Infected (3 page)

The footsteps drew closer.
Clump. Clop.
 

Crawling across the floor, Kayla reached the kitchen doors. She nudged one open, careful not to make it squeak. Then she slipped through, somehow feeling safer behind the closed doors. Kayla retreated deeper into the kitchen, weaving in through the maze of ovens and counters.

The kitchen doors opened and she hunkered low to the ground and crawled to a door marked
Storage.
Reaching up, she turned the knob and pulled the door open. Then she slipped inside and eased the door shut. She looked around the room and saw shelves filled with cans of shortening, bags of flour, sugar, and rice. There was also a butcher block loaded with knives, and she pulled a carving knife from it.

She heard the heavy footsteps approaching. Glancing at the door, Kayla saw it had no lock. She wanted to be upstairs with Dad. Or home on the couch.

The doorknob turned. Kayla backed up against the shelf.

The door swung open and she saw the monster. He was wearing a dark blue janitor's uniform that said
Carl
on the pocket. He grinned at Kayla, revealing yellow teeth. From his throat came a gurgling, growling noise.

The storage closet was only about five feet wide and ten feet long. She couldn't get around him.

He lunged forward and Kayla screamed. She ducked as he grabbed for her and she jabbed the knife into his leg, blood spurting onto her arm. Kayla saw an opening and crawled between his legs. On her way out, she slammed the door, hoping it would slow the crazy freak down.

She ran through the kitchen, heard the door slam. He was out of the storage closet.  She ran through the serving area and into the cafeteria, tipping chairs as she went.

Kayla burst through the cafeteria doors and ran for the elevators. She hoped the doors would open in a hurry. She could hear her pursuer smashing things around in the cafeteria, the noises growing louder.

At the elevator, she mashed the button, and to her relief, the doors opened. She threw herself inside and pressed the number for Dad's floor. Just as the doors were about to close, a hand with grimy nails reached in. The doors clamped on them.
The doors would open back up, wouldn't they?
 

Kayla leaned forward, grabbed the hand, and bit down on the pinky finger, which drew a yell from the monster. He pulled his hand out. The doors started to open, but Kayla pressed the
Close
button and they shut. The elevator started upward, and she sat on the ground and burst into tears.

The elevator reached Dad's floor and she stood up. Wiping her face, she got off the elevator and broke into a run. She found the conference room and burst inside, and Dad spun around. When he saw her, he jumped out of the chair, knelt down, and said: “What's wrong?”

She started crying again and felt her face turn hot and red. She didn't want to cry in front of Dad and his boss, but she couldn't help it. “I saw a man. He attacked me.”

Rob felt Kayla begin to shake and he gripped her shoulders in an effort to steady her. He had to take a deep breath. The girl was as white as glue. “What happened?”

She told him a story – through the sobs – about a man chasing her through the cafeteria and how she stabbed him with a knife. He was aware of Ramsey standing behind him.

“Is she okay?”

“I'm not sure. Did this man hurt you? Touch you?”

She shook her head.

“Can you tell me more about him?”

“He had white eyes. And dirty nails. He had on a blue coverall and his name was Carl.”

Rob turned to Ramsey. “Carl ring a bell?”

“One of our maintenance people. But he's a teddy bear. I can't imagine-”

Rob stood up, faced Ramsey. “My daughter's no liar.”

Ramsey put his hands up. “I never said that. It's just not like him.”

Mary and Ryan entered the conference room, Rob noticing his shirttail was untucked and her hair messed. Rumor was they were making more than just copies in the copy room. If that was they case, he was never touching the copier again. At least not without gloves.

“Where were you two?” Ramsey asked.

“Get the phone working?” Ryan asked.

“Does it look like it?” Ramsey said.

“You're crying, Kayla. What happened?” Mary asked.

She re-told the story about being chased in the cafeteria.

Mary said, “We went for a smoke break. We thought we heard someone in one of the halls.”

Rob reached in his pocket for his Blackberry. He dialed Emma's cell. While it was ringing Ramsey said, “Now hang on.”

“You hang on. My daughter just got assaulted. You don't like it, fire me.”

The phone rang three times and Emma picked up. “It's me,” Rob said.

“Not right now. Got a situation at the hospital.”

“Got one here, too,” Rob said, and went on to explain what Kayla had told him.

“She stabbed the guy?” Emma asked.

“Something scared the shit out of her, Em.”

Emma let out a huge sigh. “All hell's breaking loose here. George is with me. Sit tight and I'll get one of the other deputies to head over. Is she hurt?”

“Just shaken up.”

“Put her on,” Emma said.

Rob instructed Kayla to come over and gave her the phone. She gave a lot of “yeahs” and “uh-huhs” and finished up with smile. Then she handed the phone back to Rob.

Emma said, “Are you guys in a secure spot?”

“We can lock ourselves in.”

“I'm going to call Orr and send him over. Just stay put for now. Gotta run.”

He desperately wanted to ask her what was going on at the hospital and feared for her. But that was the norm. Every traffic stop, every cheap convenience store robbing prick that she came across had the potential to harm her. But she'd been a cop when they got married and he couldn't change it. Or her.

As Rob put the phone back in his pocket, Ramsey said, “Well?”

“She's sending over a deputy.”

“You can all go. We'll reschedule the call. The phones in Sacramento are messed up,” Ramsey said.  

Ryan said, “We should wait for the cops, don't you think?”

“Why? We all don't have to stay,” Mary said.

“She's right,” Ramsey said. “Rob, you want to wait around, I'll leave you a key to lock up.”

That's nice, Rob thought. Glad to have co-workers that hung in there with you. “I don't think you should go down there. This Carl guy's obviously dangerous.”

“Isn't it possible the girl just got spooked? Kids have imaginations,” Ramsey asked.

Rob felt a throbbing in his temple. His blood pressure going up. “Really? How do you explain the blood on her arm.”

“Maybe she cut herself,” Ramsey said. He fished in his pocket and handed Rob a key, which was attached to a red fob that said
Las Vegas.
“Spare key. Bring it back in the morning.”

“You're witnesses. I'm sure they're going to talk to you.”

“C'mon Ryan. Let's go get a drink,” Mary said.

He couldn't fucking believe this. The boss telling him Kayla was making things up and the two walking hormones going out to get a drink that would end up in a sweaty grapple. Didn't anyone care?

Rob watched them exit the office, leaving him and Kayla to wait for the police.

Chapter Five

“That doctor's a moron. He said I'd be out of here yesterday. And I still don't think my knee is right,” Cynthia Gray said.

Emma watched her mother flail her arms as she spoke, as if giving a command performance on Broadway. “You just had surgery mom.”

“My friend Elise was up and walking by now. Why aren't I walking?”

“Give it time.”

Emma's nose itched. There were vases filled with roses, tulips, and carnations, all placed on her mother's hospital tray and any surface that would hold them. It was like a goddamned flower shop up here.

“Time?” I need to be on my feet.”

“You need to rest that knee. They'll do plenty of work with you in physical therapy.”

“Last time I did that it just made my knee hurt.”

Emma said, “No one said it was easy.”

“I wish you could feel one tenth of the pain I have right now.”

“Believe me, I do,” Emma said.

“Don't be a smart ass. I should sue that doctor.”

“You're not even twenty-four hours out of surgery.”

“Big time surgeon. He had stains on his tie.”

“Well mom, I should get going. I'll be back up tomorrow.”

“You didn't stay long.”

As Emma was about to leave, a voice came over the hospital intercom: “C
ode Black, Emergency Room. Code Black, Emergency Room.”
 

That was the security code, or one of them, which meant Marty hadn't been behaving himself. Emma gave her mother a quick hug and hurried out of the room. She made it to the elevator and jammed the button. The elevator took forever, but finally the doors opened and she jumped on.

From inside the elevator she radioed George.

“We got a situation,” he said.

“Define situation,” Emma said.

“Marty freaked out. Knocked me silly in the CT room. He's loose in the hospital.”

“Jesus George,” Emma said.

“He tossed me like a crumpled piece of paper. Like super strength.”

Emma was trying to hide her annoyance with him. He was a good deputy and rarely screwed up. “Find him and put him under wraps. I'm on my way down.”

“Sorry, Sheriff.”

“Quit being sorry and fix it. I'll be right there.”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, tried to steady herself. Emma had a bad feeling that this was growing beyond their control, that this flu bug was no such thing, and that maybe the military had dropped some sort of superbug on their town.

The elevator reached ground level and the doors opened. Emma heard screaming and broke into a run.

Since they had taken that guy down to radiology, three of Weiss' patients had coded. He was presently standing over the fourth, a Frank Madison. Madison had flatlined and Weiss was about to administer the paddles when he heard a huge crash. It was followed by a woman screaming. He turned to one of the nurses and said, “See what the hell that is.”

Before the nurse could go, something slammed into his back. The paddles flew from his hands, and the force of the blow knocked him into the gurney, which tipped over, sending Frank Madison to the floor. The shrill beep of monitors filled his ears. He got to his feet saying: “What the goddamned hell?”

He turned around to see Marty with his hands around a nurse's throat. Marty drew the woman towards him, opened his mouth, and sank his teeth into her face. He tore off a chunk of flesh and spat it out. Blood spurted from the nurses' face and the thing that was Marty bit into her throat, again tearing off a chunk of flesh. Then he tossed the dead woman to the floor.

The thing – it really stopped being human – wiped blood from its mouth. Its pale eyes darted back and forth, as if looking for another victim. He had to call security. And where the hell was that cop?

Weiss started for the front desk, where he could get a hold of a security guard. As he moved past one of the emergency room bays, one where a body lay under a sheet, something moved. That body should've been taken to the morgue. He'd declared the person dead, but still the sheet jumped and danced.

Weiss approached the sheet-covered body. “Hey. Hello.”

The sheet was thrown aside and a woman whom he'd declared dead from the flu not fifteen minutes ago sat up. She jumped from the gurney and shrieked. Weiss set himself as she charged. With a long-nailed hand it swiped at him, but he managed to dodge the blow. She came at him again, and he threw her aside. She crashed into an empty gurney, and face full of rage, she prepared to charge him again.
 

The woman got to her feet and charged. Weiss backpedaled until something hard slammed into him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. Reaching behind him, he removed it from the wall bracket.  The woman came at him, and he swung the extinguisher. The bottom of it connected with her skull, and she staggered backward.  Weiss followed up with another blow to her jaw, and he heard the bones crunch. The blow sent her to the floor, where she remained, twitching. He tossed the extinguisher, now caked with blood, onto the floor.

This was getting crazier by the second. From behind him came more screaming and crashing. He looked down the hallway and saw Mark Buznik, one of the other docs. He was running from someone. One of the creatures. It leapt on his back and twisted his head almost one hundred eighty degrees. Weiss heard the bones pop.

Where the hell was security?

He made it to the emergency room doors and hurried to the security desk, which was empty. There were normally two guards on duty, but they may have gone outside. The guards were responsible for escorting female staff to the parking lot if asked.