by Amy Cross
“What are you doing?” a woman asked, hurrying toward her. Wearing a white coat and with a worried look on her face, the woman glanced both ways, as if she was nervous about something.
“Nothing,” Katie blurted out, trying not to panic, “I just came to clean the -”
“You've got level one clearance, haven't you?”
“I -”
“Of course you have,” the woman continued, grabbing her and the trolley and steering them around the corner. “You wouldn't be in this section if you didn't. I need you to come with me and help deal with a situation.”
“Sure,” Katie replied, her mind racing as she tried to work out what to do next. Spotting a badge hanging from the front of the woman's coat, she saw a name. “So... Doctor Leach... What's wrong?”
“It's a Code Blue with Subject C.”
“Code Blue?”
“I need all the blood gone.”
“Blood?”
“You don't have a problem with blood, do you?”
“Well, no, but -”
Before she could finish, they rounded the next corner and Katie saw to her horror that there was a badly injured, heavily bleeding man on the floor, trembling as he tried to get up despite the severe lacerations on his chest and legs. His hands were trembling as he reached out for help, and it was clear that he was already in a state of shock.
“Remember tox procedures,” Doctor Leach muttered, letting go of Katie as they reached the man. She didn't seem at all bothered by the man's plight; if anything, she simply seemed irritated by the interruption. “Someone'll be along to deal with him shortly.”
“But -”
“Not buts,” the doctor continued. “Your job isn't to ask questions, it's to clean things up.” She paused for a moment, as if she was waiting for Katie to get started, before gently nudging her in the small of the back, forcing her forward. “So? Clean it up!”
Katie stared at the man for a moment, before turning and watching as Doctor Leach hurried away and entered a room at the far end of the corridor.
“Please...” the man on the floor gasped. “I just...”
Looking down at him, Katie saw that blood was still pouring from several large wounds on his chest. The man's shirt had been torn to shreds, and several thick, deep cuts had been made on his belly, almost as if something with large claws had attacked him. For a moment, all Katie could manage was to stare at the man and at the blood that was still running from his wounds. She'd never seen someone who'd been attacked by a bear, but she imagined it wasn't so very different.
“She was so fast,” he whispered, still trying to get to his feet but clearly far too weak. “One minute I was leading her away, the next she turned on me... I thought she...”
She waited for him to continue.
“You... thought what?” she asked eventually.
“I thought she... trusted me...”
“She? Who are you talking about?”
“It's my fault,” he continued, putting his hands over his belly in a futile attempt to keep more blood from flowing out. “Never... get too... comfortable around them... They can turn on you in a second... She's so beautiful, though, I guess I let myself think that she wouldn't hurt me, but... when you're... around them, they... unpredictable and -” Before he could finish, he let out a cry of pain.
“Unpredictable and what?” Katie asked, trying to ignore the sense of nausea in her gut. “What are you talking about? What can turn on you in a -”
Hearing footsteps nearby, she turned and saw another white-coated man running toward them. Pushing past her, the man knelt next to the injured man and immediately began to examine him, before glancing back over at her. Somehow, from the look in this second man's eyes, she could immediately tell that there was nothing he could do to help.
“Are you going to start cleaning this mess up or not?” the man barked.
“I just thought -”
“Don't think! Work!”
“Sure,” she replied, turning to her trolley and fumbling for one of the bottles. Figuring that she didn't really know what to use, she grabbed the nearest package and sprayed its contents onto a towel, before getting onto her hands and knees and starting to wipe away some of the blood that was spreading across the floor. As she did so, however, she managed to get a considerable amount on her hands, and no matter how hard she tried to mop the blood up, the towel seemed to merely slosh it from one wall to the other. Realizing that she needed to try something else, she reached over to the trolley with trembling hands and grabbed a sponge, which at least soaked up a little more blood once she began to wipe the floor again.
“Henry, can you hear me?” the newly-arrived doctor asked, gently slapping the side of the injured man's face. “Henry, there's nothing to worry about, we're going to take good care of you. I'm sure you're in a lot of pain, but we have a procedure for this type of situation and we'll follow that procedure to the letter. Understood?” He waited for a reply. “Henry, I know you can hear me. You helped write the procedure, remember? We sat around the table one afternoon and came up with it.”
“No... wait...”
As she tried to clean up the rest of the blood, Katie pulled more towels down from the trolley, but her hands and arms were covered in blood now and she was fully aware that everything she did only seemed to make the situation worse. Rivers of blood were running into cracks in the floor and spreading along the corridor. Glancing over at the injured man, she saw a needle being slid into his neck, and seconds later his trembling subsided as he fell limp.
“Fuck,” the other man said, putting a lid on the syringe before reaching over and dropping it into the waste bag on the side of Katie's trolley. “What a complete waste. Henry Gooderson was one of the best geneticists in the goddamn country.”
“Is he...” She paused for a moment, not wanting to ask a dumb question. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Sure, if you believe in the afterlife.”
Katie's eyes opened wide with horror.
Getting to his feet, the other man let the dead body's head drop hard against the floor. “Someone'll be along to fetch him,” he muttered, checking his watch. “I have to go and assist with Subject C. Just...” Looking down at the blood all over Katie's arms, he frowned. “Are you sure you know what you're doing? You don't seem to be doing a very good job of cleaning that up.”
“I'm fine.”
He stared at her for a moment, clearly suspicious.
“I'm fine,” she said again. “Honestly. I've... I've been trained for this type of situation.”
“Well that's good, I suppose,” he replied. “You know how much Leach likes things to be kept nice and clean around here.”
As the man hurried away, Katie pretended to keep cleaning for a moment, despite the fact that her hands were trembling. Once she was sure that no-one was watching her, she looked over at the dead body and saw that its eyes were slightly open, staring down at the floor as if, at the moment of his death, he'd been shocked by the sight of his own blood.
“Are you okay?” she whispered. “Are you really dead?”
She paused, before realizing that “Are you really dead?” was probably one of the dumber questions she could have asked.
“Robinson,” she continued, tapping her ear in the hope that the device might start working again, “things are going crazy, I'm getting out of here. I'm about ten inches from a dead guy, and it looks like he's been mauled by...”
Leaning closer, she saw that the man had been partially disemboweled. Strips of flesh had been torn away and were hanging down, exposing glistening red intestines below. She felt a hint of nausea, but she forced herself to stay calm as she examined the thick scratch marks in the corpse's abdomen.
“It's like something attacked him,” she explained. “It's how I'd imagine someone would look after they were gored by a lion or...” She paused for a moment, before realizing that she was taking too much of a risk. “I'm on my way out.”
Just as sh
e was about to get to her feet, however, she noticed that the dead man's white coat was hanging partially open, and there were clearly various items in his pocket. She looked both ways along the corridor, before realizing that she had to act fast. Wincing a little, she reached over and slipped her hands inside the dead man's coat.
“I'm not picking a dead man's pocket,” she whispered to herself as she slipped several items out, “I'm not picking a dead man's pocket, I'm not picking a -”
Seeing that she'd found various cards and other items, she figured that she could check them later. Stuffing them into her own pocket, she got to her feet and then began to push the trolley along the corridor, while grabbing a fresh towel and trying to wipe as much blood as possible from her arms. She was convinced that someone would stop her at any moment, that there was no way she could actually get all the way out before she was spotted, but finally she saw the door up ahead. Screams were still ringing out sporadically in the distance, which she figured meant that everyone was probably distracted, so she pushed the trolley to the door and then tried to get the damn thing open, only to realize that she needed a card to swipe against the sensor.
“Damn it,” she whispered, pulling out the items she'd taken from the dead man's pocket. Rifling through them, she found a security pass and scanned it against the sensor, and finally the door clicked open, allowing her back out of the high-security area.
Pushing the trolley out into the corridor, she pulled the door shut and then took a deep breath. A moment later, a woman emerged from one of the nearby doors. She smiled politely at Katie as she passed, but her pace slowed and she frowned as she saw the blood on her arms and uniform.
“Busy day,” Katie said uneasily, forcing a smile. “Lots of... stuff going on...”
As soon as the woman had gone into another room, Katie pushed her trolley quickly along the corridor until she reached the bathroom. Hurrying inside, she ran to the sink and began to desperately wash the blood from her hands and arms, watching as it ran into the water and swirled down the plughole. The job took several minutes, and even when she felt she should be finished, she could still see small amounts of blood caked under her fingernails. Although she wanted to get every atom of blood off her skin, she figured she could take a shower when she got home. A very, very, very long shower.
“I'm out of here,” she whispered. “Robinson, if you can hear this, I'm coming back! I've got stuff, I've found a few things and... I'm on my way, okay?”
Checking the front of her uniform and realizing that there was too much blood to wipe away, she looked at herself in the mirror and figured that she just had to get to the exit as quickly as possible. She dried her hands, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out the items she'd taken from the dead man's pocket. Along with a wallet, she found several security passes, a phone, and some kind of small, black electronic device that had a flashing white light on the top. Telling herself that Robinson could figure those things out later, she stuffed them back into her pocket and headed to the door, pulling it open.
“Hello there,” said a man in a white coat, standing right outside.
“Hey,” she replied, taking a step back as she realized he was the guy who'd injected the dying man a few minutes earlier. “I was just -”
The words dried on her tongue.
The man waited.
“I mean...” She paused. “I was just -”
“I know what you were doing,” he told her, pushing her back against the wall and stepping toward her. “That's why I'm here.”
“No, I -”
Feeling a sharp pain in the side of her neck, she gasped as she realized he'd managed to slip a needle into her belly. She tried to push him away, but it was too late: she stumbled toward her trolley, but the world was already starting to spin and she quickly dropped to her knees.
“Robinson,” she whispered, “you have to come and -”
Before she could finish, she fell back and lost consciousness as she crashed down, banging her head hard against the wall.
***
Down at the bottom of the pit, the creature stirred. Looking up toward the platform, it sniffed the air, but although there were no new scents, it still somehow knew:
Fresh meat was coming.
Nearby, the creature's two brothers began to crawl from the shadows.
***
“She's awake,” a voice said in the darkness. “Just give her a nudge.”
Feeling a hand slapping the side of her face, Katie opened her eyes and immediately realized that the world was still spinning around her. Vaguely aware of three figures in her field of vision, she tried to focus and slowly the dizziness started to pass until, finally, she could make out the faces of the three people who were staring at her. One was the guy who'd attacked her in the bathroom, one was the Doctor Leach woman she'd briefly met, and one was a man she hadn't met before, although she recognized him as Gregory Hanson thanks to the photo Robinson had shown her earlier.
“Is she able to talk?” Doctor Leach asked.
The first man nodded.
“What's your name?” the doctor continued, taking a step toward her. “Who sent you here?”
“I...” Her heart racing, Katie tried to move her arms, only to find that she was on a chair with her wrists tied firmly behind her back. She tried to pull them free, but the restraints were too tight and she could tell that sheer force would never be enough. “I'm a cleaner. You've got this all wrong, I'm just here to clean...”
“Oh yes, we found your badge, Elizabeth Bales.” She held up the security pass that Katie had been using to get into the building. “It's not a very flattering photo, though. The camera makes you look about thirty years older, with lighter hair and freckles.” She paused for a moment. “You might be interested to know,” she continued finally, “that when anyone swipes one of these cards at any sensor in the building, a camera scans their face and matches it to the image on the card. If there's a discrepancy, the card still works but our security team is informed.”
“We set it up that way,” Hanson explained, “so that we'd have advance warning if anyone tried to gain unauthorized access to our work. We felt that since such attempts were inevitable, it would be better to let them in and then monitor them, so we could work out who was trying to spy on us. After all, as long as we don't let them leave at the end, what harm can it cause?” He smiled. “We've been keeping an eye on you since your first came here yesterday morning. I guess you don't feel so smart now, do you?”
“Please,” Katie replied, “I don't know what you're -”
“Don't lie,” Doctor Leach said firmly.
“Who sent you?” Hanson asked. “No offense, but it's pretty clear that someone else is behind all of us. What are you, just a stooge?”
“No, I'm -”
“So give us a name,” he continued, “and we'll let you go.” A faint smile flickered across his lips, enough to make it clear that he was lying. “Why should you take the fall for your boss?”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” she replied, trying to stay calm as she glanced over at the door. “I'm just a cleaner.” Hoping against hope that Robinson could hear everything and was on his way, she turned back to Doctor Leach. “I was sent by the agency -”
“What agency?”
“The one that handles your cleaning contract?”
“Name that agency.”
“The...” She paused, aware that her attempts to lie were extremely unconvincing. “The Cleaning Agency?”
Hanson smiled.
“I swear,” she continued, “I might not be able to remember their name, but that's just because I'm new...”
“Then what was this?” Doctor Leach asked, holding out the earpiece. “Don't worry, we deactivated it once we removed it, although I should still be able to identify whoever was on the other end and pinpoint their location to within a few square meters.”
“Was it this man?” Hanson asked, holding up a print-out from one of th
e security cameras, revealing a grainy image of Robinson.
“I...” Katie stared at the image for a moment. “No, I don't know who that is.”
“Look again,” Doctor Leach said firmly, snatching the print-out and holding it closer. “Are you sure it wasn't him?”
“He's not a difficult man to remember,” Hanson continued. “He's an idiot, a lunatic, and an extreme irritant.”
Wide-eyed with fear, Katie looked at the photo for a moment, trying to make it seem as if she was giving the matter some thought. “I swear,” she said finally, “I've never seen that man before in my life.”
Hanson watched her for a moment, as if he was trying to read her body language, before turning to Doctor Leach. “I think she's telling the truth. About that, at least.”
“She's working for someone,” Doctor Leach replied, “and we need to know who. What do you think they'll do when they realize she's been captured?”
“They certainly won't rescue her,” Hanson added.
“You don't want to upset the people I work for,” Katie said firmly, figuring that trying to act tough might be her only option. “Trust me, they can mess with you and bring you down. In fact, I guarantee you that he's already figured out that you've got me here and he's on his way.”
“He?” Hanson asked.
“He'll be here any minute,” she continued. “Seriously, there's no door that can keep him out, there's nothing you can do to stop him, so the best things for you to do right now is just to let me go and then get ready to explain yourselves.”
“You seem to have a great deal of faith in this individual,” Hanson replied. “That's rather interesting.”
“It's not faith,” she told him. “I've just seen how he works.”
“And you think he'll come to rescue you?”
“I know he will.”
“Unless he decides to sacrifice you.”
Katie opened her mouth to reply, but at the last moment the words caught. “He's got a friend, too,” she managed to say finally. “She has a lot of big guns.”
