The Red to My Grey

by William Dudley Berridge Tuckey

  “Disgusting,” she remarked as she left the room. I wasn’t sure if that was directed at just Sophia or at Angel and me.

  “Oh, ah congratulations. I hope the two of you are very happy together…I got to go now. Um so yeah. See ya later,” Kitten nervously tried to squeeze her way out of the situation, only to come back inside from the pouring rain after she ran outside into it.

  “Idiot,” I said bluntly as I handed her a towel. Kitten then went to Celia’s room for the rest of the day and ended up staying the night as the storm raged on.

  Angel and her mother got blind drunk while I kept Nami entertained as well as stopped her from sneaking any cans to herself, which I found her trying to do several times throughout the night. I stayed sober and relaxed in my room while listening to Nami rave on about…I honestly can’t remember what she was going on about; it mustn’t have been that important for it not to stick, I guess. The next morning, I woke up with Angel sprawled out on top of me, the blankets were on the floor and she was fast asleep. I placed them over her and I went to hallway to go to the kitchen where Dad was sitting down at the table eating toast and drinking coffee.

  “I didn’t see you last night all that much. I’m surprised you weren’t drinking with Angel,” he said to me in a calm manner, treating me like a normal human being rather than a troublemaker.

  “Well I have work today, it’s not like I didn’t spend time with her yesterday. I just thought she’d want to have a chance to connect with her mother.”

  “I see, that makes sense.” There was a brief silence between us while we had our breakfast.

  “Sophia told us about you and her, how you’re getting married sometime soon.”

  His face became cold, just talking about it made him nervous and no matter how I looked at it, it was a big move for him.

  “Yeah, she said yes. I hadn’t felt so overjoyed in quite some time since, so it hit me pretty hard.”

  “Good for you,” I said in an exhausted tone as I got up from the table. I headed to work hoping for a chance to escape everything back home. When I arrived, I was welcomed into the office by Mr Smith, Johnson and Dan. Their white office shirts had sweat stains beneath their armpits and there were coffee mugs scattered over the benches.

  “Hey guys, what’s going?” I asked curiously

  “Mr Smith here became the new active CEO of the company yesterday after the old man retired. So, we thought we’d start off with some renovations around the office,” Dan said after he finished his coffee.

  “The place is looking good, but how long have you all been at this?”

  “A few hours,” Johnson answered firmly. “It’s only eight am, you’ve seriously been here before sun up?”

  “I suppose we have been, but it’ll all be worth it once we’re finished. I intend to do great things with this company,” Rex spoke with more determination and drive in his voice than I had ever heard from him. I helped with the renovations for most of the day; it was a good chance to talk to each other while we all strived for a common goal. I told them how my father intended to marry Sophia and it brought a variety of responses. Johnson was happy for them, although he knew it bothered me. Dan was weirded out by it but tried not to overreact for my sake and Mr Smith expected as much from my father and took an interest in the news. It was definitely a kind of scandal; they kept it to themselves and just like that we went back to talking nonsense with each other. At the end of our shift, instead of walking home, Johnson had brought his car to help with the renovations, so I caught a ride home with him.

  “Wade, are you feeling brave?” he asked me as I stared outside the car window.

  “Yeah, I think I know where this is going. You want to go out of town and check out that old hospital again, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I’m aware your father warned you away from it, but I think there’s more to uncover than what we saw.”

  “Alright, long as we bring Angel; this is as much of her history than anybody else’s. She deserves to know everything.” It sounded as if I was demanding a lot from him, but I already knew he was fine with it. He nodded and when we got to my house, I dashed through the hallway to Angel inside my room. I explained everything to her and next thing we knew we were off to the hospital under the false pretences that we were going out to see a movie to our parents. It must have been suspicious though since I carried a backpack full of equipment I gathered from the shed in the backyard.

  We arrived at the front of the ruined hospital and before we went inside, Johnson popped the trunk of his car. He pulled out a heavy double barrel shotgun that looked like something that could be used to hunt lions.

  “What’s that Johnny?” I asked anxiously.

  “Some insurance; it’s one of my projects I spent my time on in my youth.”

  What the hell would you need something like that for? I shuddered as the thought crossed my mind.

  “So, are we good to head inside?” Angel asked casually despite the cannon-sized shotgun in front of her and what it could be used to hunt was inside. She dressed for the occasion in some practical tights and a clingy shirt; she was aware tonight was going to be intense. We walked into the main lobby to be surrounded by complete darkness. Click. Our torches came on and brought light to the eerie room.

  “And I thought it was creepy during the day. Where to first, Johnny?”

  “Let’s head to the upper levels and we’ll work our way down from there.”

  We found the stairwell and ascended it all the way to the entrance to the roof, which was locked and wrapped in chains. They were well made and were in fairly good condition. We made a note of it and moved on to investigate the top floor. Angel and I waited in place as Johnson peered around the corner of the stairwell wall with his shotgun resting beside him. He gave the all clear and we walked to the end of the hallway. Every step we took echoed around us; the air was stagnant and cold. Johnson tried the door to the left of us, the handle fell from it and the wood cracked as it crumbled to pieces. The inside of the room resembled something out of a nightmare. The walls pulsing with veins with red coursing through them. Johnson and I stared in horror and awe as the room seemed to breathe around us. Angel put out her hand to the veins on the wall and gently ran her hands down them.

  “What do you think this is?” she asked as she stared at her hand, examining the residue that remained. Johnson pulled her away from the walls and he looked the room up and down thoroughly.

  “Keep away from the walls; they feel like they could reach out and devour you at any moment,” he then opened a cupboard filled with organs, beating and pumping away. He slammed it shut and backed away. Angel searched the mush-filled drawers to find a bloodied note. The note said only one sentence. ‘This place is sick.’ She turned the note over to see that it was a photograph and gasped as she recognised the person in it. Her hands shook as I steadied them and looked at the photo for myself.

  “That’s Anne, isn’t it, after she changed?” I said to her and she nodded as she wiped the photo clean with a sad expression in her eyes. The photo itself was a going away photo before her release from the hospital. She seemed happy enough with a smile on her face while making a peace sign over her eyes. In the dresser was also a book that Angel happened to recognise from the cover, but its contents were damaged and unreadable due to the slimy red mush that filled just about everywhere inside the room.

  “That’s Anne’s journal, her second one. I saw her writing in it before I said my goodbyes,” she was mainly able to distinguish that it was hers from a faded signature inside the cover. “This could have the answers we need, Wade. I’ll do my best to restore it after we’re finished for the night.”

  “Alright, Johnny. God, I hope this stuff doesn’t spread, it’s so gross just to touch,” I whined as I shook my hands clean of the gunk that dripped onto the vile floor.

  “They must have moved Anne up here after I was dismissed from this place.”

  “So it would seem, the top floor is where sh
e was quarantined then. Stay on your toes; she probably wasn’t the only thing that they had locked away,” Johnson said as we exited the room and we entered the one beside it. The door opened with ease and stayed in one piece, but as we walked inside a pair of black boots dangled in our faces. We looked up to see one of the mysterious jet-black soldiers hanging from the ceiling with a rope hanging around his neck. This, however, was clearly not the source of his death since there were multiple gashes and cuts across his body; he was hacked to death. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a dead body; it wasn’t any easier for me though and just looking at the hanging corpse made me feel a sense of immediate danger. The decay and its scent forced its way into our senses. Angel coughed and struggled to breathe, and Johnson wasted no time in tying a handkerchief around his mouth to search the body. On its back was a backpack containing several items. A few cylinders of oxygen, a heavy chrome pistol, countless rounds of ammunition for both the pistol and the submachine gun hanging on the waist of the body and finally was a complicated looking piece of technology that sort of looked like a tablet, but with dials on the front of it.

  “Hmm, it’s out of juice; from what I can tell, it’s a data-feed device. This could be useful,” Johnson mumbled to himself as he fidgeted with it. Crack. Creak. Then without warning the floor collapsed in on itself and we fell in the room below only to fall again as the ground caved in yet again. Next thing we knew we were back on the second floor inside another patient room. Johnson looked to the device to see it power on. It displayed various assortments of information; he found the mapping software to discover a detailed 3D digital map of the hospital.

  “This map reads that we fell from room 409 to room 209. Sigh. The second floor is more active than the others. Keep close, this might become dangerous.”

  Angel attempted to open the door to the hallway, but it wouldn’t budge so much as an inch.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked as her heart sank to a startling conclusion.

  “We’re locked inside, we can’t get out…” Her train of thought was derailed and realigned as we all stared back through the hole we fell through.

  “Wade darling, you can climb pretty well can’t you?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know, I’m going. I’ll be back,” I answered knowing how exhausted I was going to be. I put my foot against the pile of rubble and reached for a spot where I could boost myself up to grab the ceiling. I had to leap, but I grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled myself through it. In the room were several half-devoured corpses, their faces chewed away to the point of bits of flesh clinging to the bone. It was a gruesome sight. I left the room and went down the stairwell. I heard roars and howls of the creatures from further down the hall coming from around the corner. I managed to walk to the door of room 209 without drawing any attention to myself. I looked at the red living substance that held and reinforced the door in place. It wasn’t something Johnson or I could kick down. I called to Angel with an idea in mind.

  “Angel, can’t you do that thing? The teleporting or whatever?”

  “I guess I could try that.” She then suddenly reappeared on the other side of the door beside me.

  “Woah…Johnny we’ll be back to get you alright.”

  “Don’t bother. Just meet up at the top of the stairwell facing the roof at two hours past midnight, I’ve found a way out.”

  “Okay.” It was suspicious, but I put my trust in him.

  We then suddenly heard growls from both sides of us and we froze up as we saw a giant monstrous beast at each end of the hallway. They both had big glowing red eyes; one was larger than the other. The smaller creature was unlike the ones I had seen far, it had a long arm made up of five powerful tendrils that grouped together. Its other hand was small, about the same size of a person’s, but it had sharp claws and its body was strong though it didn’t stand much taller than me. The other one was gigantic and was coated in patchy pitch-black fur and it had a jaw lined with several rows of sharp teeth. The monsters sprinted at insane speeds, but rather than attacking us they ignored us completely and fought with one another. The giant one bit down on the tendrilled creature’s shoulder and lugged up to it with its immense mass. The tendrilled creature didn’t even flinch and grabbed the beast by the neck with its small arm and dragged it from its shoulder. It let out a bellowing screeching roar and then Thud. It headbutted the black beast in the face and knocked it unconscious; blood leaked onto the ground from its head. The tendrilled beast then stared at us with its big red eyes and it gently touched us with its tendrilled arm which was smooth and cold. It felt our faces, our arms and we didn’t move a muscle as our bodies locked up in fear. Its tendril wrapped itself around our arms and it led us by them to the nurse’s wing. It looked at the floor inside the room and then suddenly headbutted it, destroying through to the kitchen below. It lowered us down and jumped down beside us. It roared again and fidgeted with a gas valve on the oven as if it wanted to use it. The beast then handed me a packet of frozen hash browns hidden in the back of the soggy foul freezer.

  “It wants me to cook?” I blurted out loud and the beast looked to me expectantly. I explained that the gas was leaking, and the oven wouldn’t work. Surprisingly the creature understood what I said although it was far from accepting of my words. Roar!!! Crunch! The beast punched the oven door and it buckled inwards. It held its small hand and licked it with a long green tongue. The creature drew its eyes back to the oven and then impulsively ripped it from the wall and threw it against the floor.

  It has a personality, I’ll give it that much, I thought to myself. “Hey, hey. No need to get so upset, we can probably find a way to cook your food. There, there. It’s alright,” Angel spoke softly to the beast while rubbing its head. The monster calmed down and enjoyed the affection as its body relaxed. I wanted to avoid any physical contact with it as much as possible, but it coiled its tendrilled arm around my wrist and delicately brought my hand to the top of its head. Its skull was hard as stone and its skin gripped my hand as I caressed it. We all looked up to see all the lights in the hospital flash on at once. Roars bellowed as the light disturbed the beast living inside the hospital walls.

  “Someone turned on the power. Johnny maybe? We should meet up with him soon, it’s getting to about that time. It’ll be hard to sneak past everything now that the lights are on.”

  “One second, I’d feel bad if I just left this big guy like this.”

  She popped the hash browns into the microwave and the creature let out a loud howl before devouring them all in a single bite. It then led us by the arm to one more spot before we had to go. It took us to the examination room and ripped up the floorboards, beneath was a tunnel that led into darkness. The creature disappeared into it only to emerge a moment later with a rose in its mouth as it ran on three of its limbs while the heavy tendril launched it several metres at time as it ran in strides. It presented the rose as what I guess to be a token of its gratitude or as an offering of friendship. Angel cheerfully accepted it and fixed the vibrant red rose to her hair. The beast howled once more before we said farewell to it as it dashed around the corner of the hallway outside.

  “I wonder what all that was about? I’m glad it didn’t attack us, but it was still kind of weird of it to act in the way that it did,” I said as we walked up the stairwell.

  “Not really, I think they’re like us in a lot of ways. I’m sure it was just lonely is all.”

  “Yeah, but we were here to find clues of what happened here and about your past, not to screw around.”

  “It was fooling around in dangerous places that lead you to meet me, wasn’t it?” she asked while smiling and the vibe she gave off went from innocent to mischievous and cunning. I nodded, and she pressed herself against me. I leant back against the stairwell wall. I closed my eyes as she took her shirt off and I held her as I kissed her. She took a deep breath, clutching tight at my shirt before bringing her lips back to mine.

  “Wade.” The moment I heard my name we
almost screamed until we saw it was only Johnson coming up the stairs. “Oh, it’s only you, Johnny; don’t scare us like that, man.”

  “Giggle. I guess we got caught up in the moment,” Angel said as she threw her shirt on to cover herself.

  “I hardly think this is the time or place for that and if I remember correctly, it was somewhere inside this stairwell that the affair between your parents took place…please show more self-control than those that came before you,” he lectured us with a flustered expression on his face.

  “Sorry Johnny,” Angel apologised, knowing she was mainly the reason he was like this.

  We followed him up the stairs while he lugged the heavy shotgun over his shoulder. His clothing was covered in blood that wasn’t his and his arms were lined with bruises barely showing beneath his blood-stained sleeves. We came to face the chained door leading out onto the roof. Johnson pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the padlock and unshackled the chains from the door. We walked out on to an open rooftop infested with the living red substance. In the centre of the red smeared breathing concrete was a large mound of the organic mass.

  “So, why are we here, Johnny?” I asked as I stared at a basically empty rooftop. He pointed to a room locked with yet another padlock, this time smashing it in with a hammer from out of his backpack. He walked over to a boiler inside with multiple valves and turned on a set few in a certain order. Leaving the first, third and fifth, but turning the other on and off. Hiss. The sound of steam erupting could be heard from below inside the hospital. I turned around to see the flesh mass slowly wriggling in place, Johnson walked out of the small room to face the situation. He kept us behind him with an arm raised to hold back our curiosity. The red mass split open to reveal an enormous creature covered in sharp metallic scales; it had intimidating yellow glowing eyes and its mouth leaked with strands of undeveloped flesh that grew with every passing second. It stared us down fearlessly and though it could only scarcely roar, it was enough to have Angel and me shaking in our shoes. Johnson stood silently, his eyes never leaving the creature’s gaze. It pulled its front legs from the flesh mass and it tried to stand. We slowly paced ourselves towards the stairwell. Moving, but without breaking eye contact with the creature. It then stood up on four legs and with a single giant claw it scooped us beneath its body.