Part 15 (2/2)
”I thought these were supposed to be corpses,” Reece said, watching the ambulance wheel away. ”G.o.d, what was wrong with that woman's eyes?” Palatazin was already moving up the stairs. He flashed his badge at the officer at the door. ”Where's Sergeant Teal?”
”Third floor, captain.”
He started to ascend the stairway, but suddenly his attention was caught by a small yellow form shoved in a corner of the entrance hall. It was a dead dog. The teeth were bared; there was a bullet hole in the skull. Palatazin climbed the stairs, stepping aside as another stretcher was brought down, the pallid ”corpse” twitching beneath the sheet. The hair rose on the back of his neck as he sensed the cold waves radiated by this thing. The dead eyes grazed his own. He turned away from it, bile raging in his stomach, and continued upward.
In a third-floor apartment Palatazin found Sergeant Teal-a large, curly-haired man with the physique of an ex-UCLA linebacker. He was talking to two Chicanes -an older man wearing a starched priest's collar and a boy whose eyes looked dazed and sick. Palatazin approached Teal and showed his badge. ”Sergeant Teal?
What's the situation here?”
The other man motioned Palatazin away from the two Chicanos. Palatazin's shoes crunched over bits of gla.s.s. He looked down to see the remnants of a broken mirror. Yes, he thought, suddenly calm and resolute. Yes. They've been here.
”Those two over there, Father Ramon Silvera and Rico Esteban, found the first bodies. So far we've pulled thirty-nine of them out of closets and from under beds. They were all rolled up in shower curtains, rugs, and sheets. Thirty-nine of them.” Teal's clear blue eyes were full of sick confusion. He lowered his voice. ”You're going to think this is crazy, captain, but . . .”
”Go on.”
”Well, I don't know whether to cla.s.sify these bodies as corpses or not. Oh sure, they move a little bit, but it all seems to be muscle reflex, like some trick of rigor mortis. The h.e.l.l of it is ... the bodies don't have heartbeats or pulse rates. I mean . . . technically they're dead, aren't they?” Palatazin closed his eyes for a few seconds, his hand coming up to his forehead.
”Sir?” Teal said. ”They are dead, aren't they?”
”Any wounds on the bodies?”
”I've just looked closely at a couple of them. I saw some cuts and bruises. That's about it.”
”No,” Palatazin said quietly. Another stretcher pa.s.sed the door. ”That's not all.”
”Sir?”
”Nothing. I'm thinking out loud. Where are the bodies being taken?”
”Uh . . .” He looked down at a notepad in his hand. ”Mercy Hospital in Monterey Park. That's the nearest, and they've got the facilities to handle this mess.”
He paused for a few seconds, watching Palatazin's face. ”What's wrong with these people, captain? Could it be ... like ... a disease or something?”
”If you think that, Teal, keep it to yourself. We don't want the neighborhood panicking worse than it probably has already. Did Mercy send a doctor over?”
”Yes sir. Dr. Delgado. She's upstairs right now.”
”Okay, fine. Will you give me a few minutes alone with these two?” He motioned toward the priest and the boy across the room. Teal nodded and went out, closing the door behind him. Palatazin kicked at the shards of gla.s.s, glanced quickly around the apartment, and then returned his gaze to the priest, who seemed to be in better shape than the boy. Except for one thing-his hands were trembling, clenching and unclenching. A nervous reaction? Palatazin wondered. Or something else? He introduced himself to the two men. ”Sergeant Teal tells me you two found the first bodies. What time was that?”
”About one-thirty,” the priest said. ”We've told all this to the other officers.”
”Yes, yes, I know.” Palatazin waved a hand at him to quiet his objections. He walked past them and peered into the dim bedroom, noting the newspapers covering the windows. There was another shattered mirror in the bathroom. He came back out. ”What do you think happened here, Father?” he asked the priest. Silvera narrowed his eyes; the slight quaver in the policeman's voice put him on edge. ”I have no idea. Rico and I came looking for Mrs. Santos, who lives...
lived on the fifth floor. We found the building just as it is now.”
”I want to get out of here,” Rico said quietly. ”I can't stand being in this place anymore.”
”A little longer, okay?” Palatazin said. He looked back to Silvera. ”You saw the bodies. Tell me. Are they dead or alive?”
”Dead,” Rico said.
Silvera took a while longer in answering. ”I don't know,” he said finally. ”No heartbeat, no pulse . . . and yet they move . . . Sergeant Teal tells me thirty-nine bodies have been found. How many people O lived in this building?”
”Sixty or seventy, at least.”
”But not all of the apartments were occupied?”
Jt Silvera shook his head.
”All right. Thank you.” Palatazin turned and started for the door, but Silvera's voice stopped him. ”What's happened to these people, officer? What kind of thing did this to them?”
He almost answered, almost said the terrible word, but fear gripped his throat and squeezed it. He left the room without another word and stood outside clutching at the stairway railing like a man on a heaving s.h.i.+p in a world that had suddenly tilted crazily on its axis and begun to spin backward in time. He was only dimly aware of someone-no, two people-coming along the corridor toward him. When he looked up, he saw that it was Teal and a middle-aged Chicano woman with haggard circles under her eyes. ”Captain?” Teal said. ”This is Dr. Delgado.”
The woman extended her hand, and Palatazin shook it. Another body was carried past them through the corridor, and Palatazin cringed at the sight of those staring eyes. ”Captain, to be perfectly honest with you, I don't know what in the name of G.o.d we have here,” Dr. Delgado said in a soft, weary voice.
”These are not corpses technically, yet there are no outward signs of life; no rigor mortis is setting in, and no fluids are collecting in the intestines or extremities. I p.r.i.c.ked the finger of one of them, and do you know what came out?
Absolutely nothing. The body was drained dry. I don't know about the others, but that body was totally bloodless. And yet when the ambulance attendants were strapping it to a stretcher, the body-what should've been a corpse-moved.”
”Jesus!” Teal said, his eyes icy blue circles.
”As I say, I don't know what we have. I may not want to know, but that's my profession. One of my colleagues at Mercy, Dr. Steiner, is on his way over right now. Possibly he can help . . .”
”Nothing can help,” Palatazin said suddenly, and realized it was all about to pour out, all of it like bile flowing up from the secret pit of terror, and he was going to be unable to stop it. He clenched his teeth, his eyes widening, but the torrent of words forced them apart. ”It's too late, nothing can help. We've got to ... got to leave all of them inside here and burn this building to the ground right now before the sun goes down! Then we've got to scatter .
scatter the ashes and pour holy water on the ruins!” He looked from Teal to Delgado and back again-they were too shocked to speak. The priest and the boy were standing in the doorway of that room, watching him, as was a uniformed officer farther along the corridor who stood staring at Palatazin in amazement.
”What are you all looking at?” Palatazin shrieked, and felt something give way, like timbers exposed too long to vicious weather. ”You've seen the bodies!
You've seen what they can do! They can sweep through a whole building in less than one night! What will they do soon to whole streets? Neighborhoods?” He trembled, and a voice within him roared ”STOP,” but he couldn't stop, he had no power now over the words tumbling from his mouth. Cold beads of sweat had popped up on his face, and the only sound in the entire building was his voice. ”We can burn this building to the ground and kill some of them, because when these . . .
when these wake up they're going to be thirsty, too!” He looked at Dr. Delgado, the raging fear in his eyes completely exposed. ”You can't take them to Mercy Hospital! You can't let them get out into the streets!” Someone gripped his shoulder. He spun around, panting.
Sully, his expression grave, said quietly, ”Captain, come on with me. Let's get some fresh air, okay?”
”LEAVE ME ALONE!” He jerked free and shoved Sully away. His gaze fell upon the priest. ”You! You of all people should realize the evil that's creeping up on this city! G.o.d in heaven, can't you feel it in here? Tell them not to let these things wake up tonight!”
Silvera glanced quickly at Teal and then back to the police captain. He felt he was on the verge of madness himself, split between a shudder and a scream. Of course he felt the evil; it was everywhere in this place, like viscous mist, but what was this man saying?
”Father,” Palatazin said, and in his voice there was now something of a terrified nine-year-old boy. ”Please don't let the vampir loose on the streets!
Tell them we have to burn the bodies!”
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