Drug

by O'Rourke, Lynda

  “Wendy,” I gasped, the smell from her rotting body making me gag.

  Her face looked bloated – skin hung from her cheeks like rotten stringy beef pushed through a mincer. Thick, black veins twisted up around her neck. She stretched open her mouth – gums oozing a thick grey mush – teeth gone. A high-pitched wail came from deep within her as she sat up on the tray. Using her left hand she pushed the tray away from the wall – it rolled toward me on its squeaky wheels. The sheet fell to the floor. Her black, rotting legs were covered in huge, slushy blisters that seemed to bubble and pop, releasing a bloodied puree. I kicked out at the tray, sending it hurtling back into the wall. The force sent Wendy rolling off the side and she hit the floor. Her flesh splattered over the tiles. It was like meat falling from the bone. A loud rattling sound echoed through the room as one of the small metal doors that lined the wall started to shake. Something was trying to get out. Wendy grabbed at the tray as she tried to stand up but her legs just seemed to be melting into like slush. She fell back down, a raspy cackle escaping her lips – eyes staring wildly at me.

  “I want you,” she spat, grey, lumpy phlegm spraying from her mouth.

  She used her body to roll toward me, turning easily across the floor in all the blood and flesh. I spun around and raced for the door – slipping and skidding as I went. Grabbing onto the metal handle, I slammed the door shut with all my strength. I had to get out of here. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Wendy and whatever else it was in the morgue. Snatching up the rusty key, I headed for the office door which led out into the corridor. Before I’d reached it, the door burst open.

  “Shit, you scared me. I thought we’d never see you again,” Max said, coming toward me, a wooden chair leg in his hand.

  I opened my arms and hugged him. Never had I been so pleased to see someone. I held him tight not wanting to let him go – afraid I might lose him again.

  “We need to get out of this room, Max,” I breathed, looking into his eyes. The door to the morgue suddenly rattled.

  “Who’s in there?” he asked, holding up the chair leg ready to strike.

  “It’s Wendy. Or what’s left of her,” I said, pulling Max toward the office door.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  We slipped out into the corridor. Max held my hand tightly and led me toward another door.

  “Where are the others?” I asked, hoping I would see Raven and Jude again. “Are they okay?”

  “They’re fine. We’ve been hiding out in the locker room trying to keep away from the Cleaners,” he whispered, pushing open a door.

  Stepping in, I saw what looked like a changing room filled with several rows of battered lockers, a small cupboard up against the far wall, and some metal poles lying among the rubbish scattered over the floor. Raven sat on a wooden bench. She was trying to push her foot into a black boot. She looked up, surprised to see me.

  “Kassidy! Oh, my God, I thought you were dead,” she said.

  “You think everyone’s dead.” Jude stepped out from behind a row of grey lockers. He grinned at me and held out his hand for me to take. “Where the hell did you disappear to? We went back to that room where Carly was but you’d gone – vanished. Raven thought Carly had eaten you.”

  “No I didn’t,” she hissed, standing up, hands on her hips. “I thought that Carly had killed you.”

  “Well, where had you three gone?” I asked. “You left me in that room, I thought I was gonna die.”

  “We tried to get the door open but it wouldn’t budge. And then we heard someone coming and we ran,” said Max, leaning the chair leg up against the lockers. “When we went back to that room the door was still shut but you weren’t in there, just Carly.”

  “Doctor Fletcher got me out,” I said, sitting down on one of the benches. I was still feeling shaky after seeing Wendy.

  “Fletcher?” whispered Max. “Why did he help you? He’s one of the bad guys – it doesn’t make sense.”

  Jude tutted and shook his head, a look of disapproval etched across his face. “You can’t trust that guy, he’s messing with you, Kassidy. He probably let you out because it’s all part of his sick, fucked-up game. Where is he now?”

  “I don’t know. He left me outside the canteen, gave me this key, and told me which door to go to,” I said, holding it up. “He said to wait in the chapel until the nightshift swaps with the dayshift. The gates will be busy then and we might be able to slip out unnoticed amongst the staff.”

  “What chapel?” asked Raven, squeezing her other foot into a boot.

  “It’s in the grounds of Cruor Pharma, but Doctor Fletcher said we’d be safe there,” I answered, slipping the rusty key into the jacket pocket I was now wearing.

  “Yeah and Fletcher said VA20 was safe,” huffed Jude. “I’m not going to that chapel, it’s just some kind of trap.”

  “What would be the point in him trapping us at the chapel? Why let me go when he could have just kept me? He could have easily handed me over to Doctor Middleton,” I said, standing up and walking over toward a row of lockers.

  “Look, I don’t trust any of these doctors but what Kassidy says makes sense. He wouldn’t let her go just so he could catch her again. We all heard Middleton and Wright talking in that room where Nurse Jones got killed,” said Max. “They don’t want us escaping out of the hospital, that’s why the Cleaners are looking for us.”

  Raven stood up. She had found a pair of what looked like porter’s trousers and a jacket to match. It was the perfect fit. She tucked her hospital gown into the trousers and pulled the jacket tight about her. All she needed was an I.D. badge and she was good to go.

  “I’ll go to the chapel,” she said. “It’s got to be better than hanging around in here being chased by the dead.”

  Jude rolled his eyes. “Why stay at Cruor Pharma when we could just climb over the walls and make a run for it? Going to the chapel is just delaying our escape.”

  “We’ll never get over those walls without being seen by the cameras or security guards,” said Max, pulling on a grubby pair of old jeans. “And anyway, have you seen how tall those walls are? We’d need a ladder.”

  “The chapel is a bad idea,” said Jude, turning away and rummaging through a locker for something to wear.

  “I think it’s the best option we have,” I said. “The door to the outside isn’t far from here, we could be out of this place and in the grounds within five minutes.”

  “We know where the door is,” said Raven. “We tried to get out of it a little while ago but it was locked, and then we heard someone running about down the corridor so we ran in here and hid.”

  “So does everyone agree that we head for the chapel and try and walk out with the rest of the staff?” asked Max. He had pulled off his hospital gown and was now slipping on a black leather jacket that had been left inside one of the lockers. His right arm had one black vein snaking around under his skin. The VA20 in him hadn’t spread as far as mine and Raven’s had. Max pulled up the zip of the jacket and brushed the dust off from the shoulders, sending dust motes swirling about the room.

  “Yes, I agree,” I said, looking for a pair of shoes.

  “Me too,” said Raven, her black greasy hair hung over her eyes like slimy lengths of seaweed.

  “I don’t have much choice, I guess,” muttered Jude. He reached round and untied the strings at the back of his gown. It dropped to the floor and he stood in his boxer shorts. His skin was perfectly smooth – no ugly black veins marked his body. Raven peered out from under her black fringe at him. Her eyes soaked up every part of his body. She saw me looking at her and turned away, embarrassed that I’d caught her eyeing Jude up. I couldn’t blame her. He had a body that any girl would want to feel against their skin. It was faultless – picture-perfect.

  After opening several lockers and finding them empty I came across one that had a pair of black shoes. They were scuffed at the toes and smelt musty but I didn’t care. Anything would do. I tried them on. They were a l
ittle too big and slipped off my heels as I walked but I would just have to manage. Standing up and straightening my jacket, I looked at Raven.

  “How do I look?” I asked.

  “A bit frumpy, but it just looks like a dress under a jacket, I don’t think anyone will take too much notice of those clothes,” she said. “You need to try and clean your legs though, there’s dried blood all down them.”

  “And you need to pull your hair round over your shoulders to cover that up,” Jude said, leaning into me. “It looks like a love bite gone horribly wrong.”

  I pulled my hair round, running my fingers through the knotted strands, trying to smooth it out.

  “Is that better?” I asked, trying to cover Carly’s bite mark the best I could.

  “That’s fine, just make sure you keep your hair covered over it,” said Max, looking more like a biker now he had on jeans, a leather jacket, and black boots. He flicked his blond hair from out of his eyes. “I’m gonna check the rest of these lockers and see if I can find us some I.D. cards.”

  “I just need a shirt or jacket,” said Jude, “and then we can go.” He stood in ripped jeans that were slightly too long for him.

  “Try this,” I said, handing him a dark blue shirt that had been screwed up at the bottom of a locker.

  He put it on. It was a little too tight but made his body look good, his muscles clearly defined through the fabric.

  “Hey, Kassidy,” he whispered. “Just so you know, I don’t bite like Carly.” He grinned at me. His blue eyes sparkled a mischievous glint.

  “That’s not even funny, Jude,” I glared. “She nearly killed me.”

  “I’m just teasing.” He looked at me with sorry eyes. “I’m trying to lighten up the moment after all the shit we’ve gone through.”

  “Nothing’s gonna lighten up the moment. Even if we get out of here, what are we gonna do about the crap travelling through our veins?” I asked.

  “Let’s worry about that later,” said Max. “I can’t find any I.D. cards so I guess we’ll have to escape without them.”

  “I found one in this locker,” smiled Jude, waving it around.

  “Let’s have a look…” started Raven, but she stopped abruptly. “I can hear footsteps”.

  The room fell into silence as we listened to the tap, tap, tap of shoes walking on the tiled floor of the corridor outside. My heart started to pick up pace again. When was this nightmare gonna be over?

  Jude crept over to the door and peered out through the tiny gap.

  “Who is it?” whispered Raven, fear clouding her eyes. “Please don’t let it be the Cleaners, please.” She closed her eyes and grabbed hold of my hand.

  “Shhh,” glared Jude. “It looks like a hospital porter.”

  “Is it a normal porter or a dead porter?” whispered Raven, her eyes still screwed shut.

  “What the fuck…” Jude turned and scowled at Raven. “He looks very much alive to me.”

  Raven opened one eye and looked at us. “You never know in this place.”

  “Has he gone?” whispered Max, trying to see over Jude’s shoulder.

  “No, he’s heading this way,” said Jude. “Hide behind the lockers, quick.”

  Raven hesitated. I pulled on her hand, dragging her behind a row of lockers. We stood in silence. The door swung open and in walked the porter.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I peeked around the edge of the locker. The porter had stopped in the middle of the room, fumbling through his pocket. Taking out a bunch of keys, he walked over to a large cupboard and unlocked the door. He turned suddenly and caught sight of me peering at him.

  “I know your there, come out,” he ordered, walking toward my hiding place.

  I looked at Raven. She stood cowering behind me. Her eyes wide with fear.

  I stepped out from behind the locker so as not to give away Raven hiding there.

  “You’re one of those volunteers who’s escaped, aren’t you?” he said. He pulled out a knife from his pocket and waved it in front of me.

  I recognised the porter. It was Fred Butler who had given me the soup on Ward 2.

  “They say you’re infected, dangerous.” He waved the knife again, stepping a little nearer.

  “I’m not dangerous. All I want to do is get out of here and never come back.” I held up my hands as if to show I meant him no harm. “Look at me, I’m just a nineteen-year-old girl – do I really look dangerous?”

  He scoffed. “Not dangerous, huh? I’ve heard what you and your group of mates did to poor Nurse Jones – look at the state of you – her blood is still on you.” His eyes wandered down my legs and he took another step toward me.

  “That’s not her blood. I didn’t do anything to Nurse Jones. It was those freaky things you’ve got here that killed her – those Cleaners.”

  “Cleaners,” Fred chuckled. “Cleaners clean – they don’t kill the staff or patients – you think I’m daft or something? I guess now you’re gonna tell me it wasn’t you and your mates that butchered the other volunteers up on Ward 2. I’ve seen what you did to one of them – what you left of one of them.”

  “That wasn’t us!” I snapped. “They turned on each other, they tried to kill me – this is their blood on my legs. Whatever Doctor Middleton injected into us – it turned half the group into monsters.”

  “Well I guess you can tell the police that when they lock you away into the loony–bin – where killers like you are kept,” he spat. Waving the knife, he motioned for me to head toward the door. “Move.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I stood firm. “We haven’t killed anyone and if it’s the loony-bin you think I should be in then you may as well leave me here – ‘cos that’s exactly what this place is.”

  Fred slashed the knife through the air – inches from my face. I backed away, hitting the row of lockers that Raven hid behind, knocking the chair leg over that Max had placed there. Snatching it up I waved it through the air.

  “Keep back,” I snapped. I grabbed a small metal pole from off the floor and placed it over the wooden chair leg so it resembled a cross. Maybe Fred would shrink away like the Cleaners had back in the kitchen? Shoving it in front of Fred’s face, I waited for him to shrivel back – fade away, but he didn’t. The cross had no effect on him whatsoever. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jude and Max. They raced at Fred from behind – Max clinging hold of Fred’s neck – Jude punching him in the side of his face. I rushed forward – smacking the knife from Fred’s hand with the metal pole – sending it spiralling across the room.