What's the matter guys? Too intense? Well in this chapter we found out how the story continues and what MacGyver has to go through in order to save Maria and Nikki Carpenter. I hope you enjoy.

(We fade in with no music as we see Murdoc and Zito)
Chapter VI
Torture
Plans of Escape
The Message
Night/Dawn

In the compound’s torture rooms, Murdoc and Zito were doing the last adjustments to their contraption. It was a chair. Not just any normal chair. The chair was an old electric one, where a few parts of it were gone. On top of the chair, some sort of axe was attached to it. The idea was that you bend the axe all the way backwards with a rope. You lit up a candle to burn through the rope so that the axe would chop in your face. They tested it with a mango. It chopped right through it. (Tense music comes up here)
‘Excellent,’ Zito smiled evilly.
‘The three hours has passed,’ Murdoc said.
‘Almost. This thing is ready.’
‘We cannot fail this time, doc.’
‘I know that. It’s perfect.’
‘Not too perfect, I hope. Too perfect isn’t good.’
‘MacGyver can’t escape this time. His mind is messed up. He’ll be in a state of ignorance.’
‘Shall I get him now?’
‘Yeah! The time has come.’
Murdoc grinned and left the torture rooms to get MacGyver. In the halls he bumped in on Deborah. (The music fades away here)
‘It’s time,’ she said.
‘I know. I was on my way up to get him.’
Murdoc, Deborah, Piedra and the big black guy went to MacGyver’s room.
MacGyver was still in spasms, when Deborah took off the goggles. She slapped him the face to get him back to his senses. (Creepy music comes up)
MacGyver looked like he was still in trancelike state. Everything still looked like when they syringed him earlier. The dark colours and demonic-like creatures where back again.
‘No! No!’ MacGyver screamed. ‘Leave me alone!’
In MacGyver’s vision the demonic head with the bat teeth and the clown face grabbed his arms and dragged him down to the torture rooms.
‘What are you going do? What’s happening to me?’
‘Bring Romburg and Carpenter here,’ Zito ordered.
Piedra and the big black guy obeyed Zito.
MacGyver was laying down on the floor with Murdoc, Deborah and Zito around him.
‘Why are you doing this?’ MacGyver asked.
He noticed the strange chair. ‘What is that thing?’
No answers.
MacGyver looked around but the effects of the syringes were still working. Then wham!
A door is kicked open and Maria Romburg and Nikki Carpenter are forced to come in the torture rooms. MacGyver couldn’t identify them, he just saw two black figures. He couldn’t place them of who they were.
‘Who are those peoples?’ he demanded.
‘They…,’ Zito started. ‘They’ve killed peoples. They work for a secret organisation called the Phoenix Foundation.’
‘Phoenix Foundation?’ (Music fades away here)
‘Yeah, they kill peoples all around the world and it’s our job to get rid of them,’ Deborah said.
‘These are two of the agents that work for them. We captured them and it’s our duty to kill them,’ Murdoc fell in.
‘The sooner it gets done, the sooner we can all go home,’ Zito said again.
‘But what have they done?’ MacGyver wanted to know.
‘They killed two of our friends for one thing,’ Murdoc said.
‘So this is a personal matter?’
‘Not exactly. They’ve killed these two men.’
Murdoc showed him two pictures.
‘Do I know these peoples?’
‘Maybe. Peter Thornton and Jack Dalton. Two of my friends I went skiing with got killed by those two agents.’
MacGyver tried to remember Pete and Jack but no answer came to his mind.
‘I can’t see those agents, they’re like shadows. What did you do to me?’
‘Believe me, from as soon everything is over, you’ll understand,’ Deborah said. ‘You just gotta take our word for it.’
Murdoc gave his gun to MacGyver.
‘We tell you to shoot these ****es.’
‘But…’
‘Now!’ Zito said.
MacGyver armed the weapon, pulled the upside of the barrel to load it. He stretched his arm and was ready to shoot. (the music from The Wall comes up here when they're about the fire the last arrow)
‘MacGyver, don’t do this!’ Maria begged. ‘Can’t you remember us? It’s me Maria.’
‘Maria?’ he whispered as if he remembered the name.
‘I’m here too, MacGyver,’ Nikki said. ‘Don’t listen to them. They’re using you.’
‘No, don’t you listen to them and shoot ‘em,’ Murdoc barked. ‘They’re only trying to confuse you, so that you would fail.’
MacGyver couldn’t take it anymore, he didn’t know who was telling the truth or not. He started to aim his gun to both parties.
‘Shut up!’ he yelled. ‘If I can’t figure out the bad apples on this, there’s only one way to solve this thing and that’s to kill myself.’
He placed the gun against his temple. (The music grows intenser)
‘No!!’ Both sides screamed.
‘Shoot them!!! Now!!!’ Zito ordered out loud. (More intense)
MacGyver turned around to Maria and Nikki and fired the gun. He shot Maria first and then Nikki. They both collapsed on the floor. (The music stops here)
MacGyver went closer to them, he saw a red substance filling the floor. Then silence went through the room. MacGyver shot Maria and Nikki to death.
Zito and Murdoc had to laugh over this, their plan was succeeding. Deborah had a sadistic though somewhat charming smile and Piedra and the big black guy shared a victorious look.
MacGyver dropped the gun as he kneeled down in the blood, touching the dead bodies.
‘What have I done?’
‘Alright, take him,’ Zito ordered.
‘Stay away from me!’ MacGyver threatened and placed the gun back at his temple.
‘Oh, yeah. Shoot!’ Murdoc taunted him.
‘I’ll do it, I swear, I’ll do it.’
‘Go ahead. I dare you.’
‘I double dare you,’ Deborah said.
‘You were warned!!’
MacGyver shot but the gun clicked.
‘You idiot, you really think, I would’ve give you a full clip?’ Murdoc laughed.
‘Alright, enough of this, take him.’
Piedra and the big black guy grabbed MacGyver’s arms. MacGyver started to struggle but the big black guy rammed his big fist through MacGyver’s stomach.
‘Oooh!!’ (Intense music comes up again)
They dragged him to the chair and placed him on it. They started to strap him.
‘What’s going on? What is this?’
‘Well, MacGyver,’ Zito started to explain, ‘you did as we told you and we’re grateful. But peoples like you can’t be trusted, now can it?’
His arms were tied up in the shackles that looked like belts on the arm sides of the chair. Then his feet were next.
‘But why?’
‘You might go to the police.’
‘Sounds like a good plan.’
‘But we can’t let you, this happened clear. You killed them, if you disappear, they can never solve this thing. They need a guilty, but that one is dead.’
‘If you just worked for H.I.T. MacGyver, you would get the highest honour in the business,’ Murdoc said, somewhat proudly. ‘Such a pity.’
‘I don’t understand this,’ MacGyver said.
‘You don’t need to,’ Deborah said laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. ‘It’ll be over soon, I promise.’
‘This chair is one based on the medieval torture chairs,’ Zito explained. ‘They used them on criminals in filthy dungeons. Murdoc and I installed this chair to give you your proper death.’
‘What?’ MacGyver said.
‘This axe here, somewhat above you, will be bend completely backwards tied to a rope. The candle will burn through the rope, releasing the axe and chop you in the face. What’ll be of you? An open skull fracture, I’m afraid.’
‘Too bad. You were my best opponent,’ Murdoc said and tapped MacGyver’s shoulder.
Zito lit up a candle and placed it under the rope.
‘I wish it worked out for us,’ Deborah said, ‘but work comes first.’
Then she kissed him full on the lips as the dog as he saw her for, licked his face. MacGyver gave Deborah a look as if he remembered her touch. MacGyver remembered something, something the felt good. He looked confused at first but then his face cleared up a little. He looked at Deborah again and then more in the room. The effects of the syringes were fading. A dark blue rag was tied around his mouth.
‘Within three to four minutes, the candle’s burned through the rope and the axe will end up in your face, MacGyver,’ Zito said.
‘Goodbye MacGyver,’ Murdoc said.
‘Goodbye!’ Deborah said as well.
The bunch of villains left MacGyver out there in the torture rooms to wait for his death. (The music fades away here)
‘So what happens next?’ Deborah asked.
‘We’ll send out a message to his friends that MacGyver is dead. I wish I could just see their faces,’ Zito said.
‘Let’s do that,’ Murdoc said.
(The music where MacGyver escapes the torture rack in The 'Hood is heard now)
MacGyver was alone now in the torture rooms. More and more the effects faded and everything got their natural colours back.
There wasn’t much time anymore, the candle was burning. MacGyver tried to look for something that could help him. There seemed nothing close enough to get.
Maybe it was possible to move the chair. He tried to move from left to right but the chair just wouldn’t budge. The rope started to give in a little. If he couldn’t escape this, he could try to dodge the axe at least. He could bend to the sides of the chair a little in hope that the axe wouldn’t touch him, but he didn’t had any certainty on this solution. It could still cost him an ear or a deep wound in his jaw. He bended to his right side waiting for the axe to come around. He bended as far as he could, then the chair almost tipped over. From the surprise, MacGyver, quickly shifted his weight again, to place the chair back. A light went on in his mind, he got an idea. If he could turn over the chair to his right, there might be a chance of escape. He placed his weight back to the side, trying to tip over the chair. It gave in but just a little more then before.
Again! Barely more.
Again! Almost!!
Then on the third time he tried, the candle burned through the rope. The axe got catapulted from behind the chair and chopped… right into it. It missed MacGyver’s face by hardly an inch and the chair tipped over.
On his way down, the chair knocked something over as well, like a small table or something. The sound of falling stuff echoed through the room. MacGyver tried to see if it was something useful, to get free.
‘Not much,’ he figured.
He tried to turn his chair about 180° to see what else was on the floor.
Tools! Useful perhaps but he just couldn’t get it. He saw the candle still burning about two or three feet away from him. If he knocked the candle over without the flame going out, he could use the flame for his straps.
‘It’s worth a shot,’ he thought.
It’s only two or three feet, with a little wriggling, MacGyver succeeded in going to the candle. With his upper feet he could knock the candle over. The candle rolled away from him. (The music becomes more critical)
MacGyver sighed from behind his tied mouth. This was like ten feet now. There wasn’t just any other way then to get to the candle. With shovelling and wriggling, he got to the candle again. He used the flame to burn through the straps. The flame slowly burned through it and then he got finally free. (Here we hear the traditional MacGyver relieving music) He blew out the candle from as soon his right arm was free. He freed himself from the chair and now it was time to get out of there. The effects were completely faded now. He could think clear again. He saw the bodies in the room and he ran to them. (The music stops here)
‘Maria, Nikki, can you hear me?’
He felt in their necks for a pulse. They were dead, or weren’t they? MacGyver noticed that there skin was like elastic.
‘What the…, again with those masks?’
MacGyver remembered what happened in that forest, a couple of days ago. He pulled off one mask of one of the bodies. It wasn’t Maria at all, nor it was Nikki Carpenter, when he took off the mask.
‘Thank God, it wasn’t them,’ he said.
They pulled a trick on him. Of course he couldn’t laugh with this but on the other side he was relieved that it wasn’t Maria or Nikki. They made him kill two of their own men. But why? He didn’t bother to find an answer on it. The fact that he took two human lives sickened him. Reversing this was totally out of the question.
‘That the ones I loved and the ones they loved can forgive me,’ he whispered as a prayer.
A few moments passed by as he sat their with the two dead bodies. Even if he was drugged, disoriented and brainwashed of some sort it still bothered him. The bright side is that Maria and Nikki Carpenter are still alive and in the building. It was time to get out of there with Maria and Nikki Carpenter. He just had to figure out how. First thing he needed was a good hiding place to think and figure out his plan to escape. So he went to look for one.

In the control room Murdoc finished the message, he wrote. He ordered a soldier to come to the control room.
‘Here,’ he said, ‘take this the Phoenix Camp and come back to rapport what happened.’
‘Yes, sir,’ the soldier obeyed and left.
‘Did you wrote it the way, I told you?’ Zito asked.
‘By the time they deciphered the message, MacGyver will be dead.’
‘Excellent.’
Then Nikki entered the room.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked.
‘Nothing,’ Zito said with played ignorance.
‘Nothing? I’m getting the feeling that I’m left out of the plan.’
‘You’re just imagining things,’ Murdoc said.
‘No, I’m not. MacGyver was here tonight, something tells me that he’s still here.’
‘We caught him, sis,’ Deborah said, ‘and he was on the edge.’
‘You left me out of the plan,’ Nikki said angry and disappointed in her co-conspirators.
‘Not entirely, but for the most part, yeah,’ Piedra said smirking.
‘MacGyver is dead already, isn’t he?’
‘He should be by now,’ Zito said.
‘If I were you I’d check on him. Now. Just to make sure he is dead and then we can get this over with.’
‘Everything on it’s time Ms. Carpenter.’
‘What are you complaining about anyway? You wanted MacGyver dead as much as we do,’ Murdoc said.
‘I wanted to be a bigger part of this. I worked together with him and knows his weaknesses.’
‘As do we,’ Deborah said.
‘How could I forget? You killed my neighbours dog to kill him.’
‘Yes,’ she said proudly. ‘You should’ve heard that dog’s cry of pain when I stabbed him with my knife and slowly cut down his fragile body.’
‘Sadist,’ Nikki hissed. ‘I don’t care what is required to finish a job but killing animals is not one of them. And don’t think you can get rid of me with leaving me out of the plan. You still need me.’
‘The actual reason we left you out of the plan for the most part, Ms. Carpenter is because of your past history together,’ Zito explained.
‘What?’ Nikki asked shocked. ‘What past history? I never had anything with MacGyver. If someone had something with him, it would be Deborah.’
‘Yeah, but I was doing my job; trying to kill him while getting close to him. You and MacGyver were friends and friendships lasts longer the relationships.’
‘Whatever, but you’ll still need me.’
‘What made you turn against him?’ Zito suddenly asked.
‘I have my reasons.’
‘Spit it out then.’
‘They’re personal reasons, but what I can tell you is that he’s the reason I left the Phoenix Foundation for.’
‘Other reasons?’
‘Told ya. They’re personal and I won’t tell them.’
A few shared looks went through the room. Nikki had the right to have her reasons and not to share them with the rest of the villains. ‘So what’s going on, now?’
‘We drugged him with three different kinds of hallucinogen and tortured him,’ Deborah said.
‘What? How?’
‘The hallucinogen made him see insane and freaky stuff. Then with a machine that makes all kinds of annoying sounds. He got disoriented and would’ve had visions about past worlds and hidden messages.’
‘What were those messages then?’
‘Shooting to kill on command, for example.’
‘And?’
‘He succeeded. He passed the test with small difficulties but he managed to do it.’
‘Difficulties?’
‘When he didn’t know what to do, he threatened to kill himself,’ Murdoc said. ‘He tried it twice. If the gun was full the second time, he would’ve killed himself.’
‘If you pushed him to the edge of killing himself then we got him, right?’
‘Well, now, we can say, MacGyver is really dead,’ Deborah said.
‘The candle must’ve been burned through the rope by now,’ Piedra said.
‘We’re going to check it out.’
‘What makes you so sure that you succeeded, this time?’ Nikki asked.
‘He was drugged and disoriented, listening to sounds for three hours with hidden messages and had visions of past worlds. All that within three hours that can mess a guy up,’ Deborah answered confirming. ‘Not even MacGyver can stand against this.’
‘Maybe.’
‘Well, we managed to make him go insane. We made him see crazy things, we made him shoot to kill. His blood innocence is gone since we made him think that he killed you and Romburg instead of rescuing you.’
‘What would’ve been better is that MacGyver actually shot himself under pressure. Then our hands could’ve stayed clean.’
‘That’s true Ms. Carpenter,’ Zito spoke, ‘but I was too eager to try out my new medieval chair, that I build with Murdoc.’
‘Well?’
‘The drugs were still working when we placed him on the chair. It would’ve been impossible for his mind to be cleared up so fast,’ Deborah said again.
‘There was no chance in escaping,’ Murdoc said.
‘No,’ Zito agreed on it. ‘The candle would’ve needed two or three minutes to burn through the rope. Four at most and we’ve been sitting here for the past fifteen minutes. So the chances that he’s dead are pretty likely.’
‘What happen when the candle burns through the rope.’
‘The axe would chop in his face.’
‘Cruel, but that oughta do the job.’
‘Yeah,’ Deborah said. ‘Well, we better check it out now.’
(Music coms up here and fades away as we see the Phoenix Camp)
At the Phoenix Camp a jeep took off as fast as it could. Willis was standing outside in the middle of storm. Lightning still flashed and thunder clapped. The rain poured down like a waterfall. Willis had something in his hand, he looked at it and then looked back at the taking off jeep. He went back into the tents.
‘Mr. Thornton?’ he said.
‘Yeah, what’s up?’
Pete and Jack came towards him with their cups of coffee. Willis dried off his glasses.
‘I just got this from a soldier in a jeep. It’s a message. I think it’s from MacGyver.’
‘MacGyver? Let me see,’ Pete said.
Willis gave him the wet envelope.
Pete carefully opened it. He started reading but he didn’t understand it.
‘What is it, Pete?’ Jack asked.
‘I don’t understand this.’
Jack took the letter and neither he understood it.
‘What is this?’
Willis putted his glasses back on.
‘Maybe it’s a code language, let me see.’
Jack gave Willis the letter.
‘Numbers? 4-5-1-18. I’ll give it to research and see what this is all about.’
Pete acknowledged.
‘What do you think it means, Pete?’ Jack asked wondering about the letter.
‘I don’t know, Jack. All I know is we have to get MacGyver out of there as soon as possible. Who knows what they’re doing to him.’
‘Mac can take care of himself, Pete.’
‘I know that, Jack. But I feel like I abandoned him.’
‘Come on, Pete, don’t think like that. We did what we had to do, we had no choice.’
‘At first light, we go back,’ Pete decided.
‘That’s fine. It’s a quarter past four. It’ll be light in the next few hours.’
‘I wanna leave at oh-six-hundred,’ Pete said.
‘Then I better get some breakfast,’ Jack said ironic.
Pete gave Jack a furious look.
‘Just joking, Pete. Any idea how we’re going to get him out of there?’
‘Start thinking like MacGyver.’
‘That’s difficult. No one knows how his mind works. I think nobody wants to know.’
‘His mind is the ultimate weapon!’
Jack looked up at Pete when he made that remark.
‘What?’
‘His mind is the ultimate weapon. He succeeds where others failed.’
Jack nodded. ‘That’s true. Pete, do we have reinforcements?’
‘Yeah, I think so. Each time the Foundation builds a new facility it’s under protection.’
‘Maybe with some of the guards, we can assemble a rescue-team and think our way into the building like Mac does.’
‘Sounds like a decent idea,’ Pete said approving.
‘Decent? It’s a good idea.’
‘But I can’t risk everyone.’
‘How many guards do we have?’
‘About six.’
‘If we just take four of them with us and keep the other two here to protect to camp. There were three entrances, with a team mate they can check it out.’
‘Not bad Jack. Not bad.’
‘We’ll get him back, Pete, don’t you worry,’ Jack said laying his hand on Pete’s shoulder. Pete felt better.
‘Now, I’m going get some breakfast,’ he said to Pete.
‘Yeah, get me a ham sandwich,’ Pete ordered. (Preparing tense music is heard)
Jack couldn’t help to laugh a little and left the tent. Pete was alone now in the tent and his thoughts were with MacGyver again. He went to the entrance cloth of the tent and shoved it aside. Outside it was just the same old weather, rain coming down, thunder strikes, lightning bolts, mud. Pete looked outside to the dark trees.
‘Just you hang in there, MacGyver. We’re coming.’
Pete’s words went lost in another clapping thunder but he didn’t care. His mind was made up and he was determined that he was going to rescue MacGyver with Jack Dalton at his side. The mission may not go wrong since we were talking about MacGyver here. (The music reaches his peak and then becomes more tenser)
In the compound Zito, Murdoc, Deborah, Piedra and the big black guy went to check out on MacGyver to see if he was dead or not. MacGyver who was still in the room heard them coming. He didn’t find a decent hiding place in the torture room. They were opening the door. MacGyver hid behind the door, when they came in. This was always so thrilling about his job. Hiding behind doors when the bad guys come in. When they come in he always snuck out behind their backs. Also this time, it went that way. By the time they all entered the room, MacGyver snuck out. (The music fades away here)
The gang inside were speechless. An empty chair, fallen materials and MacGyver gone. Murdoc exploded. ‘Son of a ****, he’s gone!!’
He angrily kicked against the chair.
‘Alright, relax, he can’t be too far away,’ Piedra said.
‘Let’s hope not. Search the buildings, I want MacGyver back and alive!’ Zito said.
‘Alive?’ Murdoc said surprised. ‘We’re not going to dilly dally anymore. Those who find him, kill him immediately. I hope I am that one.’
‘Cool. A MacGyver-find-to-kill-game!’ Deborah cheered.
(Tense music comes up here)
They started to search for him. Murdoc and Deborah passed by an open door of a dark office. If they just looked on time in there, they could’ve seen MacGyver’s leg going into the ceiling. MacGyver thought he would be safe there for a while, he was hoping so. He saw more soldiers passing through.
‘So Maria and Nikki are still alive, that’s good. Time to get them out.’
But as long the storm continues, MacGyver couldn’t do anything, he had to wait until morning before he could make a move. There wasn’t much else he could do but wait.
(The music reaches his peak as we fade out here)

Original date of story post: Feb 20 2006, 06:31 AM.