LR AE cont’d
“Please,” Joe begged. “You have to help me. My daughter went into that room. Tell me there’s something that can be done.” Joe’s eyes teared up in frustration and hopelessness.
The Occupant peered at Joe, as if considering his plight. After only a moment’s hesitation, he simply said, “Take me to the motel room.”
…
After acquiring all the Objects from the Conroy Experiment and leaving Joe for dead, there was only one place Karl Kreutzfeld could be. If he could find Kreutzfeld, he would find the key. The problem was that Joe had to hurry… after all this delay, Kreutzfeld no doubt had a head start in recreating the experiment. Joe and the Occupant would have to get there quickly to stop the madman.
…
Joe had been driving straight to Gallup, trying very hard to resist the temptation to break the speed limit. It wouldn’t do if he were caught speeding, especially if the local enforcement agency knew he was wanted. He could just about see the Sunshine Motel when a bright flash of light caught his eye, illuminating the shapes of three figures. One was heading into one of the motel doors, door 9. Karl. He had gotten there too slowly.
“No! God dammit,” Joe cursed, flooring it now. As he was approaching the derelict building, he felt an unexplainable pulsing and a strange sensation, rendering him almost unable to drive. Looking sideways at the Occupant, the man seemed strangely unaffected, almost separate from reality. Joe stamped on the brakes just in time as he pulled up to the motel and saw that one of the figures on the ground was Jennifer. The third figure was now just a pile of ashes. From the suit, Joe deduced that this was what was left of Anthony, Kreutzfeld’s bodyguard. As Joe stumbled over to Jennifer, both of them crumpled in pain as Kreutzfeld passed the threshold of the motel door, reaching for a small figure that Joe could just barely make out. In an instant, it seemed as if Kreutzfeld disappeared and the pulsating increased exponentially, as well as the pain. The Occupant, who had been sitting in the car, almost as if in a daze, suddenly seemed to come to his senses. He purposefully strode out of the car and toward the event horizon, the calm in the middle of a chaotic storm. Joe realized too late what was happening and tried to follow the man, but the door shut immediately behind him. Suddenly, everything came back into focus and the pain was gone. The sudden return of reality shocked Joe, and realization dawned slowly that the man who could have saved his daughter was gone, along with the key.
—–
TBC, tomorrow.
