Milwaukee Deep

He couldn’t see them but he knew that they were there…

He had heard them just under an hour ago – their voices shrieking at each other.

He had been in that room for more than a week now – the last thing he remembered before being wheeled in on a table was the bright lights above him – brighter than anything he had ever seen.

They started up again – the screeching getting louder as each shriek forced him to tighten up.

They were coming – he could sense they were almost upon him.

He closed his eyes hard, the feeling of dread overpowering his every thought.

Here they come…the door to the icy room began to open.

Frozen by fear he waited…

“NO!”

Dr Phillip Jensen ran into the room where his patient Michael Burton lay resting.

“Michael, are you okay?”

Michael was taken aback. He looked around the room – lost, he couldn’t comprehend what had happened to him. He jumped out of bed – the pain all but gone in the commotion.

“Who the fuck are you?!” he demanded.

Dr Jensen tried to defuse the situation…

“Calm down, Michael. My name is Dr Phillip Jensen, I am a friend.”

“A friend? I’ve never seen you before!”

“Michael, you were injured and Sam brought you to me.”

“Sam? Sam, where is he?”

“He’s gone home for an hour – he won’t be long. He brought you here last night – he waited all night until he was sure you were fine and then he went home to see his family,” Dr Jensen pulled out his cell phone from his pocket, “If you want, we can call him and you can talk to him – okay?”

Michael stood in the corner of the room waiting for confirmation.

Jensen dialled Sam’s number…

“Sam, it’s Phil, look Michael’s woken and he’s a bit spooked – here I’ll hand him over to you.”

Dr Jensen made his way slowly over to Michael with his hand out. Michael took the phone.

“Hello? Sam? Where are you? Yes. Well, better now that I know it’s you. Okay. How long? Okay I’ll wait here.” Michael snapped the cell phone shut.

“You okay?” asked Jensen

“Yes – sorry, it’s just -“

“I know – look, just climb back into bed and get some rest – we’ll all talk once Sam gets here, okay? I’m just going to be in the other room.”

“Okay.” Michael looked across at his shoulder – it felt better, the pain had finally eased. “Doc,” he again spoke up as Jensen made his way to the door.

“Yes, Michael?”

“Thanks for fixing me up.”

“You’re welcome,” Jensen replied, “Now get some rest.”

Anthony Perks awoke to a pain in his stomach. He felt queasy, the terrible taste in his mouth forcing him to look around for somewhere to vomit. Rushing over to the toilet in the corner of the concrete room, he released the bile that had gathered at the back of his throat.

Leaning over the bowl, Perks wiped his mouth and found the strength to scan his surroundings to try to calculate exactly where he was.

It was a cell – three concrete walls, the fourth draped in metal bars from ceiling to floor.

Standing in front of the bars was Agent Tom Harding.

Perks found the courage to speak, “What did you do to me?” he croaked

“Don’t worry, it’s just the side effects from the serum – you’ll be fine, won’t last more than a few more minutes.”

“What serum – what the hell did you do to me!?”

“Calm down,” replied Harding. “I knew you wouldn’t keep your mount shut, so I shot you in the arm with a sleeping agent.”

“Where am I?”

“Somewhere safe, now sit down and just keep quiet. Eventually we’ll close this situation down and then everything will go back to normal.”

“Sure it will. And I’ll be dead.”

Harding turned around and grabbed the wooden chair from behind and sat down in front of his prisoner.

“Perks,” he said calmly, “If there’s one thing I know, it is to make sure you know who your enemy is and I’m telling you now, you’re not my enemy. I’m not in the business of taking out our own people.”

“That’s not what it looked like back at the hotel,” said Perks.

“Well at the moment you’re an interruption to my mission and I don’t have time for interruptions - there’s too much riding on it to fail. Now, I’m quite happy to make a claim that if you and your partner do what you’re told when you’re told then there is no reason why you won’t walk out of here alive. Do you understand?”

“And when will that be? I have a family you know, they’ll be asking questions.”

“Not more than two to three hours tops – I just need to close this situation down for good. Okay?”

Perks looked at Harding closely. He still wasn’t sure if he could trust him.

“I’d like to believe that,” he said.

“But?” offered Harding.

“But, you’re not running the show – Willow is, and after seeing him sign that death warrant on his daughter to save his own ass, I doubt very much that you’ll be able to convince him to allow Robert and me to live.”

Harding leaned in to the bars.

“Don’t worry about Willow – right now I think he’s got bigger problems than figuring out what to do with you and your partner.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Perks asked.

“Trust me, Perks; it’s best you don’t know.”

Harding stood up from his chair.

“I’ve got to go,” he said.

“So you’ll be back within two hours?”

“Yes. Sit tight,” he turned to the television that sat in the corner of the room, “I’ll bring you the TV. Like I said – don’t give me any trouble and I promise you and your partner will walk. Okay?”

Perks didn’t respond.

Harding walked over to the television set and brought it back to the chair. He turned it on and threw Perks the remote.

“See what’s on,” he said, “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Thanks,” replied Perks and instinctively pressed the button on the remote control….

...”I repeat this breaking news just in, currently there are a total of sixteen people dead. We are about to cross live to Riley’s Gym in the Bronx, where sixteen people have been found dead in the gymnasium’s swimming pool. Erica Nole is live at the gymnasium, Erica can you give us an update on the situation?...

The young reporter stood among the crowd forming outside Riley’s Gym – the words special report in dark bold letters scrolled across the bottom of the television screen.

...“Thanks Maxwell, well there is no other way to put it, other than to say that it is absolute pandemonium here outside Riley’s Gym. We have very concerned relatives standing among us outside the gymnasium, wanting desperately to know what is going on.”..

...“Do we know what exactly has taken place, Erica?”..

...”All I can say right now is that there are reports coming in that an Aqua Aerobics class that started its normal session at 8.00am entered the pool together as a group and within seconds of entering the pool, everyone has tragically died.”

Harding looked over to Perks….

...”Is this the work of terrorists, Erica?.”..

...”Well no one has yet claimed responsibility, Maxwell, however we do believe that tests are currently underway to determine the poison used in the pool, perhaps those tests can help lead us to uncover who carried out this awful and horrific act.”..

“I can’t believe this,” Perks said out loud - his eyes fixated on the television.

Harding turned around and headed down the hallway.

“Where are you going?” Perks called out

Harding kept walking.

“Sorry, Perks, but I’ve got far more important things to deal with right now.”

“So they specifically said that they were with the FBI?” asked Sam.

“Yes,” Michael replied, “I’m sure they showed their badges to Kelly – she wouldn’t open the door otherwise - she was like that – always worried about security.”

“I’m sorry, Michael,” said Sam as he watched Michael bow his head, his eyes welling with tears.

“I just don’t know what’s happened,” Michael blurted out, “yesterday I had everything in my life and now it’s -”

Sam didn’t respond to Michael’s last comment. He didn’t know what to say – but he knew enough that nothing he could say would make Michael feel any better.

Michael looked up and stared at Sam. The look was one of confusion and it startled Sam.

“What is it?”

Michael felt a sensation in his right hand – there was a slight twitch, followed by a sharp pain.

Michael clenched his teeth.

“Michael, what’s wrong?”

Michael’s hand began to shake – his eyes focused on the jittery movement, oblivious of what was to come…

The vibration in his hand increased. As seconds ticked by it gained momentum until finally it shook uncontrollably moving up into the arm and shoulder.

It was followed by the other hand, it now as violent as the other.

Michael’s neck began to stiffen as his head started to twitch from side to side

“What’s happening?” he muttered as he began to cough – his head now moving without any form of control.

With his body now in complete convulsion, Michael collapsed to the floor.

“Holy shit! Phil! Phil, come quick - get in here!”

Sam watched as Michael’s body, stretched out as far as it could, fiercely and uncontrollably shook – his eyes rolled into the back of his head, saliva drooled from his quivering lips.

Dr Jensen rushed into the room and hunched over Michael to help with his seizure.

“Move back!” he yelled to Sam, “Move that chair out of the way, we don’t want him hurting himself!”

Michael, frothing at the mouth, shook and shivered violently across the floor while Dr Jensen kept his fingers close to Michael’s mouth, to ensure he didn’t bite off his tongue.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it ended.

Michael lay unconscious on the tiled floor. His hand stretched out wide open – his fingers stiff.

“Is he okay?” asked Sam

Dr Jensen checked his pulse.

“He’s alive, his pulse is weak, but it’s there.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We’ll just wait it out. I’ll continue to monitor him here on the floor – I’m not going to risk moving him just yet.”