Chapter 14: Cat and Mouse

Everyone awoke with a start to the sound of screaming coming from somewhere inside the hospital ward. The darkness felt horribly alive around them. They fumbled for their weapons, and flashlights came on moments later.

"What's going on?" Roger asked fearfully.

"That's Andy!" Trev said, immediately running down the hallway. "We've gotta help him!"

"Trev, wait!" Joe started, but it was too late. He had already disappeared.

Andy's terrible screams continued for a few more moments, before a horrible silence fell over the hospital.

"Francis is still out there," Zoey whispered.

Bill nodded solemnly. "He's supposed to be guarding the stairwell." He loaded one of Zoey's prize magazines into his assault rifle. "I'm going to find him."

Zoey stood up, wielding a pump-action shotgun she had picked up from Trev. "I'll go with you."

"No, it's too dangerous – " Bill started to say, but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"I don't care. I'm not letting you go off by yourself. We have to make sure that Francis, Andy and Trev are all okay."

The war veteran sighed in resignation. "Fine, but you stay with me at all times."

"I'm coming too," Joe said, standing up.

"No, you're not," Bill snapped. "Roger's not much of a fighter, and someone needs to look after Louis. You're staying with them."

Joe opened his mouth to argue, but Zoey looked at him.

"Please, look after Roger and Louis," she asked softly.

After a moment of hesitation, he finally nodded.

Bill turned to Roger. "Barricade yourselves inside Louis' room. Watch the windows, too. Shoot anything that tries to get inside."

With that, he and Zoey hurried off into the darkness.

Shards of glass crunched under Francis' boots as he surveyed the broken window before him by his shotgun light. The curtains in front of the window billowed in the wind. He swept the light along the floor and discovered a large, dark puddle of blood on the floor outside the room. He shone his flashlight down the hallway to see a dark trail of blood along the floor, leading away from the puddle and around a corner.

His ears perked up – he had just heard a footstep nearby. He quickly moved into the room, crouched down and readied his shotgun. The curtains continued to billow softly. Francis listened carefully, and heard another sound. It was closer than the last. He switched off the light and trained his shotgun on the door, waiting for whatever was out there to pass by. The sound of glass crunching underfoot sounded, right outside the door.

The biker wasted no more time. He yelled, raised his shotgun and fired, blasting a hole through the plaster wall.

"Jesus Christ, it's me!" came Trev's voice from out in the hallway.

Francis switched on his flashlight and went up to the door to see the large black man standing there, looking none too pleased.

"You nearly shot me!" he growled.

"My bad," Francis replied sheepishly.

Meanwhile, his compatriot was taking in the scene in front of him. He paused when he saw the large puddle of blood on the floor. "Oh, God. Andy..."

Francis was at a loss for what to say. "...Sorry for your loss," he finally offered.

Trev shot him a scathing look. "He could still be alive."

With that, he moved off down the hallway, following the trail of blood. Francis sighed and followed him.

Zoey trailed Bill through the hallway, stopping against the wall whenever he held up his palm. Whenever they stopped, they listened in vain for any sounds, before moving on. They walked down the hallway without incident and soon reached the stairwell door to find it wide open. Francis was nowhere to be seen.

"They've gotten inside," Bill murmured.

With no warning whatsoever, a loud screech echoed throughout the hallways. Zoey jumped with fright, while Bill gripped the stock of his rifle tightly. The sound was all too familiar...

"The Hunters!" Zoey suddenly realised. "They're in here!"

"Damn it!" the old man swore. "Those bastards are gonna keep on finding us, aren't they?"

Zoey gripped her shotgun and looked around nervously, as though she expected a Hunter to leap out of the darkness at her at any moment.

"What are we going to do?" she whispered.

"We have to take them out," Bill said solemnly. "There are two Hunters out there. That's more than enough to pick us off one-by-one."

Trev moved down the hallway, the light from his M-16 illuminating the trail of blood along the floor. His friend's blood. He fervently hoped that Andy was still alive, but his hopes were rapidly waning. Francis covered him, glancing into rooms that they passed by to check for danger.

"I really think we should get back to the others…" he murmured.

Trev whirled around and glared at him. "And abandon Andy? You can go ahead and go back, if you want. I'm gonna keep going."

With that, he turned back and continued down the hallway. Francis sighed and started to follow him, but stopped when he heard something behind him. He could have sworn that he heard the sound of running feet, but it was so quiet, he was not sure if he had imagined it. Francis whirled around and aimed his light back in the direction they had come from, but there was nothing to be seen behind them. Nothing at all.

"Did you hear that?" he hissed to his compatriot but received no answer. He looked back to see that Trev was getting too far ahead for his liking. "Goddamn it," he muttered under his breath, and moved off to catch up with the other man, harbouring the unpleasant feeling that they were being followed.

The two survivors moved carefully through the ward. Zoey had wanted to go back to Louis' room to link up with him, Roger and Joe. Bill, however, had convinced her that their chances of survival would be better if they found Trev and Francis before the Hunters did.

I hope the Hunters haven't found them already, Zoey fretted.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of pattering feet coming from down a hallway off to her left. She stopped dead and quickly pointed her shotgun down the hall, her light showing nothing immediately. However, she could have sworn that she saw a blurred shadow disappearing around a corner.

"Bill!" she hissed. "I think I saw something."

He came back to her side immediately and they both held their position for a moment, considering the next course of action.

"Okay, I'm going up there," Bill whispered carefully. "I need you to hang back a bit and cover me. If one of those bastards is around the corner, and he pins me, I'll need you to protect me."

Zoey nodded silently.

"Use the M1911," the veteran said, voicing his experience. "A shotgun blast at this range could hit me, too."

She nodded once more, slinging her shotgun over her back and drawing her pistol. With a final nod at each other, they switched off their lights so as to not give away their positions. The old man advanced carefully down the hallway and came up to the corner. With a deep breath, he looked around it.

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The distinct scream of the Hunter exploded in Bill's ears. He quickly turned on his light to see a blurred shadow flying through the air at him. Before he could shoot, he felt a clawed hand strike him across the face. He was sent flying across the hallway into the opposite wall and crumpled to the ground.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The hallway lit up with muzzle flashes as Zoey fired her pistol at the Hunter. However, the creature was much too fast, expertly dodging each shot. It waited patiently for a lull in Zoey's fire and then pounced again, colliding with her and knocking her to the floor.

"Get it off! Get it off!" she shrieked.

Gunfire erupted as Bill's M-16 leapt into roaring action. The Hunter managed to leap away from Zoey toward a corner, but caught several bullets to the arm. It shrieked with pain as it disappeared around the corner.

"You get your pansy, prancing ass back here!" Bill shouted, charging after it. However, when he reached the corner, the Hunter had already disappeared. The old man shook his head angrily as he ran back to Zoey, who was climbing to her feet. "You alright?"

She nodded, shaken, but otherwise unharmed. Her partner, on the other hand, had an angry slash across his cheek from where the Hunter had swiped at him.

"You're hurt, Bill," she said worriedly.

"Just a scratch, kid," he reassured her.

Trev and Francis followed the trail forged in Andy's blood for a while longer, Francis occasionally glancing over his shoulder to check for danger that could be creeping up on them.

"Shit!" Trev suddenly hissed.

"What?"

"The trail. It ends here."

"What do you mean, it ends?" his partner said, pushing forward.

"The blood. It just stops right here."

"That can't be good..." Francis murmured.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of shouting and gunfire from nearby. They listened carefully and heard distinct pistol shots, followed by automatic gunfire. The sounds of battle lulled as quickly as they began, and silence fell over the hospital once more.

A loud chorus of growls echoed suddenly throughout the hallway, causing the hairs on the backs of their necks to stand on end. The noise seemed emanate from the very walls and ground. Thankfully, the fearful sound was gone as soon as it came.

"It sounds like the Infected downstairs are gettin' riled up..." Trev said slowly.

A loud screech startled them yet again. A dark shadow burst from around the corner as Trev raised his M-16. He fired off a burst, but the creature leapt out of the way, digging into the wall, and then diving at him. The large man ducked and held up his rifle to protect himself from the Hunter's claws. They screeched and scraped across the cold metal of the gun as the creature flew over him. Just as it was directly overhead, Trev let himself fall onto his back, and then thrust his boot upward, kicking it in the chest. It growled in pain and toppled to the floor behind them.

As Trev and the Hunter struggled to their feet, a shotgun blast pierced the air as Francis blew it off its feet. The deafening BOOM was followed by a loud wail of pain. Trev climbed to his feet and carefully aimed his M-16 at the mangled Hunter lying on the floor. It was still alive, gurgling and hissing. The large man strode right up to it and pressed the barrel of his rifle against its head.

"This is for Andy, you son of a bitch," he hissed.

Zoey looked up worriedly when she heard gunshots nearby. "That could be Francis!"

She and Bill advanced carefully through the dark hallways. The gunshots stopped momentarily, before the loud BOOM of a shotgun discharge echoed throughout the corridor.

"At least we know there are two people out there," Bill remarked.

He stopped dead when he heard a low growl right beside him, and turned his light to find himself face-to-face with the gaping maw of a Hunter. It screamed and swiped its claws at him. Bill yelled out as he ducked, swinging his rifle butt and whacking the creature in the stomach, causing it to stumble back a few steps.

BOOM!

A round from Zoey's shotgun at point-blank range annihilated the Hunter's head in a foul explosion of blood, which splattered all over the wall behind it. Chunks of flesh slid down the wall, as the Hunter's headless body slumped to the ground. Zoey and Bill aimed their weapons in opposite directions down the hallway to make sure that nothing else was coming for them, and waited for their hearts to stop racing.

"Nice shot, kid," he complimented her.

Soon, the hallway echoed with the sounds of running feet coming toward them. They aimed their weapons toward the noise, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. The footsteps stopped just around a corner, followed by a tense silence.

"Identify yourself!" Bill finally called out.

Francis' voice came from around the corner. "It's me and Trev!"

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, and reunited in the middle of the hallway. Trev shone his light over the grim sight of Zoey's kill.

"Glad to see you guys got one," he said. "We got the other one."

"Thank God," Zoey sighed.

Meanwhile, Francis shined his light over Bill's face, seeing the scratch the Hunter had given him across his cheek, and he visibly stiffened. Trev was more direct and to the point, aiming his gun directly at Bill's head.