Beneath the Flesh: They kept all the demons out … except one by Alex Kings Page A

smoothly. In fact, the wheels were bigger than the trolley's had been, so it would be easier to get back.
     
    She wheeled it back into the main corridor. Rattle-rattle-rattle. Luke gave her a look.
     
    “Fuck it,” she said, not whispering. “We're going to have to be loud.”
     
    He looked at the cart and shrugged. “Fair enough.” Then, looking behind her, he saw something. “Look” he said. “This leads to some wards. Let's check them out and see if any of them are a good place to spend the night.”
     
    They set off down the side-corridor. It went a short way down, then turned right into a sort of mini-reception area with a desk, some seats, and doors leading onto the wards.
     
    In front of the desk was a dead dog.
     
    There were three holes down the side of its body, and a final one that seemed to go through its head,  which had torn one of its jaws off. It gave off a sharp smell. It was lying in a pool of its own blood. Still wet, still warm, still fresh.
     
    It was obviously the dog they'd heard a few minutes ago.
     
    There was a trail of blood. Not footsteps – strings of drops, great big smears, sometimes on the floor and sometimes on the walls. Looking up, Jess saw there were even some parts on the ceiling. The trail left away, past the doors to the wards, and down a flight of steps.
     
    “I'm not,” Jess said slowly, “entirely convinced this is the safest place to sleep.”
     
    “Okay, so whatever did this – it might just be an ordinary runner – didn't actually go into any of the wards. And just because it came down this way doesn't mean it will come back.”
     
    “And it might easily go to any other place,” said Jess. “Yeah, I know.” She shrugged.
     
    They checked the each of the wards. In the dim light coming from the small windows, everything looked fairly clean. Some of the beds were upturned and the curtains torn from their railings, but that was it. Two of the doors were broken, but in the other four wards it would be fairly easy to barricade the doors with some of the beds.
     
    Heading back out, they passed the carcass of the dog and agreed they'd keep looking. But if a better option didn't come up, they could easily return here.
     
     
     
     
    They managed to pick up all the equipment on their list without too much trouble, and without running into any demons on the way. First the laparoscopy equipment, which Luke insisted in putting in Jess's backpack where it would be safest. Then Jess pushed on to get the other items on the list: Medication, vaccinations, anaesthetics, needles.
     
    The worst part was having to lift the cart up and down stairs a couple of times.
     
    Jess was with Luke in the back room of the pharmacy, checking for the last of the medicines they needed, when the presence came back.
     
    Came back? Well, it had been there for a while, but she'd been able to ignore it. Now it swelled. She heard whispering, the sort that's just too far away to understand. Her breath caught. The presence, whatever it was, felt like it had uncurled, come out its cocoon, and was crawling like an insect through her mind, investigating.
     
    She put a hand against the wall to steady herself. For a brief moment she felt all the holes across the right side of her body. All of them individually, like they were breathing, like they were looking out into the world.
     
    For a moment she was worried she was going to pass out. Then the feeling retreated.
     
    It left the whispering behind it – but that was all. She supposed the presence – the parasite? – had learned to tread more quietly. But it was still there, still moving.
     
    “Are you okay?” said Luke, looking round the shelf.
     
    “Yeah,” she said. “I just slipped.”
     
    “Alright.” He held up a box of medicine. “Well, I think this is the last of it.”
     
    They checked the items against the list and put them on the cart, then headed out of the pharmacy. From there, they had to carry the cart down a