True Love
Chapter 11
"When they removed Beverly from the tube she was taken to still another
cell in this dreary complex. She was conscious, but not responsive. They
strapped her down to a cold, metal table with a rubber brake straining her jaws
to their limit. My true love lay silent and motionless as her temples were
swabbed with an acrid paste. More of this was slathered on the insides of her
thighs, rib cage, and jaw line. She paid no attention to what was being done,
her eyes focused on the overhead lights that burned down on the room. The tubes
of metal still stretched her holes, but they had been turned off ever since her
removal from the water tank."
"The first jolt caused her to rise almost completely off the table, her
rigid body straining against the straps that held her fast. No sooner had she
sagged back onto the table when she was hit with another burst of electricity
that flowed between the metal pads now buried in the conducting paste on her
temples. Her eyes began to rapidly blink as the rush of burning pain raced
through her brain, killing thousands of cells in the process. Again and again
the switch was thrown, slowly frying her brain into a puddle of disorganized
connections. When Beverly vomited, they realized that it was time to work on
other areas of her fragile anatomy."
"Her rib cage area proved to be a very poor choice for this treatment.
It had already been burned and battered to the point that every breath was
painful. The first hit literally paralyzed her lungs as the powerful surge of
electrical power arced across her body. It took almost a minute for the
monitoring team to react to this totally unexpected result. She had taken two
more doses through her shivering torso before the abort command reached her
torturers. The team stood back unsure of what to do to prevent their patient
from slipping away from them. Her face began to turn an ugly shade of blue, her
failed lungs unable to provide life-sustaining oxygen. To add to the dilemma
Beverly had managed somehow to swallow her tongue."
"Had the handling team been limited only to non-medical personnel there
is no doubt that the love of my life would have died on that table. Fortunately
for her there was a young doctor in attendance that day in part because there
was some concern about her ability to withstand the strain associated with
electroshock treatments. It was this newcomer who finally took command of the
panic stricken group of people who stood there immobilized by their ignorance
while Beverly drifted away to whatever was her ultimate destiny. In less time
than it takes to tell he freed her tongue and began CPR. Within minutes an
emergency team had arrived with a portable ventilator. Somehow she managed to
survive. What was even more amazing was the fact that her vital signs were now
almost completely restored to their previous state before the shock treatments
had begun. The medical staff had no explanation for this remarkable fact."
"It was decided to continue her shock treatments, avoiding paths that
could halt the function of critical organs such as her lungs, heart and brain.
That left them with a variety of very painful, but non-lethal options, and they
immediately began to exercise them. Beverly had endured many incredibly painful
dental procedures during her stay in the hospital, which had left a number of
her teeth capped, filled or jacketed with various metal alloys that had been
specifically used to maximize her pain. When they began to pump electricity
through her jaw terrible things happened. The passage of electricity through the
metal in her mouth caused it to heat up and thus expand. In the case of filled
teeth this caused tremendous pressure to be brought on the surrounding enamel.
Those capped or jacketed began to transmit the terrible heat into the sensitive
pulp of the teeth as well as the soft tissue of her gums. Beverly began to
shriek in agony, pounding her head violently against the table in an insane
attempt to knock herself unconscious. The poor emaciated dear was much too weak
to accomplish her objective."
" Those monitoring her observed a tremendous jump in her endorphin
levels, a sure sign that she was experiencing terrible pain. Unfortunately those
torturing her were oblivious to what was actually occurring within her mouth,
until the first tooth shattered sending pieces of enamel and bone flying into
the air. Once more there was general consternation from the level zero group and
a frantic scramble on the part of the monitoring team to regain control of the
situation. All the while Beverly was getting a small taste of what it must be
like to be in hell. This lasted for only a few brief seconds because her
self-preservation instincts took over and she went into shock. It would be
nearly a day before she regained consciousness."
"You cannot imagine my anger and despair when I was informed of the
situation. I immediately traveled to the hospital and met with its management
and those responsible for handling and monitoring this exotic creature who had
enslaved me. By the time I arrived my rage had subsided sufficiently to hear
their assessment of her condition along with a prognosis based on the data they
had collected. Neither was optimistic. I was momentarily crushed. It appeared as
if all her suffering had been for naught. She would live, but likely not the
life of a normal person. They thought that her mental faculties had been
severely compromised and that she might also be physically crippled. I could not
imagine life with a bed-bound vegetable. It was not fair to either of us!"
"Fortunately for all concerned Beverly made a miraculous recovery,
coming back to life with her faculties intact, almost refreshed and eager to
continue her journey to peace and understanding. To say that I was ambivalent in
my response to this news would be an understatement. My true love seemed to have
survived her brush with eternity relatively unscathed. However this incident
reinforced my private fear that she would eventually succumb to the vagaries of
chance as she continued to risk all in her quest. The very people she trusted to
drive her unwilling mind and body to a place of freedom and knowledge also
possessed the capability to destroy her through one misstep. I was certain that
what had just happened was a harbinger of her ultimate fate in level zero. Their
faith in science, technology, reason and logic was the flaw that would bring her
journey to a close well short of her desired destination."
