Until he started drinking. Then a new Randall emerged. Violent. He never touched her, never even raised a hand to her. But he'd break things and pick fights with other people. She'd finally given him an ultimatum: Jenny or the bottle. He chose her--or rather said he did, but kept sneaking drinks on the side. Finally she'd called it quits.
Now he seemed more like the man she'd fallen in love with.
"Get out of here, Randall. Save yourself."
"I'm not going anywhere, Jen. You know that. Let's go save those sick kids."
Jenny shook her head. "Don't do this for me," she heard herself say. And at the same time, part of her hoped he was doing it for her. She still loved him. After all, she'd never been able to bring herself to go back to her maiden name.
"Of course it's for you. But it's also so those little diseased children don't become dracula snacks. We need to get them safe so they can be sick and die in peace."
A dracula launched itself at the duo, and Randall pushed Jenny away and swung the chainsaw at its head. Though the saw wasn't running, the blade hit with such force Jenny heard the creature's neck snap as it fell to the side. When the dracula hit the floor it thrashed and kicked and screamed, its head gyrating at an odd angle.
"Come on!"
Randall grabbed Jenny's arm and marched her through the double doors into the depths of the hospital. After a few steps, Jenny took the lead, pulling him to the stairwell, tugging open the door.
"Maybe an elevator?" Randall said. He stared down at his leg, which was dripping blood from torn stitches.
"Aw, Randall..."
Dropping to her knees, Jenny tore at the hem of his hospital gown and began to wrap it around his leg to stop the bleeding. As she was tying off the cloth, she noticed Randall's gown beginning to extend in front.
"Randall!"
"Sorry," he said, turning red. "Ain't been with anyone since you left."
"Really?" Randall wasn't smart, but he was handsome and charming, and he'd had a steady stream of girlfriends before they met. Though Jenny was comfortable with her could-stand-to-lose-a-few-pounds body, she'd known that Randall usually dated much hotter, thinner women. If he truly hadn't had sex with anyone, he'd definitely turned down some offers.
"Well, five-finger Mary, if you know what I'm saying."
Jenny did. She'd been celibate herself--Randall had left her more than a little bitter about the opposite sex. Still, she had a sudden, completely irrational urge to reach up under his gown and grab him.
Or maybe it wasn't so irrational. In times of stress, humans often regressed to base behaviors.
"Have, uh...you?" he asked.
"What?"
"Been with anyone since the divorce?"
"That's not your business, Randall."
"Yeah." He looked away. "Sorry."
Jenny stood up. "We need to get to pediatrics. The elevator is this way."
He moped along behind, and when they reached the elevator, Jenny pressed the call button. For all the commotion in the ER, the hall was disproportionately quiet. Perhaps some people had already evacuated, despite Dr. Lanz's proclamation that there wasn't anywhere to go. Though this area of Durango was currently under development, with lots of new construction up and down the highway, the only other inhabited building within three miles was a gas station. But at the current rate this disease was spreading through the hospital, even the uninhabited woods at night would be preferable to staying here. Unless they were able to stop the infection, Jenny predicted everyone would be either dead or turned within a few hours.
The elevator dinged, and when the doors opened a dracula darted out, tackling Jenny.
She fell backward, the creature atop her, snarling and gnashing its horrible teeth. Jenny caught a quick glimpse of the nurse's uniform, and the nametag, Fortescue, as she reached up to grab the dracula's shoulders, keeping its fangs away. The snap snap snap of the jaws, like mousetraps going off, flecked blood and spittle all over Jenny's face. She turned away, scrunched closed her eyes and mouth, worried more about getting the infection than being devoured.
Then, as quickly as she'd been pinned down, Jenny was free.
Randall had jerked Nurse Fortescue off Jenny and pinned the monster to the floor, his bare foot on her chest, his chainsaw tearing at her neck. He moved the saw up and down, a combination of weight and brute strength causing it to tear through the dracula's throat, blood spraying out three-hundred and sixty degrees like a lawn sprinkler.
The thing that was once Fortescue thrashed and hissed, and Randall dropped his big knee onto the monster's ribcage, pressing on the edge of the blade with both his palms, shaking it back and forth until Jenny heard the audible pop of the spinal cord severing.
Still, the teeth gnashed and feet--claws bursting out through the gym shoes--continued to kick and writhe. It wasn't until Randall had the head completely severed and pushed away from the body, that the monster was finally still.
"You okay?" he asked, staring up at his ex-wife.
"Wouldn't it be easier if you turned the saw on?"
"Outta gas. Still works pretty good, though."
Jenny carefully wiped some blood from her face, avoiding getting any in her eyes, nose, or mouth, and then walked over to Randall.
"Nurse Fortescue is from pediatrics," she said. "We need to move. Now."
Lanz
SINGLY and in pairs, all but two teeth had fallen out of Dr. Kurt Lanz's gums. He cupped them in his hands. He'd counted them.
He knew.
How? Why? He'd been racking his brain for a reason. He hadn't been bitten or cut. He--
Oh no! Moorecook had been seizuring when Lanz arrived, spraying bloody saliva everywhere. Some had landed on his face. A fleck must have reached his lips. He'd been contaminated through his mucous membranes instead of directly into his blood. A tiny inoculum. A delayed reaction. A slower transformation.
Screams erupted on the far side of the door, followed by gunfire. He rose and pressed his ear against the steel. Sounded like chaos out there. Good thing--
Something slammed against the door. He jerked back as fists began pounding the other side and someone screamed to be let in.
No fucking way, Jose.
The pounding and screaming stopped abruptly. Shaken, Lanz sat again. If he could just hold out here till the cavalry rode in, he'd be--
The faint sound of a siren filtered through the door. Had the sheriff sent someone?
Okay...he could control this. Maybe not the physical aspects, but he refused to become a bloodthirsty beast like the others. He was a doctor, for fuck's sake. He was educated. And he was certainly more intelligent than any dozen of these yokels combined.
His last two teeth dropped from his gums.
Didn't matter. He was better than the rest. He'd beat this.
Sudden blasts of agony shrieked from his fingers and drove him to his knees as hooked claws burst from the tips.
And then indescribable pain from his jaws as the fangs erupted and tore through his cheeks and lips, like he'd forced his face into a wood chipper.
His vision blurred, then cleared. He saw everything in such detail now, like switching from a blurry black-and-white TV to hi-def. Same for his sense of smell. A delicious, mouth-watering odor was wafting through the door. He recognized it: blood. Beautiful, warm, red, delicious blood. He had to--