Ben, lie across his hips.
Mary Jo, I'll tell you where I need you.
Hands will be the worst, so we'll start with them." "What about me?" I asked.
"You talk to him.
Keep telling him we're helping him with this torture.
If he hears you and believes you, he won't fight us as hard.
I'll give him some morphine.
It won't help much or for long, so we'll need to move fast." So while Samuel scrubbed the dead skin and almost-healed scabs off Adam with a stiff-bristled brush, I talked and talked.
The burns had killed tissue that had to be removed.
Once it was gone, the raw wounds would heal cleanly and without scars.
Adam kept going into coughing fits.
When they'd happen, everyone backed off and let him cough until he spit up blood with great hunks of black in it.
Ben had a few of those fits, too, but he rode them out while still keeping his weight on Adam.
Every so often, Samuel would stop and dose Adam with more morphine.
The worst of it was that Adam never made a noise or struggled against the people holding him down.
He just kept his eyes on mine while he sweat and his body shook with small tremors that grew and subsided with whatever Samuel did.
"I thought you were dead," he said, his voice a bare rasp while Samuel moved from his hands to his feet.
It didn't seem to hurt as much--at a guess there weren't a lot of nerves left.
He'd jumped into a burning building barefoot to save me.
"Stupid," I said, blinking hard.
"As if I'd die without taking you with me." He smiled faintly.
"Was it Mary Jo who betrayed us at the bowling alley?" he asked, proving he hadn't been entirely unaware of what had been going on while he was changing.
Both of us ignored the pained sound Mary Jo made.
"I'll ask her later." He nodded.
"Better--" He quit talking, and his pupils contracted despite the morphine he'd been given.
He arched up and twisted so he could press his face into my belly, making a noise somewhere between a scream and a growl.
I held him there while Samuel snarled at Ben and Mary Jo to hold him still.
Another shot of morphine, and Samuel moved us all around.
Ben across Adam's legs--"And don't think I haven't noticed your hands, Ben.
You're next up." Mary Jo on one arm, just above the elbow.