by Mark Tufo
"Meet us back in the lobby ASAP," I say. "We need to head upstairs."
I can't get out of that room quick enough, and I can hear the other two keeping pace with me in the dark as we hurry back the way we came.
The others are already waiting in the lobby as we burst from the hallway like the hounds of hell are on our heels. Luke opens his mouth, but I raise a shaky hand his way.
"We need to check upstairs and get out of here as soon as we can," I say.
In typical Luke fashion, he doesn't waste time asking what's obviously on the tip of his tongue. Instead he points over my shoulder. "Stairs are that way."
Kingsley grabs my arm as I brush past, catching me off guard.
"You guys go ahead. I'm going to stay down here and get this ball rolling." He points to the backpack, and I nod in agreement to his suggestion.
"Gordo, stay with Kingsley as lookout," I say to the kid, handing him my radio. He accepts it without question, but I can see the puzzlement in his face. Luke appears just as baffled by my and Kingsley's mutual agreement.
"There is possibly a big nasty something in here," I breathe his way. "We need to move fast." I leave out the part where I'm terrified that whatever had ripped those poor bastards apart is going to come back any minute and do the same to us, but Luke gets the gist. We move out.
The second floor is also still lit, but unlike the first floor, the causalities up here haven’t been dragged into a trophy room this time. After what we’d witnessed in the cafeteria, Taylor and I are sadly almost immune to the body pieces littering the second floor reception. The rest are not. I can hear Dom’s shaken cussing at the back of the pack and Wentworth’s noisy gagging as he tries to keep his breakfast down.
"Jesus," Luke mutters in stunned disbelief as we pick our way through the carnage. "Is this what you found downstairs?"
I nod, unsure of what I should tell them. I decide to reveal all since this isn’t the time to be keeping secrets from my crew.
"The people we found, not only were they ripped apart, but they were...shit, I don't know, put on display I guess would be the only way to describe it. Whoever or whatever did this, Luke, there was rage and intelligence involved."
Everyone tears their eyes away from the carnage long enough to focus on me. I watch as the realization of this new horror dawns on them. Emotion and intelligence, not something we've seen from any leech so far. So does this mean Kingsley is right? Are the alien parasites evolving?
No one gets a chance to voice that concern.
"Guys?" Cal's voice is shrill with terror and instantly tiny shards of ice start flowing through my veins. His wide eyes stare over my shoulder, and I so do NOT want to turn around to see what’s causing him to look like he just shit his pants. But I do anyway.
Holy mother of God.
Chapter 36
It rises from the shadows like the darkness has somehow given birth to it. Had it been there the whole time, watching us? I get a glimpse of height as it rises. It’s tall, at least a good 6 feet, with a humanoid shaped body. The body is covered with a layer of gray flesh that is inter-meshed with what looks like human skin. Long spindly arms and legs jut out from the body, ending in jagged looking claws where fingers and toes should have been. Claws for ripping off body parts I'm pretty damned certain. I can hear the hooks clicking on the tile floor as it slowly steps from its hidey hole. That sound echoes in our horrified silence, causing my bowels to clench in terror.
But the head...that is what terrifies me the most. The head is a bulbous, hairless appendage. Eye sockets spaced wide and staring right at us with two very blue human eyes. The human like nose is contrasted by a long, leathery looking protrusion where a mouth should have been. This...obscene lump squirms and moves under a rippling wet membrane, then stretches outwards into a yawning abyss of razor sharp teeth. Teeth that look familiar. Teeth meant for ripping out a person’s jugular. It looks like some DNA experiment gone horribly wrong. A fucking leech-human hybrid.
"Die." The guttural word sounds impossible coming from the nightmarish mouth, but we all hear it and it snaps us out of our terrorized stupor. Every weapon rises in defense as the creature leaps quickly from its shrouded corner, landing just inches from Taylor and me. The clawed hand whips out with alarming speed and before Taylor can get off a shot, the savage blow sends him reeling—his head one way, his body another. Hot blood splashes across my face and lips like scarlet rain, filling my mouth with its coppery taste. A scream sticks in my throat, overshadowed by the voice in my head shrieking at me to move, and I leap out of the creature’s reach. I'm not quick enough. Pain shoots up my entire shoulder and into my neck as the serrated claw slices into my shoulder blade.
"STAY DOWN!" I hear Luke's command before my eardrums almost explode from the barrage of gunfire. The hail of bullets surround me like a horde of angry hornets and I tuck my head into my arms, expecting any moment to feel them or the creature's claws ripping through my skin. The shooting seems to last forever, but finally there’s nothing but the lingering echo thrumming through my head. I don't even hear anyone approach until my arm is pinched by strong fingers, and I’m yanked to my feet. Wincing from the pain in my shoulder, I stare into Luke's worried brown eyes.
"I'm fine," I answer his unspoken question.
"You're bleeding--" he starts, but I cut him off.
"I said I'm fine." I shrug his hand off my arm, ignoring the stabbing pain piercing my shoulder blade. There’s a lot more to worry about. Like Taylor. And that...thing on the floor. I stride away from Luke and towards the others who are already surrounding the crumpled carcass. Badger pushes at it with the toe of his boot. The thing’s arm flops over unexpectedly, causing him to emit a high-pitched scream before looking up at us sheepishly.
"What is it?" he whispers, but none of us have an answer. "It decapitated Taylor like it was cutting through bread."
Taylor. I turn to look at the poor bastard, immediately regretting my decision. The guard's headless body lies in a pool of its own blood, and my stomach heaves at the sight. He’d been standing right next to me and now he’s dead. I barely knew him, yet he’d been a comrade and a survivor just like the rest of us. Guilt competes with the relief I feel that it's not me laying there, and the pain in my shoulder seems a fitting punishment for my survival.
"Fucking thing took forever to die. Almost like it was bulletproof or something." Dom’s also whispering. Like he thinks if he spoke too loudly the creature would suddenly wake back up. But the glistening dark blood staining the bullet riddled body says otherwise.
Luke brushes past me and bends down to inspect the dead thing. He runs his fingers roughly over the grayish torso.
"It feels like there's rings of bone underneath the skin. Thicker than ribs. Like a shell maybe? Protecting the heart. Plus, the skin is tough...leathery. Almost like armor."
"Luke, stop fucking touching it," I say in part disgust, part fear. Kingsley's belief that these things are infecting us again has me all paranoid. To my relief he does as I ask.
"But what is it? I've never seen a leech look anything like this," Badger's voice is as strained as his pinched face. "And did I imagine it, or did this freak actually talk?"
"It spoke alright," I shiver involuntarily at the memory. "As ugly as it is, I think Frankenstein’s monster here was human once. Some sort of alien-human hybrid maybe?"
"Jesus, you think that was once human?" Cal questions in disbelief. Luke kicks the arm that had fallen to the side earlier and points to the piece of human looking skin still attached to the otherwise gray flesh. The skin is tattered and stretched, the obvious remains of a blue ribbon tattoo with the name Marty still clearly visible.
"Unless 'Marty' stopped for a tat on his way from butt-fuck-nowhere in the universe, then yeah, I tend to agree with Bix."
"So Kingsley is right? These things are evolving. Man, we're in shit up to our eyeballs," Badger's whispered prediction sends chills over me because deep down, I know he's right.
"That's a discussion for another time." Luke's voice is authoritative, pulling us back to the task at hand. Trying to gain control of our fear. "Right now I suggest we find whoever is sending that SOS and get the hell out of here. Taking down this leech used up a hell of a lot of ammo. We won't survive another run in with one of these things, so let’s move. Bix, you okay?"
Even though I can still feel the burning pain and warm blood trickling down my back, I nod. No time for being a pussy right now.
"Right, so the signal is..."
Click. Click. Click.
Every fine hair on my body stands on end even before my brain makes the connection to the sound. A cold hand of fear grips my spine with its icy tendrils. That sound. It sounds like claws scraping against tile floor. Please, no.
We turn slowly, trying to put off the inevitable. But we can’t.
They dominate the other end of the long hallway like the darkest of nightmares. Their talons click disturbingly on the tile, every scrape like a razorblade cutting away at a nerve ending. Four more of them. We had barely taken down the one. How the hell do we handle this many?
"Steamin' crap on a biscuit," Badger whispers in a shaky voice and I couldn't agree more. "What the fuck do we do?"
No one answers.
They spread out across the wide hallway like an ominous cloud of death, blocking the stairs and our way back down. They don't attack immediately like ordinary leeches would have done. Instead the eerie human eyes regard us with wariness, with an intelligence suggesting they’re forming a strategy. Their dead comrade at our feet giving them pause for thought that we’re probably not humans to take lightly. Their gazes flicker from us to the dead thing on the floor and that damn wet gurgling starts up. What the fuck is that? Are they talking back and forth? What are they doing?
The sound intensifies and their protruding mouths open with a wet sound, exposing the sharp blades inside. Rooted in place, we can only watch in growing horror. Suddenly their disgusting sounds are met with a similar cry that seems to be coming from right beneath us. I look down to find the creature we thought to be dead, twitching about like some fish out of water, gasping for air. What? How’s that even possible? We had killed it. But somehow the goddamn thing’s still alive. And it's getting to its feet.
"RUN!" Luke bellows, finally answering Badger's question. He doesn't have to say it again. Frightened beyond measure, we run. No clear destination in mind, just the survival instinct to put as much distance between us and them as we possibly can.
The tile beneath our pounding feet echoes our panic back at us and accentuates the sound of our pursuers. At this precise moment in time, I cannot think of a more terrifying sound than claws scratching on tile floor. Scratching that seems to be getting very close. A cold clamminess sweeps over me as I fight the urge to scream in sheer terror.
My body tenses, every nerve ending standing at attention. I swear I can feel the tailwind from those massive claws as they swipe at my neck. My head swivels from side to side, searching for anything that can provide us some sort of safety. But the hallway is just a mass of offices with huge glass windows, offering no protection from the monsters chasing us. Our only chance is to find another set of stairs leading off this hellish floor.
"Right!" Luke yells again, and we turn on his command as the hallway ends sharply at a T-joint. The worn down soles of my boots lose their grip and I slide across the tile floor, banging painfully into the wall and bouncing off, colliding straight into Cal. He trips over me and goes sprawling at my feet. I nearly trample him over in my haste.
"Get up!" I scream at him, and he tries to struggle to his feet, but his face contorts into a grimace as he falls back to his knees.
"My ankle," he cries.
Crap!
I reach down for him, and he immediately puts his arm around my neck, using me as a crutch. I pull him to his feet and he starts hobbling, trying to keep up with my pace. But he is slowing me down. I don't dare look over my shoulder to see how close the creatures are to us. The horrible scratching in my ears is indication enough.
We're going to die.
A blur of solid flesh brushes by me and Cal is yanked out of my grasp. My knives are in my hands before I even realize it’s Luke. He throws the guy over his shoulder in a fireman carry, like he weighs no more than a sack of flour and yells at me, "There!"
He points to the end of the hallway where a couple of reinforced steel doors beckon to us like a beacon in the darkest of storms. If anything can hold off these monsters, it has to be those.
"GO! GO! GO!" Luke bellows at me, and I can hear the terror in his voice even over the sound of gunfire as Dom and Wentworth fire on the impending demons of death, trying to slow them down. Their screams tell me they’re not having much luck.
Knowing that our lives depend on it, Badger and I sprint ahead for the “Unit 2” doors and body slam into them at the same time, hoping to open the way to our salvation. Instead we bounce back off like the doors are electrified. They're locked.
"Open the doors! Open the fucking doors!" Dom screams as he and Wentworth hurtle towards us, wearing identical masks of terror. But there's no handle or doorknob to be found. Panicking now I slam my hand against the steel hoping that somehow it would cause the doors to magically open, but it’s wishful thinking. They don’t budge. We’re trapped between them and the advancing monsters.
A face suddenly appears in the tiny wire-meshed window and wide eyes stare out at me. Someone’s on the other side.
No idea if it’s ravagers or not, I increase the pounding. I'd rather take my chance with ravagers right about now.
"Open up," I scream frantically as I finally glance over my shoulder. I immediately wish I hadn't. The creature riddled with our bullet holes is closing in on Luke and Cal, breathing down their necks. Cal screams as it leaps at them and the protruding mouth snaps dangerously close, missing him by mere inches. He tries to jump away, throwing Luke off balance and they both crash to the floor.
"Badger, shoot it in the head!" I yell, knowing damn well that won't kill it, but hoping desperately that it’ll at least slow it down.
Badger curses loudly as he claws for a full clip. But in his frenzy, the gun falls from his grasp and clatters on the tile floor with a deafening finality. His terrified eyes stare into mine for a split second before I look away, my eyes drawn back to witness the horrific slaughter about to unfold.
The creature sweeps low, mouth snapping and going for Luke's neck. Moving in for the kill. I react instinctively. My knife flies through the air and connects with the creature's left eye, sticking in with a sickeningly wet thunk. It doesn't take him off his feet, but it’s enough to spin him off course and away from Luke's jugular. Partially blinded now it swipes haphazardly at Luke, but the big man rolls out of its reach, pulling his gun. He aims for the creature's head. He gets off two shots and the creature falls, blinded as Luke takes out the other eye. Where's your fucking protective shell now, dickwad? I taunt in my head, as the creature starts writhing in apparent agony.
The slight click behind me registers a second before a hand grabs my shoulder, scaring me so badly I whirl on it with my remaining knife. The face that stares back at me is startlingly familiar.
"Come on." Kelly holds the steel door open, motioning frantically with his hands. Dom doesn't hesitate. He flies by me in a flash, nearly knocking me over in his wake. Wentworth is close on his heels.
"Fucking cowards," I yell at their backs. Sprinting back, I grab Cal by the scruff of his neck and start dragging him towards safety. Luke leaps to his feet and joins in, grabbing Cal’s other arm. We pull him like a giant slab of meat.
The creatures are almost on top of us now; I swear I can feel their hot breath on the back of my neck.
"Move your asses," Badger shouts at us from the protection of the doorway. He’s retrieved his gun but he doesn’t shoot. That can only mean one thing. They must be so close behind us he can't get a clean shot.
"Jump," Luke yells
over at me and I do just that, leaping through the doorway as Badger springs out of my way. Cal rolls by me like some human bowling ball, as Luke tosses him to safety. The big man himself sails through the doorway next, just as Kelly is about to close it. But a gray clawed arm snakes it way through, preventing it from closing and snags Luke’s pant leg. He hits the floor face first as the creature starts dragging him back through the door.
"Argh!" he yells, clawing desperately at the floor and trying to get some kind of hold. But the slippery surface offers no traction.
Cal's screams to shut the door echo in my ears as Badger and Kelly strain against the metal barrier, trying to keep the nightmare creatures out and Luke in.
My remaining knife still in my hand, I scramble to my feet and leap at the mottled arm. With every last bit of strength, I bury the knife into the fleshy forearm, sending dark blood spurting into the air. The clawed appendage loosens its grip on Luke, and he manages to kick it away. The arm is yanked back along with my knife and disappears into the hallway as the door finally slams shut with a satisfying click.
Chapter 37
We can hear them outside in the hallway, slamming against the steel doors like children throwing temper tantrums because they’ve lost their favorite toy. I flinch at every impact, expecting any moment for the doors to buckle, but Kelly tries to put me at ease.
"Don't worry. These doors are reinforced with an electromagnetic lock. They can't get in."
"Not until the power goes out anyway. Luckily for us, they haven't figured out how to cut the power supply...yet."
This voice of pure optimism comes at me from the other side of the room. I look over to thank the asshat for the real nice words of encouragement, but I actually don't say anything. I'm too surprised by the dozen or so people standing there. I didn't even realize there were others in the room.
A few of the faces I recognize right away. Kelly's crew. The other six or seven are strangers. The only remaining survivors of St. Joseph’s, I'm assuming. So few of them...