“That’s the only way we’re gonna be able to cover more ground, Patty. There is no way we’re gonna be able to stick together and search every inch of this hospital.”
“We could if we try,” Patty interjected again.
“Not a chance,” Marvin said. “Splitting up is the only option.”
“This is insane. Do you agree with this too, Melody?”
“I mean, the hospital is big, Pat. We should be able to find Sammy within a reasonable time if we split up in pairs. I don’t see anything wrong with that. We can split up into teams and whoever finds Sammy will call the other two. We could all be walking out of here before sunrise. Whatever we do, we need to hurry. I don’t wanna get caught by Parker’s dad. My parents will have my head.”
“As will ours,” Parker said in agreement. “I had to sneak out tonight because I told my mother I wanted to go over Sammy’s house. She told me no, but I had no choice. So, therefore, I am going to find him and I’m not leaving here without him again. Does everybody understand?”
“Yes,” they all said in unison.
“Now, back to the plan. Marvin, you take the basement. Patty, you take the second level. Melody, you can take the main level and I will check the top floor. Any questions?”
“Why are we splitting up into individuals, Parker? Why can’t we just go in pairs?” Melody asked.
“Because, Melody, we can cover more ground that way.”
“How will we stay in contact with one another if we get lost or something?” Melody asked.
“We’re gonna use our cell phones, like you just said. Any more questions?”
“Yeah,” Marvin said, raising his hand into the air. “Why do I have to go down into the basement? Why one of the girls can’t go? Or you?”
“Are you kidding me? I will not go into anybody’s basement with these Prada shoes on,” Melody said.
“Seriously? I don’t know what’s worse right now: this plan Parker just came up with, or the fact that you opted to wear those instead of sneakers like a normal person.”
“Knock it off, guys,” Parker said, breaking up the back and forth. “Now, is everybody okay with the plan?”
“Not like we have much of a choice,” Patty said.
“Okay then. We have roughly three hours to find Sammy and get out of here before my dad’s demolition begins. So, please, no fooling around people.”
They all wished each other luck and headed to their designated areas.
Chapter Four:
The Escape Plan
P
atty walked into the dark and dreary stairwell. Her skin was crawling with chill bumps as she ascended the stairs, heading upstairs to the second level. Reaching her designated landing, she had to use what little strength she had to open the door. Still not pulling hard enough, she used the crowbar that she had to help her pry open the door. She put her foot up on the wall and stuck the crowbar into the space between the door and the wall. After a few pulls, the door swung open and she flew back onto the floor.
“Ouch,” she said as she laid on the floor in pain. After a few minutes of laying still, she managed to struggle to her feet. The good thing about it was that the trick worked. She turned her flashlight back on and walked through the door that was now halfway hanging off its hinges.
“This place is so icky,” she said aloud. She saw a sign that informed her that she was on the floor which used to be the maternity floor.
She checked behind the desk and didn’t see anything. So, she decided to go into the first room she saw. It still held a name card inside the clear box.
“McNair,” she said aloud. “I wonder if this was Willie McNair’s wife’s room or something. Could be possible.”
She continued into the room, allowing her flashlight to lead the way. She saw hospital blankets and sheets thrown all over the room. It was nothing like downstairs though. It wreaked of old vomit and filthy baby pampers. Patty couldn’t put her hand on the other smell but whatever it was, it caused her to throw up in her mouth. She walked further into the room and decided to check the bathroom. The stench had grown stronger when she entered the area. Out of curiosity, she wanted to know what it was. She used her nose to guide her to the smell that was making her sick to her stomach. Surprisingly, it led her to the ceramic toilet. She hesitated for a second, not knowing what may be hiding inside. She silently counted to three then flipped the lid of the toilet. She shined her light inside. Right before her eyes, she saw feces, maggots, spiders, and roaches inside the commode. She screamed loudly and slammed the seat back down. She turned around and checked the shower. She pulled back the shower curtain and saw that there was no sign of Sammy in there either, just residue of hair left behind in the shower.
She exited the bathroom and went back into the room. She saw a patient chart lying on the air conditioning vent, and decided to take a peek at it. She looked at all the bloody fingerprints that aligned the folder and had second thoughts about it. Curious to know what information was inside burned a hole into her brain. She had an idea. She pulled the end of her sleeve over her fingers and used it to open up the folder. She read the first page from top to bottom.
“Samantha McNair. Age 30. Child’s name: Christopher McNair, born October 29, 1973. Father’s name: Willie McNair.”
Wow, she thought. This doesn’t make any sense to me. Parker said that Marvin told him that a massacre happened here 45 years ago. How is that possible if this says that Willie McNair and his wife gave birth to a son?
She continued reading the sheet out loud. “Christopher McNair’s death date was later on that night.” She flipped the paper over and underneath was a birth certificate for Christopher McNair, as well as a death certificate for both him and his mother, Samantha. “Oh my goodness. They both died, not just Christopher,” Patty said aloud.
Before she could look more into the folder, she heard a low scream and footsteps running across the floor. Panicking, and practically jumping out of her skin, she dropped the patient chart and her flashlight. The flashlight hit the floor and she stood up against the air conditioning unit. Her breathing started to get heavy, and her heartbeat began to beat rapidly. She no longer heard the footsteps, but she could hear a voice. Like somebody was talking in a whisper so they couldn’t be heard. She retrieved her flashlight from the floor and slowly tiptoed toward the door of the room.
“Melody, is that you?”
Melody did not respond.
“Parker? I know it’s you. This isn’t funny, you guys.”
Parker wasn’t there either.
She stopped in the middle of the room for a second and took a couple of deep breaths. “Marvin? Marvin, is that you? Are you guys trying to scare me? If you are, it’s not working,” she said with a quivering voice. Still, she heard nothing.
She stood at the entrance of the room and hesitated before peeking her head into the hallway. She poked her flashlight into the hallway and looked to the left, then to the right. Nobody was there. She left out the room and thought it would be a good idea to go into the next room. She walked slowly past the big window of the nursery. She thought she was seeing things out the corner of her eye, as a dark figure was on the opposite side of the glass. She didn’t want to scream and draw attention to herself, so she held in her screams and replaced them with tears. She seen a door at the end of the hall.
That must be the emergency exit, she thought.
She steadied her breathing and not a second too early, she made a dash for the exit. She ran and ran and ran until she burst through the door and headed down the staircase. She wasn’t sure if the person was following her or not, because she didn’t hear any other footsteps but hers. She just wanted to get away and find one of her friends, and she wasn’t gonna stop running until she did.
****
“This is silly,” Marvin said to himself as he walked through the basement of the hospital. “Who does Parker think he is, barking orders to people? He
must have forgotten that I was his older brother. It’s okay, though. I’m gonna get that little squirt back when he least expects it.”
Marvin quieted down for a second as he made his way into a little room. He saw a fuse box on the wall. After the flick of a couple of switches, several lights turned on in the basement.
“That’s better,” he said smiling. He turned his flashlight off and pushed it down into his back pocket. He saw that he had reached a dead end, so he turned back around and headed back down the hall in the opposite direction.
“Morgue,” he said reading a sign. “Oh, great. I got stuck where they stuff dead bodies. This should be fun.” He pushed open the metal doors and saw big drawers that adorned the walls around the room. “Hey, Sammy, are you down here?” he asked in a hushed tone.
As low as he was talking, one would think he wasn’t trying to disturb the dead. He walked over to the first wall of huge drawers. He opened them up one by one and they were all empty. He went to the other wall at the far right of the room. He opened the first drawer and thought that one would also be empty. But boy was he wrong. There was a body inside covered in a white sheet. He could see the tag hanging from the big toe that had the name “McNair” written on it. The toe looked as if was it was gonna fall completely off it was touched in any type of way. “That is disgusting,” he said. He quickly covered his nose with his arm trying to block out the smell of the decayed body.
He looked over at the examination table and to his surprise, there was a box full of latex gloves. He ran over to the table and snatched two gloves out, placing them over his hands. He went back over to the drawer that held the body inside. Curious to find out if this was Willie McNair, it excited him. “If this is you, Willie, I am gonna be one rich guy. People have been looking for you for years. And to think you were here all of this time,” he said, chuckling. He pulled the drawer out further, until it couldn’t go any longer. He snatched the sheet from the corpse and saw that it was a woman. “Well, this sucks,” he said with disappointment. “Then again, maybe this will still be worth a nice coin. But how will I have proof?”
He looked around the room until his eyes fell upon a wall that had different surgical tools aligning it. He walked over and thought about which of these scary instruments would do the job. He chose to go with one of the amputation knives. He grabbed it down from the wall, and admired the serrated edge of the blade. He smiled as he headed back over to the corpse.
He braced himself for the smell again. He had a quick flashback to a horror movie that he had seen before, and hoped that he could cut this head off as easily as the killer had done in the movie. He placed the amputation knife across the neck of the corpse, as he held his other arm up to his nose. He shut his eyes and squeezed them tightly together as he prepared to chop the head off. He lifted it a little and brought it down. He stopped midway when he heard something scuffling behind him. He froze in place and opened his eyes back up. He looked around, but there was no soul in sight.
He was about to try again for a second time when he heard the scuffling noise again. It was coming from the other side of the room. He kept the knife in his hand as he walked over to where the noise was coming from. He ended up at a coat closet. He slowly reached for the door handle. He snatched it open and saw rats running in and out of holes of a dead man’s body. “Holy crap,” Marvin yelled slamming the door back. He hastily walked back over to the dead body. Without hesitation, he chopped the head off with one try. He grabbed a small body bag, that was just big enough for the head and threw it inside. “Time to go,” he said.
As he dropped the knife onto the floor and removed the gloves, he picked up the pole that he had came inside with. With the pole and the bagged head in his possession, he headed to the door. As he reached for the handle, he saw a shadow on the other side of the door. He couldn’t make out who it was because the window was not able to be seen through. Whoever it was, they couldn’t see him either. He waited a couple of seconds. He gathered up strength and courage before he gently opened the door and walked into the hall. A tall, hooded figure was only a few feet away from him and they never looked back. From the looks of the back of the person, Marvin knew that it couldn’t have been neither his brother or Sammy, but from the walk, he knew it was definitely a man.
He slid the bag onto his wrist and got a tight grip on the pole with both hands. He walked quickly up to the person, unnoticed, and hit him. He aimed for the back of his legs first. The man fell to the ground and groaned. Marvin used this opportunity to pummel the man to a pulp. He hit him across the back several times. He didn’t have time to see who it was, nor did he want the person to risk the person retaliating on him, so he high-tailed it down the basement corridor. He took one last look at the man laying on his stomach in the middle of the hall, motionless, before running up the stairs in search of Parker.
****
Melody looked around on the main level, and was getting creeped out more than ever. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the lights had come on a little while ago. It was a little less creepy when they were all together, but now she felt as if she was casted in a horror movie. She was now entering the fourth room on this floor and it just so happened to be the office of the head doctor. She saw papers thrown all over the place.
“This place is a mess,” she replied as she walked in a little more. She stepped on several patient charts and walked around a couple of flipped over chairs as she made her way over to the desk. She searched through drawers, looking for nothing in particular, just being plain old nosey Melody, as always. She pulled out an old book that looked to be a journal of some sort. She opened it to the entry for today’s date, 45 years ago. There was so much dust covering the page that she had to blow on it. The dust flew into her eyes and she dropped the book onto the desk. As she rubbed her eyes to clear them, she heard a squeaking noise.
Were those sneakers? she thought. “Parker is that you? Patty? Marvin?” No one replied. A little frightened, she didn’t let it get to her. She just picked the journal back up and began reading aloud.
“Dear Journal,” it began. “This has been a rough day thus far. We have lost not only one life today, but two. It was extremely heartbreaking. It was the deaths of a young mother and her newborn. She had informed the staff of nurses, and myself as well, that this was her first child. She wasn’t nervous or anything, even though she was in active labor. She was as calm as the sea. She told us that she and her husband had been married for eight years and they had been trying to have children since then. After several miscarriages, they had finally been blessed with a baby boy. She named him Christopher McNair, after her husband’s late father. He wasn’t here yet. I think she said that his plane hadn’t landed, or something of that nature. She had asked me to leave the baby in the room with her instead of the nursery so he would be there when her husband arrived. I told her we couldn’t, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m not sure what had transpired between the birth and now, but we just had to place white sheets over both the mother and her child. I had run tests on them both, only to find out that the mother had suffered from an infection and the child had an extremely high dosage of sodium chloride in its bloodstream. It was so hard to explain this once the father had finally arrived. It was a little awkward, though. He didn’t yell, nor did he even shed a tear. He placed a kiss on each of the bodies and left the hospital without uttering a word.”
She wanted to continue, but she couldn’t. The couple of words that were beginning a new sentence, was covered in dark blood. She ran her fingers over the spots. It was hard and the page was crinkly beneath it. As she held the journal between her fingers, a tear escaped from her eye. It trickled down her face before landing on top of the blood that stained the page.
“That was so sad,” she said to aloud to herself. “Maybe this is why that guy went ballistic on everybody. I would have, too.” She wiped her face and put the book back into the drawer. She remembered that she had to help
find Sammy. At least she knew now why that massacre had happened.
She got up from the desk and looked around the office some more. There still were no signs of Sammy, so she left out and headed back out to the lobby area. “There’s one more room on this floor,” she said. “Sammy you better come up soon. It’s almost sunrise.” She headed into the last room, hoping to find her friend once and for all. This room was nothing but the hospital pharmacy. There looked to be hundreds, maybe thousands, of various medications surrounding her as she walked into the room. She noticed the labels with the names on it and recognized some of them. The medicines ranged from Tylenol to Motrin to medicine for blood pressure. Melody looked at the clipboard hanging on the wall. She picked it up and saw all the signatures from the various doctors that worked here that picked up meds for their patients. Not one of these were signed off for anybody with the last name McNair.
“That’s a little odd,” she said, then placed the clipboard back onto the wall. There wasn’t really anywhere for Sammy to hide in here; here was nothing but open space inside the room. It was time to give up.
She was walking quickly to leave the pharmacy, but halted as she heard footsteps running down the hall. She looked around nervously for a place to hide. There was no place to hide except under the table where they distributed medication to the doctors. She quickly dove under as the footsteps closed in on her. She put her hand over her mouth, covering it so whoever it was would not hear her hard breathing. She wished at this moment that she had had the bat that Parker had given her. She would have still been scared but she wouldn’t have been this scared. Plus, she would have been able to protect herself. All she could see was feet enter the room and stop right in front of her. Her fear caused her to let out a warm stream of pee. It seeped through her clothes and made her cry. I just ruined a three hundred dollar skirt, she screamed in her head.
No Trespassing Page 6
