Asunder Read online

  The room burst in a chorus of questioning voices. John raised his hand to quiet the crowd. "We do not know what it is. However, we urge everyone showing signs of illness to report to the designated hospitals. The locations should flash up on your screens..."

  The screen popped back to the anchormen inside the sterilized looking news studio. He walked away from the TV after hearing what he needed to hear. Luc looked to Elena feeling vindicated. "Now do you think this isn't about Jona?"

  "Luc..."

  Wheeled in unconscious and covered in soot, the woman whom Luc had nicknamed 'Red Viper' for her bright red hair was breathing erratic, he thought he was leaving her for dead, but if she lives, then he could finally get the answers he needed. "Elena, I have to talk to her."

  "I'll try to pull some strings, but you have to wait. I have two patients here who may have seen something and I'm here to speak to them." She walked off.

  Luc looked into the sea of faces as if just coming up for air and noticing the massive crowds forming inside the building. Several staff members grabbed gloves, masks, and... hazmat suits. A red headed nurse pushed through the crowd and walked out the door. The pit of his stomach churned, something was wrong.

  The herd of patients littered the bus with their colorless faces drenched in sweat; coughing, wheezing, and pressed against the windows. Whether many of them would make the journey was up in the air... "Wait, you're not gonna work on him here?" Luc asked when the EMT wheeled a sweating man back out the door.

  "We can't. Everyone who is sick is getting bussed out now."

  An EMT worker coughed bloody phlegm into their visor. Luc drew back on impulse, he almost had to remind himself not to reach for his weapon, he looked to the tired and stretched thin police officers who directed the flow of chaotic dense traffic as best they could.

  Distraught loved ones begged for a chance to enter with a sick relative, the crowd pushed and prodded the officers, screaming about their rights, demanding entry.

  Luc approached the officer standing guard at the doors and flashed his badge, it wasn't long until violence became the mob's answer.

  "Seal off the gates! Let no one else inside." The officer ordered his unit to use their shields and high-powered pepper sprays to quell the unrest.

  "Try to fix that one if you can or set up a barrier!" The guards closed and locked the glass doors.

  Luc turned and headed through the crowd and back toward Hazel's room, his parents and Hazel's mother stood outside and his stomach dropped at the sight of the plastic containment tent placed around her bed, a nurse marked her room as a Hazard, the sounds muffed, the air became hot and thick.

  "Dad, what happened?"

  "They said she's now under quarantine, they're taking her to U of M."

  "Who told you that?"

  "Some doctor, the blond-haired gentleman." He pointed in a direction yet no one fitting that description was nearby.

  "I'm gonna find out who, Dad!"

  "You got five minutes." Elena approached from behind grabbing his attention. "Big Red? Ya got only five."

  "Okay." Luc nodded, he felt turned about and pulled in one direction and the next. He couldn't do everything at once but he'll try. He turned back to his father. "I'll be back, I promise." he walked off down the hall to visit Viper.

  Luc pulled open the curtain. "Mrs. Kali, I know it's you. I'm Luc Dantes, and I can help you, if you would let me. The FBI already have you." He noticed her wrists cuffed to the bed. "If you're willing to provide information about your leaders, or if you're willing to work with me, I can help make sure you don't have to spend the rest of your life behind bars or worse, face the death penalty for your actions." He waited for a response yet received silence by the woman as a matter of fact she looked oddly still come to think of it. He leaned closer and placed his fingers on her throat. "Hey doc, you got a free bed." Luc sighed.

  The speaker emitted a static noise before the sound of a woman clearing her throat. "Announcement: Due to the overcrowding of the facility, all uninjured people will be escorted from the facility. I repeat, friends and family members will be escorted from the facility. Please leave now to free up space for more patients."

  A police officer approached and Luc showed off his injury and burns hidden under his shirt. He needed to get back to Hazel's room. The soldiers were directing the crowd.

  "Luc!" David called to his son.

  "Dad. You can head home, I'll stay here and go with Hazel when they transport her."

  "Be careful."

  He watched his parents and Hazel's mother, who was once a parent to him, get carted out. He headed back to Hazel's room to see a small team of nurses wheeling her out in a bio containment tube. "Hey! I'm going with her." Luc tried to follow only for one of the guards to shove him back hard.

  A curdling scream shook him to the core erupting in a panicked chorus from the nearby rooms. a nurse flew down the hall like a bat out of hell.

  "What's going on?" Luc tried to hold on to her to calm her.

  "The patient is eating her!"

  Luc gripped her shoulders holding her in place. "Who?!"

  "Get the hell outta my way! I'm outta here!" she ran fast for the nearest exit only for a man dressed in heavy combat fatigues to push her back inside.

  He turned to focus on Hazel but she and the small team disappeared. 'I will catch up to you.' he said as a silent prayer. He felt a chill in his bones, this place was about to lose it and he had hoped his family left before that happens.

  He drew his gun urging everyone back and pushed open the door to the small room. Elena was on her knees, blood seeping from the open wound on her shoulder drenching her white blouse red with a woman holding her in her elongated arms.

  "Luc..." Elena cried, her voice hoarse and weak.

  "Elena!" He fired several shots at the greyish skinned half woman blowing her against the wall. He stood paralyzed. 'How? That wasn't human!' His hands trembled with fear. The creature's arms cracked and stretched at least an extra foot long using the walls as leverage to regain balance before falling still.

  Breaking from his fear, he compelled his body to act! He rushed to Elena gripping her in his arms. "I've got you! Come on!"

  Screams erupted throughout the lobby; a stamped of frightened souls scattered, trampling furniture and people alike.

  Luc entered the hall with Elena in tow, an arm draped over his shoulder to keep her steady, he called for aid but the doctors were running just as fast causing Luc to witness the source of the fear, pale-faced men and women with sharp Jagged teeth and white eyes were tearing down the hallway picking off the fearful stragglers, snatching victims from opened doors to a symphony of horror.

  Luc held Elena up, her body slipping. "I need a doctor!" He yelled through the chaos.

  His calls only summoned the wild patients to his direction. He hurried inside kicking the door shut, dropping Elena to lock it before helping her onto the table—-grabbing anything and everything he could, his hands shaking in the way they hadn’t in a long time. He began to patch her up. Placing thick gauze pads at the wound and wrapping it. He searched for a suture kit. "You're going to be okay, Elena. You're going to be fine." He reassured her again and again while prepping the kit and stitching the wound shut. he grabbed fresh gauze to cover it and wrapped the cloth around her neck and using the clamps to hold it together.

  "I think I'll live." she groaned grabbing at her gun.

  "Good." Luc sighed. "It'll take more than this to kill you." He heard the rustling and struggle outside those doors. "Hazel..." He whispered gravely. Her possible fate sent a chill up his spine. "Fuck!" He checked his gun and with it drawn and ready; prepared to make his stand. "Can you fight?"

  "Yeah." Elena replied, her hands trembling.

  He opened the door and kicked the creature away quickly dispatching it with a bullet to its head then charging forward dropping into a slide passed the pale monster and planting him hard in the rear knocking him against the others. He shoots
several rounds into the chest—-nothing; but only inspired their rage. Luc grabbed the arm of another slamming the butt of the gun into the head before firing a round into the skull feeling the creature fall dead, he then tossed it at the running creatures. Elena delivered a vicious roundhouse kick smashing the creature and firing her gun at their heads until their path was clear.

  Chapter Three

  Luc rushed to the front doors of the lobby ignoring the wailing of the metal detectors only to find the waiting area packed with people, the doors closed, and several dead strewn on the floor eaten but no sign of any creatures in sight. A young officer around twenty banged on the glass, sweating profusely, his uniform in tatters, and praying to whatever God to come. "Please let us out of here!" He hollered with the rest of the frantic trapped mice.

  Luc squeezed and pushed through the crowd, the bodies congested near the door. "Everyone out of the hospital now!"

  A doctor took hold of him, his hands sweaty and shaking. "We can't!" he breathed his hot breath in his face. "The doors won't open!"

  "They're gonna kill us?" Elena sucked in air on the verge of a panic attack. 'Stay calm' she repeated over and over again.

  Luc pushed through to look out the glass, the military vehicles parked out front with the gun toting soldiers exiting with assault rifles. His stomach dropped like the dip of a roller coaster. 'This is not good.' He shuffled away from the doors.

  A little girl in the stuffed sea of frightened humans convulsed until she dropped to the floor in a violent seizure.

  "Everybody back!" Luc ordered pressing himself with brute force against the fleshy sea toward the child. No one gave way, so overcome with self-preservation to care.

  "No, not my baby!" The mother cried clutching her daughter in her arms.

  "Get out of the way!" Luc reached the parent and child. He holstered his weapon to tend to the little girl when her eyes turned black as she coughed up thick jellied blood and she rolled to her belly before lifting herself up with a roar and a row of sharp talon fangs.

  "Get back!" Elena yelled.

  The child lunged, tearing her mother's flesh from her throat. Luc holstered his weapon and kicked the little girl hard and sending her flying back and away, his move was risky but it was enough to startle the monstrous child, and with any luck the wound wouldn't kill the mother, the child leapt high at him, that was just what Elena needed to discharge her weapon.

  "What the hell are you doing?!" Luc turned on her. "We're surrounded by a crowd of people in here."

  "How about thanks?" She rolled her eyes, never intending on speaking to Luc this soon and now, stuck with him for however long this lasted... no, she wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.

  The sea shifted left, right, and center. Everyone vied for a clear path away and Luc pushed harder to get through the bodies to check on the mother, to see if she was alive, but she lay trampled the moment the first round fired. He needed to get away from the doors and away from this treacherous sea of people. "They're coming!" A woman screamed from the back of the crowd.

  The glass shattered, and the people scattered from the building only to meet a hail of gunfire. Luc grabbed a hold of the corner walls, and reached out for Elena calling for her to take his hand, to prevent her from being swept away into the gunfire.

  "I almost got it!" She yelled before he gripped her tight.

  He pulled his body forward and freeing himself and her of the bloody wave. "Elena, help me get as many people as possible away from the doors."

  "Hell no!" she exclaimed. "I need to get out of here and so do you! You're trying to save these people but what about Hazel? Don't you have to get to her too?"

  Luc hated admitting this, but she was right. The last thing he wanted was to die there. He still had his family, his parents, and Hazel, who needed him now more than ever! The doctor coughed and for a moment his eyes widened with shock. Luc kept his distance. "How do we get out of here?

  "The elevators to the parking garage! You can get out that way."

  The white yellow tinged smoke bellowed through the lobby, the bullets pierced through hitting several targets sight unseen by the men firing the rounds. "Run!" Luc yelled, a turned patient lunged slamming a well-placed kick before blowing its brains out. The lights flicker and go dim. "They don't intend to let us leave alive." Luc stated his voice solemn, he wondered what to do. He now faced the real possibility he would have to fight them to free himself. 'Fight the police, the military. My own countrymen.' he sighed in frustration.

  "No! Fuck them!" Elena fumed breaking Luc from his thoughts.

  "Calm down. I know you're scared but panicking will not help the situation."

  "Then what are we going to do?"

  "Maybe with the lights out the doors will open." A nurse suggested. He made a mad dash to the lobby.

  "No!" Luc was just out of reach when the nurse bolted for the exit, the echoing pop and thud then silence heightened the warning. The people ran off in a panicked rush to find a way out.

  "Damn!" Elena muttered. "What do we do?!"

  Luc searched fast for a safe area. He spotted the maintenance room ahead. "Let’s go." he ordered her to follow him, he needed a plan and needed one soon.

  The hail of gun fire picked off several pursuers who had tried to follow them, Luc and Elena dove for the safety of the maintenance room slamming the door shut. He sighed, but there was no time to gather his bearing, he only hoped the creatures gave them a hard-enough fight... and yeah, he hoped... good, he almost laughed. A vent was in the room.

  He gestured to Elena to remain silent and that he would lift her to the vent which she pried free enabling them to slip inside. Luc shuffled through behind her, thankful for his lean frame, though he thought of his corpse being found by someone a few months later or more depending weighed on his mind. The soldiers entered the room and Luc's heart sank once the clank of the grate hit the floor.

  "Goddamn."One soldier exclaimed. "I hate this part of the job." He groaned. "Yo Klaus! check that vent."

  Luc nor Elena could turn or move, only lay still until a blade pierced the inside nicking Luc in the leg. Luc shimmied through following Elena until he fell free on the other side... somewhere in the building, and Elena helped him up, giving him a shoulder to lean on. "This really fucking sucks, you know?" She complained.

  "Yeah. I plan to send a strongly worded letter about today's events." He chuckled.

  Elena couldn't help herself, she laughed too. They each dragged and limped their way down the hall.

  Luc opened his phone and called his network; she appeared on his screen, the woman he called Six. She smiled which always seemed to calm him. His fingers typed the buttons as fast as possible.

  Luc: Number Six

  She understood that if he was resorting to texting, it was most likely because he didn't wish anyone to hear him. She muted her audio and typed back.

  Number Six: Glad you're okay! Did the explosion have to do with your lead?

  Luc: My ass is on the line. I need an override on the elevators to the parking garage at Henry Ford Medical Center.

  The woman typed at high speed on the key pad knowing if discovered she could kiss her cushy job goodbye.

  Number Six: Access Denied.

  Luc: Why?

  Number Six: There's a block on any attempts to override the system. I need manual access to the security network.

  Luc: Where can I go to get it?

  Number Six: Security, level B. Take the East Elevators.

  Luc: How am I supposed to get there? The stairs are blocked?

  Number Six: They're planning a systematic sweep of the hospital. The lights are dim because they are saving power to still operate the elevators. I have to time this right.

  Luc: Ya gotta come through for me.

  Number Six: I'm hacking right now. They are going to allow an East elevator to operate to come and pick up the SWAT. I need to reroute it to you. They need the security room as well so make sure you get there first
. Go now!

  Luc: Gotcha! I'm gonna call back so be ready.

  Number Six: Okay.

  Luc: Oh yeah and uh. Did you change your lipstick?

  Number Six: What? Yeah.

  Luc: It's working for ya.

  Once Luc and Elena reached the muted lit level B they stepped out with their guns at ready, the entire area was dark and eerie and he didn't like it one bit. He opened the doors to the hall, cautious with each step while prowling the area, silent and alert. He slid against a wall checking around a corner. Empty. He needed to find the directory, the last thing he wanted to do was to proceed blindly. A terrifying shriek echoed from a distance, he gripped his weapon on instinct.

  He could tell Elena wanted to speak, her eyes were wide with shock yet she remained silent.

  The Jagged teeth patient grazed the wall walking in a relaxed manner in her own world, he snapped her neck from behind and her body dropped. Luc noticed the black stringy slime on his hands, he wiped them as clean as he could get them of the sticky pungent oily substance and pointed at the map to the security room.

  A horrifying shriek bellowed through the dark hall, this time closer and the screams and hail of gunfire alerted him to the massacre below. Luc was no stranger to danger, he had witnessed the horrors of war first hand and he knew what feeling trapped was like, but never on this scale. There was always a way to distance himself from the danger, a hundred different ways out. Luc was a member of the DO (Directorate of Operations) working uncover in several foreign countries around the world—but the life of a spy was not all explosions and chasing down terrorists but tailing possible marks and convincing them to hand over Intel. He could handle himself in a fight, but a good day was never having to put those skills to the test. Now here he was, in his own country crawling through vents to escape the soldiers he should've been saluting. 'What a waste.' he sighed. Resolved to move on. He thought of his mentor, his father, a man of integrity who nearly laid down his life for his country. He remembered the day he asked him if he could do the same. Luc smiled, his answer was full of naïve vigor.