Frank Klus - Azaleas Don't Bloom Here

Armstrong looked around the lab. He saw the helmet sitting on the gurney. “What’s that for?”

“To cure Eugene of course. Let me help you. You will be caught, you know.” Armstrong still had his piece trained on Frankenstein. He looked at him as Sistrunk flashed his evil smile that so unnerved Eugene.

“How do you do it?”

“I’m sorry.”

“How do you change someone?”

“With a glorious invention, commonly known as the brain probe. I use it to force new neuron connections. Of course, that’s a bit simplistic, but I put it that way so you can understand.”

“Are you telling me that you’ve been fucking with Eugene’s head to change him against his will? Is that what you’re telling me?”

Sistrunk started to become hostile. “One day you’ll be in that chair, and I’m going to enjoy treating you.”

Armstrong was seething now, while Sistrunk flashed his sinister smile. As he looked around the lab, Sistrunk pulled the dead guard’s gun out from his lab coat, and began to point it at Armstrong.

“Sit in that chair,” Sistrunk demanded.

Armstrong turned around with a wry smile on his face, and shot the doctor.

Armstrong spied the truncheons hanging behind the metal chair. He grabbed the hard one and began smashing everything he saw in the lab: computers, machines, and the glass cabinet—everything. Then he took the gas can he brought down with him and emptied half of it; struck a match; and torched that horrible place. He hurried back upstairs, and emptied out the rest of the gas. He burned the house down while retreating to a second van.

While this was going on, Sean held the rescue squad under fire. “Come on Sean!” said Armstrong, and both climbed into the second van.

“I heard a shot from the basement,” Sean said.

“I shot that doctor. He got the drop on me. We left him alone in the basement for two minutes. He must have fished out the revolver from one of the dead guards. I figured he didn’t know how to use it. He never cocked the trigger.”

Everyone was out, and Foote wrapped Wrenn’s arm with the bandages his buddy grabbed. He stopped the bleeding while they drove to a hospital in neutral territory. They switched vehicles on the way out so that the Squad would not be looking for them.

Ray and Cassandra were trying to talk to Eugene, reassuring him that he’d be all right. The van stuck to the back roads while traveling west from Old Chicago. A couple miles down the road they turned off into an empty parking lot, where another car and driver waited for them. They continued on the old road while the driver of the van went in a different direction.

Eugene was drifting in and out of consciousness until he opened his eyes. “Where am I?”

“You’re with us, buddy,” Ray said. “Do you remember me?”

Eugene stared blankly at him for a minute. “Ray?”

“Yeah, buddy. Can you tell us what happened to you?”

“Water, please.”

Eugene gulped it down.

“I hurt all over, and I’m hungry.”

“Ray, he needs to get to a hospital,” Cassandra said, “and,” as she made a face, “he needs a bath and new clothes.”

“Driver, do you know how to get to St. Teresa Medical Center in Snowden?”

“Yeah. It’s in neutral territory, but we’re going to have to get back on the tollway.”

“For how long?”

“About two miles.”

“Will we be able to bypass any tollgates?”

“Yeah, we will.”

“Go ahead and take it,” Ray said.

“What do you remember, Gene?” Cassandra asked.

Eugene just turned around to look at her. “You’re pretty cute yourself.”

Cassandra smiled, and then threw a curious glance at Ray before turning back to Eugene. “Thank you.”

“You have a pretty wife, Ray.”

“I know, man. I’m pretty lucky.”

Eugene turned back to Cassandra. “You were right about him.”

“Who? Dennis?”

“Yeah. He came to my house Saturday morning. I was supposed to go to his house, but I decided it was best to stay away from him. I made up some excuse so I wouldn’t have to go, but he came to my house anyway. We were drinking some beer, and the next thing I remembered was waking up in that place.”

“He must have slipped him a mickey,” Ray said.

“What time is it?”

“About three,” Ray said.

“They had a clock in there, but no windows. I could never be sure if it was night or day. I guess I smell like shit.”

“What happened in there?” Cassandra asked.

Ray offered him some more water while he inspected Eugene’s wounds.

Eugene told his story as best he could, but he was still groggy, tired, in pain, thirsty, and hungry. They were on the highway now, about twenty minutes from the hospital.

“We’re here now, sir,” the driver said.

“Good. Pull into emergency.”

“Mr. O’Reilly, I’m Doctor Ulysses Phillips. I’ve been assigned to look after your friend, Eugene Sulke. Could you please tell me what happened to my patient?”

“He was stuck in a small holding pen with no food or water for many hours, then beaten. I’m still trying to get more information from him. He was in Lightning Squad territory, and we were able to rescue him.”

“He’s severely dehydrated and traumatized. He was also drugged. We’re still running tests on the drugs used. I’ve treated his lacerations. There were no broken bones. We’ve hydrated him intravenously to get fluids to all the cells more quickly. A little longer and he may have suffered organ damage. He should be fine now.”

The three got back in the car, and Ray turned to Eugene. “Feel any better now?”

“Yeah. Thanks you guys for rescuing me. Are we going to my home now?”

Ray and Cassandra just looked at each other curiously, and then Ray turned to Eugene. “We’re taking you to our friend’s house. You’ll be safe there. You can rest up, get a bath, a change of clothes, and then we’ll take you to your parents’ home.”

Eugene stared at him, and said, “My parents’ home? Why?”

“They need to know what happened to you,” Cassandra said.

“No!” Eugene yelled. “I don’t want mom and dad to know what happened to me. I wasn’t gone long enough for them to worry, and if they complain that they tried to call me I’ll tell them that I dropped my cell phone, and that it was probably broke.”

“Eugene,” Ray said. “The world has irretrievably changed for you. You can never return to your old life. Dennis knows where you live, where you work, where your parents live; hell, everything about you.”

Eugene looked frightened. “What’s going to happen to me? What can I do?”

“Have you ever wondered about the New World, Eugene?” Cassandra said.

Eugene looked puzzled, and then sat back in the seat, contemplating an uncertain future. Still smarting from all that happened to him, he fell asleep.

Cassandra turned to her husband. “Do you want me to call Pamela?”

Ray thought about it a moment. “No, I’ll call her.”

Ray looked pensive, and then turned to his wife. “We have to go too.”

“Give up?”

Once again, Ray delayed answering. He seemed to take a deep breath, and then turned to his wife. “They know we’re involved. If they catch us we’ll probably be Hell House’s next victims. Cass… this is the first time I’m genuinely scared.”

“Mr. O’Reilly, Mr. Casimir wants to see you,” Dennis’s secretary, Faith said.