Death After Death (Book #2)

Chapter Sixteen

"I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of Doctor Saunders, as I'm afraid I have some business to attend to. I hope you don't mind?" Joey chimed with a delicate flick of his silver tongue.  

"But I so enjoy this time together," Lizzie mocked, determined to extinguish that power-hungry gleam in his eye.

"You're a clever girl, and you're very well aware of it. You know I would prefer you alive, but that doesn't but a guarantee on all the bits I don't need."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, maybe little Lizzie should learn to keep that sarcastic tongue in her mouth, before she loses it," Joey grinned menacingly, before exiting the makeshift laboratory.

"What a prick," Doctor Saunders mumbled under his breath as he organised his equipment.

Lizzie laughed, pausing for a moment at the pure shock of laughter, she hadn't experienced it in a while.

"You can say that again, Doc."

"Oh, believe me, I say it to myself often enough," the Doctor smiled.

Lizzie gasped sarcastically, "He doesn't have cameras or anything in here does he?"

"I would laugh but that really wouldn't be out of the question for that nutjob; he already had us move all this here!" Doctor Saunders complained, gesturing to the huge expanse of medical machinery at his disposal.

"Where did you even get it all from?"

"Don't get me started! It all belonged to the hospital I worked at before all this, then our great Lord and saviour had us move it all to 'the pit'" he explained, using air quotes as he did so. "Then after you and your friend ruined that little enterprise, we shipped it all across to this place in two big removal trucks."

Lizzie just sat with her mouth agape at the sheer needless effort taken by Joey.

"Why not just stay at the hospital?"

"Well King Joey needed his castle, obviously."

Lizzies heart skipped a beat as she finally processed the Doctor's earlier reply.

"Hang on! My friend! Do you know what happened to him?" Lizzie blurted out in mixed excitement and worry.

All this time she had been convincing herself that she didn't care about Max, and that she could walk away from him just as he had to her, but it wasn't true. Here she was, the first sound of his name and she was dying for any morsel of information she could wrap her lips around; any indication that she wasn't abandoned.

"Know what happened to him?" Saunders scoffed. "Yeah, you could say that!"

"What do you mean?" Lizzie demanded.

"His name was all we bloody heard for about a week. Max this, Max that, find him, bring him to me, kill him if you have to, the guy was obsessed with him!"

"So...he did get out alive then?" Lizzie probed.

Part of her had even wished that he'd really perished in the escape attempt. Somehow that seemed better than the idea of him leaving her to die alone.

"He definitely did that alright, took a load of Joey's guys down with him too, Otto included."

Good, Lizzie thought. At least that monster was dead, even if that was the single silver lining.

"Where did he go?" Lizzie questioned, mumbling as if somehow trying to make it seem like she didn't care either way.

"That, my dear, is the great question."

Lizzie dipped her head towards the ground, desperately trying to blink back the rapidly approaching tears. As her eyes glanced down, they settled upon the cartoon bee sat on her chest.

'Buzz off'

Her mind threw back to that time in the shopping centre, picking out clothes, mocking each other and generally just clowning around. It was probably the last happy memory she had, everything since then had been one steep downhill after another.

Doctor Saunders clearly noticed the dismay on his young patient's face, "He didn't leave you, you know that right?"

Lizzie sniffed, barely hearing what the doctor had said, "What?"

"He didn't leave you...he-"

"What do you mean he didn't leave me? That's exactly what he did. I'm here, he's gone...that's the definition of leaving Doc."

"He thought you were dead," The Doctor blurted to stop Lizzie's depressing rant. "He probably still does."

"Why the f**k would he think that? He wouldn't believe a word from that snake's mouth, even if he did tell him so!"

"That's probably true enough, but it wasn't Joey who told him."

"Then who told hi-" Lizzie began, but then it dawned on her. "Paulo," she whispered.

"I'm afraid so."

"That bastard! That double-crossing little prick! If I ever see him again..." Lizzie vented, all her bottled up pain immediately transforming to hate and rage.

"He did what he had to, to survive," Saunders explained. "Sometimes, now more than ever, you have to look out for yourself."

"No. Not when you're playing with other people's lives! Is that what you're going to do ay Doc, leave me here and save yourself?"

"No, of course not-"

"There ya go then. That's the difference between a good man and a coward. One decision."

"Yep, one decision," he agreed.

Now that she had time to dwell over this new information, Lizzie felt as if the entire world had been lifted from her shoulders. All that hate, and confusion and loneliness she had been carrying, forcing her down further and further into a slump on that cold cell floor. It was all gone.

He hadn't left her, well he had, but not under the context she had feared. If she could just find a way out of here, there was still a way back from this.

She could just imagine the look on his face when she turned up, acting like nothing had happened. She took hold of this thought, the idea or her having the upper hand, leaving him speechless. That would drive her forwards.

"Can you extend your arm please?" Doctor Saunders interrupted, as he flicked the needle. "Same thing as usual."

Lizzie turned her arm over to expose the soft, fleshy underside, and surrendered it to the doctor. The first few times she had been terrified about this, watching her skin resist against the need for a split second before it pushed through the thin barrier, into her bloodstream.

She had always been frightened of needles, but that was before. She was now numb to it, numb to any pain really. Once you've experienced all the mental turmoil and agony possible, there wasn't much to be afraid of. The physical stuff just became irrelevant, if anything a simple reminder that you were alive.

The Doctor eased the end of the syringe towards him, drawing out a full vile of Lizzie's valuable blood. She laughed at the thought of this. In the current world, her blood was probably worth more than diamonds and gold put together. Her blood was the potential for life, the slim promise of a future for the human race; a heavy burden for someone so young.

"Do you really think you can do it?" she asked.

"Get us out of here, yes, I think so," Saunders replied as he stored the vile with the rest in a body-temperature incubator.

"I meant find a cure. Do you really think you can do it?"

The Doctor thought for a second, before slowly turning to look Lizzie directly in the eye, "I really think I can. I have to."

"Is that not reason enough to stay?"

"Here? Why would it be?"

"Well, call me a martyr, but if I have to stay locked in that cell for the rest of my life in order for you to find a cure, I'll do it...in a heartbeat."

Doctor Saunders smiled broadly, like a proud father, "I don't think that will be necessary. There are plenty of hospitals and equipment in the world still. Link a few bits up to a generator and I'm good to go, as long as you'll come with me?"

"Do you need me that badly?" she asked.

"I've been studying your blood for some time now, its genetic makeup, the way it responds to the disease; a cure doesn't hinge on your blood, no, but it would certainly help speed things up."

"Then I spose we better get the f**k out of this place then Doc," Lizzie winked.