The Slice

by Greg Taylor

  Strobe pulled down his cell mouthpiece and relayed to everyone what he was seeing as the two continued toward the hospital. Their gait was unhurried, confident. Arriving at the center of the circular driveway, which curved around in the front of the building, they suddenly stopped. And looked right up at Strobe.

  Strobe froze in place. He hadn’t thought he was visible to the duo as he studied them from his darkened-room vantage point, but obviously he had been. Strobe stayed right where he was and waited for whatever came next.

  The two figures stood silently. The Tall Man continued to look up at Strobe. The woman warrior scanned the building, looking for a way in. When the Tall Man held his arms out wide, a conciliatory gesture that signaled to Strobe that he wanted to talk, the gesture caught Strobe off guard. And it made him very suspicious.

  “I would like to speak to whoever is in charge of your group.”

  “What?” Strobe had found it difficult to understand Calanthe when she first arrived in Hidden Hills, but the Tall Man’s accent was so strong Strobe hadn’t been able to make out a single word.

  The Tall Man repeated his request.

  “You know what? You gotta slow it down, dude. I can’t understand you!”

  “What?”

  Strobe almost laughed. The group’s deadly predicament certainly wasn’t funny, but Strobe and the Tall Man not being able to understand each other? Definitely some humor in that, Strobe had to admit.

  “Slower. Understand? Talk slowwwwwwer.” Strobe slowed things down himself, demonstrating for the Tall Man what he meant.

  The third time was the charm. Strobe understood that the Tall Man wanted to speak to the group’s leader. “Before you speak to anyone,” Strobe replied, “I want to see that invisible freak, in full view, standing right next to you.”

  The Tall Man hesitated, as though he was deciphering what Strobe had just said, then smiled a cold smile. When he glanced toward the front of the building, Strobe saw him nod slightly. Moments later, the rukh appeared. Standing slightly behind and to the side of the Tall Man, the huge, ghastly creature looked like the perfect pet from hell.

  What a trio! Strobe thought. Then, the conversation continued.

  “The person in charge. If you please.”

  “I’ll do.”

  “In that case, you have the power to make this unpleasant situation very quick. And painless. You give us Calanthe, and we walk away. Within a few days, the three men you left behind in the village will appear in Montreal. None the worse for wear.”

  So they were alive. Strobe felt a wave of relief, hearing this. But then he instantly realized the spot the Tall Man had put him in.

  “Can’t do that.”

  The Tall Man appeared to be surprised at Strobe’s response. “So would you rather die? Because this is what will happen if you do not give us what is rightfully ours. You will be sentencing your friends to death, as well. So many deaths, which simply does not have to be.”

  “They’re not my friends. They’re soldiers. They knew the risks.”

  “And so do you, if you do not give me what I want.”

  Strobe studied the trio as he fingered his crossbow, propped up against the wall next to him. “My final word on the subject is … Calanthe is not rightfully yours. Which means no go on us handing her over. You’re gonna have to come get her.”

  “Oh, that we will. That we definitely—”

  In a lightning move, Strobe grabbed his crossbow, thrust it out the window, and started firing. He was shocked at how quickly the Tall Man and the woman moved. And how fast the rukh instantly disappeared.

  “It’s on, everyone!” Strobe yelled into his mouthpiece. “They’re coming!”

  8

  Annabel had the left wing. Toby, the right. First floor. From his second-floor lookout position, Strobe was right in the middle of the long front hospital wing.

  In the basement, in a former operating room, stood Calanthe. She jumped—a startled reaction—when she heard Strobe over her cell earpiece, conveying to everyone that the Tall Man and his companions were coming. She immediately went to the door, opened it, and looked out into the dark hallway. Calanthe didn’t know how long she would be able to stay in the basement before going up and joining her friends. The plan was, if anyone got into trouble, they’d send out word via cell.

  Calanthe suddenly sensed—more so than heard—a commotion upstairs. And she knew that the hospital had been invaded. As Strobe had warned, it was on. The Tall Man was coming for her.

  Which meant that the Slice, the gruesome name for the Day of Days ritual, was at hand.

  * * *

  The rukh—supernatural battering ram that it was—had crashed right through the boarded-up front entrance to the hospital. Strobe relayed this information to Toby and Annabel, then tried to find the Tall Man and the woman.

  The Tall Man was to his right, walking closely along the front of the building. The woman was heading in the opposite direction. They weren’t following the rukh into the hospital, that much was clear. Strobe gave Annabel and Toby the heads-up on this, then charged out of the room and down the hall.

  Hitting the stairwell at a run, Strobe bounded down the stairs and came out on the first floor, at the spot where Toby had told everyone good luck. He sprinted across the lobby, leaped over the counter of the nurse’s station, and brought up his crossbow into a shooting position.

  From his spot behind the counter, Strobe had a direct view down the hall that led to the front entrance of the hospital. He wasn’t able to see the invisible rukh, but he could definitely see the path the thing was taking, which happened to be right in his direction!

  The group had scattered gravel up and down the hallways of the hospital for just this purpose. So Strobe was able to witness the hallway gravel exploding into pieces as it was pulverized by the rukh’s feet. And he knew where to aim his crossbow.

  When he did, Strobe started firing as fast as he could press the trigger. The rukh flashed in and out of view as it was struck by the arrows. Strobe knew the arrows wouldn’t stop the creature, but their impact did slow the charging beast from a thunderous run to a flinching jog.

  Just what Strobe hoped would happen. He tossed aside his crossbow and grabbed another weapon that he had stored under the nurse’s station counter. Nicknamed the Ghost Buster (by Strobe), the weapon—which emitted an unlawfully potent taser—actually did somewhat resemble the weapons used by the ghost busters in the iconic comedy.

  When Strobe aimed the Ghost Buster down the hall … he paused. He needed to hit the rukh at just the right moment. The creature had gone invisible again, but its steadily advancing path was betrayed by the erupting gravel. When the rukh was almost to the lobby area in front of the nurses’ station …

  Strobe fired.

  A taser burst from the weapon and slammed into the creature, the powerful electrical charge stopping the thing in its tracks. The weapon rendered the rukh immediately visible, its body shuddering from the powerful current coursing through its body.

  Strobe had to act quickly. He didn’t know how long the taser would freeze the rukh in one spot. He dumped the Ghost Buster, slid down the counter, and grabbed a crudely constructed lever that was located just in front of the Dracula mannequin.

  When Strobe pulled the lever, he set off the first of the monster booby traps. Dubbed Hammer Down by Toby, it was tripped by a wire that ran up a post at the end of the nurses’ station, across the ceiling of the lobby and a short way into the hallway. Exactly where the rukh was frozen in place by the Ghost Buster’s taser.

  AAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

  The creature reared back and screamed when a heavy sharp-tipped metal shaft—the object that had been released when Strobe pulled the lever—swung down from the ceiling and impaled the rukh’s chest.

  The creature frantically tried to pull the shaft from its body. But the taser was still sending a powerful stream of electricity through the beast’s massive frame. Between that and the Hammer Dow
n, it wasn’t long before the rukh slowly slumped to the floor.…

  And was still.

  Strobe couldn’t believe how well their first trap had worked. “One down!” he yelled into his mouthpiece. “Talk to me, you guys!”

  From Toby: “I have the tall guy in my sights.”

  “Annabel?”

  Nothing from Annabel.

  Toby: “Go help her, Strobe.”

  “I’m on it. Be careful, man.”

  Strobe jumped over the counter and took off down the hallway to his left, which is where Annabel had taken up her position.

  Aside from the obvious reason that the Tall Man was incredibly dangerous, Strobe had told Toby to be careful because they hadn’t had time to booby-trap Toby’s location. It was the final thing they had planned to deal with, while Annabel and Calanthe were at school and they were all waiting for daylight to turn to night and the dekayi to arrive. But the dekayi’s early arrival had squashed those plans.

  So Toby was the only obstacle between the Tall Man and the stairway to the basement, where Calanthe was waiting as bait in the former operating room. Toby’s defensive position was behind a five-foot-tall barrier that he and Strobe had constructed only hours before. The jagged wall of discarded tables, chairs, two-by-fours, and other junk they’d found in the basement stretched from one side of the hall to the other. It was the only thing protecting Toby from the Tall Man, who was striding down the center of the hallway in his direction.

  Lying on the floor of the hallway behind the barrier, Toby made sure the tall, gaunt figure was dead center in his crossbow sight, then started firing. In a flash, the Tall Man disappeared. Simply took off into a nearby room, crashing through the door as though it were made of paper. Toby hesitated, shocked at the sudden retreat of the Tall Man, then crawled through a small opening in the barrier. He stood and quickly moved up against the side of the hall.

  Heart thumping wildly, Toby inched his way toward the tattered door, pieces of which littered the hallway. He stopped just outside the room and listened intently. Couldn’t hear a thing to indicate that the dekayi was in the room. No breathing. No scrape of a shoe against the floor.

  But it could be a trap. Toby knew the Tall Man just might be waiting for him to enter before springing it. So he made sure all of his body armor was firmly in place. The armor included a face shield, an added component to their gear to guard against a numbing slimeball attack. Satisfied that he was as ready as he could possibly be, Toby slid quickly into the room.

  Nothing. Toby swung his crossbow back and forth, scrutinizing every corner. A cold breeze was blowing into the room through a gaping, smashed window. Toby warily approached the window and glanced outside. There were a pair of heavy footprints where the Tall Man had landed. Toby leaned slightly out of the window to get a better look outside the building. No sign of the guy.

  Toby pulled down his mouthpiece. “The tall dude has left the building. I’m heading to the nurses’ station.”

  * * *

  The woman warrior—who had entered the left wing of the hospital through a window—hadn’t left the building when Annabel had discovered her and started pumping arrows in her direction. Instead, the intimidating figure had turned into her serpent alter ego and slithered/crawled right at Annabel!

  So Annabel had turned and ran. Just as the plan called for her to do. It was a tricky thing Annabel was attempting to pull off. She needed to stay out of the deadly range of the slithering creature, yet remain close enough to lead it to the booby trap they had constructed in the cafeteria. So as Strobe was leaping over the nurses’ station counter to come to her aid, Annabel was blasting through the double doors of the cafeteria and sprinting across the empty space where tables and chairs used to be.

  The serpent was trailing by a mere second at this point, the hissing and slithering and suction-crawling sounds getting louder and louder as it closed in on Annabel. The monster the warrior woman had turned into was bigger and stronger-looking than the ones Strobe had faced in the dekayi village. Or the one Calanthe had turned into. To Annabel, this serpent looked like something that had been groomed for one thing and one thing only.…

  War.

  As she ran toward the cafeteria serving counter at the far end of the room, Annabel suddenly felt something heavy strike her back, the impact almost dropping her to her knees. Annabel was certain she’d been hit by a blast of the black, numbing ooze Strobe had warned them about. And which Annabel’s back body armor had fortunately prevented from making contact with her skin.

  Annabel managed to stay upright after the hit, but stumbled just as she was about to go over the serving counter. Instead of a clearing leap, Annabel’s foot hit the counter when she jumped, resulting in a head-over-heels tumble to the other side. She hit the floor hard, the painful collision stunning her and bringing her forward momentum to a dead stop.

  Just then the deadly serpent reared up on the other side of the counter. Temporarily incapacitated by her painful fall, Annabel felt frozen in place. Besides the numbing pain, Annabel had the very odd sensation that the serpent’s heavy-lidded eyes were somehow hypnotizing her!

  Suddenly, the serpent’s sinister head swiveled away and focused on something in the deep darkness a few yards away.

  Following the serpent’s gaze, Annabel could just make out … yes, it was the mummy mannequin that Toby and Strobe had planted behind the counter! A couple of gravestones had been arranged around the figure as a macabre accent.

  Sorry, guys! And thanks!

  Taking quick advantage of the mummy distraction, Annabel desperately crab-crawled—her back toward the floor—away from the counter.

  The serpent’s head immediately snapped back and focused front and center on Annabel.

  That’s right! Come get me!

  The creature complied, its massive body crashing onto the counter and slithering across it.

  Annabel frantically propelled her body toward the rear of the kitchen area, still moving in her awkward crab-crawl to be able to see the serpent as it came for her.

  The thing slithered/crawled toward her like a coiling, propulsive, unstoppable machine.

  Annabel took a quick look behind her and saw that she was almost to the place she needed to be.

  The serpent’s head suddenly shot up toward the ceiling. The long poisonous fangs slid into view from under its thin, leathery lips. It was preparing for a lethal strike!

  Annabel had to act. Now.

  She whirled and desperately launched herself toward the lever that would trigger the monster trap.

  Her fingers found the lever …

  Curled around the wood …

  And pulled.

  SWWWWISSSHHH!!!

  A sheet of sharpened steel immediately plunged downward from the ceiling and …

  CRRRRACKK!

  Caught the mammoth serpent dead center in the middle of its thick, slippery body, slicing the thing neatly in half!

  Annabel pulled herself to her feet and backed away across the kitchen until she was up against the rear wall. She wanted as much distance between her and the two writhing halves of the serpent as possible. Even in its death throes, Annabel knew the serpent could be deadly.

  “Annabel!”

  “In here!”

  When Strobe threw open the double doors of the cafeteria, Annabel was maneuvering around the perimeter of the kitchen to get back to the dining area. When she did, she leaned up against the serving counter with a relieved sigh.

  “Annabel! Down!”

  Annabel was confused. Why was Strobe telling her to get down? But there was no time for questions. Strobe already had his crossbow up and aimed right at her!

  Annabel threw herself to the floor as the cafeteria was filled with the sharp, hissing sounds of one arrow after another as they burst from Strobe’s crossbow. Turning to look through the foot-wide opening between the stainless steel front of the counter and the floor, she was shocked by what she saw.

  The serpent wasn’
t in its death throes. It was mutating! Becoming two serpents instead of one!

  “Annabel! Let’s go!”

  Strobe’s arrows had backed one half of the serpent away from Annabel as it was coming over the counter for her. The half that already had a head.

  Annabel leaped to her feet. Charging across the cafeteria in Strobe’s direction, all Annabel could think was …

  Now how are we going to kill this thing?

  9

  After outflanking Toby, the Tall Man had reentered the hospital from the rear and quickly made his way to the lobby area in front of the nurses’ station. The dekayi knew this is where he needed to be to get to Calanthe. He could sense it.

  But as he was about to open the door that led to the basement stairway, the Tall Man suddenly hesitated. He looked around the lobby, spotted the Ghost Buster on the nurses’ station counter. In one fluid movement, the Tall Man walked across the lobby, grabbed the large weapon, and threw it with awesome force at the stairway door.

  BLAMMMMM!!!

  The Tall Man had smelled the Rock-a-Monster trap, the explosion that Toby and Strobe had rigged to go off by the inward movement of the door. Instead of being blown to pieces as he entered the stairwell, the blast only caused the Tall Man to take a few steps back and wait for the falling rubble to settle. Then he walked through the gaping hole where the door used to be and went down the stairs to find Calanthe.

  * * *

  Just as he was crawling back under the hallway barrier to get to the nurse’s station Toby heard the doorway explosion.

  Strobe: “Tobe!”

  “Yeah, I heard it, too.”

  Strobe: “We got a little snake problem here! Be there as soon as we can.”

  “I’m on it. Good luck!”

  Toby leaped to his feet and ran down the hall. The dust from the explosion was billowing around a corner at the end of the hall and forming a solid white smoke screen between Toby and the lobby. When Toby pushed through it and entered the lobby, he started coughing from the heavy dust particles that hung in the air.