Bury The Shadows

Part 5

Max and Amelia were only a tiny part in a huge operation. The facility was an illegal lab used for cruel experiments dabbling in the affects of isolation and harsh environment on the brain, and dangerous drug testing. The police hadn't know about its existence until they received an anonymous tip a few months ago, telling the location and what was going on there. They'd been skeptical but looked into it, shocked when they discovered it was true. They'd then started to plan an operation to arrest the scientists and guards, and rescue the prisoners.

Hundreds of police and doctors had come together, and they spent hours pulling people out. The facility was out in the middle of nowhere, in a pine forest about 45 minutes away from the nearest city. 

Amelia rubbed her eyes as she pulled into the hospital's drive, parking in the emergency entrance. This was one of the many hospitals ready to take in patients being brought from the lab, since the rescuers had no way of knowing whether they would need medical attention or not. Two nurses came rushing out of the building and flung open the back of the ambulance.

They wheeled the stretcher down and onto the pavement, and Max followed them inside, helping push. Amelia drove away, headed back to the lab to make another trip. They rolled the stretcher through the halls, checking Silver's temperature and vitals along the way. 

"He's not doing so good," Nurse 1 warned as she pulled the thermometer out from the muzzle they hadn't been able to get off yet. "His fever's at 103.1 and he's shaking like crazy. His breathing is weak."

"We're here." Nurse 2 said, flinging open a door and pulling the stretcher inside the dim, warm room. They gently transferred him to the bed and began to treat his wounds. They started an IV and hooked him up to machines while Max examined the muzzle. The leather had metal wiring inside of it, so they wouldn't be able to just cut it off. They'd have to unlock it. Nurse 1 glanced up as she pushed little sticky pads onto Silver's bare chest.

"Is that a muzzle?" She muttered, disbelief and horror twisting her face.

"Yeah," Max said, helping attach clips with wires running from them to the pads. "I guess he was trying to fight when they hurt him like this, and biting must have been the only thing he could do." 

Both nurses shook their heads. They got him set up on a heart monitor, and electrolytes and pain medicine in the IV. They pulled a heated blanket over him and turned off the brighter light, leaving Max to watch over him in the dim glow. He sat in an armchair, too shaken up by what he'd seen to fall asleep.

On his way into the lab, he'd passed rows and rows of cramped cells. Tiny hallways. Bars and locks everywhere. He understood that prison was like that, but these were mostly innocent people. How could they live like that without losing their minds? Not to mention the experiments they performed there. He'd heard the police talking about crazy drug trials and painful 'testing' of the body's limits. At the very least, he'd also heard that all the drug shit didn't begin until a subject was fully grown; around twenty years old. And this boy looked too young for that.

The sound of the door opening brought Max from his thoughts. An old man in coveralls came in, the name of his locksmith business printed in large graphics across his uniform. His nametag said 'Stan'. He walked over, taken aback by what he saw. 

"School bullies," Max lied. "God knows where they found a muzzle."

Stan nodded, setting down his tool bag and opening it. "This ain't no regular dog muzzle," He examined the contraption around Silver's face, tugging on the straps and fiddling with the locks. "Why do kids think its alright to do things like this?" He muttered to himself as he pulled a tool from his bag and began to pick the locks.

It took Stan 10 minutes to get the muzzle off, and he and Max stared at the raw spots on Silver's face where the leather had dug in, rubbing holes in his flesh. There were also spots of dried blood here and there that the muzzle had covered. Stan shook his head as he said farewell and left, and Max began to clean the blood and treat the raw spots.