The Doomsday Shift

Quicksilver laid under his steel cot knowing that the amazon nurse, Rachael, would be coming into his room to give him his medication. He knew that if he was going to escape this asylum , it would have to be today. If you weren't nuts when you came in here, you would be in a short matter of time.

Quicksilver was here because he had been infected with the germs that were released at the beginning of the war. The only reason that he was here instead of a mutant community, was because his brain didn't deteriorate. He had grown another layer of bone across his forehead and it had turned him meaner then what he used to be. The government wanted to know why this had happened to him. He used to be five feet ten inches tall, but now he was six feet seven inches. None of his hair had fallen out and his teeth were as good as they always were.

Quicksilver looked at the clock that they had put in his room and noted that it was 10:25 a.m.. The medication time was 10:30 a.m. every morning. Rachael was very punctual with this rule. Quicksilver figured that if he could knock Rachael off balance for just a few seconds, that would be all the time he would need to gain the upper hand and then he would have control of the situation. He would be out of here in a matter of minutes.

Quicksilver knew he was some where up north and there was a small town nearby. He had seen it through a window a few times when they were taking him to the treatment rooms.

With the infection that he had contacted, it made him get an urge so strong that he couldn't fight it ,and he had gone out and killed anyone just for looking at him. Most of his crimes were on older people. Quicksilver didn't know why the institute was giving the patients medication, because as far as he was concerned the medication wasn't working, at least it wasn't working on him. He was just making plans of what he was going to do as soon as he got out of the asylum, when the shift started.

He felt the floor that he was laying on start to shake. The whole building was starting to collapse. The side of the wall that was to the outside of the building disappeared. Quicksilver was pushed with a force that made his entire body smash up onto the underside of his cot. He hung onto the steel legs of his cot and it took everything that he had to stay where he was. He clung to his bed for a few more minutes before he realized that the quake had stopped. Once he realized that everything had come to a standstill, he crawled from underneath his cot and slowly walked over to where his window used to be. All that was there now was a big gaping hole. Quicksilver stood at the gaping hole and could see that he was only ten feet from the ground. How this could be was beyond him, because he was installed on the highest floor of the asylum and that was the third floor. He could hear a lot of patients crying and shouting as he jumped down to the ground. There was rubble all over the place. As Quicksilver was getting ready to make his escape, Rachael and Dr. Johnson came out from another hole in the wall that was still standing.

Quicksilver walked over to where the doctor was and put a hand on either side of the doctors head and with a swift movement the doctors neck was broken. The doctor stared at Quicksilver for a second and then dropped to the ground. It took him a few minutes to expire and Quicksilver enjoyed it.

Rachael stood there terrified watching Quicksilver snap the doctors neck like someone was snapping a twig. She started to back away from Quicksilver but she wasn't quick enough, Quicksilver reached out and had a hold of her before she knew what hit her. Quicksilver looked around and saw that there were several other patients that had survived the quake. He made Rachael understand real quick that he had full intentions of taking her with him , whether she liked it or not. If she didn't like that idea then he would give her to the other men that were starting to come over to where they were standing.

Rachael looked at the other patients that were coming towards them, the first one was Gold, he was here for killing his entire family, he was a tall dark man and he was called gold because of his teeth, they were all gold. The second one to come up to them was Terry, he was here for murder. The third one was Jackson, he was here for cutting people up into pieced and eating their organs. The forth one was Arnold, he also was here because he was another one that was infected with the germ virus, he had broken out in blisters and his growth had come to just a few more inches then his normal height, which was five feet seven inches. With a shudder she knew that she had no choice but to go with Quicksilver. If she didn't then he would keep his word and she would have to contend with four very dangerous men or she would contend with Quicksilver and no one would be able to touch her.

Rachael was Polish, she had her mothers features but her fathers physique. She had wide blue eyes, an upturned nose, her lips were wide but generous, her hair was a golden blond and very long, but while she was at work she wore it in a bun. She stood six feet tall and she had wide hips. She was big boned and her complexion was very pale, like her mother.

Quicksilver told the men the rules to which they would have to abide by if they were going with him. All four men knew that if they didn't go along with what Quicksilver said, he would kill them on the spot, just like he did to the doctor. All four agreed to the rules.

They headed for the nearest town to get better clothing and some food to take with them. Quicksilver wanted to hurry and get as far away from the area as soon as possible. He knew that the government would be out shortly, to get any survivors. That was why he had taken the others with him. If the government or army got too close, he would let them take the others while he made his getaway.

They were almost at the town limits when Quicksilver put his hands into Rachael's hair and pulled out the pins that held her hair in the bun. With the sun shining on her hair it made it look like spun gold. This also made Rachael's face look more softer. As Quicksilver finished with Rachael's hair, Rachael put her hand up to try and put her hair back into a bun. He grabbed her hand and told her that she was to leave her hair like that. Rachael turned her back to Quicksilver and walked towards town.

As Rachael looked at Quicksilver, she saw the look in his eyes. She knew at that moment he was not pleased with her attitude. This always excited him even more, he grabbed Rachael by the hair and lifted her face to meet his. He told her that " when he spoke to her, she was to listen and do as he wanted. As he let her go, Rachael wiped the tears from her eyes and started to walk towards the town. Quicksilver watched her walking away, this put a smile on his face, he knew that she would give him no more trouble.

They entered the town of Pennyworth and were walking down the main street, looking for any kind of store that had clothing or food. Most of the structures had collapsed but there were a few one story buildings that had withstood the quake.

They had found a sporting goods store that had managed to stay standing. Quicksilver found that this store had most of the things that they would need. They gathered up some sleeping bags, camping gear, hunting jackets, guns and ammo. Once they had what they needed from the sporting goods store, they headed down the main street looking for a store that would have food. They walked to the end of the main area but found nothing that had food.

They came across a few houses that withstood the quake so they decided to check them out. In the first house, they did find some canned goods but not enough to keep them going for long. In the second house they not only found more food, but a woman and three kids. Quicksilver thought that things were starting to look up.

Quicksilver sent Gold and Jackson to the third house to see if there was anything else there. In a matter of minutes, Gold and Jackson returned with two more women and three more children. With a quick glance, Quicksilver saw that these three children were girls. This pleased him greatly.

Rachael didn't like the way Quicksilver was looking at the other women and the three young girls. She felt a finger of cold fear go down her spine, she was worrying about the fact that if Quicksilver would discard her and give her to the other men. She knew she would not be able to handle that.

Joann was the first of the women they came across and she was the mother of the three boys, who were Jason, age six, Chad, age three and the youngest one was Scott who was just nine months old.

Quicksilver told Joann to cooperate with him and her sons would be left unharmed. Joann pleaded with Quicksilver to not harm her sons and she would do as he asked her. Quicksilver told Jackson to take the boys down into the family room and to tie them up. As Jackson went over to take Scott from his mothers arms, Joann hugged and kissed him and told him she loved him then she did the same to her other two boys. Joann told her son Jason to take care of his little brothers until his grandparents came. With this said, Jackson took the boys to the family room.

Quicksilver looked at the next woman and asked her what her name was. When neither of the women spoke up, Terry went up to Arlene and gave her a slight shove towards where Quicksilver was sitting. Arlene gasped and took a deep breath and told Quicksilver that her name was Arlene. He asked her which of the girls belonged to her, She told him the two oldest ones were hers, Candy who was twelve years old and Tammy, who was thirteen. Quicksilver looked over at Terry and told him they would be taking both the mother and children in this lot. Terry told Arlene to take her two daughters outside to where Gold was waiting.

Quicksilver asked the next women "what is your name?" Leslie told him and when he was about to ask her what her daughters name was, Leslie spoke up and told him her daughters name was Stacy and that she was only nine years old.

By this time Terry came back into the room and once Quicksilver found out the important information from the women, he told Terry to take Leslie and her daughter out to where Gold was waiting.

Quicksilver turned to Joann and told her that if she tried to run he would have her sons killed, then he told her to gather all the food that she had in her cupboards and then go outside to wait with the others. Joann did as she was told and was waiting outside when Quicksilver, Rachael and Jackson came out of the house. Joann noticed that Jackson was carrying one of her husbands hockey bags, for the life of her she couldn't figure out what he had taken, maybe he had taken some of her husband clothing, but she could hear the rustling of plastic every time he took a step. Quicksilver told each of the men that the children were off limits, Gold was disappointed when Quicksilver gave orders that the kids were off limits. He liked the thirteen year old, Tammy.

They were travelling southeast for a few hours when it started to get dark. Quicksilver told the men to run up ahead and see if there was any place that they could sleep in.

Jackson returned and told Quicksilver that they had stumbled across a cabin. Everyone got up from where they were resting and headed towards the cabin, with Jackson in the lead. Once they got inside the cabin, Quicksilver told the women to fix something to eat for everyone.

In the kitchen of the cabin there was an old wood stove, the women used this to heat up some of the canned goods that they brought with them. Arlene sent Candy and Tammy out to set the table. As Tammy went to place the silverware onto the table, Gold picked her up and placed her on his lap. Gold was a large black man and he had his teeth covered in gold, that when he smiled it was like you were looking into a mine with a rich vein in it. This scared Tammy and she started to cry. This brought her mother out from the kitchen and it also brought Quicksilver out from the living room. Quicksilver took a hold of the girl and handed her back to her mother, then he took a hold of Gold and gave him a clout on the side of his head. reminding him of the rules he had put on the kids. Gold told Quicksilver that he didn't mean any harm to the girl, he was just trying to be friendly. Quicksilver took Gold out to the living room with him until their meal was ready.

Arlene tried to calm her daughter, Tammy. Once she was calmed down enough for Arlene to talk to all the children, she told them that they mustn't get the leader upset with them because when the time comes they were going to escape from all of the bad men.

The children were left in the kitchen to eat their meal while the adults were in the dinning room, Arlene was thankful for that, she didn't want the leader to get upset with the children because she was afraid that Quicksilver would end up leaving the children outside for the night and Arlene didn't know if there was anything dangerous in this area. She wanted to keep everything quiet until everyone went to bed, then she would take her kids and the other women with her if they wanted to go. She knew that she was going to get her kids out of this one way or another.

Once the men had eaten, Quicksilver took hold of Rachael's arm and told everyone that he was retiring and that they should do the same. They would be leaving early in the morning, with a final warning to Gold to keep his hands to himself, Quicksilver and Rachael headed to the bedroom. He decided that he would retire as well, so he got out a sleeping bag and laid down in a corner of the living room, within minutes he was asleep.

Terry took a hold of Joann and started getting amorous with her, Joann knew that Arlene had slipped all the men sleeping pills in their coffee and it wouldn't be long before they started to feel the effects. She knew of Arlene's plan to escape so she decided to go along with the plan just to get free from this bunch and get back to her sons.

When Jackson saw what Terry was doing, he went into the dinning room and took hold of Arlene, Arlene asked Jackson if he would give her a couple of minutes with her daughters. Jackson told her he would be in the living room waiting for her. Arlene went to her daughters and told them to grab a couple of hours sleep on the kitchen floor near the stove, also that they would be leaving as soon as she woke them up.

Arnold tried to take Leslie, but she fought him and she was a strong woman. With a hit on the head with a metal base lamp, Leslie won the fight without too much noise. Arnold was out like a light and he wouldn't be moving until morning.

Rachael knew that the women were planning to escape when Arlene had come to her to see if she was going to go with them. Rachael told her that she was staying with Quicksilver, but she wouldn't tell anyone about their plans. She wanted the woman to leave and this way Quicksilver would keep her and she would be safe.

Leslie went into the kitchen and stretched out alongside the girls, she knew that they would be safe until Joann and Arlene came for them. It felt to Leslie that she had just closed her eyes when Arlene was shaking her awake and telling her to get her ass in gear, Leslie was up like a flash, they took what food was left in the knapsack and slipped quietly out the back door.

Arlene wasn't sure if they were heading in the right direction, but she was glad that they were out of there. They had continued to take the same path that they were on earlier with everyone. Arlene had family in Collinswood, and that was the way she hoped they were heading.

Rachael was standing at the window when Arlene and the others left. She felt a great relief when she saw them go out of her sight. Once she couldn't see them, Rachael got back in bed beside Quicksilver. It took her only a couple of seconds to go into a deep sleep.