The doctor’s gaze locked on Kate in astonishment. He barked a command to the creature, and the homunculus dropped the woman, who crumpled to the floor. The thing loped forward, jumping onto the wall and propelling itself past Gretta ever faster to its quarry.
Simon grabbed Kate’s hand and they fled in the other direction. Kate didn’t know where the exit was, but she could only pray Simon did. She stumbled on the carpeted corridor, and Simon pulled her up. Then Malcolm also tripped and nearly went down. The sound of grating metal filled the air. The worn runner sagged in many spots, then it began to rise and tremble with life. White arms appeared from under the edges of the long rug, and shapes that weren’t true arms but closer to tendrils or claws emerged. Moaning and wet, sloughing sounds accompanied twisted shoulders and heads pushing their way into the dim lamplight. Mouths gnashed at Kate and she tore her ankle free of grasping fingers.
“He’s set them all free.” Simon stepped on the back of one figure as Malcolm vaulted a homunculus reaching out for him.
Mutilated bodies rose slowly, fighting to stay aloft on numb and misshapen limbs. Kate drew her sword and slashed out, tearing through soft flesh and chalky bones. Simon elbowed a horrid thing into the wall. Malcolm slammed the butt of his pistol into a head, dropping a homunculus to the floor. Ever more arms reached out for them. The hallway seemed to be constricting in a crowd of shambling white things. Only the creatures’ confused state saved the three as they continued to shove and batter their way through.
In the distance, a monstrous howl pounded through the asylum. Gretta, calling her pack.
“Stay close!” Malcolm shouted as he ducked under a set of long claws. “Don’t get separated.”
Kate plunged her blade into a dripping figure that reached for Simon. She kicked the thing aside, nearly stumbled, but kept staggering forward. Simon grabbed her and pulled her onward, swiping back with his own sword, drawing a warm spatter of ooze from one of the white man-things. Something exploded near her head and Malcolm appeared, shoving her and Simon past him. The Scotsman fired again to cover as Simon pulled her to the left.
It was a dead end.
She spun around, ready to face the horrors that were coming for them. Malcolm virtually fell around the corner, hitting the wall. He was covered in dribbling whitish excretion. He reloaded and snapped the breeches of his pistols shut. He jumped back out into the junction and opened fire, peppering the corridor with shot. He pulled back around the corner.
“I hate to tell you but there are dozens of the things.” He quickly counted the remaining cartridges in his coat pockets. “And more beasties on the way.”
Simon hefted a long table in his arms. “I’ll try to batter our way back to the main corridor. And we’ll fight our way out from there.”
Kate didn’t bother to think how impossible that was since she could hear the damp shuffling sounds of the homunculi horde approaching. She inspected the vials that she had left—a paltry arsenal to fight an army.
The cell door next to them suddenly opened. Malcolm’s pistols jerked up and trained on the dark entrance. It was the girl who had been playing with the doll. She wore no expression of surprise. It was as if she had meant to be there. She gestured for them to follow her inside the empty cell.
Malcolm straightened his arm toward the new arrival, his finger about to squeeze the trigger. Kate placed herself between the hunter and the girl.
“Given our choices,” she told Malcolm, “I’d rather go with her. There’s nowhere else to go in any case.”
Malcolm held his fire with a suspicious grimace. The girl took Kate’s hand and tugged her inside the room. Simon followed the two into the cell. Malcolm was fast on his heels. The faintest of light came from a grate in the floor. The young girl smiled at Kate, then shoved Malcolm aside so she could reach the door. She manipulated the lock on the outside and slammed the door shut.
“It’s locked now,” she said. “It will take them a few minutes to get in.”
She fell to her hands and knees and grasped the iron grate. Simon helped her lift it. Beneath was a tunnel of dirt and stone.
The girl said, “Come with me.”
Malcolm exclaimed to his colleagues, “She gave us away before.”
The girl looked angry. “I did not!” Then she crawled in and disappeared. Kate made to follow her when Malcolm roughly pulled her back.
“Are you mad? She could be leading us straight to slaughter!”
“Do you have another plan?” Kate retorted, her hands on her hips, her cheeks flushing.
Simon knelt next to the hole. “I’ll go first.”
“You’re agreeing to this?” Malcolm stammered with barely restrained fury.
“Yes,” was his simple reply. And then he was gone.
Kate pleaded with the hunter. “If I’m wrong, you can boast to me later.”