THE FESTIVAL OF SAMHAIN
CHAPTER 15- A DARING ESCAPE
‘You may still be in grave danger tonight. Do not leave this hospital by any means. Do not be afraid my dear, I will protect you.’
Madison slowly walked down the brightly lit hallway still with the note in her hand, not quite sure what to make of it. She only knew that the man who handed it to her was named John Loomis, and he was with Sheriff Robinson when she collapsed in the front yard with Tony. That, combined with the fact that the body of Michael Myers was missing, said all there was to say about what the note meant. Still, she had to hear it for herself.
Taking a deep breath, she quietly knocked on the door, which was halfway open already.
“Yes, Madison, come in,” replied a man’s voice from inside, clearly expecting her.
“What is going on? How do you know my name? Why am I in danger?” Madison interrogated quickly as she entered the room, briskly shutting the door behind her.
“My name is Dr. John Loomis. I am working alongside the Haddonfield police department trying to aid them in capturing my escaped mental patient, Michael Myers,” Dr. Loomis stated as he sat up out of his bed and motioned for Madison to take a seat in the chair beside the bed, which she did.
“So your Michael’s doctor?”
“Yes, Michael became my patient and my obsession since the death of my uncle, who was his previous doctor.”
“Twenty-five years ago Michael Myers first escaped from the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium and returned to Haddonfield to kill his sister, Laurie Strode. Laurie managed to escape Michael first at a house, and then at this very hospital later that same night. It was--”
“On Halloween,” Madison interrupted, knowing exactly what he was referring to.
“Then you know about him?”
“Come on, doc. Everyone knows the story of the boogeyman...”
***
"AHHHH!" John Loomis yelled as he bolted upright in his bed at the Smith's Grove Warren County Sanitarium.
Sweating profusely, Loomis, still groggy from his dose of thorazine, could not help but recall the promise he'd made to young Madison Mauberry so long ago. He had vowed to protect her by any means necessary, not matter what the cost, and he had. They both escaped Michael's wrath that night, Hell's Night, but neither one was ever the same again. However, despite the fact that Michael's body was never found, Loomis took solace in the fact that even though he'd been hauled away from Haddonfield in a straightjacket, he knew he'd lived up to his end of the bargain. Madison, and the rest of the town, would be safe, and that's all that mattered. And for ten long years, John Loomis had come to grips with his penance.
That is, until last night, when he heard those two orderlies talking about her death and the new festival in town. At that point, all the disturbing nightmares, the ones he thought he'd locked away forever, came flooding back to him, and he just couldn't shake the feeling that Michael was about to wreak more havoc in Haddonfield.
This has Michael's fingerprints all over it, doesn't it uncle? Loomis thought, walking over to his window and glancing out at the cloudy night sky above. The smell of moisture permeated the air, and the brief flashes of lightning in the distance signified that a storm was brewing. As he sat there, lost in thought, it seemed to John that his long lost uncle and mentor, Dr. Samuel Loomis, was in the room with him, and he desperately sought his guidance once again.
"I told you I would never let this happen," John whispered, almost like he was carrying on a conversation with his departed uncle. "But I did let it happen, didn't I?"
"What can I do uncle? Tell me how to fix this. That little town has suffered long enough."
At that point, like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, everything instantly became clear to John Loomis. He knew exactly what he had to do. The only problem was, he wouldn't be able to do it locked up in his cell.
Taking action, Loomis sprang up off of his bed, grabbed his bedpan, and started beating on his door repeatedly. Shouting and screaming with all he had, he called out for Max, the guard on duty, and Avery, the orderly who just started his turn on the late shift.
"Max! AVERY! Help me!" Loomis called out. "I'm being attacked in HERE! Don't let him get me!"
Outside, Max nearly fell out of his seat at the end of the hall when the uproar began.
"Jesus Christ!" he yelled, grabbing his chest and attempting to catch his breath. A moment later, with Loomis still yelling and screaming what devolved into gibberish, Max got on his walkie talkie and called out to Avery, the stocky Italian orderly who was out on rounds on the second floor.
Kshht...the device's dead air sounded out, fuzzy in nature as he pressed the talk about.
"Max to Avery, over."
Kshht...
"Avery?"
Kshht...
"Yea? Go ahead Max."
Kshht...
"3A's having another nightmare or something. Sounds like he's really doing a number on himself in there."
Kshht...
"What do ya expect on Halloween?" Avery responded.
Kshht...
"I'm gonna go check it out, make sure he's okay," Max informed him. "I'll be leaving my station temporarily, over."
Kshht...fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
"No, don't...wait for me. I'm finishin' up here and be down dat way in 10 minutes..."
Kshht...fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
However, because the batteries were nearly dead in his walkie, Max didn't hear Avery's last transmission, and he was already making his way down the hall, having left his receiver back at the station.
***
"Did you get that? Over..." Avery called out from the second floor.
Kshht...fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
"Max? Did you hear me? I said I'll be down in 10 minutes..."
Kshht...fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Outside, the sky opened up, and a heavy rainfall began to let loose.
"Fuck!" Avery yelled, bashing his walkie talkie against the wall in hopes of finding some non-existent juice in the batteries to get through to his cohort.
He shook it up repeatedly, and attempted his transmission one last time.
Kshht...
"Max?"
Kshht...fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
"Fuckin' thing is worthless!" Avery complained, his voice echoing in the hallway.
Just then, a loud alarm sounded out, piercing Avery's ears to the point he had to cover them with his hands.
"Ow, fuck!" he yelped, heading to the window as the red emergency lights flickered repeatedly in the hallway.
As he glanced out the window, he was shocked to see the main courtyard filled with escaped patients, all gallivanting around in their white t-shirts and sweatpants, despite the pouring down rain.
"Holy shit!" Avery shouted, grabbing an emergency phone attached to the wall. "This is Caliguri...initiate a lock down immediately...Code Red!!!!"
After hanging up the phone, the rotund orderly ran as fast as he could down the hallway toward a flight of stairs, where he was greeted by several of the escaped patients.
"Outta my way!" he screamed, pushing them out of the way as he reached the first floor door.
Avery threw open the door and was immediately greeted by a madhouse. As he passed the guard's station, he found more patients toying around, playing with everything from Max's walkie talkie to ripping out pages in his book of crossword puzzles.
"MAX!" he yelled, doing his best to sprint toward the epicenter of the carnage-- Room 3A.
When he turned the corner and reached the room, he found Max on the floor unconscious, lying face-down on the floor of John Loomis' cell with a dented bedpan next to him.
"Max! Max, wake up, you fuck! I told you to wait for me!" Avery groaned, slapping the guard across the face and shaking him a few times until he responded.
Max, squinting his eyes and grabbing his head, sat up and had no idea what hit him.
Outside, a large flash of lightning lit up the night sky, followed by a loud clap of thunder and a continued downpour.
"Where's Loomis?" Avery asked.
Max, slowly regaining his wits, immediately reached to his belt. "Shit! Son of a bitch got my keys!"
"That would explain all this," Avery replied, matter-of-factly. "Come on, we have to round everyone up. I already called in a Code Red and notified Martin at the front gate. Nobody's gettin' outta here tonight."
Max, staggering to his feet, nodded in agreement, and the duo retreated out into the hallway to start recovering the scattered patients.
***
Outside, at the main gate of the Smith's Grove Warren County Sanitarium, Martin Gordon, the middle-aged guard responsible for watching the gate, was sitting peacefully in his sheltered station, when all hell broke loose. First, a storm rolled in from the west and began pelting the area with roaring thunder, bright blue and white lightning, and what seemed like sheet after sheet of heavy rain.
After that, he noticed lots of people exiting the sanitarium into the courtyard, apparently eager to experience the storm firsthand. Puzzled, Martin put on his rain slicker and ran out into the storm himself to see just what was going on. It wasn't until he reached the first group that he realized they were all patients-- and they were heading straight for him.
Screaming, Martin turned and ran back to the front gate and locked himself in his sheltered hut. It wasn't long after that that his red emergency phone blared out, and he was alerted by Avery to administer a Code Red and lock down the asylum. Following his orders, Martin wasted little time in doing just that, lowering a stronger wrought-iron gate behind the simple chain-link fence that normally served as the entrance to the institution. However, as he did that, he saw lights approaching from the back of the sanitarium and knew right away it couldn't be good. As it drew nearer, Martin saw that it was a tan institutional station wagon, and it was rapidly picking up speed. If he didn't get that gate down, it would be his ass.
So, despite the danger, the guard ran back into the rain and jumped right into the roadway, determined to stop the vehicle right in its tracks. It wasn't until it was right on top of him that he saw John Loomis behind the wheel waving at him to get out of the way. Martin, determined as ever, didn't flinch, but had no choice but to dive out of the way just before getting run down.
The gangly security guard did a somersault into a ditch off of the side of the entrance road, and the tan station wagon went crashing through the chain-link fence just before the wrought iron gate reached the ground. The gate scraped the top of the car as it went by, but it was not enough to stop it from going through. The chain-link fence spiraled out of the way in a loud crash, and the car disappeared into the night.
Dr. John Loomis had escaped.
Proceed To Chapter 16
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