Dr. Strangematter: The Follow-Up to “Dangerous Turn of Events”

DR. STRANGEMATTER

The follow-up to "Dangerous

Turn of Events"

by

Curtis Everitt

Edited by

John L. Everitt

Copyright © 2016 by Curtis Everitt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 11/03/2016

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CONTENTS

PART I

Chapter 1 Club

Chapter 2 Motel

Chapter 3 Restaurant

Chapter 4 Room 87

Chapter 5 Apartment

Chapter 6 Asylum

Chapter 7 Park

Chapter 8 Station

Chapter 9 Limo

Chapter 10 Bar

Chapter 11 Diner

Chapter 12 Outpost

Chapter 13 Bike

Chapter 14 Windowseat

Chapter 15 Convertible

Chapter 16 Compound

Chapter 17 Hillside

Chapter 18 Cell

Chapter 19 Perimeter

Chapter 20 Dungeon

Chapter 21 Knoll

Chapter 22 Castle

PART II

Chapter 23 The Snow

Chapter 24 The Gurney

Chapter 25 Grumman Goose

Chapter 26 Cabin

Chapter 27 Labyrinth

Chapter 28 Capsule

Chapter 29 The Ice

Chapter 30 Hangar

Chapter 31 Tarmac

Chapter 32 Airfield

Chapter 33 Turntable

Chapter 34 Gauntlet

Chapter 35 The Wind

Chapter 36 Build

Chapter 37 Trainyard

Chapter 38 Tinnin House

Part 1

dedicated to Aaron Matthew Brown

I was always looking forward to making the movie version of this story because I knew I had the villain role cast—you set the bar pretty high for future collaborators and friends. I miss you.

Part 2 dedicated to my grandfathers

I miss both of my grandfathers dearly because they both encouraged me to try for better things. John Curtis Everitt fostered my creativity by encouraging me to try new, artistic things. Once I was set on that path, Herman Lee Moore always encouraged me to keep going through our correspondences together. Part 2 is an adventurous story that I hope both of them would have enjoyed.

INTRODUCTION

I started Dangerous Turn of Events in 2009 to better understand the very first feature-length screenplay I wrote in 2004 (and plan to produce someday). The movie version is entitled Dr. S , and it is an ambitious story about a rogue crime-fighter battling an evil genius. The main problem with the story is that even though Jane Aldrige, the leading lady, is present, I had a hard time with understanding what motivated her. The purpose behind writing Dangerous Turn of Events was to see what Jane is going through as the story of Dr. S unfolds, but also to make the screenplay more feasible.

When it came time to write the follow-up novel, the story is too broad to approach from a singular point of view. The plot contained too many threads. The only way for the reader to fully appreciate the scope would be to have three different characters tell it. Jane returns, but two more characters are featured prominently in the story. Dak Turrell was a minor character in the first story, but now plays a larger role. Amy is the mysterious woman who falls for Turrell, the most intriguing part about this sequel.

I felt by now, this version of the story is very well polished. I’ve written (then re-visited) the screenplay for this movie. The original title of the movie was to be A Psycho Short of a Psychic, but that a title fashioned while in middle school. The new title of the screenplay, The Day When No Men Die, refers to a sociological precept that if everyone were to defeat their enemy, there would be no more war. The novel version of this story has gone through three revisions.

What you will read is the third version. The first draft was actually completed before Dangerous Turn of Events was published. The correction process on the original made me want to scrap the entire novel and start over.

The second draft of the first part of this novel called Return of Oblivion had to be started over because the plot was too simplistic. I realized that both of my stories were the same formula: Jane gets in trouble, John comes to the rescue. While this formulaic approach works for some authors and their sequels, I desired to be more ambitious and place the characters into situations that tested their relationships and sanity. So with a more aggressive approach to the storyline, I completed a third version of Return from Oblivion.

The second part of this novel is called Skyblind. I started it in February 2016 because I wanted to round of the storyline as a trilogy so that readers wouldn’t have to wait another 4-5 years for another book. Skyblind was a lot of fun for me to write because it gave me the chance to pull together a lot of different influences, everything from The Revenant to James Bond. The third part of this story in movie form is called The Hunt for Good and Evil, and that became a very important theme in the narrative.

PART I

CHAPTER 1

CLUB

T he smoke in the room is unbearable. It seems to muffle the pop music coming from large speakers planted around the dance floor. Every kind of person is represented here tonight.

After dancing with a Hispanic college girl and an Oriental foreign exchange student, Frankie peels off to the bar. The bartender regards him with sullen eyes as he bellies up to the counter. He orders something on half off discount and strums his fingers as the bartender pours. They aren’t for his dance partners, all three are his.

A nervous woman skitters over. He doesn’t notice her immediately due to the hoodie over her face. When she slips back her hood, Frankie is blown away by her good looks.

Hey, baby, how you doing?

Francis…

My friends just call me Frankie—how do you know my name, shug?

You need to leave right now…

I need to leave? The party’s just getting started—why don’t you let me buy you a drink…

There are men coming here to kill you!

Uh, maybe you’ve already had enough to drink…

The bartender looks up at the woman and nods. Frankie continues complaining.

I don’t need anyone telling me how to live my life!

The name’s Amy—and your name isn’t going to mean much to anyone unless you leave now…

I’m not going anywhere—I think it’s you who needs to go somewhere…

You’re making a mistake…

I’m making a mistake? You’re making the biggest mistake of your sad little life telling me what I can and cannot do—you’ve given me advice and now I’m giving you some. You do you—you let me do me…

Well, I guess you’re not going to listen to me. Do you know how to count? Because I know what’s going down here tonight in fifteen seconds. Ten…nine…eight…

You gone—you know that right?

Six…five…four…

You’re crazy…

Two. One.

Amy takes cover. Frankie realizes he should have listened to Amy. He turns to see three Thompsons pointed at him, clutched by leather-gloved hands. The shot glass in Frankie’s hand calls out to him. Downing the drink, he produces a Desert Eagle from a belt holster.

Frankie dives sideways to take cover behind a column. Two of the gunmen open fire, but the leader standing in the center hangs back. Amy shivers behind the bar as Frankie emerges from cover to fire two shots as he makes his way toward the exit. The two thugs fire back at him and Frankie can’t help but to wonder what happened to the leader of the pack.

Stretching his arm around a column, Frankie fires three blind shots at his enemies. One of the shots pierces a speaker and the music dies down to the point only the screams of the people in the club can be heard. As a swarm of people come toward him, Frankie backs up and fires one more shot at his assailants. One pale-faced gunman buckles over as a bullet hits him in the upper leg, and Frankie turns to run away with the crowd.

As the crowd rounds a corner, the leaders stop. Frankie peers around the heads in front of him to see the Creeper standing there with a Tommy gun by his side. Hoping to not be discovered, Frankie ducks down. Surely the gunman wouldn’t open fire into this crowd.

The tattered bandages on Creeper’s face form a smile as he raises his Tommy gun and blasts away, perforating every unfortunate member of the crowd. After emptying his clip, the Creeper walks through a pool of blood to identify Frankie, who has a surprised look affixed on his face. Creeper gleefully whips out a camera and takes a death portrait.

CHAPTER 2

MOTEL

T he night is black and unwelcoming. Amy avoids contact with people as she escapes from the club. Just a glance from a passerby sends chills down her spine as she races for cover.

A cop approaches on foot from the other end of the block. He raises his radio to tune into an incoming call before he spots Amy. She cringes under his scrutiny because there’s nowhere to go. Heavy traffic to her left, a shaded doorway to her right. She ducks through the doorway.

The doorway leads to the lobby of a cheap motel. She passes a staircase and an antiquated elevator before entering