'Oh my God!' she screamed. 'What is going on in here?'
'This could take a while,' Stanley admitted, not looking back at her. 'I'm still really stressed and won't do a good job telling it.'
'Who is she?' Veronica asked, sounding as if she might hyperventilate. 'Who is he? What is this?'
'Black magic ritual,' said Martin, helpfully.
'Y'know, Veronica, I'm always happy to see you,' said Stanley, 'but this is actually pretty bad timing. If you could maybe step out of the room and find something else to do for a while, I'll get you all caught up once this is resolved.'
'Brant, what's going on?' Veronica asked.
'Stanley promised to explain everything,' said Brant. 'I think you should leave now.'
'But I-'
Brant turned around. 'Veronica, get out!'
Brant's outburst distracted Stanley for only a second, but it was long enough. He suddenly realized that Henry had a knife (where had that come from?), and then an instant later the knife was flying toward him.
The knife slammed into Stanley's throat as his finger tightened on the trigger.
Veronica screamed as Stanley stumbled backwards, gasping for air that he didn't need. Henry stared down at the dart protruding from his right leg. 'Aw, shit!'
Brant spun around and pushed Martin out of the way. He barreled past Veronica as he ran through the doorway. Martin went after him.
Stanley dropped the gun and yanked the knife out of his throat as Henry plucked the dart out of his leg. Henry let out a cry of rage, held the dart over his head like a knife, and then rushed at Stanley.
Stanley flung the knife at him. It struck Henry's shoulder and he let out a grunt of pain, dropping the dart. He wrenched it out and threw it back at Stanley, getting him in the neck a second time.
'Son of a bitch!' cried Stanley, surprised that he could still speak. He pulled out the knife, touched the twin holes in his neck, and then threw the knife at Henry, hitting him in the other shoulder.
'Bastard!' Henry pulled out the knife, and a gout of thick black blood squirted out. 'Brant! Antidote! Quick!'
'He's long gone,' Stanley informed him.
Henry reached down and picked up the dart. 'You'd better hope there isn't any left in here!' he said, just before a high heeled shoe struck him in the side of the head. The dart fell out of his hand. 'Crap!'
Stanley rushed at him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Veronica pulling off her other shoe. Stanley's outstretched arm struck Henry's chest, sinking into the flesh just a bit and causing an additional squirt of black blood to come out of each of his shoulder wounds.
Henry punched Stanley in the face, but his fist exploded on impact and did little damage.
Veronica's other shoe struck Henry in the side of the head. The heel passed through his skull, accompanied by a geyser of black blood, and Henry dropped to his knees. Upon hitting the floor, his knees exploded much as his hand did.
Blood began to stream from his ears and nose. Henry looked up at Stanley, a pleading expression on his face. 'I…I need you to do something for me…'
'What?'
Henry coughed, and blood jettisoned from at least four different openings on his body. 'Make sure…make sure my single gets some airplay…'
He fell over and leaked some more.
'See if you can do anything for the girl,' Stanley told Veronica. 'I'm going after Brant.'
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Martin lay on the floor in the empty room, rubbing his jaw. Stanley started to make a sarcastic comment, but decided against it and hurried out into the hallway.
'Give it up, Brant!' he shouted. 'There's no escape!'
Actually, Stanley figured there were plenty of escape routes, but he hoped to diminish Brant's morale. He rushed around the corner. No sign of the lying scumbag indirect-virgin-killer.
'Listen, Brant-' said Stanley, and then he hesitated. He wasn't sure if he'd get a better response by saying that he was going to tell the world about what was really going on, or that he wasn't going to tell the world.
Actually, he hadn't quite decided if he was going to tell or not. He couldn't very well let Brant go on having people killed, but the idea of melting away into nothingness was somewhat less than appealing.
'Listen, Brant, I'm not going to tell anybody!' Stanley shouted. 'There has to be an alternative!'
He stopped and listened for Brant's reaction. He assumed that it wouldn't be 'Goodness! Now that you mention it, I can keep you alive simply by spraying Windex on you every couple of days!' but there had to be some other way, right?
Brant was silent.
'Yo! Brant! We need to talk this out!'
Nothing.
Martin stepped into the hallway, still rubbing his jaw. 'Did you catch him?'
'Does it look like I caught him?'
'See, you wonder why I said all those things and yet you-'
'Not the best time, Martin. I'm gonna try the main exit, you start checking rooms.'
'Gotcha.'
Stanley ran down the hallway. In theory, Brant couldn't have gotten out without his badge, so hopefully he'd realize that they all needed to have a nice long chat about the current situation. Stanley really hoped that he didn't have another melt-dart stashed away somewhere.
He reached the exit door. Still locked, and no sign of Brant.
It only took about five minutes to do a quick search of the bunker. Brant was nowhere to be found. Stanley and Martin returned to the lab (which, admittedly, didn't quite fit the dictionary definition of 'lab,' but he wasn't quite up to calling it the 'slaughterhouse' yet) where Veronica stood next to the girl.
'There's no key to the chains,' Veronica explained. 'She doesn't seem to understand anything I'm saying. I pulled out the tubes but I'm not sure what else to do.'
'There may not be anything else to do,' said Stanley, sadly. 'Brant's gone. We need to get a doctor in here to take care of her, as soon as possible.'
'Dr. Arnzin?'
'No. He's not a real doctor. I mean, he yanked those bullets out of me, but he's not a real doctor. Call 911.'
Veronica nodded and turned to leave, then hesitated. 'You're sure? I mean, of course we need to do something about this, but you're sure, right?'
'I'm sure. Pretty sure. It would be wrong and evil not to be sure, right?'
'I don't know. To be honest, right now I'm very confused.'
'I think we're all a little confused.'
'I'm the most confused,' said Martin.
'All right, here's what we'll do. Veronica, you stay here and watch over the girl. Martin, you call an ambulance. I'm going outside to see if I can catch up to Brant.'
'You have a mob waiting for you,' said Veronica. 'I'll go after him.'
'No, he could be dangerous. I'm not putting anybody else at risk. I'll be fine.'
Veronica nodded and tossed him her badge.
'Not your best picture, is it?' asked Stanley.
'Go!'
Stanley hurried out of the lab and to the exit. He swiped Veronica's badge, opened the door, and climbed the ladder that led to the surface. He threw open the trapdoor and then very hesitantly peeked his head out, expecting
