Chapter
13
A Serialized Story of the
Not So Distant Future
July 16, 2005
Part Thirty Six
Dawn watched as Sam crossed the street and entered Misty's building. She didn't put much stock in this psychic stuff, but her gut was telling her that something was seriously wrong here.
Almost immediately after Sam went through the door, the driver of the delivery truck got out, dressed in the standard brown uniform of his company and opened the back door of the truck. He retrieved a medium sized box and started walking towards Misty's door.
"No fucking way." Dawn said, getting out of the car to follow, from the the corner of her eye she saw a figure rushing across the street at the same time, she paid him no mind though, keeping her eyes on the the delivery man. He rang the bell and made his way inside. As Dawn reached the rear of the van, the door opened again and another brown uniformed man pointed a pistol at her.
"Freeze!"
Dawn froze, momentarily but before she could decide what to do she saw a figure wearing a Hawain shirt leap into the truck and peel out, dumping the second man out the back. Dawn launched a vicious kick at his head, knocking him out as he fell. She scooped up the pistol and ran to Misty's door.
The door was locked, Dawn slammed her fist against it in frustration. She tried the bell, maybe she could warn Sam, the buzzer went off and she pushed the door open, gun out (although she had never fired one in her life).
The delivery man was on the stairs, he was dumping Sam's body to the floor and reaching into his jacket.
"STOP!" Dawn shouted, squeezing the trigger. The bullet went high burying itself into the wall three feet above his head. The recoil forced her arms up and her hands were trembling with the force of the blast and the excitement of the situation.
The delivery man threw himself to the floor and heaved Sam's body on top of himself, turning him into a shield. Dawn watched helplessly, she probably couldn't have shot him anyway.
"Now drop the gun or your grampa here gets it." The man was almost casual in his speech. He was possibly the most non-descript man Dawn had ever seen. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and mild, almost bland facial features.
"Uh huh, and then you shoot both of us anyway."
He aimed the pistol directly at Dawn, he was just about to say something when a voice came over his walkie talkie.
"Hey Hoser!"
The man wormed his free hand down, Sam's inert form slid a little but Dawn couldn't risk shooting him.
"Who is this?" The man said, never taking his eyes off of Dawn.
"I'm the guy with a gun to your buddy's head. If you don't me to fire, you better get your ass out here now!"
The delivery man stared at Dawn, sizing up the situation. "I'm not moving while you've got that gun pointed at me."
Dawn stared, her mind was frantic. "You get rid of your gun and I'll get rid of mine."
"That's sounds real nice, but there's not much space down there, you could grab the gun as soon as I'm moving."
Dawn glanced around, the man was right. There was only about fifteen feet of empty hallway at the foot of the stairs, and a gun on the floor could be reached by either of them.
"Fine, I'll come up there. We can throw both guns to the top of the landing. Even if I ran after it, you should make it out the door first."
The agent shifted his weight and stood, holding Sam under the arms and using his limp form as a shield. Dawn stared close, she could see Sam's chest move, so she knew he was still alive.
"What did you do to him?"
The man smiled. "Me? Nothing, he was collapsed on the stairs when I came in."
The walkie talkie came on again. "Hey Hoser, you're taking too long."
The agent had the walkie talkie in his left hand, the one supporting Sam, he pushed the button and shouted into it.
"I got your bald friend here pointing a gun at my face."
"Let me talk to her."
Dawn had carefully walked up the stairs, measuring the man's intentions with every step. Her arms were tired from carrying the pistol, but she wouldn't let herself show any sign of weakness.
"The mike's on, say hello to your buddy."
"Hey! Whose name is on the Men's room wall?" Dawn asked, anxious to know if this was someone from the Red Eye."
"None, there's a picture of WC Fields on the wall." The voice said.
Dawn allowed herself a smile as she reached the landing where the Agent was.
"How do I know you'll release my partner?" The Agent said
"All I want is my friend's out alive." The voice said.
"Are we doing this?" Dawn said.
The man sighed, "on three. One, two, three."
Everything seemed to happen at once, Dawn through the gun and wheeled as the Agent shoved Sam into her and tried to aim his gun. Dawn was expecting this however and with silent apologies to Sam she sidestepped his limp form and blocked the Agent's gun hand while delivering a powerful upper-cut to his chin. His head cracked sharply against the wall and he slumped into unconsciousness.
Dawn checked Sam first, he was alive, but she couldn't rouse him. She grabbed the walkie talkie which was on the stairs. "Hey, I need help in here."
"Be right there." the voice came back. Both of them knew not to use their names in case they were being recorded.
A few seconds later the bell rang and the buzzer went off by itself again. The door opened and Dodge stepped through.
"I knew that was you!" Dawn said. "Sam's unconscious, so's the agent. I haven't been upstairs yet."
"I better check Misty." Dodge ran up the steps in his awkward way. Despite his physical handicap, he was actually pretty agile, manuevering between the forms on the stairs very quickly.
He entered Misty's apartment and Dawn heard him shout "No! Oh God, Misty No!" He came out carrying her body. "She's hardly breathing, it looks like she's tried to suicide again!"
Dawn cleared a path for Dodge on the stairs. "Are you sure they didn't do it?" She kicked the Agent with her foot.
"I don't know, I don't care. We need to get her to a hospital."
"Sam too. We can put them in my car."
"What about them?" Dodge said.
"Leave'm let's get out of here." Dawn pulled up Sam and noticed that there was a syringe lying on the floor.
"Oh God Dodge, look!" Dawn snatched it up, it was still in a protective case and full of a clear liquid.
"There were pills by Misty's bed, and wine, just like she did before." Dodge said. "Maybe that was for Sam."
"Sam?"
"Yeah, he wouldn't be the first person to turn up dead of a drug overdose. Maybe you're right, maybe they did this to Misty." His words were strained now, as they both made their way down the steps with bodies.
As Dawn reached the bottom of the stairs, she thought she felt Sam stirring a little. "Hang in there Sam," she said, "you too Misty."
They attracted a bit of attention as they made their way across the street to Dawn's car. Dawn opened the locks by remote and used her foot to pull the passenger side door open. She plopped Sam in managing not to hit his head on the way in. Sam let out sort of a moan, which almost sounded like a word.
"Dodge, can you drive?"
"Yeah, sure."
Dawn opened the front passenger side door and helped Dodge get Misty into the seat. She handed Dodge the keys. "I think Sam's coming around."
She got in the back with Sam, and adjusted his weight to make him more comfortable.
Dodge took off, not wasting any time. He knew the area better than Dawn did and zipped through traffic like a maniac.
Sam moaned again, Dawn could swear he was trying to speak: "Wake up Sam, wake up, Wake Up!" She was trying to be as encouraging as possible, she patted his cheek with her hand, hoping that it would help bring him around.
He coughed momentarily, and then his eyes fluttered.
"Dawn?"
"Thank God! What happened to you?"
"Long story, it was a psychic attack. It happened once before. Is Misty ok?"
"She's been drugged, we're getting her to the hospital." Dodge said.
Sam looked around, in his groggy state, his vision was seeing those strange halos around everything. He made out an extra form in between Dodge and Misty.
"Oh good. Gaby's helping her."
He managed to sit up, and Dawn looked at him with wide eyes. "You mean the ghost of your... of Gaby is here now?"
"Yeah." Sam said, "my vision shifts sometimes and I can see auras or something. There's colors everywhere, as if even the air were alive, but it's more concentrated around people and other living things."
Dawn wanted to point out that Gaby wasn't alive, but she didn't want to be tactless. She just let the matter lie as they zipped into the hospital.
Dodge parked in front of the entrance, running around to get Misty from the other side. "I'll take her in, you two park." He said, taking Misty's limp form in his arms.
Dawn got out and moved to the driver's side. Sam decided to sit tight for the moment.
"How are you feeling?" Dawn asked as she pulled the car out of the Emergency lane.
"Achy and bruised. I was fighting for my life earlier, and I think my muscles thought it was real."
"I have news for you Sam, you were fighting for your life out here too." She quickly filled Sam in on the details as she found a parking spot.
"My hero." He said, giving Dawn a proper kiss. They reached the hospital entrance before Sam could explain what he had experienced.
They found Dodge in the Waiting Room.
"The doctor thinks we got her in time." He said.
The waiting room was crowded with people coming and going. Sam felt a little self conscious about telling them what happened, but he decided to give them a barebones version.
"Misty wouldn't do that." Dodge said flatly.
"I'm not saying it was really her, but the whole OD thing is a little too weird."
"Not really, from what Dawn found, they were going to give you an OD as well. It sounds like the whole thing was scripted."
"I know why the agents are after me." Sam said, "but I don't know why they dragged Misty into it, unless they were just being opportunists."
"Misty has a history of suicide attempts." Dodge said, "that part where she told you about the light, that's true. She's said that to me before; but, I know Misty and she would never try to trick anyone into going with her. If they had succeeded, it would have looked like a double suicide up there."
"By the way," Sam said offering his hand. "Thanks for helping save my life."
"That goes for me too." Dawn said, reaching over to hug Dodge.
"De nada." Dodge said with a blush. "To be honest, I was worried that Misty might try a suicide attempt. She knew that Sam was having out of body experiences, and she may have been hoping that he would lead her up into the light again. That's why I didn't want you to see her. She's psychic as all hell, but she's also unstable."
Sam glanced up to see a familiar figure signaling him to come over.
"I'll be right back."
Rose was standing over by a wall of pay phones. Sam had to remind himself not to try and hug her.
"Have you been watching Misty?" Sam asked.
"In a manner of speaking, she tried very hard to leave."
"So, it was a suicide attempt?"
"Yes, brought on by a vision, a false vision of you and Dawn making fun of her. I think she was a victim of the same sort of attack you were, only she's much easier to manipulate emotionally."
"How is she doing now?"
"She's back in her body and resting. She was booted out of heaven the same way you were. It's not her time yet either. But there's more, we got to speak with her extensively. You know how time flows differently when your non-physical. Sam, she's been getting these attacks since before she met you. She's got the gift of visions, like Pam, but someone's also been feeding her garbage, playing with her mind."
"How did you guys figure this out?" Sam asked.
"She realized it herself, when she touched the light and tried to enter, she was able to see her errors with new clarity. You can tell your friend that I think she'll be much better now."
"Thanks Rose. I owe you a hug when I can."
Sam walked back to the chairs where Dawn and Dodge were sitting.
"That was Rose wasn't it?" Dawn said. "I remember her from the subway."
"Yeah, it was." Sam glanced at Dodge, but there seemed no point in keeping any secrets from him. "She isn't here physically, but she's been looking in on Misty and she said that she's going to be fine."
Relief swept over Dodge's face. "Thank God! You know, this is my third time here with her like this, but it never gets easier."
"Rose also thinks she'll be healthier now." Sam said encouragingly. "I guess you should try to look surprised when the doctor comes over."
It took another half an hour before the doctor finally found his way over to Dodge. The doctor couldn't say anything until Dodge produced a copy of Misty's Health Care Proxy which gave Dodge the ability to make decisions for her. "Misty is going to be fine. We succesfully pumped some of the drugs out of her system. We'd like to keep her in ICU overnight though for observation."
"Can I see her?"
"She's still unconscious, and it is past visiting hours, but I'll let just you in for a few minutes."
"Thank you doctor."
The rooms in ICU all had wide paned windows giving the nurses an easy view of the patients inside. The floor was buzzing with activity as the doctor led Dodge through. He left Dodge alone for a moment, and Dodge almost jumped out of his skin when he saw Rose standing next to the bed.
"I didn't mean to scare you dear. I just wanted to let you know that we'll be watching her too. She'll be ok."
"Thanks." Dodge said, and as suddenly as she had appeared, Rose was gone.
He took Misty's hand and held it for several minutes, tears of relief ran from his eyes.
Just as the doctor was coming back in, he felt Misty's fingers grip him back. He kissed her hand and promised her that he would be back in the morning.
posted by John at 11:16 PM | link |
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