After it Happened Boxset: 1-6 Omnibus Edition, page 19
Dan killed the engine about a mile short of the hospital and looked at the map, with Steve whispering points of reference and interest to him. Both had their goggles pushed up on their heads to allow some night vision to develop, as it was now nearing pitch-black.
Steve pointed to a place on the map and said “ERV,” meaning emergency rendezvous point. “Wait one hour and return to the vehicle. Leave the keys on the rear nearside wheel,” he finished.
“Agreed,” said Dan, meaning that if they got split up and the other did not make it to the meeting point, then they would be left behind by the other. Losing one could easily turn into losing three. Losing these three in particular would almost certainly mean death or hardship for the group.
They stalked in slowly, working as a pair: One covered as the other moved. They performed this leapfrogging, Ash gliding silently by Dan’s side, until they reached the approach to the hospital.
They spent some time watching the building as best as they could and saw no movement. They began to leapfrog forward again, more slowly now.
Dan took cover and scanned the ground ahead. He thought he could smell the hospital from here already. He froze, double-checked what he thought he saw, and then snapped his fingers once for Steve’s attention. He remained in position, weapon pointing towards the interest until Steve moved to his side and whispered in his ear.
“Hers?” he asked.
“Yes,” Dan whispered back. Ash let out the smallest of whines, and Dan quieted him with a reassuring hand on the back of his head. Dan had seen the Land Rover that he had given to Lexi – a grey Defender with black wheels and a black roof, chunky off-road tyres, and a solid metal-sided boot space. A chill washed over him, a wave of fear and responsibility.
“Go slow, and do a three sixty until we find an access point,” he whispered, intending to retrace Lexi’s steps.
“Roger,” Steve responded, and went first.
They started from nearest her vehicle, as would make sense, to see if and where she had got inside. The Defender was parked by the main front doors, and they worked to the left where they found the A&E entrance after a couple of hundred metres.
Smashed glass in a defunct sliding door said she was likely in. It didn’t look like old damage at all, and only a few leaves had blown inside. Dan was concerned about taking Ash in through the broken glass, so spent ten painstaking and leg-cramping minutes brushing it away slowly to avoid making noise. All the time, Steve was scanning all around him, alert for signs of danger.
Ash was a great early warning system; his ears and nose would detect people and noises long before they could, and Dan had learned to take his lead from the adolescent dog at times like this. Not that his nose would be much use inside – the air hung heavy, rank with the choking smell of decomposing bodies.
When he had finally cleared their entrance, he whispered, “Moving” softly to Steve.
He climbed inside as silently as possible before leading Ash through. He made him sit in the waiting room, confident that nothing would get to them and still possess all its limbs intact.
They went as silently as possible, having to use the goggles, as the inside of the building allowed no ambient light to penetrate. Dan wished he had some green dot laser sights for the carbine, but had never considered he might have to do building searches by goggles. He snapped himself out of the brief daydream. Ash was blinded by the darkness, but his canine senses were worth an entire squad of trained special forces right now.
It took a long time to clear even a small area in a tight formation of three, but neither suggested splitting up – it was too dangerous to contemplate.
A low growl came from Ash, quickly stopped as Dan put a reassuring hand down to him. He could hear the dog sniffing the ground, and looked down to decipher the marks he could see.
There were streaks of dried blood – but then there were rotting bodies and blood trails in a lot of places – but this was fresh, red, not brown. Dan looked closer and saw two parallel dark lines mixed in with the blood trail. He ran his finger over them, and was rewarded with the tiny shreds of rubber balling up under his touch.
He turned to whisper to Steve, “Bleeding. Dragged. Boots left rubber marks.” Steve bent to examine the same and offered no other explanation. He nodded, and Dan followed the tracks slowly with Ash stalking silently beside him. Deeper they went into the pitch-black heart of the foul hospital.
LET US PREY
The patient had seen the woman walking carefully through the hospital. He followed her on bare feet, moving like a ghost. He was a hunter, and she was his prey. She carried a gun on her back and had one in her hands which she pointed everywhere she looked.
The demon told him that she was dangerous, but that he could not let her violate their temple of death. Take her, the voice urged. Take her now!
The patient picked up a heavy box by the handle, silently, carefully. He walked behind her as she opened cupboards and looked for things. She could not be allowed to desecrate this place any longer. He stepped out silently and readied himself like a cat.
The woman froze and started to turn towards him, raising her gun.
He swung the heavy box, hitting her on the left temple at the same moment she saw him and her eyes went wide with fear.
Yes, said the demon. Fear us, he shouted as she slumped to the floor and dropped her gun. The man stood there, breathing deeply with exultation at his prowess as a predator. He looked down on the woman and marvelled at her youth and beauty. She was dressed as a warrior, but he had bested her easily.
He took her gun, caressing it as a tool of power over others, before he took her by the wrists and dragged her limp body through his lair.
He tied her to the walls using the wires and tubes, making intricate patterns as he built a shrine to her body. The demon told him what to do at every turn, purring his orders to the man and enjoying every second.
She will be perfect for us, it said.
He used the woman’s knife to cut away her clothing, inspecting each piece as he removed it until she hung slumped in her bindings, naked and dripping blood from her head onto the floor.
He watched her until the light grew pale. When it started to get dark, he lit candles taken from the chapel where he had torn the heavy wooden cross from the wall. He holds no power here, warned the demon, only I.
He inspected her thoroughly, feeling a desire he had not felt for as long as he could remember. Not yet, instructed the demon. She is mine to take and you will not touch her until I command.
The patient made slow, almost lazy cuts along the top of her breasts, watching with fascination as the blood ran to form a small puddle next to the one made of the blood from her head. He watched in blissful anticipation as the drops formed on her nipple, holding his breath until it fell to the ground. He was so silent and intent that he could hear the drips falling.
He was readying himself to take her, to consume her and make her part of him, when he heard an animal noise in the dark catacombs of the hospital.
He took no chances and moved to hide where he could still see his prize. He would kill whatever came for him, and then take her.
~
They crept through the corridor, following the faint trail of what they feared and suspected was the path of one of their own.
The dog made the first move, becoming the catalyst for a violent sequence of events.
Ash’s hackles rose, and he let out an echoing growl of blood-curdling menace that gave the men goosebumps. Dan hissed at him to heel with no response. He moved forward a pace and put his hand on the dog’s back. He was rewarded by Ash’s response to turn and snap at him.
He recoiled. He had never seen Ash so tense, so scared and so dangerous. He took a pace in front of the animal and repeated “No” as loud as he dared. The dog did not back down, but at least he went silent. Dan could no longer trust Ash not to give away their position. He had to make a decision that he wasn’t happy with: To leave him there and go on without his capabilities.
He told him to stay in a hissed growl, and the dog reluctantly lowered himself to the ground without taking his eyes off him.
Dan turned to Steve, who watched intently. Fear showed on the former pilot’s face, and he was certain he mirrored the same emotions. Dan could barely control his breathing and wanted to give in to the panic. To run from the hospital. If he did, he was certain that they would not see Lexi alive again.
They proceeded another twenty, thirty, forty metres along the mile-long corridor that seemed to be the spine of the building, like it was a living organism. Steve held up a hand and sniffed the air. He whispered close to Dan’s ear, “Smoke. Candles.”
Dan removed his goggles and saw the faintest glow of light from a doorway ahead and to their right. Something or someone was there, and they would have walked right past it with their goggles on. He showed Steve what he intended with hand signals, and the two began to stalk towards the doorway as silently as possible.
They reached the doorway and pushed the goggles up to their heads. Both had been moving for over two hours now, all of that time under huge mental and physical pressure. The corridor past them was lit with a flickering yellow light. Using hand signals, he told Steve what he wanted to do. Steve nodded and went in first, low and slow with the carbine up at the ready. It took an eternity to reach the end of the corridor, and when they did, neither could contain their pent-up fear and rage any longer.
Steve cried out “NO” and burst into the room where Lexi was tied naked to the wall in a sickening effigy of crucifixion. The left side of her face was a mask of dark and swollen skin, and blood ran freely from carvings on her chest. As Dan went to call a warning and pull him back, the patient struck.
He slashed Steve deeply across the left forearm with Lexi’s knife, making him drop his weapon. The patient followed up with a vicious upswing of the pistol in his left hand, catching him under the chin and sprawling him backwards onto the cold floor.
He seemed surprised to see Dan, but threw himself at him like a wild animal. The patient was filthy, and the stink of him was rank in Dan’s nostrils as he stepped back to avoid the attack. He was naked and matted with blood, but holding a razor-sharp knife in one hand and a gun in the other.
He was on Dan too fast for him to use the carbine, and he was forced to push it out in front of him to ward off the vile creature. The knife came low and lethal at him underneath his pathetic barrier, and caught him fully in the abdomen. The body armour was sufficient to stop the blade from disembowelling him, but the force of the impact drove the air from his lungs and hurt him.
He had no time to recover from this before the knife came down from up high and slashed him from head to chin. He was blinded instantly by his own hot blood in his eyes, and he screamed in rage and terror as he hauled the disgusting beast off him and threw him to the side. Dan couldn’t see, and the sound of his pulse banging in his ears deafened him to the small sounds that could help him locate their attacker. He hit the floor hard, banging the back of his head and bringing bile to his throat immediately. He knew he was badly damaged.
On instinct, he used his sleeve desperately to try to wipe the blood away, but it was replaced instantly with more and his brain registered only a snapshot of his attacker preparing to fly at him again.
He was sure he had failed: He had failed to train Lexi well enough to ensure her survival, he had failed to protect his newest recruit who had trusted him enough to come, he had failed to trust his most loyal friend, and he had failed to kill the beast who threatened the lives of them all.
He felt sad and helpless, wondering at the point of all their suffering if the brutal nature of their futile struggle was to end them here in this stinking mausoleum.
The resounding thud of bodily impact snapped him from his self-pitying reverie of submission.
The noises that accompanied the thud told him that help had arrived and given them all a chance of survival. The sound of snarling and ripping flesh betrayed the ferocity and desperation of Ash’s attack. He heard the sound of wild man and dog rolling only feet away from him, and fought to clear the blood from his eyes. He tore desperately at the matting mess on his face with his hands as the man fell on him again. Dirty fingers clawed at him; foul breath was in his face. He fought to roll on his side, reaching for the shotgun over his shoulder with his right hand. He was blinded and had never felt more desperate.
A horribly loud and pained yelp told him that Ash was hurt, the cry of his dog cutting through to his very soul.
He had to act now to use the time gifted to him by his loyal companion, or they were all dead. He rolled, pulling the ugly shotgun from its elasticated holster over his shoulder as he got to one knee. Flicking the safety catch by feel, he yelled, “DOWN, ASH!” waited a second, as long as he dared, and fired.
Three deafening booms echoed around the dead hospital, interspersed with the metallic sounds on the pump-action replacing the chambered shells. He fired in an arc, left to right, in an upward direction, praying to hit only the wild man. He could hear nothing but the high-pitched ringing of his shocked eardrums, then silence.
EPILOGUE
Dan lay there panting, light-headed. He was barely conscious and terrified.
He struggled back to his feet and tried to wipe the blood from his eyes again. He groped around and found a rag of a hospital gown that he wrapped around his head and left eye. He sucked water from the bladder built into his vest and spat it into his hand to give him at least some vision out of his right eye.
There was no sign of the man they’d fought with and so nearly lost to. Blood was all over the floor and he could not tell whose it was. He staggered forwards to find Steve unconscious and bleeding heavily from a deep cut to his left forearm. He found another gown and tied it tight around the wound before going to Lexi.
She was still alive, but her pulse was weak. He cut her down and wrapped her in a white blanket. He tried to lift her, but fell twice, weak from blood loss and pain. He eventually rolled both Lexi and Steve into another blanket he had laid on the floor, and dragged them together as he crawled to retrace their steps. He had to get help before he passed out, as his injuries threatened the end for all of them.
He called for his dog desperately, fearing the worst, but he did not come, and Dan could not find him.
He made maybe thirty metres along the endless corridor before he lost consciousness, only to regain it with a gasp after he knew not how long.
Seemingly for hours he laboured, dragging the inanimate forms of his two friends and crying with the pain at the fate of his absent dog.
He eventually made it back to where they had all entered at different times, and could go no further. Light was beginning to show at the edge of the sky now, and he tried one last effort with what remained of his strength.
He dragged himself through the smashed glass panel, being cut again, as he lacked the alertness to avoid the glass shards. He pulled himself towards Lexi’s vehicle as his peripheral vision began to fade.
He hauled himself to the side step, then the door handle, and tried the door. Barely able to believe his luck, he found the door open and tried to get inside, where he grabbed the speaker mic of the CB radio.
He keyed the press-to-talk, calling weakly for anyone who would be listening. “Help us,” he gasped. “Hospital,” and slumped into the foot well, finally unconscious for good.
~
Very few of the group had believed Dan’s assertion that all was well, and it was no secret that he left not long after with Steve, both heavily armed. Loud disputes had gone on through the night, with Neil and Joe advocates of going after them with everything they had.
Penny raised strong counterarguments, supported by the lefties and the pacifists and those in favour of a warm bed and a clear conscience through their blinkered views.
Jack had remained mute throughout, carefully watching the CB radio for any twitch of life. For hours he sat as the arguments raged around him.
Kate had prepared her ambulance for a rescue mission, and was arguing for action over inaction. Penny finally went too far by declaring, “He only has himself to blame if he has gone out and found trouble. He has a habit of doing so!”
That was too much for Neil. “Do you think any of us would be here if not for him?” he turned and yelled at her, taut with anger.
Mike, more through personal experience and loyalty than his own beliefs, sided with Neil. “He has killed to keep us safe, and you would just abandon him?” he asked angrily, very conscious that he would be dead and his daughter brutalised if Dan and Lexi had not saved them.
A shout from Jack silenced them all. “QUIET,” he roared, and turned back to the radio set.
“Say again,” he spoke into the mic. “Repeat. Dan, are you there, friend?”
Nothing.
He turned to the group, still frozen in their stances of mid-argument. “I heard them. He said ‘Help. Hospital.’ I’d have heard more but for your howling,” he said, looking at Penny with obvious scorn. “I, for one, am going. Now. Who is with me?” he said as he nodded to Joe.
Joe led the way in his Land Rover with Jack. Kate followed in the ambulance with Neil riding, quite literally, shotgun.
They were at the hospital by daybreak, arriving in the biggest contrast to Dan and Steve, and what they saw made them fear the worst.
Joe was out of the car and scanning wildly with his rifle, moving towards Dan. Kate nearly bowled Joe over to get to Dan first, checking his pupil response and shouting his name. He came round enough to speak.
“Inside. Help the others,” he said before blacking out again.
He slipped away into the dark, and knew nothing more.
After it Happened
Book 2: Humanity
