Chapter 10

The basement was thrown into darkness, save the faint glow of Linda’s phone illuminating her dour face. For several long seconds, no one moved or made a sound. Theresa still had her hand on Mike’s shoulder and felt him move beneath her. She caressed his face.

“Shh, easy,” she whispered.

Linda lowered her phone a few inches. “Whoever turned that light off better turn it back on right this second, or else!” she yelled into the darkness.

Again, no one moved or made a sound. Linda inhaled a deep breath to repeat her demand, but Marcus cut her off.

“I think the power went out,” he said, and then shuffled his feet. “It’s not just the lights,” he said from somewhere in the main work area. “Everything’s off. 3D printers, power strips, all of it.”

“Breaker?” Linda asked.

“Could be,” he said. “Theresa, would you open the back door and let some light in, please?”

“No!” Linda shouted. “Keep that door shut.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t want anyone leaving until we get this sorted out,” she said. “Everyone stays right here in this room. Marcus, please go check the breaker. Do you know where it is?”

He sighed. “Yeah. Gimme a sec.”

One by one, cell phone flashlights turned on, casting small globes of light here and there. Girls clustered together to put their clothes back on and whisper among themselves. While Linda was distracted with Marcus, Mia knelt down next to Theresa and lifted Mike’s eyelid, then shined her camera’s light in his eye. The pupil reflexively tightened, and then slowly relaxed.

“He’s still under,” she said quietly, so only Theresa could hear. “There’s something in that case that can wake him up.” She moved the beam of her light to briefly illuminate the yellow flight case.

“What did you give him?” Theresa whispered.

“About one mil of flunitrazepam, I think.”

“You think?”

“I’m not the one who prepared the dose, but it looks about right based on how he’s presenting. I need to administer point-oh-two of flumazenil in an IV solution, to counteract the effects of the flunitrazepam. Everything’s in that case over there.”

Theresa shined her light in the sophomore’s face to verify she was really talking to the right person. She was, and she didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

“Will it make him better?” she asked, a hitch catching in her voice.

Mia nodded, then whispered, “Yes.”

“Then do it.”

“Shine the light for me.”

Theresa watched as Mia unwrapped two syringes and filled both of them partway with a clear liquid from a large, translucent plastic bottle. Then she picked up a small vial, double checked the label, and withdrew a small amount from that as well. She turned each syringe over and under a few times to mix the solution, then tapped and cleared them of air bubbles with tiny squirts from the needle’s tip. Next, she unwrapped what looked like a makeup removal pad and cleaned the inside of Mike’s arm.

“Hold him still,” Mia said as she carefully inserted a syringe into one of his many large veins.

Theresa put her hands on Mike’s shoulders, but he didn’t react to the injection. When the syringe was empty, Mia put the cap back over the needle and shoved it into her back pocket.

“We normally throw them away in our sharps bag,” she said with a sheepish shrug.

Theresa could only nod her head. “Of course.” She looked at Mike and asked, “How long?”

“Just a few minutes. Keep an eye on him for me, okay? I’ll be right back.”

Mia went to where her friend, Sophia, lay on the concrete nearby. After a brief examination, she repeated the procedure on the unconscious girl, then sat on her hip and held her hand to wait for her recovery.

As Mia said he would, Mike began to stir a couple minutes later. Theresa took her cue from the young medical practitioner and held his hand as he continued to gradually wake up, but she found herself distracted by his large, erect penis as it throbbed and bounced in time to his pulse. Theresa had seen her fair share of dicks, but she’d never gazed upon such a magnificent specimen before. Large and perfectly shaped, it could be used to cast a dildo that would satisfy a million women.

It briefly occurred to her that she should find something to cover him, but she wasn’t sure if she’d ever get the chance to see him naked again, and that hesitation made her feel guilty. In fact, she was beset by a swirl of conflicting emotions about the whole ordeal. On one hand, she felt jealous that these girls had been able to experience what she herself had so longed for. On the other, she was furious that they used such a vile method to get what they wanted.

They would all surely be punished. There was no doubt about that. What they did wasn’t just illegal, but highly immoral. But she wasn’t sure what a just and appropriate punishment would be if she were the one to hand down the sentence. She wouldn’t want this to ruin their lives forever, but they couldn’t be allowed to get off lightly either. She shook her head, grateful she wasn’t the one who had to make that decision.

Mike opened his eyes, but appeared confused and drowsy. A short while later, they gradually swung to meet hers and she saw focused intelligence behind them.

“Hey, how are you?” Theresa asked in a soft voice, squeezing his hand.

With great effort, Mike worked his lips into position and tried to speak, but the best he could manage was a muffled, “Nood.”

Theresa breathed out a small laugh even as tears dripped from her cheek. She felt silly for crying, but she couldn’t help it. She was overjoyed to see that he was okay.

Marcus returned from his sojourn to whatever part of the old building held the electrical panel and linked up with Linda to deliver the verdict.

“Power must be out in the valley,” he said.

That wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, especially up in the densely wooded foothills, where an overgrown tree, a fallen limb, or a Darwin Award winning squirrel could easily knock out power to every building for miles. Outages were usually reported quickly, and the damage repaired within an hour or two. In the meantime, Theresa felt they needed to deal with the two medical emergencies on their hands.

“Linda,” she said, leaving Mike’s side temporarily to join her and Marcus. “We need to call an ambulance for Sophia and Mike. They should be in a hospital, not lying on the basement floor.”

She expected pushback from her boss, but a brief glance at Sophia brought Linda to the same obvious conclusion.

“You’re right. We should notify the authorities immediately,” she said.

Her use of the word “authorities” meant something other than the medical assistance Theresa had envisioned, and it made her bristle. Linda was dead set on painting Mike as the villain in this situation, and not the victim, but Theresa decided to reserve her objections and commentary for her inevitable questioning by the police. Instead, she nodded and waited for Linda to make the call.

“I can’t get a signal,” she reported. “Marcus, would you?”

Marcus pulled out his phone, but after a few moments of pressing buttons, he shook his head.

“I don’t have any service either,” he said, looking overhead at the thick timbers of the basement ceiling. “Let me try outside.”

He went to the receiving door and opened it, flooding the room with blinding sunlight, then stepped out into the loading dock tunnel and held up his phone. After several seconds, he came back inside, letting the door shut behind him.

“Does anyone have cell service?” he asked all who could hear his voice.

Several heads went down to check their phones, but none spoke up. Then, one by one, they reported back that they didn’t.

“Linda,” he said. “See if you can reach the duty nurse on the radio. She can call from the phone at her station.”

Linda unclipped her radio. “Renata.” After several seconds of silence, she tried again. “Renata, it’s Linda. Pick up the radio.”

Linda and Rachel’s radios came to life with the sound of harsh static. Buried deep within the random hisses and pops, they thought they heard someone talking, but it was barely discernible as a human voice, and completely unintelligible.

“Renata, say again,” Linda said when the transmission stopped.

Rachel lowered the volume on her radio to prevent confusion when the static returned. Someone might have been talking, but it was like trying to hear a muffled whisper in a raging hailstorm. Linda returned the radio to her clip.