by Rees, Kevin
Eddie looked for the door to Kat’s room. He rested his hand lightly on the handle, making it slick with moisture. Gripping tightly he pushed down. The door swung open, but stopped short of revealing if Kat was in the bed. He pushed again.
The room was dark, with shifting shadows scuttling under the bed to avoid the incoming light. A weak, passive strip of orange in the ceiling provided a reticent glow as Eddie’s eyes adjusted. The only other source of light came from the main window, which was shielded effectively from the outside by heavy blinds that were closed. Eddie took a moment; his senses were ringing like a hundred car alarms going off. Where was everybody? The question would have to wait for an answer until he was sure Kat was safe. Eddie glanced down at the bed and saw a shape covered with a sheet. The hoist elevating Kat’s leg was empty and hung limply from the ceiling. He rushed to the bed and pulled the sheet down.
‘Hey, what you do?’ Kat turned towards Eddie with annoyance written on her face. When she saw him it quickly changed to a sleepy smile. ‘Hey baby, come here.’ She reached out for him.
With obvious relief, Eddie leant over and kissed her. Her breath was stale, but Eddie didn’t care. He touched her neck and slid his hand through her thick hair. She moaned softly into his ear. He could feel the arousal building and wanted her more than ever. He pulled away and looked at her face; she smiled weakly. Her eyes were dark and she was very pale, but still so beautiful. He reached to touch her face and felt the plastic tube of her drip catch between his fingers. He pulled back and checked the line was not disturbed. Eddie saw the Dextrose and Saline bags were almost empty, yet somehow the fluid wasn’t getting into Kat. He traced the line attached to her hand and found the valve had been shut. He checked both bags again and found a separate line had been rigged to bypass the feed line and drain into a jar hidden underneath the bed. Kat hadn’t received any of the precious fluids for hours. He hit the call button and waited. Eddie picked up her hand and felt her pulse. It was thready and very weak. He could hear the buzzer sounding at the desk, but there was no response from anyone. He felt a familiar rage ignite inside him. Someone had deliberately tried to kill her. But why? Ros’s face emerged through his anger. It was that look in her eyes this morning — love for him one moment and a bitter hatred he caught just before entering Kat’s room. She had the skill to do this, the opportunity and, no doubt — because of him — motive.
‘Kat? Wake up, honey. I need to give you some water to drink.’ He took the jug and poured the liquid into her glass. Eddie lifted her gently and placed the glass to her mouth. ‘There you go, princess, drink all of it if you can.’ Kat coughed but took the water. ‘Is someone going to answer this fucking buzzer!’ he shouted. Eddie placed her head back on the pillow and walked out into the corridor.
‘Jesus... fuck!’ Eddie began to choke as the cancerous odour of the old man rolled down the ward towards him. It wasn’t as overpowering as the previous night but it hit him hard. ‘Is there anyone about?’ he gasped.
Eddie walked cautiously towards the source, finding a discarded yellow duster to cover his nose and mouth. He stopped outside room twenty-four. Here the stench was at its strongest and was sticking to his hair and clothes. Eddie pressed his ear to the wood. He heard some muffled sounds inside. Anger blinded him to reason and he burst into the room.
It took a couple of seconds for Eddie to accept what was in front of him wasn’t some stupid movie set that would forevermore be stored in his mind. Ros stared back at him. She had been stripped and placed awkwardly in a small pink chair in the corner of the room. Her clothing lay beside her and it looked as if it had been shredded from her body with a sickle, saturating the material with most of her blood. Eddie gripped the door tightly, as if it were the edge of a cliff. The woman had been eviscerated at the waist like some magic trick gone horribly wrong. Whoever had done this had tried to crudely place her torso onto her hips and legs as if putting the body back together would somehow be okay. But, it was something in her eyes that horrified him the most — they appeared to be locked into an expression of pleasure. Eddie turned his head away from the corpse of his former lover and vomited.
Breathing heavily, Eddie saw the window had been smashed inwards with small fragments of glass littering the floor. It was a slight rustling sound coming from the bed that made him turn. There was movement under the sheet. Slowly the head of a young girl emerged tortoise-like from the crisp white linen. Her movements were slow and deliberate as she sat up. She had a presence about her, a power to draw men in, which Eddie was finding hard to resist. The girl looked at him with an expression of hatred and lust that had been cruelly sculptured across her torn face. She was young, dark-skinned and naked. Eddie ran his eyes over her firm body and saw deep wounds that looked like bite marks covering her breasts, shoulders and neck. She bared her teeth and hissed. He felt unable to move, as if she wielded some magical force that kept his feet rooted to the floor. The girl began to crawl across the sheet towards the end of the bed to where Eddie stood, paralysed. He saw other bites on her body, horrible open cuts exposing muscle, which dripped red drops onto the pristine sheet as she moved. Matted hair clung to a face warped into a mask of sweat and desire. Eddie was freefalling into her hypnotic embrace and felt a powerful, erection press hard against his trousers. She sat back and opened her legs, inviting him to enter her. He wanted to resist, but his feet unlocked, and he took a faltering step towards the bed. He was deaf, dumb and blind to the distraction around him, and unaware someone was shouting for him to move back. But Eddie was happily drowning in the girl’s deep, black pupils.
A strong arm gripped his shoulder, lifting him like a child away from the bed, and tossed him into the corridor. In a split second the world started again. The sound of automatic gunfire shattered the stillness as bullets blew the girl’s face apart, leaving a bloody mess splattered over the room. Brain and hair stuck to the wall before sliding onto the floor, leaving a slimy trail dripping onto the pages of a celebrity magazine.
Eddie was still intoxicated by the girl and felt dazed by the sudden sound of gunfire. He sat with his back to the wall, winded and gulping in air from the force of his eviction out of the room. Three black-clad figures emerged and started firing down the length of the ward. Eddie squinted. There were curious shapes that seemed to move with incredible speed, making them impossible targets. He tried to get up, but was pushed back onto the floor with some strength. Anger drove him up again, until the hot muzzle of a submachine gun pressed hard against his throat quickly discouraged him. He looked at the shooters, who now stood alongside his captor. The targets moved to the end of the corridor and stood glaring and hissing at the people on his side. One of the women ran forward and was cut down immediately by concentrated fire from all three guns. Her companions shrieked loudly, filling the spaces the gunfire left. As the smoke cleared, Eddie saw the woman on the floor was riddled with bullets, but she was still trying to crawl towards them. The tallest one of his group stepped forward and shot four rounds directly into her head. A thick white liquid spurted out from the shattered skull and began to pool around her body.
Eddie sat transfixed, hardly noticing Fred appearing from one of the rooms at the end of the ward. The howling and shrieking stopped as he whispered to the group. The tallest of the men nodded and swept up the remaining Brood with one arm; pushing them into a room and slamming the door shut. It happened so quickly; Eddie’s rescuers had little time to react and took up defensive positions around him.
The tall man who shot the woman carefully motioned for the others to step back slowly. He took off his balaclava and knelt down beside Eddie. Eddie saw he was very young but carried himself with an inner confidence of someone in complete charge. He was, Eddie assumed, Nordic with blue eyes, blond hair, and had a very muscular physique. Given the level of combat skill, Eddie found him very impressive.
‘I’m Lars, leader of this team. Get up slowly and come with us.’ He nodded to the person holding the gun to his neck. The y
oung man offered him his hand and once again Eddie found himself being lifted into the air with little effort.
‘I’m not going anywhere without Kat.’ Eddie broke away from his rescuers and ran into room sixteen. The bed was empty except for the drip stand, which now lay on the floor bent and twisted. The plastic lines had been ripped out of Kat’s hand and were still speckled with drying blood on the tips. Eddie cried out in anguish. The blinds were no longer shackling the light and had been thrown onto a chair. Glass glistened on the carpet, telling its own story of someone smashing their way into the room and taking the woman.
A gentler hand touched his shoulder. Eddie spun with both hands raised to strike out at anything. He swung a left, which was caught easily by the black-clad figure and held tightly. Eddie grabbed the balaclava and tore it off. Underneath, a woman’s face glared at him. Eddie stopped immediately and sank to the floor, all his pent up anger and fury sinking with him.
‘Eddie Keagan...Sixsmith sent us?’
He nodded. Why would Sixsmith send some female Rambo and Nordic Thor after him? ‘What does your boss want with me?’
‘He’s not my boss,’ the woman snapped.
‘Have those things got Kat? Is she dead as well?’ Eddie looked up into the woman’s face, dreading the answer.
‘I would guess she is dead — or about to be — and there is nothing you can do. No childish heroics are going to bring her back. Now get up, we need to move.’ She helped him to his feet and led the way to the stairs where the others were waiting. They had all removed their balaclavas and were cautiously using their laser sights to mark the end of the ward. Father had gone, but the threat hadn’t.
Lars placed a huge hand on Eddie’s shoulder, manoeuvring him into the centre of the team. ‘Let’s go, and keep alert. We know they’re here. Eddie, you go in front of me and Maya, the rest will cover you.’
The woman called Maya took the lead as they slowly but tactically moved down the stairs.
‘Where are we going?’ Eddie demanded.
‘Sixsmith is waiting in your department. I’m afraid it was hit pretty badly. Everyone was dead when we arrived,’ Lars said, quietly. ‘We knew they were attacking, but we didn’t know where. It’s strange.’
‘What’s strange?’ Eddie’s response was automatic as he tried processing the last few sentences Lars had spoken.
‘Why they chose this place to make a fight? It’s different from usual; different strategy and tactics. Also, Father is here,’ Lars said, as if Eddie understood.
‘Who is this Father person? Is that Fred? Was it him that did that to Kat?’
‘Sure, it was him.’ Lars paused as Maya slowed down.
The team moved their weapons in wide arcs as they descended the stairs. One of the men raised a clenched fist, signalling for the others to stop. They all listened. Above them, footsteps were being placed lightly and deliberately on each step. Lars tapped the shoulder of the person next to him and motioned silently. The man moved with the delicate step of a spider on its web. He approached the corner of the stairwell and knelt down, training his weapon on the curve of the wall.
As the sound got closer, each footstep became more poorly disguised. Then, a small figure appeared on the stairwell.
The soldier stood, preparing to fire.
‘Please, I need help. I am porter, Khan. I just started here and heard shots.’ Jahed Khan stood above them with his arms raised.
‘Lars. Target claims to be a porter. Looks clean. No bites or scratches. Shall I shoot him anyway?’ the man asked casually.
‘Please, don’t shoot! Please!’
Eddie pushed past Lars and ran up the stairs. ‘That’s enough! I can vouch for him.’
Lars and Maya were on the step in a few strides. The Swede nodded to release Jahed. Lars took hold of Eddie’s shoulder and spun him around. Lars wasn’t ready for the chop that landed on the side of his neck dropping him to his knees. Eddie lined up a knee to finish the job, but found himself staring up at the ceiling with Maya on top of him. He could feel her taut body even through the black fatigues. She trapped his neck and arm, pulling his head towards hers. He noticed a curious musky scent on her hair, even through the pain she was applying. Her thighs were wrapped around his stomach and were forcing the air out of his body. Eddie began to feel the thump of blood in his ears and the start of unconsciousness.
‘Enough, Maya.’ Lars croaked. ‘Leave him get up. He’s new to all this, and Sixsmith wants him a little more coherent.’
Maya jumped cat-like to her feet and went to Lars, who was still groggy and rubbing his neck. She examined him while Eddie attempted to sit up. Jahed Khan reached down and offered his hand. Eddie took it and immediately regretted getting to his feet. His arm and neck felt like Maya was trying to use him like a wishbone, and his head had a continuous thump as blood fought gravity to re-establish circulation. He took some pleasure in seeing Lars was still down, and curiously sensed a stab of jealousy as the woman helped him to his feet.
‘I don’t care why Sixsmith wanted you rescued. But we risked our lives to get to you. We could all have been killed — or worse.’ Maya’s tone was ice. ‘You need to grasp this situation very quickly. We are in a battle and we cannot afford to carry you. Sixsmith says you have fought bravely with honour in the past, but I don’t see any exceptional skills.’
Eddie walked past them both and down the stairs in silence. Jahed followed closely behind, nodding his thanks to the man for not shooting him. Eddie was both embarrassed and aroused by this woman, and he shouldn’t be. He should be searching for Kat, even though she could be dead, yet somehow he had to try, no matter what these people said. What tore at him was the girl was right — he was not ready. He didn’t have the skills or tools he needed to take the fight to this Father. He could be lying upstairs torn to pieces by that girl if it wasn’t for this team.
‘Sir, I need to thank you for saving my life back there. They would have shot me; I saw it in their eyes. It was as easy as squishing an ant.’ Jahed offered his hand.
Eddie shook it. ‘You’re welcome. How are you finding your first couple of days in St Margaret’s?’ Eddie forced a weak smile.
They both laughed, breaking some of the tension. Maya and the team appeared, with Lars covering the rear.
‘We’ve wasted enough time,’ she snapped, moving past Eddie without a glance of acknowledgement.
They followed her downstairs and pushed through a heavy set of plastic doors leading to the Accident and Emergency department. Eddie couldn’t stop thinking about the smell of Maya’s hair and how he wanted more of that. He wanted to be with her, and felt a deepening shame, as his mind should be on Kat. They turned a corner where the lights of his department glowed dully.
Soon, Eddie would know the truth.
8
The automatic doors juddered on stiff hinges, refusing to open as if they were trying to spare Eddie from what they hid. He was standing at the front of the group with Lars close to his shoulder.
‘Let me go first to make sure it’s still secure,’ Lars said.
The older man turned. Lars caught something in Eddie’s eyes that persuaded him it would be useless to negotiate. The nurse may have witnessed death many times in many guises, except, Lars knew, this time he was hopelessly unprepared for the savagery Father had inflicted.
Eddie pushed harder. The doors swung open slowly at first, until the electronic mechanism countered the obstruction and smashed them against the wall. The hollow crash should have turned every head. What Eddie walked into was no longer a place where people cared if doors hit plaster walls. The place that had been his department a few hours earlier had been transformed into some hellish human abattoir. An exhibition of body parts — men, women and children were meticulously placed on top of tables, desks and chairs in a procession leading out to the waiting area. Blood saturated everything it came into contact with. Newspapers and faded magazines dripped and wilted, their pages drowning in too much liquid for the
paper to absorb. The rest pooled on the floor in thick, congealed ponds that resembled dinosaur footprints. Eddie was afraid to turn his head as each horrifying scene eclipsed the last. A small, severed arm lying near the reception desk gripping a Gruffalo book tightly as if not willing even in death to let it go sent a violent shockwave through his body. Eddie felt himself sliding slowly to the ground like a demolished building after the explosives have detonated. He frantically reached for a trolley and willed his body to stay upright as the horror went on. Scenes from the worst images of hell had been visited on this place. The eyeballs of the murdered had been crudely ripped out and placed in rows along the top of the curtain rails like marbles, gazing up, down, left and right as if waiting for some child to come and play a grotesque game.
The bodies of the victims had suffered the same fate Ros’s had. All were neatly sliced along the midriff and stacked on top of legs. Except this time, presumably for their amusement, they paired women’s torsos with men’s legs. It was the same with the few children who had come to his department to be made well again.
Somewhere behind him, Jahed collapsed to his knees, vomiting and praying, then vomiting again, as Lars and his team walked silently through the scene of inhuman savagery.
Whatever drove the psychological need to witness the horror of death compelled Eddie to become an unwilling spectator. In bay five, a severed head lay crookedly on the examination bed. The crown had been studded all over with scalpels driven into the flesh and bone to resemble some bizarre hedgehog that stared at him with empty eye sockets. As a finale, a lump of male flesh had been stuffed into her mouth in an act of vile degradation. Even he couldn’t help feeling some remorse for Sister Flint. As much as he hated her, he didn’t want this.
Eddie tried to turn away. ‘Oh God, no! Andy!’