The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
Chapter 16
Tukluk watched her sleeping as he sat nearby. She was lovely, breathing softly into her silky hair, the blankets tightly wrapped around her slender body forming a round, delicate mound beneath them, like a beautiful moth sleeping inside its cocoon.
He’d had a wife once, and a son...but he’d lost them one night when someone broke into their home while he was out fishing, their bloody, battered bodies still fresh in his memory. Though he’d killed the man who murdered them and gone to prison for it...it didn’t take away the burning pain of the loss. Life, without love, he thought, was just another kind of prison.
Perhaps this was what drew him to Todd Manning, that inexplicable loss that connected them. His loneliness spoke to him....
Tukluk was filled with admiration for this sleeping woman who’d journeyed alone to this frozen wilderness. A powerful force emanated from her, a strength that told of an unconquerable spirit, like the one he’d sensed in Todd Manning. They were kindred, bound by something more significant than blood...something much more powerful.
“Todd,” she whispered in her sleep, opening her eyes slowly. Tea jumped when she saw Tukluk staring at her and sat up, looking lost.
“It’s okay, it’s only me...Tukluk,” he said gently.
Tea looked around, fatigued and disoriented.
“What’s going on?”
“Dr. Reese and Dr. Crespo have gone to bed, the basement is empty. We need to go, right now,” he said, helping her to her feet.
Tea picked up her parka and slipped it on quickly, following him out of the cafeteria. They went down a series of empty hallways and stopped at a door that read: Doctor Brunhilde Crespo. Tukluk removed a drill from his coat and unraveling a cord, plugged it into a nearby outlet.
“Won’t someone hear you,” said Tea, gazing at the noisy power tool anxiously.
“The residents’ quarters are in a separate building. There’s no one here but you and me. Just keep a look out while I drill through this lock. There’s no other way.”
Tea walked down the hallways and looked around as the buzz of the drill filled the corridors. It seemed louder than anything she’d ever heard, amplified by the silence of the place, but still she saw no sign of anyone. Finally, the drilling stopped as parts of the doorknob fell to the floor.
Tukluk put the drill down and looked up at Tea.
“Do you see anyone?”
Tea looked around and listened for noise, but there was nothing.
“No.”
“Come on,” he said, motioning to her and pushing open the door.
They entered the darkened office slowly, and Tukluk shut the door behind them feeling around for a lightswitch. Finding it he switched it on quickly and the room was instantly flooded with drab, fluorescent light.
Tea screamed sharply.
On the back wall, suspended from a rope which fastened to a hook, hung a woman. Her head hung limply onto her shoulder, like a dead bird’s, the rope deeply embedded in her neck as her thin legs dangled below a dark skirt, her toes pointing outwardly, toward nowhere. Her eyes were opened in a ghastly stare, her dark tongue rested limply on her lower lip and the room reeked of human waste, her lifeless body having spilled its contents on the floor below her.
“Oh, God,” Tea whispered as Tukluk took her in his arms and buried her face in his coat. “My God, who is that?”
“Dr. Crespo,” said Tukluk, his voice shaking. “I told you, Tea, everyone is leaving this place...one way or another.”
“I don’t understand,” said Tea, unable to look up at the dead woman. “What the hell is going on here?”
Tukluk grabbed Tea by the shoulders.
“She’s guilty of a terrible sin, one she obviously couldn’t live with anymore...but we don’t have time to go into it right now. Tea, listen to me. We need to find the keys to Todd’s cell down there. There’s a series of locks to open and the metal is a leaded titanium alloy, too thick to drill through. If we don’t find them there’s no way to free him. Do you understand? Now...the keys are here somewhere and we have to find them. We need to focus on that, okay?”
A terrified Tea nodded slowly and began looking around, trying to avoid the dead body behind her. Tukluk started busting locks open, opening drawers open and spilling out the contents. Tea looked through some file cabinets and found the woman’s purse but there were no keys inside. Finally Tea forced herself to look up at the suspended corpse and she noticed the large bulge in the pocket of Dr. Crespo’s smock.
“Look,” she said, pointing at it.
Tukluk stared at the pocket and hesitated...then walked over. Without looking at her directly he reached inside. They both gasped as the body suddenly moved with the pressure of his hand, but he grabbed what was inside and came out with a large ring filled with keys.
Tea sighed with relief as they headed for the door. Once outside she leaned against the wall and breathed deeply, trying to get the sight of the dead woman out of her mind and the putrid smell of death out of her nostrils.
“Come on.”
She followed him down a maze of hallways when suddenly they heard what sounded like an explosion in the distance.
“What was that?”
“I’m not sure,” said Tukluk, “but something tells me we’re running out of time. Let’s go.”
They reached a metal door and Tukluk opened it with the key Simoot had given him. Running down a flight of stairs to the basement they came to a long hallway that ran in either direction. Tukluk pulled Tea to the right and they ran to the end of the corridor. There Tea noticed a room that was barred in by thick, metal bars.
“TUK? HEY MAN, IS THAT YOU?”
Tea stopped, gasping when she heard Todd’s voice.
Tukluk ran up to the cell and saw Todd standing there, his arms dangling through the bars.
“Man, am I glad to see you. I haven’t seen anyone in days...I was beginning to think everyone had forgotten I was here...” he said when he noticed someone coming up beside Tukluk.
“Todd?” said a familiar voice in a husky whisper, a voice that haunted him.
*****
2003 Copyright by Trog
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