by Amy Cross
Heading over to the other side of the lab, she wiped some more of the black liquid from her face and neck, before grabbing her phone and bringing up her brother's number.
“Hey,” she said as soon as she was put through to his answerphone, “it's me. Listen, this might sound weird, but... Do you remember that ridiculous story you told me about an incident a couple of years ago at Leadenford Hospital? The one that supposedly got covered up after the whole place was destroyed?” She glanced back over at the dead squirrel. “Well, I really don't want to set you off on another of your conspiracy rants, but I think I might have something that you're going to find very interesting. Call me back as soon as you get this message.”
Chapter Eight
“This is a mop,” Marlowe said, handing Lizzie a mop.
“I know.”
“And this is a bucket.”
“I know.”
“And this,” he continued, turning to look at the three portable toilets lined up in the shade, a few hundred meters from the cabins, “is your task for the afternoon. Just be glad you got sanctioned on the first day. There hasn't been much time for anyone to make too much of a mess.”
“What about medical waste?” she asked.
He turned to her, with a hint of panic in his eyes. “What?”
“Twenty-odd cancer patients are using these things,” she continued. “God knows what drugs they're all on for their conditions. Don't you think there might be some toxic material in their waste?”
“Huh,” he replied, looking back at the plastic cubicles, which were resting haphazardly on the grass. “I never really thought about that. You might be right.”
“And the chemicals used to keep the toilets clean?”
He sniffed.
“And needles?”
“Do you think there are needles?” he asked, turning back to her.
“If anyone has to self-inject, and if they're dumb enough to flush the -” She paused, suddenly aware of the clueless look on his face. “Never mind, I'll make up a policy on the fly.”
“Well, maybe -”
“I can do it,” she told him, turning to look back at the cabins just as the rest of the campers headed off to get started with the afternoon's aerobics class. “Just leave me alone to get on with it, and I promise that by dinnertime these toilets will be cleaner than you can possibly imagine.”
“That's a good way to see it,” he replied with another sniff. “Take pride in your work.” Turning and heading back to the cabins, he began to lazily scratch the back of his trousers.
“Gross,” Lizzie muttered, turning back to look at the toilets. Figuring that she might as well get started, she took the bucket over to a nearby free-standing tap and began to fill it with cold water, before grabbing a bottle of bleach and pouring some into the concoction.
“Hey,” a voice said suddenly.
Turning, she saw Laura limped across the grass on crutches.
“Not going to the aerobics?” Lizzie asked.
“With these legs?” Laura replied, allowing herself a faint smile. “Hell, no. I persuaded that Wallace cow that it'd be cruel and unusual punishment to make me take part, so she said I could amuse myself for the afternoon. Besides, I saw you down here and I felt bad. There's no way you should be the only one who gets it in the neck. I tried confessing, but Kirsty and Todd flat-out denied the whole thing and, anyway, I think Wallace has taken a real dislike to you for some reason.” She sniffed. “She's clearly a bitch, so if she doesn't like you, I guess you must be okay.”
“It's okay,” Lizzie muttered, turning the tap off and carrying the bucket over to the first plastic cubicle. “I'm gonna shine these toilets up so good, she'll be able to see her own reflection in the seats.”
“So where do you think Beth has got to?”
“Still no sign her?”
Laura shook her head.
“Crystal Wallace was no help,” Lizzie continued, dipping the mop into the bucket. “I swear, it's like she couldn't give a damn. I tried to tell her that the longer we leave it, the bigger the chance that something might happen. I mean, Beth seemed fairly healthy but you never know with these things.” She glanced back toward the cabins, where she could see Crystal leading the aerobics class.
“She only cares about the camp,” Laura replied, “and her own reputation. I've seen her type a million fucking times. She wants everything to know what a wonderful person she is, so she sets up a cancer charity. Plus, even though it's a charity, I guarantee you she's paying herself a decent wage as its boss. There's money to be made in the cancer industry, you know.”
“Meanwhile, the only person who actually cares is stuck down here doing a dumb-ass job.” Opening the door of the first cubicle, she looked inside but immediately took a step back. “Jesus Christ. We've been here less than a day, how have people managed to make the damn thing so filthy?”
“Wow,” Laura said, peering into the cubicle, “that's kinda impressive.”
“I have bowel cancer,” Lizzie pointed out, “and I don't make that much of a -”
Before she could finish, she let out a gasp of pain as she felt something shuddering through her belly.
“You okay?” Laura asked, putting out a hand to support her.
“Fine,” Lizzie winced, even though she was feeling a little hot and sweaty, “just... It happens sometimes, that's all.”
“Me too. Maybe you should sit down.”
She shook her head.
“You don't want to push yourself,” Laura continued. “Get someone else to muck out the toilets.”
“You know what?” Lizzie replied, turning to her. “I've got an even better idea.”
***
“Wallace is going to kill you when she finds out you ditched your job,” Laura pointed out as she limped along on her crutches. “I like it.”
A few steps ahead, Lizzie fought her way through a patch of dense weeds as she continued to lead Laura through the forest.
“I can't spend my time cleaning a bunch of toilets,” she replied, “when someone might be in trouble. Screw Crystal Wallace. What if Beth's hurt? What if she's out here, terrified and alone, desperately waiting for someone to come and find her?” She stopped in a clearing and waited for Laura to catch up. “She's been gone too long for this to be anything else. Something's wrong.”
“I can't believe Kirsty just left her in the dark like that. I mean, that's like the meanest thing she could have done. Beth's blatantly scared of her own shadow.”
“What's done is done,” Lizzie replied, looking around in the hope that she might spot some sign of Beth's location. “This place is overgrown as hell,” she continued. “If someone had collapsed and was unconscious, they could be just a few meters away and no-one would even see them.” Looking toward the lake, she saw the water glistening under the afternoon sun.
“This could actually be serious,” Laura said after a moment, “couldn't it?”
Lizzie took a step forward and cupped her hands around her mouth.
“Beth!” she shouted at the top of her voice. “Can you hear me?”
She waited.
No reply.
“Beth!” she yelled, trying again. “Try to make some kind of sound!”
Again she waited, but all she heard was the gentle rustling of the tree-tops as a breeze passed across the forest.
“Beth!” Laura shouted. “Hey, are you -”
Before she could finish, she broke down into a coughing fit.
“She'd have replied by now,” Lizzie pointed out, patting her on the back. “Either she's too far away, or she's close and she's unconscious. Still...” She glanced back through the trees, toward the clearing that led to the cabins. “This is the route they took last night to get back to camp, so she wouldn't have deviated too far, not unless she got totally lost.”
“She might have become disorientated,” Laura replied as they made their way through the undergrowth. “She's from the city, right? She probably doesn't have much
experience out in the wilderness. I sure as hell don't.”
“All she had to do was go in a straight line,” Lizzie muttered. “I know that's not always easy, but -”
She stopped suddenly as she saw something up ahead: a thick swarm of flies had gathered around a patch of tall grass, and something bulky seemed to be on the ground.
“What's that?” Laura whispered, with fear in her voice.
Lizzie watched for a moment as the flies buzzed around the object. Whatever it was, it was large, maybe even human-sized.
“I don't want to look,” Laura said finally.
“It's not Beth,” Lizzie replied. “It can't be. There wouldn't be that many flies after just...” Her voice tailed off as she stared wide-eyed at the dark shape behind the grass.
“Do you think we should call someone?” Laura asked.
“I think we should take a look. It's probably nothing.”
They both stood in silence for a moment, before Lizzie finally took a couple of steps forward and made her way around the side of the patch of grass. Scrunching up her nose, she waved away a few flies as she continued to edge closer to the object, and finally she stopped and stared down for a few seconds, watching as flies and maggots crawled all over the carcass.
“Oh thank God,” she said finally.
“What?” Laura asked.
“It's a deer. Or... at least, it was a deer.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty much,” she continued, breathing a sigh of relief. “Come and take a look.”
Limping over to join her, Laura looked down at the carcass.
“It stinks,” Lizzie pointed out.
“It's kind of beautiful, though,” Laura replied, tilting her head a little as she stared at the animal's partially-rotten head, with its dead eyes staring up at the sky. “I mean, we all end up like this in the end, don't we? Sometimes I think it's better to just be left out for other creatures to feed on you, instead of being burned or nailed into a wooden box.”
“So this is how you want to go when it's your time?” Lizzie asked. “Dumped in the forest so flies can work on you?”
“Maybe. My mother would never allow it, though.”
“Let's not talk about funerals,” Lizzie replied. “There's no need.”
“Do you seriously think any of us have got much time left?” Laura asked. “This cancer camp is just one final chance for our parents to act like we're normal. Soon we'll be back in hospital, hooked up to packs of chemicals again, waiting to die slowly and painfully. All the positive thinking in the world can't change the fact that when we get to the end of our monochrome rainbows, all we're gonna find is a sad, early death.”
“That doesn't mean we have to talk about it,” Lizzie replied firmly.
“Yeah, but you -” Suddenly, Laura took a step back.
“What?” Lizzie asked.
“Something moved in there!”
Turning to look down at the dead deer, Lizzie watched the flies and maggots for a moment. “It's nothing,” she said after a few seconds, “it's just -”
“Something moved,” Laura said again. “I swear to God, it wasn't the maggots or the flies or anything like that, something moved under the skin.”
“You think it's still alive?” Lizzie asked. “That's kind of gross.”
Laura shook her head. “It wasn't the deer itself, it was more like...” She paused. “It was like something moved in the belly or the gut area. Something big.”
“You're imagining it,” Lizzie replied. “You're just letting yourself get spooked out, there's no -”
“There!” Laura shouted, taking another step back as the deer's rotten torso seemed to flex and bulge for a moment. “You saw that, right?”
“It's probably just gas,” Lizzie said uncertainly.
“No way was that just gas. Something's in there!”
Lizzie took a cautious step forward and leaned down. Just a few feet from the deer now, she watched as the creature's belly seemed to writhe and wriggle. The surface was covered with maggots and flies, which seemed to be feasting on the flesh, but she couldn't deny that something deeper seemed to be churning in the deer's corpse. A moment later, part of the fur seemed to slice open, and a patch of maggots was sucked down into the interior of the body.
“Woah,” Lizzie whispered, “that's messed-up.”
“What did you see?” Laura asked, having turned away to avoid seeing the mess.
“It's like something's in there,” Lizzie continued, “and it just ate some of the maggots from the surface.”
“That's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. Can we please get out of here?”
“Hang on.” Making her way around the body, making sure to keep a short distance back, Lizzie watched the churning corpse, waiting for another hint about whatever was lurking inside.
“Lizzie, can we please just get going? We're supposed to be looking for Beth, remember?”
“I know, but this is insane.” She took a cautious step closer, unable to stop staring at the dead deer. “I'm no expert, but I've never heard of anything like -”
Suddenly something thin and long and black whipped out through a hole in the deer's side and scooped a load more maggots up, before disappearing back inside as quickly as it had appeared.
“That's not normal,” Lizzie said, wide-eyed with shock.
“What isn't normal?” Laura asked.
“It was like a worm or...” She paused. “Or a tentacle!”
“Oh God,” Laura replied, looking up at the sky. “Oh God, please, can we just leave it the fuck alone?”
Lizzie picked up a stick from the ground before taking another step forward and reaching out until the stick's tip was touching the deer's rotten chest.
“Don't poke it!” Laura shouted. “Didn't anyone ever tell you not to poke things? Like, ever! That is the first rule when you find creepy shit in the forest!”
“I'm not poking it.”
“You are! I'm watching you do it right now!”
“Fine, I am,” Lizzie whispered as she used the tip of the stick to nudge the deer's carcass, in an attempt to provoke whatever was inside and make it show itself again. “I make no apologies for being a poker.”
“That thing is probably diseased,” Laura continued, sounding as if she was on the verge of tears. “Lizzie, please...”
“I just want to see,” Lizzie told her, pressing the stick against the spot where she'd seen the tendril. “I want to -”
Suddenly the tendril whipped out again, wrapping itself around the end of the stick and trying to pull it into the deer. Holding on, Lizzie was shocked by the strength of whatever she was dealing with, and finally the stick broke. Stepping back, Lizzie watched as the tendril dragged the stick into the deer's corpse. The carcass churned for a moment and then fell still.
“Wow,” she whispered.
“Wow?” Laura asked. “Wow what? What did you see? No, don't tell me! Wait...” She paused. “Tell me,” she added cautiously.
“Hang on,” Lizzie replied, taking her phone from her pocket and bringing up the camera app, before hitting the record button. She focused the camera on the deer's body, before using her free hand to reach closer with the remains of the stick, which was now significantly shorter. “I have to get this on video, and then I have to upload it online and hope someone can tell us what the hell we're dealing with here. It's a shame that Unidan guy's not around anymore, I bet he'd know...”
“Never poke things,” Laura told her. “That's one of the most important rules in life. Never poke!”
“Always poke,” Lizzie continued with a smile. “That's my rule.” She ran the stick's broken end against the opening on the side of the deer. “When in doubt,” she continued, “always -”
Suddenly the black tentacle emerged again and grabbed the end of the stick, pulling it closer until Lizzie's hand was just a couple of inches from the fur. Instinctively she let go, as the stick was snapped yet again. One end disappeared int
o the opening, while the other end fell down onto the forest floor.
“Always poke,” Lizzie continued, stopping the recording and turning to Laura. “Okay, whatever this thing is, I got it on film!” She tapped her phone. “Now to upload it to a few subreddits while I've still got a connection...”
“Can we go now?” Laura asked.
“Let me just save the GPS coordinates.” She tapped her phone again. “Okay, I guess we should keep going. Beth's still out there somewhere.”
As they trudged away, Lizzie couldn't help but glance back a few times at the deer's body, which was still churning as something continued to move deep within its belly. After a few minutes, once Lizzie and Laura were well out of sight, a thin black tendril emerged from the side of the deer, followed by another just a few inches further along, as slowly something began to crawl out of the carcass.
Chapter Nine
Property of Leadenford Hospital, said lettering on the side of the large yellow sack. Warning: may contain hazardous materials.
Using a stick, Freeman poked the top of the sack and managed to push it open. Inside, several see-through bags appeared to contain various items of medical waste, ranging from used syringes to bloodied towels and even dirty sheets. He frowned as a twinge of pain briefly hit his lower back, but the pain quickly passed.
“Interesting,” he muttered, dropping the stick and taking a step back to look at the couple of dozen similar yellow sacks that had been left to rot in the forest, just a few hundred meters from the main section of the camp. “Crystal Wallace, what the hell are you up to?”
***
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Marlowe said as he made his way into the camp's main office. “What yellow sacks?”
“The ones down at the bottom of the eastern path,” Freeman replied, stopping in the doorway. “The ones with hospital notices stamped all over them. The ones containing medical waste that appears to have been illegally dumped in an area of outstanding natural beauty. I mean, I'm the landsman around here, I'm supposed to know everything that goes on, but clearly someone has been pulling this stunt behind my back.”
