The Lost and the Damned (19 page)

Katie was immediately taken aback by the question. “This place? This place. This place. This is… This is The Well.”

“The Well? Doing well well, or grab some water for Little House on the Prairie well?”

“The second one, the Laura Engels one. I think,” she said, lapsing into a moment of silence. “It was never explained to me. It was just called that. But it’s a powerful place.” She stared in the direction of the pyramid, as if she could see it through the trailer. “It was the last place I saw before…” She looked down at the ground and whispered, “Before…”

“Hey, hey,” I said, snapping my fingers, trying to break her from another fit of introspection. The last thing I needed was for her to go catatonic again. For all her cursing and challenging, I’d rather have the walking talking Katie rather than the drowsy little girl. “It doesn’t matter. I was just curious. It doesn’t really matter much at all. I can work out the rest myself. It’s some sort of research site, maybe in Mexico or South America or something. Either high elevation, or Autumn, because it’s rather cool today.”

“You don’t know where we are?” she asked, confused.

“Nope,” I said, “We’ve only been here fifteen minutes or so. Before that…”

“Before that what?”

“Nah, it’d be more that you don’t believe. Let’s just say we got dumped here and I’m trying to figure out a way to get you home.”

“But why don’t you just tell me, even if I don’t believe –“

“Shhh!” I said, a finger in front of my mouth. I heard footsteps. I heard someone kicking pebbles and crunching gravel coming this way. I crouched down to the space between the ground and the trailer, hissing as pain returned to my busted ankle. I crouched in the dirt, looking under the trailer at the approaching legs on the other side. Katie crouched with me and I knew if we needed to hide, we could crawl underneath the trailer. I wasn’t looking forward to getting dirt all over my suit, but the option was there.

I watched the legs. Dark slacks, black shoes. Maybe loafers; pricey, no matter what they were, especially for wandering around in this dirt. I wondered if we had been found out. Katie had been screaming, but that had been at least ten minutes ago. That would be a very delayed reaction for only one person to respond. Moreover, their gait was a determined walk, not the walk of someone searching. I could be wrong and the guy could be carrying an AK-47 with his top half, but my instinct told me if we laid low we could be okay.

The person came over to the trailer, stopping on the other side. I heard the jingle of keys and the unlocking of a door. The door opened and the legs stepped up, entering the trailer. I stood a little taller in my crouch, both to listen and to be ready to run. I looked at Katie and reiterated my finger in front of my mouth. Staying quiet was imperative now, but she seemed to understand that quite well. I was too used to the old Katie, this new Katie had more sense. No, I checked myself. This wasn’t the new Katie, this was the real Katie.

Listening to the side of the trailer, I heard the man stop for a moment, then start walking again. The door opened again and the man stepped out. He locked the door and began to walk away. We both breathed a sigh of relief and returned to a standing position. I leaned toward the edge of the trailer to look around, then froze.

“Dr. McNeil! W-Wait!” called out a voice.

I crouched and saw that the legs had frozen in place. A second pair ran up to him.

“What is it, Schraeder?” said the original man reluctantly. Dr. McNeil, I assumed.

“I w-wanted to talk about El-Ellison,” said the second man. That voice was familiar.

“Yes? Do you have a problem with his work?” said the doctor, annoyed.

“N-no. It’s about the puh-puh-promotion.”

“What about it? I think Ellison is quite a capable man to fill in as lead of the EM Metrics team. I personally recommended him for it.”

“B-but what about m-me?” I knew that voice and that stutter.

“What about you, Schraeder?” said the doctor, clearly pained by this conversation.

“I-I’ve been working l-longer and I-I’ve also been on the EM M-metrics team longer. Ellison is n-new. I tr-tr-trained him. I sh-should have gotten that puh-promotion first.”

“Schraeder, we’ve been over this before. Mere seniority does not get you promoted. We are a meritocracy, a cultivation of great minds for the furtherment of knowledge. All you do is work your console. You do not show leadership, you do not show other skills. You do not show greatness. And that is what we value.”

“B-but my job isn’t to do those th-things. My job is to m-measure at my console. I do that w-well.”

“And that is why you will continue to be employed for that job,” said Dr. McNeil. “That and no more.”

“B-but I d-deserve it!”

The doctor’s voice lowered. “Max, you are an idiot with no common sense and no backbone. You could not even work any of our equipment if we didn’t tell you exactly what to do at each and every second. You are not a scientist, you are a technician. Not even a good one. And if you continue to waste my time, I will see to it that you will not work in this industry. As it is, you are dangerously close to losing your job here. I would suggest you do your best to stay out of my sight for the rest of the day.”

The doctor marched off, his footsteps stamping the ground and moving at a quick pace. The other pair of legs stayed still, standing in place. I just had to know if I was right about the voice. It had been burning in my head the entire conversation. I leaned toward the edge of the trailer, peering around the corner, hoping he wasn’t looking this way. I got my head around, seeing him in profile. He wore a lab coat and was better groomed, but it was him.

Max Schraeder. The same Max that led me through Wing B.

I pulled my head back, noticing Katie’s head peeking out below me. I pulled back, thoughts flooding through my head, as I heard Max finally walk away. I leaned back against the trailer, Katie next to me doing the same.

“I know that guy,” she said.

“From the hospital? Yeah, I saw him too,” I said.

“No,” she said. “He was at the hospital?” She furrowed her brow. “No, I saw him… here. On the night I… lost it,” she said, embarrassed. “He was here. In a white lab coat, just like that.”

“He was definitely at the hospital earlier today,” I said. I assumed that was earlier in the day. It didn’t feel like twenty-four hours had passed, but I was missing some time, so who knows when it actually was.

“Strange,” she said, lost in her head again.

The silence was pierced by a bloodcurdling scream.

 Goddammit, I thought. Yet another thing. I felt like I wasn’t in control. Everything was happening to me. Every time I tried to do something, I got dumped somewhere or I was hiding from something. This time I was taking some control. I reached in my jacket and pulled out my emergency bag. I pulled out the gun, put in a clip and chambered a round.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing with that?” said Katie, eyes wide.

“Right now, we need some insurance,” I said, putting the gun in my coat pocket. Not the safest place, but accessible. The safety was on at least.

I don’t like carrying guns. If I could help it, I’d rather not carry a gun, even if I’m expecting danger. This is not to say that I don’t like guns. I’ve spent enough time at the firing range that I’m comfortable firing them and blowing a Saturday at the range. What I mean is that I don’t usually carry one. When I’m going into a situation, if I have to bring a gun, I’ve already fucked things up. If I’m expecting to be going into a situation that dangerous, I fucked up and got myself in over my head. The ideal is always that you don’t knowingly go into a situation so dangerous that you have to carry. There’s almost always another way. If going in there carrying is the only option, I fucked up. I did something wrong. Things should not have gotten to that point where it’s the only option.

So there’s always the argument that I won’t know how bad a situation is, and I should bring a gun just in case. I don’t agree with this. A gun is escalation. A gun can make an already tense situation even worse. If they find I’m carrying, they draw their guns. I draw my gun, they fire theirs. I fire mine and they shoot to kill. When you bring a gun into a tense situation, things get worse. If they think they’re in control or tougher, they’ll go one farther than you. They’ll go one farther than you as long as they have nerve. So carry a gun into a situation and as soon as they know, you’ll have a gun waved in your face. And that’s just a finger spasm away from death. If I go in without a gun, odds are they’ll more likely just rough me up and leave it at that. Somebody beats the crap out of me and finds a gun, they think I was going to kill them. Then they are more inclined to do the same to me. Since I don’t want to kill or get killed, I generally leave the gun at home.

But not today. I had been fucked with, knocked out, chased, terrified, and confused. I had already seen six different monsters. After hearing a scream, I’m going in armed. And this time I wasn’t hiding from the screams, running from commotion. I was going to get answers.

“We’re going,” I said to Katie, feeling the heavy lump of the gun in my jacket pocket.

“Where?” she asked.

“To find out about that scream.”

“But you said we’re in danger!”

“We probably are,” I said.

“Then why are we running toward a scream?” she asked.

“Answers,” I said, and quickly walked around the trailer.

I was surprised at the lack of response from the area. On the pyramid, scientists still went about their work checking and operating equipment, occasionally writing something down on a clipboard. A few men wandered from trailer to trailer, going about their duties. Nobody seemed to be reacting to the scream. It was as if they didn’t hear it. How could they not hear it? I was reminded of the last incarnation of the hospital. A screaming nurse and no one came to help. Don’t these people notice? Aren’t they aware that something’s wrong?

I ran toward the direction of the scream. No further screams followed, so I had no way to locate the position. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I knew that when I saw it, I’d know it. I took a quick look over my shoulder and saw Katie reluctantly following. I guessed she would. I was probably the only anchor she had in this strange place.

The direction I ran in brought me to the edge of the area, where a few trailers were near the rock face. A bundle of thick black wires led between the trailers. I followed the wires as they led to a cave or a tunnel in the rock wall. If the wires were going through here, I bet that was the way out. I followed the wires into the cave. It was lit by electric lights attached to the wires. I couldn’t tell if they had made this tunnel themselves, but they had reinforced it with metal beams and lights to serve their needs. The ground was flattened and well worn; I bet that they moved their machinery in through this tunnel. I continued through the tunnel with a faster pace. I wanted to find an exit.

I went looking for escape, but instead found more death. I smelled it before I saw it. It was a thick visceral smell that hung in the air, the same smell from the lounge in old Sommersfield Hospital. I fell out of my brisk walk into a stumble and then a stop. I smelt death and I didn’t want to go any further. I heard Katie stumble up behind me, her breathing heavy.

“Why, why did you stop?” she said, gasping for breath. “Why did –“ Then she stopped. She smelled it too. I turned my head and looked at her. She was pale and her eyes large with fear.

I took a step forward.

“I don’t want to go any farther,” she said.

“It’s okay,” I said, “you don’t have to. I just need to know.”

I took another step forward. There was a bend in the tunnel. The smell was coming from just beyond it. Touching the wall with my right hand for balance, I took a few steps forward. My fears were confirmed. There was a body, covered in blood.

The body was sprawled on the ground, probably where he had fallen. He wore a white lab coat, like so many other scientists here. That white coat had been shredded by more than a dozen stab wounds, just like the nurse. My stomach felt queasy. I covered my mouth with my hand, hoping I was not going to lose my lunch all over the ground. I breathed slowly, trying to calm down. I looked at the body again.

I noticed that he had some nice shoes. Expensive loafers, just like the ones I had seen earlier. What were the chances? He had grey hair and light skin, his glasses broken and his eyes staring sightlessly in shock. His mouth gaped open, blood dripping from between his lips. Sticking out from the blood on his chest, I saw a badge ID, probably once clipped to his coat, now barely attached to a shred of coat. I couldn’t read it well from its angle and blood covering. I stepped carefully around the body and stretched over it, lifting the badge gently with my finger. Blood covered the laminated surface, but I could see it well enough to see the picture of the man and the name “McNeil”. I tried to read more. Victor? Vince? Something with a V. Dr. V. McNeil. I stood up straight and moved back from the spreading pool of blood. This was just a bad day for you, Dr. McNeil.

Two murders? I had seen a lot of death since taking this job, but these two were significant. Dr. McNeil and Nurse Phillips had been killed in the same way: stabbed many times with extreme prejudice. Why? I might not know where I was, but the murder still seemed very important to me. The hospital in what I believe was 1985 and this place in… well, I don’t know when this was, if it was indeed another when. The computers looked modern and Max looked the same age as when I saw him. So this could be present time. Maybe we were taken out of the hospital and dumped here. I decided that maybe I needed to find another newspaper. The date might be useful.

I walked back to Katie who looked no less fearful than when I left her. She looked at me and I shook my head.

“There was a body. It was the doctor, the one we heard speak,” I said. “McNeil.”

She gasped and put her hand in front of her mouth. She shuddered and I put my arms around her in a hug. I knew her eyes were staring at the bend in the tunnel behind me. I pulled back from the embrace.