Episode LII

"Good evening Mr. Lake!" the nurse said as she entered the room. She almost sang it, she seemed so happy.

Luke was confused...why isn't she fuming about the stinkbomb I put in my lunch dishes... "Umm, good evening nurse... everything's going ok, I hope."

He noticed a slight scowl cross her face, but she seemed to quickly humor herself with a personal joke and replied, "Oh, well, there was some uproar about that gift you left us with your afternoon meal, but now everything is just fine..."

Luke was appalled. Gift! That was the best I could come up with, it took me a lot of time to convince my sister to smuggle that thing in here...maybe the nurses ARE trying to poison me, maybe that's why she's so cheerful...
"Oh, about that... I..um... I'm sorry... uh..."

"Oh, it's ok, let's just put that behind us... would you like to eat your pudding now?"

"umm..ya..uh, I'm not really hungry right now, but.. uh...if you would just set that here..."

"Oh, ok, but you really should try it, it's our specialty around here, made from scratch!"

Luke wondered how chocolate pudding could be made from scratch... but decided not to press the point, lest it really be poisoned and she decided to force feed it to him. "Uh... well, I'll see what I can do to get something down... in a little bit..."

"Ok!" The nurse tidied up a bit and began heading out of the room cheerfully.

Luke thought fast, I have to know why she's so happy!
"Nurse, uh... you seem unusually... cheerful, this evening..."
Ok, that was stupid, but I guess it might get me somewhere.

The nurse stopped in the doorway and said with a mischievous smile, "It's hard not to be when a problem leaves you..."

That really made Luke wonder...he glanced at the pudding and was sure he saw something like little pieces of pill, but on further investigation he decided were probably just dandruff from the nurse's hair... still, he wasn't going to risk it, and put the pudding back onto the nightstand by his bed.

Luke didn't have much time to wonder at the nurse's attitude, within a couple of minutes a doctor walked in, a man with medium-length salt and pepper hair, with a large salt and pepper mustache to match. He was not particularly tall, though would not have seemed short if he walked upright. As it was his stature was thin and slow, portraying a weakness that didn't quite match what his age looked to be. The doctor shuffled up Luke's bed and began unhooking the various pieces of monitoring equipment around Luke, leaving only the I.V. of various antibiotics that was in Lukes foot.

"Hey, um, doc. How's my leg... I mean, I feel ok, am I allowed to walk on it? Can I call my mom now?"

At the mention of his mother, the man stiffened, then relaxed and slowly spoke, "Ahh yes, your parents... your parents are actually here, now. We have been discussing your treatment, and they feel it necessary to transfer you to... to a special facility that specializes in breaks of your sort."

This made Luke nervous. Not so much about his injury, but as to his treatment. This man seemed uneasy for some reason, and he'd mentioned parents as if he had two of them, though it'd only been he, his sister, and his mother for years, ever since his dad had run out on them... In addition, his mom normally worked at this time of night.

Luke thought carefully, then he got an idea, something he'd seen on some old WWII comedy show he'd seen on tv late one night,
"Oh goood, are my brother and sister here, too??"

The man paused, thinking, then smiled and looked up, "Yes. Yes they're here, too, they're waiting in the lobby while your parents fill out the paperwork."

Now Luke knew something was wrong... he didn't have a brother...'What do I do now? Am I being kidnapped? What's going on?'

Unfortunately the doctor must have caught wind that he had said something wrong from Luke's reaction, because he quickly reached into his coat and pulled out a small injection needle. Grabbing Luke's I.V. the man quickly injected the needle's contents into the I.V.

Luke tried to get himself up and away... out, anywhere... but before he even got the blankets off his lap, he noticed all feeling leaving his legs...then his waist, then...nothing.

**********

Luke came-to very gradually. At first he thought the numb pulsing in his body was just the drugs wearing off, but as he awoke he began to realize that he was in a moving vehicle, and the pulsing was that of the vehicle bouncing on a gravel road.

He very much wanted to scream, struggle, anything to fight against the feeling of helplessness caused by being kidnapped, but he realized the drugs had not worn off, and he would stand no chance whatsoever of escape while still disoriented and not in full control of his faculties.

Gradually, Luke opened his eyes, hoping that there wasn't someone standing over him with a knife or some other frightning situation that, until now, had seemed completely absurd ideas. As he glanced about he noticed various medical instruments and tools.
Of course, what better way to take me out of a hospital than in an ambulance?

Soon Luke felt himself slightly pulled to one side, as the ambulance turned into some parking lot or driveway, and then felt a pain in his leg as the slowing of the vehicle caused his weight to shift.
Shoot! I completely forgot about my leg... how in the heck am I supposed to escape?

In the back of his mind he was aware of the two men in front, and that the two of them had been talking the whole time, but only now did he really start listening to what they were saying:

"Well, we're here, best get that kid out of the back before he wakes up, you know how the doctor is about the security of this lab."

"Ya, ya, personally I think he's too paranoid. I mean really, it's not like anybody we're carting in there is ever going to be able to tell someone about the place anyway."

"True, but you'll have to bring it up with him, not me. Besides, it makes it easier to carrying them if they're not fighting.

Luke closed his eyes as he heard the back of the vehicle opening, and fell limp as he felt himself dragged onto a stretcher. Luke risked a peek once on his transport, and realized he was being pushed by two men, one in front and one behind. Without thinking, lest he should wimp out, Luke aimed for the face of one man with his good leg, and punched behind him with both hands in what an observer might have mistaken for a glorified stretch.

Luke smiled to himself as he felt his foot (and long, poorly-groomed toenails) connect with the chin of the one man, and grimaced in pity as his hands met with soft tissue and he heard the muffled groan of the man behind him.

Quickly, or as quickly as a guy with a broken leg can, Luke sat up and began exiting his stretcher, only then did he look around. In every direction was nothing but desert. In three of the directions all he saw were flat plains of cracked ground, and in the other was a range of dry, red mountains.

Before he could react, Luke felt a pain in his neck, and recognized the familiar paralyzing effect of the drugs... and all he caught as he began to black out was "hnh, welcome to the sand pit, kid."