Smash Into You (18 page)

             
I focused on her face and it all stopped. "Huh?"

             
"I've been talking… Your pupils are dilated, Jude." She huffed an angry breath. "They gave you a concussion," she growled. "We've got to get you out of here."

             
"We can't leave those kids."

             
"We can't just walk them out of here either. We need to find a phone or…" she shrugged quickly, "I don't know. Something."

             
"I never saw any phones in the offices we were in. I bet we have to go topside for that. They wouldn't want them to have access to the outside."

             
She wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Well, then let's go topside."

             
She started taking me the opposite way, past all the kid's rooms that I hadn't known were back there. "I saw a few of them go this way. We may run into some of them," she said and nodded to steel herself. "It'll be OK."

             
"Here," I told her. We stopped long enough for me to put the handgun in her hand and show her how to shoot the first round. "Just point and shoot."

             
"No cocking or loading or…swiveling something?"

             
I laughed, even in my state. "No, sweetheart. Not this one."

             
This must've been where the other wings were because we came upon another hallway of doors. I heard Marley's gasp as we passed the first room. They were doing a medical procedure on a small boy, maybe eight or nine. He was screaming, we could tell, but the soundproof glass kept the sound from us.

             
The awful image of his mouth in the shape of a painful, silent 'O' would be with me for the rest of my life.

             
The doctors were busy and hadn't heard or seen us, but the boy and Marley were staring at each other. Marley pressed her hands to the glass and failed at holding in a sob.

             
The doctor pulled a long needle from the boy's back and turned to see us. He looked at the other one and he ran for something. To press a security button, I was sure.

             
Adrenaline shot through my veins. I raced him, opening the door and jamming my fist into his jaw and then his gut before he could make it to the red panic button by the door. The other one held his hands up, looking stricken, like we were the bad guys in this scenario. Marley helped the boy, putting the bandage they had laid out for him on, and helping him stand.

             
He didn't know Marley from Eve, but he clung to her and stared at the doctor, shivering so badly that his teeth were banging waiting for his next move. I couldn't help myself. I reared back and punched that doctor, too, but not enough to knock him out, just enough to piss him off and feel an ounce of what he'd done to that boy needlessly.

             
"We don't have money or drugs here, you stupid kids." He stood from where I'd knocked him and glared at me, holding his cheek. "We're not a hospital. We don't have pain meds here."

             
"Yeah," Marley spouted. "You torture your patients, so why would you need pain medicine?"

             
"Torture?" He shook his head. "No, little girl, you don't know what you're talking about. We are doing good work here."

             
"We know all about the mission statement," I spouted. "And that little boy just gave you his permission to poke and prod him?"

             
"His mother did-"

             
"For one," I cut in, "I highly doubt that, and two, you're an idiot if you believe that holding kids down and making them suffer is a respectable way to make a living."

             
"We are saving lives here, young man. We're gonna cure cancer someday."

             
"OK, so you
are
an idiot. What to do with you now?" I growled and lifted my gun a little. He gasped.

             
The doctor on the floor woke and yelled, "Stop! Don't! You can't hurt him! He's the best doctor we have and the only one who can perform the Mohs surgery to give the specialists the samples they need!"

             
I didn't know what Mohs surgery was, but if it gave the guy samples, I didn't think I wanted to know. But it did give me an idea.

             
I ticked my head toward the door, hoping I was hiding my pain well, and told the super special doctor to come with us. He glared at the doctor on the floor for the ammunition he'd given us. We thanked him by tying him to a steel table leg under the window line where no one would see him.

SIXTEEN

             
Marley held the boy's hand. He seemed embarrassed to be in a hospital gown and kept tugging at the back, but she assured him he was covered. As for the doc, well, he walked with my gun to his head. I told him we needed a phone and he said there was none.

             
I was barely holding on. He was so focused on the gun that he didn't realize I was about to keel over, but if he'd just get a real good look at me, he'd see. I blinked and opened my eyes wide to clear them. We passed a fire alarm on the wall as we exited the medical wing and into another hall. I told Marley to pull it. If it was hooked to the system like it should be, the fire department would come and so would the police.

             
The doctor showed the first signs of fighting back when he tried to stop her. I pressed the barrel to his cheek. "Wow, you really are an idiot, huh?"

             
"You don't realize what you're doing!" he roared just as she pulled it.

             
She had to beat the glass with the butt of the gun several times before it broke. She pulled the lever. The sirens went off in the form of red flashing lights on the ceiling and a whir so loud, my ears were ringing. The boy covered his ears, but Marley hugged him to her and looked around.

             
I dragged the doctor over with me to the rooms on that wing. We didn't know who were in those rooms, but we couldn't leave without checking. They were all locked and I was afraid to shoot at the door for fear of hitting them. Dang. We'd have to get topside and then get the police down there as soon as possible to let them out.

             
I started down the hall, leading the way, but Marley yelled my name. I stopped and she tried to yell over the siren, but I couldn't hear her. She pointed down the hall we'd just been from and I felt my heart lift at what we saw. The siren must have triggered a safety measure from the building's system. All the doors down the hall had unlocked and opened automatically, and into the hall spilled several pregnant women along with more children and even some women that had babies in their arms.

             
I counted at least eleven. They all looked around curiously, and at seeing us, they understandably looked spooked. Marley raised her hands, pulling the boy who wouldn't let go with her, and tried to tell them something over the siren. I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes.

             
I felt sick to my stomach. We needed to get out of there.

             
When I opened my eyes, Marley was coming back and looking at me worriedly. I shook my head at her. I didn't want the doc to know all he had to do was give me a good elbow and I'd be down for the count.

             
The women seemed on board so I led the way, opting to put the gun into his back instead so we could move faster. I yelled into his ear, "I will shoot you if you run. Don't think for a second that I won't."

             
Around the corner ran two minions and they skidded to a stop at seeing the doc with us. I put the gun into view at his head and they looked at each other before going back the way they came.

             
When we came to the kid's ward, I only hoped that pulling the alarm got the officials on the way. Things were underway now.

             
I wondered why they didn't just keep making the same women grow kids instead of getting new ones every time. It would seem, from a logical standpoint, that it would be easier to cover up less missing women.

             
As a huddle, with me leading the way, we trekked down the hall back to the stairs leading up topside. The last corner revealed the reason why I had started to think it was all too easy.

             
They were waiting for us.

             
He somehow had the siren turned off and started talking, but my ears were ringing again and it took a few seconds to focus and catch up. The suit had a couple of his men with him, but the rest were leaving out the stairwell.

             
"So, you found our secret weapon." He seemed upset, but resolved. That scared me more than anything at that point. "You just had to come here, just had to know everything, didn't you?" He stepped forward three small steps and was so angry that he spit when he talked. "You just think you need to know everything. That it would ease you and tuck you in at night knowing that your mothers loved you. That by coming here and learning the truth that all the hurt would just flit away. You're fools. Vincent was justified to chase you so vigorously. He told me you'd be trouble. That by you being out there, you put our whole program in jeopardy. If anyone finds out about what we do here, they would shut us down. They wouldn't understand the good things we're doing because they can't get past the gruesome parts that have to happen for cures to be found. You're not going to cure cancer by working on monkeys and mice. You want to cure human cancer, you need to study human subjects. We work very hard to keep everything under wraps. Your mothers escaping was a fluke, an accident, and we needed to correct it. Vincent was
the reason
your mother got away. It's why he chased her and now you so diligently." I felt my lips part at his statement. "She slipped right through his fingers, on his watch, but I won't be letting you. And then finding out that Marley, who we've also searched for all her life, was right there with you? It was as if we were destined to find you and bring you both here, back to where it all started. Fated to die so that others may live. I can't give you the chance to ruin all this. You two being alive is evidence against us." I was confused by that. "I won't allow it. I
can't
allow it."

             
I looked back at Marley. She was already looking at me. I turned back to the suit.

             
"Move. Let us through or your precious doctor paints the walls." I moved the gun to his temple. He whimpered.

             
"I'm sorry, Charles," he said. I realized he was talking to the doctor. "I can't risk the entire program for one man."

             
My arms spread with goosebumps at how calm his voice was.

             
"Paul," the doctored reasoned, "come now. Just let them go and all is fine."

             
"I can't let him go. Any of them. They all know too much."

             
Marley gasped, getting his meaning. The doctor pleaded, "You need me! You know you do."

             
"You're right. I do. And the program will suffer for a while until we find a replacement for you and all the test subjects, but…" He shrugged and stepped back. He pulled an old silver flip lighter from his pocket and lit it. The two guards with him pulled small, red cans from the side and began to pour. Gasoline… "It's what we have to do to keep things going. For the greater good."

             
"Shoot him, you fool!" the doc yelled at me.

             
"I shoot, we all go up in flames."

             
"Paul!" he screamed. "Paul, don't do this. I have a daughter!"

             
He smiled sadly at him. "Don’t we all."

             
The lighter fell in slow motion, it seemed. I let the doc go because it was pointless anymore.

             
The fatal liquid had created a wall of fire between them and us and then started to run for us as it chased the gasoline. I saw the suit swing out the door, leaving us all to our deaths.

             
We ran. The doctor took off, leaving us all, but Marley and I both had the same idea.

             
We couldn't leave the kids by the observation room. We ran to the cove of doors, all of them open from the alarms just like the others had been, but the kids had been too scared to leave their rooms. They joined us in the hall with some urgent coaxing. We hadn't made any mother-child reunions though because they all seemed like they didn't know each other. I shook my head. I had hoped, but that meant…their mothers were gone.

             
But that would have to wait until later.

             
"Come on!" I yelled to them and we took off down the hall. Every hall reached a dead end and as the fire spread into the rooms and ceiling, our oxygen started to become scarce. The last hallway we hadn't been down was our last hope. I led the way, the adrenaline kicking in, keeping me focused, my head injury forgotten.

             
There were no windows, no access to the roof from ceiling panels because it was concrete, no doors that led anywhere but circles of more rooms… We were trapped. They had known that was the only way out and we'd never leave. Their secrets would die with us all, along with their evidence and their files.

             
Everyone must have seen my defeated look, because they began to cry. The lights cut out next, leaving us in the dark all except the glow from the fire creeping closer from the main hallway. We all sat or knelt on the floor. Between the coughing, hugging, and crying in the dark, there was no noise but the roar of the fire.

             
I pulled Marley to me, my hands lovingly caressing her face, and kissed her over and over again as slowly as possible. If this was the way I was going to die, then I was going to go out letting her know I loved her. Though we hadn't said the words didn't mean that I wasn't absolutely in love with her. And I wasn't going to say them now just because we were dying, because that would cheat her. Even in death, I didn't want that for her. So I showed her instead.

             
"I'm so glad that you smashed into me with your car," I said and smiled at her. "I wouldn't change a thing about meeting you except that I didn't get more time with you."

             
She sucked in a ragged breath and let her tears fall as she smiled. "You hit me, buddy."

             
"OK," I conceded, though it was absolutely not true. "I'll let you have that one this time." I caressed her cheek with my fingers, knowing there wouldn't be a
next time
. "You took my soul and wiped all the dirt away, sweetheart. You cured me of all that ached."

             
She bit her lip so hard, I thought it would bleed. "I'm so glad I hit you that day, too. I'm so glad that I got to see the Jude that no one else sees."

             
I gulped as she ran her thumb across the scar on my neck. "You never told me how you got this."

             
I gripped her tighter as the girls beside me cried harder. "It was the only time Biloxi ever got his hands on me." She sat enraptured, even with everything going on. She needed me to keep her focused on this and I wanted to give her that. "Mom and I had just gotten to Mississippi. We were checking into this little studio apartment that comes furnished with things you need. I went out to the car to get our last bag of clothes and someone grabbed me from behind and tackled me, smashing my chin into the concrete step." She winced on my behalf. "Not three seconds later, mom came out and hit him in the side of the head with a cast-iron skillet. We packed up our crap, lickety split, and she took care of me herself with butterfly bandages. She couldn't take me to the hospital…so it left a big scar."

             
"She saved you once again."

             
"She was always saving me."

             
She cried harder. "I wish I could have gotten to meet her."

             
I smiled, feeling the prick of tears surfacing, knowing my next words were true. "She would have fallen in love with you, too."

             
She kissed me hard and held on, her lips wet with tears. I felt someone jerking on my sleeve and looked down at the little boy Marley had saved.

             
He pointed to one of the kid's rooms. "What is it, buddy?"

             
"They caught me once," he said and ran for the room. I followed with Marley in tow. He pulled the closet open and in the top of it was a wood panel. I looked at him in surprise.

             
"They caught me once when I climbed up. It's just a lot of buttons and wires up there."

             
Marley laughed and kissed his cheek. "You're a genius."

             
He wiped it off as I grabbed the chair from the corner and slammed it open, looking inside. There was some smoke up there, which meant the air ducts were probably close to the fire. The fire would be up there soon, too. It was all wood.

             
I hopped down and grabbed him, shoving him into the hole and helped Marley go next. Then I ran to get the others in the hall. They went as quickly as they could, but by the time they were all helped up the hole, the fire had reached the room.