Plague

Chapter 11 Day 2 3:00 AM

Chapter 11
Day 2
3:00 AM

The phone was ringing, loudly. Jacob picked it up and heard someone already talking.
“….little fucking creep! Hello, hello! Are you there, you little….”
“Yes, Lt. Hudson, what can I do for you?”
“Huh? How did you know it was me? Never mind, asshole. I want to speak to you. In Pediatrics, in about a half hour.”
Hudson slammed down his receiver and Jake made a face at the one on his end before hanging up.
Jacob stretched and decided to grab some coffee in the cafeteria before he saw the lieutenant again.
When he felt properly caffeinated, Jacob took the elevator up to Pediatrics. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was almost three-thirty. In spite of the short nap he had taken, he was beginning to feel washed out.
Hudson was not in the Pediatrics Unit when Jacob arrived, and no one had seen him for almost fifteen minutes. He stuck around until he decided that he had done his civic and patriotic duty, and then headed towards the elevators. And there was Lt. Hudson, holding the door of one of the cars open. He motioned for Jacob to join him in the elevator and allowed him to enter the elevator first. His face looked tired but not really different than before. Jacob expected to be cursed out any second.
The door closed and he stood there and looked around the elevator.
“What did you want to talk to me about, Lieutenant?” Jacob asked.
Hudson looked at him for a moment and then lunged forward, encircling Jake with his arms and smashing his forehead into Jake’s nose.
Jacob’s vision went red. He felt his blood dripping into his mouth and down his throat. His arms were useless. Jake tried to break through Hudson’s grasp, but he couldn’t move.
Jacob tried to hit him in the face with his head, but Hudson just pulled him closer to him. His head was over one of Hudson’s shoulders, the right, he thought, and Hudson pulled Jake closer and closer.
Jacob heard a distinct crack as his spine tried to accommodate being pushed though his stomach. Hudson was quiet; he hadn’t made a sound and wasn’t even breathing hard.
Jake was getting desperate. He twisted his head to try to bite Hudson in the neck, to do something to inflict some damage to him. Moving his face closer to Hudson’s neck, Jacob started to bite down when something flickered before his eyes. He looked again and saw a …something, light brown in color and shaped like an arrowhead, coming out of Hudson’s ear. Jake tried to scream, but couldn’t; he wasn’t even able to draw a breath.
Jacob’s ears were ringing and he was growing dizzy. In desperation, he brought his knee up as hard as he could into Hudson’s groin. That got a grunt out of him. His head drew back, taking the Thing with it. Hudson took his arms from around Jake and threw him into the wall.
Jake felt stunned and just fell off the side of the elevator and onto the floor. The elevator stopped moving and the emergency alarm started ringing; Hudson had thrown Jake onto the control panel and he must have pushed the stop and alarm buttons.
Jake tried to get up onto his feet; he was halfway there when he saw a shoe headed for his face.
He turned quickly and tried to pull Hudson down to the floor. Before he brought his foot down, Jake kicked at his other knee. Hudson fell and twisted on top of Jacob. His hands circled the physician’s neck, his nails gouged into Jake’s flesh.
Jacob’s vision was dimming but he could see Hudson’s face, impassive, staring into his with that hellish Thing dangling from his ear around the side of his face. It was moving, then it seemed to wiggle and fall out of Hudson’s ear and onto Jake’s face.
Jake got his hands under Hudson’s chest and pushed with every ounce of strength he still possessed. He managed to push him off of his body, and then Jake jumped up as fast as he could. Hudson started to get up, so Jake kicked him in the stomach. He stayed down, for a moment, and then started to weakly move his arms.
Jacob jumped on top of him, grabbed Hudson by the hair and thrust his head against the wall. The alarm bell was growing louder and higher pitched by the second. Jake ignored it as he kept hitting Hudson’s head, over and over, against the wall.
Then he remembered the Thing.
Jake almost panicked as he glanced around the elevator trying to locate the creature. He saw it on the floor moving closer to the two men. He had nothing else, so Jake threw Hudson’s unmoving body at it. Jake stood up and fell back against the other side of the elevator car.
He watched the Thing crawl back into Hudson’s brain. The policeman’s body began to twitch and then, slowly, his arms began to move. Jake could hear, against the ever shriller sound of the alarm bell, Hudson’s breathing become heavier.
Jacob tried to get up but his legs wouldn’t hold him and he fell, striking his head against the wall. He was dizzier now; the alarm bell seemed to be so high pitched he could hardly hear it. His arms and legs were quivering as he tried to stand once again. Hudson was on his knees, inching forward towards Jake.
Jacob fell forward, landing on his knees in front of Hudson. The lieutenant’s arms started up to encircle the physician again, so Jake hit him in the neck with all of his remaining strength. He heard bone break.
Hudson went down hard, striking his head against the wall. There was no movement. After several seconds, Jake sat back against the wall, on his side, panting for breath, his eyes closed.
Minutes or hours later, Jake felt the elevator jerk downward. He could barely hear the alarm bell.
Jake finally caught his breath and struggled to get up. He opened his eyes and saw Hudson’s body, his eyes bloody, and his arms stretched out towards Jacob. Hudson was only a couple of feet away. Jake scrambled harder to get to his feet, but he slipped on the bloody tile and fell back onto the floor.
Hudson was on top of Jacob in a moment, attempting to hit him and strangle him at the same time. Jake could no longer hear the alarm bell ringing; he didn’t know if the elevator was still moving.
He did know that he was going to die.
Hudson’s hands were around Jake’s neck and he was trying to lift Jake’s head so he could slam it down on the elevator floor. Hudson’s fingers and arms seemed to spasm.
He almost let go of Jacob, but he regained his grip and pressed harder and harder. Jake thought he felt another spasm in Hudson’s arms, but he wasn’t sure. The creature again began to stick out of Hudson’s ear.
Jake’s head banged against the floor again, and then he knew nothing more.