Star Dust

Chapter 21 ~ Andrew

 One second we're surrounded, the next a bear is slashing through enemy lines and creating mass chaos. Either Mathew is a bear or he was swallowed by one. 

 I inch closer the black bear who growls and grunts non-stop, suddenly he turns his massive head and roars at me, spittle flying from his great pink maw. I swallow hard and Griffin continues to laugh, come to think of it she hasn't stopped laughing "please stop you re killing me" she wheezes. 

 The bear grunts something and Gryphon snaps her head "oh you did not just go there" she jumps up and tackles Matthew the bears back, they collide and Matthew ends up on his back with Gryphon trying to hold on to his enlarged throat.

 "take it back Mathew or I puncture your throat!"

 The bear attempts to spit but ends up with it in his own face and gryphon falls off laughing even harder than before. Katie steps forward and lightly coughs into her fist "can we storm the hospital now?" She asks, everyone turns to Matthew the bear who roars at her "I'll take that as a yes" says Dylan he too is now laughing. 

 Mathew barrels towards the spire that will take us into the hospitals heart, Gryphon fly's past Matthew speeding so she can go first but Matthew takes her down with a swift swipe of his massive paw. Gryphon lands on his back and clings desperate to hold on as they clear the door way, in tacked and without injury... for now. 

 The rest of us rush after them eager to finish the fight and gain access to the hospital and some rest for our tired, battered bodies. We take the hospital by storm, crashing through doors and smashing the Kayan this way and that. Scream's ring out from the hospital and I think of how wonderful it is that they are not our own. 

 Katie took to the top floors of the building and refused to take any of us with her, while Gryphon and Matthew barreled down the stairs to concur the lower floors. Dylan runs along side me to the middle of the spire hospital, I nearly trip over and fall down a hundred and 30 stories, he stopped so abruptly. Dylan turns and forces a door open with a swift kick, and I follow him inside this new room. 

 "Um Dylan, let s try not to touch anything" he nods and I take in the rest of the labs interesting interior. A chalkboard hangs loosely on the wall to our left, covered with math in an alien language, displayed in an array of different colours. Below that is a small cabinet, heavy locks adorn the cabinets thick frame. The room is littered with loose papers and tubes full of expired experiments that will never be completed and probably never should. On the right wall is a glass panel displaying a containment room beyond housing a bed, desk and toilet. 

 "This place makes me sick" I say scrunching up my nose against the old musky smell that has entered the room when I opened the door "Dylan?" 

 He stands staring at the last wall opposite the one we came from "Dylan?" I ask again, he doesn't move. I walk over to check what has my friend so petrified, and find that it is worth staring at. An elaborate array of papers is stuck to the wall by mini spires puncturing the wall behind, keeping the papers stuck. Looking closely I find formula's for almost everything, even images have been tacked to the board. I stare dumbfounded What does she have to do with this hospital? Whose notes are these? Is anyone watching now?  

Mystery alive and well in a photo hanging over a doctor and smiling like they were good friends. In another photo is an image of Mystery yet again but this time she is pale, deathly pale and strapped to a table in the room behind glass not too far from us. She not only looked half dead but the heart monitor beside her said she was, a note was stuck to the bottom corner of the photo and it read: 

 Patient Mystery has presented an interesting challenge for us with her recent developments. Along with her ever growing ability to tell the events of the future she is also developing an animal like side, like someone who has multiple personality disorder. Recent test have shown that the patient may undergo an inhuman amount of pain before passing out (as is predicted of most humans). After falling unconscious the patient will spend several days to weeks or nealy a month unconsciously healing herself.

 The photos only got worse after that, there was one with a very long note under an image of Mystery cut open, still very much awake, as they dissected her.

 I ran a scan of the room, nobody is watching us, come to think about it the only two signatures that it does pick up are ours and the Kayan. Dylan does not remove his gaze from the board and I get a little nervous "Dylan we have to clear the hospital, remember" I say slowly, as if talking to a live wire with its own mind, ready to snap at anything at any moment. 

 He doesn't respond and I find myself thinking again if he and Mystery are sharing a secret none of us know, yet. I pat his shoulder and walk towards the door, and no later than me taking one step out of the door does someone scream, but this time it's different. Katie sounds loud and clear and full of pain, raw agony rips at my soul and I run up the stairs fueled by adrenaline. 

 Dylan races past me so quickly he blurs bright orange red almost. I pant but don't stop, it's as if the temperature in the building is climbing as steadily as myself. I am a few flight below the fight, I know this because the noise of breaking glass and bones reach my ears and make my head spin. I slip and get a fabulous view of a straight drop to the bottom of the hospital, except the bottom isn't visible at this height. 

 The fight continues over head yet I wait one more minute for the nausea to recede, before continuing up the few flights left. A hole in the wall at the top of the stairs emits the sounds of a fight happening, so I burst in forgetting all logic and the meager possibilities. I stand gaping at the scene playing out before me, Katie sitting injured nursing her broken arm and... and Dylan what the hell is he doing? 

 Several Kayan are tackling the unbeatable Swip fending off the attacking creatures with a renewed ferocity. Another pile of the creatures are stacked and growing higher by the minute but once again they are a never ending stream of grey bodies and teeth. A beast fly's across the room over my head and hits the wall with a sickening crunch before crumbling into a sack of bones. 

 "Uh Dylan, I'll take Katie to have her arm fixed then we'll go help Matthew and Gryphon, that ok?" he doesn't look back, instead he grunts a lot like matthew in his new bear form. Maybe somebody else will turn into a wild animal, maybe all of us will turn into wild animals before the night ends, I release a breath. For now nothing matters more than saving our friends, and getting access to at least a few floors of the hospital what we need. 

 Katie scrambles over ducking to avoid a flying body as it joins its brethren on the pile. We race down the stairs again this time slower than before, although Katie was able to bandage her arm and make a sling, the bone still needs to be set. The steps are in the heart of the spire making all other rooms apart of the walls, and I wonder what could be behind them, but that will have to wait.

 Minutes pass and I realize that Katie has disappeared until, she zips by so fast I don't know if I'm hallucinating. Using a rope of white linen from the hospital wings she drops deeper and faster into the spire, the makeshift rope swaying slightly. 

 I can't reach the rope but I can jump for it, and that's exactly what I do. 

 With a small running start I jump over the railing and into the abyss trying desperately to cling to the linen. After a few attempts I finally succeed in griping the rope, and just in time the bottom of the rope comes into view, so I slow and catch a glimpse of Katie running down the steps as fast as she can. The rope hanging precariously in the middle of everything Time to swing I think. It would take only a few seconds to reach Katie after that.

 I do just that, landing clumsily on a landing a few stories down and I nearly crash into katie as we race to the bottom her uninjured arm holding the broken one close to her chest. Barreling down the stairs ignoring stealth we finally see the bottom, a faded blue grey floor but nothing else besides more hole like doors in every direction. 

 A perfect place to get lost in or for an ambush.