Page 7 of Haunted Prey

Did I? Maybe. But then she was mad that I picked Eve over her. She wasn’t even there. She haunted my mind and yet her words still stung.

I wish I had the strength to tear myself off the stretcher, fight them, and march back the way we came. Before I could decide if it was worth a try, someone flipped on a switch. They wheeled me past a kitchen into what looked like some sort of community hall with tables and chairs, a couch against one wall, and a piano in one corner. On one side, a large computer station was set up, several wide screens and two little laptops flanking in between two narrow windows up high that were shuttered. Two of the men stopped there while the rest went on to wheel me in a room just beyond. It was bare except for a hospital bed and EKG monitor. On one side was a doorway leading into another room with—

I thrashed, almost making the stretcher fall to one side. I even broke one of the straps and got myself nearly into a sitting position. Someone yelped in surprise and another cursed loudly, calling for the others. One guy lunged forward to hold me down. They tried to contain me but failed.

No, not again, not fucking again.

A nightmare. This was the warehouse all over again. Or I really had died in the river and this was my hell. A hell in that fucking awful place alone and without Eve.

Please, please no.

“Hold him, hold him!” someone yelled.

“Andrea, get the tranquilizer, quickly,” another said over my shoulder.

The doctor rushed into the room I was staring at. A room with a doctor’s exam table next to a counter full of medical tools and supplies. Just like the one from the warehouse. An exam chair sat somewhere in the back, with those awful flickering white and green lights. The fumes of chemicals soaked my senses, the sounds of whirring noises made my ears ring. Then I saw red.

I must have blacked out because one minute I was losing my shit and the next, I was in the bed with the EKG machine next to me and an IV strapped to me. My arms were now chained to the sides of the bed. Two of the guys, still in their EMT uniform and face masks, sat nearby, watching me. A curtain closed off the room ahead. I could hear people speaking softly within, one groaning and cursing.

I stared at the curtain, then let my gaze drift to the two men, glaring at them.

“What the fuck is this?” They didn’t say a word at first, and I jerked at one of the chains. “Am I in hell?”

One of them, a man with dark hair, a mangled ear, and a gun now on his lap, shrugged. “Probably.”

The other man, with white-blonde hair, and deep blue eyes, elbowed him. He rose and inched closer then took off his medical mask.

I stared at him and had a sudden feeling of deja vu.

“This is a safe place, Emery. We aren’t here to hurt you.”

“Oh yeah?” I jerked the chain again.

“That’s more for us than you.”

“What am I doing here?”

He brought his seat closer, then sat beside me. “I didn’t think we’d ever see you outside prison walls.”

I watched him carefully, wondering if this was a game. Or an intense hallucination. I shifted on the bed, my eyes drifting from him over to the others. If it was a hallucination, it was becoming harder to distinguish from reality.

Hallucination or not, I chose to answer. “Whose we?”

He smiled, a sort of distant smile. There was nothing about him that told me he wasn’t real, that he wasn’t really sitting next to me. “The only ones left,” he said.

I glanced at the guy sitting by the wall with the gun, then noticed the third man standing quietly by the door, his dark eyes studying me. The cop and the doctor peeked out from behind the curtain in the other room. They came out and stood a few feet away. The doctor’s wrist was wrapped up and the cop had a cut on her lip.

Did I do that? My head felt fuzzy and on the verge of a bad headache, but I couldn’t remember what had happened after I’d seen the exam room.

I looked back at the man beside me, who watched me closely. “The only ones left?” I repeated.

He leaned forward, bowing his head. “That got out of…that bad place underground.”

I stared at him, confused. Then I took in the others. My gaze halted on the doctor. Now that I really looked at her, there was something familiar about her.

Then it dawned on me.

She was just a little older now, with wrinkles around her eyes. I hadn’t really noticed her before, but now, as I took a closer look, I knew.

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