Daniel stood in the hall with his hands behind his head, balancing his weight on his left leg. The previous owners of the house had done a good job with the decor. A green rug spanned the middle of the wooden flooring. Three sofas, a light shade of brown, sat on three of the rug’s edges. In the centre was a dark-brown coffee table with a glass top. A fireplace hosted a bright burning flame. An air freshener hung on the wall from which wafted a smell of cypress. It felt like a cabin in a tundra forest. Reid took his seat on the sofa opposite to Daniel. He had his shotgun on his lap. On the sofa adjacent, sat a man in a white lab coat that was stained with blotches of red. One of the lenses in his spectacles was broken and the cracks caught the light of the fire. The two thugs that were guarding the door were now watching Daniel, their rifles trained on him.
“Dr. Milton!” Reid said to the man in the lab coat. “I have brought something useful in these trying times.”
Milton looked up at Daniel and his solemn expression was replaced with ecstacy.
“This is all we needed!” cried out Milton. “I swear to you, Mr. Reid, that this will work. I’m one-hundred percent sure!”
“I’m almost tired of hearing that from you, my dear doctor,” said Reid. “All’s well and good if this works. Otherwise we’ll just have to continue the process.”
“You don’t understand, Mr. Reid! It was one tiny error in the solution that caused that disaster. It accelerated the growth of the parasite instead of killing it! We have fixed it. This is the perfect serum. It will work.”
Daniel knew that they tested different versions of a vaccine on their helpless test subjects. They seemed to be talking of one such trial, which by the looks of it, had gone horribly wrong.
“Dr. Milton, meet Mr. Danny,” Reid said as he pointed at Daniel. “Mr. Danny, Dr. Milton.”
Daniel didn’t care. “Where’s Sara?”
“Oho! Very valiant of you, sir, to come all the way here to save a damsel in distress,” said Reid. “We are going to take you right to her! But you must bear with us, Mr. Daniel, for we need you to do us a small favour.”
Reid turned to Milton. “Where did you say it was confined?”
“We locked it in the emergency ward,” replied Milton. “That might be a problem, sir. Our testing parasites are locked up with it.”
“That will not be a problem.” Reid looked tense. “But where is the serum?”
“The surviving doctors, scientists, and I, escaped with only the serum in hand. We managed to make the corrections in another part of the hospital.”
“So you have it with you?”
“Give me a minute, Mr. Reid. I’ll ready the syringe.” He got up and went past Daniel into another room.
Daniel did not like the sound of that. Neither did he know what ‘it’ was, nor what they were going to do to him. He looked around the room again, for any exits. The one window had a grill outside. The hall led into a couple of other rooms wherein he could hide, maybe. But what could he possibly do after that? It would only be a matter of time before they found him. The main door he had just entered through was his only way out. Would he be able to overpower two thwarters and Reid? He tested his right foot by shifting some of his weight on it and almost collapsed. There was no way he was getting out of this, he needed to wait a little longer for a chance.
“Mr. Danny,” Reid called. “Come come, have a seat.” He gestured to the sofa Milton had been sitting on. “And relax, put your hands down. I know you won’t do anything. Or rather… can’t.”
Daniel limped over to the sofa and sat on the cushions. He felt the warmth left behind by Milton’s body as he settled down. He propped his leg up on the coffee table, finally relaxing it.
“That’s a bad injury there, sir,” Reid commented, looking at Daniel’s broken toenail on a swollen toe. “You are strong, I must say.”
Daniel was in no mood to have a jolly chat with him. “Where’s Sara?” he asked again.
“Patience is a great virtue of man, Mr. Danny. I suggest you use it. I’m as excited as you are to see her too!”
“Don’t screw with me–”
Daniel was broken off by a sharp pain in the back of his neck. The piercing pain almost paralysed him. Rubbing his neck, he found a few drops of blood smeared on his palm. He turned back to see what had caused it. Milton stood behind his sofa with a syringe in his hand. A drop of dark blue liquid dripped from the needle.
“Thank you for your patience, Mr. Danny,” said Reid. “Now, allow me to take you to Sara.”
“But… but Mr. Reid!” Milton urged. “I just told you… we can’t test him there!”
Daniel’s brow furrowed. Sara was in the emergency room with whatever they had locked up in it?
“That’s exactly why I’m going there,” said Reid. “All we have to do is chuck Mr. Danny in there. It’ll do the rest.”
Milton seemed to realise. “But what will you do with it afterwards?”
“Why, kill it of course!”
Daniel was having trouble wrapping his head around what he had just heard. “Where have you kept her?! What is it that you’ve trapped her with?!”
“My my… Questions, questions, questions… The same damned ones too,” said Reid, slightly irritated. “I suggest you shut up now. I said we’re going to see her.” He looked at the two thugs. “Bring him, we’re heading for the emergency ward, and Dr. Milton,” he got up from his seat to place his hand on Milton’s shoulder, “I hope this serum works.”
Milton nodded confidently. With that, the party in the house left for the hospital.
As Daniel limped along, he looked around. The sun was about to rise, but it wasn’t any easier to see because a thick fog had settled in the area. The neighbouring houses were in different shapes and sizes, within similar plots of land. The hospital loomed over in front of him. At first, Daniel couldn’t see it clearly, it looked just like a big grey rectangle. But as they neared it, he could see broken windows and faded paint. They crossed the parking lot, filled with dried streaks of blood. The place had clearly been attacked by leeches before.
“How did the thwarters set up camp here?” Daniel asked Reid. “Wasn’t this place infested with leeches?”
“We killed them all,” Reid said simply, hoisting his shotgun onto his shoulder.
“What? You said you didn’t have enough ammunition to deal with leeches.”
“We don’t now. We only kill them if they cause us any trouble. As you can see, there isn’t any trouble here anymore.”
The tar poked the soles of Daniel’s feet. His toe flared every time it hit the hard rough surface. It was getting harder to walk. But he pushed on, helpless, surrounded by Reid, Milton, and the thwarters. They stopped in front of two big doors in the hospital building. Above them was a big red sign saying ‘Emergency’.
“You all can stay outside now,” said Reid. “I’ll manage Mr. Danny on my own. Besides, you weak suckers might die in there! Dr. Milton, give Mr. Danny the key.”
The two thugs chuckled, but Milton was perturbed. He gave Daniel a long silver key.
“Well, Mr. Danny. Just a few more steps before you can finally see your beloved… friend,” said Reid. He grabbed Daniel by the collar and entered the doors.
The minute they entered, a loud bang resonated through the dark corridor, and it wasn’t the doors closing behind them. The sound came from a set of doors on their left, presumably leading to the emergency ward. Reid pushed Daniel towards them.
“What the hell is in there?” Daniel asked, terrified.
“What you want, and what I need,” replied Reid.
“You assholes put Sara in there too?!”
Reid didn’t respond to the question. “Unlock the door, Mr. Danny.”
“You’re a madman!” Daniel said. “You’re a murderer! Have you no shame or sympathy?”
Reid scratched his chin. “If I did, none of this would’ve been possible, sir. Now unlock the door.” He pointed his shotgun at Daniel.
Daniel turned to stare at the doors. This was it. Of all the times he thought he was going to die, this was truly the end. He inserted the key and turned the lock open. The second the click was heard, Reid kicked Daniel in the back. Daniel was thrown onto the doors which swung away from him into the room. Daniel lay sprawled on the floor, reeling from the kick. Reid entered the room and closed the doors behind him.
Daniel looked up at the room. A few bulbs glowed in the darkness, the others were cracked on the floor. The room was awash with blood, streaking from dead people in lab coats. The bodies were strewn all over the room, and so were the hospital cots. Racks lay fallen down, and bottles of chemicals lay broken and splattered all over the floor and walls. It really was a disaster.
Daniel found the culprit and shivered in fear. At the opposite end of the room was a leech with the biggest parasite he’d ever seen, turned towards the cause of the recent noise. The tail was so long that it dragged on the floor. It had more hair — red hair — on its scalp than the other leeches, and its eyes were only half-clouded. It seemed to be a recent transformation from a female body. The hospital gown it wore was covered in blood. Something about it seemed extremely familiar to Daniel. As it approached him slowly, he let out a silent gasp.
Daniel was rooted to the floor in despair. He didn’t want to move; death seemed like the only thing he wanted now. The one reason he tried invading the thwarter’s camp was now lost. He looked at the leech in its eyes, hoping it would somehow recognise him.
“Sara?” he called.
The leech jumped for the noise. Its long parasite tail found Daniel’s arm. He let it wrap around his wrist and pull him closer to the leech. With its hands outstretched, it grabbed Daniel by the shoulders firmly, and a majority of the tail disappeared into the leech’s body, bloating its stomach. Its face was mere inches from Daniel’s, the end of the tail sweeping his face, trying to find an opening. He could see it clearly, it definitely was Sara, or had been.
“Sara… Sara, it’s me… Daniel,” he said, voice cracking and tears streaming down his cheeks. “Sara… please… Sara-agh.”
The tail of the parasite of what was formerly Sara shoved itself into Daniel’s mouth. Daniel’s gag reflex was triggered, but he couldn’t throw up. The parasite filled his throat, making it swell up. His eyes rolled back into his head and his jaw unhinged. The pain was excruciating, but Daniel was helpless. He was breathless and about to pass out. His body convulsed profusely. An image of the body of the thwarter by the lake, lying on the pebbles, ran through his mind. The leech seemed like it had had enough. It let Daniel go and pulled its parasite out of him. He fell to the floor like a broken rag doll.
He was passing out quickly. Every heave of breath he tried taking burned his throat, as if it was frying. He couldn’t feel the rest of his body. He looked up at the leech, standing above him. Suddenly with a loud bang, its head exploded, along with a good part of its neck, making it rain blood, bone and flesh. The leech collapsed to the floor beside Daniel. He couldn’t turn his neck to see it. Reid stood above him, the barrel of his shotgun smoking.
“There, I told you we were going to see Miss Sara!” he said.
The room around Daniel was darkening as he was passing out. Bitterly, he realised that he was now just another test subject, and never had a person survived being one. It really was the end for him. Nothing could stop the thwarters from getting what they wanted. The last thing he saw was Reid’s face looming over him.
“Thank you for your sacrifice, Mr. Danny.”
Click here for Locked Down | Epilogue
