Scott fixed his gaze on his wife and child thru the two-way glass. The Overseer's voice continued, but it became background noise to Scott. He knew that the Overseer's mind was made up and planned on killing them. He looked deep into Jeanie's eyes and tried to impart as much information as he could with a single look. She shot back a look, and he couldn't explain why but he knew she understood him. He watched as she started to slowly lower Walker and set him on the ground. Scott heard the ramblings of the Overseer and prepared his mind and body to move.
Jeanie spent her whole life hiding her ability, and Scott had done everything he could to ensure her secret stayed as just that. However, options were limited currently. His mind flashed to how much their life would be altered going forward. First, they had to ensure they had lives to move forward. He quickly forced his mind to focus on the present, and he needed his wits centered on the here and now. He watched as Jeanie set Walker on the floor, and her arms began to move upwards. In his mind, he quickly measured the position of the guard closest to him. Scott watched as Jeanie unleashed a charge of electricity into the guard standing in front of her. The flash was blinding, and as soon as it happened, Scott turned and charged towards the guard he had just sized up. Distracted by the flash and its blinding light, the guard was blind to his immediate surroundings. So, he never saw Scott sprint towards him, rear back his fist, and hit him as hard with all the force he could muster. The guard's head flew back into the wall, and his body immediately fell limp and tumbled to the ground. Scott dropped to his knees to grab the guard's gun and caught a glimpse of Jeanie as she shot another bolt of electricity towards the wall. Suddenly the power began to flicker and eventually go off. Scott grabbed the weapon and stalked out of the room's door into the hallway as the darkness enveloped the entire building. She must have hit an electrical outlet, he thought to himself. Smart!
Once in the hallway, Scott made himself invisible, blindly moving down the hallway, and prayed he didn’t bump into anyone. He heard a generator begin to roar to life, and the lights slowly began to power up. Scott could see a couple of guards rushing towards a red door located a few feet down the hallway, and he made up his mind that he needed to follow them. He heard glass shattering through the door that he had just exited and knew it was probably a good sound for his family and friends. Nervous energy flowed through his body, and it was a different feeling from the adrenaline rush he usually felt during a job. He took a heavy breath to calm himself and moved quickly down the hall. He managed to get right behind the guards as they entered the room with the red door. Most likely, the power surge and commotion would lead the guards to ensure their leader's safety first and foremost. At least that is what Scott hoped. He got right on the heels of the last guard entering the room and slid in before the door could close. Once inside the room, his instincts proved to be correct as he found seven guards crowded around a man standing in front of a desk filled with video screens and other electronic equipment.
"What are you all doing in here?! I'm fine, secure the prisoners! NOW!" The voice gave away the man's identity, a voice Scott would never forget.
To say that the man fell short of the expectations would be an understatement. Scott had always pictured a tall, strong leader that projected strength and confidence. The man Scott saw commanding the guards was small, maybe 5 feet and 5 inches tall. What he lacked up in height he seemed to make up for in girth. Scott immediately thought of a toy he had as a kid called the Weeble, an egg-shaped toy that was big and weighted at the bottom, and if you pushed it over, it popped right back up. The top of the man's head held a few stray hairs that looked like thin rope bridges covering the bald sea between two patches of hair that clung to the sides of his head. The man's face glowed bright red, and beads of sweat raced away from his head like prisoners freed from cells.
"All of us, sir?" One of the guards asked
"Yes! No one knows where I am, and those traitors can not leave unless it’s in a body bag!" The short man motioned widely towards the door to send the guards on their way.
The guards quickly filed out of the room. Scott pushed himself up against the wall to avoid physical contact with the fleeing guards. Once the guards had left the room, he watched as the squat man grabbed the microphone and pressed a button on its base. Scott slowly crept behind him as the Overseer began to speak and stare at the screen.
“What the HELL is going on!” He shouted into the microphone.
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Scott heard Jeanie's voice speak next, and a sense of relief flooded through him. She was ok. She told the Overseer that they just wanted to leave. Scott missed her exact words as he tried to position himself just inches away from the Overseer. Scott could see that Jeanie, Alexia, and Bricks all carried guns and appeared to control the room. That could change once the reinforcement guards arrived. As Scott moved just inches away from the Overseer, his sense was overwhelmed by a familiar smell. It reminded him of working at the deli, it took him a moment to place it, but it came to him…. it was salami. This man smelled like salami, and his sweat took the fragrance of cured meats. Scott felt a churning in his stomach, but he pushed the sensation out of his mind and steadied himself just inches away from the Overseer.
“You think you are walking out of her alive!? Don’t’ be stupid. You are about to have my full force come down on top of you. My security force is surrounding the room's exits as we speak. No one is getting out of there, NO ONE!" The Overseer shouted, and spit was flying out of his mouth as his face became redder, looking like a clown's balloon overfilled and about to pop. Sweat streamed faster away from his face and trickled onto his blue polo shirt that was turning a shade darker as the perspiration gathered. Scott readied himself and raised the gun.
“The problem with that scenario is that you left no one to guard you, and now you have a gun to your head.” Scott calmly spoke as he turned himself visible and trained the assault rifle on the Overseer.
“What do you expect to happen now, Mr. Carr?” The anger that had been plaster over the smaller man’s face seemed to melt away. Even a sly smirk appeared to be fighting its way onto his mouth. “This is a no-win game for you and your group. So why don’t you put down the gun.”
“All I want is for all of us to walk out of here alive.” Scott wrapped his finger around the trigger of his gun. He didn’t want to use it, but the decision was easy if it were down to the Overseer or his family and friends.
"You don't have a clue what you're up against, do you? You should be happy. You have extended everyone's life spans by minutes. That is no small feat." The Overseer's smug look grew faster than weeds in an unkempt lawn. The Overseer's face suddenly washed over with a look of concentration and his glare fixed on Scott.
"What the.." Scott suddenly lost control over his body. He tried to move but was frozen in place.
'My power is precise but very powerful. I can control any living creature's muscular and nervous systems. If I am being entirely candid, I don't think you had it in you to pull the trigger anyway. I don’t think you had the mental toughness for cold-blooded murder, but now you are physically unable, so we will never find out. Now time to introduce you to your nerves. Meet the lumbosacral plexus."
Scott tried to open his mouth, but he couldn’t. He felt a sharp and stabbing pain in his lower back. It was so painful he wanted to fall to the ground and start writhing in pain, but he simply could not.
"We can't forget that Vagus nerve. It’s probably my favorite as it controls the heart and lungs."
Scott could feel his heart racing and sweat begin to form on his head and roll down in streams. He thought he might be having a heart attack as breathing became labored. Scott felt so helpless, and his mind began to picture the face of Newton in the warehouse. It was the same feeling of despair and helplessness that he vowed never to experience again. He fought to regain control of himself, focusing his mind on his heart rate, but it didn't have the slightest impact. A sinking feeling of hopelessness grew inside of him. Random thoughts flooded his mind, and he thought about his family and friends. He thought about how he tried for the straight and narrow. He really tried. But here he was again at the mercy of a more powerful Dynamic, his life used as a form of amusement. He was a mouse that a cat was batting around for fun.
"Face it, Scott, it's over now. It comes down to how much I want you to suffer? Well, the answer is a lot. You will wish you were dead long before I am done with you" The amount of pleasure that painted itself all over the Overseer's face sickened Scott to his core.
Scott tried to muster all his strength to pull the trigger on his gun, but his finger refused to budge the half-inch it needed to squeeze the trigger. All hope drained from Scott. He thought he knew what rock bottom was but quickly realized he didn't have a clue. He held a small hope that his family and friends could escape, but he knew in his mind this was where they were all going to die, and it was his fault. He thought about how Walker was so young that he probably wouldn’t even remember who he was, and that broke his heart in a way that Overseer never could. Walker meant the world to him, and now Walker would grow up without Scott if he grew up at all. Memories played through Scott's mind. Of rocking Walker to sleep when he was a fussy baby. All the laughs he had coaxed out him with peek-a-boo or blowing raspberries on his stomach. Bedtime stories read and time spent lying next to him on the floor playing with toys. Laying on the couch and Walker sleeping on his chest, that picture froze in his mind, and it was honestly the most at peace he had ever felt in his life. A tear began to stream down his cheek, he was powerless to wipe it, and he wasn’t sure he would even if he could.