Chapter 8 - Tortured
It isn't long before the team departs that a package is delivered from Youngstown. The UPS delivery driver hands over the envelope and walks away.
"What the hell..." Josh mentions taking the large yellow envelope.
He takes out a VCR tape and runs back to the meeting room. They sit there and watch a blue screen until it finally appears on the TV.
They watch as a hooded figure appears on the screen, keeping his face well hidden.
"By the time you receive this message, it'll be too late to stop me from doing this because well... I've planned this for a long time, and done some digging, I found an old 'friend' of yours. Recognize this face, sir?" Robert pulls the camera shot around to reveal Greg, the dealer who sold out Damien, strapped to a chair with his mouth bound with duct tape.
The camera shakes, indicating the device has been put down as Robert returns inside the frame.
"We're going to have some fun with this guy, but unlike how Damien dealt with him this time, it'll be permanent."
He is laughing when his body twists around. He backhands Greg followed by an all-out assault of punches to his face with thunderous impacts. Owen is disgusted with the sight of blood-covered on Robert's knuckles.
"Oh, we're not finished yet, little buddy. Make sure to look at the camera and smile!" He cackles, exiting the camera's view.
Moments later, he returns, walking backward while he hides his hands from Greg's line of sight.
"Shhh, lookie here what I have to play with now, would ya!" He says to the camera holding up his fists covered with shattered glass pieces attached to gloves.
"Alright, Greg, Boyo, Buddy Ole Pal, it's time for round two." He screams, laughing, and pivots on his feet. He returns to deliver a few punches to Greg's face as the screams of pain are muffled from the tape.
"Oh, we don't like that, do you? Well, fine then, how about we remove that tacky ass orange jumpsuit top and see how your ribs enjoy a pounding." He suggests.
Robert takes a knife from his belt, shredding the top off of Greg, and returns to deliver the impact of body punches slicing into Greg's skin, causing him to cry out in agony until he passes out.
Robert begins to laugh like a hyena the entire time he's attacking Greg's body.
"Oh, it's not finished yet..." He mutters, stepping away once more. Josh sees the damage that's been inflicted.
"My God, he's crazier than I remember!" Josh says as he sees the blood ooze from Greg's body.
The sounds of footsteps quickly approach can be heard just before Robert returns.
"First, we have to bandage up those boo-boo's now, Mr. Scarberry. What better than ninety percent alcohol!" He screams.
He rips the tape from Greg's mouth, followed by the use of smelling salt to bring him back to life.
"Just kill me already, please..." Greg begs, breathing deep as Josh notices that Greg's skin is frail, and his eyes have dulled over.
"I will soon, but you're a message to an old friend. Now let's get you cleaned up..."
The alcohol is poured over his victim; Greg's scream causes the TV speakers to distort. They listen in horror as Greg's screams intensify with each breath.
"My God in Heaven, sweet Mary and Joseph, he's mad!" Owen mentions watching the blood drip from Greg's body.
"Oh, we're not finished yet, buddy-boy. Don't go anywhere. I want a close-up, Mr. Deville!" Robert says in mockery, walking for the camera.
"Let's take a closer look, shall we?" He giggles, strolling up to Greg.
"Hey looky, looky, looky, the old wounds from Damien. Remember these, Greg? Hey! I heard he fucked your old lady every which way to Friday too! Just think about how our viewing audience remembers those days and the stench of her burnt, rotten flesh. Oh, you know what else I bet you can recall. How he ravaged her hard and made your wife his personal slut. He handed her to his goons and murdered her while you were strapped to a chair like this one. I bet her body tasted good. Oh yeah, I bet she enjoyed being stuffed by a real man that day."
Angered by the thought of that day, Greg tries to break free from his chair.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH..." He yells, yanking with whatever strength he has left as the adrenaline pumps through his veins.
"Such a fight left inside of you, I like it, but it won't help you now." Robert gets right in his victim's face to mock him with puppy dog eyes and a pouty lip.
"I want you to think about how he raped her, made her scream. Then when he was finished, how he plunged a dagger straight through her heart and pulled it from her tits to her belly, slicing her wide open! That's how I heard he slaughtered that tramp you called a wife!" He reminds Greg of the details very few people were ever told.
Greg struggles, bouncing the chair millimeters off the floor, ready to rip Robert apart.
"Let me go. I'll kill you! I swear to God!" He threatens, pulling on the cuffs with enough force to cut into his wrists.
Greg manages to tip over the chair and smacks his head off the concrete floor, grunting in a state of rage.
"Oops, you fall down; let me help you back to your feet."
Walking behind Greg, the chair is placed in its upright position once more.
"Hey, don't leave just yet. We're almost to the finale!" He turns to the camera and says, skipping away for only a moment.
"Ah, here we go! Just what the doctor ordered..." They can hear Robert call out.
A second later, he returns to tape Greg's mouth once again. Only now, he pokes a hole into the tape, then tries to stuff in a cloth-like napkin.
"Don't fight me, or I'll break your damn jaw to shove this in." He warns in a severe and cruel tone as he stuffs the cloth deep into Greg's mouth.
All Greg can do is begin to cough with tears down his cheeks. He shudders in-between breaths trying not to cry.
Robert returns with his hoodie over his head. He ignores the camera, with his state of mind fluctuates in a matter of seconds.
"Time to kiss this world goodbye." Robert groans in a violent tone while he dowses Greg with kerosene from head to toe.
"Time to light up the world one last time!" He says to the camera, with a zippo in his hand as he ignites the exposed tip of the napkin.
Greg sucks in a deep breath after being struck in the gut and is quickly engulfed in flames. As he screams in pain, the fire erupts down his mouth once the tape is burnt off and his body's set ablaze.
On the floor looking at the camera, Robert's demeanor isn't the light-hearted sociopathic tone he had while he methodically tortured Gregory.
"If you think that's bad, just think about what I will do to your daughters. I've waited for this for years, you rat bastard. You took my life from me, well now I take what's precious to you and send you back pieces of their bodies. Have a nice day, sir." He says in a whisper and ends the video in laughter.
Unable to fathom what just happened, Josh and Owen's jaws can't be raised. Unaware of the aftermath, Kyle waits outside the meeting room. He notices the stare in their eyes being of disbelief.
"Don't worry, Pop, we'll make it there fast, then you can kill that son of a bitch." Kyle let's out to snap them out of the trance.
"Go faster than the speed limit is all I can tell you. We can't waste a single second." He orders as his heart drops in his chest. It pounds harder in fear of what's to come to Brooklyn and Emily.
As they race to the prison city, Sara's husband calls her playing dumb.
"Hey babe, I've been released and got a taxi. Are you at home ready to go?" He begins pretending he's none the wiser.
"We're not going until I know my family is safe. We have clues as to where they are, and I promise we'll enjoy our honeymoon once they're home safe and sound."
"Need some company?" He asks, smiling from ear to ear.
"Maybe later, but if you want to bring me something ice cold to drink, I'd love that." She informs him while she watches the screen and the GPS trackers move closer to Youngstown.
"On my way..." He mentions ending the call without so much as an I love you or see you soon.
Nearly fifteen minutes later, Bryan walks into her office and makes his presence known.
"Knock, knock, my beautiful bride." He calls out as he smiles at her.
"There's the man of my dreams!" She says, standing up to hug him.
"Is there anything I can help with?" He wonders out loud when he hands her a fountain drink.
"No, sweetness, just gotta do what I do best and dig into the case." She tells him, unaware he's sided with the enemy.
Glaring at her screen, he tries to memorize as much as possible without getting caught.
"Well, let's hope you catch the guys, and everyone comes home." He replies, staring with intensity at her screen.
"I'm trying, but this encryption is tough and deep in code. Uh, I'll break it, but it's gonna take some time. It's in this kind of Matrix-style code, and that ain't exactly easy to crack."
Sara downs nearly half of the drink Bryan hands her. She returns to work while he takes a backseat with his phone from his pocket to send a message to his boss.
Working on breaking encryption, I'll sit around here until the last minute. I am then going to take her out. The alpha team on the way to you, over and out.
"Hey honey, how did the prison cities happen? If you don't mind me asking?" Bryan questions to create a distraction that buys him some time.
"It's a long story, but if you're going to stick around, I can tell you what I remember." She tells him, focused on her tasks.
"Go for it, lovey-dovey."
Sara sucked in a deep breath to begin at the end of the Southern Sugar case.
"So, after Josh and Owen killed Damien and founded CBI and FBI-Cyber through some backdoor political moves. There were overcrowding issues in jails and prisons all around the country from dealers and followers from the Southern Sugar fallout. The government stepped in and seen the damage done in Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. With crime at all-time highs and they voted that it was safer to take the lesser of the evil ideas that then-interim President Klifton proposed. That was when the final days of the Southern Sugar campaign and the government converted those cities into prison-like cities with monthly deliveries of basic needs."
"Uh-huh..." He says when she pauses during her explanation.
"A few times a year, they would go in and inspect the fences, and volunteers would go check out inmates for medical needs and so on, but when there was a riot in Detroit when the worst of the worst there caused it—killing several guards and doctors and nurses. They decided those deemed too bad for corrections would be placed at a black site type environment near the Canadian border with hard forced labor. At least that's how it was explained to me by Uncle James."
Bryan sits there unphased by the tale.
"Sounds brutal," He mentions with his attention locked on his phone.
"Yeah, it was ugly from what I remember mom telling me too. Several innocents died, and James was horrified, but he watched the riots as people tried to escape and won't talk about it to this day. They quickly got the gate closed and used deadly levels of electricity to end it. Those monsters who were sent there deserved to be there." She continues.
His interest is brief about the history and quickly fades when he begins to yawn.
"So long story short, crazy people who committed murder and such got sent there, but how did they keep them from getting out from the other locations?"
The door pops open, and James takes over the question.
"Simple, GPS chips were implanted in their spine that wouldn't allow them to go beyond the gates. We were forced to place in the sense of control. They wanted to act like caged animals; then, we treat them that way. If they managed to get one step beyond the gates, electroshock would render them helpless with enough force hitting them that their hearts would explode. Some of them tried, and all that was left was a frail body."
"Wow, talk about being cruel," Bryan says, giving James a look of disdain.
"Until you can look into my nightmares, don't pretend like you know me or the demons within."
Unaware of his actions, David tightens his grip on his phone and nearly grinds his teeth.
"Damien was the worst thing I ever came across. When he nearly killed my daughter, I owed him big time. I was glad to help send that douche canoe to hell." James explains, without any remorse in his eyes.
"Hi, sir, sorry about going against your orders. I'm not about to let them go in there blind." Sara apologizes, keeping her focus on the screen.
"Don't worry about it; just keep me in the loop. Someone must report what's going on to D.C. Also, I called ahead, and the National Guard Air Patrol is coming from Dayton. Backup is on the way. I want this room locked down. Bryan, not to be rude, but get out or stay locked down in here until the end." James lays out his orders.
"If it's alright with my wife, I'd like to stay." He suggests looking up from his phone.
"Yeah, it's perfectly fine with me."
James dips his head and heads out to enter the code to lockdown Sara's office.
Time feels like it has nearly come to a halt with everything unfolding. Audrey goes to stay with Gwen and Lilly. Aaron takes his leave when he has to be back to report back to his unit. Lucas is home to keep an eye on Kyle's and Brooklyn's children even though his gut instinct won't stop his nerves from turning into mush.
Fear is the dominant emotion through everyone's heart, and not being sure if the girls are still alive at that point. The family can only sit around and speculate what will happen as the darkest storm surrounds the family.
Gwen's the one in the most fear out of everyone.
Josh and Owen won't even admit that the video sent to them rattled them more than they'll ever admit. The only thing they hope for is to make it in time before all they can rescue are two mutilated bodies. They're not aware that Justin has been captured.
The bandits that got away with the girls arrive at the gate of Youngstown. The windowless van approaches the guard station slowly until they stop for processing.
"Hey Peter, checking in for shift change a little late, aren't ya?" The guard asks, taking the photo ID badge from the driver.
"Yeah, the party we were at ran a little late, ya know." He tells the guard and keeps the window only half-way rolled down.
"Alright, you know the drill, check-in at the station and see you later." He's told when the hand-held scanner lights up green.
Everyone in the van waits for the gate to roll back. In the back of the van, the girls are held at gunpoint and bound by their hands and feet. Justin is in the back, still knocked out from the wreck and skidding across the pavement.
Peter uses the radio cover to take an immediate patrol to avoid the guard station inside the city. They bypass the station as the girls begin to break down again, feeling the gun jab them in their ribs from each goon.
"Almost there, ladies. Then 'Bub' gets his chance to meet you beauties finally." Peter, the driver, indicates laughing as they pull up to the abandoned full-service Marriott Deluxe Grande Hotel.
The girls are carried out of the van by thugs waiting for them.
"Hey, there's an extra body in the back. One of the guys that chased us, take them to Robert." Peter orders, ready to get back to the guard station.
"Got it..." One of the inmates hollers, going around to take Justin from the back of the van.
Peter doesn't waste time driving back to the guard station. Once he walks inside, he tosses the keys to his coworkers, ready to get off their shift.
"About time, you jackass. I've been here over three hours waiting on you." His coworker hounds him taking his leave from the desk.
"Oh, the van needs fuel, so ya know, fill it up." He enlightens his coworkers.
"Really! Again. Uh, fine, I'll fill it up, yet again." Peter left out the only detail that he placed a bomb under the gas cap, so when it's opened, it'll explode to bring about a distraction.
Unable to wrap his mind around how careless he acts, the other guards load up and leave—the other two cohorts who knew of the kidnapping in charge of the station to continue to block communications.
Back at the hotel, the girls are carried to the ground floor Executive Boardroom, where they finally meet their host. Placed in their seats, they're handcuffed to their chairs. Shortly after the henchmen exit the room, two new people walk inside, cracking up.
"So, these are the infamous daughters that belong to my old partner in crime. Hello there, my lovely ladies, we're going to have some fun." A tall, well-built older man states, hiding his face under a shrouded hoodie.
"Pl-pl-please let us go. Our parents will pay top dollar to you to not hurt us, please." Brooklyn clinches her eyes shut and begs for mercy.
Emily looks over at the lady and can't believe how much she looks like her dead mother.
"It can't be..." She mumbles as her mouth quivers at the sight of the short skinny middle-aged woman with straight long red hair.
"Oh, no, honey, I'm not your mom. I knew of her from what my wonderful husband here told me of her, but nah, we're not related." She reveals with her arms around Robert.
"But I will say this, let's get ready to have some fun, shall we."
Emily sits there overwhelmed by fear while Brooklyn slowly opens her eyes. They both realize they're in for a world of hurt with their captures right in their face.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro