bag hit the floor with a heavy smack.

* * *

Of course they found us in the end. We ran, I can assure you we ran until our feet were bloody, but they found us, and they dragged us right back. Lisa didn’t know what she was running from, and I think her need for answers made her cave in without a fight in the end. She would sit on that plane with gritted teeth. a corpse by her feet and a teenager screaming in pain were mere inconveniences to her if they meant that somewhere in this whole unhappy mess she would find the truth.

The only truth I was interested in was the mind numbing shock of what Angelica’s slow smile could still do to me, even in the body of another girl. So when she smiled and squeezed my hand I was helpless too, but I hated myself for it.