Draculas

One down, three to go.

He prayed as he walked in the darkness, prayed Stacie would hold on just a little longer, prayed for the safety of his new daughter, prayed for his own--

He stopped.

A noise echoed through one of the corridors behind him--a snarling-hissing, soft at first but getting louder, and then the click of footsteps--no, not footsteps, talonsteps--became prevalent.

These weren't rats, and there were more than one.

A legion of them.

The fear paralyzed him, his first instinct to run, that sightless disorientation setting back in, his heart racing as they drew closer.

Think, think, think.

He slid out of the backpack.

Clickclickclickclickclickclick...

Felt around for the main pouch's zipper in the dark, ripped it open, pulled out one of the cold blood bags.

Clickclickclickclickclickclick...

Still couldn't see a thing, but he heard the sound of talons sliding across the linoleum, those demons skidding as they rounded the corner, wondered how they could still see.

The things that had murdered the nurse up on the third floor had obsessively licked up every drop of blood. This was either going to work, or he was going to die horribly in about ten seconds.

His fingers struggled to tear the pack, but the plastic was too thick, and then he remembered.

Dug the scalpel out of his pocket, and the moment he drew the blade across the top of the plastic bag, those demons started screaming.

Adam shouldered the backpack and came to his feet, backpedaling, holding the blood bag by the top.

Please God let this work. So my wife can live, so I can be a father.

He slung the bag into the darkness, heard it hit thirty feet down with a splatter, and as he turned and sprinted through pure darkness, the shrieking of the demons filled the basement of the hospital, their screams resonating inside his head, and he knew that even if he survived this night, never in his life would he forget that sound.

He crashed so hard into the next wall, he felt his shoulder pop, but he didn't stop to think about the pain, just righted himself and kept ru

Dark.

Dark.

Locked.

Dark.

Locked.

Breathing normally again, finally, but he could hear something coming now, the horrific clicking of the talons just around the corner, one corridor back.

Clickclickclickclickclickclick...

He picked up speed, and ten feet later, came to the next door, which he pulled.

It swung open.

His eyes burned in the flood of light and he rushed into the stairwell and up the steps as the door closed after him.

He got up two flights, then fell to his knees and ripped open the pack again, pulled out four blood bags, zipped up, went on.

By the time he'd reached the second floor landing, he heard the door to the basement bust open beneath him, glanced down, saw one of those demons leap up to the first landing in one bound--a three hundred pound man in a janitor's uniform who had no business moving at that speed.

Adam reached the penultimate landing as a door leading to the ground floor opened and a stream of demons rushed in and up the steps.

He pounded up the last ten steps and grabbed the first blood bag, cut a rip in the top, and threw it down to the second floor landing.

It struck the metal flooring and blood exploded everywhere, streaking the walls, the steps, demons screaming, a half dozen diving instantly to the floor and trying to lick up what hadn't seeped through the metal grate, but another half-dozen still coming.

Adam pulled open the door and ran out into the third floor corridor, slicing into another blood bag as he skidded to a stop at the next junction.

He spun around just in time to see the stairwell door fly open, watched at least thirty of those demons fighting their way into the corridor.

Adam slid the blood bag toward them across the floor like an air-hockey disc, blood jetting out across the linoleum, and he was ru

He didn't stop in time to take his next turn under control and slammed into the wall again.

Saw the double doors to the maternity ward a hundred and fifty feet straight ahead, and this made him run faster than he'd ever run in his life.

They were closing on him.

He could hear the talons clicking, and when he dared another glance back, four of those demons had rounded the corner and were moving toward him at a dead run.

Adam made an incision in the final blood bag and hurled it over his shoulder like a grenade, heard the screams and the screeches when it splattered on the floor.

The doors were straight ahead, and he collided with them.

Locked!

Adam pounded on them.

"I've got the blood!" he screamed. "Let me in!"

He grabbed the handles and tugged violently on the doors, but the locks held.

Fifty feet down, two of the monsters fought over the empty bag, one slurped the blood off the linoleum, and another had taken notice, again, of Adam.

Adam beat harder against the doors and through the tiny window, saw someone moving toward him past the nurses' station.

"Hurry!" he screamed.

Glanced back again.

The fourth demon had stood up, still torn between Adam and the bloody floor, its head craning back and forth, back and forth, as if--bird in the hand, Adam, bird in the hand, Adam, and...

...It started forward, working up to a sprint, Adam thinking he should get another blood bag out, but it didn't matter. There wasn't time.

On the other side of the door, he heard furniture scooting back across the floor, and the locks sliding out of the ceiling, out of the floor.

"Carla, please," he begged.

"Got it!"

One of the doors swung back.

Adam stepped inside, his backpack catching on the handle.

Gave it a fierce yank, and then he was inside.

"Help!" Carla screamed, and together they rammed their shoulders into the door, but a talon shot through a split second before it closed.

Adam could feel the terrifying strength of the creature driving them back as those razor talons gripped the side of the door.

"Oh, God!" Carla screamed. "More coming."

Adam reached into his pocket, fingers curling around the scalpel, and he stabbed the blade into the demon's claw, dark blood ru

The thing shrieked, its claw retracting for a fleeting second, and the door slammed shut.

"Lock it!" Adam yelled, and he crouched and slid a bolt into its housing in the floor, then reached up and drove the ceiling lock home as a tremendous force crashed into the doors, hinges quivering.

"Your side locked?" he asked.

She nodded. "Let's push the table back."

They braced it against the doors as the demons on the other side took turns ru

He looked over at Carla. "How's my wife?"

"Not good. We need to get her transfusion going right now."

They turned away from the barricade, Adam glancing over his shoulder as they hurried down the corridor.

"A little infected girl got inside through the window, so keep a look out," Carla said, the doors rattling behind them, the monsters calling after them in some demented, primal tongue.