A door at the end of the hallway opened on squeaky hinges. Nowen looked up at the staircase that rose into the darkness. The flashlight did little to illuminate the stairs. She grabbed the handrail and looked at Benjamin. “Where is everyone?”
His reply was as hushed as her question. “There’s two other guys on the crew tonight, and they’re on the second floor. The third floor - I don’t know who’s up there. The fourth floor...” he shrugged.
“Guards?”
“The ones I’ve seen never come down this far. Sorry. I don’t know how many there might be.”
Nowen thought for a moment. “You stay here. I’ll make my way up to the top floor and see what I can see.”
“No!” Benjamin’s voice bounced off the walls of the stairwell. “I’m coming with you.”
Nowen whirled on the young man. “You are staying here. I might have to move fast and fight. I can’t afford to waste time trying to protect you.” He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off. “I’m not arguing about this. You stay here and keep the exit clear.”
Benjamin’s face showed his anger at this and again he seemed on the verge of speaking. This time the slamming of a door somewhere above stopped him. Nowen stepped back into a shadowed corner as a voice rang out.
“Benjy-boy! Where are you, kid?” The speaker was male.
“Damn!” At Benjamin’s hiss Nowen shot him a look. In the reflected light his anger was still evident. “I’m on B, Sean! What’s up?”
“What the eff are you doing down there, son? Taking a smoke break?” Raspy laughter bounced off the stairs. “Well, get your narrow ass up here. We got to make a distraction.”
“Bring the Revs around to the front of the hospital.” Benjamin whispered to Nowen before directing his next question up to Sean. “This late at night? What’s going on?”
“None of your damn business! Now get up here!” The banging of the door was very loud.
Benjamin turned to Nowen. “We make distractions so vehicles can come in and out. But rarely this late. I wonder what’s going on?”
Nowen felt a growing sense of unease. “Don’t go.”
The young man threw his hands up, sending the cone of light waving wildly around his head. “I have to, Nowen. If Ramos was on tonight, I could maybe get away with hiding out down here. But that Sean is a real bastard. He’ll come looking for me.”
“Ok. Do what you have to. But try to get back down here as fast as you can”.” Nowen looked up the inky stairs again, remembering another emergency exit stairwell in another hospital. “There’s other stairs going up, right?”
“Yeah, on the other side of the hospital. We never use them, though.”
“I’ll get to those and get to the fourth floor. You better go before that guy gets suspicious.”
Benjamin started up the stairs and Nowen went with him, her sandaled feet quiet on the concrete. At the landing outside the first floor she opened the door slowly, on edge for any noise at all. More stale air wafted at her from the open door. “Benjamin, what’s on this floor?”
“We store supplies here. I’ve never been all through this floor, though. So, you know, be careful.”
She looked back at him. “You too.” she said, and then stepped into the darkness. As the door settled back into its frame Nowen’s wolf vision brought the hallway into pale focus. The dirty tile floor slipped by underneath as she jogged down the hall. Open doors on either side showed boxes, crates, barrels, and other storage containers; her nose picked up the scents of chemicals and fabric.
The hall took a sharp turn to the right. Nowen paused at the corner and peered down the passageway. More doors lined the walls, but this time they were all closed. A nurses’ station halfway down the hall gave her a momentary flash of déjà vu. The corridor’s end was draped in darkness, but she could just make out a door with an ‘Exit’ sign. She started down the hall.
Her steady jog slowed as her senses, both human and wolf, began to spark with the sense of danger. She came to a halt at the nurses’ station, resting one hand on the dust-coated counter, where a magazine lay open next to a coiled stethoscope. A glance at the filmy paper showed a headline blaring about an actor who had cheated on his actress wife.
Nowen looked down the hallway in front of her. There was the slightest susurrus of sound, something familiar...Revs. She started walking again, placing each foot carefully on the tile floor. A quick look down showed she was not the first person to pass down this hall. She approached the first closed door on her right and pressed her ear to the wood.
Behind the door something was shuffling back and forth, an endless, aimless journey. Nowen crossed the hallway to the opposite door and heard the same thing. She continued down the dark passage and now, attuned to the soft noise, she could hear the Revs behind the doors. The rooms closest to the exit seemed to have more of the undead locked away than the further rooms.
The exit to the stairway loomed in front of her. Nowen tilted her head and listened but heard nothing. She turned the knob slowly and eased the door open. The stairs were cloaked in darkness and silence, doubling back on themselves like a snake. She started upwards.
At the second floor exit all it took was a glance through the window to tell her to move on. Four or five people, marked by their flashlights, were moving back and forth. Nowen watched for a moment but couldn’t tell what they were doing. She headed up to the third floor. The window showed a murky hallway stretching away into nothingness. She opened the door a crack and listened to the sound of emptiness before closing it and climbing up to the fourth floor.
A dim square of light spilled out onto the fourth floor landing. A look through the window revealed a corridor lined with closed doors. Set every few feet on tables and chairs were differing sources of light. Lanterns, lamps, flashlights, and even multiple strings of glowing paper balls suspended from the ceiling illuminated the hallway. The radiance ran the gamut from soft white to faded yellow. As she watched a red plastic lantern near the middle of the hallway blinked out.
Shadows danced at the end of the corridor where it turned left. Keeping one eye on the distant corner Nowen eased the door open, just enough so she could slip through. The end of the hallway here was quiet and she stepped out of her shoes, kicking them behind a large red pot that held a long-dead plant. Her bare feet made no sound on the tile floor as she stalked down the hall.
Nowen had just passed the first closed door on the left when the faint murmur of voices grew suddenly louder. The shadows loomed larger as what sounded like several people approached the passage’s end. She reached behind her and grasped the doorknob. It twisted easily under her hand and she shoved the door open, leaping backwards into the room just as the people turned the corner.
The door was slow to close and Nowen had to throw her weight against it to get the heavy wood panel to settle in its frame. The latch clicked home and she rested her head against the door, straining to hear any sound. It was difficult to tell but it sounded to her like the footsteps had stopped further up the hall. She waited a few moments more, her hand resting on the doorknob, debating her next move.
A soft rustling came from the dark room behind her.
Nowen whirled, dropping into a crouch, eyes sweeping across the room, her heart trip-hammering in her chest. In her wolf’s vision the interior resolved out of the gloom. It was a large room, and held multiple beds. The scent of old and fresh blood mingled with fear, sweat, and...fur? She straightened and approached the bed nearest to her.
Strapped to the bed, staring up at Nowen from wide and anguished eyes, was a boy younger than Sage. Tremors racked his pale body as ridges of yellow fur rose and fell across his chest like worms burrowing in mud. The boy grunted and strained against his bonds. With a creaking of bone his face changed, his mouth and lower jaw stretching forward into a muzzle from which jagged, misshapen teeth protruded. The boy wrenched his jaws open in a scream that produced no noise; as his head fell back Nowen saw raw scars on his thin thro
at.
The boy’s body was a tense bow rising off the bed. With a loud ‘snap’ his mouth slammed shut, the wolfen muzzle shrinking back into a human face. The teeth remained, however, now too big for the small face. They sliced through the pale skin of the boy’s lips and cheeks. Blood ran like tears from the punctures. In the gaze he turned on Nowen there was nothing but endless pain and fear.
She moved without thought, raising a hand to the boy’s neck. His skin burned beneath her touch as her claws cut through his papery skin. Blood poured from the wounds on his throat and soaked the sheet beneath his frail body. She watched as his eyes grew dim and the tension drained from his frame.
Nowen looked up from the boy, her gaze moving across the other beds in the room. Not all of them were occupied, but the ones that were held other children, writhing in silent agony as their bodies rejected the vukodlak. She walked toward the next child.
When she was finished she headed to the door that let out onto the hallway. Blood dripped from her hands, the steady fall of crimson drops matching her heartbeat. A fire was raging in her mind. She stoked the anger, feeding it with flashes of the twisted, tortured bodies that lay behind her. A low growl rumbled in her chest and her wolf strained to spring free.
Nowen reached for the doorknob and then paused at the sound of approaching footsteps. She stepped to the side of the doorframe, pressed her back against the wall, and waited. The door opened a sliver, letting in yellowed light that did nothing to illuminate the room.
“Mears!” The speaker was a woman. She was yelling at someone further away down the hall. “Tell Sean I’ll bring him two of the rejects.” Whoever Mears was shouted something back; Nowen couldn’t make out what it was. “It’s his damn job to get those Fluxers away from the cars! For all I care he can toss these freaks out the damn window alive, as long as we get the rest of the-” whatever else the woman was going to say was cut off by Mears shouting. The woman laughed. “Yeah, yeah, just go tell him I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” Still laughing, the woman pushed open the door and stepped in to the dark room.
Nowen grabbed the woman by her shoulders and whirled her around, slamming the stranger up against the wall. A flashlight fell from the woman’s limp hand, bouncing and spinning on the tile floor until it came to rest, its wide beam shining over Nowen’s shoulder and into the other woman’s face.
Nowen raised one clawed, bloody hand. “Don’t make a sound, or you’ll be dead before you hit the floor.” The woman nodded, quick and frantic movements that betrayed her fear. In the glare from the flashlight the net of seamed wrinkles that lined the woman’s face was thrown into sharp relief, framed by wisps of grey hair. She wore stained pink scrubs. Hanging from a cord around her neck was a piece of plastic.
Nowen shifted her grip. She held the woman to the wall with a hand around the thin neck, lifting the plastic piece with her other hand. The woman smiled at her from a photo on the laminated card; in the picture her face was unlined, her hair a deep shade of chestnut. Typed below the photo were three words: Dr. Naomi Kress.
Nowen held the card up before the doctor’s frightened eyes. “You were a doctor?” Kress nodded again. Her throat worked under Nowen’s hand as she swallowed. “What is it that you do here?”
“I-I-I help with the research.”
Nowen narrowed her eyes. “What research?”
“The Saviors are looking for a way to cure these poor people who have been afflicted with this lycanthropy-”
Nowen snarled, cutting Kress’ words off. “Don’t lie to me.” she said from between her gritted teeth.
The doctor’s eyes flitted about as if looking for some escape. “I-we, we, are trying to create more werewolves. They are uniquely suited to survive - and even destroy! - the Fluxers. The only way humans can reclaim the world is with the wolves.”
Nowen let go of the ID card and motioned behind her. “Not going so well, is it?”
Kress glanced once at the still bodies in the beds before she brought her gaze back to Nowen. “It has been difficult. Yes. There have been many setbacks. But we have to continue with the research. It’s the only way.” The doctor’s voice had taken on a pleading tone, but Nowen couldn’t tell who she was trying to convince - Nowen, or herself.
It doesn’t matter. Get the information we need. Nowen brought her face close to the doctor’s. A miasma of fear, sweat, body odor, and stale perfume enveloped Kress, and it was all Nowen could do to keep from wrinkling her nose in disgust. “I’m looking for someone. A girl, about fourteen years old. Dark red hair, dark eyes. Her name is Sage.” The doctor’s eyes widened. Nowen leaned in closer, until her nose was almost touching the other woman’s nose. “You know who I’m talking about! Where is she?”
Kress was almost panting now, and her words came out on gaspy breaths. “Sage. Yes. We’re getting strong results from her blood. She was here, but Zee moved her down south. Earlier today.” The doctor took in a deep breath, and then her eyes widened even more. “Oh, fuck. You’re Nowen, aren’t you? Zee told us about you. But you’re supposed to be dead!”
Nowen ignored the woman’s rambling, looking away into the black recesses of the room as she gathered her thoughts. Sage was here, and still alive. Down south...would that be Colorado Springs? If I get on the road now, could I catch them? The doctor struggled suddenly beneath her grasp. Nowen tightened her grip without sparing the woman a glance. No. I’ll need Benjamin. He can drive-
Nowen’s thoughts were shattered by a wailing, high-pitched screech that hit her ears like knives. She yelped and clamped her hands over her ears as her watering eyes locked on the sound of the noise. Kress was holding up something small and white in one hand while she fumbled for the doorknob with her other hand.
Nowen growled and swatted at the doctor, sending the cylinder spinning across the floor. The siren-like sound cut off instantly. Nowen grabbed Kress by the head with both of her hands and twisted. There was a loud snapping sound. She let go and the doctor’s body collapsed to the floor.
Nowen opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Shouts and running footsteps echoed from the corner at the end of the passageway and she knew that in less than a handful of moments more of the humans who worked here would be upon her.
She bared her teeth and ran to meet them.
Chapter Nineteen
Nowen rounded the corner of the hallway, taking in the situation in a glance. Three people were running toward her, and beyond them two more people stood frozen next to a gurney. A large, furry grey shape lay on the gurney.
That was all Nowen had time to take in, and then the closest people were on her. Two of them, in blood-and-food-spattered scrubs, were big, burly men. They reached for Nowen’s arms while the third person, a woman in jeans and a green shirt, pulled a length of pipe from a loop on her belt. She raised the pipe as she moved toward Nowen.
As the big man on the left grabbed at her arm Nowen stepped to the right. The man stumbled past and she kicked out with her foot, sending him sprawling to the floor. The man on the right had managed to latch on to her wrist and now he yanked her toward him. Nowen went with the force of his pull, adding that strength to her own forward motion. She brought her free arm around and as his wide chest came at her she slashed down his torso with her claws.
The man screamed. His pale blue scrub top turned purplish-red as blood spilled. His grip loosened and she twisted her hand so that now she was holding tight to his wrist. He tried to back away but she kept him close and drove her clawed hand across his chest again and again. The front of his top was sodden with blood.
Sudden pain lanced along her left side. From the corner of her eye she saw the woman raise the pipe for another blow. Nowen planted her feet, dug her claws into the man’s stomach, and swung him around and sideways. The pipe smashed into his nose and a gout of red exploded. His body went limp and she let him go, turning to face the woman as she did. Blood splatter on her face dripped into her mouth and she licked her lips as she spru
ng at this new enemy.
The pipe thudded against Nowen’s arm as she pushed the woman down. Straddling the prone body she slammed her fist against the woman’s cheek. The woman cursed and brought the pipe down on Nowen’s left shoulder. With a starburst of pain that arm went numb. Nowen snarled, blood and saliva dripping from her teeth as she brought her right hand around in a sweeping arc. Her claws flayed the woman’s face open, strips of skin peeling back from the muscle and tendons underneath.
The woman shrieked, flailing the pipe around wildly. Nowen dodged the aimless blows and struck again at her opponent. This time her claws connected with the woman’s eyes, popping them like grapes. The pipe fell to the floor with a metallic thud as the woman lost all interest in attacking Nowen. She raised her hands to her ruined face and screamed even louder, a climbing wail that was cut off when Nowen tore the woman’s throat out.
Nowen looked up from the bloody body beneath her. It seemed like no time at all had passed since she rounded the corner of the hallway. The two people, both young women, who stood on either side of the gurney hadn’t moved. Now, as Nowen stared at them, an adrenaline-stoked growl rising from her chest, they did. In unison they squealed, a sound akin to that made by rabbits Nowen had killed, and turned as one. They ran away from her, heading down the hallway and toward the emergency exit. She rose to her feet and took off after them.
The corridor abruptly tilted away, the white tile floor seeming to pull her down. She landed with a grunt, a massive weight holding her down. Stupid! You forgot that other man! Nowen gasped in pain as a huge hand sunk into her hair and forced her head back. Thick fingers dug into her scalp and fire raced along the half-healed gunshot wound. The man slid a thick arm around her throat and pushed her head forward.
Nowen bucked her body upward. The man hung on, pushing her back down to the floor with his weight. She tried again to free herself and again the result was the same. The tile was smooth under her hands and knees and she could find no purchase. Black spirals bloomed across her vision as the man tightened his arm more, her mouth falling open in a desperate attempt to breathe. Nowen’s chest heaved and hitched as her oxygen-starved lungs fought for air.
Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3) Page 17