Mary froze as Walter slowly made his way toward her. At least, the creature had once been her husband. Now, it was just a slobbering pile of tubes, quivering greedily in her direction. Tubes full of sharp teeth. Drool and blood were dripping from the fangs of the beast as it drew closer. Mary didn't have to ask where the blood had come from. She had just witnessed it eating the remains of some other poor soul.
"Help!" she screamed out. At least...that is what she wanted to do. But she could do little more than make a whimper. The black stare of the monster froze her in her tracks and made any voluntary muscle movement impossible. A tear of fright ran down her left cheek. She didn't want to die! Not like this!
She looked at what had once been her loving husband and sent all the love that she had left inside toward him. She took a deep breath and managed to croak out three simple words.
"I love you," she whispered.
A tube that ran out of Walter's ears latched onto her arm, digging its way inside. She felt the searing pain and heard a spatter as her blood began to flow onto the floor. She sensed other tubes whisking their way to the floor to greedily lap it up. Another tube, this one running from Walter's mouth, drew back...and prepared to impale her face. She tried to close her eyes...but couldn't. She didn't want to see what was about to happen to her...but she couldn't do anything about it.
And then...the beast stopped. The tubes fell limply to the floor. The one that was digging its way into her arm pulled out with a pop and another sharp wave of pain that shot up her arm and into her chest. She found that she was free....and she cried out in pain and clutched her arm, trying to stop the gush of blood.
The creature shook its head viloently. Blood and snot flew everywhere. And then, it let out a roar that seemed to come from its guts.
"Noooooo," it bellowed, a deep angry voice that mixed with Walter's voice, "Not her......never herrrrrr. Nooooooo."
"Oh Walter," she cried out, wanting to go to him...hug him...but not daring to take one step in either direction, "I love you Walter."
And then the demonic monster looked at her with eyes...eyes as black as coal...and for one brief moment, she saw Walter looking out of those eyes.
"And....and I...." it tried to form words around the drooling tubes that hung lifelessly out of its mouth, "I....luff...youuuuuuu."
And with another screech, it turned and raced to a door at the back of the stairwell. Mary found that she could move again, and for one moment, fought the urge to run away in blind panic. But then she realized that she had to follow the beast...had to find out what was going to happen to Walter...her Walter.
"Walter!" she cried out. "Wait!"
She didn't really know what to do. She just knew that Walter was still in there...still alive. She followed the bellows of rage and pain...and the trail of gooey, bloody ooze down another set of stairs behind the door that Walter had darted through. These steps led down....down into the dark basement of the hospital.
Every instinct in her body was telling her to turn around...to get out...to escape. And still she ran after the monster that was also her husband.
It was so hot in the basement. And steamy. The hospital was old...and it heated the place with steam. Of course that the basement would be hot....they had a huge boiler that was powered by....
And then she knew...knew where Walter was going. Knew what he would want to do. She cried out and ran after him even faster.
"Walter! NO!" she screamed, "There must be some other way. We can fight this! We can get you some help. Walter please! Listen to me!"
She turned a sharp corner and saw that it was already too late. Walter was standing in front of the large furnace that powered the hospital's boiler. He had pried the door open with his many tubes...searing the ends of several of them. The smell of rotten, burnt flesh hung heavy in the air.
Mary stopped. Crying she held out her arms toward Walter...but she knew....deep down inside, she knew that it was too late.
The horror which had once been the man she loved turned to look at her one last time. Mary saw one large, black tear run down his face. Then with a scream of pain, Walter flung himself into the furnace...using one of the tubes to pull the door shut behind him.
The flames of the furnace shot up....licking hungrily at their new prey. Mary watched in shock as it began to burn. The parts that were still a little bit Walter seemed to melt away....leaving a mass of tentacles and teeth behind. The creature screeched in pain and tried to claw its way out of the fire. But a creature born in coal didn't stand much of a chance. Like coal, it burned hot and true...and in a matter of mere seconds...the creature exploded in a fireball of light and heat. Mary raised her arms to shield her face and felt small blisters start to form on the tender, underside of her arms. She blinked several times to get riid of the afterimage that had burned itself onto her retinas. And then she looked back at the furnace.....the empty furnace. Walter was gone.
***
Two days later, the rains began. It was a dry time of year and everyone was welcome of the rain. It would be good for the wells. Plus, it would wash away some of the dust and smoke that had been lingering in the air recently. Large black flumes of smoke had belched out of the hospitals furnace a couple of day before...and had been hanging in the air....acrid and strong.
Karen Thronsburg was making a sandwich when the rain started. At first she was overjoyed as the rain pelted her kitchen window. And then she saw them...her two little girls playing outside in the rain. But no...they weren't playing. They were just standing there.
"Dang it if they aren't the stupidest girls ever," Karen muttered angrily to herself, "I sometimes wish I didn't have kids...so much trouble."
She stomped out on the porch, "Kelly! Beth! GET OVER HERE NOW! What are you doing out in this mess! And don't even think of coming in the house all wet like that! I don't clean all day just for you two to make a big...."
And then she stopped. She stopped because there was something wrong with her little girls...her little girls who had been standing in the rain when it began to fall...through the thick black clouds of smoke that sitll hung in the air from the hospital furnace.
Their eyes! Oh God! Their eyes were as black as coal. And tubes were starting to sprout from their little mouths...from their ears....nose.....even their skin.
And then they spoke...in unison...
"I'm hungry."
They both began to walk toward their mother. She couldn't move.
Until next week....class dismissed!
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