Frozen In Time - Rescue
Part XI - The Headwood's Lab (or Help From An Unexpected Source)
True to his word, the Headwood's lab turned out to be only a short way down the corridor just as the guard had said. Melanie quickly got the door open by bypassing the circuit and, ushering the others in, closed the door behind them so no one coming by would get suspicious.
Looking around the lab, it was thankfully much as she remembered it. But that was no guarantee the gel would be where she saw they had kept it before or that it was even kept in the lab at all. It was either here or in the medical car. But by her reasoning, Melanie could not see the Headwood's allowing anything they had created to be kept anywhere but in their possession.
As soon as they were in the lab, Alex was already looking about the shelves, pulling things out and moving things around at a rapid pace as she searched.
"What does the bottle look like?" She quickly asked her mother.
Melanie came over and stopped the girl's frantic search. "Be more careful, Alex." She cautioned. "We can't risk breaking anything. We don't know what's in these containers. And knowing the Headwood's, any one of them could be a trap of some sort."
"So what does the container look like?" Alex asked again.
"It was kept in a large metal cylinder container. The bottle itself was just a small glass jar and the gel looks like a white paste. And there's no smell to it."
Meanwhile, Hes seemed to have gotten distracted looking over the instruments in the lab. Picking several up, he looked them over carefully, then laid most of them back where he had found them. But a few he slipped into his pockets.
Noticing his work, Melanie walked over to him.
"Hes? What are you doing?"
The blacksmith was already looking at another tool. "There are many interesting tools here." He replied. "Do not have anything like these on Snowpiercer. Might be useful. But need one to know how to make others."
Melanie stopped him slipping another into his pocket. "Hes. We're not here to pilfer."
Alex stepped over to them to see what was going on. "Not to put to fine a point on it, mom." She commented with a small smile. "But what is it exactly we're doing here then?"
Melanie turned back to her daughter for a moment, then back to Hes.
"Fine. Five things. That's all." She stipulated.
Hes suddenly dug into his pocket several times, each time pulling out a handful of instruments and dumping them on the counter. All in all Melanie estimated he had about 12-15 items already.
"FIVE!" She reiterated.
Hes gave her a disgruntled look, then quickly picked five items out of the pile and slipped them in his pocket. But as soon as Melanie went back to her own task of looking for the gel, he quickly added three more.
As they continued to poured over the shelves and cabinets in the lab, all three failed to notice when the lab door opened behind them and quietly slid shut again. But each one of them jumped about a foot when the overhead lights in the lab suddenly switched on.
Snapping back around, the three found themselves facing a very stern looking Dr. Headwood. In her hand was a short pole with a taser on the end.
"My husband said the alarms in the lab were likely triggered by rats." She said in a calm, level tone. Then added with a small smile. "It appears he was right."
"Alarms?" Melanie asked quietly.
Dr. Headwood turned to her. "The alarms sound in our quarters." She explained, then pointed to a button on the wall. "But all I need to do is press that alarm and it will sound all over the train."
Melanie paused for a second. "We're not here to cause damage." She quickly explained. "We were just looking for..."
"For what?" The woman quickly cut her off. "You were here to steal is what you were here for." She pointed to the large window in the door. "I've been watching you. Nasty little thieves is what you are."
Melanie stepped up again. "No." She stated, then stopped as she worked to form her argument for why they weren't stealing. "We're here...to help a friend."
Dr. Headwood gave a derisive laugh. But Melanie quickly grabbed Hes' hand and held it up for the woman to see.
If Melanie thought the act would help cement their cause, it didn't, as the scientist became more suspicious.
"You're here for the Goop."
Melanie quickly nodded. "Yes. To help Hes. To heal his hand. You used it on my shoulder. You said I wouldn't even have a scar left afterwards. And you were right. It completely healed my frostbite. I need that same cure for Hes."
The smaller woman looked over the towering blacksmith.
"And what makes him so special? So he looses the hand? So what? It happens here often enough."
Melanie stepped up to her. "Hes is the only blacksmith left on either train. It's the reason Wilford kidnapped him and brought him over to Big Alice to begin with. To make parts for Big Alice like he does for Snowpiercer. But Hes wouldn't work for him, so Wilford froze his hand as punishment."
The speech seemed to gain some of the woman's interest as she took Hes' hand and looked it over. "He didn't freeze it all the way." She commented as she turned the hand first one way and then the other as she examined it. But she seemed to lose interest as she turned back to Melanie. "You said he was a blacksmith?"
Melanie nodded.
The woman walked over to a counter by one of the walls. She stopped there for a moment, then finally turned back to them. "Perhaps we can make a bargain." She stated.
"What sort of 'bargain'?"
The scientist walked back over to them. Stopping in front of Hes, she held her hand out.
Hes stared down at the smaller figure. "What?"
The scientist stood firm, gesturing with her hand.
Melanie turned her eyes to Hes. "Give them back." She stated in a level tone.
Hes considered the order, but finally reached into his pocket and pulled out the tools, dropping them in the woman's hand.
Melanie did a fast inventory of the tools. "I said FIVE, Hes." She reiterated in a quiet hiss.
But Dr. Headwood was already going over the eight items. Of them, she confiscated half and took them back to the counter. Quickly opening a drawer, she pulled out five others and took them over to the blacksmith, dropping them in his hand with the others.
"I need at least two of each of these." She stated. "Can you do that?"
Hes carefully looked over the new tools, then gave a slight nod. "Can make them for you."
Dr. Headwood turned a questioning look to Melanie.
"He's telling the truth." Melanie answered the silent question. "I haven't seen one thing Hes can't make out of metal. He gave me a small replica of Snowpiercer with moving parts that is no bigger then my hand. I'm sure he can easily replicate your tools."
"Back on your train?" Dr. Headwood quickly asked. "What good does it do me to have him making tools on your train?"
"We can arrange to have them sent over." Melanie replied. "Or are you completely unaware of the counterban trade between the trains?"
The woman suddenly made a good show of looking affronted at the mere suggestion. "I wouldn't know anything about things like that." She stated empirically. "I'm a scientist." But that didn't stop her from turning back to the blacksmith. "I can help heal your hand. But only in return for new tools."
Hes considered the offer. "One handed Blacksmith is not much good to either train." He finally agreed.
Walking over to a cabinet, she took out a key and unlocked the door. "It will take time for the hand to heal." She said as she took out a large metal pail that Melanie instantly recognized. "And while it's healing you have to let it rest. That means no heavy work. But it's good to move it some. To keep the new skin loose and flexible." She stated, looking up at the man.
Hes nodded slightly as he watched her open the cylinder and take out a second smaller metal container, but bigger than the one Melanie remembered.
Putting on a pair of gloves, Dr. Headwood carefully opened the container.
"For first application, we'll make sure the whole hand is covered." She explained, pointing to the now open container. "Put your hand in."
Hes leaned down slightly and looked inside the container. From what he could tell the container had nothing in it but a slightly congealed glue, and he wasn't any too eager to put his injured hand in it. But the woman gave a derisive sigh and grabbed the blacksmith's hand and dunked it unceremoniously into the container.
Hes immediately started to pull his hand out, but then met the scientist's firm stare.
"Leave it!" She stated.
Suddenly releasing his hand, Dr. Headwood walked over to a drawer and pulled out what to Melanie looked like a large woolen glove. Taking it back over to where Hes dutifully still had his hand soaking in the container, she yanked his hand out and carefully slipped the covering over it.
"He'll need to repeat the treatment every day for at least a week." She replied. "I'll send some goop with you for him. After this treatment, he'll only have to dab it over his hand carefully. Don't try to rub it in." She cautioned, turning back to Hes. "You'll likely end up peeling off any new tissue growth if you do that. Carefully dab it over the area." She reiterated as she demonstrated the method on his hand.
Hes watched carefully, then nodded his understanding when she finished.
Walking over to Melanie, the woman handed her the container.
"He'll need to wear the covering until the hand is healed." Dr. Headwood told her. "Once it reaches that stage, he should be able to work on my tools. When he's finished he can wrap them up in the glove and sent them back over to Big Alice. I assume you would have a way to do that."
Melanie only nodded quickly. All she really wanted was to get the container and get out of the lab as quickly as possible. From her previous encounters with the Dr's. Headwood, neither one of them exactly tipped the scales in favor of 'moderately stable' in her opinion.
As she tried to take the container from her, Dr. Headwood held onto it for a moment as she caught Melanie's stare.
"Play me false and you will regret it." She stated in a no nonsense manner.
Melanie quickly shook her head.
"Good. Now get out of my lab." She stated, walking back over to the counter as she turned her back to them.
Melanie quickly signaled to Alex and Hes to follow her as she headed for the door. She allowed both of them to exit first before turning back to the scientist, who still stood with her back to them.
"Thank you." She offered to the woman.
Dr. Headwood paused for a moment before giving her final warning. "Get out before I sound the alarm."
Melanie quickly exited the lab, her prize held firmly in her hands.
Out in the corridor, Melanie quickly joined Alex and Hes. The man had told them they had thirty minutes. By her estimates, they were just about out of time before the two guards would meet up again and head back down the corridor they were in. Her main goal was to get them back to the Priest Hole and hide there until the guards left the area. Then make for the nearest tunnel and head for the boarder.
Reaching the Priest Hole undetected, Melanie felt their plan could now move forward smoothly. She had her daughter and Hes and the cure for Hes' frostbite. All that was left to do was get to the border, access the nearest cold lock, get them all suited up and outside and over to Snowpiercer via the ladder walk on the top if the trains.
The crossing between the trains would be the most dangerous part of the journey. And to her knowledge neither Hes nor Alex had ever been outside of the train, let alone on the top while it was moving. So she used their time in the Priest Hole to try and explain to them what it would be like and how to navigate the dangerous path between the trains.
When she felt it was safe, Melanie slowly opened the door to the corridor. She had heard the two guards meet up in the hallway and, after a brief discussion, moved on down the corridor towards the Headwood's lab.
Unsure if Dr. Headwood was still in the lab or how much they could really trust the woman, Melanie moved them along the corridor to the next tunnel as quickly as she could,
Her sole goal at this point was to leave Big Alice as quickly as possible.
But suddenly, without warning, a figure stepped out in front of them, clearly blocking their path.
"Well, now, little lucky-ducky," a young woman with thick brownish hair piled in a loose sort of fashion on top of her head stated in the thickest cockney accent Melanie had ever heard, "what have we got here?"