Monster Nation(20)

Out in the hallway she saw heart rate monitors and pulse oxygen readers mounted on IV poles, she saw bad art on the walls, pictures of kittens and houses in New England and, ugh, a streak of blood pointing towards the stairs. She leaned up against a wall, her leg muscles screaming at the workout she was giving them, and sank to the floor below a line of windows that let cold black night air belly in.

'This is the police! We're coming in! Everyone needs to be on the floor, now, with your hands in plain view!' someone shouted outside, his angry voice electronically amplified. He made it sound as if they would shoot anyone they found inside the hospital. Fear made Nilla's hands shake so much she shoved them in the pockets of her stolen coat.

She got up and followed the blood trail only to find a dead guy in a jumpsuit blocking the doorway, motionless, his head tilted back a little. As if he was expecting to receive transmissions from space.

'Move!' she said, trying to shove at him. He had a foot on her and maybe fifty pounds. He wouldn't budge. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly his jaw began to drift down and his eyes started to focus on her.

Outside of the hospital she heard rapid gunfire. Short bursts of it that didn't let up:

B-B-BRATTT-B-B-BRATTT-B-B-BRATTT.

She tried shoving the big guy again and finally he looked down at her, saw her. His mouth opened as if he might speak.

A glassy rope of drool spilled over his lower lip. He shot out one hand to push her away and knocked her to the floor. She slid over onto her side on the glossy linoleum. He leaned down over her and tried to grab her with hands so big they looked comical. She slipped out of his grasp with more grace than she'd thought she possessed but she knew he would get her eventually.

Something whistled as it came in through the open window and took off the top of his head. Dried-out brain matter showered down on her as fragments of his skull plinked off the wall. Before he could even fall down she ducked around him and into the stairwell. A sniper had shot him without warning'maybe they had seen him attacking her, maybe they were trying to defend her. Or maybe she was the next target.

She took the stairs downward as quickly as she could manage. She kept tripping and having to grab the handrail because she was constantly looking back over her shoulder. She was halfway down when the door at the bottom of the stairwell opened and yellow light streamed in, dazzling her. Something black about the size of a soda can bounced off the floor and she slid to a halt. The canister clattered to a stop and started spewing white smoke. It smelled weird, truly weird and then it made her nose itch. Tear gas? She didn't know what tear gas smelled like. She couldn't go out that way, though'they would be guarding the door. She turned around and started heading back up, back to where snipers lay in wait just outside the open windows.

Nilla only made it a step or two before the lights went out. The police had cut the power.





Monster Nation





Chapter Thirteen


'This was a test of the Reverse 9-1-1 Emergency Notification System. You do not need to reply to this call. Please hang up now. This was a test'' [Phone Message received inButte,MT , 3/21/05]

'That's it, you idiot. You take the f*cking meat!' Bleu jiggled the bit of string and the leg of mutton danced in front of the dead woman's ruined eyes. She scrunched up her face and part of her cheek fell away, dangling by a flap of skin. Dick could see the pureed muscles beneath and a hint of bone.

The dead climber reached up and sank her fingernails into the leg. Her hunger vibrated through her, spasms of need pushing her on far more than Bleu's taunt. She sank yellow teeth through the wool and blood dripped on the pine needles below. 'This is the last one,' Dick said. He'd said it so many times it had to be true.

Bleu let go of the leg and the climber fell to the ground rather than let her prize go. She curled around the meat, protecting it from interlopers with her body.

Dick leaned over the edge of the roof and fired five shots into her head and neck. Powder burns darkened his pant leg but he didn't care. He was too busy coughing and snorting, getting ready to be sick. When he was done he sat down hard on the roof and breathed heavily, washing out his mouth with stale coffee. 'That's it, then,' he said. 'You got three of them. At the mine. Then the one we killed in the house. This poor sucker. And the girl I saw. On the road.' He nodded. 'That's six.'

'I said there might been seven when we found 'em,' Bleu clucked.

'But you don't know. You couldn't count them so well in the mine. You said they were crawling all over each other. So you don't know.'