The Pale King - XI

Part 1

“Get someone down to the morgue now!” Starcross shouted at the dumbfounded staff around him in the red gleamed dark. Down below him a man was bleeding to death and there was no sign of the other two orderlies who went into the kitchen after the patient. Starcross’ jaw hurt from how hard he was clenching his teeth in anger. How could this have gone this way? And why were the men sitting by him frozen in terror?

                “Yes sir.” A young man said standing from his desk. He was visibly shaking from fright. His desk overlooked the kitchen and he too was witness to the stabbing below.

                “Go in pairs. We can’t be too careful. And you,” Starcross pointed to the man working the radio, “send a warning through the building.”

                “Yes sir. Where are you going?”

                Starcross had crossed the room and was pulling on his white coat before he unlocked the door to let himself and the two men, he was sending to he morgue out.

                “To tend to that man down there. Lock this door after we leave. Keep a weather eye and let me know over the loudspeaker if you find him.”

                “Who?”

                “The bastard that’s getting the needle after tonight.” Starcross said slamming the large door behind him.

                Starcross practically jumped down the stairs counting the minutes in his head from when the man was stabbed to when he’d possibly reach him. Three minutes. Not long enough to bleed out if nothing terrible was punctured but still too long to be laying in one’s own life fluid on the cold bare floor. He had to hurry. He sent the two men down the hall towards black ward and took a separate hall for the dining area. In the flashing red lights, he could see blood smeared on the walls and foot prints leading the opposite direction he was going. They’ll have a trail to follow at least, he thought, stomaching the anger he felt flaring in his core.

                He pushed the double doors open and almost hit the orderly who was laying on the floor not two paces away. He knelt by him and felt for his pulse. It was feeble but the man was still alive. The knife wounds were shallow enough on the man’s back, not life threatening from the looks of them. Starcross gingerly flipped the man over to see what wounds he had been afflicted to his front. Henry almost jumped at the sight. The man’s face had been horribly ravaged, something unnoticeable from the window above. The blood that had soaked his shirt was from his missing nose and gouged out eye ball.

                “What a fucking savage!” Starcross seethed between clenched teeth. His breathing was heavy and labored. He grabbed at his chest. The pain was intense. He had felt it before. A first aid kit was fashioned to the wall by the door for easy access. Henry labored to his feet from kneeling and almost fell against the wall grabbing at the metal tin box. His teeth clenched tighter as the vein in his neck pulsed with fire. Pressure started to build behind is eyes and he could barely breathe. It felt like his brain was trying to explode from his skull. He let out a sharp high breath and the pain subsided. He had muscled through it. The next one might do him in he thought. Another attack like that, at a time like this would be terrible.

                “Stay with me Malcolm.” Starcross talked to the dying man on the floor. The bleeding from his face was lessening but his breathing was very shallow. He wouldn’t survive long out here.”

                “This is not a drill. We are under full lockdown. This is not a drill. The patient is loose and armed. Take all necessary precautions. This is not a drill! We are under…” the speakers cut out mid announcement and Starcross’ teeth clenched again.

                “What the fuck are they doing down there? Did they flip the wrong switch?” He sat up wiping Malcolm’s blood on his coat. He heard a sound. A rumbling cascading click-clack throughout the halls and his blood ran cold.

                “No, no, no, no! What the fuck is going on!?” Starcross yelled up to the window above him but he couldn’t see any of the men looking down. He looked down to Malcolm and realized he need to leave him behind for now.

                “I’ll be back.” Starcross whispered to the man before going back to the hallway.

                In the time it took for him to go back up the stairs and get eyes on things the hallways below them were teeming with patients wandering around. The blue ward had men slowly shambling out of open doors working from what he could tell on automatic motion. Seeking out their daily routine they had hardwired after years. The green ward had a lot of men looking to the staff asking questions quickly devolving as the red lights flashed. The red ward was quiet. Starcross squinted and saw a staffer walk into an open cell door and was abruptly yanked inside. Starcross’ heart jumped. He was afraid to look at the yellow ward, but his body moved on its own. He turned to see the hallway bathed in red with the six yellow ward patients kneeling over their kills. Reginald, one of the most recent additions to the ward looked up at him and smiled wiping blood from his mouth. He walked forward and tried the ward hallway door. It opened slowly and his eyes glinted.

                “Lock the door.” Starcross yelled over his shoulder.

                “What?”

                “Lock the goddamn door!” Starcross yelled again pointing to the security room door.

                As the lock turned a pounding erupted on the metal door and Starcross saw Reginald’s red face covered in blood. Starcross clenched his teeth again and slid down the window to the floor breathing heavily. In his head he heard Thomas Baxley, the Tourette’s’ voice in his head.

                “Imagine what a man like that could do in a place like this. It’ll be chaos.”

                “No way.” Starcross dragged himself over to the blue ward window and saw the yellow ward patients in a tight band weaving in and out of the others making a bee line for black ward.

                “Son of a bitch. They’re going for him.” Henry stood and let out a great breath letting himself relax against the tension. Two heart attacks in less than twenty minutes, he wasn’t going to make it through the night at this rate. The doctor, steeling his wits, turned to the men in the room who were shaken and scared.

                “We have to go. There is a tunnel that leads to the cemetery from the morgue. If we can make it down there, we can get out and the building will remained sealed until Monday when we can get some help. By then it might not matter, but I intend to live past tonight. Now get up. We have to go now.”

                “But sir, they went to the black ward. We’ll be going right past them.”

                “There’s another way downstairs. Now shut up and come with me.” Starcross went to the door held the lock in his hand and hesitated. They couldn’t possibly hold up in this room for two days or more without any provisions. But could they risk going out there? With the insane? He clenched his teeth one more time and unlocked the door. They’d have to risk it. There was no other choice.

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