*Author's note: Sorry FOX and TnT...
Chapter 2 Potassium-Chloride
"Where is he?" snapped Lyle.
"I won't tell you!"
"Yes you will."
"Never!" Leigh
turned away from him, towards the wall and slammed her fist against it in
frustration, accentuating her reply.
He stood up slowly; his form
towered over where she lay. He glared at her and taking her head in his hands
turned her head back towards him. He tried to control his burning rage while she
stared back, trying to control her tormenting fears.
"Now," his voice
was lowered to a dangerous tone, "Tell me, where's Jarod?"
"No, Lyle,
I'll never tell you! You said you had ways of making me Read him, but I bet you
can't make me tell you what I Read."
"Actually, that's exactly what I've
been waiting for," he muttered as he stormed out of the room.
* * *
Dressed in black suits they came to her room, two guards or "sweepers"
that looked as big as mountains.
An entire cooperation depends upon
whether I tell them the location of their 'slave', she thought to herself. What
a sad world.
The guards dragged her off the bed and unlocked the
handcuffs. They dragged her to an elevator at the end of the corridor adjacent
to the room she had been kept in.
"No," Leigh pleaded; her voice a
hoarse whisper.
She tried to struggle, but the muscular guards held her
tightly. They shoved her into the elevator and pressed the button to close the
doors. She tried to escape. One of the guards threw her to the back of the
elevator, blocking the doors. The other cornered her. He snapped her head back
sharply into the metal wall hard. She collapsed weakly into his arms.
As the metal doors hummed their way open, Lyle glimpsed Leigh.
The guards held her elbows and wrists in a position that made her look like she
was bowing. Her thin, red hair hung over her pale face.
"Hey
Leigh, recognize the place?" Lyle said jokingly.
She looked up and,
squinting into the dim lighting, Leigh gasped softly as she saw him and the sign
that hung past him. She squirmed in the sweeper's grasp.
" 'Guess a
little paint didn't change much down here," he laughed.
Her silvery blue
eyes reflected her unamused expression.
"Anyway, you already know that
last time Jarod caused quite a stir down here. This time that won't happen."
"What are you going to do to me?" her eyes widening in fear.
"Willie, would you care to show her?"
One of the sweeper's fists
drew back before she could react. She dropped quietly to the floor.
* *
*
Sydney turned on the video monitor of Leigh's room and waited a couple
seconds as the program loaded. He was halfway through a sip of coffee when he
almost dropped the cup. He suddenly realized what Lyle had meant by his last
words to Leigh in her now-empty room.
"He has taken her to SL-27," he
gasped, "Miss Parker!"
* * *
Weak, and dizzy, Leigh pictured
Jarod on the table, secured to it, yet screaming his desperate cry like an
abandoned child. The emotions that the video had carried with it were raw,
vivid, yet Jarod did not seem to show any emotion except fear. Jarod was so
childlike; he had no real personality. What was he like now? He had been out of
the Centre for years; he was experiencing everything for the first time. Like a
child. What would it be like for him to be taken away from that? Could they find
a way to make him their willing subject again?
Could they make her a
willing subject?
She was scared by her last thought. Could that really
happen to her? Could she fight it? Would she change?
"No!"
The
guards halted, stunned by the ferocity of her cry.
"Carry on," Lyle
snapped, slightly annoyed. The guards resumed their slow dragging of her body
and she recessed to her terrifying thoughts. A medical table came into view as
they rounded a corner. They had to walk past a nurse who was drawing liquid into
a needle. Leigh read the small lettering on the label.
It was potassium
chloride.
She watched the nurse drain the contents of the bottle, 1 cc,
2, 3.
"No, please, no" she murmured. She moaned as Lyle struck her head
with the back of his hand. "Shut up Sanchez."
Leigh shivered, "You
bastard," she whispered under her breath.
Lyle halted and turned around.
"What did you say?" he asked slowly.
Leigh spat on the floor near his
polished black shoes. Lyle grabbed a large roll of tape off a nearby desk. He
tore a piece of it off the roll and slapped it over her mouth, holding his hand
there.
"Follow my request and you won't get hurt."
He used his
thumb to smooth the duct tape that covered her quivering lips. He leaned his
head onto hers. Eyes aflame he asked angrily, "Okay?"
She nodded mutely.
He leaned closer to her and kissed the tape over her lips. She pulled back, away
from his demonic face. She looked into his eyes in shock, unsure of what he
would do next.
He whispered to her, "Good," and to her relief, he
stepped back and turned around.
Shaking in fear, tears streamed openly
down her light cheeks. Lyle strode meaningfully to the table a few feet away.
After the nurse brought him the syringe, he looked up sharply at Leigh, and
motioned the guards to drag her over to him. They lifted her over the frigid,
steel table. She flinched as they let go.
Lyle deftly secured the
restraints over her body.
* * *
"Syd, slow down!" Miss Parker
urged.
"The girl, the new pretender, Lyle has taken her to SL-27 for the
potassium chloride experiment!" exclaimed Sydney.
"Potassium chloride?"
she asked.
"Yes, it's harmless when mixed with other chemicals, but
pure, god, it'll kill her," said the engineer, Broots, nervously.
"Syd,"
Miss Parker started.
"We have to go down there!" interrupted Sydney.
"SL-27, are you kidding?" exclaimed Broots as he raced with them down to
the lift.
* * *
"Hey Leigh," Lyle taunted, "You know that this
experiment has a one-hundred percent survival rate. It has only been tested on
one person and he is still alive."
Her breath shook as she inhaled;
Leigh just stared up at him. He picked at the tape that covered her mouth then
suddenly ripped it off her mouth. She winced in pain.
Lyle seemed
pleased with himself.
"I don't hav' to do this," he said, smiling to
himself as her watched her feudal attempts to undo the straps, "If you tell me
where he is."
"Why are you anyway?" she asked.
"Maybe this
should be slow," he pondered, aloud.
"Your mind games won't work on me
Lyle," she spat at him, hoping there was some truth in her statement.
Lyle stopped his pacing around her. He casually picked up the full
needle and walked over to her. He scratched the tip over her bare arm. "Where's
Jarod?"
"No," she cried, "please Lyle!"
"Fine!" he yelled as he
injected the 3 cc.
She screamed, disbelieving the harshness and cruelty,
wanting to wake up at home and forget this. So this is really how it felt, she
thought as her mind became jumbled, her thoughts confused.
"Shh-shh-shhhh," he whispered to her, "It's sleep time, good night!"
She closed her eyes.
Lyle stood up and smiled inwardly.
"Wake her up," said another voice.
Sydney had his gun drawn
point blank at Lyle.
Lyle jumped back when he saw him, "Woh! Syd calm
down," Lyle nervously.
"Do it!" Sydney demanded.
Miss Parker and
Broots slowly filed in behind him as if to lend support.
Lyle glared at
the three of them as he pulled out another syringe and tossed it to Sydney.
"What is it?"
"Potassium benzoate. It will dissipate the
effects."
Sydney quickly injected it into her arm.
"Come on,
Leigh, come on," he murmured, "Why isn't she waking up Lyle?"
"Patience,
Syd."
She began to move as if waking from an ordinary sleep to see
Sydney. He breathed a long sigh of relief as he and Miss Parker freed her from
the restraints.