Liquid fear

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Roland squinted at the gate, which filled up the fat yellow beams of the headlights.

The dented yellow sign that said “No trespassing” was like a fleeting image from a long-ago dream, but it also sent off tiny warning flares in his head.

“Is this it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Wendy said. “It hasn’t changed much.”

“Are you sure?” Alexis said from the back seat. She’d gone quiet after taking her Halcyon dose, and Wendy had to relay directions despite the escalating effects of Seethe.

Roland glanced sideways at his estranged wife. In the dashboard lights, she glowed with a blue radiance, an ethereal and beautiful woman. He’d always loved her exotic, almond-shaped eyes and the mysterious pools of her dark, placid pupils.

Shit. Whatever this drug is, it’s making me love her again. But I never stopped loving her. I just started hating myself more.

“This is where we killed Susan,” Wendy said.

“I wish you’d quit saying that,” Alexis said with quiet resignation.

“Susan,” Roland said. “She was one of us, wasn’t she?”

“Don’t you find it strange that we could have loved each other after that?” Wendy said. “We are horrible, disgusting people.”

Susan’s death was just another dream image to Roland, but every time Wendy mentioned her, the girl’s face crystallized a little more in his mind.

Her smiling, sweet, chubby face.

And then the bloody and battered thing it had become.

He pounded his fist on the steering wheel so he would have some pain as a distraction. “Now what, guys? Ram the gate like in a movie? Or do we try to find another way in?”

“He’ll be expecting us,” Alexis said. “That’s what this is all about. He timed the doses to get us here now.”

She was right. His every step had been guided from the very beginning, since he’d woken up in Cincinnati with a corpse in the bathroom. In an odd way, the idea of manipulation gave him comfort, because it probably meant he hadn’t killed her.

But he could have. He was clearly capable. And probably more eager than he’d like to admit.

But that was the Seethe talking. He could almost feel the effect growing, like a sentient being slithering through his nervous system and dispensing its twisted brand of poison.

“Anita’s in there,” Wendy said. “One way or another, we have to go.”

Roland was about to respond when the gate gave a jerk and then began retracting.

“That was easy,” Roland said.

Wendy touched his arm, and a tingle raced up his flesh. He was afraid the Seethe might be exaggerating his response to her, but he welcomed the contact. No matter what happened, it was right and fitting that they were together for this.

“So, we all vote for going in?” Roland said.

“No choice,” Alexis said. “We’ll be out of pills soon. And we’re likely to have a total meltdown then. We either lose it out here or take our chances on finding some Halcyon inside.”

“You mean it gets worse? That we’re better off in there with Briggs than out here with Seethe taking control of our minds?”

“She’s a scientist,” Wendy said. “We better trust her on this.”

“We don’t know what we can trust anymore. Even each other.” He didn’t mean to say that last sentence, but he knew they’d all been thinking it.

One of the wonderful side effects of this nutty joy juice was paranoia, apparently. But maybe that wasn’t such a big discovery. After all, if this thing trimmed existence down to the bone, there was nothing left but survival instinct.

Kill or be killed.

He eased the car forward, following the broken pavement into the trees. The building revealed itself through the treetops via its high band of narrow lighted windows, and then the brick facade came into view. The sight of it sent an icy spear of recognition up Roland’s spine.

“I don’t see any other cars,” Wendy said.

“Don’t worry,” Roland said. “They’re here.”

“You think Briggs is alone with Anita?”

The question irritated Roland because it sounded almost like jealousy. It wasn’t Wendy’s fault that Briggs had seduced her while she was vulnerable. After all, she was ping-ponging on Seethe and Halcyon. Hell, people did worse things. Like commit murder.

“He’s trying to recreate the original trials,” Alexis said.

“Except he can’t do that,” Wendy said. “He’d need David Underwood and Susan Sharpe, too.”

“Nobody knows what happened to David,” Alexis said.

“David’s in on this somehow,” Roland said, pulling the car to a gentle stop. “It’s all part of the maze, and Briggs has his rats jumping through hoops, looking for the next chunk of cheese.”

“Why go to all that trouble, though?” Wendy said.

“I think we have to go in and find out,” Alexis said, opening her door.

“She’s the brains of the bunch,” Roland said to Wendy as they watched Alexis walk toward the building entrance. “But you’re the one not dulled by the Halcyon. So I’m counting on you, okay, babe?”

“I’m afraid,” Wendy said.

He touched her shoulder, and before he gave it a thought, he was leaning toward her, brushing her hair from her ear, kissing her cheek. It should have been wrong, but it was the most familiar thing he’d felt in days. Maybe years.

“Roland,” she whispered, and then they crushed their lips together hard, the way people who might die would do.

She tasted of raspberries and mint, but there was a metallic whang on her breath that Roland assumed was due to the chemicals in their bodies.

“Let’s find Anita and get out of here,” he said with a confidence he didn’t feel.

They walked arm in arm from the car to where Alexis was waiting near the single metal door. She pointed to a dark wet spot on the pavement. “Blood,” she said.

“I wonder whether it was somebody trying to get out or somebody trying to get in,” Roland said, leading the way to the door.

He wasn’t sure what he expected. Maybe a booby trap, maybe an ambush, maybe an avalanche of confetti and circus music and fat clowns.

The door was unlocked, more proof that Briggs was ready for them. He peeked inside the opening.

And ten years fell away in a heartbeat.