Out of the Black - Lee Doty [150]
She flexed her hands, "They'll heal." She said.
"Yeah, let's get something on them..."
"No, I mean they'll heal right now." She flipped her hands over. The backs held the same holes as the palms, but the flesh between had already closed. Ping did a double take, flipped her hands back over. Yep, he could actually see the wounds closing. Perhaps another five minutes and they'd be gone. "Wow."
She nodded. "Yeah. I may be one of Hell's evil minions, but there are some perks like an awesome medical plan."
Ping was confused. "Hell's minions?"
"Yeah, you know. Your vampire friend bit me, didn't I make that clear?"
"Vampire?" Ping gave her a dubious look, but then he got it. "Dek wasn't a vampire, he was more like a Replicant."
"You mean like in Blade Runner?"
"You know the movie?" Ping asked, pleasantly surprised.
"Yeah, but the director's cut is the only version worth seeing more than ten times."
"I think I love you." He laughed, she laughed, she blushed, he lapsed into an amused smile. She pulled her hands away self-consciously. She was now looking only at her shoes. She must be new to banter.
"Oh... I get the name now." She said from behind a sheltering hand and a painful looking blush. "Dek, like Deckard- I should have recognized the haircut."
Ping chuckled silently. "He was also a fan. Hey, you haven't been drinking anyone's blood, have you? Because that would be hilarious."
"I've thought about it a few times," she said, flexing her hands.
Behind her, the doctor stepped away from the monitor table where they'd been using a portable kit to get Hawthorne stabilized. "Ok. She's as ready as I can get her quickly... especially with all the distractions." He said, looking at the crater Alex had made in the wall. "Please be careful with her... and she'll need to keep the medkit on to monitor the shoulder."
After a few seconds of indecisive silence, the doctor spoke again, "So, now you can GET OUT OF MY OPERATING ROOM!"
Like a ragged exclamation point, gunfire from another part of the building punctuated his shout.
***
They'd taken the stairs, thinking to avoid unwanted attention.
They spiraled upward through the deserted stairwell. On the third floor, Derry rotated from point and was covering the door. His gray eyes scanned the hall through the small window set in the stairwell door at face level. As the others passed quickly behind him, a door was thrown open halfway down the hall. A shrieking woman in a nurse's uniform bolted into the hallway. She turned away from them, heading toward the elevator bank at the other end of the hall.
The woman's white uniform was spattered with blood, and the flash he caught of her face before she turned away was sheer, hopeless horror. "Hold it!" Derry hissed to his companions as they continued up the stairs behind him.
His hand was already on the door handle when a dark figure moved out of the still open door and sauntered after the woman. It was moving quickly, but easily, obviously enjoying the hunt.
Not being the kind of person to do a lot of thinking is situations such as these, Derry pushed through the door, bringing his assault gun up. "Hold it right there!" He shouted.
The dark man complied. He turned around slowly. Derry's first impression was of a Halloween mask. The mask was half werewolf, half flesh-eating zombie. The worst part though was the smile. The teeth were slanted toward the carnivorous end of the scale and covered with blood like the rest of the thing. But the teeth and blood weren't the worst part of the smile, which was stretched unnaturally wide, exposing seemingly all the teeth. The lips were cracked to accommodate the breadth of the grimace, the muscles of the face were taught and shivering.
"Whoa!" Derry said to himself. Hawthorne hadn't been kidding about being off in the weeds here. Well, he wasn't going to take any chances, he trained his aim on the thing's forehead... he hoped he