Monsters - Chapter 34 – Extraction – Part 1 of 2

 Monsters

By Karen Singer

 

 Chapter 34 – Extraction – Part 1 of 2

 Carol, in her rush to help Brandy, got back to the mansion long before any of the vans could get there.  She was simply anxious.  Her mother and Susan Wu has only arrived a few hours earlier, and she was told her mother was sleeping.  The wait for Brandy to get there was aggravating.  She had tried so hard, for so long, just to find her.  And after seeing her, she knew Brandy needed help more than she ever imagined.  But she couldn’t help her yet, because Brandy wasn’t there yet.

Watching out the front window of the mansion for the vans to arrive, her waiting was interrupted when Susan walked into the room.  “I took a good look at that picture of Brandy you sent last night.”

Carol turned to her.  “The picture was nothing.  You should have seen it in person.  She had a big bucket full of pee hanging from her breasts, pulling them down, keeping her in pain.”

“Just as both Sally and Bryce told us,” Susan replied.  “Carol, because of what was done to her, and because it’s gone on this long, I’ve called for Dr. Xiang.  Your mother and I agree that Brandy is going to need more help than just getting her out of that thing.”

“Good!” Carol replied.  “If anyone can help, he can.”  Which to Carol sounded odd in a way, since she knew perfectly well how sadistic Dr. Xiang really was.  He spent more time torturing people and killing people than he did helping them, and he specialized in cruel interrogation techniques.  But Carol had first-hand knowledge of just how good a doctor he was capable of being.  In fact, he had briefly been one of her tutors.

“Xiang is already on the way, but he won’t be able to get here for some time yet. You’re going to have to be patient.”

“Ugh!  I don’t want to be patient.  I want to get Brandy out of that thing!”

“As do we all!  He’ll be here as soon as we can get him here.  It’s a long trip.”

Carol sighed.  “I know.”

“In the meantime, when she arrives, we’ll but Brandy in the barn.”

“The barn!  But that’s not comfortable.  She needs…”

“Carol!  Think!  We’re not going to carry her up to her room when she can’t even get out of that thing.  We’ll set her up and get everything ready to remove her from it just as soon as Xiang gets here.  We haven’t even had a chance to study that cage yet.”

“I saw it.  It’s just welded shut in a few places.”

“We’ll get it unwelded when Xiang arrives,” Susan insisted.

Carol clearly wasn’t happy, but there was nothing she could do about it.  “Maybe we can do something for her.  Anything!”

“If we can do it, we will,” Susan assured her.  “Carol, be patient.  We’ll have her out of that thing as soon as possible.  You know that.”

“Yeah,” Carol sulked.  “Just not soon enough.”

“I also called her uncle,” Susan told her.  “He’s immensely grateful.”

“I’m sure he is,” Carol replied.

“He’ll be here later this evening,” Susan told her.

Carol only nodded before turning to look out the window again.  In the distance, she saw a van approaching.  “They’re here!” she said.  She headed out the front door and Susan followed.

The lead van with Brandy in it pulled up to the front of the house.  Susan went down to meet it and told them where to go.  All three vans went around the side of the house, heading for the big barn.  Carol ran through the house and down to the barn.  She was there shortly after all three vehicles had arrived.

With the arrival of the vans, people started spilling out of the barn.  Wu Enterprise people, whose job it would be to handle whoever they brought back, including Brandy, were all crowding around the vehicles now.  Carol herself reached for the rear van doors and opened them.  What she saw, sickened her.

The noise so close to her face caused Brandy to open her eyes.  Light.  And bodies.  People.  But none of that mattered.  Still, it was something different for her eyes to see.  Other than that, there was no change at all in her expression.  She wasn’t a person anymore.  She was a thing.  She didn’t need any kind of expression on her face.

Carol stood there for a moment staring at Brandy’s face.  She looked so…dead.  Drool dripped from her lips, and it looked as if Brandy didn’t even care – about anything!  “Brandy,” she breathed softly.  Her hand reached out to caress her face.

Brandy felt the hand touching her, but she didn’t see the face that went with the hand.  She didn’t even try to turn her eyes that high.

“Brandy!” Carol tried again, this time bending down to put her face in front of hers.  “It’s me.  Carol.  Remember?”

Carol?  Remember?  A faint misty memory swam across her brain.  Carol.  Love.  Her eyes focused a bit, and there was that face she had wanted to see for so long, but couldn’t.  Was it real?

It was worse than when she had found her in Alfonso’s breaking house.  “Brandy,” Carol tried again, seeing her eyes change a bit.  “Say something,” she begged as her hand reached out to caress Brandy’s face again.

Carol?  Could she really be here?  Was it possible?  Had she been rescued?  “Caal?” her voice cracked.

“Yes Baby.  I’m here now.  We’re going to get you out of that thing!”

Was it real?  It was too much to hope for.  “Caal,” she said again.

Carol hugged Brandy’s head.  “I love you,” she whispered.  “Hang on Baby.  It’s going to take a little bit, but we’re going to get you out of there.  We’re going to help you.  We’re just waiting for a doctor to get here.  Hang on Baby.”

“Caal,” Brandy said again.

Carol moved back.  “Let’s get her inside,” she ordered quickly.  In the background she noticed Alfonso being led by a group of Wu Agents into the barn.  She couldn’t wait to get her hands on him again too.  But now that they had him, Alfonso would keep.  Right now, she was too worried about Brandy.

They carried Brandy into the interrogation room and set her on the table there.  A plastic container was placed under her and the tube from her catheter was stuck in it to collect her pee.  Carol hadn’t even noticed they had done that in the van.  Now that she was inside on the table, Carol and two of the agents started studying the cage carefully, looking for what they would have to do to get her out of it.

“Does she need some water?” Susan asked.  “Does she need something to eat?”

“Shit!  I wasn’t thinking!” Carol exclaimed.  She went around to Brandy’s head and stared her in the face.  She was glad to see a bit more awareness in Brandy’s eyes.  “Are you thirsty?  Hungry?” she asked.

“Yyyeeess,” Brandy’s weak voice managed to reply.

“Get some water,” Susan ordered one of the servants.  She turned to another of the women nearby.  “She can’t close her mouth so she can’t chew, but see if you can find something a little more substantial that she can swallow.”

A bottle of water was brought in, and the best Carol could manage for Brandy was to tip it up and let a little trickle into Brandy’s mouth.  She was glad to see Brandy swallowing it greedily.

“How do we get this ring out of her mouth?” Carol complained.  She bent down and stared into Brandy’s mouth.  She reached her fingers in and grabbed the ring, but she couldn’t budge it.  “It’s got some kind of things on it that are fastened into her gums.  I don’t know how we’re going to get it out.”

“We’ll have to let Xiang look at it,” Susan told her.

Carol looked next at Brandy’s hands, bound up in the leather covers.  “Can we at least free her hands?”

“I think that should be safe enough,” Susan agreed.

Carol grabbed one of Brandy’s hands and examined the leather cover closely.  It felt hard to the touch.  She noticed the leather laces holding it tightly together.  She tried to pick at the knot, but it wouldn’t come free.  “Wow, this is tight,” she complained.  She pulled a knife from her boot to cut the leather laces.

“Carol.  Wait!” Susan said urgently.

“What?”

Susan went over and examined the hand Carol was about to work on.  “Damn!” Susan exclaimed.  “Leather!”

“Yeah.  So what?”

“So it looks like they wet it and stretched it before they put it on her.  Carol you know what happens to leather when it dries.”

“Yeah.  It shrinks.”

“Exactly.  A lot of people have been killed through the ages by shrinking leather.”

“But it’s only on her hands.”

“But it’s possible those covers may have shrunk enough to break every bone in her hands.  Carol, we don’t dare take those covers off until Xiang can be here to supervise.  She may need x-rays before we can get them off.”

Carol was so frustrated she wanted to hit something…or someone.  And the only person she could think of just then was Alfonso, who she was sure was still being handled somewhere in another room.  She walked around to Brandy’s head and bent down.  “We’re trying, Babe.  The doctor is on his way, but we’re just going to have to wait a bit more.”

Wait?  Brandy had done nothing but wait.  Wait for an eternity.  Wait for a miracle.  And now the miracle was here, and the miracle still couldn’t help her.

“I’ll have someone bring a blanket to put over her,” Susan told Carol.

“Thanks,” Carol replied.  “I’ll be right here with her till Xiang gets here.”

Susan nodded and left.

“We’re trying, Brandy,” Carol said softly.  “We’re trying.”

No change.  Nothing…because she was nothing.  Nobody could help.  Brandy closed her eyes.  At least sleep offered some kind of oblivion.  She fell asleep almost instantly…while dreams of Carol and love flitted through her mind.

Carol watched Brandy’s blank face for a while until one of the servants rushed in with a bowl of something.

“I had the cook run some fruit through the blender,” the woman told Carol.  Would you like me to see if she can eat it?”

“I’ll do it,” Carol replied, taking the bowl of fruit.  “And…thanks.  That was good thinking.”  With the servant watching closely, Carol brought the bowl in front of Brandy.  “Brandy, my love,” Carol whispered.  When there was no reaction, she reached out and touched Brandy’s face.  “Brandy!”  She was rewarded to see Brandy’s eyes open.  “Here,” Carol said.  “See if you can swallow this.  It’s fruit.”  She took a spoonful of the mushed-up fruit from the bowl and transferred it to Brandy’s mouth.  She wasn’t prepared for the reaction.

  Fruit?  Brandy felt something enter her mouth.  As she had been conditioned to do, her tongue automatically went to work, but this wasn’t some man’s cock.  This had a sharp bright flavor like nothing she could remember anymore.  She swallowed it quickly.  It was wet.  Refreshing, and not whatever mush they had forced her to drink as fast as possible for so long.  “Ahh!  Ahh!” she begged, wanting more.

“You want more?” Carol asked, hoping she understood.  Brandy blinked repeatedly.  “Ahh!  Ahh!”

Carol gladly shoved more of the fruit into her mouth.

“I’ll get more,” the servant said, and literally ran from the barn.

When two bowls of fruit had been finished, Carol started into Brandy’s more awake face.  She caressed that face.  Hang on, Baby.  The doctor’s coming.  It’s just a long trip for him.  He’ll be here later today.”

For the first time in…forever.  Brandy had a sense of something she thought she’d never have again.  Hope.

 

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