HAUNTINGS TRILOGY
ABSOLUTE FEARBy Jules
THIRD PART OF THE TRILOGY
Author Notes: I have edited a number of scenes in this story, but the one that I couldn't was were I had Kristin secretly drug Lucas to take him away from the island. I guess when I first wrote this story I wasn't really thinking that this wouldn't be something that Kristin would normally do - especially to Lucas. I did try and make amends with the scene of Lucas getting angry about it - so for the sake of this story - I will leave as I originally wrote.
Nathan Bridger had been dozing in the chair and was startled slightly by the loud rap. It was 10.00pm at night. Who could it be at this hour?
Kristin Westphalen had checked on the teenager upstairs a few times that evening, but had then soon retired herself. She heard the knock at the front door downstairs and also wondered who it could be. As she made her way to the stairs she could see through Lucas's open bedroom door.
The boy was still asleep. He was laying on his side facing her with a pillow clutched tightly to his chest like a security blanket. It pained her to see him sleeping like that. It was almost as if he was holding onto something, not wanting to let go.
This little phase and the nightmares that now occurred more than once a week were all the results of his being in Sanderson's clutches again. There was still so much more ground to be covered yet before he was fully recovered both emotionally and physically she thought. With that thought still in her mind she descended the stairs.
By now, Nathan had opened the door and was greeted by the presence of his old navy friend Admiral William Noyce. He will a little surprised to say the least.
"Bill!" he greeted the man with a smile and a hearty hand shake.
"What brings you out here this time of night?" Bridger and Kristin could both see that something was troubling Noyce. He held his navy issue cap in his hands and looked as though he might tear it apart from his nervousness.
"Oh, Hi Nathan and Kristin," he stammered. This was not going to be very easy.
Bridger offered him a chair, but under the circumstances, Noyce decided it best to tell his friends the news whilst standing. He couldn't see any sign of the teenager but he asked just in case, "By the way, where's Lucas?"
"He's sleeping," Kristin answered simply. "He has not been following doctors orders very well and his is beginning to feel the effects. His body is tired and needs to rest more. Most of the bandages have come off, but that shoulder will still take some time to heal."
Noyce just nodded his head at the information. He was glad that the teenager wasn't here to overhear what he was about to say.
Bridger could see his friend's uneasiness and tried to joke with him, "What is it Bill, you look like you just lost your best friend?"
"I wish it were that simple Nathan," he answered. You both had better sit down for this. I am afraid I have some bad news."
Bridger and Kristin just looked at each other and briefly glanced upstairs towards the person upstairs.
"You'd better tell us, Bill," Bridger warned. "Is this something to do with Lucas?"
"I am afraid it is Nathan," Bill replied. "You're both not going to like what I have to say and Lucas is going to like it a whole lot less. I have some bad news and some very bad news. Which do you want first?"
'That's it' Bridger thought to himself. Not good news and bad news, bad news and very bad news. Something was terribly wrong again and he felt his own fears start to gather in the pit of his stomach.
Noyce didn't know how to start the conversation. Nothing he was going to say would put these people's minds at ease. Here goes he said to himself.
"You know about Sanderson going to prison?" he stated. Kristin and Bridger now looked at Noyce with apprehensiveness at the mention of that man's name. They too were glad that Lucas wasn't present at the moment.
"Go on, Bill," Bridger encouraged.
"Well when he got sentenced he got sent to the Maximum Security wing as you know. What you didn't know is that he wasn't placed in a cell on his own."
Bridger and Kristin didn't know where this conversation was headed, but kept looking at Bill with great intrepidation.
"Why should it matter to us or Lucas that Sanderson has to share a room with someone?" Kristen now asked.
Bill put his hand up and gestured for Kristen to let him finish.
"I just got a call from the Warden at the prison, Nathan," Noyce started to explain. His voice was wavering at having to tell this bad news, "Sanderson and his roommate have escaped."
Bridger and Kristin let out a gasp of utter shock and horror at this information.
Bridger was now jumping out of his chair and waving an angry finger at his friend, "How could they do this Bill? How could they let someone like Sanderson escape?"
How was he going to tell Lucas that the person he feared most was on the loose again? He had promised that the man wouldn't hurt him again. Now that promise had been shattered into a million pieces.
"That's not the worst of it Nathan," Bill said with dread.
"NOT THE WORST OF IT," Bridger shouted. "How can that not be the worst of it. That maniac is on the loose again and you don't even know where do you?"
"It's not the worst Nathan because you don't know the name of his roommate," Bill almost whispered.
Now Kristin plucked up the courage to ask the question that hung in the air, "Who was Sanderson's roommate? Was it that other guy on the island. That Campbell fellow?"
"I only wish it were, Kristin," Bill said with dismay. "The other roommate with Sanderson was Lawrence."
Noyce waited for the retribution that would come. It was delayed for a few seconds. Bridger and Kristin were trying to put the name Lawrence to a face and put it together in the whole scheme of things.
Kristin hitched in her breath and looked wide eyed at Noyce, "You don't meanTHAT Lawrence do you?"
"Yes, Kristin, Sanderson's roommate was Lawrence Wolenczak!"
It was Bridger's turn to gasp in horror. How could this be possible? How could the two people who had hurt Lucas the most be in the same cell together? WERE in the same cell together Bridger corrected himself.
Now he was being told that the two men were on the run and possibly together. How could he explain this to Lucas? How could he promise to protect him again? He put in head in his hands and tried to shut out the images that haunted his mind.
"What's all the shouting about?" came a voice from behind them all. All three turned around and now noticed a very sleepy looking teenager walking down the staircase.
"Hi, Admiral Noyce," he greeted the man. Lucas looked from Noyce to the Captain, to Kristin and back to Bridger again. The look on their faces told him that something was wrong.
"WHAT?" he said. "Have I got my pants on backwards or something?" he added trying to dissipate the heavy atmosphere inside the room.
"Lucas, honey, sit down," Kristin said gently. "I am afraid that we have got something to tell you."
Lucas was now nervous. It wasn't normal for Kristin to ooze such sweet sounding sentiments this late at night unless something was verywrong.
Kristin sat on one side and Bridger on the other as Noyce repeated his story. He told it the same to the teenager. Just like he had to Nathan and the doctor.
"NOOOOOOO," Lucas began, his voice becoming strained. The fear radiated from him. It couldn't be possible. How could he possibly protect himself against the two of them?
At first he had just slumped back against the armchair, trembling with fright. But all of a sudden he jumped up from his seat and started to throw accusations at his father.
"How can you be telling me this now!" the teeanger shouted.
"You said said it was OVER! You said Sanderson couldn't hurt me anymore!"
"Now you are sitting there telling me that he has escaped. And just by some strange sheer coincidence my FATHER is his accomplice."
"You said you would protect me from them. Remember!""
"YOU PROMISED!...YOU PROMISED!"
Before anybody else in the room could react, Lucas ran up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door with great force.
Once he got inside, all the fight in him soon evaporated. The teenager sat on his bed with knees drawn up to his chest. Tears of fright threatened to run down his pale cheeks. He found it difficult to fathom the twisted turn of events that had just been told to him, but he forced himself not to be weak and let his emotions show.
Sanderson and his father together, such an horrific alliance was almost too much to comprehend. And no doubt plotting their revenge against him as he spoke, Lucas convinced himself.
Downstairs, Bridger just sat on the same chair with no emotion showing on his face at all. "Lucas was right. He had promised to protect the teenager. But how was he going to do that?"
Before Bridger could take the time to comfort the angry teenager upstairs. The three of them downstairs really needed to come up with a plan to keep him safe. There was no way he could let Sanderson or Lawrence Wolenczak get to him again.
"What are you going to do Nathan?" Bill asked.
"I don't know really know, Bill," Bridger said in all honesty.
"We need to get him away from here thought that's for sure. This is the first place they would come looking," he added. Kristin and Noyce nodded their heads in agreement. Bridger's little secret island was no longer so secret or safe anymore.
"What if we booked into a motel for a little while?" Kristin suggested. " We could notify some of the senior members of the crew and get them to help protect Lucas."
"That's not a bad idea, Kristin," Bridger said trying to sound pleased at a resolution.
"It might be better for now to keep it simple. Just Ben and Ortiz maybe? We will have to make sure that the room is away from any outside windows too."
"What are you going to tell Lucas?" Bill asked. Although he knew that the teenager might be very scared at this point in time, he doubted that Lucas would agree to be hidden away from society for any length of time.
"I think the best idea would be not to tell him for the moment," Kristin recommended.
"If we can move Lucas to the hotel first before he knows he is going anywhere. By the time he wakes up, it will be too late to say No."
"What do you mean, 'Wake Up' Bridger asked, but he had a sneaky suspicion he knew exactly what Kristin had in mind.
"You go and check on him, Nathan," Kristin said getting up. "Bill, you come with me, you've got some urgent leave of absence notices to sign, right?"
Bill and Nathan agreed with the doctor. In this no-nonsense mode, Kristin was hard to deter from her intended objective.
Bridger climbed the stairs in his house with great hesitation. He had heard the angry words Lucas shouted earlier. The teenager was angry and scared. And he had every right to be.
The boy had been hurt over and over again by those two madmen. And when it came down to it, Bridger reminded himself that he hadn't been there when Lucas needed him most.
He hadn't been there when Sanderson had Campbell forcibly take the boy from the Stinger only weeks ago. He wasn't able to prevent Sanderson shooting him a few months ago whilst Lucas was tied to a chair.
What made him think that he would be able to protect him this time?
Bridger knocked on the door. He heard a faint "come in" from the other side. That was a start at least. He had expected that the teenager wouldn't have even let him in the door.
A triumph. A small one maybe, but wars like this were won by taking small steps. When he entered the room, Lucas was sitting beside the window on a chair looking outside.
Lucas hadn't turned around when the Captain entered the room. His eyes never diverted from their unending stare through the glazed pane of glass. When he finally did turn around, Bridger saw the same look in Lucas's pale blue eyes. Glassy and distant.
Bridger walked over to Lucas and tried to put an arm around him. He couldn't help but notice the small tremors of fear that still ran through the teenager's body. The boy couldn't hide his fear, no matter how hard he tried.
"I don't know what to say, Lucas," he said softly. "I know I promised that I would protect you. I don't know how I am going to do that, but I meant what I said," he continued.
He cupped the boy's chin and made face him for the next statement: "I love you more than you could possibly imagine Lucas. There is no way on this earth that I will let either of those two scum bags get anywhere near you. You have to trust me. I will not let them hurt you.
Do you trust me, Lucas?"
"I don't know," the teenager replied. "I don't know what to believe anymore, or who to trust. Everything I get told seems to get blown to pieces just as I begin to relax a little. I just don't know."
"Come on junior, you look beat," Bridger said trying to lighten the dark mood. "It's very late, your body is still healing, you need to rest it."
"Why?" Lucas asked bitterly.
"So my father or Sanderson can hurt me again. Don't look so surprised Captain. My father will find a way to get to me. Sanderson we could probably elude for a time, but my father, he lives to see me in misery."
"It's written in the Lawrence Wolenczak bible of daily things to do. If you look under Section 1 it says : Hurt Lucas. If you skip a few sections and go to Section 8 or 9 it says refer to Section 1. It's like it's my destiny in life to be his endless source of amusement."
Bridger just felt helpless. The depression Lucas felt was getting deeper and deeper. The teenager couldn't see any ray of light at the end of the tunnel. He had almost given up on himself.
"Please, do it for me," Bridger pleaded.
Lucas looked at the Captain, wanting to feel safe in the man's presence, but he couldn't help but feel very far from safe at the moment, despite Bridger standing right beside him.
"We will find a way to get through this, together," Bridger commented, watching the turmoil of emotions echo across the teenager's face like a stain.
The teenager reluctantly sat on his bed, running a nervous hand through his hair, trying to make more sense about what the next few days might bring. He let out a deep breath that he had been holding in, attempting to quash the uneasiness that was beginning to grow within him.
Lucas yawned, signalling that he was tired, but sleep felt like the last thing he should be doing.
Somewhere in the back of his mind the teenager was telling himself that he should be running. Now. Right Now.
Bridger watched as the tired boy laid back on his bed, trying to fight against the fatigue that plagued him.
Lucas turned away from the Captain, not wanting to discuss the matter any further, rolling onto his side and closing his eyes. It was clear though that he wasn't sleeping or planning to anytime soon.
The Captain sat down on the side of the bed, not offering any further conversation, but instead, reaching out and resting his hand on the teeanger's back. Lord knows he didn't have the right words to offer.
Using slow and steady motions, he began rubbing in a circular pattern, hoping that his touch would help Lucas relax enough to fall asleep and get some rest.
Lucas wanted to tell him to stop, but his eyelids were growing too heavy and the words didn't come.
It was a good ten minutes later that Bridger found himself still continuing the soothing treatment that he felt the teenager's muscles in his shoulders and back relax and Lucas's breathing slow down and even out.
Grateful that his actions had worked, he stood up, looking down at the teenager as he slept. He reached down to the end of the bed, pulling up the blanket and settling it quietly over the slumbering form.
Bridger gave a silent prayer that the boy would rest for what was left of the night. He swore that he would do everything physically possible to keep Lucas safe.
The next morning saw the Bridger's island household a hive of activity.
Ben Krieg and Miguel Ortiz had raced to the island hideaway as soon as they learned about Sanderson's escape.
Upon hearing the news, Ben had flew into a similar fit of rage as Bridger and Kristin. The Lieutenant couldn't bear to think of Lucas being the target of his father again. The crew had worked very hard over the last few months to try and get things back to normal on the boat for Lucas.
The crew had tried to be his friend when he needed it, but stood back far enough not to be stifling. Lucas was a very private person, and he had just started to open up a little to them once he felt a littler safer.
Kristin and Nathan had been busy packing essentials while the teenager still slept. He had taken a long time to go to sleep after being disturbed. The Captain had stayed with him for a few hours, but it was well after three a.m. that Lucas found himself drifting off into a fitful repose due to his soothing touch.
Kristin threatened to skin anybody alive that woke the teenager any earlier than necessary this morning. She had made everybody a hearty breakfast, including Lucas.
Kristin just didn't want to elaborate what the added ingredient was to Lucas's glass of orange juice. With a little poking and prodding from the rest of the crew, the doctor finally gave in and explained the importance of Lucas finishing his breakfast beverage.
She had slipped a mild sedative into the orange liquid. It was fast acting and she made sure that everybody would be ready to catch the young man as he passed out. Once asleep, the plan was for them to make their way to the reserved hotel on the mainland. Bridger had booked and paid for a fortnight's accommodation on his master card with the option of extending after that if necessary.
Once the sedative was ingested, it would keep the teenager asleep for a good number of hours. When he awoke, he would be safe in the hotel with Ben and Miguel as bodyguards. The two men promised that nobody would get through them to Lucas.
Lucas would be confined to his makeshift quarters until they were assured that Lawrence Wolenczak and Paul Sanderson were back behind bars.
The teenager might not like it. He may throw the tantrum from hell about being kept confined and under everybody's constant eye. But if it made sure that he remained safe, then they were all prepared to put up with Lucas antics that lay in store.
Almost on cue, Lucas walked stiffly down the staircase. He was rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning hugely. He had only gotten about three hours sleep compared with the twelve he needed.
Lucas greeted his two parental figures, "Morning," he offered and gave another yawn. He walked over to the table and sat down. It was only then when he looked around at the other two people sitting at the table that he noticed his best friend Ben and Miguel enjoying Kristin's cooked breakfast.
Ben and Miguel were told to act as though they didn't know what was going on.
"Look what the cat dragged in, Miguel," Ben prompted with a fake smirk.
"Lucas, you look ready for bed again," Miguel remarked. He wanted to sound normal, but his attempts at satire were coming off as a bit lame.
"Gee thanks," Lucas replied not noticing the winks between everybody else at the table.
"When did you two decide to become so chipper first thing in the morning? What happened Ben, did you wet your own bed last night?" Lucas said with a grin.
The teenager was trying to sound normal as well. After last night's devastating news, he was very pleased to see his friends full of what appeared to be mirth and mischief.
"I'll have you know that I have been potty trained for some time now, Lucas," Ben replied with mock hurt.
Three of them at the table laughed at this statement. Lucas looked around and seen the others laughing. The Captain was laughing, Kristin was laughing, but why did laughing sound so strange at the moment. It was as if the joke was stale even before the punch line was delivered.
Kristin saw out of the corner of her eye that Lucas had the glass to his lips. She was pleased to see it deposited back onto the table almost empty. Now she and the others just had to wait.
Lucas made as though to get up, "Come on Ben race you down to the beach for a swim."
"Yeah okay, but I get a head start on account that I am the geriatric here," Ben agreed. He was too busy staring intently at the boy's face waiting for the expected fall.
They all didn't have to wait too long. Lucas started his next sentence, "Hey, the Captain here is the geriatric...," He never got it finished. Ben almost didn't catch him when he collapsed with little warning.
"Whoa, there Lucas," Ben said as he caught his unconscious friend. He felt like a rat. He didn't like the idea of hiding Lucas away. He like the idea of having to drug and deliberately lie to Lucas even less. He definitely felt like a rat.
Kirstin seemed to be reading Ben's obvious dislike of the situation. "It will be okay, Ben," she reassured the Lieutenant. "The sedative is mild, but it has only put him to sleep."
"Apart from making it easier to take from away from here, it will give him a real genuine chance to get some much needed sleep. I don't think he slept more than four hours last night. All of this worry on top of the physical pain he already has will only lead to him burning out completely."
"What do we do now?" Ben asked still holding onto Lucas's sleeping form. The kid's face looked peaceful enough. The Lieutenant just hoped that they could keep it that way.
"You and Miguel take Lucas out to my car," Bridger now spoke.
"I'll grab the rest of the stuff and we will make a start towards the mainland. Once there, I will give you the rest of the plan so far. After that, it's all ad- lib. I don't really know what those two are going to throw at us or Lucas. But we all have to be ready for anything."
Miguel now assisted Ben with the teenager and they started heading towards the vehicle parked out the front of the house.
"Make sure that you keep him warm," Kristin reminded them. "That sedative is likely to cause a drop in body temperature. The last thing we need is for him to get sick."
Once outside, Miguel and Krieg placed the sleeping youth along the back seat of the vehicle and then placed two woollen blankets over him as instructed.
Ten minutes later, Kristin climbed into the vehicle and they all started the journey towards the secret rendezvous that Bridger had arranged.
Bridger had used a personal friend to ferry the five of them to the mainland. He wasn't ready to trust too many people at this stage. The fewer people involved, the much smoother things would run.
Once they reached the hotel, the Captain approached the front reception desk and sign the register. The hotel was a little more upper class than Ben and Miguel had suspected.
The lobby was huge and was adorned with many fine things. Giant pot plants stood handsomely against the large marble pillars. The desk clerk was dressed in a black uniform trimmed with maroon piping. His hair was slicked down and he was trying to look part of the hotel's Concierge.
Bridger surmised that he was probably the lowly paid bell hop trying to make his move into the higher realms of hotel management
"Thank You, Mr... Mr Bridger," the clerk said as he glanced at the signature. Ben and Miguel had carried the still sleeping Lucas into the lobby followed by Kristin Westphalen.
The clerk gave the Captain a strange look as to say, "What's going on?". He knew the man had said that they wanted a suite for five. Two double bedrooms and a single one.
He didn't know about them bringing in a teenager who seemed to be less than well. "It's okay," Bridger said trying to think of an escape without giving away their true reason for staying at the hotel.
"He's just getting over some serious injuries and still gets very tired very quickly. Don't worry, we brought him here to relax and recuperate a little. Everything will be fine. We will only need to contact you for messages and meals and so forth."
It wasn't a total lie, but it wasn't the total truth either.
The clerk nodded his head apparently happy with the explanation. If people wanted to stay and pay up to $5 000.00 for a week just for the young man to sleep, who was he to stop them? He had certainly seen more bizarre things happen during his employment at the hotel.
Bridger took the suite key from the clerk and was told that his luggage would be brought up shortly to their room. He asked them if they wanted to put in their order for lunch. The Captain told him that they would call room service if the need arose.
All five of them made it to the room without getting lost in the huge building. There were so many rooms and too many corridors to count. The Captain opened the huge heavy door and walked into their place of residence for the next week anyway. The room was spectacular. There were expensive curtains draping the windows.
A set of french doors led out onto a private balcony fully furnished with patio table and chairs. There were still more pot plants inside and outside. Somebody in the building belonged to the National Pot Plant Society. They were all very large specimens and flourishing in their pampered environment.
There were two double rooms as requested. One had a double room which would be for Kristin and the Captain. It was no secret about how they felt towards each other.
Sometimes they tried to disguise it. But other times they just let nature take it's course. This was one of those times. Both of them knew that Lucas needed them right now and their own personal reputations was the last thing on their minds.
The other double room had two single beds in it. This would be for Ben and Miguel. Miguel had made fun at Ben's sleeping habits. It was well known that Krieg was a restless sleeper and often snored. Ben only retorted back with the past history of the Cuban. He accused Ortiz of having cut down entire forests at night time.
Without much further ado, Ben and Miguel picked up the sleeping Lucas from the couch were he had been first deposited when they entered the room. They carried their burden into the smaller single bedroom.
It was in between the other two rooms and was well away from windows. The bed was large enough and Lucas was laid down on the soft mattress. Kristin arranged two pillows underneath his blond head.
The teenager had been taken to the hotel without shoes cladding his feet, so the doctor was able to pull the covers over the teenager without risking disturbing him any further. Kristin hoped that Lucas would sleep well into the afternoon.
Once they had their young friend settled as much as possible, the rest of them gathered in the tastefully decorated lounge room to discuss the game plan.
"What do we do now?" Ben asked honestly. He was pacing the room with his hands dug firmly into his pockets. This whole mess was making him incredibly nervous and he didn't know how to hide it.
"Sit down, Ben," Kristin said gently. "I know you're worried but Lucas will sleep for quite a while yet. This situation is just temporary until we can think of how best to protect Lucas from Sanderson and his father. Until they are both back behind bars, we just have to keep our eyes and ears open all of the time."
"That's why I have to go out this morning, Ben," Bridger added into the conversation. Everyone looked at him with surprise when he mentioned that he would be leaving so soon after getting here.
"I know what you are all thinking, but after I finally managed to get Lucas settled for a little while last night, I got onto a few contacts at UEO headquarters. I wasn't really sleeping anyway so I started trying to work out what the best solution to this problem is."
"Who have you contacted, Captain?" Ben said with a little uneasiness in his voice. It wasn't that he didn't trust the Captain's motives, but there were plenty of unscrupulous characters out there who would be willing to spill the beans for a few dollars.
They wouldn't care who was involved or who was at risk because of it. "Are you sure we can trust anyone else?" he asked, adding his unspoken thoughts.
"Yes, I have only contacted one person actually," Bridger explained.
"He is an old friend and he is also a lawyer. We have to try and find Sanderson and Lawrence before they come looking for Lucas. If they are securely back behind bars, then we won't have to worry about having to lock him away to protect him. I wanted to leave as soon as possible so that I could be back in time for Lucas to wake up. I should only be gone about two hours."
"During that time, you all will just have to stay here. Don't open the windows unless you have to and definitely don't open the door unless you are certain who it is. If anybody asks, Lucas isn't here. I want to hide the fact that he is being kept here a secret for as long as possible."
Bridger took one more look at Lucas before he left. He was hoping that his theory would be correct and he would be back before the teenager began to stir. He knew that he would bear the brunt of the unhappy young man's words, but as long as Lucas was safe, it was a small price to pay in return.
He gently caressed the boy's blond hair that had fallen over his face. The boy didn't look as though he had moved the whole time they were talking outside. "I'll be back as soon as I can, kiddo," Bridger said to the sleeping youth.
"I won't let them get to you, I promise".
It was considerably sooner than expected that Lucas began to come out of the fog of the sedative. Bridger had yet to return from UEO headquarters. He had been gone about his estimated two hours plus a half hour more.
Kristin and the two other crew members in the room were beginning to wonder where Nathan was.
Lucas woke up and knew he must have been asleep for a number of hours. His mind felt fuzzy and was slow to start recalling what had happened. The teenager thought carefully for a minute but nothing came.
The last thing he remembered was going downstairs and sitting at the breakfast table. This was a great number of hours later he calculated. The other thing he noticed was the room. This wasn't his room. It wasn't the Captain's room either.
He started panic slightly and immediately got up and tried to make it to the door. He felt like he was moving in slow motion. He reached the door knob and made a grab for it.
Thankfully he reached it and yanked it open. He walked out into the other room trying to calm his breathing down. He was relieved to see his friends seated in the living room. For a moment his mind wandered and wondered if he was already in his enemy's hands.
For the moment it seemed like he was safe enough, but what the hell was he doing here. How did he get here? Where was here?
Kristin, Ben and Miguel had been mildly surprised to see the teenager awake much earlier than they anticipated. The other thing they saw was the panicked expression written across Lucas's face when he came scrambling through the door. It had only briefly occurred to them that he might be scared waking up in a strange place.
Kristin walked over to the teenager and leaned close enough for his blurry vision to see her. "How are you feelingi Lucas?" she asked softly.
"Like I have been asleep for a week," Lucas said honestly. His mind was still trying to focus and put things into perspective. "Where are we and why are we here?"
"Nathan and I thought it best, under the circumstances that home wasn't the best place for you to be right now, Lucas," Kristin answered.
Lucas starred at her for a moment, trying to comprehend what she was telling him. But then the truth about what had happened began to form. The way his body was feeling and how confused he had felt when waking a few minutes ago could only have been caused by less then persuasive methods.
"So you decide to take me by force without telling me!" Lucas said with a note of anger in his voice. "Did you think to ask me and that I might have come willingly?"
Kristen looked a little stunned at first at the teenager's attitude, "We thought you wouldn't approve of going somewhere off the island, Lucas," The doctor knew she was trying to come up with a valid excuse for drugging the teenager and taking him away from his home.
"You thought!" Lucas said with disgust. He mind was a little clearer now and although he was scared about Sanderson and his father being out there, he was equally pissed off that his family and friends had tried to hide things from him.
"Look, Lucas, we were trying to look out for you as best we could," Ben said trying to ease the tension in the room.
"You!" Lucas said sarcastically, "I thought YOU were supposed to be my friend. Did it even occur to any of you that Sanderson and my father are the real criminals here?"
"They are the ones who should be behind bars. And here I am being dragged off to some secret location while drugged to the eyeballs. It's a wonder I wasn't handcuffed to the bed to go with it."
Without waiting for an further explanation to his new accommodations he walked back into his room and shut the door behind him like the previous night . It resounded with an echo that made the others wince slightly at the young man's obvious displeasure.
Lucas didn't even think to ask where Bridger was. He hadn't been in the other room just now, but he didn't feel like coming to temptation and opening the door again just to see. The teenager wanted them all to feel a little guilt, after what they had done.
He sat back on his bed and put his hands behind his head trying to think about what the next few days might have in store for him. He just hoped that it would only consist of him complaining about his current lodgings.
The youth shuddered to think what attempts Sanderson and his father would make to
get to him. And there was no doubt in his mind that they would attempt. He
just didn't know what methods they would use. Lucas told himself he just had to be
cautious, but his sense of fear was beginning to take over. He just wanted
this to be over.
After another hour of sitting in the room bored, Lucas decided that he needed a drink.
Whatever sedative Kristin had used had worn off completely now, but it left a strange after taste and dryness to his mouth. He needed a drink of water. He looked around his room and noticed that there was no water pitcher or sink to speak of. If he wanted a drink he was going to have to make a sacrifice and go back into the other room again.
He realised that his guilt ploy wasn't going to work out as he planned at first. He was going to need to give in a little and communicate with his family friends again. The anger he had felt as them at first was now long gone and he just wanted to be around someone.
The thought of being utterly alone scared him almost as the threat of Sanderson and his father at the moment. He supposed he should be grateful to his friends at least. If he was lone, Sanderson and his father would be able to get to him without any trouble.
Lucas opened the door silently and peeked into the other room, waiting to see if his friends were still willing to talk to him after his outburst. To his surprise he saw that Kristn was asleep on the couch. He walked out and looked into the other opened bedroom and saw that Ben and Miguel were stretched out on their beds asleep as well.
The teenager thought about that drink of water again and decided that this was as good as any opportunity to get something a bit more flavoursome than water. He could sneak out of wherever he was and get a coke and be back before any of the others even noticed he was gone. He still saw no sign of Bridger. He was getting as worried about where the Captain might be.
Without hesitating too much longer, he tiptoed to the front door of the suite and made his way out into the corridor. He closed the main door behind him ever so quietly. He didn't want to incur the wrath of Kristin or his friends if they caught him sneaking out without permission. He would only be a few minutes anyway.
He looked around at his surroundings and saw that he was in a hotel of some description. Wherever it was, it must be costing the Captain a pretty penny because it was very flash. The carpets were plush and the corridors oozed a high room price.
He made it to the front desk and noted there was a little man standing on the other side. The man noticed the teenager and now spoke to him, "Excuse me, son, are you Mr Lucas Wolenczak?"
Lucas was a little apprehensive at talking to this total stranger who knew his name. He walked slowly towards the front reception desk, "Yes, I am Lucas Wolenczak," he answered nervously.
"I have a message for you," the man said casually.
Lucas looked at him for a moment. First this stranger claimed to know his full name without ever meeting him, now he said he had a message for him.
"Who is the message from?" Lucas asked.
"The message was from some Captain fellow," the man replied.
"Said you would know who he was. He said that he needed you to meet him back at home on the island. Said it was urgent. I hope everything is in order."
"Yes, thank you," Lucas said with a little relief. At least he knew where the Captain said he was. He wondered why Bridger hadn't sent a message up to the room to notify Kristin. But if it was urgent, maybe he didn't have the time to. Lucas just started to wonder what was so urgent. He decided that he had better leave a message himself for the others upstairs.
"Can you give a message to my friends upstairs?" Lucas asked. "Tell them I have gone to see what the Captain wants and will be back shortly."
Lucas kept it simple. He knew Kristin would have his head for leaving the hotel anyway, but he didn't want to leave his Dad in the lurch. If the Captain said he needed him back at the house, then that's where he would go.
Lucas left through the front doors of the hotel and ordered a cab to take him back towards the mariner and a ferry that would take him back to the island. There were a few services a day, but now it was getting late in the day, he could only hope that he caught the last one for the day in time.
Lucas failed to notice the sly smile the desk clerk gave himself as he saw his task was now complete. He had been given $1000 to coerce the young man into going to a pre-determined destination.
He didn't know who the other two men were, he didn't really care, a thousand dollars was a thousand dollars. He wasn't exactly a millionaire on a bell-hop's wages. Whatever awaited the young man was something between him and the other two men. He didn't give the teenager another thought for some time.
Lucas managed to catch the last ferry by the skin of his teeth. He was breathless by the time he sat down on the rear of the ferry and he got some strange looks from a few other passengers.
While he waited the vessel to make the twenty minute trip his mind began to wander back to the Captain's message. He had been upset with him when he awoke at the hotel and found out that he had been stowed away like come criminal. But now he had time to sit down and decipher it a little, the message from the Captain must have some sort of importance.
If the Captain had really hidden him away in the hotel to protect him, something urgent must have come up. It must be serious enough for Bridger to drag him out of his secret location.
The breeze ruffled his hair and he sat back ready to got back to his house. He might be able to get a few other things his friends forgot too once the problem with the Captain was solved.
They had intended to lock him up for a period of time but nobody thought of any entertainment for him during those long hours of incarceration.
When he disembarked from the ferry, he took the usual route along the beach. There was nobody to greet him on the island and there was no cab company there to hail down to a ride.
He had nothing with him but the clothes he wore. He didn't even have his wallet with him. He had been able to persuade the ferry driver to take a rain check because he used the service so regularly. He had a total of $1.50 in his pocket to buy the coke he didn't get. The path down the beach would take him about half an hour to reach Bridger's island retreat.
He didn't know that this half an hour would turn into the longest thirty
minutes of his life.
While Lucas was walking back to the house along the beach, two other people were already at the house. One was Paul Sanderson the other Lawrence Wolenczak.
Sanderson walked up to the back door and pulled a switch blade out of his pocket. He fiddled with the lock and heard a distinct click which allowed the door to be opened from the outside.
The two men went into the house and surveyed the area. The Captain wasn't a poor man by any stretch of imagination and his house certainly showed some style. It wasn't Buckingham Palace but Lawrence knew that his worthless son had been living it quite well since their last encounter.
"Are you sure he's going to show up?" Sanderson asked Wolenczak.
"Oh don't worry, he'll show," Lawrence said with an evil grin.
"You just be ready when he does. You may have been good at your job in the past Sanderson while I was cooling my heels in prison. But if there's one thing I know, that is how my son's mind works. I know his strengths and weaknesses. I know his likes and dislikes. I'll get him here, you just handle the next part."
"You got the number of that hotel they gotten him hidden away in?" Sanderson now asked.
"Yeah, we traipsed around that God Damn city for hours before I finally found the little wretch. I will make him pay for putting me out like that. All that clerk needed was a little monetary incentive and he spilled his guts completely."
"I'll wait until I hear Lucas outside and then I will contact Bridger at the hotel. This is going to be better than Christmas. We both get Lucas for all the misery he had caused us and we make Bridger and the rest of his friends sweat too."
Both men went about setting up their little trap.
Sanderson pulled out Old Shiela again, but this time the arrow had a different shaped barb on the end of it. It was more like a dart than an arrowhead. It had a hollow tip and contained a clear fluid inside it. It would be enough to knock the teenager out and take him to their intended destination to begin their little game of terror.
Once everything was in place, the two men settled down in Bridger's office
with the phone nearby. The trap was set, all they needed was the bait.
Kristin awoke from her fitful doze on the couch upstairs in their room. She stretched and yawned for a minute. She hadn't expected to fall asleep but the boredom of the afternoon and the lack of sleep from the previous night had eventually got to her. The couch was very relaxing and comfortable.
She looked around and noted two things. One that Ben and Miguel were sound asleep on their single beds in their own room. Secondly, the door to Lucas's room was wide open and there was no sign of the teenager inside.
"Ben, Miguel!" Kristin shouted with panic laced in her voice. "Where's Lucas?"
Both of them had been startled awake at Kristin's shouting. Ben came wandering out into the living room. "Lucas is in his room, isn't he?"
He soon saw the source of Kristin's shouting. Lucas's door was wide open and he too could see no sign of the occupant.
"Where would he go?" Ben questioned with nervousness. He didn't want to have the Captain come back and find that the person they had brought to the hotel to protect was now wandering around somewhere alone.
All three of them could see that the teenager wasn't in the suite anywhere and there hadn't been the topic of rules brought up yet. They hadn't been able to explain to the missing boy that he wasn't supposed to be running around the place on his own. He was supposed to stay put until the all clear was given by Captain Bridger.
Bridger had casually walked through the front door of the lobby of the hotel when he was confronted by three very nervous and worried people near the front reception desk. The desk clerk who had seen Lucas leave was present and the conversation quickly grabbed his attention.
"What's wrong?" Bridger said as he saw the alarm written over Kristin's face.
Kristin didn't know how else to tell him other than straight out, "Lucas is gone!"
"He's WHAT?" Bridger now yelled back. He was not angry at Kristin but he was now worried like them all that Lucas was wondering around alone in strange surroundings. The boy had been sleeping when brought into the hotel and he probably didn't even know where he was when he walked out onto the street.
Bridger quickly started to think and was organizing Ben to call the rest of the SeaQuest crew and have them split up into smaller search parties. They had to find him and they had to find him quick. Bridger had been a little longer than first anticipated, but he had not expected that the teenager would bolt as soon as he woke up.
Kristin proceeded to explain to Nathan the details of what had taken place earlier on the teenager first waking up. She told him about the angry words Lucas shouted and his attitude to the whole thing of keeping things a secret from him.
Bridger was now punishing himself inside at hearing this information. He knew that he didn't want to leave the teenager here this morning before he woke up. But he thought he was doing his best to protect him. He was just hoping and praying that they could find the boy quickly enough for him to explain the reasons for their unorthodox security methods.
The desk clerk now felt a little remorse at his role in the whole scheme. He coughed a little and tried to gain the attention the people in front of him.
"Are you people looking for a blond teenager that was here earlier?". The man's statement certainly got their attention alright.
"Have you seen him?" Bridger asked politely at first. He was desperate to find him. God knows how much time had lapsed between when Lucas left and now.
"Yeah, he left a message here a little while ago before he went out," the man said calmly.
"What was that message?" Kristin asked in a calm, but low tone of voice. Everyone else but the desk clerk recognized the tone as an imminent sign that the good doctor was about to unleash her fury.
"He got a message from some Captain Bridger fellow...," but before the man could continue Bridger butted in.
"I am Captain Bridger," Nathan shouted. "I didn't leave him any message."
The current situation had all the ingredients that had Bridger's stomach twisting in knots of fear that something had happened to Lucas.
The man ignored Bridger's ranting, "The message was that the young man was to meet some named Captain Bridger at his house on some island. He said it was urgent."
"The kid seemed to believe it enough. He told me to tell the other people upstairs that's where he was and he would be back shortly."
"Oh Nathan," Kristin said with fear in her voice, "That message wasn't from you. It was from Sanderson or Lawrence!"
The desk clerk's ears pricked up at the sound of that name. The two men hadn't introduced themselves in person when they made the offer for assistance.
The man decided he better ask the question to douse his curiosity, "That's the name of the young man isn't it?"
All four people now looked at the desk clerk and wondered how he knew Lucas's name. The man took a step back from the counter at the look of their faces. He was a little scared himself now.
"I think this man knows a little more than he is admitting," Ben said with a snarl and grabbed the nervous little clerk by the front of his lapels. "What do you know about this, you little weasel?"
The man was scared of these people now. He had just wanted to make a few extra dollars but he decided he better tell them what he knew, "I didn't know they were going to do anything bad to the kid, honest!"
"Who are they?" Bridger asked but he was afraid he already knew the answer as did they all.
"Two men came in here about lunch time asking if anybody new had registered here this morning," the clerk began to explain.
"Are you supposed to keep information like that confidential?" Ben hissed at the man.
"Not when they are offering $1000.00 hard cold cash," the man snarled back.
It was about this time that Ben lost his patience with the clerk. He was angry that somebody would just sell out Lucas's whereabouts for money. Sure Lawrence Wolenczak had money, plenty of it, but he had never shed a single damn dime on the person who should mean the most to him. Instead he spent it trying to make the teenager's life miserable.
Ben released one of his hands and without warning punched the man in the stomach. The man doubled over but Krieg jerk back his hair to make him stand erect again. Ben looked about and thought that the Captain or Kristin would chew him out over that little error in judgement.
Instead he was surprised when Bridger himself grabbed the man by his coat so that their gazes met. The man didn't like the cold hard stare that either person was giving him.
"You had better hope nothing has happened to him," Kristin warned. "I am a doctor and I can think of a few painful procedures to perform on you if need be."
Bridger's approach was a little more direct, "If he has been put in danger because of you, I will come back and find the biggest pole I can find and make you into an instant totem pole. Understand?"
The manager of the hotel now appeared and demanded what was going on in his hotel lobby. When he heard the sorted details of what had happened to Lucas and that his own employee was involved, the manager offered to make the hotel a command central base for the search operation to commence from.
"Make sure this guy finds the proper authorities, will you," Bridger said to the manager. "I may want to talk to him later if we can't find Lucas in a hurry."
The clerk took a large swallow at this statement.
The manager swore that the man would be held by the police for as long as possible. He was certain that a long list of charges would soon be laid against the man. He could be the accessory to kidnapping, assault and battery and/or murder.
Bridger and the rest of the crew didn't want to dwell on the last one too much.
The Captain and Krieg now spent the best part of half of hour organizing for Commander Jonathan Ford to get a search part underway. He explained over his PAL what had happened and the Commander promised to have as many volunteers as possible ready in an hour. He also promised extra back up staff to man radios and walkie talkies back at the hotel.
While the everybody was trying to organize the search, the main telephone at reception rang. Bridger and the others heard it but paid no attention to it at first. They let the manager answer it.
The manager now tried to get their attention ,"Um Captain Bridger, Sir?" he said as he stumbled on his words, "It's for you."
"For me?" Bridger said. A little piece of him wanted to believe that it was Lucas trying to contact him. No such luck.
"The caller won't identify himself. Just says that he wants to talk to Captain Nathan Hale Bridger of the SeaQuest," the manager said repeating the caller's request.
Bridger's heart almost stopped and he nervously put his hand out to take the receiver from the manager. "Hello?" he stammered. He was listening for a response from the other end.
Whilst everyone was organizing to search for him, Lucas Wolenczak was walking along the beach that lead to the front of his house.
He could see the house now and when he reached the front verandah he looked in the usual hiding place for the spare key. The teenager put the key in and turned the door handle. He heard the lock release and went to walk in. So far nothing out of the ordinary had aroused his suspicions that somebody else was in the house.
Back at the hotel, the voice on the other end of the telephone with Bridger finally made a response, "Good Evening, Captain Bridger," the caller greeted him.
Kristin and the others had been listening in on an extension phone and whilst the voice didn't seem to disturb the manager of the hotel, but everyone else involved felt the blood drain from their faces at the recognition of that voice.
It was unmistakable. It was the voice of Lawrence Wolenczak.
Bridger felt himself gather all of his anger and hurl it towards the other end of the phone. "What have you done with him you BASTARD?" he yelled. His face was now bright red from his anger. The cords on his neck were standing out as he strained the tendons in his neck.
"Done with who?" Lawrence threw back. His voice oozed calmness and casualness. Wolenczak knew exactly who the Captain was talking about.
"Don't pretend to play games with me Wolenczak! If you have so much as touched one hair on his head, I promise you a slow and painful death!"
Bridger was beyond being polite and politically correct. The UEO could fire him anytime they wanted if they felt he was out of line talking like this. He wasn't about to take the soft approach where Lucas was concerned.
"You surprise me, Captain. Accusations without the proper proof. Tsk Tsk. But don't worry, I haven't touched that worthless son on mine yet. My part was to get him here. After that I will let my esteemed associate Mr Sanderson take over the finer details of what's to happen to Lucas," Lawrence responded.
"Where exactly are you?" Bridger demanded.
"Why I am at your place, Captain," Wolenczak said hoping to get the horrified reaction from the man he was expecting. "After all this is where you told the boy to come."
Bridger felt his legs turn to putty. He had heard the clerk mention that the message to Lucas had told the teenager to meet him at the house on the island. There wouldn't be enough time to get there now before Lucas did to warn him. He had failed again to protect the one he loved most.
"I'm just going to switch the phone to speaker, Captain," Lawrence commended casually.
"I thought you might want to be hear from Lucas when he comes home. He's just turned up outside."
The phone made a strange static sound and now everyone in the hotel lobby could hear what was going on without listening to the extension phone.
They couldn't hear anything at first except silence. Then just as they thought Lucas might have noticed something out of the ordinary, they heard the teenager's voice in the hallway.
"Captain?" Lucas said as he walked through house looking for Bridger.
The office that Sanderson and Wolenczak was upstairs and at the end of the hall, so it would the last place Lucas would check. "Captain are you here?" the teenager called out again.
'NO LUCAS," Bridger tried shouting through the speaker so the teenager would be warned in time.
But he only managed to get those two words through before Wolenczak placed his hand over the speaker part of the phone. Any other messages the Captain was trying to yell in order to forewarn the boy was muffled by his hand.
Lucas stopped in his tracks for a moment. He thought he had heard Bridger's voice upstairs.
He climbed the stairs and started towards down the corridor. The teenager failed to notice a third person walk stealthily behind him in the shadows. Lucas looked in Bridger's bedroom and then headed towards the office.
"Captain are you... here?" he managed to say before stepping through the door.
The young man's voice faultered and he wouldn't have been able to say anything else anyway. His voice was completely lost to his fear when he saw who was really sitting at the Captain's desk. It was his real father Lawrence Wolenczak.
The door closed behind him and he now saw that not only was his father in the room, but so was Paul Sanderson. He was trapped in the room with the two people he feared most.
The fear was great too. He could feel himself shaking but he couldn't do anything about it. How was he going to get away? His mind failed to come up with a solution. Too many bad memories were haunting him at the moment.
Lawrence removed his hand from the speaker now and resumed his conversation, "So glad you could join us, SON," he tried to emphasis the word 'son' just for Bridger. He could see the boy's pale face and trembling hands. He knew that he instilled fear into his worthless offspring.
It was this control factor over the boy that he constantly craved. Lawrence felt that if he had control over somebody as weak as Lucas, then he could control most situations. A super smart kid his son might be, but when it came down to it, he was just as afraid as anybody else.
"I believe you have met our other visitors here," Wolenczak said to Lucas as he gestured towards Sanderson.
Lucas saw the door open again and in walked Sanderson's sidekick Campbell. This just kept getting better and better Lucas told himself.
"What do you want, Sanderson?" Lucas spat at the man as he tried to hide his fear through arrogance.
"Why me and old Sheila here have a score to settle with you boy?" Sanderson said as he now showed the menacing looking cross bow that Lucas had encountered before.
Lucas vividly remembered the pain that the weapon had inflicted upon him. His body still reminded him of it everyday even a few of weeks down the track. Just like the scar on his leg and the hole in his chest from the bullet. All souvenirs of their previous meetings.
His father was still good at inflicting injury too. Those sharp reminders just took longer to fade as they were normally in the form of unseen cracked or broken ribs and bruises that were all colours of the rainbow. It was this type of injuries he had learned to cope with in silence over the years no matter how bad the pain might have become at times.
"Lucas," Bridger shouted through the speaker. The teenager looked surprised at the phone and at the sound of the Captain's voice.
"Captain! Help me PLEASE!," Lucas screamed back.
He tried to reach the speaker phone to get closer to it but he soon found him self restrained by Campbell. The man was much bigger and strong and he pinned the youth's arms behind his back to stop his advancement.
"CAPPTTAAINNNN," Lucas tried to scream through the phone. He was afraid. More afraid now than he had been since his last encounter with Sanderson.
The teenager knew that these people meant him harm, both physical and mental. But he also knew that they didn't intend for it to be quick. Both would torture him mentally and emotionally until he was at breaking point and then they would start again.
Lucas saw Sanderson raise the cross bow and aim it at his chest. For a moment he thought they were going to kill him right here and now in Bridger's own home. But something made him notice the different point to the arrowhead. He could see the shimmer from the liquid inside.
This only made his fear grow. Lawrence did intend to drag out his suffering. And with him unconscious and unable to defend himself, Lucas knew that they would be able to take him to some unknown destination where there was no hope of somebody coming to help him.
Bridger didn't know what was going on in the room, but the next sentence from Lucas made his blood stop dead in this veins.
"Captain, come find me and help me PLEASE!
"They are going to hurt me all over AGAIN!"
"I can't do this again, PLEASE come and find me," Lucas begged.
Before he could say anything further he felt the dart from the cross bow hit him in the centre of his chest.
The sedative was quick acting like the one yesterday and it didn't take long for Lucas to surrender due to the effects. Campbell let the boy's body fall to the floor and all three in the room could be heard laughing at the boy's pleas for help.
"Don't worry Captain, you will be in contact with him, when I choose to allow it,"
Wolenczak informed Bridger. You won't be able to communicate with my wretched excuse for a son,
but you will be able to hear his screams!"
With this Wolenczak ended the conversation and terminated the telephone call with the hotel. Lawrence walked over to his son's body and placed a small device on the teenager's shirt.
What appeared to be like a badge or token of some description., was actually a miniature camera and microphone.
Yes, indeed the Captain and his friends would be able to see and hear everything. That was the whole point to this exercise. A new game was about to begin and it was going to test Lucas to the limit.
Bridger, Kristin and the others were still trying to comprehend what they had just heard. They had heard Lucas screaming for them to come and find him . He was begging somebody to help him. And the ones that loved him the most were too far away to help.
A police officer who had been helping with the search for the missing teenager now stepped forward towards the senior crew. He held a small rectangular shaped box in his hands. It was address to Captain Bridger of the SeaQuest.
"Um, Captain Bridger Sir!" the man said nervously. "This package just arrived, its addressed to you. There is no other identification on it to say who it is from."
Captain Bridger looked at the package with the same fear that had grabbed him with the telephone call from Lawrence. He didn't need to see a return address. Somehow he knew who it was from.
Bridger took it from the officer and dismissed him. He looked at the others before he opened the cardboard box. He didn't know how much more of a hammering his heart or mind could take at the moment. The fact that Lucas was missing was enough to render him irrational.
The thought of Lucas being in the hands of Lawrence Wolenczak and Paul Sanderson nearly drove him off the edge completely. For the moment he had to swallow his feelings as best he could. If he was going to be any help to the teenager at all, he had to be the impregnable tower of strength that everyone thought him to be.
Kristin put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but her own face could not hide the naked fear that they all felt for Lucas. What abominable acts did these people have in mind for their young friend.
Could Lucas survive another assault on his already tortured mind? He had come through some amazing feats already, but somehow they knew that this test left all others dead in the water. The other encounters Lucas had in the past paled in comparison.
Ben Krieg just looked sickly. He couldn't hide his feelings at the best times and today was no exception. He truly feared for Lucas. He wanted to do anything he could to get his friend back. If that meant giving his own life, then so be it.
Without awaiting another further ado, Bridger opened the box. Everyone had expected it to be something horrible like a missing body part, a finger maybe or a lock of blood stained blond hair.
What they found almost made them all break out into hysterics. It looked like an ordinary harmless token badge that one could get at any corner store or amusement parlour. It was a sky blue in colour and circular in shape. It really did just look like a badge. Something Lucas would probably get a kick out of and wear around in support of some off the wall society.
Underneath the blue was a patch of white. When Bridger took a closer look, he could see that it was a hand written message. Obviously the answer to all of their questions.
The Captain lifted the piece of paper out and placed the box containing the badge aside for the moment. It was taking all of his control to slowly open the folded piece of paper and read the contents to those around him. It began something like this:
Do you want to know where he is Captain?
For a moment Bridger couldn't get his eyes to read past this first sentence. He read it out loud to the others at first and then over and over in his own mind.
This little device looks simple enough. It was designed by somebody we both know. It will allow you to see everything he sees and hear everything he hears.
Only catch is that it was only designed to work aboard the SeaQuest.
Something he said about it being designed to work underwater somehow on a dolphin. It was supposed to be a surprise for you. And it will be I assure you!
The instructions to install it into your main frame computer are on the reverse side of this letter.
Sit back and enjoy the show. I know we will.
Don't worry - You can hear him - but he cannot hear you.
You can try all you want but you won't find him.
HURRY OR YOU'LL MISS THE OPENING ACT.
The letter was unsigned but the author was known to all. Bridger didn't need a return address to know who the letter was from. He remained silent but he could not halt the steady rise in anger that was brewing within him.
Paul Sanderson and Lawrence Wolenczak would pay dearly if they hurt Lucas. He had never been willing to kill another human being before in his life, but if it was God's will.
If Wolenczak and Sanderson were destined to pay the ultimate price for their evil deeds, then Bridger would be there to carry out the request. If it meant that Bridger had to sacrifice his own freedom in order to save Lucas's life then so be it. He would carry out the hideous crime asked of him and then accept his punishment willingly and without protest.
Ben Krieg however was not so silent about his feelings. He had couldn't believe the words he had just heard read. "Those sick Bastards, Captain!" Ben shouted with clenched fists.
"They are going to pay, Captain," Ben had never been the heroic type, far from it. But when it came to Lucas, all bets were off. He couldn't describe the bitterness and hate that he felt towards Sanderson and Wolenczak Senior right now.
Krieg looked across at Miguel, his Cuban friend and he saw the same dark expression of hate written across his face. There were words in Spanish that described men like Wolenczak and Sanderson.
They were used to frightened children on nights when they wouldn't behave. His grandmother had told him a number of horrible tales using the words to describe evil acts and despicable people. The word that came to mind wasCATAHORA.
Bridger pulled himself out of his stupor and looked at the badge for a minute. He looked at the people around him and saw their expressions of hopelessness and worry for Lucas.
"It might just be the key we have been looking for," he said with a ray of hope in his voice. He saw the instant puzzlement on everyone's face.
"If this is a receiver and camera just like Wolenczak says, then maybe we can use it to see familiar landmarks and work out where they have Lucas. At the moment we don't have any idea of where he is being held. They may have just given us a clue that we so desperately need."
Without waiting any further he paged Commander Jonathan Ford using his PAL communicator. He quickly described the gadget Lucas had been working on and its potential usefulness in tracking were his kidnappers had him hidden.
"The command centre for this search just changed venues," Bridger said with determination in his voice that took no arguments. Everyone nodded their heads and started heading upstairs to grab their gear and head back to the SeaQuest.
Bridger stayed downstairs and informed the Police Chief and the other support people about what was happening. He instructed were he could be reached if necessary, but he also wanted the ground search he organized to continue regardless.
This new theory was by no means fool proof and they needed a back up plan just in case. He wanted to leave nothing to chance and wanted as many people as possible out there looking for Lucas. He gave the Police Captain a small recent colour photograph of the teenager and instructed it to be copied as many times as necessary and distributed to the search parties.
He held it just a moment and had to smile at the cheeky grin on the
teenager's face. It was a grin of much happier times. Bridger just hoped
and prayed that there would be such joy again. He handed the photo over and
left when the rest of the crew was ready.
Lawrence Wolenczak and Paul Sanderson travelled in a hired four wheel drive vehicle to their destination. It was late afternoon and it look as though the sky was going to give birth to a tropical storm. The sky was menacingly dark and flashed it's anger in bolts of lightening that tore the rain clouds apart with a thundering crack.
In the back of the vehicle, Lucas was still unconscious to the drug Sanderson had used. He hadn't stirred in almost three hours. His hands were tied together and his feet were shackled in irons link together by a chain. The chain was quite long, some two feet in length, but it would be enough to slow the young man up if he decided to suddenly take flight in a hurry.
Sanderson was keeping a close eye on the road ahead. The sky was still darkening and rain was imminent. The vehicle stopped on top of a high rocky outcrop that overlooked the swirling sea below. Both of the men got out from the vehicle and Campbell got out from the rear seat. He had been seated next to the teenager just in case he had awoken during their journey.
"Drag him out here," Lawrence snapped to Campbell. The man nodded his head, signalling his co-operation in the matter. He reached in and grabbed a hold of the bound teenager and dumped him unceremoniously on the damp grass beside the car.
Sanderson took a few small steps forward towards the edge of the outcrop, trying to survey the first of Lucas's challenges. He smirked when he saw the tremendous descent and rocky ledges that were below. He looked back at the teenager who was oblivious to his fate and wished that he was awake to see what awaited him.
Lawrence and Sanderson had gone to great lengths to work out their plan for Lucas. They had put their devious minds together and came up with a series of challenges that would leave the teenager shaking and quivering with fear. Just the way they liked it.
As the lightening continued overhead, Campbell was able to see some of the damage Lawrence had already inflicted upon his son. Lucas's father had given the unconscious boy couple of healthy kicks to the rib area and a few punches to his face. But Lucas was in no condition to fight back or defend himself.
The abuse stopped as quickly as it had started. Having a victim that wasn't doing his usual cowering in the corner and pleading to be left alone just wasn't the same. It wasn't as much fun when your toy just laid there and took the punishment you dished out.
There was a deepening purple bruise on his left cheek and Campbell was sure that there would be matching ones on the boy's rib cage under his clothes. He was glad it wasn't him. He didn't feel any great sympathy for the teenager, but he was sure glad he wasn't on the receiving end of those kicks and punches. The kid might not have felt them when they first happened, but there was no doubt he would feel them when he awoke.
Campbell went to the back of the vehicle and started to strap on an rock climbing apparatus. He had on heavy footwear and thick clothing against the abrasiveness of the cliff face.
When fully ready he told his employer's that he was ready for the next part of their plan.
"Okay, you know what to do," Lawrence said.
"Take him down to that ledge and leave him there. Be sure to untie his hands before you come back up. Leave his legs shackled in the irons though. Make sure that the camera device is secured properly."
"When your back on top, you can stay in that camper van we have left down the hill. It's in a position that will enable us to see him go past once he makes it up the cliff. If he makes it up the cliff," Sanderson now said and laughed heartily at his plans for the teenager.
"I just wish I could see Bridger's face when he sees where the boy is," Lawrence said as he joined in the jovial laugh with Sanderson.
Campbell lifted the boy up and lifted him over his shoulder. He had done this on a few occasions now and was used to the added weight of the teenager. He had secured some heavy duty rope to the bumper bar of the car and now descended carefully and slowly.
There were a number of ledges that he could have chosen once he reached the required distance. He looked around and spotted a ledge that was a little wider than the rest.
It was about 25 feet from the top and would be well hidden from anybody looking from above. There were enough hand and foot handles in the rock of the cliff that the boy could use to climb back up. He would have to chimney his way up without the use of rope, but it certainly wasn't beyond his physical capabilities.
His mental condition on the other hand would be a total different matter and he would need to overcome his fear before attempting the arduous ascent to the top.
The teenager made a few mumbles and groans in his drugged induced sleep as he was laid upon the hard rocky surface of the ledge. Campbell untied his hands as instructed but left the leg irons.
They wouldn't restrict his movements as far as climbing was concerned. The steps the boy would have to make would only be small at the most. Certainly within the two feet limit he was restricted to.
Campbell made the climb back to the top and awaited at the predetermined
hide out.
When he got to the camper van, he could see Lawrence and Sanderson leaning
over
a portable radio receiver listening for the boy's return to consciousness.
Back on board the SeaQuest, Bridger had the senior crew report to the Ward Room. Most of the boat was deserted due to people looking for Lucas. The door to the room was locked only the nominated people would be allowed access. The people included were Bridger, Westphalen, Krieg, Ortiz, O'Neill, Crocker, Hitchcock and Ford.
Once all seated inside, Ortiz went about reading the instructions for the receiver and loaded the correct codes into the main frame computer. Bridger flicked the switch and a image began to form on the video screen.
Most of the people in the room didn't know if they were prepared enough to see this, but for Lucas's sake they needed to try. They would look for any familiar landmarks in the background and maybe come up with the teenager's mystery location.
It was about this time that both the crew aboard the SeaQuest and Lawrence and Sanderson in the camper van could hear faint groans coming from the teenager. He was beginning to wake up and the deadly game was about to commence.
The first thing that struck Lucas was the cool wind that buffeted him from the approaching storm. He could feel the hands of the breeze teasing his cheeks and ruffling his blond hair with the fingers of wakefulness.
He tried to remember where he was and what had happened. It didn't all come back at once. He mind was very fuzzy. Fortunately due to his precarious position on the ledge that was probably a good thing.
Bridger and the SeaQuest crew could see the teenager. They could see that he was laying down somewhere. The only problem was that the little camera Lucas designed was intended to be close range only. The images that appeared on the screen gave no defined background to analyse for landmarks. They would just have to wait and use their patience and see if the image improved.
The receiver pinned to Lucas's shirt suddenly came to life, "Welcome back, Lucas," came the voice.
At first it sounded strange and a long way off. The crew on board SeaQuest could also hear the voice.
Something in the back of Lucas's addled mind clicked and he realized that it was his father Lawrence Wolenczak talking to him. The recognition also triggered the events from earlier in the day.
The images of him going to Bridger's house on the island and being trapped inside the house with Sanderson and Lawrence. He remembered the cross bow in Sanderson's hands and the dart that entered his chest. He had the answer to why his body felt so heavy.
What he didn't have answers for is the pain that stabbed his rib area and his face. He felt his cheek and winced at the pain that came from the ugly bruise. He put a hand on his torso and felt the dull ache coming from his ribs. It didn't take his genius mind to work out that his father had given him the usual warm welcome that he received every time they met.
"You're finally awake again," Lawrence said with disgust.
Something in Lucas's mind told him that the voice was coming from a long way away so the teenager hurled back a response that he wouldn't have dared uttered if he was in Lawrence's immediate vicinity.
"Go to Hell," and his ribs flared into life for his trouble. He attempted to sit up slightly and was again rewarded by short bursts of pain from his damaged and bruised ribs.
"Good to see you in such great spirit, Lucas," Lawrence said as he ignored his son's latest outburst. "Let's hope you keep up that kind of spunk for the rest of the game.
GAME was the word that echoed in Lucas's mind. Last time he had played a 'game' involving Sanderson, he had ended up in hospital for the best part of a week with a hole in his shoulder and places that hurt that he had never discovered before.
Lawrence seemed to sense his son's thoughts and answered, "Yes Lucas, Mr Sanderson and I have devised a little game of challenge for you. You see we thought you might have been slacking off aboard that boat were you are hand fed all of the time. We thought it was time to toughen you up again."
Bridger had his head in his hands as he heard Lawrence talking to Lucas. It was almost too much to bare. He kept reminding himself that he needed to be strong for Lucas.
Lawrence completely changed the topic of discussion now, "Lucas, tell me what are your three worst fears? Be honest now."
Lucas for the first time since waking up forget about the pain he was in and thought about the question directed at him. His hands began to shake. He knew that there would be nobody else in the world that would know his fears like his father Lawrence. There were some fears that he had kept secret from everyone, even Bridger and Kristin.
"Have you noticed your surroundings yet, Lucas?" Lawrence asked with a great deal of anticipation. He knew the boy hadn't or he would have heard him before now.
Bridger and the rest of the crew now waited as well. Bridger tried to rack his brain thinking about all of the fears Lucas had told him about. He looked about from face to face in the room looking for the answer. Some of them knew of one or two of Lucas's fears, but they didn't know what Wolenczak was driving out.
Lucas finally got himself into a sitting position with his back leaning again the jaggered rocks of the cliff face. He looked about him. The ground seemed solid enough. It seemed to support his weight enough. It wasn't until a mighty flash of lightening lit up the sky that he realized where he was.
Bridger and the crew had heard Lucas scream before. He had woken up from nightmares before screaming and they had heard him screaming under the hands of Sanderson, but nothing could prepare them for the sound that escape Lucas's mouth now.
Lucas saw his position up on the ledge and screamed for all he was worth. Due to the canyon like effect the rocks gave, the teenager heard his own animalistic scream being hurled right back at him from below.
He was glad he was sitting down because he couldn't move his paralysed body due to the immense fear he felt. HEIGHTS seemed to be word that came to his brain.
Bridger and the others knew that heights were one of Lucas's fears. There had been an incident aboard SeaQuest where Lucas found himself only 10 metres off the ground and he had almost hyperventilated back then. The camera was able to give the viewers a clearer picture of Lucas's torment.
Lucas squeezed his eyes shut tight. He couldn't open his eyes for fear of looking down. If he looked down he knew that he would be worse. It was the one thing that was told to people with a fear of heights. Don't look down.
Bridger and the others could see from the brief flashes of lightening that Lucas was perched up on a high ledge. The cliff face around him was some 400 feet from the sea floor. They could also see the leg irons around Lucas's ankles and the bruise that marred his face. They knew that Lawrence had already begun dishing out a little payback on the teenager.
"Your task, Lucas," Sanderson now said, "Is to climb to the top. It's only about 25 feet so you won't need any rope. If you make it to the top, you will have finished one third of the challenge. Don't worry we will be waiting at the top for you,"
'25 Feet' Lucas thought. For him it might as well have been 25 kilometres. On his own with his fear of heights so great, he would be flat out putting two steps together.
Now they were asking him to climb 25 feet up a rocky cliff with no rope and no security line. He also had no doubt that his father and Sanderson would be waiting at the top too. Waiting to take him to his need deadly encounter if he didn't fall of the cliff first.
Lucas's mind was starting to become fuzzy again from the power of his fear and the residual effects of the sedative in his system. His eyes were already closed. His hands were shaking from his fear and the cold. To add to his torture, the rain clouds overhead opened up and the rain started soaking him to the skin. His hair was plastered in damp clumps over his forehead and dripped in his face.
How was he ever going to master this. His body gave in to the drug and he fell into a uneasy doze leaning up against the rocks.
Kristin turned her head away from the scene before her. She couldn't watch anymore of Lucas's torment. She could see that the boy was battered and bruised. He was sitting in the pouring rain getting drenched and shivering from the cold air. His body was shaking from his fear and he looked so alone. How were they going to help him?
The rest of the crew was stony silent. They could not find the words to say
to comfort
either themselves or the Captain. It was now that Bridger realised that the
camera was
designed not only to torture Lucas in this sick and twisted game. It was
also designed to torment them as his friends and family too. The very people Lucas
was depending on to help him.
It was the dawning sun beaming down on his face that first awoke Lucas the next morning.
The crew aboard the SeaQuest had tried in vain to try and see something by the camera that would give them a clue to Lucas's whereabouts. But nothing had come. It had been too dark to see any background landmarks. They were all exhausted out of fear and worry for Lucas and eventually fell into a restless sleep themselves in the Ward Room.
It wasn't the morning sun that awoke them. They were all jolted out of their dreams by the terrified scream that Lucas emitted once he eyes grew accustomed to the bright sunlight.
He had opened his eyes slowly at first and tried to gauge the damage to his body before trying to move too much. His head did not ache, but his ribs protested as loudly as the night before. It wasn't until he gained his full senses that he truly gained an appreciation for his current surroundings. If he was scared last night, the fear that ran through him now was utterly paralysing.
Lucas could now see just how high up he was and how small the ledge he was perched on really was. He tried to shrink backwards into the rockface behind him even more to get away from the edge. It was only now that he let out the scream that awoke the crew aboard the SeaQuest.
Lawrence Wolenczak decided to greet his son for the first time today over the two way radio that was still attached to Lucas.
"I see you have survived the night," Lawrence said in mockery. "Oh well, maybe you might just come through this after all. We will have to wait and see. You have to make it up the cliff face yet."
Make it up the cliff face Lucas said to himself. His brain was describing every detail in full about his rocky abode. The cliff was approximately 400 feet high. But then it was difficult to make a real accurate estimation. The cliffs tapered in towards the bottom to give the effect that they went on forever.
The rocks themselves were constructed out of a porous limestone composition. The colour of the rock was a dirty brown colour. The cliffs tapered narrowly to the jaggered rocks below.
Once the rocks merged with the bottom, they were pounded by the endless surf. One step in the wrong direction and Lucas saw himself being splattered all over the sharp stones below. Whatever was left of him would be washed away by the white foam of the sea.
Bridger and the crew were also frozen in their positions. They couldn't see how Lucas was going to overcome such an obstacle. Hell half of them couldn't have handled being out on that ledge.
Here Lucas was, half beaten, tired and exhausted, with chains around his ankles and he was expected to climb to the top without the aid of any ropes or equipment. The fear they all held for Lucas's life was great.
"You know what they call this place, Lucas," Lawrence informed the boy. Before waiting for a reply from the teenager he gave his own answer.
The first people here called it JUVA DE A INSANIUSAM or EDGE OF INSANITY.
"Appropriately named don't you think?" Lawrence said with a hearty chuckle.
"Some people say that the cliff face looks like the side of God's face. For they say if you fall, you will surely meet him."
Back on board the SeaQuest, Bridger went to turn around to language expert Lieutenant Tim O'Neill and get him to look up the Latin name Lawrence had just said.
O'Neill however was already typing away as fast as he could on the console within the room, "Already on it Sir," he said without looking up at the Captain. When the system came back to him he had some disappointing news for all of them.
"Sorry Sir, I looked under every Latin derivative I could think of. I looked under EDGE of INSANITY. I even tried a few variations to the name. Nothing has come back that could give us a firm fix on Lucas's position. The place isn't even listed on any atlas."
"Thank you Tim. I'm sure you did your best," Bridger said. He was beginning to think that Lawrence had tied up all of the loose ends. Had he made his plans so carefully and accurately that they were indeed unable to help their young friend.
The rest of the crew's spirits dipped when they heard that they were still
at a loss for
Lucas's whereabouts.
Lucas however, was thinking hard. He had the beginnings of a cold or flu from the rain the night before. He had a slight dull ache of a headache and his breathing was hampered firstly from a blocked nose and secondly from the small tickles he began to feel inside his lungs each time he took a small breath.
As he looked more about his surroundings and thought more about the man or men who had put him in his current position. He could feel his blood pressure start to rise. He was starting to feel a little ticked off that he was always the one to get picked on by his father and Sanderson.
"I'm not going to let you win this time," Lucas said. The first time he said it, it was almost a whisper and everyone including Lawrence had to listen the second time to make sure what they heard was correct.
Lucas now still to his full height against the cliff face. He still had his back pressed firmly against the limestone formation, but he had a look upon his face of determination.
"I SAID, " and he spoke louder towards the small badge pinned on his shirt. "I am not going to let you win this time, YOU BASTARD. I am going to beat you and this cliff!"
Lawrence just laughed through the radio at his son's tough words.
The people on board the SeaQuest did exactly the opposite and began chanting words of encouragement as loud as they could at the teenager. They know that Lucas couldn't hear them, but they hoped that somehow there messages of support would get him through his torture.
Lucas now took a small and very shaky foot forwards, away from the cliff face. He closed his eyes against the threatening feeling of vertigo that he sensed at he looked at the waves below. He waited for the feeling to subside and then he turned around and faced his challenge. He took a large swallow as he looked at the distance he would need to climb in order to reach the top.
Before he could change his mind and before his fear cause him any more anguish, he placed one hand on a rock just above his head. He placed a second hand on a rock a little further down and to the right of him.
He waited until his hands stopped shaking and tried to put one foot on a small instep in the rock near the bottom of the ledge. He looked at the chains that connected the irons around his legs. He just hoped that the links were small enough not to get caught on any of the small rocks on the way up.
The teenager took a deep breath and let it out again. The fear was still there and he didn't know how long he could keep up the tough appearances, but he had to try. He couldn't let his father or Sanderson win this time.
He took a second deep breath and before he could let it out again he pulled his body off the ground and held firmly onto his hand holds. He knew that once he got going he couldn't afford to stop. Even one glance towards that rocky shore would put his concentration off and could cause him to fall to a watery grave below.
Bridger and the others collectively held their own breaths as they watched Lucas take his first unsteady step up the cliff face. Then Lucas did something that completely baffled them.
Lawrence Wolenczak could also hear his son saying something to himself. He just didn't know what to make of it.
"Joshua Levine!"
Joshua Levine, Bridger thought, that was the name of one of the crew members aboard the SeaQuest. He wasn't present with them in the Ward Room but he a regular crew member.
"Security Chief Crocker!" came the next name out of the boy's mouth.
Lawrence was completely fooled by the boy's plot. Bridger however worked out exactly what he was doing.
The boy was using the names of his friends and fellow crew members aboard the SeaQuest as he made his way up the cliff. He was using them to give him the strength and confidence he needed to go on.
Bridger explained to the others what Lucas was doing by saying their names out loud. All of them continued the encouragement they had been giving before. They increased it's intensity and were almost shouting at the Vid Screen to the teenager on the cliff.
Lucas continued to say the names of the SeaQuest crew out loud. With each name and each shaky step he did gain confidence. Maybe not enough to conquer his fear entirely, but it was working enough for him to be able to scale the cliff face.
About a third of the way up though his right foot slipped for a minute and he nearly toppled back to the ledge below. He squeezed his eyes tight and tried to calm his nerves bit. There was nowhere else to go. He either had to go up or down.
Bridger and Kristin had closed their own eyes when they saw Lucas's stumble on the cliff. They didn't want to see what they thought would happen. When it appeared that Lucas was safe enough, Ben had told them that Lucas was okay and they could open their eyes again.
Bridger had never felt more afraid in a single moment in his entire life than when he felt it watching Lucas's perilous ascent.
Lucas had managed to hurt his ankle a little and some of his knuckles got the skin rubbed off them from the abrasiveness of the limestone. But other than that he was alright.
When he had regained some composure, he started the small steps again and reciting the names as well.
He was saving his closest friends and family members for the last few metres of the climb. That's where he thought he would need the most help and strength. His body was being to tire from the strain already and he would be utterly had it by the time he neared the grassy top of the cliff.
"Commander Jonathan Ford!" one step.
"Lieutenant Tim O'Neill!" another step
"Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz!" another step but some more bruised fingers from a sharp rock with a knife like edge.
"Lieutenant-Commander Katie Hitchcock!" Katie smiled and was honoured that Lucas was using her name to help him in his quest for survival.
Three, possibly four steps to the top and he was safe again for a few minutes.
"Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg!" Ben scowled a little at the use of his full and correct first name.
"Doctor Kristin Westphalen!" was the third last step. He was tiring badly and his limbs were trembling from the fatigue that was setting in.
The next step, Lucas knew he had to try and make in one last huge attempt. He didn't know how many more he could do. And maybe two was just pushing the limits a little. He thought about the last name he had in his mind. That name usually gave him the feeling of more pride and love than he had ever known in any other person.
Usually that person was the one truly stable one in his entire life. He was always been there, he promised to always be there, no matter what.
Bridger also had a look of pride on his face. All in the Ward Room knew who's name was about to be drawn out of the barrel and announced to the world.
"Captain Nathan Hale Bridger!" Lucas exclaimed loudly as he made his final climb to the top. When he had finished the step, he could feel soft green grass under his bruised and bleeding fingers. He never thought anything could have felt better at the moment.
He could hear the clanking of the chain around his ankles as he pulled himself up onto the top of the cliff and away enough from the edge not to fall back down.
He had made it. He could scarcely believe it. He almost had tears of joy well in his eyes at the effort he had just accomplished.
Back aboard the SeaQuest, the crew were hugging each other and crying tears of their own at Lucas's bold efforts. They couldn't have felt more prouder of the teenager at the moment. He had beaten his fear.
The joy was shortly lived though.
Lucas looked about. The sun was still over head. The one thing that struck the teenager was that nobody was about. He couldn't believe his fortune. He had expected that when and if he reached the top, his father Lawrence and Sanderson would have been waiting their to haul him up by his thumbs.
There was nobody in sight. This was his opportunity to escape. Without waiting any further and although still very tired from the climb, he got to his still trembling feet and started to head off in the first direction that came to mind.
He didn't know where he intended to go, only that he had to take his chances and get away if possible. The chains around his legs, prevented him from taking too bigger steps. He could not break into an outright run. But any movement was more than he anticipated.
His ankle started to throb at the extra weight placed upon it as Lucas moved through the grass towards a line of trees. He didn't make it more than half way before he stumbled and fell over in the grass. He had his back towards the cliff and failed to see three figures approach him quickly from behind.
Before Lucas could make it to his feet, he heard his father's words. The words that he had heard echo over and over again in his mind since he was about seven or eight years old.
"Don't you DARE try and run away from me!" Lawrence roared at Lucas. The youth immediately started to tremble at the sight of his fathe standing but a few feet away.
He had been beaten and beaten over the years and constantly reminded that his father's pet hate was the fact that Lucas could out run him. On the last occasion Lucas had received enough punishment to ensure that he knew never to run away from his father again.
Bridger and the others watched with outrage and sorrow that Lucas hadn't been able to get away from his captors. They could see the fear that radiated from the boy as a result of his father's words. Lucas was almost as scared now as he had been on the ledge of the cliff.
"You have FORGOTTEN your lessons, Lucas," Lawrence's voice boomed. "Time that you remembered them, don't you think?"
Lawrence gestured for Sanderson and Campbell to grab an arm each and hold him upright.
Lucas had tried to get away but his feeble efforts failed miserably. He knew what was about to come...
Bridger and the rest of the crew gasped collectively when they saw Sanderson and Campbell grab Lucas roughly and hold him up in front of his enraged father.
"You leave him alone!" Bridger shouted at the video screen, but unfortunately the person the comment was directed at couldn't hear the Captain.
They all watched as Lawrence made a closed fist with his right hand and drove it full force into Lucas's unprotected stomach.
It took the teenager's breath away at the force and the pain that resulted. He hadn't recovered from the first blow when he felt an equally powerful second, third and fourth punch from his father.
His knees buckled, threatening to take him back to the grass underneath him. It was only the fact that he was being physically restrained that prevented this.
Lawrence continued with the assault on his son. He punched in all over his upper torso, including his rib cage, the shoulders and upper arms. The rain of blows was relentless and there wasn't enough time in between any of them for Lucas to recover from any of them before the next was being felt.
Lucas was barely conscious. His head hung low and his grip on reality was thin due to the pain that was pulsating through his entire body. There wasn't an inch of his body at the moment that didn't hurt in some way.
"You sick BASTARD!" Krieg now yelled at Lawrence, shouting and seething with rage at the treatment of his young friend. "We have to do something, Captain!"
Bridger was lost in his own thoughts of helplessness. He had to turn his head away from the assault Lucas was receiving from his father. He wanted to help him more than anything else in the world right now. But he didn't know how to do this. They didn't know where he was.
Kristin put a comforting arm on Bridger's shoulder and Katie did the same to her ex-husband Ben. Both women knew that these two men who normally hid their emotions from the world.
Bridger with his stern outlook and leadership role hid his emotions and feeling by concentrating on his work. Ben, took a different approach and hid his true feelings behind practical jokes and laughter.
At the moment, Bridger didn't feel the leader of anything and Ben didn't feel like making any wisecracks.
The assault on Lucas was also having effect on all of them.
Campbell, the man who was helping in Lucas's beating, looked down at the pathetic sight of the teenager who was limp in his grasp. The boy's locks of blond, wet and limp hair falling over his eyes. Something twisted inside him at the young man's torment.
Although he had been a party to Lucas's misery in the past. Lawrence Wolenczak's treatment of his own son somehow affected him more than anything he had been involved with so far.
Sure Sanderson had taken the boy to hell and back on a couple of occasions now. But this man beating on him now was the boy's own kin. His father to be exact. Didn't the man have any feelings towards his own flesh and blood.
Lawrence was about to land another blow when Campbell spoke his thoughts out loud, "Don't you think he's had enough?" he said simply.
This statement surprised all involved, including the people aboard the SeaQuest. Lucas was the only one who appeared to not have heard the comment.
Lawrence now put his hand down and glared at the man with his face full of anger. Now Campbell was going to be on the receiving end of Lawrence Wolenczak's infamous temper.
"WHAT did you say to me?" Lawrence demanded. He stood with hands on his hips, trying to sound more indignant at the remark.
"He's had it," Campbell said as he pointed to the battered and bleeding teenager.
"This is becoming boring. Let's leave here and get on with the job." He was trying to sound bored with the whole affair to hide his real thoughts on the situation.
Campbell suddenly had to let go of Lucas as he felt Wolenczak's fist hit his face. He put his hands up to the place where the blow struck and felt blood trickling from his nose.
The teenager's body had fallen to the grass and Lucas now appeared to have lost his battle with consciousness. The boy's eyes were closed and his shallow breathing was loud enough for all to hear. Maybe some of those bruised ribs were now cracked or broken.
"Don't you ever question my actions towards my useless good for nothing son," Lawrence said as he grabbed the man gruffly and shouted into his face.
"You might feel like 'Mr Big' here," Lawrence yelled. "But I assure you that I am running this show here," and he glared at Sanderson just to make sure they knew their respective roles.
"I decide what will happen and when. You two jokers are just along for the ride," he added.
"You think you're going to push me around, Wolenczak," Campbell spat back. "Then you've got another thing coming. I didn't sign on this operation to play stool pigeon to a couple of cracked eggs. I am only in it for the money and nothing else. As long as I get paid, then I am happy."
Sanderson was now equally as surprised at his sidekick's comment aimed at himself. Maybe Wolenczak was right, maybe Campbell was getting way to soft to continue to be trusted anymore.
"You two can have it all to yourselves," Campbell announced as he resigned his part off the teenager's torment. "I never signed on to watch a couple of grown men kill some kid who was trussed up so he can't defend himself." With his piece said, the man now walked off in a huff.
Wolenczak gave a brief look at Sanderson and witnessed the man's curt nod to signal his agreement to what Lawrence intended.
Without warning, Campbell felt himself being propelled forward by a bullet from the gun that was still smoking in Wolenczak's hand. He had the gun hidden away in his jacket. The man's sightless eyes gazed up at the cloudy sky and would never again see the light of day. They couldn't afford to leave lose ends.
"Consider the debt paid Mr Campbell," Lawrence said without emotion.
The crew on the SeaQuest couldn't believe what they had just witnessed. Maybe the ranks within Lawrence's camp weren't so strong after all. They were prepared to kill their own men to attain their objectives.
Maybe the tenuous relationship between Sanderson and Wolenczak could deteriorate further to enable Lucas to escape or something. But looking at the unconscious teenager laying on the grass, they certainly needed a miracle to happen sometime soon.
Lawrence had briefly ignored his son whilst he dealt with Campbell. But now that was at an end, he didn't continue his assault. He instructed Sanderson to carry the unconscious youth back to their camper van so they could make their way to the next destination.
A few whimpers and moans of pain escaped Lucas's lips as he was tossed over Sanderson's broad shoulders and carted like a sack towards the van. No thought was given to his injuries or his sickly state.
Bridger was hoping that they might be able to make out a license plate or something of the vehicle to help the police. They managed only to see two letters as Sanderson walked past the front of the van, TW the other letters or numbers were obstructed from their view. Bridger made a note of them just in case they could be used later.
Inside the van, Lucas was unceremoniously dumped on a long thing bunk bed and left to his own devices as Sanderson moved up front to drive the van and Lawrence Wolenczak took his seat on the opposite seat up front.
Lawrence back over towards his son on the bed. He went to grab a hold of the small metal badge on his bruised chest. He was going to take it off temporarily to stop the transmission to Bridger and his crew while they made their new plans and drove to their alternative place of hiding. A small smile cross his face as he thought about an appropriate message to leave Lucas's new family and friends:
"You sure that room is ready for our arrival?" he asked Sanderson. "I want to make sure that Mr Kamara knows his job when we get there," Lawrence said.
"You might have beaten the cliff, Lucas," Lawrence said as he gazed down as Lucas's bruised and battered face. "But this next challenge is going to test you even more."
With that sentence completed he terminated the transmission to the SeaQuest crew and took the badge off Lucas's shirt. He would replace it when the next challenge was ready to begin.
On board the SeaQuest, O'Neill was desperately trying without success to re- establish the severed connection
It would be a very long 10 hours before the SeaQuest crew would be able to see their young friend again.
During this time, O'Neill and the others had been talking to every Motor Vehicle and Motor Home company in the country. They were looking for any clues or persons who might have rented or sold a Camper Van to Sanderson or Wolenczak in the last few days.
They even tried the Department of Motor Vehicle with the two letters from the number plates. They were trying to find a match. It came back that there were approximately 4 000 motor homes in the state with the number plate reading TW?.
They were determined not to give up though. The crew had swallowed their tears and put aside their raw feelings for Lucas while they tried to come up with a solution to help him.
Their discussions were interrupted when the severed connection between them and the teenager was once again established. Once again they couldn't see him straight away. The noise that drew their attention to him was the sound of his hacking cough and raspy breathing.
The kid had coughed and coughed and then stopped to catch his breath. The breathing was laboured and obviously very painful. They could hear him wince with every movement from the bruises and cuts on his shoulders and chest area.
Lucas was trying to take description of his own injuries in his dark prison. He didn't know where he was.
His head ached like the devil at the moment. He tried to massage his temples to ease the pain that throbbed until he couldn't think straight. He could feel every one of this ribs at the moment. He knew that his stomach and chest would be covered in bruises and scratches.
His chest felt incredibly tight and congested and he couldn't be sure but he thought he might he running a slight temperature. The room was surprisingly very warm though and it might just be that which caused his error in diagnosis.
He felt terrible. Lucas started working his way down his body in the darkness noting the feelings of pain and the possible causes as he went. His hands were free again, just like on the cliff but the irons remained in place. They were a little loose around his ankles and the skin had been rubbed off his ankles by the abrasive actions of walking and climbing the cliff.
They stung when touched but they weren't the worst of his injuries. The next injury that caused him some considerable pain and worry was his ankle. Even through the material of his sneaker, he could feel the puffiness and swelling that existed. He just had to hope that the confines of the shoe would prevent any more swelling to the damaged tissue. The ankle didn't feel like it was broken, just badly sprained perhaps.
The SeaQuest crew had been able to hear a few mumblings from Lucas about his various injuries but they hadn't caught all of them.
"Just great," Lucas said aloud to himself, unaware that his friends could hear him
"Kristin won't let me out of bed for a week when they find me,". The last few words caught in his throat and he had to hold back his emotions. 'If they find me' he said in bitterness out loud.
Bridger and the others had a chuckle at the teenager's apparent resolve in the face of adversity. Here he was battered and bruised, but he still had enough nous about him to make a few wisecracks.
They had to choke back tears of their own at his last words. It did seem that the teenager was losing confidence that he would be found. They had to keep trying no matter what. They were all determined not to let their young friend down.
All of their thoughts were rudely interrupted when Lawrence Wolenczak again started to speak to his son.
"Good morning again, Lucas," he said cheerily. "Hope you had enough sleep last night," his words oozing sarcasm.
"What do you want now?" Lucas demanded bitterly as he winced again at sitting up a little more upright.
"Still got that disrespectfulness about you, don't you," Lawrence said. "I think the next challenge will change your attitude in a real hurry."
"Don't worry, there are no more cliffs. You don't have to worry about being alone this time either, Lucas," Wolenczak announced with anticipation.
"You are just in a room. This test should be a snap. All you have to do when I turn on the lights is walk across to the other side of the room. Sounds simple enough doesn't it?" Lawrence explained.
"Oh I forgot to mention, sorry but the air conditioning has been turned off to accommodate your visitors. Enjoy their company now won't you," he said and turned off his receiver.
The room remained dark for a few more minutes.
The dark wasn't too bad. Being in total blackness wasn't something that Lucas exactly relished, but he could cope okay if he had to.
His thoughts about his next challenge were the same as the ones of the SeaQuest crew. There had to be a catch of some sort to this challenge. Lawrence wouldn't have made it simply enough to walk across a room of any description. What was the catch though?
Lucas didn't have to wait long to find out.
The first thing he heard was the noise. When he it reached his ears he froze. He knew exactly what made that sound. He was trying to squish himself up against the wall to get away from it. In the dark he couldn't see it but he didn't need a light to know what surprise his father had in store for him this time.
Bridger and the others had heard something in the room, but couldn't quite work it out. It sounded like some kind of rattle. They would have to hear it again or see it before they could easily identify it.
"NO! It couldn't be!" they all heard Lucas whisper. His voice was full of fear, just as it had been on ledge of the cliff. There seemed to be a little more urgency in it this time though as if he knew what to expect.
The people aboard SeaQuest couldn't see the next move but they certainly heard it.
Lucas was trying to get himself into a standing position to get away from the horror he knew existed on the floor. Without warning he felt the unmistakable slither of one of the room's occupants over his thigh.
It was too much to handle. He let out another blood curdling scream and stood up in a hurry, ignoring the burning pain in his ribs or the ache in his ankle. The thing had actually touched him. Touched his leg.
Suddenly, the lights of the room came on and the SeaQuest crew gasped out loud at the sight on the floor where Lucas was. They all had to close their eyes to the horror that faced the teenager.
Kristin had to hold onto the table in front of her for support. She hated to admit defeat to anything, but Lucas's fear was one of her own. She would have made the same eerie scream had it been her in that room at the moment.
The room was full of snakes. Alive, slithering, of all sizes and colours, but still snakes. They were crawling around on the floor in hundreds. It was as if the room had a living and moving carpet. They were all moving and testing the air with their forked tongues.
Some of them Lucas could identify, like the Cobra, the Rattle Snake and the Death Adder. Some of the other eluded him as to their correct biological name. It didn't really matter at the moment, all of them were probably poisonous.
One drop of venom from most of them and he would be dead in seconds. He doubted his weakened body could have fought off even the smallest amount of toxin at the moment.
He kept trying to back away from the creatures, but the wall behind him prevented his retreat. He looked across the room and could see the door on the other side. Just walk across to the other side of the room his father had said. He of course failed to mention about the floor being alive with deadly snakes.
Even if he started to cross the floor and managed to dodge a few of the deadly creatures, he wouldn't be able to avoid all of them. Sooner or later one or two of them would strike out at him and he would be history.
The mere thought of any of them crawling across his body made him feel slightly faint. He had hated snakes since he was a little kid. A friend of his had been bitten by a snake when they were only children, and didn't survive.
Ever since then he had always taken the approach that a good snake was a dead snake. He wouldn't even go near the reptile section of the Zoo that time Bridger had taken him there. He had never explained why, he just said he wanted to see other things than those disgusting, slimy critters.
Bridger had been remembering that trip to the zoo himself. Suddenly it made perfect sense to him why Lucas had been reluctant to visit the reptiles in the park. How could he have not known about Lucas's phobia towards snakes?
There had been an episode aboard the SeaQuest that Ben, Miguel and Tim were remembering as well. They had tried to play a practical joke on the teenager some months ago. The joke had only ended up backfiring and the teenager was less than amused.
They had all called him a baby for acting like he had. The trick had involved the use of a rubber snake. Now they all knew why he had reacted so badly to their antics. They immediately regretted their previous actions. They never would have tried something like that if they knew about Lucas's fear of snakes.
Lucas looked around for his escape route. There didn't appear to be many options that came to mind straight away.
The room looked so sterile in comparison to the cliff face. The walls were painted white, the only piece of furniture a plastic chair on the other side of the room near the door was white. The environment was too sterile. The air smelted musty as though the room hadn't been used in a long time.
Lucas kept looking around his prison for a way out. He looked up towards the ceiling and noticed something that might give a clue as to where he was.
Running across the entire length of the room was a stainless steel rod. It was bolted just above Lucas's head and ended above the door on the other side. He didn't know where he was but it looked like it might aid him in escaping his hissing nightmare on the floor.
Back on the SeaQuest, Miguel was looking at the room trying to find a clue to where the missing teenager was. He turned around to Kristin and asked her a question:
"Kristin, doesn't that pole across the room seem odd to you?" Ortiz asked the doctor.
Kristin looked at the rod and tried to pick up on what the Cuban man was getting at. She looked at him with a little confusion at first but then an idea dawned on her.
"It looks like a hospital room of some description," she announced excitedly. "That pole looks like the apparatus they use to attach equipment to that will aid disabled people or bed ridden patients to sit upright in a bed." She walked over to the screen and pointed to the rod and continued her theory.
"They attach a chain here," she said pointing to the steel bar and hang something like a triangle or square support on it. The support hangs just above head height over the bed. When a patient wants to sit up a little more, they just grab hold of the support and pull themselves up. Nathan, he must be in a room in some old disused hospital or clinic."
"How many places like that would exist Kristin, and where?. We could be looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if we find a couple of empty hospitals, we might go to the wrong one and we will be back to where we started from," Bridger said deflated.
"I'll go and make some inquiries," she said trying to perk up the Captain's spirits. "It can't hurt to look. Let me know if you see any specific details that might help us tell any of them apart."
She left the Ward Room to make her calls. Part
of her
wanted to stay and monitor Lucas's physical and mental state. The other
part knew
that she had to do all she could to help find his prison.
Lucas looked up and the bar across the room. Maybe it was possible to use it to get to the other side of the room without touching the floor. He looked down at his bleeding and torn fingers and knew that he would need some padding of some sort to stop the friction between the cold steel and his injured hands.
The sight that next greeted the SeaQuest crew made them all pale at Lucas's physical torment.
They had all seen Lawrence treat him like a punching bag. They had heard the small whimpers and grunts of pain. But none of that could prepare them for what they were about to see first hand.
Lucas tore the bottom half of his t-shirt off from around him. He looked at the flesh underneath and tried to block it out of his mind.
The bruises that existed covered every inch of his skin. Some of them were black, some yellow in colour signalling that they were still forming. Some of them had small red veins running through them indicating their depth and severity. The boy must be experiencing some great pain as a result.
Lucas wrapped the torn cloth around the palms of his bleeding hands. He looked back at the sight before him on the floor and shuddered again. One of the large black headed Cobra's stood up amongst the other snakes. His hood was fully expanded and it moved it's head back and forth as though to hypnotize it's victim.
Lucas extended his arms painfully above his head and made a small leap to reach the bar. He grabbed a hold of it and now was suspended in mid air by a mere couple of inches above the poisonous carpet below. The stretching of his arm muscles caused the muscles in his shoulders to tense up and cramp up. Lucas didn't know how long he could hold this position. But the alternative was an option he just couldn't have overcome.
He took his first hand and placed it in front of the other on the bar. He removed the one behind the first and now placed it ahead of the other. The action he told himself was just as if he was scaling the jungle gym at the local park when he was a kid. He had done it hundreds of times in his childhood. It had never been something he thought he would need to save his life one day.
The people in the Ward Room aboard the SeaQuest watched with dread as the teenager made his way painfully and slowly across the room by using the bar like a tight rope at the circus. Any slip in his movements or lax in concentration could see him falling into the slithering nest below.
He had made it a third way across the room when his arms signalled that he needed to stop and take a break. They were ready to fall off and started to tremble from the exertion of holding up his entire body weight.
Just when he thought he might give up from the pain, another Cobra stood up prepared to take a strike at the shadow above it. The Cobra moved to strike and only missed the toe of the teenager's sneaker by a couple of centimetres. That was enough of a scare to get the young man moving again no matter what the pain. His mind just told him to get out of there.
To avoid the second strike by the hissing snake, with all of his might he pulled his legs up towards the ceiling. The snake missed him completely that time, but Lucas was growing tired again and had to put his legs down again.
He felt like he was doing a routine on the rings as a gymnast. All of the power and strength had to come from his upper arms. At the moment, his upper arms felt as though they were being torn off at the sockets. He gritted his teeth and started to make his way across the room some more.
He was only a few feet away from the end when Kristin had walked back into the Ward Room. She was shocked to see the pain staining Lucas's usually handsome face. The boy was grimacing from the pain in his arms.
"I can't hold on much longer," he said aloud to himself. He looked down at the floor and knew that any minute his grip on the bar would release without him being able to prevent it. He would fall amongst the snakes below and that would be the end of Lucas Wolenczak. His father Lawrence would win by default.
"I can't hold on," he repeated once more, his voice giving away his sense of defeat. The pain was becoming excruciating and the limbs themselves were quivering with fatigue. He started coughing again at the burning sensation in his chest. He felt sure that he would hack up a lung or something shortly.
He coughed and coughed until he was almost blue in the face. He slight fever he had caused perspiration to run down from his forehead, dampening his hair and falling into his eyes at times. He couldn't rub the salty water away from his face and it was beginning to sting some of the cuts and abrasions on his face.
Bridger and the other's were forced to watch in dismay at Lucas poor condition. The boy was losing the battle to stay up on the pole. They feared he would indeed fall into the snake crypt below and be bitten by one of the venomous creatures.
"You can do it," Bridger shouted into the Video Screen. He knew that Lucas couldn't possibly hear him. But he just couldn't let the boy slip away from him. He meant too much to him and the rest of the crew. How would they all cope if Lucas didn't return? How would the crew go on without their young friend?
Bridger himself knew that if Lucas died, that would be the fatal blow that would see him leave the Navy for good. He didn't know where he would go or what he would be doing. But he wouldn't be able to walk the corridors of the SeaQuest without hearing the boy's laughter or see his presence everywhere aboard the boat. Hearing and seeing that everyday would be too much to take.
No, if Lucas died, then Bridger knew that part of him would die with him.
He would retreat again from the world like he had when Robert and Carol had
passed away. This time, he didn't think there would be anything to bring
him back from that lonely existence. He would become an empty shell of a
man without the a reason to
keep on living.
Suddenly Bridger was brought out of his thoughts by the rest of the crew shouting at Lucas through the Video Screen. They knew like the Captain that the boy couldn't see or hear them either, but they needed to feel like they were doing something as well.
"Come on Lucas," they all shouted in unison.
"You can do it! Come on Lucas!" The SeaQuest continued the barrage of encouragement until they were all hoarse from the shouting.
Back in the prison full of snakes, Lucas who had been quickly losing hope due to the pain and depression that was setting in, looked up. He thought he had been hearing things. Something in the back of his mind told him that his friends were chanting to him.
He thought he could hear Ben and the Captain shouting "Come on Lucas". Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe it was a trick that your mind played on your before the inevitable end.
Whatever the reason, it seemed to help him a little. Dream or reality he got the same whiff of determination that he had gained whilst on the ledge of the cliff He couldn't let his father win this time either.
Lucas set his face in that mask of cold hard determination again. Using the small surges of adrenaline to forget about the pain and give him the strength he desperately desired to finish the task. He just had to make it too the chair and he could us it to stand on away from the snakes on the floor.
He used a similar ploy this time as on the cliff. He started calling out names to help him finish scaling the pole. He only had about three metres to go. Instead of using names of the crew members aboard the SeaQuest this time. He tried to think of his other friends and use them as a source of inspiration.
"Juliana," he shouted. The crew aboard the boat had heard this name before.
This was the young lady who had Lucas totally smitten over her when he had returned from Node Three. Since then, there would be times when it appeared Lucas was dreaming off into space with a look of tranquillity on his face. The crew didn't need to be told who the teenager was dreaming about.
"Wolfman," he added. This was the on-line name for his best friend Nick.
Lucas's voice was beginning to waver due to the fatigue that was gaining momentum. He was on the verge of collapse and had the scramble the last couple of metres as quick as he could before he lost all of his remaining strength.
When he finally made it over the top of the white plastic chair, he released his grip on the pole and dropped onto the plastic chair. He sat on the chair with his feet lifted up off the floor. He was breathing very hard and trying to catch his breath without coughing again.
He closed his eyes and leant up against the corner of the room and tried to rest for a few minutes. He was only a few feet away from escaping the room, but he guessed the door would be locked anyway. He would need to regain his composure before testing the lock.
He rubbed at his shoulders, trying to massage away the cramps that existed from being suspended in mid air for such a long time. He put an arm protectively around his ribs again and thought of nothing for a moment.
The crew aboard the SeaQuest could see the boy had made it across the room. They were cautiously jubilant that the boy had managed to tackle his latest challenge. The worst wasn't over yet, because he was still inside the room with the snakes, but he was at least safe enough for a moment.
Lucas appeared to have dozed off on the chair with his head resting against the wall. He failed to notice the air conditioning duct cover above his head being lifted up.
Bridger and the others had seen the cover removed but couldn't guess what dangers were now in store for the helpless teenager. The opening made by the missing cover wasn't big enough for a person to fit through.
Suddenly the snakes on the floor started to retreat from their position around Lucas's chair. Something had happened to cause them to move away, but they couldn't work out what.
Lucas didn't appear to notice the snakes moving away from him. His eyes
remained
closed and unaware as to what was going on around him. He was utterly
exhausted
from his efforts, the pain and sickness that plagued him. His body was
demanding that
he rest, even if it was only for a few minutes.
Up in the air conditioning ducts above Lucas, a small man of Indian or Pakistani origin was crouched above the hole in the ceiling. The SeaQuest crew couldn't see him, neither could Lucas from where he was.
Everybody aboard the SeaQuest was watching the opening in the ceiling with dread. Something started moving above Lucas's head. It was silent and slow in its movements.
It wasn't until the creature showed it's head that the crew knew why the snakes below had retreated. They all looked on in terror as another snake was lowered down towards the sleeping teenager.
This snake however was like no other snake they had ever seen. It's head was easily a foot across to begin with. Miguel was able to identify it as a Boa Constrictor due to that sort of snake existing in places were he grew up.
This was the biggest Boa Constrictor that he had ever seen though. The snake started to inch it's way down through the air conditioning duct towards Lucas.
Bridger and the others were yelling and screaming through the Video Screen trying to warn the teenager of the impending danger above him. Their shouts fell on deaf ears. Lucas didn't appear to see the danger that threatened him from above.
The snake was under the control of his keeper Mr Kamara above. The animal was receiving distinct instructions as to what it was to do.
The other snakes had retreated from the sheer size of the Boa. Whilst the Boa was not poisonous like some of it's relatives below, it packed an equally powerful ability to subdue it's intended victim.
"Lucas LOOK OUT!" Bridger tried to shout to the teenager. Still no response. Lucas's body had briefly given out to its fatigue and pain. The movements of the snake were so quiet that they didn't disturb the boy in the slightest.
The snake was now just above Lucas's blond head when it started to change direction in accordance with it's master's instructions.
The snake moved down over the boy's left shoulder and started working its body over the boy's chest area. It wasn't until it's first coil was completely wrapped around the boy's body that Lucas became aware of the constrictor's presence.
The snake had only begun to apply gentle pressure. It had wrapped it's coil around Lucas's arms so as to pin them to his sides and prevent much of a struggle.
Lucas opened his eyes slowly at first at the pressure he felt around his arms. He was sleepy enough to not realize the danger. With sudden and quick horror though he could see what was causing his arms to feel restrained. His eyes became as big as saucers and he tried to yell out for help.
His fear was overwhelming at the snake's enormous size. It had to be at least 15 feet in length and a foot thick towards the middle part of it's body.
Lucas did start trying to struggle against his captor. He tried in vain to get his arms free. The snake responded to the feeble efforts by tightening it's coils a little more. Lucas started to find it difficult to breath. His chest was already weak from his tender ribs and the flu he had been experiencing from being left out in the storm. He couldn't draw enough air into his lungs to get another scream out of his mouth.
His body was now upright and very tense. He tried and tried to get the muscles in his arms to resist the pressure from the snake's coils.
The pressure was becoming too great. Lucas couldn't get enough oxygen into his starving lungs and he was beginning to see spots before his eyes. He tried to draw in another small breath and call out for help.
The snake kept it's pressure against his damaged ribs, causing even more pain in Lucas's chest. He couldn't see any way of fighting his nightmare at the moment. It seemed like the snake was going to keep squeezing and squeezing him until there was nothing left.
The tongue of the snake kept flicking out and tasting the stale air in the room. Lucas was trying to suppress the cough in his lungs again. Coughing only deprived his lungs of desperately needed air. He wouldn't be able to stay conscious for much longer but the snake increased the pressure again.
He was going to die here and now...
Bridger and the crew aboard the SeaQuest watched in horror Lucas's head drooped forward as he lost his hold on consciousness. The boy's body sagged against the back of the white plastic chair.
A small hand gesture from Mr Kamara above in the air-conditioning duct and the Boa Constrictor released it's grip on the teenager. Lucas's body slipped off the chair and ended up in an untidy heap on the floor just a few feet from the locked door.
The snake had coiled itself up and was stationary on the floor underneath the chair. The other snakes in the room did not dare to come any closer to their huge cousin.
The lock on the door gave way and Lawrence Wolenczak walked through to the room. Sanderson was behind him. They both surveyed the scene before them and laughed at the boy's anguish. They had been able to hear his screams of terror before the snake started to strangle Lucas. Slowly the screams had become weaker and weaker as the boy was lost to his panic and fear.
Sanderson bent down and felt for a pulse on Lucas's wrist. It was there. Maybe a little racy, but that was to be expected. The boy had almost been scared to death.
"Well Lucas, you've survived these first two challenges by the smallest of margins," Lawrence Wolenczak said to an unresponsive son. "I guess it's time to see what your really made of. This third and final challenge will test you to the limit."
Sanderson bent down and picked up Lucas's body and carried him outside to the waiting camper van. Once inside, his hands were retied in front of him and the shackles around his ankle were checked to see if they were still intact.
Sanderson noticed that the shackles were beginning to bite into the teenager's skin a little. He could see that the flesh around the top of the boy's foot was horribly swollen and bruised. He walked towards the front of the van again to drive to the next destination.
Lawrence Wolenczak now leant over his son and peered into the camera on his chest.
The crew aboard the SeaQuest had to step back momentarily at the closeness of his face to the screen.
"You all think you have heard him scream," Lawrence began.
"Believe me you haven't heard anything yet. The next time you see him you had better take careful note. The challenge will be not only for Lucas but for his so called friends and family as well."
This challenge will literally take your's and Lucas's breath away entirely. You haven't begun to hear him scream in absolute terror yet," he terminated the transmission and removed the camera once more until he was ready to announce the next part of his challenge.
"Oh dear God, Nathan," Kristin said genuinely scared for Lucas. She had heard the threats from Lawrence. "What other terrible thing could he possible come up with?" she was on the verge of crying again.
She didn't know how much longer Lucas could survive his father's games of terror. The boy had been worn down both physically and emotionally until there was almost nothing left to give.
Bridger's face was now turning a stony gray. All the way through this he had been made sit and watch Lucas's torment and pain. He too had this overwhelming feeling of utter hopelessness.
Upon hearing the new threat against his son, Bridger somehow felt nothing but contempt towards Lawrence Wolenczak. He had turned his emotions and fear into anger and deadly resolve and the desperate need to help Lucas overcome his greatest fears.
"Bridger is never going to figure out where we have hidden his son this time," Sanderson said with a smirk.
"Yeah, I wish I could see the look on all of their faces when they find him dead," Lawrence Wolenczak. "They will never know how close they came to actually finding him."
For the next three-quarters of an hour, Paul Sanderson and Lawrence Wolenczak travelled by private boat to a secret destination to carry out the next part of their plan.
They had gotten rid of the camper van before embarking on the speed boat. When they got to their intended destination, they found rental car waiting for them. Lucas hadn't stirred at all during the journey.
He never smelt the salt air that always kept his senses on high alert. He never felt the sea breeze ruffle his blond hair. He was unaware as to where he was now being taken.
The trio eventually drove to the intended spot. The dirt road they had come on had held their progress up some but they were here now. Lucas was left alone in the car whilst Lawrence and Sanderson undertook some excavation work nearby.
Actually, Sanderson who thought he was an equal player in the whole scheme, found himself doing much of the heavy digging on his own. Lawrence Wolenczak took on a more supervisory role than Sanderson would have liked.
After about two hours of back breaking work, the job was completed. They had dug into the sandy soil and now looked over their cavern with delight. Sanderson climbed back into the hole and placed a small battery operated generator in place.
Attached to the generator was thin P.V.C. tubing and an oxygen mask. A battery operated light source was hooked up to the generator as well. With any luck they should get approximately twenty-four hours out of the batteries.
"Everything's just above ready for the new inhabitant," Sanderson said to Lawrence. "Just have to throw in a water canteen on out way back up before we seal it over."
Lawrence nodded in understanding and gestured for his son Lucas to be hauled out of the car and placed in his awaiting tomb.
The teenager was dumped into the hole. His fever was now a little more obvious, even to his captors. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his face was pale and sickly looking. Most of the bruises on his face were now very noticeable to the naked eye.
Lawrence had reattached the camera to his son and tossed a large full water canteen into the hole beside Lucas's inert body. They both took one look before sealing the youth in his crypt.
They placed a set of large wooden panels over the hole's entrance and then covered the door with surrounding rocks and vegetation. The hole was approximately six feet deep and two metres wide.
When they stood back and looked at the place where the hole should have been, they were quite surprised themselves at how well camouflaged the hole was. Nobody was going to stumble over the teenager by accident that was for sure.
Wolenczak and Sanderson waited in the vehicle at the site before retreating from Lucas's new torture. They would wait until the teenager showed signs of waking up and noticing his surroundings before tell Lucas what the challenge involved. Once they informed the teenager what he had to do to survive, they would leave and let things take their own course as to the outcome.
They didn't have to wait too much longer.
The SeaQuest crew in the Ward Room were starting to become over fatigued. All of them had dark circles under their eyes from the lack of sleep. Truth was not many of them could sleep. They were just too worried about Lucas to let their minds relax enough to fall asleep.
Lucas awoke painfully and slowly at first. He wondered if he was dead. The last thing he remembered was being squeezed by the huge snake until their was nothing left to squeeze. Was this the afterlife?
He didn't think so. Heaven wasn't supposed to hurt so much, was it? What if it was actually the underworld and he was to dwell there forever in the grips of pain? No, even that seemed too simple for his father Lawrence.
Wherever he was, it was pitch black again. So pitch black that he couldn't even see any shadows. Where the heck was he?
The dread weighing heavily on his mind was soon answered and it was only then that he truly believed that he might actually be dead.
He was startled by the whirring of a small motor or engine of some description. When the motor had gained enough momentum, a small dull lantern breathed a pale yellow light into Lucas's new prison.
Lucas looked about his surroundings. He couldn't work out were he was. The strangest thing to him was that the walls seemed to be made of dirt. Where the heck was he. Was he on another mountain? Or in a cave somewhere.
The SeaQuest crew was also trying to work out where he was. The dim yellow light had made it difficult for Lucas to work out his environment. The picture relayed back to the boat via the camera made the task almost impossible for Lucas's family and friends.
Without warning the small motor suddenly stopped and the light was extinguished. It wasn't until this happened that Lucas was truly beginning to become afraid. He could hear his own breath in the stillness of his entombment. There was an eerie silence that was almost deafening.
Lucas and the SeaQuest crew heard the unmistakable voice of Lawrence Wolenczak back over the receiver.
"Hello again, Lucas," Wolenczak said as his voice oozed it's usual calmness and it normal casual overtones when things were in dire straits.
"Guess your wondering were you are," he said. "Well, the good news for you is that this challenge is not really for you. You get to sit this one out."
Lucas didn't have the strength in reserve to stand up and fight back against his father this time.
"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked in a voice full of fatigue and misery.
The SeaQuest crew could hear the sound of defeat in the boy's tone. Lucas was beginning to lose confidence and hope that he would be rescued from this man.
"Where's that spunk you had before, Lucas? Lawrence said with a laugh. He could also hear the sound of discouragement and tiredness in his son's words.
"Well, I'll get on with it shall I? he asked. Before waiting for a reply he explained his and Sanderson's evil scheme in detail .
"This challenge is for your family and friends aboard the SeaQuest, Lucas," Lawrence said. "You see they don't know where you are. But they have to find you. That motor you hear is a small battery powered generator. It will give you a small amount of fresh air and light every hour for about ten minutes at a time. When the time is up, the light goes out and the oxygen supply is depleted slowly. When the battery runs out, so does time for you. You have about 12 hours of oxygen left "
"Your crew always pride themselves in their abilities," Lawrence continued. So lets see if they can pass the test. The prize at the end if they pass is your life. If they fail, then well ..." he didn't think he needed to finish the question.
"And you know the beauty of this scheme, Lucas?" Lawrence chuckled. "If they don't find you in time. I don't need to go to the expense of digging a grave for you. You're already in one."
Sanderson and Lawrence could be heard laughing together at the end of the detailed plot against Lucas.
The two of them got into the vehicle and could still be heard laughing at the teenager's unfortunate plight as they drove away from Lucas's hidden crypt.
Back on board the SeaQuest, everybody's mind was a whirl of thoughts. Some of them about how they could find Lucas quickly in order to save his life. Other thoughts were along the lines of dread and fear about not being able to find the helpless teenager in time.
Lucas sat back in his cavern and thought for a moment. Now he knew why the walls had appeared to be made of dirt. They were made of dirt. This was to be his grave. His last resting place. He would never again see his friends and family. He was to die all alone and in great pain. Slowly succumbing to the effects of asphyxiation as his air was slowly cut off from around him.
His couldn't scarcely choke back the tears of frustration that threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn't believe that after almost eighteen years, it was to all supposed to end like this. Like a rat trapped in a hole. Nowhere to go. Totally alone. He knew he could not cry, it would only bring on more pain and hurt to his battered and tortured body.
The SeaQuest crew had listened and watched for an hour to see if they could get any clues from the teenager as to his whereabouts. They couldn't see inside the hole without the light, so it was up to Lucas to describe his surroundings to them until the light came back on.
At the moment, the only sound they could hear was Lucas's laboured breathing and soft winces of pain. It broke their hearts to hear him like this. The sure fired, cocky teenager that they had come to know so well was gradually worn down until there was nothing left.
While they were listening, both themselves and Lucas heard the small motor kick in again in the hole, signalling that the oxygen supply in the hole was being changed.
Lucas could barely notice the difference though. The efforts of the small motor were not enough to take away the earthy stench or the dirt tasting air inside the hole.
The light had also come back to life. But it only caused Lucas to squint whilst trying to make out his earthy abode. No sooner had the motor start to whirr into life, then it was shut down again and the tomb was quiet again.
Lucas's shoulders slumped even further. He began to cough again. He put his arm protectively around his ribs as his tried to gather in a breath of stale air. The air seemed to make things worse not better and the coughing fit got harsher and harsher.
When it had finally passed, Lucas just laid back and tried to rejuvenate his body. With exhaustion setting in again, Lucas let the pull of sleep take him. He didn't have the strength to fight unconsciousness either.
"I'm sorry, Captain," he said as he started to close his eyes. "I tried. I really did. But I guess my efforts were just not enough in the end."
The SeaQuest crew could hear his shallow breathing evening out a little, signalling to them that the teenager had drifted off to sleep again.
Bridger, who had stood in stony silence as Lawrence Wolenczak delivered his final challenge to Lucas and his crew. He kept telling himself that he had to keep strong for Lucas. The boy was beginning to give up on himself, so he had to carry the burden of confidence for the both of them.
Paul Sanderson and Lawrence Wolenczak drove away from the hole without giving the teenager inside much more consideration.
The dirt road they were driving on turned very rough after a few miles. It took all of Sanderson's concentration to keep the vehicle on the heavily gouged road. There were potholes and ruts all over the place.
Another car was coming the other way towards them. The headlights of the other vehicle became blinding and caused Sanderson to swerve on his side of the road. The swerve was too much and Sanderson found himself having to over correct his mistake.
The events of the next few minutes seemed to happen in slow motion. The vehicle Sanderson was driving and Wolenczak played passenger overturned. Not just once, but over and over again and again. When the vehicle finally stopped it's parade of somersaults, it rested upon it's roof. Every panel of the car had some sort of damage to it. The fact that it was a car was now barely recognizable.
Inside, Paul Sanderson looked up at the sky with unseeing eyes. He was dead. His neck snapped when the vehicle overturned one too many times. Lawrence Wolenczak on the other hand was still alive. He was unconscious and blood was pouring from a large gash on his head.
Somewhere in the distance, sirens and flashing lights could be seen racing
towards the
accident scene.
On board SeaQuest, Bridger and his crew were all bent over a desk trying to work out the best solution for trying to find Lucas. They all had given the Captain their utmost assurance that they would help wherever necessary. They weren't just going to let the one they loved, to die all alone in a hole somewhere in the dark. They would fight for him until their was not one of them left to fight.
A sound came over the Vid Communicator from headquarters, signalling an incoming transmission from UEO Admiral Bill Noyce.
"How are you, Nathan?" Bill started the conversation. Even after he said it, it didn't sound right. It was just mere chit chat designed to clear the uneasiness that hung in the air.
"As well as can be expected, Bill," Bridger replied with bloodshot eyes and rings of fatigue around his eyes.
Bill could also see the haggard looks on the rest of the crew's faces. He couldn't believe that this was the crew of the mightiest vessel in the oceans. All of them looked like they would fall over with the brush of a feather. He didn't know how long it had been since any of them ate or slept properly. What he was about to tell them wouldn't make the stress any less either.
"Um, Nathan, I have got some news for you all," Noyce managed to stammer unconvincingly.
Nathan and Kristin didn't like the sound of this one bit. This sounded like the conversation they had back on the island where they were told that Sanderson and Wolenczak had escaped. The uneasiness that radiated from Noyce was almost identical as well.
"It is good news, Bill?" Nathan said as closed waiting for the opposite answer that somehow he knew would some.
"Well, yes and no," Bill said. It wasn't the answer they were all expecting. If anything it asked more questions than it answered.
Noyce looked around the room and saw that everyone had his or her eyes on him waiting for the explanation.
"We have found Sanderson and Wolenczak," he said quickly. The words just seemed to tumble out of his mouth without much of a rest in between them.
"You found them?" Nathan said with cautiousness. He doubted that Lawrence Wolenczak or Paul Sanderson for that matter would have just walked into the local police precinct and handed themselves in.
'Your not going to like this either, Nathan," Bill said with defeat in his voice. "We found them alright, but not like you'd expect. They have been in a motor vehicle accident on the island."
Nathan stood with a puzzled look on his face at first. Bill had said they had been in an accident on an island. He couldn't possibly mean his own island could he?
"You mean my island?" Nathan asked as he voiced his thoughts out loud. It had never occurred to him that Sanderson and Lawrence would stoop so low as to hide Lucas right under his nose.
"Yes," Bill replied "But there's more I'm afraid. Paul Sanderson is dead. His neck was broken by the force of the accident. Lawrence Wolenczak on the other hand is still alive. The only problem is that he is in a coma. The doctor's don't know when or if he will ever come around.
"Bill, those two men are the only two people who know where Lucas is hidden. Now you tell me that one is dead and the other cannot talk to tell us where he is," Nathan said in fear for the teenager's safety.
"I'm afraid so, Nathan," Bill said sadly. "If you want I'll organise to meet you at the hospital where Wolenczak is being kept under observation. But don't expect miracles Nathan."
"I'll be there in an hour along with the rest of my crew," Nathan said sternly. He didn't care what sort of condition Lawrence Wolenczak was supposed to be in. He wasn't about to let the only led to Lucas's whereabouts slip through his grasp.
The one clue they had now that had eluded them all through this dreadful exercise had now come to the surface. The island. They now had proof that Lucas was actually hidden away somewhere on the island. It wasn't much to go on.
The island wasn't particularly big, but it might still take some time to search everywhere. Time is something that Lucas was running out of all too quick.
"Get your things together people," he ordered to his fellow crew "We are about to go and talk to the esteemed Doctor Lawrence Wolenczak. He might need some gentle persuasion when it comes to telling us where Lucas is hidden. Anybody care to volunteer for the interrogation?" Maybe this coma thing was just a way of avoiding prosecution for what he had done to Lucas.
He couldn't help but smirk at the reaction he got. He saw flames of anger burn in their eyes. Everyone of them wanted a little time alone with Dr Wolenczak. They would make him talk.
One way or another, they would make him talk. Ben Krieg even slammed his right fist into his left palm to signal the seriousness of his intentions. By the time they were all finished with him, the good Doctor would be singing like a pretty jay bird.
On the way to the hospital, everyone was astutely aware of the time factor. They all kept glancing at their watches, knowing that time and air for Lucas was running out. They needed to find him and quick.
Now that they were away from the SeaQuest they were not able to see the views of the camera underground. Lucas's soft moans of pain and gasping shallow breaths escaped their ears. But their memories of the teenager and their worry for him never escaped their minds for one second.
During their time in the shuttle from SeaQuest to Up-world, the generator and the light in the tomb with Lucas came on a further three times. Three hours had passed from Lucas's life and he had but eight hours until the generator would run out of power. Eight precious hours.
All of crew stepped out onto the curb at the front entrance to the hospital and were greeted by Admiral Noyce and his party of followers. All of them gave the party a salute and the crew was escorted into a secure waiting room away from the prying eyes of other hospital staff or visitors.
Admiral Noyce briefed them all on Wolenczak's most obvious injuries. It was the ones that they couldn't see that prevented them finding out the important information they needed to extract.
Hospital Staff advised that only one of them would be able to enter the Intensive Care Ward. The choice for everyone was Bridger. They didn't even need to ask the question.
Bridger found himself walking to a very white looking room. There were a plethora of machines and cables attached to the body lying in the bed. Bridger found it almost difficult to walk over to Wolenczak when he first entered the room.
He had often wondered what reaction he would have towards this man if he ever met him face to face. Now that the meeting was becoming reality, the reaction didn't seem so clear to him anymore.
This was the man who had caused more hurt and pain to Lucas than any other person in the world. This was the man that certain members of the SeaQuest crew wanted to tear limb from limb as a result of what he had done to Lucas.
Bridger walked over to the bed. Lawrence Wolenczak remained deeply unconscious. The man's head was swathed in white bandages. It seemed somehow ironic that although this is how Lucas had found himself on numerous occasions due to the actions of this man, now that the other shoe was on the other foot, it hardly seemed to be an equal punishment.
At the moment, with all of the drugs he was receiving and as a result of the actual coma itself, Wolenczak was at least free of pain at the moment. Which was more than he had ever afforded his only son Lucas.
Looking down at the injured man in the bed, it suddenly struck Bridger hard that they were not going to get the required information out of him anytime soon. Bridger slumped in posture as he realised the truth and walked back to the waiting room a rejected man. He was still no closer to finding the missing teenager who so desperately needed him right now.
Everyone else in the waiting room saw the look of disappointment and sorrow on the Captain's face and he walked back through the door. They knew from looking at him that they weren't about to gain any more valuable information from Mr Wolenczak.
They all now sat dejected in the waiting room chairs trying to come up with a plausible solution. They were running out of time to find Lucas.
Admiral Noyce looked at his old tired friend and couldn't forget the look on Bridger's face. Bill had never thought that a relationship only developed over the last four years had grown strong enough to effect his friend this much. It was as though he was losing Carol and Robert all over again but together this time. The pain was in the form of a double serving and the hurt was double also.
Bridger looked up at Noyce with tears dwelling in his eyes, "I don't know what to do Bill. I have tried to think of a solution. But I just can't. I don't want to give up, I can't for Lucas's sake, but I need to find him and quickly. I am pulling in all of my credits on this one Bill. I don't care how much it costs or who I have to bribe to get him back. Just do it."
Noyce looked at his friend and tried to think of a way to help. He went back in his mind at all of his old contacts. Suddenly an idea came to him. He didn't know why he hadn't though of it before, probably because he knew Bridger wouldn't buy a word of it.
All he had to do was convince Nathan that she was worth listening too. Maybe just maybe, after what he had heard Bridger say, he might be willing to listen to anything Bill suggested.
"Um, Nathan, I might know someone who can help," Noyce said nervously. He found himself loosening the collar on his uniformed shirt. The room had become suddenly warmer with seven sets of eyes piecing right through him.
"Who, Bill?" Nathan asked with a ray of hope.
"She's very talented in her field of choice. I know that the scientific world views her abilities as sceptical sometimes. But she has proven her worth may times over in the past Nathan," Bill explained.
Bridger looked at his friend suspiciously. Noyce sounded like he was trying to explain to his parents about his first night out drunk. Something didn't sound quite right.
"I can't make any guarantees, but neither can they" Noyce continued "I say we just give her the benefit of the doubt and listen to what she has to say.
Bridger was sure his friend was talking about someone who was a total kook or weirdo.
"Just spit it out Bill," Nathan said a little impatiently and tired of playing the guess who game.
"Her name is Doctor Wendy Smith. She has a number of degrees in Parapsychology, as well as Biophysics and a Ph D in psychiatry. I could arrange her to meet us here in half an hour if you want, Nathan?" Noyce said hopefully.
"You mean you want us to talk to someone who sees ghosts and claims to be able to tell us if someone is nuts or not," Nathan said sarcastically.
"I know what you are thinking Nathan," Noyce said. "But right now we have nothing else to go on. We need to try something else here."
"Okay, why not," Bridger heard himself saying. He couldn't believe that he was going along with this plan, but as he said, at the moment he was willing to listen to anything. Even a kook.
Noyce was pleased with his persuasion efforts and waited until he was almost out the door before uttering his last comment.
"Oh by the way Nathan," Noyce said with the hint of a smirk on his face "Wendy is a 3rd generation woman in the Navy. Her mother was Admiral Lexington Fisher." He was rewarded with the reaction he was looking for.
Everyone in the room saw Bridger slightly pale at first at the mention of the stranger's name, but then he was turning a brilliant shade of vermillion. They all wondered who this woman was that caused him to turn that colour and send his blood pressure skywards.
Kristin had been equally impressed with the woman's credentials. Biophysics was her field of expertise as well in addition to Medicine. It was also a lifetime passion for her, not shared by many other colleagues.
Noyce left to make the necessary arrangements, but he could be heard laughing all the way down the corridor.
Bridger could feel everybody in the room looking at him questioningly. They wanted to know about the strange woman and why he blushed such a vibrant shade of red and the mere mention of her name.
There was approximately half and hour before Wendy Smith would be there to talk to them. Bridger secretly wondered if she looked anything like her mother or had any of her mother's personality. He hoped that it was more of the first than the second.
"Somebody we should know about, Captain," Krieg asked for everyone else in the room. Ben had rarely seen his Senior Commanding Officer display such open emotion before in relation to a woman except for his late wife Carol. This was an interesting topic of discussion for the young Lieutenant.
Bridger could see that he wasn't going to be able to brush this subject off easily. "Admiral Lexington Fisher is somebody from my past that I would rather not think of often," he said at first. When it was plain that this was also not enough of an explanation he went on to say:
"Admiral Lexington Fisher and I used to date before I met Carol," Bridger said. He could hear the whistles of surprise from Krieg and Miguel at the admission of such a relationship.
"She was also the Commanding Officer for myself and Bill when we first joined the Navy. In fact she failed me at my first assignment and had me fired," Bridger continued to explain.
"Ouch!" Commander Ford exclaimed. He couldn't help but smirk at the idea that the great Captain Bridger had once been a Navy cadet at the academy. It seemed strange to hear his name and failed and fired in the same sentence.
Bridger didn't disclose any more details about his involvement with Admiral Fisher, but the smirks and grins he got from his Senior crew were enough. He looked over at Kristin and saw the hint of a smile on her face as well.
Their conversation was interrupted with a knock at the door.
Captain Bridger got up and opened the door to the woman standing outside in the corridor. It was Doctor Wendy Smith.
Formal introductions were made by Noyce and Bridger to the rest of the crew, but they seemed hardly necessary. Bridger felt that he had known this woman all of his life somehow. He only had to look at the dark raven hair and soft features that sculptured the young woman's face and he was taken back thirty years.
The pretty young woman was certainly very much like her mother in the looks department. Krieg even fell back into his old persona and tried to come on to the good looking Doctor with a few corny come on lines.
Ford and Ortiz just rolled their eyes at hearing the Lieutenant's poor excuses for attention. They had heard them all too many times before. So had most woman and they failed to work now as they usually did.
Bridger got them all together and tried to get them focusing on finding Lucas again. Another hour had passed since they were at the hospital and they were still no closer to finding the missing teenager.
Wendy looked about the room of spectators and saw the usual scepticism and doubt that she was used to receiving from people who had been told about her unusual abilities.
"I suppose that I should explain about myself first," she said to them.
"You've heard all about my academic achievements, but you haven't heard about the real me," she said with a touch of defensiveness in her voice.
"My first clue to my hidden abilities came when my aunt committed suicide by drowning. I told my father that I was having dreams about my aunt but nobody would believe me. They didn't take me seriously and said I had an over- active imagination. My father had to be hospitalized from the depression that it caused him. That event scared me to death." she paused a minute to gather her breath, but instead of seeing disbelief or repulsion, he saw compassion and understanding from the people listening to her. She decided to continue with her story.
"After a couple of years, around 8 or so I discovered my telepathic abilities for the first time. I would get perfect results on my spelling tests at school, not because I cheated or studied. But rather because I could read the answers to the questions from the teacher's mind. People just called me weird and strange after that. They avoided me and felt repulsed by my abilities and I felt like a freak." she said.
"I attended Chatton Parapsychology Centre with my best friend Laura Fletcher and met a wonderful and understanding man called Clay Marshall. He and I dated for a short time, but the best thing I discovered was his willingness to help people lost like myself." she finished and looked about the room again. The same feeling of understanding that she had received at the Chatton Centre was now present in this room and she was grateful for that. Too many times in her life she entered a room or left it feeling totally alone or treated differently from everybody else because people couldn't or didn't want to listen."
"Do you really think you can help us find, Lucas?" Bridger asked. He wasn't totally convinced in the woman's claim of clairvoyant or telepathic abilities, but she sounded genuine enough in her determination to help those in need.
"Yes I can," Wendy said in a gently tone. She had been warned that the people in this room were at the end of their emotional and physical ropes. She had been briefed about the missing teenager Lucas and told about some of the horrendous things he had been forced to endure at the hands of his own father.
"I will be able to channel my thoughts towards the missing young man and try and describe to you the area around him. If this place is familiar to you like Admiral Noyce says, then maybe you will be able to determine within a few minutes of my description, where the boy is hidden," Wendy explained.
"Do you want me to try?" she asked.
Bridger and the rest of the crew nodded.
Wendy laid back on a sofa bed in the room and tried to relax her mind and body enough for her thoughts to drift away towards Bridger's island.
She started to talk, but it was like she wasn't really with them anymore. She sounded detached from her earthly self as though she was able to move about on the breeze.
"I'm seeing a beach," she started to say in a tone that was devoid of emotion. "I am travelling along a beach of white sand and very clear blue water."
Wendy didn't notice, but Bridger was nodding his head in agreement to every word she used to describe her surroundings. Bridger could picture exactly where she was. He was just hoping that she would soon forget about the scenic part of the adventure and focus on finding Lucas.
"I am travelling away from the beach now towards the tree line. I can see a very rocky hard ground with sparse vegetation and very few trees," she added.
She was about to continue with her description when she had to sit up suddenly from the emotion she felt coming from the island. She was visibly crying and Kristin found herself trying to calm the young woman down in order for her to keep going.
"What is it?" Kristen asked softly. The sudden change of no emotion to crying had them all worried.
"Pain," she said through her tears. "The only thing I can feel at the moment is great pain."
"I think your getting very close," Bridger said trying to encourage the woman to go on. He knew that it was getting difficult for her, but they needed to keep Lucas in focus.
"You said you can feel great pain," he repeated. "What else can you sense?"
"Great depression and the sense of hopelessness and despair," Wendy said. She had swallowed her tears, but she still shuddered at the very black mood that invaded her thoughts.
"Can you describe exactly the area your in?" Kristin asked.
"I can see a large group of rocks around," she paused in mid sentence trying to figure out the strange site before her on the ground. She frowned at what she was seeing and tried to make sense of it. "The ground looks strange here," she said.
"Strange how?" Bridger said with anticipation. He felt that they were truly on the right track. His heart almost skipped at beat at the thought of almost finding Lucas's hiding place.
"The ground seems to have been disturbed here recently," Wendy said. "There are a lot of rocks and leaves in the area, but they look as though they have been put there deliberately."
"Can you sense anything else down underneath those rocks and leaves?" Kristin asked with hope of her own seeping in.
"Yes, I can hear him talking to himself," Dr Smith said.
"Can you repeat what he is saying?" Bridger asked. The doctor nodded although she didn't think any of them wanted to hear what Lucas was talking about.
The hours ran into each other for Lucas whilst he was inside the earthly tomb. Due to the slight temperature and the constant claustrophobic feeling that he was experiencing, he could no longer tell how many hours had elapsed since the beginning.
His chest was getting tighter and tighter or was it the walls closing in around him too much, growing closer and closer together? He didn't know anymore nor did he have the strength left to care. The generator switched on again and the light came to life once more.
Emanating it's pale yellow aura into the hole. Lucas just turned his head away. The strain of trying to see in such dim conditions had begun to hurt his eyes. They stung from the exertion and the fatigue that plagued him almost endlessly.
"I don't think they will ever find me," Wendy said aloud as she repeated Lucas's pitiful lines of sorrow to himself. "Might as well have let my father kill me on the cliff or with the snakes. At least I wouldn't have been so alone then."
All in the room had tears in their eyes at Lucas's distress and solitude. The generator switched off again after ten minutes and the pale yellow light faded into darkness again.
"His breathing is getting much worse," Wendy said to them as she felt the constrictions within his chest. "He can barely draw enough air into his lungs at the moment. If we don't get to him soon, he is going to suffocate whether the generator works or not."
Lucas could feel himself drifting back to sleep. "Maybe this is the last time," Wendy said repeating his words again "Maybe this time I won't wake up in a world of pain or loneliness anymore. Maybe I can find a more peaceful place to go. Somewhere else where the air is cleaner and I don't hurt anymore. My friends and family might not be there with me, but then again I have had to go through most of my life alone up to now anyway."
He coughed himself through another coughing fit and then struggled to keep his eyes open. It was proving too much of an effort and he didn't see the point in resisting anymore. "Goodbye friends. See you in the next life. I'm headed for a new future without you all. Goodbye Captain, I hope you won't be too sad when I go.GOODBYE!"
Wendy came out of her trance and looked about the room. Everybody was horrified at what Lucas was going through. He really thought that he was dying. That he would never see his friends and family again.
Wendy made herself go back and scan the unfamiliar terrain again to try and find a clue.
She spoke to the people in the room as she went. She found herself back at the disturbed site. She made careful notes of the trees and any noticeable vegetation nearby.
"I see a large funny looking tree of some sort," she said. "The tree looks a little old, the trunk is kind of twisted and leaning over slightly. It looks ready to fall over," Wendy said.
When Bridger heard this description he suddenly grasped at her wrist, "Are you sure?" he asked while still encircling her wrist. He didn't realize that he was beginning to apply a little too much pressure to the area with his excitement.
Wendy manage to wrestle her hand away and confirmed what she was saying was actually correct.
"Bill, how soon can you have a excavation crew and chopper ready?" Nathan asked with anticipation.
"The team and chopper are waiting on the roof as we speak Nathan," Bill said with a grin. He had made sure that everything the UEO Captain requested would be available at a moment's notice. He spoke into his Comm Link with the people standing by on the roof and told them to move into position.
"Anybody coming with me?" Nathan asked the rest of the people in the room.
"Are you kidding, Captain?" Krieg asked. "You just try and hold us back." All of them were now standing on their feet and on full alert for the next order. All the feeling of tiredness and hopelessness was washed away in an instant.
All of them scrambled aboard the waiting UEO helicopter and flew off at the Captain's order. He was directing the pilot as they went were to land.
Less than half an hour later, the helicopter had to set down on the beach. The area where they thought they would find the hole was too rocky to land the helicopter safely.
In their excitement to get to Lucas, they had almost over run the entire area and had to back track over a kilometre to the correct spot.
A medical team had been made ready on the beach and one back at the hospital once Lucas was retrieved from his crypt.
"Here it is," Ford exclaimed loudly to the rest of the team as he saw the rock and leaves just like Wendy Smith had been able to describe to them. It was exactly how she said it was.
Something told him in the back of his mind that he would never doubt what the woman said again. She was correct in every detail, even down to the parts that weren't so obvious to the naked eye at first. He just hoped that she was correct about Lucas being underneath.
Bridger worked at the rocks and leaves like a man possessed. He threw rocks away as though they were paper toys, although they probably actually weighed over 10 kilos each. He stopped digging all of a sudden as his fingers tips grated against something other than earth.
He could scarcely keep his heart inside his chest as he tried to pull the heavy wooden doors apart. It wasn't until he grunted and groaned with exertion that he admitted he might need a little more help this time. Commander Ford, Ben Krieg, Tim O'Neill and Miguel Ortiz all took one side each of the doors and pulled them apart.
The crack between them was only narrow to begin with so it failed to give them an indication at first whether or not the teenager was actually down there. As the gap started to widen, a small amount of light was forced into the darkened pit.
The site that greeted them all shattered their hearts into a million pieces. Lucas was in there alright. They would not forget this image for a long time to come.
Lucas was half laying down half sitting up against the wall of the grave like hole. He was either or asleep or unconscious. The latter was probably more the right one.
He showed no signs of revival from the sunlight that now bathed his face from above. His skin was a sickly white colour and his chest was rising with an irregular breathing pattern.
Bridger was stunned at Lucas's condition at first, but then wasted no time about jumping into the hole and kneeling beside the unconscious teenager. He knew he was alive, but he put his hand to the boy's throat to feel the constant throb of his heart beat. It sighed in relief when he felt it. It wasn't particularly strong, but it was constant.
Bridger tried to feel over the boy's body to locate all of his injuries. He could hear his chest and felt the slight warmth from his brow, but that was something that couldn't be dealt with down here in this hole. Those sort of symptoms would have to wait until they were ferried back to the hospital.
Every now and then as he went about his administrations, he would glance at the boy's face to detect any signs of him coming around.
He could see some bruises underneath his shirt on his chest and upper arms. These were probably a combination effect from his father's beating and the crushing pressure of the Boa Constrictor's coils around him.
The people up top were beginning to get impatient and hoped that Bridger would just bring the boy out of the hole and get him to professional help. As much as Bridger wanted this for Lucas he was aptly aware that he needed to assess the boy's injuries in case any of them were more serious than they appeared to be. He didn't want to try and move him and then find out that they had caused and further and unnecessary damage.
The other part of Bridger just needed to reach out and touch him before he was taken away from him again. That was the reason for needing to feel his pulse and the glances to see if the boy was waking up. He really needed to know that the boy was okay. He needed to tell the boy that help was here now and he didn't need to be afraid anymore.
Bridger could see Lucas's ankle needed attention as well, but that would also need more medical treatment than he could provide down here.
The boy still showed no signs of regaining consciousness. He knew that he had to get him out of here and to help. He placed his right arm underneath the boy's bent knees and the other behind his back and lifted him into his arms.
The boy was painfully thin. He felt as though he hadn't eaten anything in a long time. Bridger could feel the outline of Lucas's ribcage against his forearm as he carried the unconscious teenager.
The next part was going to be a little tricky. Ben and Commander Ford knelt beside the rim of the hole and tried to grab a hold of the boy as Bridger awkwardly passed him upwards. They had almost dropped him in the attempt, but thankfully Lucas didn't stir in the slightest at being hauled and pulled like a sack of grain.
Once Ben and Jonathan had him on top of the hole, Kristin was beside Lucas taking her own mental notes about his injuries and physical condition. She needed to assess if he could be handle a helicopter ride back to the hospital.
She was a little worried about the swelling in his ankle and his chest sounded even worse now she was actually listening so close. But she decided on the side of caution and gave the okay for Lucas to be laid on a stretcher and placed in the helicopter.
Miguel and Tim offered the Captain a hand out of the hole and it was recovered over with the wooden doors to prevent any body else falling into it. Bridger made himself a mental note to have some of the rescue crew come back tomorrow with a few loads of soil to refill the gap permanently.
Bridger jumped into the helicopter and held Lucas's hand all the way back to the hospital roof.
The helicopter had barely landed on the rooftop when the stretcher was whisked inside by four hospital orderly dressed in white uniforms.
Lucas was taken to a private room that had been arranged by Admiral Noyce to be properly examined by a team of doctors and Kristin.
The rest of the crew including a protesting Ben had been ushered back into the waiting room they had occupied earlier. To Bridger's utter surprise, Noyce had instructed the medical staff that the Captain could come and go as he pleased. Bridger remained by Lucas's side the whole time.
The first thing the medical team did was to remove all of Lucas's outer clothes except for his underclothes. It was only after they did this that the full extent of his punishment could be seen. Dark bruises and scratches marred every inch of his upper body. There were bruises on bruises.
The medical team hadn't been told about Lucas's ordeal but all of them wondered what had happened to the boy to make him suffer like this.
Bridger had to turn his eyes away on a number of occasions from the torture that he could see on the boy's body. The anger that had been quelled by the boy's rescue was now starting to gather strength again when he saw the damage. He could barely contain himself from going off in a fit of rage at Lawrence Wolenczak and Paul Sanderson right in front of everybody in the room.
The sneaker on Lucas's swollen foot had to be cut gently away. The swelling had become too great and wouldn't allow removal of the footwear without causing considerable discomfort.
The doctor's were a little weary at first about administering any sort of pain killers or sedatives until the full extent of the injuries could be assessed. The skin around the ankle was black and an angry looking purple where the shoe had been.
The resident physician ordered full x-rays of Lucas's injured foot and lungs before they did any other administrations. They thought these would be done quickly and with little fuss due to the boy still being unconscious.
When the x-rays were available the results were a little more encouraging then they first anticipated. The foot was very badly swollen and sprained, but not broken. The teenager would probably be on crutches for the best part of two weeks just to give his ankle the chance to heal properly before any weight was applied to it.
The lungs were also promising. There was definitely a chest infection present, but with a good dose of antibiotics it was possible to combat this problem within a few days.
Lucas's bruised ribs were examined very carefully and although the doctor could find two small cracks, thankfully that was the extent of the damage. Unfortunately though they would have to bind the ribs quite tightly to keep them immobile during the first week or so of recovery. They would be painful for some time.
These and the pain he would be experiencing from his healing foot in a few days would probably see him on a steady course of pain killers for the next three weeks, even longer if they were not healed entirely by the time he was ready to go back aboard SeaQuest.
Bridger was worried about the fact that Lucas was still unconscious. The doctor's were not too concerned though. By looking at the physical picture the advised that it was only natural for the boy to be still out of it.
They would not be surprised if he didn't wake up properly until sometime late tomorrow afternoon. The boy was exhausted both physically and mentally and his body was demanding rest to counteract the pain and fatigue it felt within him.
After about two hours, Lucas's ankle had ribs had been bandaged. His fingers had some antiseptic cream rubbed into them and he was given a heavy dose of antibiotics to start fighting the chest infection in his lungs. There was nothing more that could be done right now.
The rest of the crew saw Bridger and Kristin emerge from the emergency room, shortly followed by two hospital orderlies wheeling a stretcher which contained the sleeping teenager.
The boy had been dressed in a hospital gown, but it was very obvious to see the heavy bandaging through the thin cotton material.
Katie held one arm on her impulsive husband before he flew of the handle at somebody for Lucas being in this condition. Ben could barely stand to see his young best friend like this.
Bridger was looking very tired. He assured Kristin and Admiral Noyce that he wanted to sit with the boy until he woke up.
Lucas was admitted to a private room fully funded by Bridger. UEO promised to pick up the tab of the rescue helicopter but refused to give the healing teenager any privacy in his own room. Bridger made sure that he would have all the privacy he needed. As he had to Admiral Noyce, he didn't care how much it cost, so long as the boy was going to be alright.
Kristin waited for about half an hour with the rest of the crew while Lucas was being settled in his room with the Captain by his side. She explained as gently as she could about the extent of Lucas's injuries.
She saw the anger burning in their eyes directed towards Lawrence Wolenczak, but decided on a different approach to get them all involved. She told them that he would need some help even once they went back to the boat and she wanted someone with him during his recovery in the hospital. All of them put there hand up instantly at the question. They all needed to feel as though they were doing their part, no matter how small in the scheme of things.
Kristin excused herself from the crew and went to check on Nathan and Lucas. She smiled to herself as she saw the Captain curled up asleep on the makeshift bed that had been placed beside Lucas's hospital bed. Lucas was still asleep too. She thought the pair of them sleeping side by side was the best sight she had seen all week. She thanked the Lord above that they were at least given the opportunity.
She went back to the waiting room and insisted that they all get some much needed rest.
It wasn't until the late the next morning that any of them started to stir.
Lucas had remained deeply asleep all night as did the Captain. They were all bone weary and awaken at any noise outside in the hospital corridor.
Lucas's eyes started to flicker slightly. He was trying to wake up. He tried to gauge where he was without opening his eyes. He waited for the pain to hit his body like it had on the last three occasions. It didn't come. There was a dull ache in his foot and his chest still felt a little tight, but it definitely felt a whole lot better than the last time.
He decided to take a gamble and open his eyes and see where he was for real. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him again at first. He thought he had awoken in a hospital room.
It wasn't until he looked around the room and saw the dishevelled figure of the Captain slumped asleep in a bed beside him that he thought he might actually be where his eyes were telling him.
Lucas tried to sit up in the bed a little to get a better look. The dull ache in his ribs turned into a stab stabbing and he protectively put his arm around his ribs again, letting out of soft moan of pain. He was surprised to find soft material under his fingertips. He looked down and saw white linen bandages around his chest. He really was in a hospital.
Bridger although seemingly dead to the world, had heard the soft gasp of pain that escaped Lucas's lips. He was up in an instant and looking at the teenager to see if he was alright. He was afraid when he saw tears threatening to spill down the young man's face.
"Lucas, what's wrong, are you in pain?" Bridger said in a hurry. The words seemed to tumble out of his mouth all tied together. "You want me to get a doctor?"
Lucas shook his blond head and grasped Bridger's upper arm to prevent him leaving the room.
"Don't go," he managed to say through his dry lips. Any bravery he might have been attempted to show quickly dissolved when Bridger's grasp on his arm turned into an embrace. He was truly home and away from. He rested his head on Bridger's shoulder, too afraid to let go and find that his nightmare hadn't truly ended.
Bridger held onto the trembling teenager tighter. He didn't want to go just yet.
"Am I really here?" Lucas asked cautiously. He still found it difficult to believe that he had been rescued from his hellish ride.
Lucas still had the feeling that he wasn't safe for some reason. He didn't know why. He heard the words his family and friends said in comfort. But he still could shake that uneasy feeling that something was still amiss.
"Yes... yes you are," Bridger said softly. "And I promise that nothing will ever happen to you like that again Lucas."
Lucas didn't have an answer to this comment. He knew the Captain meant his words, but he found it hard to take them for face value after all that had happened.
Later that afternoon, the crew of the SeaQuest had been allowed to visit their recuperating member two at a time. Lucas had been very happy to see them all although he felt very uncomfortable when they got a full view of his injuries.
The doctors had visited the teenager and told him about his various injuries and how long they anticipated his stay in the hospital. He didn't like the estimation given and was trying to work on shorting the time already so he could go back to the SeaQuest were he would truly be safe for a while.
Ben Krieg had been in the same room when the Lucas was trying to persuade the doctors and Kristin to let him go earlier.
He would regret his next sentence for a long time to come: "I don't blame you for wanting to get out Lucas. If I was in the same hospital as that scumbag." The Lieutenant realised what he was saying half way through saying it but it was too late.
The perceptive teenager had already heard the words. Ben got a scowling look from everybody in the room except Lucas. Katie even elbowed him deliberately in the ribs for his slip out. But the deed was done now.
The teenager just froze. He looked at the Captain for an explanation to Krieg's outburst.
"Tell me the truth," he whispered. The stern, no nonsense look on his face never faulted once. Bridger ushered the other visitors out of the room and sighed a little at the explanation he found himself having to give the teenager.
Ben had tried to utter words of apology on his way out for upsetting Lucas. Bridger had gestured to him that it was alright. He wasn't really sore at the Lieutenant, the truth had to come out eventually. He just wished there had been more time for Lucas to heal emotionally first.
"What did he mean?" Lucas asked in a voice almost inaudible. His voice was reminding him of his earlier thoughts of something still lurking the corridors. His mind was screaming to him that he had been right the first time.
"Lucas," he tried to start the conversation off as gently as he could. "I haven't told you this because I didn't think you were strong enough physically to handle it yet." Bridger sighed loudly and continued, no matter how he approached it there was no getting around it.
"You father is in the Intensive Care Ward of this hospital," he said.
The reaction was immediate with the teenager putting his hand to his mouth to hide the inevitable scream. He was trying to get out of the bed and run for his life out of the room. His ribs were digging in painfully and his foot was throbbing too, but at the moment, he didn't care. His only thought was to run away as fast and as far as he could to get away from his father.
Bridger managed to grab a hold of the struggling teenager before he made it to the door but it wasn't easy holding onto the terrified boy. He tried to whisper quiet and soothing words into his ear to calm him down.
"Don't worry Lucas, he can't get to you. He's in a deep coma and the doctor's don't know if he will ever survive it," Bridger said. "He can't hurt you anymore."
Lucas stopped struggling mainly because his feeble strength had come to an end. He had fought like a tiger, but he was now very tired again.
Bridger felt the teenager's body relax slightly in defeat and lowered him back onto the bed.
"I'm tired now, I want to go to sleep," Lucas said in an uninterested tone. It was almost as if he hadn't heard about his father at all. But Bridger knew better. He knew that this display of totally clamming up was Lucas's way of saying he was angry and upset.
Bridger felt like he was the bad guy here. He went out to the waiting room to discuss Lucas's sudden silence with Kristin.
Kristin had listened intently before interrupting. She too was worried about Lucas's emotional state but she told the Captain to give him some space to think about it for himself for a little while.
"I know your hurting too Nathan, but lets go down and get a meal at the cafeteria and see how he is then," Kristen suggested. "Maybe after a little while, he will be willing to listen to us a bit more."
Nathan looked back at the closed door to Lucas's room and reluctantly
agreed. He
hoped the teenager was in a better frame of mind when he came back. Maybe
the boy
was just tired like he said and needed to rest for a while. Somehow he was
trying to
make up excuses for Lucas's strange behaviour.
Back inside the room, Lucas was far from sleep. The same words kept going around and around in his head. He knew that it wasn't Bridger's fault that he was in the same hospital as his father. He didn't even know why his father was in the hospital. He didn't want to know.
He started to tremble all over at the thought of being in the same place as his father again. The Captain had said that he was in a coma and might not survive, but that made little difference in Lucas's tortured mind. Lawrence had always found a way to get to him in the past. Even on SeaQuest where he thought he was the safest.
He gingerly got up from the bed and stood up for a minute waiting for the unsteadiness in his limbs to subside. He grabbed a blue robe from a chair beside his bed and tied it over his hospital gown. He saw a pair of crutches leaning against a wall in the corner but thought it best to leave them be.
His foot still hurting something terrible when he stood on it and placed any added weight on it, but the crutches would only cause him to be more ungainly than he was at the moment. He would only be gone a few minutes anyway. He needed to find out for himself if what he heard was true.
The teenager had heard the Captain and Kristen leave outside his room a few minutes ago, so this was the perfect opportunity before somebody come into the room to keep an eye on him.
He played it safe at first and opened the door quietly and closed it behind him. There were a few hospital staff people in the corridor but there were no instructions left that he couldn't leave his room, so the orderlies and nurses just smiled as they walked past him.
He looked up at the signage above his head and saw a sign that directed him to the Intensive Care Ward. It wasn't very far from his own room and he could take a look and come back before it was even noticed that he was gone.
Lucas took his first shaky steps towards the ICU. The pain wasn't so bad in his foot he lied to himself. Truth be known, it was hurting like hell and his ribs felt like they were on fire too.
When he neared the nurse's station outside the Intensive Care Ward, he tried to come up with a plausible excuse for being there. A number of ideas ran through his brain, but then he thought of the normal criteria for visitors to such a restricted area. Normally it had to be next of kin. He was next of kin. Maybe reluctantly, but nonetheless next of kin.
He approached the nurse as the desk and explained who he was. She had no instructions about his father Lawrence Wolenczak that prevented any next of kin visitors. He was under observation almost all of the time and wasn't about to go anywhere in a hurry anyway.
She smiled at the handsome young man claiming to be his son and gave him permission to enter the room.
Lawrence Wolenczak was in a private room with every machine known to modern medicine hooked up to him. They kept his heart pumping and his lungs breathing air.
He was almost afraid to walk into the same room at first. But something in the back of his mind told him that he needed to give himself peace of mind and make sure that he was indeed in a coma. In a come meant that he couldn't talk and throw insults or threats at him. It meant that he had no movement in his arms or legs to strike out and punch or hurt him again.
He really needed to make sure.
Back outside Lucas's own room, Bridger and Kristin were just returning from the cafeteria. They were trying to judge whether or not Lucas had had enough time to calm down. Maybe he was already asleep.
Bridger almost had a heart attack on the spot when he opened the door and found the room empty. He noted that the blue robe from the chair was missing. The crutches were still against the wall.
"Where does that stupid kid think he's going in his condition?" Bridger said with more fear than anger in his voice. He was a little annoyed but it was mainly directed at himself for leaving the vulnerable teenager alone.
He suddenly looked at Kristin and had a horrible thought, "Oh you don't think he would do you?"
Kristin looked at Bridger with fear of his own. Both of them had assumed that Lucas was too traumatized from his ordeal to consider going to see Lawrence in the Intensive Care Unit.
Neither of them wanted to know what it might do to him mentally or emotionally to see his father like that. They raced out of the room and towards the Intensive Care Unit after the teenager.
They got there panting from their running. Lucas was just outside the doorway to his father's room. He still needed to built up his courage a bit before going in. He saw Bridger and Kristin standing there worried out him but tried to give them an encouraging smile.
"Lucas are you alright?" Bridger asked the scared teenager.
"No, but I really need to do this. It won't truly be over until I see for myself," he said trying to quell the mix of emotions that were swelling inside of him. "Please understand."
Bridger and Kristin didn't really think Lucas knew what he wanted right now, but they were willing to accept his words and let him do this on his own.
"We'll be right outside if you need us," Bridger said. Lucas looked back at them and smiled at them again. It quickly faded as he turned to walk into the light filled room.
Lucas walked towards the bed in the room. The rails on the bed were in an upright position so as the occupant wouldn't tumble out in the night. He could see that his father seemed to be sleeping.
It took all of his courage just to walk up and stand beside the bed. He kept telling himself that his father couldn't wake up and hurt him anymore. He glanced at the various monitors and machines around the bed. Some of them he knew what they did, other's he didn't.
He looked down at the pale face of his father. Until a day or two ago, he hadn't seen the man this still up close in a long time. Lawrence really did look like he was sleeping. There was a drip inserted in the back of his right hand that attached to a IV bag on a stand not far from the bed.
Without thinking about it, Lucas placed his hand on the cold steel frame of the bed. He was too busy sorting out his feelings about this man to see anything out of the ordinary.
Lucas had to clamp down on the scream in his throat when Lawrence Wolenczak's hand snaked out and grabbed a hold of his bandaged wrist. He almost fainted on the spot from the fear that went through him. They had told him that he was in a coma. Was he waking up just now.
Fear of the unknown made Lucas look towards his father's face while he struggled to free his wrist. From where he was in the room,. the people outside were blissfully unaware of what was going on.
Lucas looked at his father's face and saw those black as coal eyes looking back at him with flames burning in their centres.
Lucas took one mighty pull and managed to yank his hand free. He rubbed at the tender skin underneath the bandage where the pressure had been applied.
When he looked back at his father, the eyes were closed as they had been when he first walked in the room. His father's arm was once again laying back over his chest well away from the edge of the bed.
Lucas took a step back trying to comprehend what he had just seen and felt.
Had his father really woken up and looked and him. Had he really grabbed a hold of his wrist? To look at him now you won't have thought it possible. They had told him that his father might never wake up. Could they have been wrong?
Lucas tried to compose himself as best he could before walking back out to Bridger and Kristin.
When he walked back out Bridger and Kristin immediately went to his side as they noticed the paleness of the young man. Both of them had just thought the visit was too much for him to handle this close after being rescued.
As he found himself being guided back to his own room he stole one more glance back towards his father's room.
Had it really happened? ...
THE END
HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THIS EPIC STORY
JULES