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Doug was ready to give up, but he didn’t know how to give up. Nothing he did seemed to make a difference. He kept changing his mind from thinking he was naíve to ever believe his friends were coming for him to horrified at the thought of his friends ending up in this place. He wanted to burn this whole place down, but he feared Ronove was right and that wouldn’t make a difference. The misery would always be out there, waiting for him.
Doug thought he heard a sound from the toilet. If it was Chimezie about to tell him to keep up his spirits and that God would answers their prayers soon, Doug was not in the mood. “I don’t want to talk right now. It was pretty bad today.”
“Did they do it to you too?” Chimezie asked. His voice sounded weak.
“Make it sound like they were torturing someone else?”
“It was Talia,” Chimezie said between sobs. “She got here only a little before you and doesn’t speak any English. They made we watch, but I was gagged so I couldn’t say anything to her.”
“You sure it wasn’t some trick?”
“Yes!” Chimezie shouted, sounding a little angry.
Doug remembered that Ronove had referred to his experiment on Doug as a “control” case, so maybe it was different for the others.
“I can’t take this anymore,” Chimezie cried. “I keep praying for an end to this, but nothing ever comes. Maybe the demons won. Maybe He can’t hear us anymore.”
Doug thought of the barrier, and how Ronove said it blocked them from whatever power may have once been out there. They were truly alone.
Of course, Doug was used to being alone when bigger powers trampled on him. That was life for him. Maybe it wasn’t for Chimezie, though, and this was even harder for him. Then again, Doug thought, maybe Chimezie was just another trick trying to break him.
“I’ve gotten fired from every job I’ve ever had,” Doug said. “Including the real simple ones that even the monkeys can’t screw up. Now, I got these giant powers beyond understanding trying to break me. Seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? Do you know why they are doing it, though?”
“No. I do not understand.”
“They’re doing it because they’re afraid of me. They’re afraid of us.” Doug didn’t really believe that, but he wanted to take action, and this was it. “You tell Talia, you tell anyone else you can, that if they want to be a part of Hellbender, they can.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that though they may treat us as worthless losers, together we’re… we’re… we’re losers together. And we’re getting out of here. Now.”
“Are your friends coming to rescue you?”
“Yeah,” Doug said, trying not to hesitate, “but we got to get things ready on our side.”
“How?”
“Just leave that to me. Just spread the word. We’re Hellbender and we’re together.”
“I still don’t…”
“Just tell everyone!”
Doug stood up and stared at the solid metal door to his cell. Ronove may have been right that Doug’s existence was pointless and destined to end in misery, but Doug assured himself that he was too stupid to understand Ronove’s arguments to know that for sure. So he ran at full force into the door.
He painfully bounced off of it onto the floor. Doug wished he had a better plan, but he figured there had to be more intelligent people than him imprisoned here and they would have already tried all the smart ideas. His first attempt didn’t even rattle the door in the slightest, his full force not even rewarded by a slight vibration. That just meant he would have to hit it even harder. And if that didn’t work, he could always try the brick wall.
Doug stood up to prepare for another run, but the door made a noise. He thought maybe he had scared it, but in fact it was being opened. On the other side stood Darius backed by numerous protectors with rifles. They seemed much more moveable than the door or the wall. And, in fact, they were as Darius merely stepped out of the way when Doug charged at him, causing Doug to stumble into a wall out in the hallway.
“And what the hell are you trying to do?” Darius asked.
Doug let himself lay on the ground for a moment to catch his breath. “I don’t know.” But he seemed to be making progress.
“Well, if you can stop being stupid for a moment, we’re going to get you out of here.”
Doug picked himself off the ground and met Darius eye to eye. “No deal.”
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