The Dark Messenger (11 page)

‘Here I am, baby,’ Regina said as she hopped
down into the garage. She wore a tight pair of black trousers, part
of her ladies’ battle gear—imported from Austria at the same time
that he had ordered his outfit. Her legs were delicious, so slim
and toned, and amazingly beautiful. Seeing them in those trousers
made him think twice about leaving for the hospital. He could sense
his feelings becoming quite urgent, and knew that he had to resist.
They had to be quick getting there, so he looked away,
concentrating on turning his bike round.

Solomon and Bruce both saw their mum and
charged at her, wagging their tails and whining.

‘Oh, you two are my babies too, don't worry
about that,’ she said as she bent down to give them both a big hug
and a kiss. Kaine looked up briefly again and smiled.

Regina’s phone then beeped and she realized
she had a message. She opened it and saw it was from her friend at
the hospital.

‘I just received a text from Christine. The
ward’s name is ‘Karnargie Ward’, up on the fifth floor she
thinks.’

‘Okay, thanks. Can you get your stuff on,
please? It’s down by your bike. Then grab your rucksack so you can
take your camo blackout sheet--you might need it. Oh, and have you
got your face oil?’ Kaine enquired.

‘Yes, thanks,’ she said as she walked over to
get her gear on.

‘
I’m going to get your
rifle, ammo and night scope, just in case it’s a long siege,’ he
said.

‘What guns are you taking?’ She gave a small
laugh. ‘Remember, you are going to a hospital. I think something
maybe just a little discreet, don't you?’

He laughed as he opened his jacket. Inside
were two high-powered machine guns. They were both M92 AK rifles,
which he had only used a few times since getting them. He had
tested them out on a fifty gallon drum filled with cement a couple
of days before, and they had torn the thing to pieces.

‘I am also going to take the Gurkha knife as
well, just in case,’ he said.

‘Are you trying to kill everyone in the
hospital?’ she asked, amused.

-------------------------

Regina left the tunnel entrance first, and
Kaine went behind her for a couple of miles down the short country
lane before the first roundabout. On the second roundabout a short
distance ahead, he had to take a different route, turning right. He
would have loved to have gone for a fast bike ride, knees-down on
corners and chasing her, but this was not a pleasure ride. Jenny’s
life depended on them, he felt sure of it. Every second
counted.

‘See you soon. I will park my bike right
where the entrance to the hospital is. Sight your shot on my bike
and wait; make sure that you sight the bike quickly, and then hide.
I am sure they will be around. I don’t know why, but I can feel
it,’ he messaged. He leant his bike in a sudden hard right, heading
down the hill in the direction of the hospital.

‘Don’t worry, baby. You have trained me well.
See you later,’ came the answer.

Then almost instantly she messaged again and
told him, ‘Wow! I just pulled a wheelie!’

The lift doors opened on the fifth floor, and
Jenny found herself shocked at what was there in front of her. She
had expected to find people walking about, visitors, nurses on
shift, people moaning in beds, that hospital ward smell--the usual
sight that one would expect to find in a hospital. But there was no
one.

Instead it looked like a building site under
construction. The ceiling in front of the lift was missing, there
was dust everywhere, and workmen’s tools were propped up against
the first wall to her left.

She stepped out of the lift, and immediately
regretted it; the lift closed tight behind her and the thing
started whining away as it went back down again. Desperate to stop
it, she jammed her fingers hard on the buttons several times.

Nothing--no lights at all. With a sinking
heart, she doubted if they even worked at all, considering how
loose the front panel was. Peering inside, she could see the wires
actually went nowhere. They had all been cut.

‘Damn! Today just can’t get any worse!’ she
cursed. She could still hear the cables inside, twanging away with
the heavy load beneath them.

Turning back around, she saw in front of her
an old set of double doors. In either direction to her left or
right the corridor was blocked. On the left, the passageway was
stacked high with building materials--timber, sand, plastic
sheeting, and other equipment. The right side was clear, but a few
meters away there was tape across the corridor with a sign
saying,

DANGER

NO ENTRY

WORK IN PROGRESS

Jenny considered what she should do. Which
way should she go? She didn’t think that anyone could have taken
Becky to the left, for the construction paraphernalia didn’t look
as if it had been disturbed for at least a week.

But the passageway to the right…if it weren’t
for the thick dust…

It still seemed the more logical way to go.
‘How disgusting!’ she thought as she turned in that direction.

She then noticed an old lopsided sign
dangling above the doors. The words were faint, but still
legible:

Karnargie Ward

Stepping forwards, she pushed on the doors
and found that they swung back easily. Behind them was a long,
empty room that was clearly an old ward. She cursed, stamping her
foot as she thought about being misled. There was no way that Becky
was in here, and now she had to somehow find her way back
downstairs again.

The apparently deserted ward she found
herself in was about eighty feet long and forty feet wide. There
were four large windows, two down the left side and two directly
opposite running down the right, with a set of double doors at the
far end. The glass in the windows had been painted over many years
before with something to block people from seeing through. Added to
that was several layers of dust from years without cleaning.

Glancing across at the window furthest away
on her right, she noticed that the top of it was ever so slightly
ajar, and she could hear the wind whistling through from outside.
Seeing it suddenly made her feel quite cold inside, and she quickly
pulled the furry hood up on her Parker jacket, wrapping it tightly
in all around her neck. The soft fake fur felt so nice on her skin;
instantly she felt so much warmer, and she cursed how she always
felt the cold. Even on a sunny day when everyone was in their
T-shirts she found herself shivering at times.

She thought back to the conversation that
she’d had downstairs with the nurse. The woman had sounded so
positive when she had said to her that Becky was up in Karnargie
Ward. Wanting to be fair, Jenny considered the possibilities.

In her defense, could there maybe be two
wards somehow? Perhaps this one is derelict, and there’s a
brand-new one somewhere with the same name? A stupid decision, but
not unheard-of.

‘Damn!’ she cursed again. Could it really be
this difficult to find Becky?

Suddenly an idea crossed her mind that made
her smile.

A fire escape! Of
course!
she thought as her eyes flicked
around in different directions, looking for one.
But where?

Nothing obvious presented itself.

Then, looking to the other end of the ward,
she thought maybe there might be one through the double doors at
that end. As she started toward them, she noticed another sign. A
surge of relief went through her as she read the word ‘FIRE’ above
the entryway.

She had to double-check just to be sure it
did actually say what she was seeing, and that it wasn’t somehow
her mind playing tricks on her. The way things had gone so far, she
felt like anything was possible. Looking up at it though, there was
no mistake; it definitely did read ‘FIRE’, although the faded
letters had made it quite difficult to read.

Jenny hurried towards the doors, wanting only
to find her way out of this nightmare.

As she approached them, she suddenly she
realized that there was something beeping somewhere. It seemed as
if it was coming from the other side of the doors.

Curiosity overtook her, and she pushed on the
doors, expecting them to swing back easily. However, the left side
was jammed solid. Looking down, she realized why; the door was
screwed down to the floor. When she looked up, she realized that it
was secured to the doorframe as well. The right door was difficult
to shift, but it was not bolted into place. She had to put all her
strength into pushing it open because the builders’ dirt underneath
was wedging it closed. It made a horrible noise as it forced the
dirt hard against the floor.

Once through the doorway, Jenny turned to
look at where the beeping noise was coming from.

She couldn’t believe what she saw. There,
lying in a steel-framed bed, was her mate!

‘What the hell?’ she screamed as she ran over
to Becky.

As she got closer, Jenny noticed a dirty old
rag had been stuffed in Becky’s mouth, and her eyes were wide as
saucers. Once Jenny had pulled it out, Becky started screaming at
her to leave. However, Jenny was in too much shock to take notice
at what Becky was shouting at her.

Becky looked terrible.
Her
eyes were dark black now, and her skin
was completely white.

‘Oh my god! What’s wrong with you?’ Jenny
cried hoarsely.

‘Jenny listen to me, will you? Get the hell
out of here! Go get help!’ Becky shouted.

‘What? Oh my god, NO! Darling, I am not
leaving you here! What do you mean, go get help? I am getting you
out of here first!’ Jenny insisted.

Then she noticed the handcuffs, and her heart
sank. Without the key, it would be impossible to free her.

Jenny gestured toward them. ‘Why…?’

‘They think I am a vampire,’ Becky said.

‘What? Who does?’ Jenny asked, shocked to her
core. She looked down at Becky, wondering for the first time if her
friend was schizophrenic or something. The thought unnerved
her.

‘Vampire! Do you know what you are saying,
darling?’ Jenny asked. She found herself wondering if perhaps the
handcuffs had been put on Becky to stop her from hurting herself.
Then she remembered the nurse downstairs saying the specialists
would be here in twenty minutes or so.

Maybe when they arrive this
whole mess will somehow start to go away. It surely won’t take them
that long for them to diagnose Becky’s illness, will it?
she thought.

‘There’s no time, Jen. You’ve got to leave,
do you hear me?’ Becky’s voice was urgent, pleading. ‘They said
that they are coming back here. They only went downstairs to find
you!’ She yanked desperately at her handcuffs.

Jenny wondered if ‘they’ were really the
specialists that she really wanted to speak with anyway. Obviously
they were, and had gotten here early. Anyway, she didn’t want to
tell Becky that she wanted to wait for them It was clear to her
that, apart from her really weird looks, that maybe Becky had
schizophrenia or something.

It would explain the
vampire business,
she thought.

Jenny shook her head. ‘Anyway, the lift isn’t
working. The buttons are screwed and the doors won’t open,’ she
said to Becky. Then she remembered that, only moments before, she
had actually been looking for the fire exit. Turning, she glanced
around and spotted it, over in the far corner. It was a single door
that said FIRE across it, with a push-bar on it.

‘Are you listening, Jenny?? Four skin-head
men put me here! They are gonna hurt you when they find you! Run
darling, just leave me and run!’ Becky screamed.

Jenny was finding it all too much to believe,
and had resigned herself to the fact that her mate was mentally
ill. Ignoring her, she began to look around at the machine and
medical stuff behind the bed--the tubes running from it down to her
mate and the syringes lying on a small metal table to her left.
There was also a huge window, similar to the ones out in the main
ward. However, instead of being completely painted over, this one
had a clear pane in it on the top right, as if it had been changed
at some point. Turning round to think for a second, she took in the
rest of the room now. It was basically just a smaller version of
the bigger ward that she had just come through. There were more
wires dangling down here and there, no ceiling, and dirt
everywhere. She wondered vaguely how a hospital could function in
such a filthy environment.

At the same time, Becky continued to
struggle. Her face was red from exertion. ‘Jen they are going to
hurt you! Can you fucking hear me? They are here because they said
I am a VAMPIRE! They will hurt you! Go before they come back,
PLEASE!’

‘Just let me speak to them when they come
back. I’m sure I’ll be okay,’ Jenny said in a placating voice.

Jenny felt so sorry for
Becky.
But
what
can I do?
she thought.
I hope they can help her.
It’s just
not fair!