Oblivion - Debt Collector 13 (A Jack Winchester Thriller)

by Jon Mills

Jack dropped to his knees and looked at him. Mack turned on a small flashlight. He beckoned him under with two fingers. Jack sighed, expecting to be told that escaping was just an imaginary state and that he’d never got out. That it was just a myth. He had to get on his back to slip under the steel bed.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “See the springs?”

  “Yeah?”

  Mack reached for one and pulled it loose then slid out from under the bed. Once Jack was on his feet again, Mack tossed it to him. “That’s your key out of here.”

  Jack held it up and looked at it. “Are you kidding me?”

  “You wanted to know how I got out. I used that.”

  “How?”

  “The bathroom. There are three showers. Go to the last one and you’ll notice the flooring is made from tiles. Every single shower has a few loose tiles. We have the government budget to thank for that. I used that spring to scrape out the grout around the tiles over a period of two weeks, pulled them up and dug down.”

  “You created a tunnel with this?” he said in disbelief.

  “No, I created an opening,” he said walking over to a wall and hitting it a few times, then stomping his foot in certain areas of the room until Jack heard a hollow sound. “Shabby workmanship, you might say. This hospital was once an old asylum. Instead of ripping everything out or condemning it, the builders simply built around and over what was already there. You remember what Edgar said about where he kept his hooch? That compartment was used for plumbing and electrical. That’s when it came to me. There are passages behind these walls and below. In certain parts it’s paper thin. I wasn’t digging for long until I made my way through to a space between the flooring and an area that houses the old pipes that run through the asylum. From there I just waited for the right time, and made my way into that passage. It’s tight but you can navigate it with a flashlight.”

  “But surely one of the techs would have noticed a big hole in the shower?”

  “No, because Cowboy covered it up. On my side I nailed in a piece of plywood, on his, he put the tiles back in place and filled in the grout. I can’t tell you how hard it was to get all these items from work duty but that’s where it helps to have friends.”

  “Charlie, you mean?”

  He nodded. “That’s why when you lift up those tiles you’ll have to use your foot to knock out the plywood. It’s in there pretty tight. I couldn’t have someone falling through, now could I?” He chuckled.

  Jack frowned. “Cowboy knew about it and didn’t go with you?”

  “Some people don’t want to get out.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “The world outside isn’t conducive for some of us.”

  Jack stared at him. “You could have left again, why not?”

  “Same reason Cowboy’s still here. There’s no life for me out there. What would I do? Get a job? Get an apartment?” He chuckled. “No.”

  “Then why did you go the first time?”

  “To kill the man who had an affair with my wife.” He grinned. “Now remember. Once you’re down there. Follow it and it will lead you to a room they used to do hydrotherapy. Stay to the left and follow the passage past that. It’s dark and full of a lot of crap so be careful where you step when you get out. Everything is crumbling down there. Eventually you’ll reach a ladder that goes up to a large opening in a wall. There was a grate on it when I went through but I removed it. That sewage pipe goes beyond the hospital grounds, past the fencing, and comes out near a stream. Make it to there and you are home free.”

  Jack brought a hand to his face and shook his head. “And no one knows except you two?”

  “That’s right. The psych techs don’t go in there. They stand outside while we shower. And the noise of the water covered up scraping. You want out, that’s your ticket.” He then glanced at a clock on the side table. “But you need to move fast. Shower time will be over in forty minutes.”

  15

  There was no lineup outside the showers. Psych techs called names, two at a time, except for the rowdy or misbehaving, who went in alone. If that was him, fine, he didn’t need anyone to cover up his escape. Jack waited patiently in the TV room for his turn. Patients were huddled around couches watching some ball game, oblivious to his intentions. Every now and again one would jump up ecstatic and cheering would ensue. He kept glancing at Jenkins out the corner of his eyes, each time he ushered in two more then checked off their names from a list. After being denied lunch, he thought they might try to strip him of his dignity and make him go without a shower but fortunately that wasn’t the case.

  “Winchester! You’re up.”

  He hesitated for a second waiting to see who they called next but they didn’t. Suited him fine. The last thing he needed was someone else hearing him break through and raising the alarm. He glanced at Mack on the way out and got the thumbs-up. Jack snatched up his towel and bath bag and strolled up to the door. Jenkins put a hand on his chest and sneered at him.

  “Ten minutes. That’s all you get.”

  “What, you timing people now?”

  Jenkins stepped up to him. “You want a shower tonight?”

  Jack gritted his teeth, nodded and brushed past him. Minutes from now he wouldn’t care. The door had to remain open but fortunately the passage into the washroom area was around a corner. Although the washroom functioned it wasn’t in the best state. Mold and grime caked the walls, and when faucets would turn on, iron-tinted water would spurt out. There were three cream-colored wash basins and a large mirror that extended from one side to the other above them. To his right were three showers without curtains. They didn’t want anyone trying to hang themselves. Jack tossed his wash bag down and looked at the tiling on the floor of the third shower. Sure enough, Mack was right. There was a slight difference in color in the grout compared to the rest. Acting fast, he turned on the other two showers and took out the heavy spring that was sharp at either end. He cast a glance towards the door and began scraping away. The grout around the white tiles came away easily and within less than two minutes he pulled up one tile after the next. Beneath that was a piece of plywood just as Mack had said. He glanced at his watch, eight minutes left. He knew Jenkins would come in on the dot so he had to move fast. Wanting to make sure he covered up the sound of him kicking out the board, he turned on the third shower. It would soak him but he had no choice. He couldn’t risk Jenkins hearing. Stepping under the water he slammed his boot into the board twice before it dropped into the darkness. Hurrying to his wash bag he pulled out a small flashlight Mack had given him and began his descent. Soaked by rushing water he quickly lowered himself while holding the flashlight between his teeth.

  Sure enough, it was cramped. The dingy passage full of cobwebs couldn’t have been more than five feet high. Mack was a short ass unlike him. He had to bend, squeeze and slide along the oily, grime-covered pipes that snaked beneath the floor. It smelled rank like the inside of a garage that hadn’t been cleaned. Jack shone the flashlight on his watch. He had five minutes. He even heard Jenkins shout above him.

  Moving fast he kept going until he saw a grill that led into a room where they did hydrotherapy. Everything was exactly as Mack said. Stay left. Stay left, he thought. The passage snaked around. He heard rats scurrying beneath the pipes. He didn’t even want to imagine what kind of venomous snakes or spiders could be in there. Jack pressed on until the passage opened into a large space where he was finally able to stand. The sound of water dripping dominated. It seemed to surround him. Dark rusty pipes, big, medium and small, fissured off into the darkness in every direction. A quick shine of the light and he saw the ladder. The grate that had once covered the opening into the sewage pipe was still resting against the wall.

  Right then he heard the sound of a screaming alarm.

  One glance at his watch and he knew his time was up.

  Not wasting a second, Jack climbed and entered the huge pipe, his feet sloshing beneath six inches o
f God knows what. The smell was atrocious. He placed his hands against the slimy sides of the interior and hurried, the flashlight’s light bounced off the walls creating shadows. He figured it would be a straight shot out but when he reached a T-junction he looked to his left and right. Mack hadn’t mentioned which way from there. Going by what he said about sticking to the left he hurried, hoping he’d see the outside soon. By now the whole facility would be on alert. Patients would be driven back into their rooms, hospital cops would be circulating the grounds, others would be inside C unit with some following him.

  The fear of not getting out drove him on.

  His heart pounded in his chest as he rushed forward and turned again only to find himself up against a locked grate. “No. No. Come on!” He shook it hard, seeing nothing but more pipe beyond it. Had he taken a wrong turn? Was he meant to go right?

  Racing back the way he came, this time he went right at the T junction. By this point he could hear the staff. “He must have entered here.”

  Jack hurried along the pipe, convinced this was it.

  Sure enough, he saw light, a glimmer on the surface of the water as he got closer to another turn. As soon as he rounded that one, he once again found himself up against a grate. Jack shook it and reached through and grabbed the lock. He stood back and kicked the grate. “Come on, you bastard!” Nothing. It was no good. The chains were too thick.

  “Going somewhere, Mr. Winchester?”

  He spun around to find Jenkins, Porter and three security guards.

  “Now don’t make this hard,” the hospital cops said as they inched towards him, batons out and one of them packing a Taser. Jack balled his fists. If he was going down, he would go out swinging.

  “Just as I thought,” Jenkins said. “Get him.”

  They rushed forward and Jack kicked the first one in the gut, knocking him back into the guy behind him. Porter rushed around the side, and Jack fired a right hook to his jaw knocking him clean out. Leaping over the downed hospital cops, Jack barreled towards Jenkins and another guard as he raised a Taser and fired. The prongs hit Jack and his eyes went back in his skull and he dropped, though this time only one had properly fixed into him. He tugged it out and got up again but the guard behind him fired again and that one latched. A pulse of around 50,000 volts shot through him and he was incapacitated.

  Once they had him in cuffs, Jenkins urged the cops to head back. “We’ll take it from here, boys.”

  “We were told to bring him up.”

  “Well, the doc has other plans.”

  “That wasn’t…”

  “Speak to the doc,” Jenkins said.

  The cops looked at each other and back at Jack before walking away.

  They waited until they were out of sight before Jenkins and Porter dragged him back through the maze of pipe. Jack expected to be brought topside and thrown into seclusion but instead they took a different turn.

  “Where you taking me?”

  “Shut up.”

  Porter led the way up a ladder. He took out some keys and opened a grate which led into a boiler room. Nothing was on. It was just dank and dark.

  “You know, Winchester, there was a time when places like this didn’t screw around with assholes like you. Now we’re told not to fight back, that you have rights. Well, I’m gonna show you what they did with people like you back in the day,” Jenkins said. It didn’t take long before Jack knew where they were taking him. They dragged him into the hydrotherapy room.

  “Porter, give me a hand getting him into that bath.”

  Now that he was restrained with his hands behind his back, they might have thought there was nothing he could do, but they were wrong. Porter went on one side, and Jenkins on the other. As they tried to lift him into a bath full of grime, Jack brought his boots up to the lip of the bath and pushed off, full force backwards. He took Jenkins and Porter with him down to the floor. As they landed hard, Jack head-butted Porter by swiping his head to the side, then turned and kneed Jenkins in the nuts. While they writhed in pain, he rolled back and flipped up to his feet and burst towards the doorway. He made it back into the corridor only to trip over a wheelchair hidden by the darkness. Jack crashed to the floor and groaned. As he was struggling to get up, Jenkins appeared off to his right and struck him with a baton.

  Two hard whacks and he was unconscious.

  When he came to, freezing cold was rising up around his body. They had got him in the bath and turned on the faucets, which were still in operation. Freezing cold water gushed out filling up the tub with him in it. His hands were still restrained behind his back. He thrashed but it was no use. They had laid a sheet on top of him and with water soaking it, it began to act like a weighted blanket. It didn’t help that he was clothed. Still, that didn’t stop him from trying to get out.

  Each time he tried to get up, Jenkins used both hands on his shoulders to force him back down. His head remained above the water.

  “Hours, literally hours, patients were forced to endure submersion in water to treat manic-depressive psychoses. You see, Mr. Winchester, the cold water slows the blood flow to the brain and quickly decreases mental and physical activity. How you liking it? Cold enough for you?”

  “Let me out.”

  “Oh, all in good time. Hell, we still have the steam cabinets for you to try out. What was it you told Chapman? That this was a country club. Well, let’s give you the club tour.” With that said, he forced Jack’s head under the water while Porter held his legs down. With his hands tied behind his back there was nothing he could do. The unexpected push caused Jack to gulp water. His brain felt like it was solidifying as the icy cold water attacked his senses.

  Released, he came up gasping for air.

  Jenkins slapped him on the side of the face. “Yep. I don’t know why they stopped using this shit. It is pure magic. What do you think, Winchester?”

  Spluttering water and gasping, he couldn’t even spit out words. The cold was unbearable. “Angelo said you would enjoy this. He wanted you to know what it was like all those years ago, tied and thrown under water. Gasping for air. Thinking his lungs would explode.”

  Thrust down again, Jack writhed, struggling to get up but it was useless. Tied, held on both ends and moving around inside a slippery bath full of ice-cold water, his body started to become rigid. When he came up the second time he was shivering like mad, his teeth chattering, his lips turning blue. This time Jenkins wrapped his arm around him and put him in a choke hold and began to squeeze. “I could cut off the oxygen to your brain and you’d be brain dead.” He squeezed forcing Jack’s face to turn a beet red.

  “Jenkins. Jenkins!” Porter said.

  “What?”

  “He told us to keep him alive.”

  “Ah… you take all the fun out of it.” He released his grip. Jack coughed hard; his lungs felt like they were on fire. “Let’s get him out and see if those steam cabinets work.” He slapped Jack on the shoulders. “Don’t worry. You’ll warm up in no time.”

  Frozen stiff, his fingers could barely move as they dragged him out and over to an ancient contraption that looked like a cross between a wooden cabinet and a cryogenic chamber. Porter unlocked the front and they stuck him in it, on a seat. The inside was crawling with cobwebs and spiders. They slammed it closed, his head protruding from a hole at the top of the cabinet.

  “Now these suckers were used back in the 1900s. An absolute masterpiece, if I don’t mind saying so myself,” Jenkins said. He headed over to the wall and cranked an iron wheel. “They say it was meant to calm patients down. Let’s see, shall we.”

  He ran a hand over a dust-covered dial on the wall and continued cranking the wheel. Jack heard a hissing sound, then felt warm steam hitting his body. At first it didn’t feel too bad, in fact it was a welcome relief after the freezing water, but within seconds it started heating up.

  “It’s too hot. Let me out.”

  “Oh, I think a big boy like you can handle it. In fact, let’s cra
nk the temperature a little higher.” Jack cried out in agony as his body went from freezing cold to burning hot.

  “Are we having fun yet, Mr. Winchester?”

  Right then, Nurse Cross, Seth and the head of hospital security burst into the room.

  “Turn that off right now!” Cross yelled. “Get him out.”

  Jack nearly passed out from the pain. His body slumped into Seth’s as he was dragged out and laid down.

  Cross directed her anger at Jenkins. “Who the hell ordered this?”

  “Who do you think?” Jenkins replied.

  “Get them out of here. Now!” she yelled. Morgan ushered them out leaving Seth and Nurse Cross to examine Jack. She lifted his eyelid and shone a light in his eye. “Seth, help me get him up.” Still thinking that it was Jenkins, he thrashed around but then calmed as Cross reassured him that it was over. As they led him out, Jack mumbled something.

  “What?” Nurse Cross asked.

  “Ask him about the drugs Sutton is distributing. Chapman’s in on it.”

  Cross frowned as she looked at Seth. He shrugged.

  16

  Topside, it was a chaotic scene. Word had spread of Jack’s attempt to escape and some of the patients had refused to go back to their rooms, instead barricading themselves inside the day room. Psych techs and hospital cops were in the process of breaking the door down. It had happened before. It was a nuisance but nothing that staff couldn’t handle. Once Jack was in the hands of paramedics, Nurse Cross made a beeline for Dr. Chapman’s office, taking Seth and Morgan with her for moral support. She knew better than to show up alone. Upon arrival she wasn’t surprised to see Jenkins and Porter talking with him. As soon as Chapman caught sight of her, he excused them and beckoned her in. Hanna glared at Jenkins as he brushed by her.

  “I know what you’re going to say, Nurse Cross, but you need to understand a few things.”

  Before he could get another word out, she tore into him. “When I took this job, I didn’t expect to have to deal with abuse of patients. Now I don’t care how you try to explain this away — this time I have witnesses.” Morgan and Seth stepped into the room. Chapman could see he was being scrutinized and by the expression on his face he didn’t like it one bit. Head of the unit or not, Cross wasn’t going to let this slide.