Rewired: Project Insula

Chapter 3

An hour had passed since the awkward hug, Meera and Rhys had begun going over each other's notes from earlier in the day regarding the theft of a NOS cannister. It was going as well as they expected, which was not very well at all. It felt to Meera as though they were just there to show that the police care, not to actually solve anything. It was a strange thought that unsettled Meera, because it made too much sense.

Just as they were about to call it a day and head back to the station, four large security officers came bounding through the corridor behind Meera. The collection of panicked thuds from the eight large boots caused Meera to turn and briefly exit the cafés optical illusion it had had over her.

One of the men was exceptionally large, he had an intimidating European face with a cap pointing forwards. His sleeves were rolled up and he sported an Incredible Hulk tattoo on his forearm under another tattoo of a faded Poland flag embedded in his large bicep.

The other 3 were large, but not as large as the Polish Hulk. They didn't wear caps, nor did they look particularly intimidating. In fact, the only resemblance they had with the large man was the black jumpsuit, security badge and the flashing earpiece located in their right ear.

The men were rushing, and looked extremely focused. The Polish Hulk's eyes were locked forward, focused under the grey lenses of his smartglasses and he chewed on some gum vigorously. They soon entered the elevator that Meera and Rhys had arrived at the café in. They took formation in the elevator, the three small guys at the back with Polish Hulk stood in front of them.

As the doors began to close, Meera noticed the man on the left hand side draw a taser from his holster.

“f**k” Meera muttered under her breath.

“Rhys we need to follow those guys.” Meera said suddenly turning her head round to face him, her body still bent as if she was still watching the corridor.

“What?” Rhys laughed. “Why?”

“I just saw the guy on the left pull a taser – I think. And that's a lot of manpower for a hospital!” She said, now frantically putting away her notes.

“Whoah Meera, calm down. They are the Hospital's security, that's their job! Probably some loon on the psych ward.” He said, leaning back in his chair.

Meera slammed her fists on the table, suddenly getting angry.

“Rhys! Not everything is a f*****g joke okay? What if something happens, we miss it, and then it becomes our next case? Why would they need that much manpower AND a taser?!” She exclaimed.

“I'm going to see what's going on. You stay here and make jokes.” She barked at him.

Rhys dropped his head like a told off little boy.

“Meera…” he said quietly. “I don't want to sound like an arse, but I am your superior. This isn't why we are here.” He seemed to be upset at himself for saying this.

Meera looked angry and shocked.

“You serious?” She said in a calm fashion, but ready to explode at a certain response.

Rhys suddenly started laughing and stood up.

“I'm shitting you Meera! As if I could stop you… Plus… Someone has to protect you.” He winked before shooing her off.

“Now go, quick, you will miss what floor they got off on.”

Meera stuffed her notes into her inside jacket pocket and got up quickly, stumbling over the legs of the chair she was sat on. As soon as she was up and steady, she briskly jogged over to the elevator and looked at the little screen above the lift.

The number was still changing so she assumed that the men were still on their way. She figured that they would know the layout of the Hospital well, so taking the elevator must mean wherever they are going is far from the café, otherwise it would have been quicker to travel on foot.

The message on the screen stopped at “PICU Red”.

“Quick, to the lift over there” Meera shouted to Rhys who was just walking out of the café now.

Rhys must have sensed the urgency in her voice, as he ran over to the lift primed and ready to input their destination.

Meera joined him outside the lift, breathing heavily.

“Why are you so excited?” Rhys asked. “You know something I don't?”

Meera shook her head dismissively and tapped “PICU Red” on the panel. The doors slid open almost instantly, but not quick enough for Meera, as she shoved Rhys in and quickly closed the doors before somebody else could get on.

As soon as the elevator started moving, Meera closed her eyes and began to breath smoothly. Seeing the way those men had stood in formation, and seeing the taser being pulled out had triggered something in her mind. She felt that she just had to follow them, she couldn't explain it, not even to herself, but she just had to do it.

“You got to calm down.” Rhys said. “Perhaps you would not be so down and worried all the time if you didn't get your hopes up about everything.”

Meera shook her head. “If I'm wrong about this then I will buy you lunch for the whole of next week.”

Rhys laughed, but still seemed concerned. “Deal. But only if you listen to what I just said… Y'know, about keeping your hopes up.”

Before Meera could respond, the elevator arrived gently at its destination, and the doors slid open. Meera and Rhys stepped out, and almost in unison looked left then right down the long corridor. Aside from the small cleaning bot slowly making its way towards them leaving a shine across the white floor in its wake, the whole corridor from end to end was completely empty. It wasn't just the fact that there was no people in view of the elevator exit, that could just be a strange coincidence. It was the deafening silence that followed the noise of the elevator door closing behind them.

“This is weird.” Meera said blankly whilst watching the cleaning bot bumble over to them. “Yeah it is.” Rhys reluctantly replied. “Maybe you were right Meera.”

Rhys put his hand over his gun holster and looked up at Meera with a fearful expression that unsettled her.

“Let's not jump to any conclusions yet.” Meera said calmly, noticing Rhys's move for his gun.

It bothered Meera that Rhys had now started panicking, he was normally the one calming her down, so she knew that there probably was a reason to be worried. Her sudden composure worried her even more though.

“Look, we have no reason to worry, let's just have a walk round and see if we can find those security guards.” Meera said quietly, as to not disrupt the dead air of what she could now see was the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit Red Ward.

Rhys nodded and stood up straight. “You're right Meera, sorry. I shouldn't panic like that.”

He fiddled with his hands for a second after taking them away from his holster, before awkwardly sticking them in his pockets.

“So what way do you wanna go?” Meera asked with a comforting smile.

Rhys responded with a short exhale that sounded like a fart from his mouth, as he looked up at the monitor detailing directions around the ward.

“How about reception? We can ask about the security guys, see if they know anything.” Rhys said still squinting at the monitor.

Meera nodded, and they began down the empty brightly lit corridor, the silent cleaning bot politely passing them by.

…

Around 4 minutes had passed before Meera and Rhys reached the large metal double doors leading to reception. During these 4 minutes, they had not seen or heard anyone in the Hospital, even when peeking into the sporadically placed rooms and wards along the way.

Just outside the large doors to reception, there was a large vending machine situated opposite a smaller set of double doors that led to a stairway.

It wasn't until Rhys decided that his need for a chocolate bar was clearly superior to his fear of an empty hospital ward, that they finally saw some people. It was amazing how strange just 5 minutes in an empty part of a hospital was, but was also slightly depressing to realise it is only strange because they are usually full to the brim with patients.

Rhys was about halfway through his transaction, Meera stood beside him with her arms folded, when the door to the stairway came crashing open.

Out came three people who seemed to be in a shocked state of panic. Two young women were visible first, with an older man right behind them.

Rhys had barely had the chance to turn around and react, when one of the young woman clung onto him. “Help us! You have to help us!” She shouted distressed.

Her dark hair seemed greasy with sweat, and it stuck to her forehead unflatteringly.

The other woman had short blonde hair and a bleeding lip, she was attending to the older man against the wall beside the door. She kept frantically switching her gaze between what seemed to be an abdominal injury on the man, and Meera's shell-shocked facial expression.

“Hey! What's the matter?” Said Rhys calmly. He put his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to console her.

“There was a man.. he.. he.. was just killing everyone” She said, gulping down her sobs after each word.

Meera had begun attending to the man's wound. It was bleeding heavily, with the blood occasionally hitting the floor with a disgusting slap sound.

The scene was awfully frantic. Rhys had a girl crying hysterically in his arms, whilst Meera was witnessing, with a front seat view, a man bleed to death.

Meera shot a look at the blonde-haired woman who was stood shaking and biting her nails. She then looked over at Rhys who was holding the brown-haired woman, but staring forwards with wide, almost crazed eyes.

“Where the f**k are the Doctors?!” Meera shouted.

Suddenly out of the same door that led to the stairway, a man came bursting through. He stopped just in front of the blonde woman. He was covered in blood, and was wearing old ripped boots, dirty blood drenched jeans and the remnants of a dirty t shirt. He stared at the blonde woman, hissed red saliva out through his grinning mouth as he lifted his head up, and just as she was about to scream he ripped her throat out with his hand.

She slumped down to the floor with a thud, blood falling out of her open neck and covering the rest of her body. Meera sat with her mouth gawped, frozen in terror and shock.

The man that had been bleeding profusely suddenly lunged at the man. “You f*****g bastard! You killed my..” the crazed man turned around with unnatural speed and swiped a clawed hand upwards across the old man's face. He fell back near Meera, his head hitting the floor last with a crash, displaying his mauled facial features, and hanging jaw.

Meera screamed and got off her feet. She began slowly walking backwards, the man grinding his teeth together, blood trickling out of his mouth. She looked over to Rhys, who was stood shaking, pointing his handgun at the man.

“Sh.. Shoot him Rhys!” Meera shouted hysterically.

Rhys suddenly came too and fired a bullet in the direction of the man, which pinged into the metal door beside him. Two more shots followed shortly after, one hitting the man in his shoulder and the other taking off his ear.

After the third shot, Meera couldn't hear much other than ringing. That was until the brown-haired woman who had been lying on the floor with her hands over her ears began shrieking like a banshee. The man walked over to Rhys and the woman, blood oozing out the wound on the side of his face and out of the bullet hole on his shoulder.

Rhys fired another shot this time hitting the man in the jaw, taking half of his face with him in a shroud of red. The man was unfazed by this and grabbed the young screaming girl by the scruff of her vest and threw her into the wall behind him. Her body rotated in mid-air meaning her head hit the wall first. Her neck crumpled from the force and she fell to the floor in a heap.

Meera felt helpless as she looked on at this brutal m******e. She instinctively reached her hand out towards Rhys and tried to shout his name. No translatable noise came from Meera's mouth, just a heartbroken screech. Meera watched on as the man shoved both of his thumbs into Rhys's beautiful green eyes, pushing them into the back of his skull. Rhys let out a horrifying scream that made Meera feel sick, as he was lifted from his eye sockets. The scream began to turn to choking noises as his legs started to twitch violently. Taking one thumb out, the man used his now free hand to swipe at Rhys's stomach, over and over until he reached into his stomach and pulled out his steaming entrails. The man pulled his other thumb out from Rhys's eye, and let him slump to the floor.

“No!” Meera sobbed.

The man's gaze turned toward Meera, bits of flesh and bone swung from his lower face. Each exhale bubbled its way through the blood pouring from his face.

“Please.. I don't want…” Meera began sobbing uncontrollably. She had never seen such strength and speed before, this man didn't seem human.

The man let out an awful screech and looked up at the ceiling. His gaze met Meera's once again and he began running.

“Stay down!” shouted a voice from behind.

Meera covered her head in her hands as bullets passed over her hitting the man repeatedly in the chest and head. He fell to the floor, dead.