I wondered if he knew who was inside from PNRU, but I didn’t dare ask. Now wasn’t the time.
“We’re heading in,” Sebastian said after a brief introduction to the other licensed dudes on our team and their strengths. Their names kind of blurred together in my head. Some of them had medical training and would be evacuating survivors as well as non-mobile patients from the secured areas like the ICU and maternity, once we cleared the way to the top floor. Ambulances waited on standby to take the most vulnerable away to safe hospitals.
Simon led the way inside, his staff aglow with power to light our way. The eerily quiet and empty front lobby brought to mind the Resident Evil games I’d watched Gabe’s brothers playing over the summer. It didn’t help that they’d dubbed our squads Alpha and Bravo team respectively.
I told myself we’d be okay since Alpha team was the one noshed by zombies.
A few corpses laid on the marble floor, silent and still. We still didn’t know why some people rose as zombies while others didn’t. Genetics was not my area of expertise. One of the sentinels from the SBA moved among the dead, ensuring they weren’t going to rise up behind us. In the glow of the harsh yellow emergency lights, the tableau appeared extra creepy.
“Maternity ward is on the top floor, but there’s a big open stairwell leading to it from the third,” I whispered. Simon responded with a single nod. The hospital’s maternity floor had a weird layout with a mezzanine overlooking everything below.
It wasn’t until we reached the cafeteria that we ran into the first zombies. Five lurched at us from the doorway, quickly taken down by the shifters in the front line, but more awaited us inside. A cluster of them battered at the door leading to the kitchen where desperate cries and screams echoed against the walls.
“Someone help us!”
Sebastian nodded to me. “Skylar, get in there.”
“On it.” I phased into the Twilight, or at least, I tried, only to encounter something akin to a brick wall to the face. I rebounded off of it and stumbled back, holding my nose. I hadn’t experienced an obstruction like that since my freshman year.
“Dammit. Must be magical interference.” Simon scowled. “The air is heavy with it, but I’d hoped you’d be able to get through.”
“Explains why the fae students haven’t made an escape,” Sebastian muttered.
I rubbed my stinging face. “I can keep testing it. Maybe there’s a weak area.”
“Too risky, and we need you in top shape. Looks like we get them out the long way. This guy, he had a lot of time to set this up and prepare, and probably laid the foundation for the spells days, if not weeks ago.”
Sebastian and the three other wolves led the charge into the room, bounding over tables and into the hungry horde. Cole borrowed one of Gabriel’s favorite tricks and shifted midair, fired off three rapid-fire rounds, then swooped away again before he hit the floor. Once the zombies abandoned the door, I moved in and threw up a shield while the mages picked off stragglers with magic.
Before I knew it, we’d killed every last zombie in the room.
“I’ll hex the lock and get the door open.”
“Not yet,” Simon warned. “We need to secure the room first.”
We meandered through the pile of bodies. Diners in the cafeteria had either rushed out of the emergency exits or been forced to take cover in the kitchen behind the steel doors. Victims who hadn’t been fast enough for either littered the ground, partially eaten or appearing in the transition stage between a normal corpse and the risen dead.
Sebastian removed a machete from his belt and lopped the head off a body not far from the exits. Simon did the same. A big bear shifter removed an axe from his back and went to work, picking through the corpses for anyone with the potential to rise.
Victor grunted. “Feels like desecrating the dead.”
Cole frowned. “Agreed.”
“Until the nervous system has been disrupted, all bodies pose a risk to not only us, but any survivors we find,” Simon said. “I know it’s gruesome work, kids.”
“But we gotta do it,” Cole finished.
“Right-o,” Sebastian said, passing him his machete.
Someone passed me a cleaver. Bile rose in my throat. I told myself it was no different from staking darklings and shooting zombies, but the reality was these people still looked human. My eyes burned and stung; too stubborn to show emotion, I tamped it all down because if we didn’t do it, who would?
When it was finished, we approached the kitchen door. It had been jammed during the outage and wouldn’t operate even with the generator running. I jinxed it, and the lock opened.
“Thank God!” a woman cried.
The sight inside the kitchen wasn’t good. A body was on the ground with a pipe through its skull, and a bleeding man slumped against the wall with his bicep in a tourniquet, arm missing from the elbow down. He was shaking and pale. His missing limb lay discarded nearby, putrid gray and speckled with sickness.
There were children in the room. Three no older than ten, another a mere toddler. I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of what could have happened.
Our group split, four sentinels leading the survivors to the front doors, while we made our way to the nearest stairwell. Only four more floors to go until we reached Gabe.
By the time we reached the third floor, our original group had been reduced by a quarter and we still hadn’t seen the Plague Doctor. Maybe he was at one of the other hospitals, or maybe he was in the insidious lair from his video, cackling like a horror movie villain over his success. We’d lost one of the werewolf sentinels so far, and while I didn’t know any him personally, I still felt his loss. He could have been any one of us, and the big, Viking-esque bear shifter who had lent me his axe looked particularly distraught about the death of his partner.
“I should have been the one to take point,” Matt grumbled under his breath. “They sounded human. They sounded so human.”
Just half an half hour prior to losing our comrade, we’d rescued six people from a locked bathroom on the previous floor. When approaching the next set of restrooms on that level, we’d expected to find more of the same. I even thought I’d heard someone crying a gentle “help” from beyond the door.
Instead, we opened the door and were overrun by the walking dead.
“Hold up,” Sebastian said. “I smell people down this hall.”
“Another trick?” John asked, leaning forward, dark eyes glittering with interest.
“No, I don’t think so. Smells real to me.” He took another sniff then set off at a quick pace, stopping outside a supply closet in a dead-end hallway. He knocked, a rhythmic series I recognized from one of our classes. Whoever was inside responded with the corresponding pattern.
Sentinels took positions at the door. Simon stood by with his staff tipped toward Sebastian, magic surging from the gemstone on its end.
I held my breath and prepared a Prismatic Barrier for our teacher.
Sebastian yanked open the door, but instead of unveiling another trap, we looked into the pale faces of my closest friends. Holly was at the door beside Stark, her fingers lit with fire and magic, a controlled inferno a split-second from releasing. Stark held a shotgun with the business end leveled toward Sebastian’s face. Behind them, Lia stood defensively in front of a woman in pink scrubs, her Prismatic Barrier surging in a thousand gorgeous colors.
Immediately, Stark lowered his shotgun. “Christ. It’s really you. Dude, I’m so sorry,” Stark babbled out.
Sebastian clasped his arm and grinned. “At least you didn’t pull the trigger.”
“Yeah, well, someone’s been playing mind games with illusions—good fucking illusions.”
Holly leaned out and peered down the hall. “We heard children running and people screaming, but Lia swore it wasn’t real.”
“I looked at their Destiny Lines and every road that involved opening that door led to death,” Lia whispered. “But this time was different. I f
elt you, Sky. I felt you coming closer to us, and I could almost see you, like a beacon glowing beyond the walls.”
I threw my arms around her and squeezed her tight, eyes watery. Then I pulled Holly into the embrace.
“I knew you’d find us,” Lia whispered. “I just knew.”
How she knew was anyone’s guess, but I wasn’t about to say anything to the contrary. I was just glad that my friends were safe and accounted for.
Simon laid his hand on my shoulder. “We should get Liadan and her charge outside. The rest of us have work to do.”
“Or she could stay with us,” I said quickly. “Lia, I mean. With her help, I can hold up a larger barrier around the group.”
He hesitated, clearly torn. On one hand, Lia wasn’t a sentinel, and bringing her along put her in immediate danger. On the other, we’d lost one guy precisely because I wasn’t able to shield the entire group, and when the swarm came rushing at us from the women’s locker room on the surgical floor, we couldn’t shoot them fast enough. From the evidence, a dozen survivors had taken refuge inside along with the med staff, only for one to succumb to his injuries and turn everyone present.
One bite. On top of that, the place had been a maze of stalls and dark, shadowed corners, showers with curtains providing hiding places for the undead.
“Dain also gave her private lessons,” I spoke up for her.
“It’s her choice,” Simon finally said.
“I’ll stay.” Lia raised her chin, but I didn’t miss the tremble in her hands. “If I can help, then please let me.”
“All right then. Stay with Skylar in the middle of the group. Holly and Stark, let’s load you up.”
I pulled the weapons belonging to our two fallen comrades from my pocket in the Neverspace. Holly claimed a shotgun and a pistol, while Stark took a machete. Everyone reloaded while we had the opportunity.
“Have you heard anything from Pilar?”
“No. When we realized I couldn’t travel through the Twilight, Holly remembered the hospital protocols and suggested we hide in here.”
“We fought our way to this corridor and got into the supply closet. Warded it up tight to try to keep zombies from catching our scent,” Holly explained. “Whoever was in the hall, I don’t think…I don’t think they knew where we were, only that there were survivors nearby.”
Stark nodded. “They were just trying to lure someone out like the fucking Pied Piper. In the interest of not facing off against the Plague Doctor alone, we didn’t make a sound.”
Sebastian squeezed Stark’s shoulder. “You did good. All three of you. Now then, can you tell us what happened?”
“We’re not sure exactly,” Stark said. He glanced at Lia. “Things happened all over the place from what we gathered. We got caught here ’cause Lia’s charge went on a break to the cafeteria.”
“I sensed panic all over the hospital,” Liadan clarified. “Terror and pain beginning on the second and third floors.”
“What’s the second floor?”
“Med-surge,” Lia’s charge, Kendra said. “Both are.”
“Anything else common between those spots?”
“Vaccines,” Kendra murmured.
“Come again?”
Kendra looked between all our faces and swallowed. “They were giving flu vaccinations today on both med-surge floors. It’s the only commonality I can think of.”
“We’ll look into that once we get everything cleared. Thank you,” Simon said.
Sebastian guided Kendra from the closet to a trio of sentinels. “Matt, you and John mind escorting Nurse Kendra down to the exit?”
“No problem, man. We’ll be back on the double.” The burly bear shifter had a kind smile that made him surprisingly boyish. “You mind coming with us, ma’am?”
Kendra hesitated after a few steps then turned to Lia. “Thank you for being my godmother. If you weren’t there to pull me to safety, I’d be…” As she shuddered, Lia stepped forward and embraced her. “Thank you. Will I…will I still get to have you as a godmother after this?”
“Yes. You may not see me; I may not always be able to let you know I’m there, but our work together isn’t yet done. Now go on to safety. Your ma is worried and waiting for you to call.”
Kendra parted from Lia and joined her escort. After the sentinels led her away, Simon and Sebastian began to plan our rendezvous with Alpha team. They weren’t far behind us after evacuating the ICU, and said they’d meet us in the fifth-floor lobby outside of the maternity ward.
Soon, I’d be reunited with Gabriel, and our work in the hospital would be done.
27
All Bite and No Bark
Upon first glance, the fifth floor appeared abandoned. Eerily quiet. We worked our way through the dim halls, everyone on edge.
“Sentinel Jones to Kane and Bostwick. We got a problem.”
Simon tapped his ear piece. “Bostwick here.”
“We’re unable to meet you and require extraction from the third floor, eastern med room. We must have missed a pocket of zombies somewhere because a load of them just spilled from the fucking elevators.”
“What?” Sebastian tapped into the line. “The elevators are disabled.”
“They were disabled. Not anymore. Something isn’t right about this, Kane. There’s no way a zombie had the goddamned sense to punch a button. They’re not thinking, intelligent creatures anymore.”
“Is it possible it was someone in the midst of a change?” Victor asked. “What if they were infected enough to pass as a zombie?”
“No one was remotely human,” the other sentinel reported. “Not in the least.”
Simon strode toward the stairway we’d just ascended. “All right. Stay safe and recuperate. We’ll be there to provide assistance.”
“Keep your heads on a swivel, boys,” Jones said. “This is just a hunch, but I think our Plague Doctor is here in this hospital. I think—” Something heavy hit a solid object on the other end of the radio transmission. The men there shouted in surprise.
“What the fuck is that?” one sentinel cried.
Another slam, then a shrieking noise like tearing metal filled the transmission with a godawful squealing sound. Sebastian cringed. So did Victor.
“Jones?” Simon barked. “Jones, what’s happening?”
“He has an infected wendigo! Don’t come for us! Don’t come! Get to—”
A third slam sounded like something cracked or shattered. The report of many guns and shouts for help were all we heard before the battle went silent, and we heard nothing more than crunching and the wet, sloppy noises of teeth tearing flesh.
“Fuck,” Victor breathed.
Simon started for the stairs, but Sebastian reached out and grabbed him by the arm. “What?”
“We can’t go down there.”
“The fuck we can’t!”
I’d never seen those two argue before, not a genuine argument. And it wasn’t exactly common for Simon to swear either. His brown eyes were filled with anger and pain.
“The best we can do is get behind safe doors and call for backup. We don’t have enough experienced hands to take on an infected wendigo. You know that.”
Simon hesitated, and some of the fire in his brown eyes dimmed. “Yeah…fuck. You’re right. Sorry. It’s just…I’ve known Jones since we got back to Chicago. He was my friend.”
“You don’t think he wasn’t mine, too? Come on. Let’s get into OB.”
Awkwardly, we stood by while they discussed the plan and made contact with the remaining sentinels outside. With so many hospitals under attack, Cook County was swamped and had no additional bodies to give.
“Help is en route from Lake County,” Simon finally told us. “For now, our orders are to get behind the nearest security door. This door is solid steel, and is rated to hold against a grendel if need be. It’ll hold against a wendigo.”
The emergency lights flickered, and a split second later the mage lights Victor, Holly, and Simon
had summoned winked out, dropping us into darkness.
It began as a subtle tremble beneath my feet, picking up intensity with each passing second until Lia stumbled and reached out for me. A tremendous clap threatened to rupture my eardrums. The sensation made me think of a sonic boom, the way it rattled my teeth and resonated through my bones. The fine hairs on my arm rose, and Cole’s black hair looked like someone had rubbed a balloon across it and built up the static electricity.
“What the hell was that?”
“A spell,” Victor said. “A big one.”
Simon tapped his ear piece. “Gabriel, what’s your status?” Then he blinked, and he tapped it again. After a moment, he removed it and peered down at the little device. “It’s dead.”
I pulled my phone out and glanced down at the screen. Also dead. One by one, the others did the same.
To our left, the security doors leading into the OB wing cracked open. I raised my Prismatic Barrier in the same moment my fellow sentinels raised their weapons, everyone ready for whatever came through. Then Gabriel and Holden stepped into view.
“Oh, thank God.”
I flew across the room, straight into Gabe’s waiting arms. He squeezed me tight, but a moment is all we allowed ourselves before breaking apart. Pilar leaned out from behind the two shifters and hugged me next.
“So glad to see you guys,” Holden said.
“What’s the situation up here?”
“Maternity is secure. Or, it was.” Holden frowned. “Whatever that was a minute ago, it knocked out every electronic in this place, including the magnetic locks on the doors.”
“We have everyone secured behind as many doors as possible,” Gabriel added. “Any idea what we’re dealing with?”
“Felt like the completion of a ritual,” Sebastian said.
“Not just any ritual.” Simon’s jaw clenched. “One of, if not the very most complicated rituals of all. We may have a lich on our hands.”
Darkling mages were some of the worst, a cautionary tale all magical creatures knew. When a mage went bad, they committed, going so far as to remove their heart. The process made them pretty much invulnerable.
The Plague Doctor (The Paranormal University Files: Skylar Book 4) Page 23
