“You’re not so bad yourself, kiddo!” he called back. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” She heard the sound of his sandals getting further away.
Margo curled a blanket around the sleeping coyote. “Meg is going to be so happy to see you, Maze. She’s coming home, you know! And we’re going to get her all better so you two can…” her voice caught in her throat. “Well, we’ll all be back together. We’ve always been our strongest when we’re together.” She blinked back tears and forced herself to think positively.
51 Infinite Possibilities
“Hello?” a voice came from outside in the corridor accompanied by a soft rapping.
“Hello? Is someone in there? Is everything okay? We heard…well, are you all right?”
More polite knocking.
When the wailing continued, everyone on the first floor of the hospital was alarmed. Determined to restore order to her hospital, the charge nurse from the first floor decided to investigate the sounds herself. Having earned her status with years of exemplary service to the Facility’s hospital, she was one of only a handful of staff who had been given a numerical code that would give access to the building’s stairwell down to the basement. This was to be used in emergencies only and in all her years of service at the hospital, she had never had a reason to use that access until today when the screams and wails continued to echo through the floor boards.
Knowing there was no other room in the basement except this one, the nurse had to assume the cries came from behind the door to which she now held her ear. When only muffled sobs answered her patient knocking, she decided she had no choice but to open the door.
She reached down and tried the knob. It turned easily in her hand and sprang ajar. The sobs continued, unaffected by the light streaming in from open door. Not wanting to startle the person inside, she spoke again, “Hello? I’m a nurse. Can I help you?”
The dark room became silent for a moment. Then the innocent nurse heard a guttural, animal-like growl reverberate from the far corner. She couldn’t see, but she could hear and it didn’t sound human or meta.
Though very much afraid, morbid curiosity commanded her hand flip on the light switch. The moment she did, she regretted it. What looked at first to be a bundle of clothes tossed into the corner was instead a man she didn’t recognize. In his arms, he held a girl. He was cradling her thin frame in his arms like a baby and rocking back and forth. When he lifted his face the nurse later swore it was the most horrifying sight she had ever witnessed, and the memory was seared into her mind even as she ran screaming from the room.
Upon subsequent interrogation by the Commander himself, she swore she hadn’t recognized the man. That she had never seen him before. She described what she saw and felt terrified tears stream down her face during the entire interview.
“The man’s eyes were sunken deep into his skull and dead, black like a shark’s. He had chunks of hair ripped off his scalp leaving bloody, bald patches,” she said motioning to her own head.
Swallowing hard, the nurse continued, “Blood ran down his face and dripped on the body in his arms, but he just kept rocking back and forth like he was going to sing a lullaby to the woman. He looked monstrous.”
Shaking, she reached for the bottled water in front of her before finishing. “Beside him were vials. I recognized them immediately by their packaging.”
“What were the markings on the vials?” the commander asked, though he knew the answer to his question even before he asked it.
“They were vials of the Infinity Serum, sir. I’d recognize that symbol anywhere.”
The commander removed his piercing gaze from the nurse, clasped his hands behind his back and asked, “Was there anything else? Did he say anything to you?”
The girl was so scared her mouth went dry and her heart thumped hard enough to vibrate her vision. “Yes, sir. He laughed and screamed something I couldn’t understand—it—it was a different language!”
“Say what you remember of it!” The commander was losing his patience with this witness.
“It was something like: ‘Ego sus-ci-tatio bestia intus.’” The woman looked up with pleading eyes. “And that’s when I ran.”
Commander Oldham closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. “Please wait outside. I’ll have a chaperone escort you back to your quarters.”
The nurse stood and began walking obediently toward the door but stopped halfway there. She turned and blurted, “Sir, what’s going to happen? Who was he, and who was the girl? Did he kill her? Did the serum do that to him? Why…”
“Soldier!” barked Oldham angrily. He had crossed the length of the room instantaneously and was now inches away from her face. “Silence your tongue! You forget your place!” he spat.