Free Windigo Soul by Robert Brumm Page A

like “ellme.”
    What amps did manage to flow through her body weren’t enough to kill her, but the woman’s brain definitely took a little scrambling. She was completely out of her mind. Her mouth was foaming and she held out her arms like a cartoon sleep-walker, shuffling slowly closer to the men like a zombie.
    “Ellme!”
    The tube inserted in her rear end to collect waste ran out of slack and slid out onto the floor. Blood trickled down the inside of her bare legs. Hank looked again to his partner for answers but Seamus looked just as dumbfounded as him. He was just about to suggest they make a run for it when the door opened and one of the soldiers stuck his head in to investigate the commotion.
    It was Private Jim Papst, a pretty decent kid that chatted with Hank a few times in the past. Jim was one of the few soldiers in the plant who treated the retirees like actual people and not cattle that needed babysitting.
    The woman spotted Papst and must’ve concluded by his uniform that he might be able to help her. She turned from Hank and Seamus and started shuffling in his direction.
    “Ellmee!”
    Papst looked at Seamus. “Holy shit. What did you guys do?”
    “I don’t know. She just woke up, I swear.” Seamus cleared his throat and took a step toward her. “Hey, uh…lady? Lady, calm down.”
    She kept walking toward Papst. “ELLMEE!”
    The young private switched into soldier mode and struggled to find some authority in his voice. “Okay, ma’am. Just calm down, nobody is going to hurt you.”
    “Ellmee!”
    He held up both palms and raised his voice. “Just hold it right there. I need you to stand still.”
    “Ellmeeeeee.”
    Papst had his back up to the wall and couldn’t retreat any further. He finally unstrapped the sidearm from his holster and trained the gun at the woman’s bare chest. “Stop! You need to stop, right now! ”
    She paused just a few feet from him and swayed on unsteady legs.
    A look of relief flashed over the soldier’s face.
    She vomited.
    It shot out of her mouth with tremendous force and hit Papst square in the chest and splattered on his face. He reacted with his trigger finger and fired three times. The first shot missed the woman’s head by an inch and hit one of the pods behind her instead. The pressurized tube shattered, causing the conductive fluid to rain to the floor. The pod’s inhabitant followed, his skull, softened by months in the fluid, split open on impact like a melon.
    The second round also missed and severed a hydraulic line on the boiler and shorted out a control panel. A warning klaxon and strobe lights filled the room. The third and final shot hit pay dirt. It entered the woman’s forehead and blew out the back of her skull.
    Hank and Seamus stood in horror as they watched the lady’s brains spray onto the floor. A second later she collapsed and was still. Papst still pointed his gun at her and was white as a ghost. Sirens wailed, lights flashed, and the smell of cordite, vomit, and blood filled the air.
    Hendricks and a few soldiers rushed into the room. The lieutenant took in the carnage in front of him - a destroyed pod, a smoking boiler core, and a half-headless naked woman sprawled out and bleeding on the floor.
    Private Papst snapped back into reality. “Sir, she wouldn’t stop,” he shouted over the sirens. “I didn’t mean to shoot her, but she barfed on me!”
    “Shut the hell up!” He jabbed his finger into Papst’s chest. “Clean yourself off and haul your ass down to my office on the double!”
    He turned his attention from the vomit-covered private to Hank and Seamus. “As for you two, I don’t know what the hell happened here, but I intend to find out. And there will be hell to pay.” He pointed at the dead woman. “Now get this thing off my floor and clean this mess up. I’ll deal with the two of you later.”
    Hendricks stormed from the room. Hank and Seamus stood for a moment taking in the mess. “I checked the damn