Page 15 of Doom

“Could your brothers have already picked them up?” I asked, hoping against hope. “We spent quite a bit of time in that church.”

“No,” Doom said, shaking his head. “They would have told me.”

We pulled up in front of the retirement home serving as our hospital. My stomach dropped at the sight of the front door gaping wide open. At first, I hadn’t noticed Stran, rolled up by the stairs, his dark scales having taken on the color of the concrete ramp for wheelchairs. But as soon as Doom stopped the hoverbike, Stran uncurled his body. Now, standing on all fours, his scales took back their natural dark shade, and he sniffed the air with his dragon snout. His lizard eyes locked with Doom’s, and some sort of communication passed between them. Stran shook his head as if to say no, then silently dashed into the building.

Doom looked at me and seemed to hesitate.

“You arenotleaving me out here alone,” I said, guessing his dilemma.

I didn’t want to be in the thick of any battle, but no way in freaking hell would I hang out here to be snagged by some humanoid creepy crawler.

Doom pondered for a second then took back the shield bracelet he’d given me and reattached it to his armband. He detached another segment from it, which he placed around my wrist.

“This is my personal cloak. The hoverbike has one of its own,” he explained and showed me how to turn it on. “When we go in, stay hidden and at a safe distance from me. If things get ugly, you get on the hoverbike and go back to the church to be picked up with the others.”

“But—”

“No buts, Victoria,” Doom interrupted in a stern voice. “I have allowed you to put yourself in too much danger as it is. Promise me, if things get bad, you’ll activate the cloak, get on the bike, and go north.”

I swallowed hard, refusing to imagine a situation where I’d have to abandon him. But I wouldn’t stand a chance against the Kryptids.

“Okay,” I said in a breathy voice. “I promise.”

“Good,” Doom said, his features softening. “I cannot lose you.”

This time, I no longer doubted his underlying meaning. His gaze bore into mine, and he gently caressed my cheek. My throat felt dry, and my heart skipped a beat. But before my brain could remember how to form speech, Doom tilted his head to the side, as if listening to something. I realized then that Stran was likely communicating what he’d found below.

Doom’s face hardened. “There are no Kryptids anymore, but they have turned your hospital into a Swamp. The larvae haven’t hatched yet. Do not worry,” he added quickly in response to my panicked expression. “We have twelve to twenty-four hours before they hatch. That’s plenty of time for us to destroy them. Stran is already on it. But before we go in, I want to show you how to operate the hoverbike.”

I didn’t really want to learn that right now, but I understood his motivation. Considering the number of patients in our makeshift hospital, it would take more than an hour to remove all the implants. Many bad things could happen in that time, including Kryptids showing up again. Keeping my impatience in check, I listened carefully to his instructions. I had some experience riding a motorcycle, but this one pretty much piloted itself.

“Press here to activate or deactivate the cloak. And this will send a distress signal. It acts as a beacon. So, if you find yourself stranded somewhere, turn it on and wait. It might take a while before they can send a shuttle to retrieve you, but they always will.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to silence my rising sense of dread.

At long last, we went inside. On our way in, Doom retrieved what looked like a watch battery from the pouch on his weapons belt. He placed it on the doorframe of the entrance. I presumed it to be an alarm system or motion detector in case someone snuck in while we were inside.

The empty ground floor showed no signs of battle. Skipping the elevator, we hit the stairs. Halfway down, a sickly-sweet scent greeted us, growing stronger as we neared the basement. A handful of metallic, cone-shaped devices produced steam, making the room damp and warm. My stomach churned at the sight of my patients, haphazardly laid out on the floor in the common room. A few patients had been dumped in the adjacent rooms once they ran out of space here. Scattered in their midst were nearly a hundred slimy, white balls, twice the size of an ostrich’s eggs. Some of them wiggled slightly, making me think of the movie Alien.

“Do not fear, Victoria,” Doom said in an appeasing tone. “They are still many hours from hatching. We need to move them to another room before I can destroy them. The amniotic fluids in the eggs can cause severe allergic reactions and rashes in certain species. My scales protect me from it, but it would wreck human skin. The protein that causes it dies within a couple of minutes of being exposed to oxygen.”

I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat. Stunned, I saw Stran come out of an examination room and carefully navigate his way around the bodies. With impressive dexterity, he scooped up three eggs with his long, flat tail, curving its edges to keep the eggs trapped, and then headed back to the examination room where he dumped them.

While Doom deactivated the alien humidifiers, I quickly checked on my patients. They were all conscious but completely paralyzed just as Andy had been. Terror and hope clashed in their eyes when our gazes met. I spoke reassuring words to all of them, trying not to give in to panic. If not for that first Kryptid forcing us off the road, Andy and I would have been here hours ago. I could be one of them right now, without Doom and Stran to save us. I was feeling overwhelmed, the events of the day finally catching up to me. I just wanted to curl up in a corner, hug my knees to my chest, and weep while rocking back and forth.

But now wasn’t the time to freak out.

Sucking it up, I pushed past my fears, and turned on a few reusable glowsticks we’d left to recharge by the windows in the morning. We’d been limiting our use of electricity to medical devices, ventilation, and cooking. Our generator had been running low on fuel, and the medevac team that had initially supported us with supplies had gone silent a couple of days ago.

Slipping on a pair of surgical gloves, I went to work helping Doom and Stran move the heavy eggs to the other room. By the time we were done, night had fully fallen. My companions closed the door to the examination room before destroying the eggs. Despite that, the squishing sound could still be heard. Combined with the stench of rotten eggs, my gag reflex kicked into overdrive. Considering I’d last eaten that morning, I had nothing to regurgitate. That didn’t stop my stomach from painfully convulsing, making it difficult for me to focus on removing the Mexlar implants from my patients.

Helpful as always, Doom moved those in the worst states back to their rooms. The others we made as comfortable as possible right where they were. It would help expedite the process and would make it easier for me to look after all of them, now that I was alone. Our nurse, Laeticia, and our surgeon, Johann, both very much of childbearing age, weren’t among the paralyzed. I wanted to believe they had somehow managed to escape, but my gut told me they were currently in a pretty horrible place.

Exhausted and starving, I went into the kitchen and whipped myself up a less than fabulous meal from canned food. Doom declined any, as did Stran. Thankfully, my patients didn’t need sustenance as the Mexlar implants had provided them with all the nutrients they’d require for the next twenty-four hours.

To my utter dismay, Doom decided to go scout the neighborhood. It made sense, but the last thing I wanted was to be alone in this mausoleum. Even though the larvae had all been eradicated, my mind kept picturing some missed eggs hatching and the nightmarish creatures chasing me down and devouring me.

“Do not be afraid. Stran will stay with you,” Doom said.

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