Chapter 10

Daniel slammed the hatch down with both hands just as Martin's bloody fingers curled over the metal edge, and the impact made something crack beneath the floor without stopping the security guard from clawing at the opening. His nails scraped against the hatch, leaving thin red smears while Daniel shoved his shoulder against it and shouted for somebody to help him before the bastard pulled himself through.

Lucy grabbed Daniel around the waist, bracing her boots against the examination table, and together they dragged it across the hatch until its heavy steel legs caught against the tiled floor. Nina could still see Martin's fingers wriggling beneath the table, bent at angles that made her stomach twist, and she kept staring at the hospital bracelet as though the name printed on it might suddenly change into somebody else's.

Martin Cole had been alive at that supermarket. He had been frightened, sweating, begging them to help him while blood ran down his arm, and Nina remembered the way he had grabbed her wrist because he could barely stand. She remembered his face, too, the desperate pleading in his eyes before the other man bit him, and now those same hands were trying to drag their owner out of a hole beneath a veterinary clinic.

"What the hell did they do to him at that hospital?" Lucy demanded, pushing harder against the table while something underneath struck the metal so violently that her teeth clicked together. "He was supposed to be a patient, Daniel, not some fucking animal crawling around underneath the building!"

Daniel's face had gone grey, but his grip on the table did not loosen as he snapped back, "Save your questions until we aren't standing on top of the bloody thing, because unless you've suddenly learned how to kill the dead with your mouth, I need you to help me keep this bastard down!"

Rebecca was already gathering their supplies, shoving medicine bottles and bandages into a battered canvas bag while keeping one eye on Elise, whose wrists strained against the restraints. She looked from the hatch to the treatment room door, calculating exits with the desperate concentration of somebody who had run out of time to be frightened.

"We need another way out, and we need it now," she ordered, her voice tight but steady. "Daniel, keep that table in place, Lucy, find the rear door, and Nina, stay beside my daughter because I will not leave her here for that thing to find."

Nina moved back to Elise's examination frame, crouching beside her and catching the girl's restless hand before her fingers could hook around the metal restraint. Elise's skin felt clammy, and the clicking noise coming from her mouth continued in little irregular bursts, her tongue tapping against her teeth as though she were trying to form words but could no longer remember how.

"Elise, sweetheart, look at me instead of doing that with your mouth," Nina pleaded, rubbing her friend's knuckles while the table shook behind her. "You're scaring the living shit out of me, and I need you to give me something, anything, that tells me you're still in there."

Elise's cloudy eyes shifted toward Nina, but her jaw continued working, and a thin line of saliva slipped from the corner of her mouth onto the examination frame. Beneath their feet, Martin slammed into the hatch again, sending the table skidding several inches before Daniel and Lucy caught it.

Then the pounding stopped.

Nina lifted her head, waiting for another blow, but all she heard was the distant rattle of something being dragged along the other side of the treatment room wall. It scraped slowly across the floor, paused, then started again, accompanied by a wet, irregular bump that made Lucy turn toward the sound with her lips parted.

"That thing has stopped trying to get through the hatch," Lucy whispered, backing away from the table as if the metal itself might bite her. "Whatever he's dragging, he's taking it somewhere else, and I really don't want to find out what the hell he's planning to do with it."

Daniel snatched up his hammer and glanced toward the corridor. "There's a delivery door at the back, but we have to get Elise through the treatment rooms before we can reach it, so we need to make enough noise somewhere else to pull him away."

He seized a row of empty metal cages and shoved them over, sending them crashing across the floor in a horrible clatter that echoed through the clinic. The sound was so loud Nina felt it in her teeth, and somewhere beyond the treatment room came a violent scraping as Martin changed direction, dragging himself toward the noise.

"Move before he decides he likes the sound of our breathing better," Daniel barked, lifting one end of Elise's restraint frame while Lucy grabbed the other. Rebecca supported Elise's head, keeping it from striking the metal as they hurried into the corridor, and Nina stayed close enough to catch her friend's fingers whenever they strained toward the people carrying her.

Elise suddenly arched so violently that the frame lifted off the floor on one side, her restraints cutting into her wrists as a guttural sound forced its way out of her throat. Rebecca nearly lost her grip, and Lucy swore while Daniel struggled to keep the frame level.

Nina caught Elise's hand between both of hers, ignoring the sharp nails digging into her skin as she leaned close enough to see the tiny red veins spreading through the whites of her friend's eyes.

"Elise, please stop fighting us, because you're going to hurt yourself and I'm not letting you tear your own hands apart just to get away from people who are trying to save you!" Nina cried, squeezing her fingers despite the pain.

For a moment, Elise's expression changed, the frantic tension leaving her face as her eyes focused properly on Nina. Her lips trembled, and when she spoke, her voice sounded so weak that Nina had to bend closer to hear her.

"Martin isn't the only dead thing underneath this building, Nina, and the others down there have been scratching at the doors for much longer than he has."

Before Nina could ask what she meant, Elise's eyes clouded again, and her fingers clamped around Nina's hand with enough strength to hurt.

They reached the delivery corridor as a crash exploded behind them, followed by the unmistakable sound of the hatch being torn open. Martin crawled into the treatment room, his uniform soaked dark with blood and his forearm hanging sideways from a broken elbow, but he barely seemed to notice when the damaged limb struck the tiles beneath him.

His head tilted toward the corridor, and his nostrils flared as he followed the noise of their retreat, dragging his useless arm behind him while his fingers scratched at the floor. Lucy yanked the rear door open, only to discover a delivery truck blocking most of the alley, with abandoned shopping carts tangled together in the narrow space beside it.

"You're fucking kidding me!" Lucy shouted, kicking a cart that barely moved before glancing over her shoulder. "Who parks a truck across an exit during the end of the bloody world?"

Daniel shoved the first cart aside, hammer clutched in one hand while he tried to force a path wide enough for Elise's frame. Rebecca kept Elise's head steady, but the girl thrashed again, her heels banging against the metal as Nina fought to keep her hands away from Rebecca's face.

Behind them, Martin scraped through the doorway.

Nina turned as his fingers closed around Lucy's ankle, and the assistant hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs. Martin dragged her backward, his broken arm trailing uselessly while his mouth opened over her boot, teeth snapping through the fabric.

Daniel swung the hammer into Martin's skull, the impact making a sickening crack, but the guard only released Lucy long enough to crawl toward the others with blood running down his forehead. Nina snatched a metal instrument tray from a nearby trolley and brought it down across his face, smashing the thin steel against his mouth while he lunged at her legs.

"Get your bloody hands off her, you rotten bastard!" Nina screamed, striking him again before Daniel hauled Lucy upright and dragged her toward the narrow gap beside the truck.

They squeezed through the opening with Elise's frame scraping against the vehicle, abandoned carts rattling behind them as they stumbled into the adjoining alley. Nina's lungs burned, Lucy limped between Daniel and Rebecca, and the noise of their escape bounced off the warehouse walls until they reached the far end.

Then Lucy looked back toward the clinic, her face draining of colour as she realised Martin was no longer crawling after them.

He had stopped beside the broken doorway, staring past the alley into the street, and his ruined mouth opened wider and wider until a sound came out that was almost a scream.