by M. Evans
It growled loudly at him, gripped his head and smashed it repeatedly into the floor. It reached down and ripped his Adam's apple off and chewed at it wildly--loving the taste more with each bite. His warm wet blood sprayed into the air like a geyser, dripped off of the ceiling into his eyes and face as he lay twitching, dying underneath her mouth.
Pat watched this, biting his knuckles until they turned white. He saw the police and EMT pulling up and ran out, waving frantically to the police officers. When they saw Pat, they saw the urgency but read it completely wrong. Pat screamed at them, "You got to get up here now! You got to get in there and stop that thing!"
Martin, a twenty-something crime scene investigator, nodded at him. "From the sound of it, there isn't a hell of a lot left to stop. We already sent detective Lennon to the hospital to see if Dr. Fox went to see his fiancé, and Thompson's sitting on the Fox house in case he goes home."
"Damn it! You're not listening! There's everything to stop! Gutenberg--the other security worker‑-is in the building, and he's being eaten alive, for God sakes!"
Martin stared at Pat blankly. "Are you feeling all right, sir?"
Gonzalez, the paramedic, stepped out of his truck and saw the look on Pat's face. "Sir, are you feeling all right? You're as pale as a ghost! Can I get you to come over here and sit down for a minute, please?"
Pat was pacing back and forth impatiently. "Oh, God-Fucking damn it! Would you fucking listen to me!? I'm telling you that the woman is eating him! She's ripped his fucking neck out and was chewing it! I've never seen anything so horrible and wrong in my fucking life! Quit looking at me like I'm fucking insane and get over here, for God sakes, and look!"
Martin stared at Gonzalez with the same look of confusion. "Okay, then, Pat," he began again. "How about you show us what it is you're talking about, will you?"
Pat grabbed him by the collar. "Now get the fuck in there and I'll show you what I'm talking about!" He turned and went jogging for the door.
Martin pointed to Gonzalez and whispered, "Hey, go get your medical bag. Sounds like we're going to need it. I think Pat there might have lost it."
Gonzalez wasn't so sure. "He looks really scared there. Must really be something wrong."
Pat waited in the office for them.
Martin had his cell phone to his ear, cursing as he walked in, and unsure why he couldn't get a signal when he was only a few miles from town. "Okay, Pat. Can you tell me where this emergency is?"
Pat looked at them, unsure what was wrong with them. He pointed over to the monitors, ready to prove he wasn't crazy. "Hey, take a look, then you'll see exactly what I'm talking about." He hit the monitor to the hallway where Kiley had been eating Gutenberg and his mouth dropped.
It was empty. The blood was hard to see on the black and white monitors if he hadn't seen it pool.
Martin looked closely at the screen, unsure what was freaking the old man out. "Look at what, Pat?"
Pat knew he was looking and sounding like a complete and utter fool. He should have known any sane man who hadn't been offered any evidence would think he was senile. He threw up his hands in frustration. "They were up on the third floor, but I think you should call more people in! I know there's something there! I don't think any of us should go up there." He frowned, but suddenly had another thought. "I can show you the backup video!" Martin cut him off, quickly getting short on patience. He figured Lennon was probably picking up Dr. Fox if Thompson hadn't already got him at his house. He completely ignored the old man's warnings. "That's fine don't worry about the video Pat we believe you let's just go up there so we can get the crime scene started. This is going to take all day from what your initial reports said."
"Martin," Gonzalez began and pulled the officer aside, "are you sure we want to go up there? Don't you want to wait for backup or maybe take a minute to watch the video? What's the harm in amusing him? Is there anyone else that could come help you out, just in case he's right? I'm of no use to you unless they need a medic. What are we going to do with just the two of us? I don't have a gun, for God sakes."
"He's wrong, simple as that. Old people always see things different than they really happened. For all I know, the nurse got a bite on the wrist or something and Dr. Rogers is down getting a cup of coffee.... Anyway, I did call but my cell didn't work, and when I got through on the radio every available officer not on this already was sent to help with some huge traffic pile up between Ankeny and Des Moines.. All we have to do is go up there and make sure the nurse is okay, and I say we get back to enjoying a warm Sunday afternoon."
Pat overheard the men and went to the stairwell figuring he would take them up there to prove it. He had ol'-Bessie on his side and knew if they just saw the blood then maybe they'd believe him.
"Hey, why don't we take the elevator?" Martin suggested.
Pat shrugged and sternly retorted, "Be my guest, but I'm taking the stairs! I want to know what's ahead of me when I go through those doors!"
Since neither believed him they weren't worried about it. "Tell you what, Pat. You take your time getting up those three flights of stairs and by the time you get there we should have this entire thing wrapped up."
When he hit the up button for the elevator, Gonzalez sealed their fate. They entered, and as the elevator began going up, Pat's earlier behavior began to make Martin double guess himself and wonder why he hadn't taken the extra minute to watch the video. He was definitely worried that maybe the old man wasn't completely loony--after all, Pat may be old, but he was a trusted security guard. Martin touched his pistol just to make himself feel a little more at ease. Gonzalez he had nothing to protect himself with beyond his medical kit. Before the doors opened, Gonzalez looked at Martin, and seeing him check his pistol did nothing to ease the rising tension. "Why are you checking your pistol if this old guy's crazy? Do you think he could be right?"
Martin tried smiling, not wanting to let on that maybe something was wrong here. "No, don't worry about it. We're going to be just fine. Just ... uh ... just standard procedure." The elevators doors parted and, to their surprise, they saw a red stained floor they had not been able to see on the monitors. They'd found Security Officer Gutenberg.
"What in good God's name happened!?" Martin asked aloud. "How did this place get like this!? It looks like a freaking massacre! Do you know how much blood it takes to make a mess like this!?"
They cautiously walked out. Taking a look at the hallway, both men put a hand to their stomachs and felt sick. They peered around, quickly concentrating on one thing--exactly what or who had done this to the doctor. Martin thought there was no way Dr. Fox could have been responsible for what Pat was talking about. Pat had told them himself that Fox had left the property, which led Martin to believe there must still be a killer here because Gutenberg clearly didn't kill himself.
Gonzalez looked at Martin's raised pistol. "You keep bullets in that thing, Martin?"
Martin nodded his head, slowly looking left and right, aiming where he was looking but not sure what he was supposed to be looking for. He was afraid that maybe they should have gone with Pat up the stairs. Martin had the gun in front of him, ready for anything that looked like it was out of place.
They gasped when they saw Rogers on the floor. Gonzalez opened his mouth to scream, but Martin smacked him on the chest and raised a finger to his mouth to be quiet.
The two men walked around the giant mess of blood slowly, looking around but seeing and hearing nothing. They moved in unison, not sure which direction was the safe one to go in.
Martin motioned for Gonzalez to stay back as he quickly passed through a doorway, checking it left and right, trying his best to keep calm.
Gonzalez let Martin walk past one more doorway before he followed.
The last noise Martin ever heard Gonzalez make was an agonizing scream.
He turned just in time to see the medic's feet up in the air flying into a doorway. His medical case crashed to the floor spilling instruments everywh
ere.
Martin started yelling, "Freeze! It's the police! Come out with your hands up!"
The only sound he received was the gurgling of blood coming from the throat of his friend. Martin ran in sweeping his pistol around the laboratory room once the sounds from the medic had ceased.
He saw the nurse Pat had been so afraid of. Now he thought he had a good fucking reason to be. The creature was down on its knees, eating away at Gonzalez's bloody, trembling body.
Martin's prolong scream reverberated through the maze of corridors, "Nooooo!"
This ravenous monster which used to be a nurse was focused only on the feast in front of it.
"Stop! In the name of all things holy, I will God damn shoot!" This time it heard him. It lifted its head up with blood dripping from its chin, still chewing the little pieces of his bloody chest. Pieces were falling off of its face. It growled ferociously at him and the echo ran through the open room.
Rising to its gore covered feet, it rose to attack. Martin fired off two shots knocking her back over Gonzalez. Martin let out a big breath trying to calm himself. He had shot her squarely in the chest. He looked around the room, but then blinked as he saw the monster rolling to its side and pushing itself up. It was now looking at him with even more hunger in its eyes.
The former security guard came from nowhere. Martin never had a chance. Gutenberg jumped from the side, knocking him off of his feet. Martin was screaming as the second creature destroyed and devoured his body, this time leaving very little left to turn.
Pat, who was originally in a hurry to get up the stairs to prove the men wrong, was now thinking maybe he was not in such a hurry. He wasn't even sure he wanted to continue walking up the steps. More than likely, what he thought he had to prove might end up getting him killed. As he got to the top level of stairs, the first sounds he heard were the screams of one and then the other man followed by gunfire. Then he could hear the repeating of more and even deeper cries of agony and pain. The sounds ended abruptly, leaving the hall and stairwell silent again. In the moments following, he was sure he had heard someone's final breaths.
Pat pulled Bessie from his holster knowing there was a better than good chance he was going to need her today. If anyone on that floor was still alive, he felt a responsibility to save them. He refused the thoughts of abandoning anyone. He had never thought himself a coward nor would he. He pushed through to open the door, quickly swinging Bessie wildly left to right to left, trying to see if there was anything there which would need to be quickly taken care of. Though he could see the blood and gore covering just about everything, he could find Bessie no target.
He stood there for a moment looking down the side hallway. Absolutely nothing looked out of place. He walked slowly until he heard horrible noises coming from one of the laboratories--a sound not made by humans ... the sound of animals ripping and tearing at flesh.
Pat took another step when Gutenberg stumbled out of the door, slowly bumping off of the doorway. They immediately locked eyes. Pat noticed the creature's chest. It looked like shrapnel had taken its toll on it, but these were fresh and unhealed wounds. He knew these were caused by the nurse. He could see a difference in this thing's face. "Hey, Gutenberg.... Buddy, are you okay...? Did you see the other officer come up here...?"
Gutenberg looked at him curiously before charging across the long distance of the hall. Wildly unsure of what he should do, Pat knew if he was wrong he'd be put in jail for manslaughter, but if he was right, how could he prove it? Deep down, he knew there was no winning choice here.
Gutenberg got within fifteen yards, and Pat drilled three bullets straight into the chest. The force barely made a difference and would not have stopped it at all had it not slipped on the blood.
Pat let out a deep breath thinking he had taken the man out. He looked around, trying to see if anything else was coming, when he noticed Gutenberg jumping to his feet in seconds. Pat aimed true one more time and fired a bullet directly into the creature's skull. The force of the bullet knocked its head back splattering curly blonde hair and brains across the white tiled wall. Pat watched as the head fell back with smoke rolling out of the hole. This thing which used to be his colleague collapsed into a heap and was still.
Pat sat down on the floor, taking a deep breath, massaging his heart and praying it would hold tight until this day was over. He was confident he would absolutely never come back to this building again for any reason or amount of money. He holstered the pistol and was trying to remain calm when Kiley came out of the laboratory. Snarling and growling, its bloody hair looked as red as mashed cherries. The face was a mess and its stomach appeared quite full of whatever she had been gorging on. As its abdomen had been eaten through, the things it had eaten were falling out as she was walking.
Pat slowly pulled out his pistol, not thinking for a moment maybe he should see if Kiley needed help. She was past help and he was past being worried about it. He was tired and his arms felt heavy. He aimed and fired, missing and hitting the wall next to her. The bullet blew tile into the nurse's face cutting it open. It screamed in rage and went into attack mode, charging down the hallway towards him. He waited until the bounding monster was within five feet and pulled the trigger. The bullet unleashed hell on her face and blew half of her skull off back down the side of the hallway. It dropped there flopping on the ground. Fresh blood from its skull filling what was possibly the last clean tile where it had landed.
Pat sat there a moment longer, shaking his head, unsure how in the hell an honest, God fearing man like himself could ever end up in a situation such as this. He thought what an easy job this was supposed to be--just something to get him by until he was eligible for Medicare. He set Bessie down, counting his blessings he'd had the intelligence to go out and get her from his car.
He opened his eyes to see Gonzalez and Martin covered in blood. Pat gasped as he saw Martin's neck sitting at an awkward angle, and noticing under the shirt and tie that there was very little still holding the head to the body.
Pat was past the squeamish stage. Instinctively knowing with a six shooter to count his bullets, he hit the switch to open the cylinder freeing it from the frame of the pistol and hit the bullet release to empty the spent shells. They rattled on the floor as he reached for his speed loader and instantly cursed himself that he hadn't grabbed the extra ammo.
The two men came running at Pat and he pushed as quickly as his old, arthritic body would allow. He stumbled to the doorway and opened the emergency door. He got through it, turning the handle and slamming the door in their faces, thinking how they'd be helping him right now instead of trying to kill him if they had just taken the damn stairs not more than fifteen minutes ago. Pat went down the stairs as quickly as he could, and left through the front doors. He was thanking God for another day on this Earth as he locked the front doors behind him, hoping to protect the world from whoever or whatever was in there now.
****
Dr. Sanji came into Karen's hospital room checking his chart and not paying any attention to the patient. In his experience, comatose patients were the easiest and least likely to be found in the complaints department. He wrote his final notes from the previous patient and looked up.
The clipboard he was carrying rattled on the floor.
"Ms. Randall! You're up! This is most wonderful! How are we feeling?" Dr. Sanji asked in his thick Indian accent.
He stared at her, watching her closely, looking for any signs that she understood what he was saying. He knew it was common when patients' hearts stopped, they would lose oxygen which would leave them brain damaged. He knew this couldn't be the case because, once they get to that point, they don't sit up again. He shook her shoulder to get a response. She looked at him, and then at her arm and put it up to her mouth. He started jotting notes on her patient hospital chart but looked up when something red came with a splat and dribbled slowly down his clipboard. He touched it. "Blood? But where did this...?" He stopped talking when he looked up
. A small oval flap of skin was hanging from Karen's mouth, and fresh blood was dripping on her blue and white polka dot hospital gown.
On the intercom by the door, he hit the emergency button for the nurses' station. A nurse came rushing in. "Get me some sedatives, please! Ms. Randall woke up and there's something seriously wrong with her. She's come back from the coma, but I'm going to need a needle some and thread--she ripped her own skin off!" He pointed to the bloody spot on her arm.
The nurse stared. "Yes, doctor! I will get some immediately! Would you like me to call some orderlies, sir?"
The doctor shook his head. "No, I think we are okay, but she came back too fast from the coma. There is something wrong with her. I need to talk to the medics and see if anything was out of the norm with her when they picked her up last night." He quickly looked at her chart with the information and dialed the phone number.
The nurse nodded and Dr. Sanji made the quick call to her immediate emergency contact, a Dr. Fox. "Hello, this is Dr. Sanji. Did you say that this was Dr. Fox?" After a moment, he continued, "Yes. I'm calling today from Mercy Medical Cancer Clinic, Dr. Fox. Karen Randall had you listed as an emergency contact. There's been a situation at the hospital, sir. I can honestly say in twenty-five years I've never seen anything like this. Your fiancé is awake, but I've never seen anyone try to eat themselves before."
He looked up at Karen. "Ms. Randall, please lay back down. Please stay back!" He dropped the phone and screamed, stepping on it as he backed up from her. She was walking slowly towards him at first, her long brown hair hanging down from her head covering her face. Small drips of blood were falling from her chin and landing in front of her--she was smearing the droplets with her bare feet.
He stumbled awkwardly backwards, kicking the phone across the room. Her slow, wobbly walk turned quickly into a leap and she was within a foot of him. He ducked underneath her outstretched arms. She only let him out of her sight for a moment. He was rationalizing, trying to keep things straight, thinking scenarios out as quickly as he could. He wasn't sure what he was allowed to do but figured his tenure wasn't worth a damn thing dead.