3. Life in Your Hands
It was like his heart stopped abruptly in him. The menacing eyes of the angry bulldog was so intense that it felt like they stared at each other for a very long time when it probably didn't last longer than a second.
From have been standing as petrified, the little bird quickly went from zero to a hundred as he started running to the other side of the oblong room.
"Why you…! GET OVER HERE YOU LITTLE VARMINT!"
His heart pounded hard when he heard the noise of the dog carelessly work his way forwards between the tables to run after him. Quickly, the duck tipped over a high stool by one out of the lined desks he passed by to block the narrow passage between the desk and the window. On the fly, he accidentally dropped his flashlight as well.
"UFF!"
In the corner of his eye he saw the big dog trip over the stool's long slim legs and fall forwards with the fifteen chins hitting the floor. If it hadn't been that he feared for his life right for the moment, he had probably thought it looked quite hilarious.
He was closing in to the end of the room. Soon he wouldn't be able to run anymore he understood.
I need to get out of here, he thought desperate.
He paused for a moment to approximate how long it would take him to get to the exit.
There's no point, he realized. He would never be able to get there before the big canine, who already had gotten back up on his feet, would manage to catch him on the way. There was nowhere to escape!
Quickly, he therefore instead chose to dive down on the floor between the two benches that he had stopped by. He felt his knees painfully scratch up against the hard linoleum floor while he frantically crawled on ahead. I wasn't until then that he suddenly noticed that he had brought the beaker with Mordarvaxtocid, whose narrow bottleneck his fingers had a hard grasp around, along with him so he had to use his knuckle against the floor to be able to crawl. He was just about to throw it aside, but the sound of quick steps behind him made him instead chose to focus on rapidly increasing his speed forwards. He got to the end of the counter where he half rolled half threw himself around the corner to the left, back the way he had come from.
"NOW I GOT YOU YOUR LITTLE…! Huh?" he heard the dog utter in surprise when he got to the place where he had seen the duck disappear between the two benches, only to see him gone. Reginald heard how he violently started pulling the door to the lockers, the cabinets and even the drawers.
As quiet as possible the duck carefully kept crawling, close to the desks, along the room towards the exit, which was about 30 feet away. However, before he even managed to pass by the second counter's short side, he suddenly heard the dog giving up searching inside the cabinets and instead started heading in his direction. Reginald quickly rolled in under the counter and hid next to the drawer that was supporting the table at one of the ends.
With his heart booming, he crawled up with his knees into a ball, anxiously clasping the beaker with Mordarvaxtocid. The dog's quick feet trotted right past him. In the glass cabinet door of the counter standing right opposite to him, containing a bunch of empty samplings tubes in stands and stacks of Petri dishes, he could see the reflection of the canine walking towards the exit. Apparently, it had come up for him that the young drake probably would try to get there eventually since there was no other way out of the room.
In the somewhat obscure reflected light in the glass, Reginald watched the bulldog trying to lock the door. Though, since the electronic lock had been disconnected and the door couldn't be locked manually that didn't work, something the fat dog noticed. The big pooch muttered something inaudible as he irritated tried to get the lock to activate by repeatedly open, close and pulling the handle hard several times, with no success. He finally gave up and instead chose to try to barricade the door by placing a couple of chairs in front of it, a bit pointless maybe since the door opened outwards and the backrests where to short to reach up to the handle, but at least enough to make it difficult for the intruder to make a quick escape.
After making sure that the exit was blocked somewhat he vigilantly started searching the room with his eyes, his head slowly turning back and forth.
"Okaaay, I know you're in here somewhere. Now, be a nice little birdie and come out", he said calm in a false tone of security and slowly walked towards the corner where he first had caught the glimpse of the waterfowl when he had entered the lab. In the pane of glass, Reginald saw him pick up some kind of elongated metal thing from one of the benches.
"You don't need to be afraid, I just want to ask a few questions", he claimed as he let the cap of the metal clobber, or whatever it was, rest in his palm while holding the handle with his other hand. "Questions about what you're doing here… at my company… in the middle of the night… You do know that the visiting hours don't open until nine o'clock?"
A lump began to form in the troubled duck's throat. He was quite sure that this man didn't really want to "just ask a few questions".
"Huh? What's this?" the dog suddenly wondered and went over to the place where Reginald had found the beaker earlier.
The young drake watched him pick up something relatively large black and rectangular in one of his chubby hands. A long black wide strap dangled from the thing.
Oh no! Lucas's camera!
"Ah…hahahahaha HAHAHA…!"
The canine let out a malevolent laugh that slowly increased in volume, putting two and two together. The gruesomely evil sound felt as if someone slowly shoved two knives into the mallard's ears. This was really bad.
"Ah! I see! Let me guess, you're one of those cursed tree-huggers who want to put me on the poorhouse, huh? The Topazes, or whatever you're called", he assumed presumptuously.
The lump in his throat grew bigger.
"Well, well, well, kids nowadays…", the bulldog sighed and slowly began strutting in Reginald's direction. "You think you are so invincible. Your cute little talk about peace and love, thinking you can change the world."
Reginald watched the big dog taking up more and more space in the small pane of glass. Soon he was going to find him.
"But here's a lesson: You see, there are others here who happens to have an income to think of! And don't think that I'm going to let a bunch of brats stand in my way for my profit!"
Reginald noted the growing aggression in the canine's voice.
"I refuse to give in! Even if I so personally have to get rid of you all ONE BY ONE!"
CRASH!
It felt like something broke inside the little duck when he witnessed the man breaking Lucas's camera to pieces against the table edge in one single blow.
I'm going to die now, the mallard realized hapless. This was the end. There was no way this man would show him any mercy. He was going to kill him and then go after the others. It was all over!
Despondently, he crawled up even more, leaning his forehead against the cold glass of the beaker.
He glanced up at the black label text, staring at the first four letters of the chemical's trade name, which completely took up his whole field of vision.
No…! He couldn't let Lucas and the Opals down. He wasn't going to let himself get captured by this man and risk him getting the others as well. The evidence from the camera might have been destroyed, buuut… if he somehow just could make his way out with this chemical he had in his possession, they might still have a chance to put an end to the company and their horrible productions. The big question was: How in the world was he going to get past that bulldog? He needed some sort of distraction so that he quickly could escape through the door, preferably before the canine found his hideout.
Next to him on the floor to the right, his eyes fell on a pink eraser that someone had dropped. He carefully picked it up and made himself ready to quickly get up on his feet and run for the exit. The duck followed the dog's movements in the glass cabinet, waiting for the perfect moment. Then, he used all his power and threw the eraser far to the right towards the other end of the table.
The loud clang echoed between the lab's walls when the little piece of rubber bounced against the element by the wall on the other side, making the big pooch react and immediately rush over there. It was now or never!
Reginald quickly stood up and ran like shot out of a cannon towards the exit. He focused his eyes on the chairs in front of the door and already started planning in his mind the best way on how he would shoo them away to free the path. Almost there…
Suddenly, he felt something grab him by the collar of his shirt. The neck ring tightened him up in a painful chokehold by his throat. He heard the sound of small cracks starting to break up in the glass as he accidentally hit the beaker against one of the table edges when he got pulled back.
"HA!"
Through the blurry sight before his eyes, he saw in horror the shine from the metallic bat as the bulldog lifted the thing above his head, ready to hit him. Out of pure instinct, Reginald quickly threw the glass beaker at him, hitting the dog's face.
"AHHHH!"
The canine let out a painful piercing scream when the cup broke and the teal liquid poured over him. He let go of him and the bat, which fell to the floor with a clang, barely drowned by the dog's scream, and put his fat hands over his eyes.
Reginald continued running towards the door and immediately started shoveling away the herd of chairs. The room suddenly got filled with a pungent stench of rotten meat and ammonia. Behind him he heard the dog's scream increase in a more terrified tone.
"AHHHH! WHAT IS THIS THING?!"
Reginald turned his head around in wonder and was met by the most horrible sight he had ever seen that made his feathers stand up on the back of his neck and his blood run cold in his veins.
He had indeed read the label on what the Mordarvaxtocid was made up of, but he had never in his life believed that it was able to do something like this. The scene before him was like taken out of a horror movie. All the skin on the dog's head had been almost totally disintegrated. The pink flesh lay like a shriveled melting mourn over the cranium, whose white color slowly got more and more visible by the areas around the forehead and right temple. Through the blood-filled eyes the man stared horrified at his fleshy trembling hands, whose fingers was turning into stubs right before him. At one corner of the mouth of the man's open screaming mouth Reginald saw the tendons getting broken off so that the line of cheek teeth were exposed.
"HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP ME!"
The ghastly zombie-like creature suddenly threw himself desperately with his hand-loose arm extended towards Reginald.
"WAAAH!"
Reginald screamed in fright as he stared down into the horrific creature's dark, now empty, eye sockets and immediately backed off away from it. He quickly rushed in between the two nearest disks, forcing himself not to look behind him, but it was already too late. The macabre scene he'd just witnessed was flashing before him in his mind to forever be stored in his memory.
Suddenly, the scream stopped. A splashing thud was heard before an eerie silence filled the room.
It started blackening before the drake's the eyes and stars flashed on his retina, the dog's bloodcurdling scream still ringing in his ears. His legs gave way like cooked spaghetti, and he felt like vomiting. About to faint, he hastily grabbed on to the edge of the table so that he could slide himself as careful as his limbs allowed him to down to the floor. He took a few deep breaths and focused his eyes on the small gray and brown speckled spots on the yellowish floor to not lose his consciousness. The stars gradually disappeared and his vision became clearer as the oxygen flow to the brain was being resumed. In shock, he sat down with his back leaning against one of the cabinet doors. He supported his cold sweaty forehead with his hand, continuing to breathe heavily.
How much he tried, the scene he had just witnessed couldn't be unseen. He had just watched a man die, in the most painful and horrific way ever. And it was his fault…
Reginald was too overwhelmed that he didn't even hear the sound of footsteps coming from the corridor outside the lab. The door to the room was opened and Lucas stepped in.
"Hello? Reggie?" Lucas said worried and noticed the apathetic duck on the floor a few feet ahead. The cat immediately began pushing aside some of the chairs that still stood in the way. His nose furrowed due to the hideous stinging stench in the room.
"Yuck! What's that smell?! What's going on here? I heard a screa… HOLY!"
The white-and-gray Sacred Birman jolted horrified when his eyes fell on the decomposed meat blob that was bubbling beneath the worn brown jacket.
"WHAT THE…?! What…?! Who…?!"
Lucas was so baffled that he couldn't even finish his own sentences. Aghast, he turned his head toward the duck. "Reggie, what have you done?!"
"I… I didn't mean to… He attacked me…", the traumatized bird rasped, barely able to get the words out of his throat. The horror video was still playing before him on repeat, composed with the tormenting piercing scream of the canine.
Lucas's eyes suddenly fell on the broken camera lying on the table next to the big meat nugget.
"ARGH! This can't be!" the cat cried and put his both hands on his forehead in despair. Stressed he started racking his brain on what to do.
"Urgh! We need to get everybody out of here", he suddenly said. "C'me on here!"
Lucas reached for the broken camera and hastily threw the strap over his shoulder before he rushed out of the room towards the stairs. It took him a few seconds before he suddenly noticed to his surprise that his duck companion wasn't following him.
"Reggie? Reginald?"
He went back to the room and found the mallard still in his apathetic position at the same spot with his empty eyes staring out into nothingness in the direction of the cupboard opposite to him.
"Urgh! Come on! Get moving!" Lucas demanded him stressed and walked over to the duck. He hastily grabbed his wrist and pulled him back up on his feet. Reginald got a quick glimpse of the big dark flesh-colored puddle on the floor as Lucas dragged the faltering duck along out of the room. On the fly, the cat took the opportunity to turn off the lights in the lab before they briskly walked down the corridor.
"Unbelievable! This isn't happening! This isn't happening!" the Birman muttered stressed and frustrated while hastily putting down the still turned on flashlight in one of his back pockets, with the headlamp pointing upwards, blinding the duck for every step he took. Then he pulled out the walkie-talkie from the front pocket and started dialing.
"Y'ello…?"
"Fethry! Start the engine! We're leaving! Now!" he ordered firm.
"Alright! Over and o…"
Lucas didn't bother finish the conversation and hung up in the other duck's ear to quickly call the next group.
"Yeah?" Femme answered at the other end.
"Femme! Castor! Let go of everything and get to the rendezvous point immediately!"
"Alright, just give us a few minutes…"
"NO! We don't have "a few minutes"!" Lucas almost screamed into the device. "Just let go of everything and leave!"
"But… what about…"
"I'll fix the security system later somehow. Right now, the most important thing is that we get out of here. Don't touch anything! Just leave!"
"Um… Okay…?" Femme said perplexed.
"NOW!" Lucas shouted at them. A light clatter was heard on the other end before Lucas hung up. He put the device back in his pocket and took out his flashlight again to illuminate the way in front of them.
They got to the stairs at the end of the hallway and they started making their way down to the lower floor. Since Lucas still was holding a firm grip around Reginald's wrist the duck had no choice but to try to adapt to the cat's speed.
"And you!" The cat stopped in the staircase on the terrace halfway down and turned to the waterfowl, so sudden that Reginald almost fell right at him.
Lucas directed his flashlight right at the mallard's face. In the strong blinding light Reginald stared right into the cat's resolute deep blue eyes, whose angry glare could be likened to a violent storm at sea.
"Just promise me one thing!" he sternly asked him to. "Whatever you do: Don't. Tell. Anyone! About this! And I mean anyone!"
Lucas knocked him lightly on the chest with the torch for each point he marked.
"Nothing to the police. Nothing to the others. Nothing to anyone!" the feline continued. "We don't want to cause anymore trouble, okay? I'm going to take care of all of this so don't you worry. All I ask from you is that you. Keep that bill of yours. Shut! Understood?"
Reginald was so dazed for the moment that he couldn't get a word out of his throat. Instead, he just nodded apprehensive in answer.
"Good, then let's go", Lucas decided and let go of the duck's wrist before continuing downwards.
While they made their way through the corridor on the lower floor they met Rhoda right outside the first laboratory.
"What's going on?" she asked wondering. "I thought I heard something…"
"We have to get out of here, we've got trouble", Lucas explained hurriedly without stopping.
"Trouble?!" Rhoda repeated worriedly. "What kind of trouble?"
"There's no time for explaining. Right now, we have to focus on getting out here", Lucas said stressed.
"Okay, do I have time to just go and get…?" Rhoda asked and pointed back into the room.
"NO, you don't! We have to leave pronto!" Lucas interrupted firm and grabbed her forearm and started dragging her along with them. Jeez! Why does everyone think they've got time to do things in an urgent situation like this?
The two ducks followed their leader into the large storage room where they all started running towards the staircase far away, with Lucas in the lead.
"What exactly is going on here?" Rhoda, who was running last in the line, wondered, highly confused. "Reggie, do you know what has happened?"
Reginald pretended that he didn't hear her, and instead increased his velocity forwards to avoid having to talk with her alone. He didn't know what to say. Besides, he had also just promised Lucas to not tell anything.
He was pretty sure of one thing though. He was probably never going to have to worry about that their great leader ever would forget his name again.
A/N: In contrast to other villains of Darkwing Duck, Bushroot has always been known as the least evil one. In fact, as a person he is actually quite nice and caring, and he has even occasionally been pictured as a GOOD guy. Yet, ironically, he is also one of few villains that are known for have MURDERED people.
To be honest, the fact that an otherwise such sensitive and emotional character can be able to cross such a big line without feeling any guilt or remorse really has been racking me. It doesn't really make sense. The most likely conclusion that I could come up with for that in the end was… that maybe the case with Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson wasn't the FIRST time Bushroot came across with death…
This is actually what inspired me to write this story in the first place.
Also, a little trivia, the name for the fictive chemical Mordarvaxtocid derives from the Swedish word 'mördarväxt' which means 'killer plant' or, more accurately, 'murder plant'.
