Out of the Black - Lee Doty [151]
The sound of gunfire wasn't his. The creature was gone, replaced by the suspended ceiling above the hallway and a light that was just way too bright. There was no pain yet, but he had a distinct feeling that something was very wrong with body. With a monumental effort, his neck craned up a few degrees and the creature reentered his field of vision. It was standing much as before but now it held out a police-issue pistol. Quick draw.
Laughing as if at some dark and private joke, the thing turned and began walking in the direction of the fleeing nurse. Derry tried to raise his weapon, but it was no use. Blood and air gurgled from the wounds in his chest with each of his labored breaths.
He couldn't bring his weapon on target, but he pulled the trigger anyway, hoping to distract the thing from its prey. Maybe he could buy the nurse a few moments to complete her escape. Bullets blew through the floor and walls. The thing turned around, brought its pistol up.
Derry was still trying to bring his weapon on target when the gunfire sounded. The thing went down in a spray of dark aerosol as more holes than he could count opened in its jerking body.
Derry's head hit the floor with a whoosh of expelled breath. He angled his head so he could see the door to the stairs. Sure enough, there were Elena and Miranda, looking assertive. Miranda kept her weapon covering the hallway while Elena rushed to Derry's side.
"I said hold it!" She said, checking his wounds.
"When?" He smiled.
"Just now, back in the..." she broke off, noticing his smile.
"Sorry chief." He winced as she hit a sensitive spot.
"Well, this doesn't look that bad." She lied.
His laughter came out as wracking coughs. "Ow, chief."
Her hard face softened. It broke his heart to see it. Some people you just hate to see sad.
"We'll get you out of here..." She motioned for Miranda to come.
"Whoa, now. I'm three times your weight and you don't look like no ant."
"We'll find a stretcher, you idiot." Her smile was warm though the rest of her face was hard with expediency.
"Shot again, eh?" Miranda said, crouching near them, her weapon trained to cover the hall ahead.
"Everybody... knows that... zombies ain't supposed t'... be packin' heat." Derry gasped in four short bursts of words. His breath was getting short. And then it was gone.
"Derry!" Elena shouted from the deepening mists around him. Sorry boss, He thought. He was going to have to disappoint her.
A desperate scream came from down the hall. The blood-spattered nurse came bolting back around a corner, screaming with each exhale.
Miranda Todd could tell she was a bit tense because she almost shot the nurse reflexively when she burst around the corner. She glanced quickly at Elena, who was still staring at Derry. Her eyes seemed glazed.
"Boss?" No reply. "Boss!"
At last, Elena's eyes refocused. The nurse was rapidly approaching. Miranda could feel something bad coming, really bad. In the convex mirror at the corner, she could make out dark shapes, moving like syncopated sharks... this didn't look good for them. Keeping her weapon trained down the hallway, she glanced at Elena again. Her face was hardening. She was looking down the hallway too, but Miranda knew that look. "Elena!" oddhouted, hoping to shake her back to reality, "Kyle! Remember?"
Her words seemed to have the desired effect. The fury in Elena's eyes took a half step back. Life was back on the scale with vengeance. "Let's go." She said. They turned and fled, not far behind the screaming nurse.
At the stairwell, Miranda looked back. Nothing. Their pursuers hadn't yet rounded the corner. She quickly brought her glasses out and linked them to her gun's address. She then used the gun's sight to zoom in on the convex mirror at the corner. She was just in time to see the last few things move into an elevator. "I think they're heading up, boss."
Elena didn't think long. "We've gotta hurry. I've got a feeling we're going to see them again." As the door closed behind them, Elena spared another look at Derry's fallen form.