I Am Chosen

Double Jeopardy

Hollis pulled his backup gun, aimed at the thing in the doorway and yelled for her- it, to get down on the ground. Ignoring him, Rhonda turned back toward Jack Richards, who had opened the office's back window and was wriggling out. "Do whatever you can," Kacey said on the phone. "I gotta handle this." She ended the call.

Rhonda came back out the main door and headed around the building. Hollis replaced the phone in his pocket and yelled for her to stop, but he may as well have been shouting at a rock. The reanimated Rhonda used her limb-which Hollis now realized was her hand, skeletal and freakishly elongated-to spike the ground as she shuffled along, similar to the way an old man might use a cane. Jack ran to the open roll gate and ran through. Rhonda's freak-arm whipped out and latched onto the gate, yanking it back along the fence with ridiculous force. Rhonda shambled through, with Hollis catching up.

Kacey hurried as quick as she dared through the hospital entrance. Halfway down the corridor, she spotted the first set of elevator doors closing.

Declan was heading up to the second floor, to Brad Graham's room. Inside, Brad was stuck in a full-body cast due to fracturing his spine when he fell from the reactor ladder. He wouldn't be going anywhere... and he had no idea what was coming for him.

The stairs were not in sight, so as someone stepped out Kacey rushed into the next elevator and smashed the "doors close" button. With agonizing slowness the doors eventually did just that and a few seconds later they reopened to allow her onto the second floor.

Bolting into the hallway, past the vacant nurse's station, Kacey saw Declan about fifty feet away, his tentacle/claw-arm wrapped around the head of a uniformed officer who had been stationed outside Brad's room.

The rifle's first round was already chambered. Kacey raised it and aimed directly for Crowe's head- when a woman stepped out from the nearest room, right into Kacey's line of fire.

"Get down!" Kacey shouted. The woman turned from looking at Crowe, back to Kacey, and screamed. "Down!" Kacey repeated. The woman threw up her hands, still screaming, covered her head and huddled against the wall to Kacey's left. Crowe had already turned back and spotted Kacey. Was it her imagination, or was there something in his/its demeanor, in its bearing, that indicated a reaction at the sight of the rifle-something like fear?

The Declan-thing whipped its misshapen limb; the officer sailed through the air, hit his head on the floor hard and tumbled to a stop at Kacey's feet. Looking up, Kacey could see Crowe rounding the corner at the end of the hall.

After checking to ensure that the officer was just unconscious and not dead, Kacey maneuvered around his fallen body and gave chase.

Hollis stopped just inside the gate. There were several sea vessels of various sizes lined up against the fence and situated all through the expansive area, propped up on boat stands. Many had been cleaned or repainted or were in various stages of repair. Plenty of places for Jack Richards to hide.

"Stop right there!" Hollis yelled at Rhonda.

And what? He thought. Not like he could cuff her.

The thin woman hunched and peered back at him, her eyes twinkling inside the raincoat hood. That freak-limb shot out and snatched up a nearby folding stepladder and flung it at him. Hollis threw up his arms but the ladder struck him hard enough to nearly break bones. He fell back, cursing, and popped off three shots into Rhonda.

The woman (although that wasn't really what she was, was she? Not anymore) didn't even flinch.

Behind her, Hollis spotted Jack running from the cover of a small Bayliner to a slightly larger cabin cruiser. Rhonda's head whipped around at the sound of Jack's movement. Taking advantage of the distraction, Hollis regained his feet and ran, joints aching. He gave Rhonda a wide berth and headed toward the general area where he thought Jack might be hiding.

Just how he would help Jack when he got to him, Hollis wasn't sure. He couldn't kill Rhonda, and as far as he could tell, that gate they had come through-the one that was being blocked by their attacker-was their only way in or out.

Kacey sped around the corner and made her way down the corridor, rifle ready, pointing it into patient rooms as she passed. Two of the patients screamed at the sight of her; another was apparently sedated but so far... no sign of Declan. Then Kacey came to a set of double doors.

The cafeteria.

It was a large, square room with checkered floor tiles. Round tables with plastic chairs were spaced throughout. On Kacey's left as she entered was a buffet-style counter where the food was served. There were two nurses standing against the counter, eyes wide in shock. A man in a business suit stood on Kacey's right, unmoving. At the opposite end of the open space, just in front of the exit door, the Declan-thing was holding a teenager in place with his creepy monster arm; in his right hand Crowe had that same black stone he had pulled on Kacey at the ferry, holding it just a few inches from the kid's face, muttering something.

Kacey aimed squarely at Crowe's head.

Then she heard the words "I am chosen" to her left, and averted her eyes just long enough to see one of the nurses striding toward her, arm raised to strike. Kacey returned her attention to Crowe. She couldn't let this opportunity pass. She fired the rifle just as the nurse's blow hit her on the back of her head.

Luckily the nurse wasn't particularly strong, and she didn't have a weapon. But the strike was enough to make Kacey miss her shot. The bullet tore into the Declan-thing's right arm and Crowe let out a howl, dropping the stone. Kacey cursed and slammed the butt of her rifle into the nurse's face, knocking her on her ass. She then raised the weapon for another shot but Crowe was already through the exit door.

Kacey made ready to run after when she heard "I am chosen" from the remaining nurse and the guy in the business suit, both of whom were closing in on her.

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I hate to leave y'all hanging, but that's it for this week! Hope the beginning of everyone's year is going well! See you in one week.