Scarlet Rain (The Escaped #2) (12 page)

He remained tense as he cautiously walked through the sliding double doors and into the emergency room. The normally crowded waiting room was empty and silent. Droplets of blood speckled the floor, and upended chairs littered the room. Chills inched up James’s spine as he thought back to all the apocalypse movies he’d seen with creepy scenes matching this one.

“Stop freaking out,” he whispered, trying to calm himself.

The phone rang from behind the abandoned check-in desk, and James’s entire body flinched. “Shit!” he cursed.

He drew his gun and let it lead him through a set of swinging doors. Beeping machines and the low hum of equipment greeted him as he crept through the deserted treatment area. Beneath his feet, something crunched, and he attempted to maneuver around pages of medical charts and other hospital debris. He inched toward a blood-soaked curtain, moving it aside with his elbow before entering the makeshift room.

James’s breath caught in his throat as he surveyed the scene. The ambulance stretcher sat in the middle of the room, and on it lay a body. A female, he assumed, given what she was wearing. Although without a face there was no way he could be sure. He holstered his weapon and forced himself to step closer, to look more intently at what he hadn’t wanted to see at Tyson George’s. The woman’s facial features were gone. She no longer looked human; she was just an inside-out mess of muscle and bone. His stomach rolled, and he looked at the floor. Blood dripped from the stretcher, swirling together with another, larger pool coagulating on the tile. James’s hand rested on his gun as he peered around the body. Slumped in the corner of the room was another corpse. An EMT, with strings of red muscle bursting from his face.

“Oh, fuck.” James swallowed the bile building in his throat and hurried out of the room. He sucked in deep gulps of air and steadied himself against the countertop of the nurses’ station.

A clatter erupted nearby, and James stiffened. He fought the urge to duck behind the counter, and instead removed his weapon from its holster. Every inch of his body vibrated with adrenaline. Silently, James rounded the nurses’ station and inched closer to the noise. He reached a door marked “EMPLOYEES ONLY” and halted, listening carefully before barging in blind.

“Ouch! Shit!” a muffled voice shouted from behind the closed door.

The commotion continued, and James’s hand lingered on the doorknob as he gathered his courage and assessed how many people were on the other side of the door.

“Must this happen every time?” the same deep voice seethed.

As sure as he could be that there was only one man in the room, James tore open the door and aimed his gun. “Police! Put your hands up!”

The man’s muscles stretched the back of his shirt as he held his hands above his head and turned to face the detective.

“Alek?” James lowered his weapon, and stared blankly at the man he’d been hunting for days.

“Detective,” Alek growled, and dropped his hands to his side. “I must warn you, you will not like what I will do if you try to apprehend me.”

“I’ll take my chances. Now raise your hands and come out slowly.” He aligned the gun sight with Alek’s chest, and stepped to the side to allow him room to exit the janitor’s closet.

Alek set his jaw, but did as instructed. “You are lucky I must hold on to my strength for the real enemy.”

James used his free hand to pat down Alek’s pockets. “Oh yeah? And who’s that?”

“This is a waste of time. I’m not here to be a part of one of your petty human issues. I am only here to protect—” He stopped abruptly and furrowed his brow.

“To protect the Mortal Realm from evil? Yeah, Bridget told me all about you and your Underworld origins. That doesn’t get you out of telling me what you’re doing here. My petty human issue and your pretentious otherworldly bullshit have led us to the same place.”

Alek eyeballed him skeptically. “Why do you not fear me?”

“I’m not scared of assholes. Never have been. Now tell me why you’re here.” He cocked his gun. “I won’t ask again.”

Alek took a deep breath. “The floating red mist. I believe it’s responsible for this destruction. That’s why I have come. To find the cause.”

“Floating mist.” James recalled the video of Tyson. “Okay, but you stick with me. Try anything, and I’ll shoot you. I know you won’t die, but it’ll fucking hurt.” He holstered his gun. “You need to see this.” He led Alek to the bodies, but paused outside the red curtain. “I’ll wait here. Don’t touch anything.” He pulled open the fabric and let it shield his face from what he’d already seen.

Alek’s shoes squeaked on the floor as he walked through ruby puddles. “How did this happen?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. Until today, I’d never seen anything like it before.”

Alek appeared from the room, his expression unchanged. “We must locate the source before it’s able to do this to another mortal.”

“Then let’s get after it. Follow me.”

Veins bulged from Alek’s meaty arm as he slammed it against James’s chest, holding him back. “I am an immortal. It’s best you stay behind me.”

“If you want to serve as my semi-human shield, be my guest, but we need to take the stairs. We don’t know what’s happening on the rest of the floors, and I’d rather not get stuck in an elevator while weird and dangerous shit is happening.”

“Agreed. I don’t trust those floating boxes.”

James followed Alek into the stairwell and matched his brisk pace up the steps. “He’d be bitching all the way, but now would be a good time to have my partner. I can trust him.”

“You and I are not partners.” Alek paused outside the door leading to the second floor and peered through its narrow window.

“And every comment isn’t about you,” James quipped. “There might be officers in the building. You see any uniforms?”

“I see nothing. Only a corridor.”

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” He gripped his gun, and double-checked there was a round in the chamber before continuing. “Open the door slowly. I’ll go in and clear the hall. I’ll call to you once I do, and we’ll proceed to sweep the rest of the floor. Got it?”

“Or,” Alek said, throwing open the door, “we can advance as I would.”

A guttural howl emanated from the end of the hall. Alek turned toward the noise, his eyes wide. James raised his gun and braced himself for whatever was coming.

“Dammit, Alek,” James hissed.

Alek tumbled back and spilled into the stairwell. Howls turned to shrieks as the man who tackled him snarled and clawed at the immortal. The attacker’s hospital gown hung from his neck, and vanilla boils bubbled up from his exposed back.

James gathered his wits and aimed his gun at the man.

“I do not require your assistance,” Alek grunted as he wrapped his hands around the man’s head and yanked. The body immediately went limp, and the shrieks turned to wet burbles. Alek rolled the corpse off of him. “It is taken care of.” He wiped his hands on his jeans and got to his feet.

James’s stomach sank. “You fucking killed him. You broke his neck and killed him.”

“And what would you have done with that?” Alek nodded toward James’s firearm.

“Not killed him, that’s for sure. At least not without trying to subdue him first. We’re not doing this your way anymore.”

“I achieved the goal. He no longer poses a threat,” Alek said matter-of-factly.

“Alek….” James’s voice faded into a whisper as he watched the bruised and bloody body shake violently against the stairs.

“What? Do you fear me now, mortal?”

The video of Tyson flashed through James’s thoughts as he struggled to take his eyes off the contorting figure.
The cloud. It comes next.

“Alek, move!” James pulled the immortal through the open door and kicked it shut behind them. Scarlet flecks beat against the window and disappeared as rapidly as they came. “That shit is alive!” James scrambled backward until he hit the wall. “It just tried to fucking attack us! What the fuck does it want?”

“I don’t know,” Alek said. “But it is a creature that does not belong here.”

“Well, no shit.” James collected his gun from the floor and ran a shaking hand through his hair. “But I’ve seen it before. That same flying cloud, or floating mist, or whatever the fuck it is. There are two bodies down at the morgue. One with a blown-out face because of that same red shit, and the other, his wife. They said they’re not sure who killed her, but judging by that freak in the hospital gown, my bet is on the husband.”

Alek stretched his neck and peered down the hall. “Quiet!” he commanded. “I hear footsteps.”

“Good. Maybe it’s someone who can tell us what the fuck is going on,” James murmured.

“Help! Oh, God, somebody help me!” Frantic pleas and thundering footsteps hit James before he saw anyone. He raised his pistol and readied himself for whoever, whatever, was barreling around the corner.

“Shoot them! Shoot them!” a young man dressed in blue nurse’s scrubs wailed as he sprinted toward Alek and James.

Four wild-eyed, snarling doctors were hard on his heels. Pinkish foam sprayed from their mouths as they snapped and clawed at the empty space between them and their target’s pale flesh. James’s heart thundered ferociously as the twisted scene registered as reality.

“Do it now!” the man squealed as he approached.

James took aim at the leader of the pack, a slender woman. With the barrel of his gun focused on her right shoulder, he pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through the meat of her arm, twisting her torso and slowing her down, but only momentarily.

James fired again, this time striking her knee. Her leg buckled, and she fell into a forward roll, then sprang to her feet again.

The man glanced behind him before shouting, “Shoot her in the head!”

James pointed the gun at the face of his moving target, but couldn’t make himself pull the trigger. “A little help here, immortal,” he said, holding on to the remaining fibers of his composure.

With the speed and ferocity of a lion, Alek charged the herd, knocking three of them over like bowling pins.

“Find Eva!” Alek grunted as he pushed his shoulder into the three rabid doctors, forcing them down the hall and away from James and the nurse.

James took off, matching the rapid pace of the man being chased. He pushed open the first windowless door he saw and yanked the nurse in after him. “Don’t let them open this,” he commanded, pinning the man’s narrow shoulders against the wood.

“Okay,” the man squeaked as the fourth crazed doctor began to pelt the door with her fists.

James rushed to the corner of the room, picked up a plastic chair, and darted back to the door. “When I say go, you move. Got it?”

The young man nodded frantically.

“Okay. Ready, go!”

He stepped out of the way, and James jammed the back of the chair under the door handle. Apprehensively, he let go of the arms. The chair shook against the hollow thuds emanating from the other side of the door.

James felt around for the empty bed behind him and sat back onto the spongy mattress. Panic ignited every muscle in his body, and he let its power rush through his trembling extremities.

“What’s happening to them?” the nurse asked through his tears.

James kept his gaze glued to the door. “I don’t know.”

“Do—do you have backup coming?”

“I don’t know,” James said flatly.

“Well, do you know how to stop them?”

“I know as much as you do about this whole fucking thing!” James barked.

The nurse inhaled sharply, and James really looked at him for the first time since he’d come barreling down the hall. The nurse had tucked his short legs under his chin and sat in a tight ball by the head of the bed. The left half of his head was shaved, revealing small silver studs that climbed up his ear lobe. His cheeks glistened with fresh tears, and fear nestled in his dark eyes.

They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the guttural bellows and repeated sharp thuds on the other side of door.

“I’m glad I ran into you. Thank you for helping me.” The nurse’s voice came out as a whisper, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “They would’ve killed me. I already saw them do it once.” He adjusted his bedazzled lanyard and tucked the shaggy side of his charcoal hair behind his ear. “Do you think your friend is going to be okay?”

“Friend?” James scoffed. “I wouldn’t call him that, but yeah. He’ll be fine. He has a bit of an unfair advantage.”

“I think we could use that right now. What is it?”

“Wait.” James held his hand up and listened. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Exactly.” He noiselessly slid off the bed and pressed his ear against the door. “I think she’s gone. Come on. Let’s get out of here before any of them have a chance to come back.”

“We can’t go out there.” He grabbed James’s sleeve. “What if one of them is on the other side of the door waiting for us?”

“We can’t stay in here. It’s only a matter of time before they’re able to break through this door. Unless you want to try jumping out that window, I suggest we make a run for it while we have the opportunity.”

He looked at the window, cringed, and looked back at James. “Okay. When we get out of here, take a right. There’s another stairwell at the end of the hall that has street access. Plus, there are no patient rooms down that way, so there shouldn’t be any more of those
people
,” he said with a shudder.

“Got it. You ready to make a run for it?”

His eyes widened and he nodded slowly. “No.”

“Good. On the count of three. I’ll lead.” James exhaled sharply. “One, two, three.”

Electricity seared Eva’s arms as the ground hardened under her feet. The sulfurous odor of burning hair filled her nostrils, and she held out her arms to steady herself against the fumes wafting up from her own body.

A shrill squeal pierced her ears. Then came the shouting. “Get the fuck out of my room!”

“Bridge, it’s me.” Eva slowly and painfully dodged a barrage of red-bottomed shoes. “Ouch. Dammit. Bridget, stop! It’s just me.”

“Get out! Get out! Get out!” Bridget shrieked.

“You’re going to mess up your shoes!” Eva shouted over her best friend’s squeaky yips.