Free Beneath the Flesh: They kept all the demons out … except one by Alex Kings Page B

was it, then. Done. They were ready to leave.
     
    Ahead of them, in the direction of the main corridor, came a groan. It was very close.

Chapter 15
     
     
    They came to a dead halt. Luke's machine gun, already ready, aimed at the door to the ward. Jess readied her pistol, one hand still on the cart. If she lost it during the fight, the entire trip would be pointless.
     
    Thump-thump-thump came the demon down the corridor towards them. By the sound, she guessed it was moving briskly – a jogging pace, perhaps, not a run.
     
    Luke moved forward and pulled the door to the children's ward closed. “Anywhere we can hide?” said Luke, looking around.
     
    There was the room they'd just come from. A dead-end. There were other doors that looked like they led to similar rooms.
     
    And there was what looked like it might be another exit.
     
    “You go through first,” said Luke.
     
    Jess pushed the cart to the door and tried the handle. The door opened fine. As it did, she noticed there was what looked like a lock on the other side. She called to Luke –
     
    And the demon swung into the children's ward.
     
    Not a demon, she thought. A monster. This wasn't something to be classed with demons.
     
    It looked more human than any runner she'd seen before – and yet utterly inhuman. From the chest upwards, it was a man – intact, with a tangle of messy hair and an unkempt beard.
     
    But below that, its flesh erupted into a great tumorous mass of discoloured and folded and ridged flesh, sprouting a dozen or so arms from all directions. Some looked young and delicate; others would bodybuilders to shame. All had too many elbow joints, to the point where they looked more like tentacles than arms. The hand on each one – a different number of fingers every time – clenched and unclenched if it wasn't holding on to something.
     
    With these arms the monster supported itself, with hands resting against the floor or holding onto the wall or ceiling. Elsewhere, there were stumps where arms had once been – he must be growing them all the time, she realised.
     
    There were other things coming out of that great mass too. Jess saw lipless mouths, teeth without mouths, ears, lone twitching fingers, and eyes – eyes all focussing on her or Luke.
     
    The original face, displayed a constantly changing contorted expression – intense rage, aggression, fear – and, Jess thought, surprise at what had happened to him.
     
    Luke fired. The clatter of the machine gun filled the room.  Casing bounced across the floor. A string of bloody holes appeared across the demon's front – but already it was moving.
     
    It moved too fast for Luke to get a good aim on its head, and damage done to its arms barely slowed it down. In less than a second it was halfway across the room, reaching out for Luke. He was smart enough to retreat, to start running across the ward towards the exit.
     
    While he ran, Jess took shots at the monster, trying to aim for its hands and wrists where it was supporting itself. Out of four shots, one hit true, shattering the hand – but another two arms came down immediately to replace it.
     
    Then Luke was through the door. He grabbed it to steady himself as he passed, then slammed it shut just as the monster reached it.
     
    Jess reached up and twisted what she thought was the lock. A fraction of a second later, the monster smashed into the door.
     
    That first hit was enough to make some part of the door crack. It was obvious the door wasn't going to hold for very long.
     
    “Shoot again or run?” asked Jess.
     
    “Run,” gasped Luke.
     
    She went first, running down the dark, unknown corridor, while Luke tailed, gun ready in case the monster came after them again. It continued to hit the door – and they could hear it breaking a little more each time.
     
    Jess turned left at the of the corridor, and a few seconds later she heard Luke shout, “Stop!”
     
    She fought against the cart's momentum and