Part 10
It felt like every time he inhaled, the air burned its way into his lungs and melted into his bloodstream to turn his veins into agonizing swollen strings.
'What are you?' Nathaniel asked for the second time, coming down to kneel next to a squirming Clark.
He looked up at the machine and then back to the boy huddling on the floor.
It was the smoke. It was making him sick. Intrigued he pondered for a few seconds, trying to understand why he would react that way to the vapour. Its components were pretty much the same that he'd been pumping into their cabin for the last two days.
The only difference was the higher concentration of the green meteor rock.
So that was what was making him sick?
'Hmm...'
Looking back to the machine he noticed that there was no more liquid trickling from the needle.
'I guess your friend...' He narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember the name the boy had yelled at him. '... Lois, was it?'
Standing up he opened the small glass door and retrieved the test tube, he continued to speak as he poured its contents into a metallic capsules.
'I guess she's dead.' Tilting his head mockingly he added with false sympathy. 'And, by the looks of it you'll be joining her soon, won't you?'
He twisted his thin lips into a makeshift smile.
'I would have loved to have known more about you, boy. But I guess that's the way the-'
He stopped in mid sentence was the metal connected with the back of his head. Instantly he dropped to the floor unconscious.
Clark was barely able to open his eyes to see the blurry outline of a woman before passing out.
'Lois!' He jerked up into a sitting position.
Frowning, he tried to figure out just where he was. After a few seconds his mind supplied the answer – he was sitting behind the reception counter at the main lodge. Glancing to his right he found the trapdoor was closed.
'A-Are you ok?'
The voice came from behind him. He turned around to find a battered Ruth looking back at him.
He nodded. His mind was still a little fuzzy.
'I hit him and dragged you out here.' She answered the unspoken question lingering around him.
'Lois!' He remembered.
Standing up, he covered the distance between the cabins with ground eating steps and was running into their room in under a minute.
She was still lying there, stone-like. Immediately, he was at her side staring at her with watery eyes. Her chest wasn't moving.
He swallowed dryly as two trembling fingers made their way to her neck. He waited. One, two seconds and…
There it was! It was very faint and barely noticeable but it was definitely there - a pulse. After another two seconds he felt it again.
His hand spread over the length of her neck to cup her cheek as he leaned in.
Ruth watched from the threshold as he whispered something in her ear.
Her stomach knotted at the idea that she had been responsible for this. For this and God knows how many other deaths.
'Mr. Kent…' She managed to voice out.
'What?' His reply came in the form of a scrawny, gut-wrenching mutter as he kept his face buried in her hair.
'I-I think I can…' He snapped up to attention before she could finish: 'I-I'm not sure, but I think I can help.'
Ignoring the broken down door, she walked into the room. It was only then he noticed she was clutching something in both hands. She opened her left one to reveal a syringe and an intravenous needle, both neatly wrapped up in sealed sterilized packaging.
'I wasn't exactly the brain behind this operation but… um…' She struggled, trying to figure out were to start.
It was such a long story. She decided to stick to what was essential.
'Have you heard of the name Nathaniel Grey?'
Seeing no sign of recognition in Clark's face she continued:
'Nathaniel was a… geologist. He worked for a private organization and was sent to Smallville to investigate the strange rocks that had been found there after the meteor shower. He found two very distinct rock types, one green and one red and found out they had very special characteristic. He discovered that combining the two at just the right dosages they had the ability to draw out someone's…' She paused trying to find the right word. '…life force.
After a beat she continued:
'Nathaniel calls it the life force of people. It's what drives people, what makes them dream, plan and… act out those plans, I guess. Without it, we are nothing more than an inanimate object, with no need to exist, so the body gradually shuts down. There are a lot of names for it in all the different cultures in the world, in ours I guess you could call it… a soul.
He found a way to harvest it in the form of a liquid. With this liquid he was able to stop the aging process. That's when he came here.
Under these cabins he built an elaborate plumbing system that connects the main lodge to every single room in every cabin.' She pointed at the air-conditioning. 'At night we pump air into the rooms. This air contains small traces of the two meteor rocks, the green one to weaken the person and the red one to extract the life force. The ventilation then sucks out the air, directing it back to that compartment under the main lodge. There, the air is heated and, for lack of a better word, its contents are distilled into this liquid.' She opened her right hand to reveal four capsules. 'Nathaniel has been injecting a small amount it every week for the last thirteen years and he hasn't aged a day since.'
Clark looked at her with expectant eyes.
'I-I think if you inject this into her she could…' She trailed off.
He stared at the metallic vials. What if it didn't work? What if it hurt her? He couldn't risk it. Looking at her motionless body he made his decision.
'We'll try that on me first. I'm not going to risk hurting her.'
Ruth nodded and began preparing the needle and the syringe.
Extracting only a fraction of the contents of one of the capsules she looked at Clark as he exposed his left arm.
He watched as she injected the fluid into his system and waited.
He didn't feel anything. The seconds ticked away and still he didn't feel any different.
'It's not working.' He mumbled distraught.
Ruth gave him a sympathetic look.
Sitting on the bed, he leaned over Lois' seemingly sleeping form. She was slowly dying and there was nothing he could do. Nothing…
Ruth watched as he nestled his face against the crook of her neck, his muffled sobs filling the silent room.
'I-I'm so sorry!' Ruth nervously broke the stillness. 'I-I never knew that we were taking so much! You have to believe me, I-I didn't know anyone was dead because of it. He told me we were just taking a little bit, so he could… so he could live.' Her eyes welled up with tears. 'I'm so sorry.'
He didn't hear her.
The entire world seemed to have faded away. Everything slowed down as if to reverently match the desperately sluggish beat of her heart. Every strike echoed in his ears. Her scent, the way her hair felt against his cheek and the faint sound of every breath she took was all his mind could absorb at that moment.
'I'm so sorry…' He whispered, nuzzling his face against the small nook he found under her ear.
'Give them back!'
The angry voice filtered into his small world, violently snapping him out of it. Sitting up he turned to see a very livid Nathaniel standing over the broken door, a gun in his hand.
Standing up Clark regarded him with a blank expression. Even though he was aware that in his current state he could die, there was no fear in him. There was no reason for it anymore.
'I want it back, Ruth! I know you took it! Give it back!' The man raved insanely.
'It's over Nathaniel. I'm not letting you hurt anyone else!'
'Oh, really?' Nathaniel sneered.
Pointing the gun at Clark he fired a single shot unceremoniously.
'No!' Ruth screamed.
The two men watched as Ruth's body slowly dropped to the floor lifeless; a thick red pool of blood quickly oozed from under her to stain the hardwood.
'It can't be!'
Clark's eyes darted from the dead woman to Nathaniel to find him staring mesmerized at his chest.
Unhurriedly, Clark looked down, just in time to see the smashed bullet fall to the floor.
The small bits of information jerked into place in his foggy mind.
The bullet had passed clear through Ruth's body and hit him straight in the chest.
His heart jumped to his throat when he realised - he had his abilities back! It worked!
He could still save her!
With a glare in his eyes he looked up to meet the man standing across the room from him. He was still clutching a gun in his hand. It wouldn't do him any good.
With a deep creasing frown over his brow and a gaping mouth he tried to make sense of what he'd just witnessed.
The boy should be dead but...
Before he could say anything he was being flung across the room. His head absorbed most of the impact as he hit the wall and came crashing to the floor unconscious.
Instantly, Clark was at her side once more. Picking up the syringe he fidgeted with it. Memories of numerous campaigns warning against the dangers of sharing needles filled his rushing mind.
He looked up at her. Even with his restored heightened hearing it was hard to pick up the sound of her heartbeat and he sensed there wasn't much time.
Desperation took over; the only thing on his mind was the fact that the serum in the syringe was the only thing that could save her.
Outstretching her arm he let it dangle over the edge of the bed. After a few seconds he found a vein in the crook of her elbow. Looking up at her face one more time he slipped the needle under her skin and pushed the plastic piston, watching as the liquid disappeared into her body.
Setting the syringe on the bedside table he waited with a racing heart.
Holding his breath he listened as the shallow thumping picked up speed and strength. Gradually, her chest began to move.
It seemed like an eternity passed before she began stir, a small wrinkle forming over the bridge of her nose as the outside world filtered into he awakening mind.
She tried to open her eyelids but the late afternoon glow was too harsh. Blinking a few times her eyes adjusted to it and soon the blurry figure sitting at her bedside morphed into a familiar image.
'Smallville?' Her voice was hoarse, her throat dry.
She saw the genuine smile take over his lips as relief washed over him and soon she found herself engulfed in a tight embrace.
'I thought I'd lost you.' She heard him whisper in her hear.
Her mind was still fuzzy.
'Where am I?' She asked into his shoulder.
He slowly pulled away from her to meet her eyes.
'We're at the cabins.' He tried to find some sign of recognition in her eyes. There was none.
'What cabins?'
She looked around taking in the small room, the wardrobe to her right, next to the broken down door? She frowned.
The bedside table with a syringe on top of it, the window to her left and... there was something on the floor. She pushed him back in order to see.
'Jesus Christ!' She screamed scrambling away to the other side of the mattress clutching the sheets against her chest. Correction - her NAKED chest.
Her eyes grew comically large as she quickly looked down lifting the fabric just enough to realise she was currently fashioning her birthday suit.
She tried to sound as composed as possible:
'Smallville... Why am I naked? And why is there a dead woman in the room?'
'You'll have to come to the station for an official statement tomorrow.' Deputy Wilkins announced and Clark nodded, his eyes focussed on her.
She was standing on the porch, wrapping her coat around her form to protect it from the cool night breeze while she spoke to a female officer who took her statement.
He'd given the Deputy the non-Smallville version of the story. Lois and he had come back to the cabin after a walk in the wood to find Nathaniel and Ruth arguing in there room. Between heated yells and shrieks he had pulled out a gun and shot her. Clark had subdued the older man and called the police.
Nathaniel's reaction when he'd woken up to find the room filled with police officers had only helped sell the unlikely story.
He'd kicked and screamed nonsensical obscenities about how Ruth was stealing from him.
'She tried to take it from me. I couldn't let her. I couldn't!'
He'd stared with reddened, glassy eyes at Clark as he was dragged by the authorities into a police car.
'I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Kent.'
Clark mechanically nodded and shook the hand that was present to him.
Her trembling fingers came to push an unruly thread behind her ear as she watched Ruth's body be carried out in a gurney.
The officer seemed to have finished as she scribbled one last thing on her notepad before flipping it close and putting it away in the inside pocket of her jacket.
Tipping the edge of her hat in Lois' direction she said her goodbyes and strode over to meet Deputy Wilkins.
Within five minutes everyone was gone.
Shoving his hand into his jeans he walked over to the cabin, stopping when he reached the steps to the front porch.
'Are you alright?'
'Considering I don't remember anything that happened over the last two days? Yeah, I'm just peachy!'
He didn't say anything, letting his gaze drop to the ground.
'So... are you going to fill me in on what happened?'
He pondered his choice. That was all he had been doing since she'd woken up without any recollection of the last two days. Without any recollection of... them.
What was he supposed to do? Tell her that while under the influence of Ruth and Nathaniel's freaky smoke they developed strange feelings for one another and had had sex?
Not a very good idea. She would never understand. She would hate him and he would lose her for certain. He couldn't risk that. He'd rather go back to the way it was before. He would simply pretend nothing had happened. Pretend that nothing had changed in him in the course of those two days.
He was sure that the disconcerting feeling making his stomach contract wildly at her nearness, the tightness in his chest at the sight of her was just an after effect of the smoke. It would go away.
Everything would go back to normal.
He inhaled deeply before muttering.
'Not much...'
'I wake up naked in a strange room with a broken down door, an unconscious guy and a dead woman and you say not much happened?'
He told her a carefully edited version of the story. Told her about the Berkley's, how they'd ended up in the hospital, how they'd come back to the cabins and waited for Ruth and Nathaniel to go to sleep.
She'd gone up to her room. When time came he went up and realised that he couldn't wake her up so he decided to go to the main lodge.
'Wait! Why weren't you affected?' Lois questioned unconvinced.
'Because... I slept downstairs. I guess they were just pumping that smoke into the bedrooms.' He quickly supplied the lie.
She looked at him sideways, her arms crossed over her chest. Noticing that she was content with his improvised explanation he continued describing what had happened in the secret compartment, how he and Ruth had come back to help her, he told her everything up to the point when Ruth had jumped in front of the bullet to save him.
'Why'd she do that?'
After a moment of pause he shrugged.
'I really don't know. Maybe she just felt really bad about everything or she thought that Nathaniel wouldn't shoot her.' He offered.
'And then...'
'I fought him, he ended up unconscious on the floor and then I gave you the serum. End of story.'
Looking up at him, she held his stare for a long time. He tried to look as innocent as possible under her scrutiny.
'Do we still have some serum left?'
'More than enough.'
'Good. I can get us to the hospital in under two hours!' She said playfully punching him in the shoulder before rushing into the cabin and up the stairs.
'It'll go away... and everything will go back to normal.' He thought watching her.
She was halfway up the steps when she noticed he was still standing at the door. Letting out a frustrated sigh she yelled over her shoulder:
'Let's go, Smallville. Chop-chop!'
The lump in his throat tightened as she disappeared into the room.
It would go away. He was sure...
The End