Chapter 12 AMY
AMY
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A steel cage dominates the room. Next to the cage is a table with all sorts of medical-looking equipment on its surface. When I spot the syringe, pride is trampled under the weight of my fear.
“Oh, no, please don’t, please don’t,” I hear myself say frantically over and over again.
Please don’t what? Drug me? Kill me? Everything. I want out of this nightmare. I want to go home. I want my father.
Jill shoves me into a chair and stands behind me. I can’t tear my gaze away from the cage. Why is it here? What are they going to do to me?
“How much do you weigh?” Barry asks me.
“What?”
“How much do you weigh?” he repeats impatiently.
I stutter out my weight. Jill holds me down while Barry picks up two syringes and moves toward me.
The tears pour down my cheeks. “This is not fair! What did I ever do to you?” I flinch as the needle penetrates my skin, my body shaking with the force of my sobs.
Barry’s eyes flare with some unguarded emotion before he looks away and injects me again. After a moment, he glances at his watch. “Nearly three minutes. It should start taking effect now.”
Suddenly, his arms are around me. To my surprise, I realize I’ve slid off the chair. Barry is holding me against his chest, but I can’t feel a thing. I try wriggling my fingers and toes. Nothing. I can’t even move my mouth to scream.
He’s paralyzed me. He’s taken my worst nightmare and made it a reality.
A clanging sound echoes in the room. Jill’s opened the cage door. Barry carries me inside and lays me on the floor, arranging my limbs in a position I can’t discern. My eyes track him as he exits the cage and shuts the door.
“Hurry,” I hear him say. “I’ve given her a low dosage, but she could still go into respiratory depression. I don’t want to intubate her.”
Jill’s body suddenly fills my vision. She’s taking pictures of me sprawled inside the cage. Pictures of me paralyzed, my face contorted with terror, the stain of tears on my cheeks, my dignity in shreds.
After what seems like an eternity, Barry carries me out of the cage and carefully deposits me on a blanket. His eyes find mine. “The first injection was a sedative, the second, a neuromuscular blocking agent. They’ll wear off pretty soon. Try to relax and you’ll be fine.”
His mouth continues to move, but I shut him out. I don’t need to hear anymore. I know now why they set all this up. It’s how they’re going to get to my father.