by Terry Yates
Sylvia had moved away from Martin Burns’ bed when she had first heard the creature howl. She had stumbled blindly against a wall still clutching her camera. As the beast moved slowly toward her, she wanted to cry. She could only see a large, blurry mass moving within just feet of her. She began to sob quietly as the thing got closer. Although she still couldn’t get a good look at it, she knew that it was there to kill. Her crying became louder as she slid down the wall. She felt her bladder let go as the thing loomed over her ready to strike. Michael Blum watched as it reared back its left claw. It was going to do the same thing to the photographer lady that it had done to the old man. He saw flashes from the camera going off. The lady wasn’t even looking into the lens. Her head was down awaiting the inevitable. She was clutching her camera so hard that her finger must have hit the button sending flash after flash up into the monster’s face causing it to growl and turn away. It blindly swung toward her, its claw hitting the wall a good four feet above her head and leaving a hole five feet around where there had been a perfect pristine hospital tiled wall just seconds earlier.
Several cables came loose from inside the wall and started flying around the room like large snakes spitting sparks from their mouths. It had turned away from Sylvia and was now looming over the sleeping Mrs. Rogerson.
“Do something!” Leanne screamed at Rob. “Help her!” But Rob Olsen had not heard her. When she had refused to leave, he had taken off without her. The person standing next to her wasn’t Rob, it was Shelley Dixon who had jumped out of her bed still clutching a baby tightly under each arm, her head down between their heads not wanting to see the thing that was about to kill them all.
Leanne watched as the thing picked up old Mrs. Rogerson who, like Martin Burns before her, never woke up. As Leanne Olsen screamed hysterically, it ripped the throat out of its new victim and once again chewed hardily on its prey. After a few bites, the beast roared and threw the lifeless corpse away. It didn’t seem to like the old lady for some reason. There had been very little of Martin Burns left after it was done, but not so Mrs. Rogerson. The beast raged with fury and swiped at the old woman’s empty bed causing it to slam hard into Michael Blum’s empty bed which in turn slammed into Lauren’s bed causing it turn over and spilling Michael and Lauren to the floor, this time Lauren landing on top of him and the bed landing sideways on top of the two of them. Michael quickly shifted to his side and squeezed the two of them between the underside of the bed. His own bed was lying on top of Lauren’s giving them some invisibility from the creature. He looked down at Lauren. She was now unconscious and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the lightning and the sparks from the cables or maybe a trick of the light, but it looked like her face was a brownish yellow in cover.
Michael turned away, searching for the beast’s location. He looked between the twisted metal of their little fortress, only to find two giant hairy legs standing just inches in front of them. He heard himself whimper and felt tears starting to run down his cheeks. He could hear the thing snorting as if anticipating another great meal. Michael clutched at Lauren and buried his face in hers. He was only twelve years old and he was going to die. He would never know what it was like to be tall and he would never know what it was like to be with a girl. Where he was now was the closest he had ever been to a girl and it looked like the closest he would ever get. He waited for the end to come hoping that it wouldn’t be too painful.
But instead of yanking the beds apart and getting itself two more hardy meals, the thing jumped over them. Michael felt the breeze as it flew over and heard it land just past them. There was nothing for a moment, then screaming…and more screaming. Through the wind, rain, and thunder, Michael could hear four distinct screams…two ladies and two babies. After a moment, there was the sound of another window being broken. As the glass shattered, one of the voices suddenly stopped, cut off in mid scream, not leaving so much as a residue whimper or cry. Michael buried his face further into Lauren’s neck and wrapped himself around her.
“What the shit!” a man yelled.
To Michael, it sounded like the hairy man, the one with the model. Gringo. He was beginning to hear more voices now. The others were back. He heard shouting and screaming followed by more shouting and screaming. He heard someone or something hit the floor with a thud followed by a loud “oof!”
No more than a minute after that group of people arrived, he heard the sound of even more people arriving. He heard screaming, then growling, and then gunshots…and more gunshots…and more screaming…and more gunshots. Finally, he heard another window break and he knew that the monster must be gone. Shouts of “Oh my God!”, “Good Christ!”, and “Holy shit on a shovel!” were heard above the din.
Michael heard a clattering sound. It was someone untangling the three beds that he and Lauren were hiding under. As each bed fell away, he could feel the rain beating down even harder, and the wind was blowing twice as hard as was now twice as cold. As the last bed fell away, Michael saw the face of Sgt. Cohen followed by the face of Locklear O’Hearley.
“Oh my God…Lauren!” O’Hearley exclaimed. “Ariella!”
“Relax, Mr. O’Hearley. We’ll get her,” Sgt. Cohen told him. Somehow the sergeant’s voice seemed to be the only thing that the storm didn’t drown out.
The two men pulled the last bed off of Michael and Lauren. Michael didn’t realize he was still clutching Lauren until Locklear began to unravel him from her. Locklear scooped her off the floor with the strength of a man half his age.
“Oh Lauren! No!” he screamed.
“She’s still alive!” Mr. O’Hearley,” Michael yelled over the noise as Sgt. Cohen helped him up. It was only now that he felt his leg begin to hurt. His fear had made him oblivious to his broken leg.
“You all right, Son?” Cohen asked him, a hand resting gently on each of his shoulders. Michael nodded his head as his eyes began to survey the damage. The lightning was still flashing and the rain was coming in hard now from four different broken windows. He saw the model on the floor comforting the photographer lady. He saw that Mr. O’Hearley was still holding Lauren, only now Mrs. O’Hearley was there and her face was buried in Lauren’s. The man called Gringo was helping Opal Munn out of her bed, while the dark lady named Zora was comforting an hysterical Shelly Dixon. Burt Burns was sitting on the floor, head in hands, and looked to be weeping, and Dr. Kyler and Nurse Walling were either looking for the John Doe or looking for Mrs. Olsen. The complete left side of the doctor’s body, from his feet to the top of his head was covered in blood. Michael guessed that he was one that he’d heard hit the floor. He saw others in the room now. People he hadn’t seen before. There was an Asian man wearing a cap and a shirt with his name on it. And soldiers…with guns drawn. He recognized Col. Potts who was waving his pistol around and barking orders at Opal Munn’s grandson. There were three more soldiers. One black and two white. They were securing the perimeter, a term he had heard Col. Potts just scream at them. The three of them ran outside through the hole in the door that the beast had made during its departure, with guns drawn and flashlights shining in all directions, because none of them were really sure what they were looking for. They just knew that it was large.
“Can you stand on your own, Son?” Sgt. Cohen asked him, one hand still on a shoulder. Michael nodded to him. Cohen left and moved toward the others. Michael felt the water flowing against his bare feet. He looked down to see that the whole floor was covered in blood and pieces of the creature’s victims. The rain was diluting the blood, making it appear lighter in color. The wind was causing bits of flesh, muscle, and bone to move around on the floor as if someone were cleaning it, but there was no drain for the bits to go into so they simply moved around the floor, many pieces clinging to whatever ended up in their paths. He noticed that the live cables were no longer flying about the room and that was a good thing. He’d learned in science class that live cables and water don’t mix. His leg was beginning to throb again. He looked at his cast, w
hich was nearly hanging from his leg now. That was another thing he knew from science class. Hard plaster mixed with water won’t hold together. He reached his hand down and was about rub his leg through the cast when Shelly Dixon began to scream even louder than she had been since the thing had left the hospital. She was repeating the same thing over and over in a high, terrified voice. More people rushed toward her. He could see that Nurse Walling, Sgt. Cohen, and Samantha Gould had joined Zora in an attempt to calm her, but it was having no effect. She beat against them all, still screaming the same thing over and over and over again. Finally, Michael understood what she was saying.
“It took my baby!”
CHAPTER 10
It had been Rob Olsen’s screaming that they had heard just as they had rescued Sam Fong from the elevator. They had heard the screaming from the first floor and had immediately begun to run down the stairwell toward the sound. They had just hit the second floor landing when they met a babbling and incoherent Rob Olsen. Sam Fong and Sgt. Cohen pulled out their flashlights and shone them on the man. The stairwell was dark, the only light being several round red lights giving the area a pinkish glow. There were no wires sticking out of the orbs or small green battery lights glowing from the round plastic that held the bulbs, so Kyler figured they were one of those night lights that he had seen advertised on TV. The kind you just stick on the wall when you wanted to see where you were going when the lights were off.
Rob Olsen was wet and there appeared to be blood splattered all over him. He had collapsed on the landing and continued to scream. Kyler pushed Zack off of him and bent down over Rob who was flat on his back, eyes closed, his head moving back and forth. He was muttering softly.
“Mr. Olsen? What is it?” Kyler asked while patting his face. “Nurse Walling, do you have anything?”
“What’s anything?” she asked back.
“I don’t know…smelling salts? Ammonia? Anything?”
“Why would I have smelling…”
“Nurse Walling!” he snapped, then caught himself. He didn’t want to piss off the one person he needed most. “Nurse Walling, see if there are any first-aid kits up on any of the floors. Okay?”
“Right away, Doctor,” she answered tightlipped. She stood up and began to walk up the stairs. Sam Fong took out his flashlight.
“I’ll come with you,” he told her about to follow her the stairs. Nurse Walling stopped, turned around and looked down at him.
“No thank you, Mr. Fong,” she told him her hand in front of his chest. “I’ll be fine.”
Sam quickly flipped the flashlight up into the air several inches above his palm. When it landed back in his hand, it was handle out. He extended it to her. “Take this then,” he told her holding the flashlight out to her. She looked down at it.
“Again, no thank you, Mr. Fong, but I know this hospital like the back of my hand.” She started walking up the stairs. “There’s one in the x-ray room, third door on the right.”
“Thank you, Nurse,” Kyler yelled up to her, but she didn’t answer. She was stomping up the stairs. He was going to have hell to pay when all of this was over. He turned back to Olsen who was muttering loudly now.
“Monster…monster…” he groaned. Zack looked up at Kyler.
“Monster? What monster, Mr. Olsen?” the doctor asked him. “What are you saying?”
“What is it, Dad?” Zack asked loudly. “What monster?”
“The man…monster…lightning….sparks…”
“Sparks?” Gringo asked.
That had been all Sam Fong had needed to hear. “I’m gonna go and turn the power off.”
“The power is off numb nuts…or haven’t you noticed?”
“No, Dumbass,” Sam retorted. “The lights are out, but the main power switches are still on. Wires and cables can still have juice in them. What do you think is going on when lights flicker on and off, huh?” Sam glowered at Gringo waiting for some sort of response. Getting none, he began to run down the stairs.
Rob Olsen began to mutter again. Zack began to shake his father’s chin trying to jar him awake again.
“Dad! Where’s Mom?” No answer. “Dad! Come on, Dad! Where’s Mom?”
Somehow hearing Zack ask about Leanne jarred him awake. His eyes popped open and he turned his head to Zack.
“She’s…she’s with the monster!”
Before his father could utter another word, Zack was running down the stairs towards the first floor.
“Zack!” Kyler yelled after him, but it was too late. The sound of Zack’s feet taking two stairs at a time echoed throughout the stairwell.
Kyler looked down at Rob Olsen. The man was suffering mainly from shock and fright. Immediate medical attention could wait. He had to go and see what put Olsen in this state.
“Someone look after him,” he said to the others and then stood up and began to chase after Zack.
As he ran down the stairs, he could tell by the multitude of footsteps hitting each step behind him, that no one had listened to him, and that they were all following him. He hoped at least that Nurse Walling or Sam would help Olsen on the way down.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and was met by complete darkness. It wasn’t the first floor hallway. Shit, he had run all the way down to the basement. As he was about to turn around to run back up a floor, Gringo, Samantha, Sgt. Cohen, Zora, and the O’Hearley’s, unable to stop their momentum, crashed down on top of him, slamming him against the door, then pushing him under a pile of bodies where feet, elbows, heads, and other body parts were all finding different places on his body to jab hard into. As they hit, one collective expulsion of air emanated from the whole group. Only Burt Burns managed to miss the scrum down. His seventy three year old legs had not been able to keep up with the rest of them and he was jolly glad of it when he saw the pile of tangled arms, legs, and feet that was lying at the bottom of the stairs.
Amid much groaning, the mass began to quickly untangle itself…not quick enough for Kyler though who was lying underneath it. As everyone began to get off of him, he felt a pointed elbow bury itself hard into his rib cage while a more rounded knee landed squarely between his legs sending an excruciating pain up through his crotch and into his stomach. It hurt so bad that he wanted to vomit, but he was empty of anything since his swim out to the jet crash. He simply laid there, eyes tightly shut, waiting for everyone to remove themself from his person. As the last one climbed off, he felt cold air rush into his lungs. He felt two sets of hands take his and help him to his feet where he immediately doubled over in pain.
“You all right, Doc?” Through his closed eyes, he knew that it was Gringo. That nasally accent of his was a dead give away.
“I’m fine,” he lied. “We need to get to the others.”
Without a word, the rest of them began running back up the stairs, leaving him still bent over. Burt Burns took him by the arm.
“Can you make it?” Burt asked him. He was still panting from running down the flight of stairs.
“I guess I’ll have to,” Kyler answered, putting an arm around the old man’s shoulders for support. The pain in his groin was easing a little. At least he no longer felt like he had three Adam’s apples.
As the two made their way slowly up the stairs, each helping the other, they heard the door on the first floor landing close. The group had made it to the ground floor. He just hoped that they could find their way back to the lobby.
As Kyler and Burt reached the first floor landing, they were met by Nurse Walling who was carrying a first-aid kit and now looking more concerned about him than she had when last they had spoken.
“I’ll be okay, Nurse Walling. Thank you? Where’s Mr. Olsen?”
Before she could answer, the three were startled by what sounded like a howling dog, only not a howling dog that Kyler had ever heard before. The howl was so loud and piercing that they had to cover their ears. One minute it sounded like the animal was in pain, the next sounding as if
it were extremely angry. Through the howling, they could hear screams…screams of sheer terror…screams that chilled their blood. Something horrendous was going on in the lobby.
“Come on, Nurse Walling!” Kyler exclaimed loudly as he opened the stairwell door. “Mr. Burns, you stay here!” For the first time since he’d met the man, Burt Burns gave him a look of contempt.
“My brother’s out there, Doctor,” the old man answered back. “I’ll be coming with you.”
Kyler said nothing. He held the door open for Nurse Walling and Burt. Once they were in the hallway, the howling and the screaming became louder and more amplified. Kyler moved past his companions and began to sprint down the dark corridor. As he ran, time seemed to stand still. He felt like he was running in slow motion because so many thoughts were running through his head at that moment. What’s happening down there? Is everyone okay…and most of all, what the hell was he going to do when he got there? If there was an animal, was he supposed to jump on its back and ride it around the room like Larry Mahan on an angry steer? At that moment, he felt extremely alone. Everyone was either running behind him or they had already become a part of the unknown fray that had scared Rob Olsen so much.