Chapter 49: Chapter 49
“What do you think is wrong?” Tara asked.
“I don’t know,” Cass admitted, turning back to the left. “But I don’t like it. I think we should call Aaron and Cadence and get out of here.”
Before the words were even fully out of her mouth a scream emanated from somewhere deep within the building.
“What the hell was that?” Dax asked as several loud crashing sounds reverberated down the hallway.
“I have no idea, but you guys shouldn’t be here. Go back outside, outside of the gate,” Cassidy insisted, taking off in a sprint in the direction of the sound. On her way, she desperately tried to get either Leader to answer on the IAC, but neither was picking up. She tried Elliott, Jamie, even Christian. No one.
She rounded a corner, and at the far end of the hallway, she saw several figures rushing by. They were moving so quickly that, without any light, she wasn’t able to tell who or what they were, but their erratic movement indicated to her that they were scrambling, attempting to find someone or something, possibly an exit.
Cassidy practically flew to the end of the hallway and looked off in the direction to which they’d gone only to see them disappear again around another corner. This time, it appeared to be two men, tall ones, with claws. None of that seemed good. Just as she was about to give chase, another scream cut through the darkness, coming from the other end of the hallway. She went that way instead.
As she sprinted, she tried everyone again and had no results. Out of desperation, she tried Brandon.
“What’s up? Are you back from training?”
“Look, I don’t have time to explain, but I need you to go get my sister, now, and tell her to take my IAC call.”
“What’s going on?”
“Go. Now.”
“Give me visuals, Cass. Where are you?”
“Go!”
“I am.”
She sprinted around a corner and almost lost her footing. At first, she thought perhaps someone had recently mopped the floor, but the stickiness of the substance let her know what it was before she even glanced down.
Blood was everywhere. Her white tennis shoes looked pink as the liquid began to seep up them. The pool she stood in had to be at least half an inch deep, maybe a foot across. The smears continued down the hallway, even along the white walls. Handprints, fingernail marks. This had to be from more than one person.
“What the hell?”
Hearing a voice behind her, Cassidy spun around, careful to keep her footing, her hands in a defensive stance. “Damn it! I told you guys to leave!”
“We heard another scream and thought it might have been you,” Tara explained.
“What the hell happened here?” Dax said, staring around in disbelief.
“I don’t know.” The shattering of glass and an alarm tripping came from the hall to their right. “Go back! Now! I can’t protect you, Tara.”
“I’m fine, Cass,” the girl insisted.
“Visuals, Cassidy!” Brandon screamed at her.
She’d forgotten he was even on. She allowed him to see what she could and ignored the line of obscenities he let out as he saw where she was standing.
“Listen, you two, I’m not kidding. Get the hell out of here. Now,” Cassidy insisted.
“Come on. We should go,” Dax said, grabbing Tara by the arm.
But the Hunter pulled away. “Whatever is happening, I can help. I’m not an infant, Cassidy. If you can be here, so can I.”
Cassidy realized she was wasting time arguing. She was beginning to formulate what must’ve happened here, and the idea of being the sole protector for a new Hunter made her queasy. But it seemed like Tara would not be deterred. Reluctantly, Cassidy took off in the direction of the latest cacophony.
The source of the blood was obvious as soon as she turned the corner. Four Guardians were splayed across the once white tile, their necks ripped open, blood either dripping or squirting from the holes. One of them was making an awful gurgling sound, and Cassidy recognized him as one of the men who had given them access the night before. They weren’t dead, but they were in awful shape, and while Cassidy was fairly certain none of them would expire because Guardians couldn’t be killed by Vampires, nothing would’ve surprised her at this point.
Stooping down carefully, Cassidy felt around the closest Guardian until she found a concealed Glock on the inside of his uniform. She watched as Dax pulled one off of another Guardian. At the far end of the hallway, a woman with much of her neck missing managed to somehow find the strength to swing her Beretta around to where they could see it, and Cassidy grabbed it, handing it to Tara. “Do not shoot any Guardians,” she reminded her friend, who nodded. The fact that only one of the Guardians still had a weapon in hand meant the Vampires had taken the others.
Cassidy read the name tag on the woman’s uniform and tried sending an IAC message to her to see why they hadn’t called for help, but she was unable to gain access. “Can you see my request to speak to you?” she whispered.
The woman only shook her eyes back and forth, as if to signal no.
There was no explanation as to why the Guardian wouldn’t be able to see Cassidy’s signal. Confused, Cassidy asked, “Did you try sending for help?”
“Tried… no answer….” The woman’s voice was a hoarse croak.
“Brandon is getting help,” Cassidy assured her. “Just hang on.”
She nodded, and Cassidy continued to puzzle over why she was able to get a message to Brandon but no one else could be reached by anyone inside of the tagging center.
“Look, if this Brandon person is getting help, maybe we should hang back,” Dax suggested as they began to walk, weapons drawn, down the dark hall in the direction Cassidy believed would lead them back to the holding cells. She’d read some of the signage the night before and had an idea where it was that they kept the Vampires who had come in to be tagged. She remembered what she’d been told about no new Vampires coming in, but she had no way of knowing how many were already here.
“I think it would be a great idea if the two of you did just that,” Cassidy replied. Thoughts of Bonnie accidentally getting shot in the crossfire, damaged somehow, made her feet keep moving forward. The echo of two sets of footsteps, however light, followed her.
Cassidy saw the office in front of her, the one where she’d met Faye. A streak of blood covered the frosted glass doors on both the right and left, and down the hallway were various Guardians tossed about with blood splatters so high up the walls some even dripped off of the ceiling.
The wall next to the office door was riddled with bullet holes and there were a few piles of black dust here as well. Ash. Vampire bodies.
With a trembling hand, Cassidy reached out and opened the office door. There was no blood on the inside, though she did see some ash on the floor. The alarm sound seemed to be coming from back down the hall where she’d played with Bonnie, and she was just about to head that direction when she spied a hand on the keyboard and rushed over.
Between the slightly open glass partitions, she could just see an arm, dressed in a white nurse’s uniform, reaching up from the floor, as if the woman was attempting to pull herself up to standing. Cassidy pushed the glass open a bit more and flung herself through, doing a somersault and landing on her feet, just missing Lena’s legs.
She was still alive, obviously. Otherwise, she would’ve been ash. Cassidy dropped down to her knees and shifted the nurse around so she could see her face. There were bullet holes all down the front of her uniform. Her coloring was an off-gray pallor, and Cassidy realized she didn’t have long to live. “Lena, what happened?”
The Vampire seemed to recognize her own kind immediately. Her eyes softened. “Cassidy—I… I’m sorry.”
“What happened, Lena?” There was another reverberation as something heavy seemed to hit the wall, not too far from where they were standing. Cassidy looked around, catching Dax’s eyes. He looked terrified.
“Bonnie,” Lena whispered.
“Where is she?” Cassidy implored, grasping the woman by the shoulders. “Where is Bonnie?”
“Get… Bonnie….” Lena’s face contorted as if the pain had suddenly become overwhelming. Her eyes full of sadness, her lips frozen in a grimace, she took one staggered breath and then faded away. A split second later, Cassidy found herself kneeling by a pile of ashes.
Fighting back tears, Cassidy stood and headed for the door that led to the patient area. She knew she could access the back through the door behind her as well, but if Dax and Tara were insisting on going with her, they needed to stay together. Once she found Bonnie, she’d barricade the four of them into a room so that no other Vampires could reach them and wait for help. She absently wondered why Brandon had said nothing back to her.
“Let’s go,” she said, once she was back with the other two. She held her Glock in front of her, noting that the aftermarket safety was already off, and proceeded down the hallway.
They passed several offices, each of them in various states of disarray, a few containing bodies. She couldn’t see Bonnie anywhere and wondered if the girl had gotten frightened and tried to hide somewhere once the mayhem was unleashed.
And then, up ahead in the toy room, the same place they’d come the night before, Cassidy saw her. Dressed in the same pink dress Faye had chosen the night before, she stood next to the doctor, who was leaning against the same plush pink stool Cassidy had occupied not even twenty-four hours ago. Just like the other Guardians in the hallway, Faye’s throat had been ripped out. Bonnie stood staring at the older woman, the pink frock coated in a thick layer of blood. Her chin was smeared with it as well, and it dripped off, all down her front. She licked her fingers, turned, and smiled at Cassidy.
Faye was breathing and tried to say something, but Cassidy was so distracted by the Vampire, she couldn’t hazard a guess as to what it might be. “Bonnie,” she said quietly. “Are you okay?”
“You came to see me,” Bonnie said, turning to face her.
“No…” Faye said, attempting to sit up but failing. “No… Cass….”
Cassidy’s eyes flickered from the pained face of the Guardian back to the child. Despite the sticky red liquid running down the front of her dress in rivulets, she was just as adorable as Cassidy remembered from the night before. “Are you hurt, Bonnie?” Cassidy asked, taking a step forward.
“I knew you’d come back.” Bonnie ran to her, and as if compelled to protect the child so like herself, Cassidy dropped to her knees, sliding the Glock into the back of her waistband, embracing her, not concerned about Faye’s blood covering her T-shirt and jeans.