Investigator

Chapter 17: Seeing Things

Mort continued down the halls of the hospital, exhausted and on the verge of collapsing. He kept checking every room, searching for an exit, but every window was either too small to get through or had bars on it. Mort's pace soon began to slow to a halt and then he sat down against the cold concrete walls. He took heavy breaths as he fell beneath the fog. He closed his eyes and crashed out.

He awoke shortly later to the sound of nearby heavy footsteps getting louder and louder. Mort felt his heart sink and his arms shook as he tried to get up off the ground. He was just on his knees when he looked up to see a bright light in his face. Mort winced at the bright light and tried to look past it to see who it was. Finally the figure spoke.

"Mort, is that you?" A familiar voice said, moving the flashlight out of Mort's eyes and sitting it on the ground.

"Tony?" Mort asked in an emotional shaky tone. Mort jumped up and his hugged his friend tightly. "I was so worried, and scared." Mort said with dry eyes, he had already used up all his tears.

"I'm happy too, I'm sorry for running off earlier. I was just, you know, scarred." Tony said smiling, still holding Mort in the hug.

Mort chuckled "It's fine, it's completely fine. I 100% understand that fight or flight response." It felt so weird to Mort to not only have Tony worrying about basic human instinct but for the both of them to be laughing about them. It spoke greatly about the fear the two had.

Tony finally pulled away from Mort to look him in his eyes. "Have you found Kevin?" He asked with fear in his voice. Mort shook his head with a sad expression which Tony copied. "And an exit?" Tony asked again.

"No, all the windows are either to small or have bars on the window." Mort asked with defeat in his voice.

Tony smiled "Good." He said in a blank tone. Mort looked up at him with shock but before he could say anything Tony knocked him to the floor with a strong push. Mort looked up at his friend to see them begin to contort and transform. It was disgusting, watching skin peel away and bones pierce through skin made the frozen Mort want to vomit. By the time the changing was done, where Tony once stood was now a skinny deformed burned man dressed in a tattered white jumpsuit and wearing an oxygen mask. The same one the group had encountered earlier.

The person lumbered towards Mort who just now snapped to his senses to move but it was too late. The man grabbed Mort around his throat and lifted him into the air, choking Mort in the process. Mort began to feel light and couldn't think at all, he felt like his lungs were collapsing.

Mort began to cry as his body got weaker and just when he thought it was the end, the man was hit by something. It caused the man to drop Mort and while Mort sat on the floor violently catching his breath, the man looked behind him to see what hit him. Behind the man stood Kevin, angered and holding a fire extinguisher.

"You again?" The skinny man said in a muffled annoyed voice and he turned to fight Kevin.

Kevin looked at the man angrily "Choke on this you bastard!" Kevin yelled before hitting the man in the face with the extinguisher and then spraying it right in the man's eyes. While the man stumbled around, Kevin ran over and helped Mort up who was choking for air. "Come on, let's go!" Kevin said, wrapping Mort's arm around him and helping him run down the hallway. The two kept running until Kevin pushed Mort into a room to hide.