*grumbles* Meanies... nobody wants to vote on my poll! *sobs* You all hate me!

...Sorry, I've been cooped up in the house too long. *yawns* And I got to bed late last night.

Before I get on to the chapter, I'd just like to give a shout-out to WinterSky101: Your review/commentary was hilarious! As I told you before, the zombies were a nice touch. ;)

10

I Dream of Max

"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams." - Jonas Salk

The next span of time—how long the span had been Fang wasn't sure—of Fang and Iggy's imprisonment involved waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. For hours on end Fang and Iggy would just lie there, like furniture in storage at a warehouse. The only difference was that furniture couldn't get cabin fever. Sometimes the small, dark room made Fang want to scream frantically, like a crazy person who'd finally snapped. Unfortunately, that strategy would only tip the Doctor off to his crumbling resolution.

The only thing worse than the waiting was the drugs. The Doctor was a sick expert with medications, it seemed: every so often the Doctor or one of his assistants would come in and inject them with something, and then within a few seconds they'd find themselves caught up in a haze of bizarre symptoms. The Doctor was playing a dangerous game, overlapping experiments (Fang suspected these weren't the scheduled experiments he'd seen on the chart) that involved strange drugs; if one of his funky medications went awry he could end up a couple of specimens short.

What was worse than the potential danger of the drugs, though, was the actual experience of being under their influence. The Doctor was an absolute genius and madman, Fang had figured out—he did very stupid, scary things, yet at the same time he always knew what he was doing—when it came to medications. He figured out that Fang found solace and protection in silence and awareness, so he administered a chemical that induced chattiness and drowsiness—Fang still couldn't remember all the stupid things he said to Iggy. Iggy was a bitter blind guy who coped by making wisecracks, so the Doctor gave him drugs that made him believe he was seeing objects they weren't really there, as well as drugs to induce a numbing depression. Sometimes he'd just anaesthetize them and undo their straps so they would just sit there, unbound but unable to move. The Doctor was using his influencing drugs to break down their defences and their hopes for escape, and it was working all too well.

As far as he could tell, Iggy had plenty of fight left in him, but despite his outer calmness, Fang was ready to succumb to the Doctor's psychological torture. That is, until he was administered the worst—and strangely, the best—medication yet. It had been that experience that kept him fighting on the inside, even though on the outside he had no chance of escape.

Fang and Iggy had been sitting in the dark talking quietly to each other when the lab assistant had walked through the door (even though Fang couldn't see the door, he knew the sound of the assistant's footsteps) holding two syringes. "New test," he declared, earning a groan from Iggy and an eye roll from Fang.

Turning his head to the right, Fang watched as the assistant walked over to Iggy and injected one of the syringes into him. "That feels bad..." Iggy slurred as the drug took effect, tossing his head back and forth gently across the table. He was out.

It took all of Fang's inner discipline not to squirm or whimper as the assistant injected the same stuff into his arm as he did Iggy's—imagine it, Fang on the verge of whimpering. It was awful watching something bad happen to someone, knowing the whole time that it was going to happen to you next. Still, Fang clenched his jaw tightly and put on a brave face as the assistant slid the needle into his arm, injected the fluid, and then quickly withdrew the syringe and left the room.

For the first few moments there was no reaction in Fang's body as the serum pumped through his body; a physical calm before the storm. However, before Fang even had time to draw a breath to brace himself, he felt a feverish burning begin to crawl up his veins into his brain, causing a sudden, heated explosion behind his eyes. His breathing grew ragged and his body shivered violently underneath his bindings as his pores dripped with sweat, trying to get rid of the poison inside. Fang's eyelids grew heavy as lead, and soon his eyes were weighed shut in a sweaty blur of disorientation and memories. No longer was the line between sleep and consciousness constant, but instead his mind fluttered in between the two.

A few moments later, Fang became vaguely aware of someone entering the room, hearing footsteps and a voice that were muffled as if he were listening to them from the bottom of a dark well. He was unable to open his eyes, but he could make out Iggy's fuzzy voice across the room as the new voice seemed to circle around his presence in a predatory manor. Fang desperately wanted to cross the room and save his friend, but his body remained strapped to the table, keeping his muddled awareness trapped within it. Finally, the voice seemed to abandon Iggy, apparently having gotten whatever it had wanted from him in his weakened state. The echoing voice and footsteps then seemed to grow louder and nearer, causing chills to run up Fang's spine. It was coming for him next.

"Fang," another voice suddenly called. Fang felt himself dragged out of the land of the awake and pulled down into a delirious—yet strangely calming—dream state, filled with warmth and a strong sense of longing and distance.

"Target B—Fang!" The Doctor's blurry voice spoke down to him, "how are you feeling?"

Before Fang could even reply he was snatched back into his dream world, where the new voice seemed to be getting stronger. "Fang," it repeated, as if beckoning him to itself.

Suddenly he recognized the voice. "Max?" Fang thought he could see her outline in the distance, hidden behind the swirling shadows. "Max!" he called out again, hoping she would make herself more clear to him. Sure enough, Max appeared out of the darkness, though her personage seemed to retain a dark form, as if she were a vague etching of herself.

"I've missed you," Shadow Max said, putting her hand to his face.

"I've missed you too," Fang whispered, reaching out to touch her back. Unfortunately, he faded back into his conscious delirium before he had the chance to.

"—hallucinations, apparently. Are you able to—" Fang fought hard to put the Doctor's voice back out of his head, to leave the confusion of his feverous body to return to his dreams. In a few second he had returned to the shadowy Max, who was now looking at him sadly.

Shadow Max frowned sadly. "Fang," she sighed, "what have they done to you?"

"I don't understand," he told her.

"They've almost broken you," she warned, "I can tell. They've worn you down and tried to take away your will to survive. You can't let them win, Fang, you have to promise to keep fighting."

"—when the serum was first injected—" Fang resurfaced in the real world for a moment before delving back down.

"You have to promise me that you'll stay strong until we come for you." She told Fang, taking both of his hands into hers.

"But I'm so tired," Fang heaved, as if the pain he was feeling in the real world right now was starting to leak back into his subconscience. He felt so broken at that moment that he felt ready to collapse in on himself.

Suddenly the wispy dream Max took him harshly by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. "You have to promise me, Fang," she commanded with an urgent expression, "promise me you'll keep fighting them."

"—outbursts indicating psychological weakening—" another brief cut in from the Doctor's observations.

"Promise me, Fang!" Shadow Max seemed to be fighting for a grip on Fang's mind as the effect of the drugs began to anticlimax and he started to return fully to the conscious world.

"I promise, I promise!" Fang shouted, not caring if anyone in the real world heard him. He started to panic as Shadow Max flickered in and out of his mind as he seemed to float back up into his body and settle back into his own skull, which still throbbed with an intense pain. He reached out to grab Max back again, but she slid through his fingers like mist. Quickly he had no hands to move at all, but was instead strapped back to his table in the medical room. "Max, please, don't leave!" he begged, his heart aching and his head threatening to burst.

"I can't—"

"—approximate amount of sweat lost—"

"Just keep the promise, be strong for both—"

"—run some blood tests—"

"We'll be together again, I promise." Then Shadow Max disappeared completely, her absence filled with the gaudy, cheery voice of the Doctor as he completed his examination.

"Ah, good, you've returned from your initial high," the Doctor exclaimed, scribbling down notes on what Fang guessed was a clipboard (his eyes were still drooped shut, so he couldn't be certain). "Don't worry," the Doctor went on, "the symptoms will go away when the nurse comes in with the antidote." Fang heard the Doctor walk towards the door and open it, stepping out into the hall. "I won't be seeing you again until the big experiment, boys," he told them, "but fear not! I shall be watching through the security cameras!" Then with a slam of the door he was gone.

After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse finally came with syringes filled with medication that stopped the intense headaches and profuse sweating. Although feeling very wet and clammy, Fang was extremely grateful that the ordeal was over.

As soon as the nurse was gone, Fang whispered in a low voice, "Iggy?"

"Yeah?" Iggy replied, also whispering in a voice quiet enough that no normal human could hear it.

"When they gave you the drug, did you... see anything?"

Iggy shook his head, "No, why?"

"No reason." Fang was silent for a moment. "Iggy?" he asked again.

"What?"

"Just... promise me that no matter what they do to us, we'll keep on fighting them on the inside."

"Um, alright," Iggy said, a bit confused, "I promise."

Fang felt relieved. Not even a thousand drugs could take away his will to stand against the Doctor and his torture tricks—Fang was sure of that now. However, it would be a difficult task, keeping himself from succumbing when half of the time he couldn't even trust his own thoughts and emotions. We have to keep strong, Fang told himself. They had to remember that Max was coming, that she would save them from the torture if they just held out until she got here.

And, considering how badly they were doing already, Max couldn't come soon enough.