The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans (29 page)

             
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.

             
She stood between the doctor and his exit to freedom. As he got within arm's length of the door, she reached in and grabbed his arm with both of hers biting down hard and drawing a good amount of blood from his bony wrist. The only thing keeping his skin on was his stiff white lab coat sleeve. He screamed in pain and shock, his eyes opened wide with fear and confusion. He looked at the only thing he carried of use to him right now and repeatedly brought his left hand with the heavy metal clipboard down on the back of her skull. She finally let go, growling and lifting her head up slowly towards him to meet his eyes. She tossed the little man onto the hospital bed. He hit with a thud, sliding off the side of the bed and landing on the floor.

             
Everything was quiet, and he thought Ms. Randall was gone. Closing his eyes at first, he tried to sense where the fresh cut on his head was. After patting his head down he knew the liquid was not his own. He wiped at it with his sleeve. He put his hand up to block the fluids only coming to the horrible realization it was coming from above. He squinted, scooting himself backwards, and saw that it was blood mixed with saliva.

             
The patient who had looked so innocent and peaceful less than an hour ago was drooling as she was hovering over him from her bed, sitting on her haunches and licking her lips as the bloody saliva fell freely from her face mixed with the blood dripping from her eyes. He screamed, scooting back further, walking on his feet and hands pushing his way back.

             
She hopped down within a foot of him.

             
"Get back, Ms. Randall! I'm not afraid to hurt you!" When his request was ignored he brought his well-shined, wingtip shoe back and sent his heel crashing into her forehead making her fly backwards up against the bed. Her head snapped against the bed rails.

             
At the same time, nurse Betty pushed through the doors. "Doctor Sanji, I couldn't remember what type you liked to use for sedatives so I got you one of...." She immediately stopped mid-sentence, seeing the scene in front of her. She screamed, turning around and yelling into the hallway. "Emergency code green! Ronnie! John! Get in here
now
! The doctor needs help! The patient has gone mental!"

             
The unfortunate nurse, who took great pride in her work and helping others, ran to the doctor's aid thinking she would easily be able to hold down the crazed woman. She could not have been more wrong.

             
The patient grabbed the nurse by the hair before the nurse could put a hand on her. Karen quickly and forcefully threw her like a rag doll up against a heart monitor. The nurse hit with a horrific crash, screaming and flailing to the ground, and starting to cry tears of pain. She was staring at the doctor who was staring at her--both of them looking utterly defeated, both of them thinking that this might be their final day on Earth.