Blood Water

CHAPTER 15

Waites led the way, wondering what had happened to his quiet afternoon of marking papers. As if being caught in the mother of all storms wasn’t bad enough, his world now seemed to have descended into Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. He still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but the scream had sounded awful, so he led the way towards the staff room, once again hoping that this was all just one big wind-up.

Waites immediately saw the blood on the floor – lots of it – and then Phoenix’s body; he was gagging at the appalling sight when Morrow staggered into the room, gasping for breath.

‘It’s in the system,’ the doctor said, leaning against the wall as if he might collapse at any moment. Control of his body had been returned to him, but his limbs were now racked with pins and needles as sensation slowly returned.

‘Mrs Rees is in there,’ he said, pointing behind him. ‘She’s fine – she just locked herself in the cubicle when I… I don’t blame her. I must look awful.’

‘I guess you must be Dr Morrow,’ Waites said. ‘What the hell happened?’ He put his hand over his mouth at the smell that came from Phoenix’s body.

‘His body broke down,’ Morrow replied, staring at the mess on the floor between them. ‘I think the specimen carries an infection that remains even after it leaves its host. Now I’ve got it too.’

‘What sort of infection?’

Until now Sean and his brother had been standing quietly in the doorway, still trying to take everything in. Morrow turned to look at them.

‘James, did you tell Mr, er…’

‘Mr Waites. Dan,’ Waites said.

‘Did you tell Dan what it is we’re up against?’

‘Yes, I did. I think he might believe us now,’ James replied.

‘The specimen got into the water system. It could be anywhere.’

‘Specimen?’ Waites asked, perplexed. ‘Just what exactly is it?’

‘It’s an unknown species with aggressive tendencies and is… poisonous and apparently fatal if it infects you.’

‘How do we kill it?’

‘While it’s in the pipe-work there’s no way we can. But if we do manage to get hold of it… I don’t know.’ Morrow shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

‘What did it do to Nigel?’

‘I think it secretes something that attacks the body of the host, making the organs turn to mush and bleed out.’

‘Jesus, shouldn’t we be phoning someone? Isn’t there some government agency for dealing with this sort of thing?’ Waites asked.

‘Yes, but they wouldn’t get here fast enough, especially in this weather.’ Morrow’s breathing was now growing laboured, and the colour had drained from his flesh. ‘Do you understand what I’ve told you?’

‘Yes, I think so.’

‘Right, well, we need to think about possible strategies.’

‘Strategies?’

‘While it was in me I heard its thoughts, just as it could hear mine. If I concentrate I might be able to remember something that could help us stop it.’ Morrow coughed painfully. ‘It’s more dangerous than you think… It used my body in ways I couldn’t.’

‘What do you mean?’ Sean asked.

‘The strength… it wasn’t my own. It seems capable of doing things the body isn’t used to, or isn’t normally prepared to do. Sometimes we don’t attempt things because we feel we haven’t the strength, but usually it’s our body telling us we might come to harm. When that thing was in me it was able to override those safety measures and do as it wished.’

‘Like overclocking,’ James said. The other three turned to him, confused. ‘It’s when you push your computer, or specifically the CPU, to operate at a higher speed than the manufacturer recommends in order to get more performance out of it. Risky, but most of the time effective if you know what you’re doing – a bit like this creature.’

‘Ha.’ Morrow laughed, despite the situation. ‘Yes… Ignoring manufacturers’ recommendations. Perhaps that accelerates the process of destruction set in motion when the creature enters a host.’

‘Yeah,’ James said, ‘and when you push a computer too hard it either shuts itself down… or burns out.’

Emily could hear voices from the direction of the staff room. No one was screaming, so perhaps things were under control. She stood up and moved closer to the door in an attempt to hear more. Suddenly there was a strange sound behind her, apparently coming from the wall. She waited and heard the sound again, lower down this time; it was like twisting metal. What was it? She forgot about the voices from the staff room temporarily and nearly jumped as the sound came from behind the toilet itself. Something was moving about in there, but what? She didn’t want to open the door – but she didn’t want to stay in the cubicle now either. Something was now splashing about in the toilet bowl, and she panicked, opening the door and inching away from the cubicle towards one of the hand basins. She stood there, still listening, still wondering what was going on.

The creature had already mapped the pipe-work of this part of the building in its memory. It could sense the woman’s movement; could hear her breathing and could guess where she was now. Even as Emily Rees leaned against the basin in confused panic, the creature was working its way up around the system towards the tap; this time it moved soundlessly, its body squeezing smoothly along the pipes.

Emily stared at the cubicle door, waiting to see if anything emerged – unaware that something black and slimy was oozing out of the hot water tap behind her.

There was a splash, then another, and as Emily turned round to see what was going on, she was overcome by a feeling of dread. And then she saw it: a horrible, wriggling slug-like thing. She stared in disgust at it, then flinched as it coiled itself up and sprang towards her face. She stumbled backwards, slipped and fell to the floor, jarring her spine and banging her head against the cubicle partition. She blacked out.

Waites looked down at the floor, trying to process everything at once.

‘This is too much. It just doesn’t make any—’

‘Please,’ Morrow said. ‘Is there a toilet I could use?’

‘Yes, of course. Might be best to stay away from Mrs Rees if she’s scared of you. You can use the boys’ toilets downstairs.’

Waites ushered Morrow and the two brothers down the stairs. ‘I’ll go and check on Mrs Rees,’ he told them. ‘You boys wait here for me a second.’ He turned and went back up the stairs.

‘If I remember anything crucial I’ll come and find you and Mr Waites,’ Morrow said. ‘I really need to be on my own right now though.’

‘We understand,’ Sean said. They watched him go into the toilet, wondering how long the poor man had left to live.

Waites almost bumped into Mrs Rees as she came out of the staff-room toilets.

‘God, Emily, are you—?’

‘Ah, er, Dan…’

‘Come on, let’s get you to the hall with the others.’

‘Yes.’

‘We have a crisis – it’s best if you’re not on your own right now.’

‘Oh yes, of course. That doctor…’

‘Yes, I’ll explain it all, come on.’ He ushered her through the staff room and down the steps. ‘We all have to be very careful, Emily. There’s a creature here in the school, something from the study centre. It’s extremely dangerous. Nigel and Dr Morrow have already succumbed to its infection and we need to make sure it doesn’t infect anyone else.’

As they all headed towards the main hall, Sean wondered what awful thing would happen next. The whole town could be submerged, judging by the sheer volume of water that had fallen on it, and if this bizarre parasite kept jumping from person to person, then dozens of people might be dead by morning. That’s if they hadn’t all drowned first.

It was as they passed the entrance doors that the full extent of the deluge became clear. Water from higher up the hill had been streaming down the road for some time, but now it had spread out and was coming into the school. Dark tendrils of water streaked across the floor like tentacles seeking something to grab hold of. They all stopped to watch in shock as the wide, slow-moving wave saturated the carpet and spread round the corner out of sight.

‘Come on,’ Waites said. ‘Let’s go.’