The Uranium Bender IV

Going back into the hotel room, Saul, Ray, and I listened to the radio for a little bit longer as we got ready for bed. As I slid in the tightly tucked bed sheets, my head hit the pillow and I thought I would fall asleep right away, but that wasn't the case. I kept thinking about the conversation that happened yesterday between the three of us when we were enjoying our ice cream.

"Bradley, there's more to the story here than just escaping for your own good. I just wanted to tell you more about me," Saul said as he gazed directly into my pupils. "As you know, I have a wife back in Detroit. She's very fortunate to be working with Henry Ford, building some bombers on the line, making decent money for herself. The thing is though, before this war got all out of hand, we were trying to have children. But she kept miscarrying, three times in fact, if you know what that means?"

I shook my head but Saul explained.

"It was really hard to accept, and my wife and I were both depressed. But then I started working with the FBI and I had to go to D.C. for a while where I partnered up with Ray here, and then we were assigned to your project, Bradley," he broke eye contact to look at the ground as his bottom lip quivered. "If I'm to ever have a son, I want him to be like you. It's not your ability that makes you special, you're a just good-natured, mature kid. Any parent would be blessed to have you as part of their family. The agency warned us not to get too attached to you, but we were selected because of our ability to listen, understand, and make others feel comfortable. I guess I just wanted you to know that, if for some reason at the end of all of this you can't find a place to live, you have a home with me and my wife in Detroit," a tear crawled out the corner of Saul's eye, but he wiped it away as soon as it surfaced. "Sorry for rambling."

"It's alright, Saul," Ray said, patting him on the shoulder. "And as for me, Bradley, you remind me a lot of my younger brother, in all of the best ways. And… that's all I'm going to say, it still hurts a lot to talk about him," and through Ray's sunglasses I could see a tear walk down his cheek. "We're going to take you back to your family, Bradley, but we just have to wait a little while. There are other projects that are developing weapons with uranium. They'll figure it out soon, and then they won't be looking for you anymore, and that's when we'll drop you off back in Cincinnati. For now, we're practically fugitives."

***

The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed, but I was still in the hotel room from earlier. Ray and Saul were nowhere to be found, both of the queen beds in the room were perfectly made, and a dim amber light was flickering in the bathroom with the door cracked.

"Ray? Saul? Are you guys there?" I said, climbing out of the medical crib and tiptoeing towards the bathroom door. I placed my hand at the base of the door and eased it open, the light was buzzing with each intermittent flicker. "Anyone in here?" but then the color drained from my face, my heart throttled, and my jaw sank to the ground.

The woman from the pool area was standing at the center with a slight grin, blood running down from the corner of her mouth. Dismembered limbs and body parts from Ray and Saul festooned the bathroom. Her sunglasses were gone, and all she had were black holes for eyes. She reached into her handbag and pulled a revolver, aiming it directly at me.

I screeched with all of my might and spun around, bursting out into the hallway. Looking over to my right I felt a surge of cold sweat coat my body. Marshall was standing at the other end, no eyes, clutching onto a revolver as he was already marching in my direction. Darting my head to the left I saw Dr. Faulkner with a giant hypodermic needle, grinning from ear to ear, caves for eyes, closing in on me.

"Help! Help! Somebody, please! Help me! They're here! They're here!"

"Bradley!"

"Help!"

"Bradley!"

My eyes shot open, my body was quaking, and all of the sweating, shivers, and heart pumping from my dream carried over into reality. Ray and Saul were both hovering over me, they each had a hand on my shoulder.

"Bradley, you're okay! You're okay! It was just a nightmare, only a nightmare, buddy. It's alright, you're safe," Saul said.

"Dammit, Saul, this is part of the withdrawals," Ray stepped away from the bed, rifling through a bag, and coming back over with a needle.

"Withdrawals!?" I screeched.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry we didn't tell you about this sooner, but in fairness we just found out about it recently. They've been putting a drug in your food every day so you developed an addiction, the guys up top thought if you were dependent on it, that you wouldn't be able to escape, and if you did, you'd want to come back immediately. A scientist gave us some of the drug to give to you in case you struggled with quitting cold turkey. They said the symptoms were, cold sweats, shakes, increased heart rate, and night terrors."

"I'm going to check the window," Saul said, drifting over to the curtains, poking through a crack with his finger. "Aw shit, Ray."

"Watch the language," Ray said turning back to me, we're just gonna give you a tiny injection of this stuff, less than what you're used to, but it will help wean you off."

My jaw was dropped and I couldn't stop squirming as Ray had to pin down my arm.

"Ray, I see a black Dodge Custom with someone in the car underneath a lamppost!" Saul said, jumping over to his bag to grab a gun. "They're here!"