The dim barely lit hallways had been trashed.

Ceiling tiles missing and various artefacts smashed or scattered around, I tiptoed as best I could between the objects to avoid making any additional noise.

But at least there weren’t any horrific bloody scenes like I had seen on the first night.

So far..

The whole Maternity ward was made up of hallways that formed a square and we were in the bottom or southern side, depending on how you wanted to think about it.

The right side of the square or the east side consisted of the Kitchen, Post Delivery Recovery Rooms NICU and an office station for the nurses and staff.

I knew all this because of the very beneficial tour we had opted in for, prior to birth. It made a huge difference for our stress levels, knowing where we were going and how it all looked.

Who knew the real stress would come from monsters trying to kill and possibly eat us..

Each hallway connection had double doors and there was a middle corridor, dead center, that connected the east and west hallway.

I suspected the middle corridor had a bunch of rooms for surgery and other offices but I wasn’t too sure, we’d not been there before.

The middle corridor was also the one I’d seen caked in blood during the first night.

Just the thought of it made my blood run cold.

As I reached the double doors that entered the east hallway, I took a look through the small square embedded windows.

I couldn’t see anything immediately behind the doors so I slowly pushed one open.

I passed through and moved quickly towards the kitchen directly in front of me.

The door was propped open and there was decent visibility via the sunlight coming through the windows.

Make no mistake, with the electric still off, it was still gloomy with plenty of dark hiding spots, meaning something could lie in wait...

Oh great one Godu. Now you’re shitting yourself.

My fear levels rose instantly as my mind started imagining all kinds of horrible scenarios, tempting me heavily to retreat back to Marri and Lone.

For goodness sake, get a grip man! Go find a weapon! Go check the exit!

The kitchen was a mess with a few notable bloody smears and handprints, but my mood lifted when I saw a beam of light shining on a laminated map with fire exit instructions on the wall.

If this was a game, this would be the point where the atmospheric choir music would play and a new step in the quest assigned…maybe some experience points would be bestowed upon the brave adventurer….?

I paused for a moment, glancing around in anticipation of any changes, choir music or rewards…but nothing.

I smiled, shaking my head.

Ha. Yeah, figures that real life is nowhere near as convenient.

The map showed the nearest fire exits which weren’t on every hall like I’d expect, but actually at the North hallway.

Basically the normal exit lift.

Bugger.

Before I left, I looted a couple of large tubs of baby milk formula and a pack of protein bars which I scooped up and rushed back to the door and placed it down.

Ughhh I hate being this scared.

I just couldn’t shake off this feeling of fear and the temptation to return to safety nearly overwhelmed me as it was right there in front of me.

It was getting a bit ridiculous at this point because I’d already had to fight and kill several humanoid nightmarish creatures.

Hell, the third one I had actively engaged in the fight and chucked them out the window.

But on the other hand...

They are soddin’ terrifying to look at!

I made it back to the kitchen and had another quick look in the draws thinking perhaps a knife might be useful, but again, we were in a hospital, so the most dangerous things I could find were blunt butter knives and sporks.

Surgery or maybe a store room would no doubt have better “loot”, like a scalpel I bet...

I crept out of the kitchen holding two butter knives.

At least I wasn’t dual wielding sporks..

Scuttling past the recovery room on my right, I glanced through the small window and visibility was poor and incredibly dark since the windows were furnished with blackout blinds.

Directly opposite this room was the middle corridor.

The blood corridor.

My mouth started salvating as my heart rate went through the roof.

I could faintly smell a coppery tang in the air.

My terrible morbid curiosity compelled me to look through the window and the unholy sight rewarded me with an immediate physical effect as my palms started sweating and my chest started to hurt.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Has it gotten worse? It looks MUCH worse!

The golden light streaming through windows and open doors painted the atrocities with a delicate silent glow as reflective dust floated peacefully, drifting and glinting.

Coagulated blood and bits of flesh were caked on the walls, ceilings and floor.

Small piles of tissue and infantile remains were scattered around the place.

The ground had scattered bare footprints and handprints, with streak marks leading out to the opposite end of the corridor where something had been dragged.

Pulling myself away, I took slow deep breaths to stay calm whilst trying hard to already forget the images seared into my mind, wishing I’d just fucking carried on without looking.

The only positive was that it had bolstered my resolve to get out of here fast.

Creeping back over to the recovery room entrance, I was contemplating if I should check it out for people or rather, could I summon the courage to look.

Short answer, no.

I had tried to peek through the door windows but it was still pitch black due to the blinds.

All designed to make the environment calm and dark no matter what time of day for mothers recovering after birth..I hope they were evacuated or escaped.

I contemplated the situation other fresh parents must have been in and the very high possibility they were not as lucky as we were.

Imagine if we had delivered 30 minutes earlier, we would have been in one of these rooms instead and little Lone…

I wiped a tear from my face, dismissing the terrible ‘what if’ scenario I started to run through.

Moving onwards past the NICU, I could not hear a single peep.

Which made me extremely uncomfortable.

Being the place that premature babies would go to recover, it was usually the most protected and observed place, with nurses and doctors paying close attention to the previous occupants…

It was the only place I’d had a shred of hope of seeing another friendly face, perhaps a group of people had managed to barricade themselves in or prioritising this room above all others.

Not a single soul in sight..

Hopefully people had grabbed their own and ran for the hills the second they saw one of those nightmares.

Dark imagery about those fucking creatures prowling around unchecked around the premature infants filled my head, it made me feel sick and angry.

I moved on.

Walking up towards the secure doors that led out to the north hallway, I stopped at the nurses office.

The door was closed and there was no window.

Again I wondered if there was a chance that maybe a nurse or staff member had stayed behind to look after things here, but quickly dismissed it since nobody had come to our aid in the last few days and I’d been tiptoeing around for probably 20-30 minutes already.

Truthfully, who in their right fucking mind would stay willingly.

On the bright side, so far our escape route is not looking too bad, the north hallway is the last bit we need too…

I was at the double doors looking through the door window.

If I thought the middle corridor was bad, the north hallway was an absolute atrocity.

There were a heap of bodies.

Naked, bloodied and mangled in front of the two large lifts in the middle of the hallway.

It was very evident the majority were….holy shit…they were pregnant women, some of their stomachs still looked pregnant but they were definitely…gone.

I clasped my head in shock.

There were also a few men at the edge of the pile of corpses, clothed but they had gashes and rendered flesh showing.

The door must have really good seals to keep what must be a horrific smell from entering.

My eyes trailed the room and I could see the emergency exit stairs right opposite so we would need to just go straight over.

It would be a 5 metre distance before we were in the stairwell and then 3 flights before we reached a fire escape door.

Normally a person would probably snap at the sight of that, but I was beginning to realise that my mind was changing.

I felt disgust and shock, but in the same way you would feel when seeing it in a movie, or a deer that had been smashed up on a road.

Essentially, I was adapting and becoming numb to these horrors.

We were going to have to suck it up either way.

Turning around I started walking back and noticed that I must have got a stone stuck in my shoe because it was clacking on the floor with every step.

So I stopped to take a look…but the clacking continued.

*clik*...*clak*....*clik*...*clak*..*click*clak*..*click*click*clak*

My breathing sharply increased, as I strained to figure out where the noise was coming from.

“When the fuck will I get a break from all this bullshit.”

I was seriously getting tired of all this stress and fear.

Each ‘clik’ and ‘clak’ making me flinch with irrational rage.

Reaching breaking point, I started getting exponentially aggressive and enraged, ready for a fight.

I lowered my head and clenched my teeth and fists.

The double doors to the middle corridor started to open and a grey long thin arm slunk out at a low angle and slapped onto the ground.

Then another long thin arm came out and slapped down, but both joints were bending as if someone was doing a backwards crab walk.

And that is exactly what this thing was doing.

It looked really skinny with grey skin and no hair, with no clothes.

No sign of gender as the skin was stretched like a grey leathery plastic making it look like a wax figure rather than a living thing.

All of its joints seemed to be bending at wrong angles as it was backwards crab…bing..out of the doors.

Its head was..gyrating 360 degrees, much like an owl would, slick with no hair and it’s face looked deformed with a very angry expression, mouth baring shattered teeth.

Both its feet were deformed, with bone sticking out, the cause of the clik-clak noises.

The toes looked like they had been snapped off.

It reacted instantly when it noticed me, even though its eyes were misty and its jaw started to chatter.

As it scuttled towards me, it made a gnashing, chewing sound.

At that very moment, my mind was in a weird mixed state of being petrified of this thing, but the ‘clik clak’ drove me blind with rage!

Fuck this Janky shithead! I’ll snap its arms off!

I started running towards the crabby little cunt and gripped onto the butter knives.

My tactic was to try and get a kick into its face then shank it in the mouth or eyes and then abandon my weapons and try and get it into a chokehold and then hold on until it passed out.

We impacted and I managed to get an absolute hoofer of a kick in first.

The thing just simply didn’t try to dodge, it just opened its mouth to try and take a bite.

But all it got was a face full of boot with an almighty *THUCK*.

It sprawled on the floor dazed and I tried to get some stabs in some soft tissue, but the knives slipped out of my hands and clattered on the floor.

I jumped onto it and started to try and wrap my arms around its neck.

But failed.

Shit, shit, shit!

It recovered and slipped easily out of my grip.

It started to whip smack me with its arms and it felt like I was getting hit with sledgehammers.

It got me in the head and it put me in a dazed state for a second as I stumbled back, down onto my arse.

It was clambering on top of me to force me back down and it continued to smack me rapidly around the face and neck, causing my vision to flash sparks and dark spots.

Shit it's starting to win. FUCK I can’t let it win…but I can’t find an opening to fight back!

I couldn’t get up and I was starting to panic.

…please….I don’t want to die. Please!

Curling up into a ball, covering my head from the blows, the monster gave me an opening by trying to bite me instead of continuing to hit.

I yelled out from the pain of the bite on my thigh but it gave me a chance to start smashing it in the back of the head.

The fucker wasn’t letting go and it hurt like hell but I kept pelting it in the head and in the back of the neck.

After the fifth blow, it released me and scrambled back away from me.

The bite wound was deep, its teeth were jagged but I had little time to dwell on it.

I needed to either run or find a way to kill it.

It withdraw a bit and then lunged forwards at me and I fucked up again by hesitating, it had gotten the advantage by knocking me off balance before I could get up fully and now I was on my back struggling to hold both its arms whilst trying to gain a chance to kick it off me.

Its mouth was snapping at my face now, its whole head was twisting and turning, trying to get closer so it could bite a chunk out of my face.

I growled in fury and released my right hand from its arm and rammed my palm into its throat, gripping it in a chokehold, whilst pulling its other arm with my left arm, managing to destabilise it and roll it to the left - off of me.

I followed the momentum and managed to get on top of it and started smacking it in the face, giving it a split second to raise its skull away from the ground before smashing my palm into its forehead so that it banged against the floor with a loud crack.

Repeating this several times, I followed up with rapid punches to the lower jaw from both sides, ignoring its attempts to hit me off with its arms.

I laughed maniacally.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST LEFT US ALONE! YOU JANKY PIECE OF SHIT!”

Its strength lay in its ability to build up momentum and whip its arms around, but on the floor under my body weight, it was running out of stamina very quickly.

It started to let out a gurgling sound as blood started to fill its mouth

It was fatally wounded and it probably had severe brain damage.

I grunted with effort as I rammed my knee down onto its windpipe and felt the cartilage cave in.

It went limp and I fell off and scuttled back up to press my back against the wall as I caught my breath.

That had been a horrible, horrible fight and I felt all the blame was on those stupid butter knives.

I spat out some blood where my mouth was bleeding and checked the wound on my leg and winced in pain.

Definitely need to get it disinfected and bandaged ASAP but I’ll give myself several minutes to recover first, I didn’t feel good at all.

Sitting there I got my breathing under control and made sure to keep a good eye on my surroundings, but I was starting to feel very drowsy.

Struggling to keep my eyelids open, I heard a faint noise like soap bubbles in a bath.

I looked around for the source and noticed that the…Janky’s body was breaking out in patches of…

Is that rust?

The same oxidation process you would see on a rusty bucket or wheelbarrow, was appearing on the creature and spreading all over at a rapid pace.

I sat in absolute awe as this occurred all over the body but there were also a few shimmering glitter particles appearing that seemed to be accumulating in a cloud fog machine effect.

After a minute, a shallow wispy stream of glittery particulates started slowly drifting gently away, hovering and wavering.

It’s kinda making its way closer-

WIthout warning, it shot out towards me and I reflexively turned my head and winced, whilst trying to scramble away.

But I miscalculated, put my hand awkwardly down and fell on my elbow. I opened my mouth to make a reflexive complaint and choked as I felt the wispy stream cloud enter my lungs.

I tried to gasp but my lungs felt full.

Then, as quickly as it entered, the stream came out and I managed on deep breath before I started hacking up and coughing up black fluid with bits of blood in it.

The pain was tolerable but I felt completely alien.

After a few more coughs and retching, I let out a long phhhhhhhhhhhew.

I felt…amazing.

It was super satisfying, as if I’d purged myself after getting a chest infection or had eaten some dodgy food or drunk too much and had to do a tactical chunder.

Standing up, feeling refreshed, I checked my body over, noticing that the wound on my leg was gone and there was some pink scar tissue there…but that was it.

In fact nothing hurt any more and all my wounds were gone.

I looked over at the creature's corpse and it had changed to a dull fleshy grey state, but there was a visible powder residue around it.

“Fucking wierd…” I muttered. Shaking my head, I started making my way back towards the room.

This wasn’t like anything I’d read or seen in games but what just happened either was an attempted spirit possession? or as a reward for winning, I was healed.

Or I had some sort of skill that absorbs life or healing power from….corpses..ohh, maybe like in games where the enemies drop health packs or orbs perhaps…or maybe it is some kind of lifesteal?..hmm.

I checked my leg again to scratch the scar but it was already gone.

A faint pink bald patch was the only evidence of a wound being there.

“......Yeah….Fucking wierd.”

..

.

Once I got back to the room safely, overall I felt.…safer.

Like the danger was less concentrated on our floor.

Like when a room is stuffy and a window is opened, bringing a wave of fresh cool air.

I was given a super big long hug from a distressed Marri, who was on the verge of bursting out of the room after hearing my distant shouts.

I let her know what had happened and also how our escape route was looking clear but we’d have to go past the horrors of the north hallway…

“That’s so horrible….those poor people and the mothers…the babies….” She was tearing up looking down at Lone and I moved over to check out the window.

There were still plumes and pillars of smoke littering the sky in all directions.

A few streaks slipped down my face as I imagined how many families were being devastated.

I dared to question if this was happening everywhere, but the evidence suggested the worst case.

It was incredibly heartbreaking, especially since we had just become parents so recently which meant we could sympathise in greater detail

Just the thought of if Marri had become a body in that hallway..if Lone…..I couldn’t bear the thought…if something like that ever happened..

I’d burn this world to ash.

I turned to face her and smiled resolutely.

“We can do this, Marri. We’ve come so far already, we just need to keep going and we’ll make it. I know we’ll be ok.”

We agreed to hunker down again for the night and make our move at sunrise considering the light was starting to dim already.

She’d stripped the room of beddings, cushions and had made a floor bed in the corner with a sheet tied up to make a small tent.

It made for an incredibly cosy and happy place but it didn’t escape me that she may have been planning to stay here for a longer time…

In case perhaps, I hadn’t made it back…

That’s my girl. You make sure you both keep going no matter what.