Inanimate (49 page)

Connor
did not want this to end. While he
did enjoy particular pleasure in taking life, his main thrill came
from the fear these creatures instilled in their victims. He loved
the tense moments, which derived from a person, when they were
unable to define the feeling in their gut. The feeling that told
them something was watching them, something inhuman, the feeling he
would miss when this was all over. In his semi-conscious state, his
mind analyzed these thoughts, trying to decide his next course
after this was all over with. Maybe he could speak to
“The Eye”,
the one who so
eagerly nurtured his destructive side to see if he could start work
on another
“mission”
after this one. Maybe he would be allowed to become some
kind of permanent vigilante, controlling other dolls to inflict
harm on others who were deemed worthy of death. The child’s mind
pondered such despicable yet equally attainable thoughts, whilst
not losing focus of his goal ahead of him.

CHAPTER 47

Sitting in front of so many cables and
wires coming in and out of his wife, Doctor Crass couldn’t help but
be upset. Vigilantly he waited, holding her hand tenderly. She had
not been responding to his voice. Apart from the steady beep of the
heart monitor beside the bed Crass had only his own thoughts to
keep him company. The pain in his body still lingered but it was
small in the bigger picture. He did not believe Connor Williams was
to blame for all of this even though he knew he was the only one
who didn’t. The boy was sick, plain and simple. It was Crass’s job
to ensure he got better, his and MacNamee’s and (to a lesser
extent) Frieda’s. As he looked at his wife he knew he would not be
able to continue treating the boy but he certainly felt no ill will
against him. He was unsure he could vouch the same for MacNamee. So
far they had failed, all of them.

Crass’s thoughts
turned to Frieda and
the strange message he had given him. The old doctor wondered if he
would act on his fears, he wondered if he would actually follow
through on his threat and visit Hallcombes. He had never heard
Frieda talk like that before so something must definitely have been
wrong.

Duty
was the word on his mind right now
despite everything. He knew that the longer he stayed here, with
his beloved, the longer he had to worry about what was going to
happen at his hospital. With a kiss to his devoted wife’s hand; he
quietly left. His instincts told him what was going to happen
tonight and he knew what he had to do.

CHAPTER 48

“
They’re picking us off one by
one.”

Tony
repeated his earlier statement,
layering his words heavily over the sound of Oates’ breathing. Anne
looked up at him; she had had quite enough of Tony Oates already,
and the night wasn’t nearly over yet. Tony scowled back at her,
spotting her glare even in the dim light. He got to his feet and
continued talking.

“
How
can you say I’m wrong now huh? After
what just happened? At least the cops signed up for
this.”

His total lack of respect
caused a reaction in
Jacobs. Jolting up from the couch he landed a straight right
straight to the larger man’s jaw before he even knew what was going
on. The punch put Tony straight on the floor and he didn’t dare
retaliate. He had seen the fury of Jacobs and he knew that even
despite his size difference, he was no match for the
sergeant.

“
You ignorant fuck!”

Jacobs
pointed and yelled at him
furiously.

“
You’re the reason this
is all happening!
It’s your fault people dead.”

Calming down only slightly
Jacobs
lowered his tone.

“
None of us signed up for this,
but because
of you, we’re probably all going to die
tonight.”

Tony
looked away sheepishly.

“
I would kill you
myself…” continued
Jacobs “…But I’m pretty sure the boy is looking forward to that
honor.”

Jacobs
stared at Tony in disgust for a
moment before Anne asked MacNamee a question, causing him to turn
around.

“
What
is it Doctor? What do you
see?”

MacNamee
peered through the keyhole in the
door. Light filtering through highlighted dust particles, but with
a gentle blow MacNamee cleared them from his vision.

“
I’m not sure” he
responded quietly
“But they’re up to something…”

Through the keyhole
MacNamee
watched Dummy throw paper files at the door while Basket
sat on a desk watching. The two smaller dummies were breaking wood
off desks and piling it up against the door.

“
Oh shit!” MacNamee
exclaimed “I think
they’re trying to burn us out.”

“
What?”
asked Jacobs.

Outside, Basket flicked open a lighter.
After watching the flame for a few moments he laughed out loud and
dropped down from the desk he was sitting on. He continued laughing
while lighting the paper. In the office, the group could hear that
dreaded laughter. The relative safety of the office was now gone,
the laugh re-instilled them with fear. As black smoke started to
wisp under the door the group started to panic. MacNamee and Anne
both looked at Jacobs who was simply staring at the door oozing
smoke. Tony had gotten back to his feet and was watching the
sergeant, waiting for him to save them. The sight of the smoke had
solidified the feeling of lost hope in all of them.

“
What’s wrong with
him?”

Oates’ words from the floor startled
the group as it had nothing to do with the smoke.

“
What? Who?” MacNamee asked
confused

“
Why’s he so
quiet?”

MacNamee could not answer Oates’
question from the floor,
as he did not know whom the Sheriff was talking
about.

“
Who? What’s wrong with
who?”

Oates groaned in pain and pointed
across at Brian.

“
Him!”

Brian sat on the floor with his knees
to his chest and his jacket over him. His eyes were closed
tight.

“
He must be
asleep”

MacNamee responded quickly without
thought and turned back towards Jacobs.

“
Through this?”

Oates’ question annoyed MacNamee
because he thought they had more important things to worry about
than whether Brian was awake or not. Anne took charge of the
situation.

“
Of course he’s asleep!
Bastard doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

She knelt down beside him.

“
Brian, wake up!”

After receiving no response she slapped
him a little but still nothing happened.

“
Jesus Christ, fucking wake
up!”

Taking him by the shoulders she shook him
hard. His body was light; when she stopped shaking him he slowly
toppled over onto his front. Anne jumped up in fright. Hastily she
grabbed the desk lamp and shone it on top of him. His entire back
was like an excavation site and the soldiers continued digging.
Blood covering the floor was mostly draining through a hole in the
floorboards. Entire chunks of his flesh were missing. Despite the
light, the half dozen soldiers did not stop working on him. Matthew
and Tony cried out in unison as Anne dropped the lamp to the table
and started batting the little green men off of her ex’s back.
MacNamee came across and started stamping on them as they tried to
scamper off. Tony, Matthew and Anne joined in, stamping furiously,
crushing the little men under their feet as the smoke continued to
build up in the room.

“
Fucking Christ!” Matthew
screamed “What now?”

“
We could go out the
window!” Tony called back in panic.

“
No!” Oates’ voice boomed
“the point of coming here was to keep these creatures here. If we
leave then others will die!”

“
We don’t have any other
choice!” Spluttered Tony as the smoke got to his lungs. “We’re
fucking dead here!”

“
I’ve had enough of
this”

Jacobs’ first words in a few minutes
silenced the room. The words silenced Tony quickest as he thought
Jacobs was really going to kill him this time. But the sergeant was
still staring at the door.

“
What Jacobs?”

MacNamee wanted to know what he meant.
Jacobs simply whispered the words:

“
No more hiding…”

Militantly, Jacobs raised his shotgun
and started powering towards the door.

“
Jacobs don’t!”

MacNamee’s cry was too late. With one
hefty boot, Jacobs burst open the office door, sending blazing wood
and papers everywhere. Stepping out into the open, taking aim at a
caught-off-guard Basket, Jacobs smiled devilishly and squeezed the
trigger.

CHAPTER 49

Click. Click. Click click click. Jacobs
never realized he had emptied the shotgun already, if he had he
would have reloaded. Jacobs’ smile faded as the clown simply looked
back at him and grinned. Barging past, Anne did have rounds in her
shotgun and she wanted to use them. Basket had to dive to safety as
she fired her first round. The recoil pushed the barrel back and
up, clipping Anne’s forehead but she didn’t feel any pain, her
adrenaline was superseding that. Instead, she learned from her
first shot and tried to put what little weight she had into each
blast to counter the recoil. Jacob’s reloaded furiously as MacNamee
ushered the two very reluctant friends out into the fray. Once he
had he turned to Oates.

“
Want me to help you
up?”

“
No, I’ll stay here with the
girl.”

MacNamee nodded and burst out into the
main room to join the firefight.

The dolls, under the control of
Connor
had
been opportunistic and smart. They had removed those who had
weapons training first. Only Jacobs was still standing, with Oates
effectively out of the picture for now, his role having been
reduced to child protection.

Across in
the city Connor Williams
smirked. He was still very much in control and he was now more
focused than he ever had been previously. He knew this was the end.
With a simple thought he pushed the next move through to his
dolls.

One of the
sma
ll
ventriloquist dummies sprinted out from behind a chair straight
towards MacNamee. Jacobs was the first to spot it and open fire,
followed Anne. Then they all started firing together. This would
not have happened if any of them besides Jacobs had any experience
whatsoever. After less than ten seconds the little dummy was
completely destroyed but only Jacobs realized what was happening
when it was too late to do anything about it. Connor’s message was
for an attack based on a distraction and the little dummy was
sacrificed as the distraction. Basket, on all fours bounded towards
Jacobs, leaping and scoring his claws down the sergeant’s chest.
Dummy came from the other side of the room and in one lunging move,
smacked Tony’s gun out his hand while winding Matthew with his
wooden elbow. Dummy turned and uppercutted Tony hard, causing the
big man to bite off most of his tongue. As Jacobs fought the pain
on the floor, Basket grabbed hold of Anne’s shotgun firmly,
comically trying to wrestle it out of her hands. MacNamee was at
first confused on whom to help first but he quickly made the
decision to help Anne. He turned to fire at Basket but the second
smaller Dummy lunged at him, causing him to miss his target. The
smaller Dummy kept MacNamee busy while the others did their work.
Tony ambled around in agony, the blow to the head made him dizzy
and confused. He tried to escape the carnage by moving away but he
was stumbling terribly. Basket was continuing his tug-o-war with
Anne as she whipped the gun from side to side, trying to get it
behind the maniac clown. With a huge tug she pulled Basket onto a
desk, jerked the gun back and rammed it into his soft stomach.
Something caught her eye as she squeezed the trigger but she
couldn’t stop to see what it was. The blast halted everything for
just a moment. A large hole in the clown’s stomach gave her an
excellent view of what she had just done. Basket, unhurt, turned
his head to see a headless Tony Oates falling to his knees.
MacNamee was the only one who saw it happen. Matthew and Jacobs
were on the ground. With no time for the shock to sink it, MacNamee
kept fighting and Anne reloaded. Basket dived behind a desk before
Anne could get a second round off. Chunky blood decorated the
temporary walls surrounding Tony’s body. With a quick glance down,
Anne felt no remorse for what she had done.

“
No more than you
deserve!”

She spoke quietly. It was an accident, but
in her mind, not an unfortunate one. With Matthew still on the
ground Dummy surveyed the room. His smaller cohort was keeping the
doctor occupied and Jacobs was just slowly getting to his feet.
Anne was his target right now; she had his back to him, searching
for Basket with the shotgun at the ready. Slipping up behind her he
wrenched her back towards the ground hard causing her to lose grip
of her weapon. Quickly she tried to get back up but Dummy had other
ideas. He charged at her, ramming his shoulder into her gut.
Lifting her off the ground he kept running, letting her go at the
top of the stairs to the basement. Jacobs watched her get flung
down the stairs like a rag doll but he could do nothing to help.
Basket was on top of him now and he was fighting for his
life.