Dreams of Reality (23 page)

She loved a deadline.

“I have worked damn hard to get this drug invented. What pimp wouldn’t want his hands on this?” Alan went over to the tray Dr. Carter had brought in. “If the American government won’t approve of it, then maybe my friends in the underground will support me in my effort to give women more freedom. I have made it possible for the middle-aged American woman to explore what her soul really wants. Sexual freedom.”

“You’ll never get away with this, Alan. There are too many connections to your father that lead to you. You’ll be caught and put away.” Thaddeus decided to buy time by talking out everything.

Hopefully Craig was on his way and would save them somehow. He tried his bonds but he figured that big oaf of a killer would have double tied everything to make sure they wouldn’t get out this time. He knew Skye must be in pain as tight as her ropes looked. He surveyed the room. There were three men, plus Laroche, Dr. Carter and Alan present in the room.

Before Alan began speaking to them again, he told one of the guards to gather everyone up and get the supplies down to the boats, because he would be joining them shortly. “I will get away with it, because with the vials we’ve collected I have done what these doctors and street pharmacists have only dreamed of. You or your stupid cop friends won’t be able to stop me.”

Thaddeus snorted. It sounded so cliché—ick. “So you intend to kill me, get away with the money and the supplies, then live happily ever after in South America or some beach in Jamaica?”

“Oh no. I’m gong to inject you with our drug. It won’t do what it does to women. It has a counter effect. The large dose of estrogen takes away the sexual drive of man, and instead of going unconscious to get hallucinations, you’ll be wide awake and see things like you’ve never seen before. It’s the perfect high, Thaddeus. You will go slowly insane and soon you won’t be able to function like a normal human being. You will slowly go crazy and no one can stop it. No one! In men, the drug does not have to be injected into you several times; It reacts to the testosterone levels in your system and produce the exact same drug increasing naturally as the synthetic form decreases. No one will know what is wrong with you, as your body and mind grow weak and soon you will perish from mental health and no one will be the wiser. It will affect you instantly so by the time the police arrive, you’ll be too out of your mind to do anything.” He laughed wickedly.

Dr. Carter prepared three needles to be used and set them on a small table near Skye’s chair, right by her arm. “You have three needles. What do you intend to do with the other two?”

Alan turned towards Skye and Trisha. “Although Ms Patterson has been useful in our experiments, Thaddeus, she had become a bad investments. She knows too much and that is not good.” He leaned his face inches from Skye’s eyes. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you ignorance is bliss, Ms Patterson?”

The second backhand against the other side of her face made her see double. He would have delivered another, but Dr. Carter stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

“She’ll get hers with the overdose.”

Alan cursed under his breath giving Skye a vicious look. “I’m going to take pleasure in watching you die, but I want you to see how you’re going to die first.” He went over to Trisha and held her head back.

Trisha pleaded with Alan for her life.

“Why don’t you tell them Trisha? Tell them how you begged me to accept Mr. Newman and find him a really nice girl. Boy weren’t you surprised to see them working together. It is all your fault they are in this mess, but that is fine. Seeing you die will pleasure me in a way you have never done.” His face was mere centimeters from her.

She screamed as the needle was pushed into her arm, but he didn’t pump the chemical inside of her yet.

Skye remained calm and steadily worked at the rope. She was halfway through. Alan had his back to her and the tray with two more needles filled with the chemical sat right next to her arm. If she could just unthread a little faster everything would be fine.

“Alan, please,” Trisha begged. “I’m going to be your wife.”

“You were my sweet.” He kissed her forehead and Trisha let out the most gut wrenching blood-curdling scream Skye had ever heard from anyone making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Thaddeus watched as her body went limp when the liquid in the vial disappeared into her arm.

Trisha’s whole body began to jostle in painful spasms. Alan went over to Skye who had her face turned away. “Watch,” he sneered holding her head stiff so she could watch as Trisha’s body reacted violently to the high dose of chemical given to her. “Yours will be even worse you know,” he jeered in a whisper near her ear.

As he talked, she used this time to go even faster pretending her movements were of struggling. She was quarter of a way done.

Trisha was trying to fight. Her words gurgled in her throat as the sporadic moments became demoniac moments of pain and torture.

Skye wanted to screams, to cry, to save Trisha from the awful distress. It was too late. There was no antidote. Once taken in that amount, there would not be anything to save anyone.

Trisha suddenly stopped convulsing and her wide big brown doe eyes met Skye’s. “F-Freeee... y-yaaa—sooofff,” she forcefully gurgled out, then her body began again more demonic spasms as thick white saliva shot out her throat and nose.

Everyone, except Skye was engrossed at the death dance Trisha’s body elicited. The room seemed mesmerized as Trisha fought to stay alive, screaming incoherently. Skye knew Trisha was holding on for her sake. Trisha must have known Skye was trying to become free.

At that moment, just when Skye knew Trisha could not fight it anymore, the last thread flicked away. Alan was engrossed in watching his fiancée die. The rope fell away from her arm and Skye knew her plan of action.

Thaddeus’ peripheral vision saw the rope fall from Skye’s wrist. It was slow motion from then on as she wrenched from Alan’s grasp. The man was so shocked he couldn’t stop her and before he alerted anyone she grabbed the syringes off the table next to her and jabbed one in his eye. Thaddeus saw the liquid vomit into his face from the needlepoint.

A second later, Skye had attained a knife out of her sock and freed her other wrist. She flicked the knife to the floor at Thad’s feet as Dr. Carter came for her. With the second syringe in her left hand, she swiftly fought away his arms that tried to grab her with her right hand, and jabbed the long needle in his neck, but she didn’t release it.

Carter felt the needle turn a little. “Dammit do as she says!” he hissed deathly afraid to move. He looked over at Alan, whose body was convulsing on the floor.

She moved to get comfortable, never letting go the needle in his neck. Bending him back into her, with her body behind him, she was able to look at the entire room. “You didn’t tell the others why the drugs make woman go crazy, did you, Carter?” she asked him.

“I-I don’t know what you mean,” he pretended not to know nervously.

“It slowly eats away the myelin in the brain; the only protection which guards the nerves from being exposed. You didn’t tell them, because you knew what it would do. Didn’t you? So you had them killed because either one of them found out, or they already knew too much.”

“I killed them for what they knew. H-How did you find out about the myelin?”

“I had samples broken down. One of the chemicals used is a substance that eats feeds on the protein the myelin has, but controls the subconscious. You planned on taking over the world like that, Carter?”

“I had big plans for the drug, you’ll destroy it all if you kill me. I could help people with brain injuries become new people. Permanent identity losses could be regenerated. I could use it to tap in the human subconscious and open tremendous possibilities for the neurology community.”

“Instead you decide to use it on unsuspecting woman for a two bit pimp!” she sneered. “I should kill you just for that.”

He cried out feeling the needle pressing into his skin more. “The greater good! It was all for the greater good.”

Suddenly the door opened and Craig burst in. Thaddeus jumped up from the chair and at the same time, the giant used the distraction of the door opening to grab his gun out his jacket and aim it at Skye.

Thaddeus lunged for Laroche’s brawny arm, throwing his weight against the man. The gun went off and the second gunman went down who was just about to aim for Craig.

“Freeze!” Craig yelled.

In the same instant, Skye became diverted by the action and Carter used this opportunity to grab her wrist pulling the needle out his neck then shoved her against the wall.

Craig pressed the gun against Dr. Carter’s temple. “I said freeze asshole.”

The gun Thaddeus and Laroche were wrestling for went off again. This bullet went straight through Craig’s right shoulder throwing him against the door. Dr. Carter ran out the room. Skye who had been a bit shaken got up and ran after Dr. Carter. Laroche threw Thaddeus off of him and barreled out the room after Skye.

Thaddeus ran to Craig to see how seriously hurt he was. Craig screeched as Thaddeus shook him. He pressed his gun in Thaddeus hand. “Go after her. She’s going to get herself killed.” He pulled out a walkie-talkie for backup and medic to come right away.

Thaddeus ran out the door and down the stairs. He could hear footsteps below him and figured they were heading to the lower levels. Following their path would take forever. He had to beat them to the lower levels before they got there. He spotted a pole that secured the rails connecting each level together and jumped up to get ahold of it. Sliding carefully down to the second level, then to the first where Dr. Carter was just arriving at the bottom of the steps. He was looking behind him to see where Skye was so he didn’t see when Thaddeus jumped in front of him. Once he turned his head, Thaddeus took the butte of the gun and drove it into Dr. Carter’s forehead.

The man flew back almost knocking Skye down. Thaddeus, stepping by Dr. Carter’s head, grabbed her behind him, then aimed the gun at the steps as the giant started to burrow down.

“Get out of here,” he ordered her then shot over Laroche’s head, which made the Goliath instantly stop on the middle of the steps and hold up the gun as if to surrender. Yet his eyes were filled with hate and... death.

Skye started running out the building, but halted near the large cargo doors to see what happened.

“Throw the gun down here,” Thaddeus ordered.

Instead of throwing the weapon down to Thaddeus’ feet, he tossed it about six feet to the right near some cargo boxes that read: DANGER! HARZARDOUS CHEMICALS.

In a menacing voice that sounded like a thick deep chain rattling, he said, “You’ll never live to see another day.”

“You are the one who won’t be living, you sick fuck, now get down here slowly—” Thaddeus was grabbed from the back of his leg by the doctor and pushed off balance. He fell back as his gun was flung out of his hands from his fall. He kicked at the side of Dr. Carter’s temple and instantly knocked the doctor out again, but the giant came barreling down the steps, grabbing Thaddeus by his collar.

Thaddeus was lifted two feet off the ground, trying to swing his legs to do some bodily damage to the Goliath’s legs. Laroche’s meaty fist jammed into his jaw, sending Thaddeus sprawling to the floor. He got up—dazed—on the defense, but not sure which way was up.

Laroche smiled almost amazed at this young man’s stamina. This one was big, but Laroche was larger, yet he felt he hadn’t had a good physical challenge in a long while. Killing the fresh buck with his bare hands would give him great pleasure.

Skye watched as Thaddeus ducked from those huge swings Laroche delivered and whenever the defenses were down, Thaddeus got a good punch into the chest or face. He was quick and hit hard whenever he got a chance, but she knew if Laroche got in just a couple of hits, Thaddeus wouldn’t see the light of day again. Searching the floor, she noted the gun near their fighting and decided to run for it.

Thaddeus saw her, and this distracted him. Those stone fists of Laroche's came horribly down on his chest almost knocking the breathe out of him again. This gave Laroche time to run for the gun, which was Skye’s direction as well.

She picked the weapon up first and aimed the .38 at him, but the first shot went right past his ear to a small barrel of paint thinner that exploded instantly upon impact across the warehouse floor.

There wasn’t a lot of flammable liquid inside the barrel because the blast didn’t scatter a lot of debris. Before she could get another shot off, Laroche grabbed her around her waist and lifted her against him, almost squeezing the wind from her body to make her drop the gun to the floor. She gasped for air, then curled her head down and clamped her teeth into his arm, at the same time lifting her ankle and hitting his groin with the heel of her shoes.

Laroche dropped from the severe pain letting her go as well, but then saw his mistake and tried to reach for her again, while standing up.

With all his might, Thaddeus charged for Laroche and tackled him in the stomach. Laroche, feeling himself losing balance, grabbed Thaddeus jacket and they fell down together near the liquid flames burning all around them. Thaddeus situated himself in the upper position, on top of Laroche, somehow getting his arms pinned underneath his knees and began to swing like mad at his face.