No Man's Land

11- Stalemate

Parker Magdalen

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They had taken to writing the timeline of events on a piece of dislodged metal from the plane. Someone had been carrying expo markers, and thus it became the world crappiest white board. Scribbled on the hulking piece of metal were all sorts of facts. Pilot last heard on intercom at 13:20. Pilot unresponsive at 13:27. When the plane crashed, when they got off the plane, when the first passenger boarded- it was all there... Except this was only on the civilians' side of things.

"We need to start getting agent alibis." I said, not looking away from the sheet of metal.

"Yeah, and we need to see what we can get from the body. We're falling behind in the investigation." Jenna commented. She was right, but it had been nearly three days since the crash. It was no doubt starting to decay. "I'm pretty sure I heard the girl tell one of her acquaintances to figure out the cause of death, when she went into the cockpit initially. I can go talk to them." I nodded, and she immediately jogged off to where the four were sitting. They didn't seem to separate that much.

"Hydrochloride." Jenna said, quickly scribbling notes in her notepad. "But not like the acid or cocaine- paroxetine hydrochloride."

"Paroxetine," I started, trying to piece together what I had learned in a pscyhology class in college, "That's a selective seratonin inhibator. Used for a whole slew of mental problems. So he overdosed?"

"Well, that's part of it. He could have been taking it in small doses for anxiety, OCD, or something else. Compared to a lot of other medications, it has a relatively low mortality rate concerning overdose. However, if it had been mixed with something, it would have become a lot more dangerous, so either someone slipped him a bunch of extra paroxetine, or he was given something else in addition to the paroxetine he was already taking, causing the overdose and vice versa."

"Sounds feasible. Would you mind going around and writing down which passengers took medications and for what?"

"Not your slave, Parker." Jenna muttered. I sighed, capping the expo marker.

"Fine, I'll do it."

Forty minutes later, I thought I had heard it all.

"I take these little pink tablets for my knees- both of em are bad but I don't trust those doctors who do the fake knee things!"

"Oh yeah, I'm allergic to just about everything so I take this bromide solution, zyrtec, a couple nasal sprays, and I have an inhaler just incase. I do these allergy immunotherapies but they aren't doing squat. Oh! And just my luck, last month the doctor told me I had a weird heart rate or something so I also take beta blockers. No idea what they do, but I take them!"

"I mean, I'm s'possed to use nicotine patches because smoking is bad, yata yata yata, but I usually just throw them out and smoke anyways."

Of course, there was one blank mark on the board- Jana -last name classified-. I hadn't even bothered to enquire, so I just put her name with nothing listed under it. None the less, something in me ached to solve her. She was like a walking puzzle- no, more like a maze. It seemed like there were a dozen different ways that her personality could go, and none of them would produce hints as to her story. I guess it was a little dehumanizing, to just think of her as an abstract problem. 

"Hey, you listening, Magdalen?" I turned back to Jenna, marker hovering over the makeshift white board.

"Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?"

"Cross off all of those under the allergy category off. Those just suppress symptoms so they're less strong, and they're usually made to be suitable to being accompanied by more serious drugs. Also cross off the patch-users, the pilot would have to be an idiot to not notice a patch." I nodded, making slashes threw an array of names.

"That leaves the girl on immunosupressants, the three who take anti-depressants, the two with anxiety medication, and the two who take pain killers," I sighed, "and Jana." Factoring in those who took several kinds, that left 7 people.

"Of course medication could have been stolen." Jenna added, and I groaned. There were too many facts and variables.

"Lets just focus on the source, for now. Can you take the first four, and I'll take the later three? Ask where their medication was from take off to crash landing, get a sharper alibi."

"Roger that."

---

After around twenty minutes, I made it to the third and final name on my list. The first man, a veteran of 29, took a prescription anxiety medication and a light anti-depressant. All of his medication had allegedly been in his suitcase since he had left his house to go to the airport. A loose claim, but it wasn't like I had much to counter his alibi. The second person, a docent working at some museum in DC, took painkillers for her arthritis, and had a bottle to prove it. The bottle detailed the prescription date, number of pills issued, and a scheduled refill date- just counting the remaining pills was enough to give her benefit of the doubt. Both had been easy, but the third would be different.

You guessed it, Miss Jana *it's still classified*. I found the woman herself once again deep in conversation with her comrades, tucked under their makeshift shelter. As soon as I entered earshot, the subject seemed to change.

"Hey, could we talk? We're investigating the crash and we need a bit of your input." I cut to the chase quickly, this time sparing the pleasantries. She let out a sigh, running her hands through her hair and flipping it to the side.

"Anything for you, Magdalen," she said smoothly, getting up in an instant. I raised my eyebrows slightly- yet another demeanor change. Split personalities was starting to sound more and more likely. She grabbed my wrist, pulling my forward again with that surprising force. She pulled us to a fallen tree, releasing my arm as she climbed onto it and sat down.

"What is it this time, Parker?"

"Pills. I need to know about the pills."

"Do you need to or do you want to?" She argued, her voice lowering. 

"Jana, I really desperately want to get the hell of this island, and part of that is figuring out who decided to sabotage the damn plane. Honestly, I hate poking around in the Company's business because everything is hidden under lock and key for no apparent reason. I-" Jana cut me off, shaking her head.

"Parker, everything has a reason. You have some reason for wanting off of this god forsaken island. I have plenty of reasons I'm not going to tell you some stuff. Actually, not some- a shit ton of stuff. Now here's my problem with you- most people give it up with a kick in the stomach and a well-worded threat. Apparently it's going to take more to keep you down. I'm a counter-intelligence agent- you think I'm not going to notice two full grown humans hiding behind a bush?" My shoulders tense as she stared directly at me. If looks could kill- oh, I'd be a dead man. "I'm done trying to shield myself and avoid the subject because frankly I'm bored and tired of this stint. Don't think you've broken me, because I'm not going to tell you my deepest darkest secrets."

"Fine. I don't need classified information, I just need a few facts."

"As you should," Jana leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, "And now that we've reached  a stalemate, let me tell you a story."

WE. REACHED. 100. WOOOOOOOO. Ok ok yeah I've reached 100 on a story before (and 1000 too but that's irrelevant) but anyways regardless thank you guys so much. I know it takes time for books to gain a bit of following and I'm totally cool with that so just 100 on this little project feels good enough for now. Side note, I learned a lot about drugs while making this chapter as scientifically accurate as possible lol. <3 

Tysm for 100,

-K