Chapter 7
"…the drugs we're giving to your 'daughter' won't kill her, but they're very hallucinogenic, and I believe she will be having some very frightening nightmares. I'll be back later when you're ready to talk." And with that he left the room, leaving Bob tied to a chair, worrying.
It took about ten minutes before the screaming began.
Bob had never heard anything so pitiful in his life. Screams, sobs and moans of fear and agony filtered through from the next room, and they were so awful that Bob was soon flinching as the unearthly cries tore through him. He tried to block out the noise with thoughts of Kim, and his children, but found he couldn't. So Bob sat, also in agony, albeit a different kind, and waited for the drugs to wear off.
Lucy was trapped inside a room with no doors or windows. It was dark, wet and cold, and things that she couldn't see scuttled around nearby in the gloom. A small light flickered on, and now, through holes in the wall, millions upon millions of spiders, snakes, rats and many other insects that slimed and crawled poured out, advancing towards her.
She drew her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes, and when she reopened them, the creatures were all gone. Instead, water was pouring in, and soon she was struggling to keep afloat, and then the water filled the room and she was drowning.
She closed her eyes, and this time, when she reopened them, she was standing on top of a tall, tall building, looking down. The ground seemed miles away, and suddenly, someone pushed her and she was falling, hurtling down towards the earth.
She closed her eyes, and opened them, and she could see her mother smiling at her. She gave a cry of joy, but when she blinked, she was standing by her hospital bed, seeing her body thin, in agony and raging with cancer. She was forced to watch her mother die again, and again, and again, all alone in a dark hospital room, with no one there to hold her hand, or say goodbye. She watched the monitors flat line, watched her mother slip away.
Everything from her worst nightmares haunted her. She watched as friends and family were tortured, ripped apart and killed, then thrown onto bloody piles while she remained paralysed, unable to move. She watched as members of the team were murdered. She died again, and again and again. Shredded by sharks, bitten by rabid dogs, poisoned, hung, stabbed, shot, bludgeoned, raped, tortured, beheaded.
She was back in the dark room, but the walls were closing in, coming closer and closer, pressing into her body as she was slowly crushed. Colours flashed before her eyes, red, black, red, black, purple, blue, red, black, black, red, black, blue, orange, over and over again.
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was in an office room, hunched in a corner, covered in sweat, her face streaked with tears. The door clanged open and a man walked in, brandishing another needle. She tried to fight him off, but he plunged it into her neck, and she sunk down into a pool of blackness.
As Lucy's screams subsided, Bob breathed out with relief. It sounded like the nightmares were over, at least for now. He didn't like hearing anyone suffer, especially not a young girl. Silence descended on Lucy's cell, until he heard her door open with a clang, and someone strode in. Lucy yelped, and Bob thought he heard a slight scuffle, and then the door closed, and there was silence again.
"Humming Bird?" he called, hoping she could hear him. "Humming Bird, are you okay?" There was no reply. There was nothing but a deafening absence of sound, no signs of movement at all.
The door of Bob's cell opened, and Mr Crayton walked in.
"Mr Winchester! Good to finally meet you! How are you today?" Bob sat in silence, staring at the wall.
Crayton tutted. "Very rude, ignoring me, you know. Hope you haven't passed on such bad manners to your 'daughter'. Damn shame we had to mess with her mind before, but you were so very uncooperative. She may never be the same again, thanks to you." Bob growled, and was about to yell at him, when Crayton cut him off.
"She is safe –for now anyway. We're going to leave you two alone now, so you can spend a bit of quality time together. We'll be back tomorrow to see if you'll talk when you've gone without food and water for twenty-four hours." Crayton clicked his fingers, and a guard walked in, a needle in his hand, and stabbed it into Bob's neck. Bob flinched as it went in, and Crayton patted his cheek patronisingly.
"Don't worry, old chap, it's only a mild sedative. Good day, Mr Winchester, I hope you have an unpleasant stay here with us." As Crayton spoke, Bob, like Lucy only minutes before, sank into unconsciousness.
* * * *
When he awoke, he was tied up rather uncomfortably. His legs were bound together with rope at the ankles, as were his wrists, which were secured behind his back. He was sitting on the floor, with his back pressed against something warm. The thing he was tied to moved suddenly, and Bob was instantly on his guard.
"Hey," he heard Lucy say in a small voice, "you okay?"
Waves of relief washed over him, and he relaxed. "Fine, you?"
Lucy paused. "I've been better. Do you have a plan?"
"A plan?" Bob asked, and although he couldn't see her face, he knew she would be rolling her eyes.
"Well I don't know about you, but I'd rather not remain locked up for an indefinite length of time, and then probably tortured again, so I was enquiring about an escape plan."
Bob thought about it for a moment. "Give me a minute, I'll think of something."
Lucy sighed. "I don't need a plan, I was just wondering if you'd thought one up as well. Obviously not."
Bob smiled. "You have a plan then?"
Another eye roll. "If you guys are the best America has, your country is in big trouble. Shift sideways a bit, then shuffle backwards about a metre." He did so, and was surprised when, after a few minutes and some noises of concentration, he heard a sawing sound, followed some time alter by a loud SNAP!
Deftly, Lucy kicked off her shoes with her now unbound feet, and used her toes to pick the knife up by the handle, then bent her leg around and threw it down near Bob.
"Where the hell did you get that from?"
Lucy grinned. "In a place that made it rather uncomfortable for me to sit down, but I won't trouble you with the details. I got hold of it then dropped it onto the floor so when you moved my feet were nearer the knife. I trapped the knife between my shoes, then I sawed through the rope. Could you do the same?"
"Probably," Bob said, "what should we do when I've sorted that?"
Lucy chewed her lip and frowned, deep in thought. "I'm working on it." she said as they shuffled around so Bob could get at the knife. He sighed and began cutting through the rope.
