Natural Order

1

A faint groan is heard in cadence with a faint thud. It is the sound of stifled pain. Jack is repeatedly slamming a bloody, mangled hand in a filing cabinet. The hand looks like a ball of swollen flesh and it is unclear how many digits still remain on the hand. The owner of the hand is tied to a chair with a pack of cigarettes duct taped in her mouth. Her muffled cries are faint. She's going into shock. She looks at the file cabinet, pleading with her eyes. Sweat mixes with tears and heavy make-up. It pours off her nose and chin. Sweat beads on her forehead until the weight of the drops cause them to fall in her eyes. The cabinet is bloody as her fingers hang by threads of skin and ligaments.

Jack says, "Do you have a light?"

Nurse Nancy can't seem to spit out anything but a muffled cry. Jack is becoming impatient.

"Look, I just need a light."

Slam. Jack shuts the file cabinet drawer on her hand. Nurse Nancy's eyes go wide, her face wincing from the pain. Her body takes control and she passes out. One of her fingers wiggle on the floor below. Jack opens the file cabinet again. He hears something and looks towards the door.

"Uh-oh," Jack says, "somebody's coming."

Jack calmly goes back to attending to Nurse Nancy. The flies open into the file cabinet behind it. Through the door two large built men run in. "Holy FUCK, not again you little bastard," says Richard, the larger of the two men.

Jack looks up as if to signal that he knows tonight's activity has come to an end. Richard tasers Jack. The two barbed ends sink into Jack's chest. Jack starts to convulse. He actually fights it for a moment. Richard turns up the juice. Jack convulses and bounces off the file cabinet, then crashes to the floor. "Stop it, you'll kill him," Melvin says.

Jack's eyes stare blindly as he crumples to the floor. Still connected, the taser wires shiver as electricity travels down them. "That'll calm you down," Richard says with a grin.

Dr. Wade stares at Jack in a clinical manner while talking on the phone. Dr. Wade is nodding his head in constant affirmation to the phone call but never takes his eyes off Jack. He doesn't look mad or even surprised.

"Is she OK?" Dr. Wade asks. "Get her what she wants and put it on my card. Yes, the plastic surgery too. I know... have her sign it again, have her sign the document again. Of course with the hand that is not hurt, it's still legal."

Dr. Wade hangs up the phone and stares at Jack a few seconds more.

"Jack, I don't have to remind you that this behavior is unacceptable," says Dr. Wade.

Jack is uninterested.

"I just wanted a cigarette," says Jack as he shifts in his chair.

"Smoking is also unacceptable."

"Why don't you make me list of what is acceptable so I can smoke that?"

"Is there a need you have that hasn't been met? You know, all you have to do is ask."

Jack now becomes interested in the conversation. He spins the chair around once. He stops the chair by putting his feet on the floor and then leans forward. "I did, and your hillbilly nurse gave me attitude."

Dr. Wade leans back in his chair. He takes a moment finding new interest in Jack's statement. "Where did you hear the term "hillbilly", Jack?"

Jack cracks a faint smile, as if he is proud that the doctor noticed. Jack begins to sing. "Well... listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed, then one day he was shooting at some..." Jack stops and put his face in his palm. "This is where I am confused, is he shooting at food or coon..." Dr. Wade's eyes narrow. "Who allowed you to watch TV Jack?" Jack eyes narrow too. There is anger. It's coming.

"Is it food or coon?" Jack becomes aggressive.

"I think it's time for your medication again."

Jack throws his chair back and stands inflated like a cornered animal. He holds his place though, as if there is a forcefield surrounding the desk. An imaginary line not to be crossed. "The difference between us and animals, Jack, is that we can control our emotions." Dr. Wade's hand eases down to hit a panic button on the corner of his desk. Jack sees this and starts to move forward, still uncertain about crossing the invisible line. The office door opens almost instantaneously with the pushing of the button. Melvin and Richard come to execute Jack's extraction. They must have been posted outside the door to respond so quickly. They violently grab Jack as he reaches the desk. Almost immediately, as a symbol of avoidance, Dr. Wade picks up a digital micro recorder and turns his back to the ensuing struggle. He looks out the only window in his office and begins to talk into the recorder. "The intensity of Jack's incidents are rising exponentially. Though he hasn't killed yet, I fear taking a life is the natural progression. I believe the medication can be perfected to control him."

The orderlies are dragging Jack down the hallway. He seems to have capitulated a bit. His gaze averts down to the floor where he sees a cockroach lying on its back. One leg seems to move in sync with the flickering florescent lights. Jack can't stop looking at it as they drag him down the hall. He somehow feels a kinship with it. They are both stuck here.

They have dragged Jack to an isolation room. A metal gurney sits next to a stainless steel table with some petri dishes on it. They throw him on it.

"I will tie his lanky ass down and you administer the "inhaler", Melvin says slightly out of breath.

"Fuck that, I will tie him down, I don't want to get bit again."

"Why, you have all your shots don't you?"

"I am not getting bit again... after what this animal did to Nancy, we should take him out back and shoot him."

"Then the checks would stop cashing, now wouldn't they, dumb ass?"

Jack takes advantage of the work place chattiness. He catches a glimpse of bare skin and lunges for the arm of Richard and tears into it like a feral beast. He shakes his head with a mouthful of arm like a wild animal. Blood splatters everywhere. Richard screams, "Let go!" Sha-shink. Melvin pulls retractable baton from his belt and extends it. He begins to beat Jack brutally about the shoulders, trying to reach the collar bone. Jack is doing a good job guarding, only exposing the meaty areas of his back, which doesn't hurt as much. THAWAP, a few more strikes and Jack lets go. Richard joins in on the beating by kicking Jack while holding his wounded arm. Jack seems to enjoy the beating, almost beckoning it. Melvin motions to Richard. Richard seems to know exactly what he means. "Get the inhaler," Melvin says. Melvin has his foot on Jack's neck and fights to hold him down.

"Where is it?"

"Check in your purse," Jack says smiling with a mouth full of arm.

Richard finds the inhaler on the stainless steel surgical stand next to the gurney. He grabs it and hands it to Melvin. They switch tasks and Richard struggles to keep Jack down. Jack seems much stronger than he should be. Melvin gets down in Jack's face.

"If I didn't need this job things would be different, you little punk."

"Excuses," Jack grunts, mouth full.

Jack bares his teeth again. His lips vibrant like a rabid dog. He spits the piece of Richard's arm into Melvin's face. Melvin winces. The piece of skin leaves a bloody circle over his eye like an eye patch. Melvin dry heaves, almost throwing up. He takes the high tech medical inhaler and struggles to hold it over Jack's mouth while looking for the button to activate it. His finger finds it's mark and the inhaler makes a swoosh sound. He continues to hold it over Jack's mouth until the fire leaves his eyes as he goes to sleep.