Route 66

13 Terror

I must have blacked out, because the next thing I felt was agonizing pain. Staring at the discolored ceiling that had once been white, every part of me was overcome by a visceral dread. I was completely paralyzed.

The throbbing in my head was so intense it felt like someone was trying to pry my skull open with a crowbar and an intense shooting sensation overloaded my extremities. My chest ached with every breath making it impossible to cry out.

What kind of a hospital was this? Was it even a hospital at all? I was lying on a cold, hard surface with not even a pillow under my head.

Through my lower periphery I could see a crumpled sheet thrown carelessly across my body with blood stains smeared over it. The sheet wasn't there for my comfort but as a utility, much like a mechanic uses a rag to wipe away excess oil and then flings it across the hood of a car. Several needles attached to thin tubes were stuck deep into the veins of both arms and snaked up and down to various containers with assorted liquids.

Suddenly, I heard a sound near the front of the room and Dr. Borden and Randolph came in. They were arguing about something and didn't seem to notice me. My hearing must have been affected because it sounded like I was listening to them under water. Randolph's face was flush with anger as he yelled, "No! No Andrew! I won't deliver an imperfect product to the Soviets."

Dr. Borden shook his head and said, "Randolph, listen to reason, she's a freak of humanity, do you understand? A freak! The serum has worked with every other test subject and the chances that it will have diminished potency with anyone else is negligible."

Randolph's veins bulged from his neck as anger rose to a fever pitch. He grabbed Dr. Borden by his collar, shoved him up against the wall, and yelled, "Listen to me very carefully, I demand perfection and that is what I'm going to get. We don't notify the Soviets unless I get the serum to work with all test subjects including HER!"

Borden nodded quickly with a nervous chuckle, and said, "Of course, whatever you say."

Randolph released his grip abruptly and Andrew staggered through what appeared to be a hidden door made to look like part of the wall.

The fiend pressed fingers to his head, deep in thought, and then turned around and stared directly at me for the first time since he'd come in. Then he walked over, sat down on a rusty chair, bore his eyes into mine, and gave me a slight smile.

"And how is my stubborn girl feeling today? It's been four days now and your body still won't cooperate. What makes you so special? Anyone else who's been in contact with my serum has perished within a day. I've mixed it into bodies of water larger than your lake and it's worked every single time. No one yet has survived. "

Randolph clenched one of the containers filled to the top with some sort of a crimson liquid and said, "See? I'm even pumping the undiluted serum directly into your veins and you're still alive."

Then he crouched down right next to my ear and whispered, "Your friend suffocated on the first day just like she was supposed to."

I gasped for air with bulging eyes as the monster grinned with twisted pleasure. My bottom lip trembled in terror as his grin soon turned into a dark, maniacal frown and he said, "You enjoy defying me, I can see that."

Then he stood directly over me, and without warning, brutally slapped my face again, and again, and again, yelling,

"Why!"

Won't!"

"You!"

"Die!!!"

Dr. Borden rushed in and exclaimed, "Randolph, contain yourself! We want to be sure that she expires from the administration of the serum, not from being beaten to death!"

Randolph caught himself in mid-slap, breathing heavily, as sweat dripped down his chest.

"Of course, you're right," he conceded.

Then he made his way towards the hidden door and just before leaving, glanced over his shoulder at me with a smirk of satisfaction and said, "I always win."