Hurst by Robin Crumby (the reading list book TXT) 📖

You’ve got to help us. You need to understand what’s really going on here.”

“What are you talking about?” He frowned at Riley. “Look, we'd like to help you but without the key…”

“Wait, please. You need to get word to the others. They’re experimenting on us. Sometimes we can hear their screams. No one ever comes back. Every day, they take one more of us away…”

Zed looked at Riley, struggling to understand. What kind of hospital locked people up and treated them like lab rats? He rattled the padlock and heavy chain securing the makeshift bar, blocking the doors from being opened. “Believe me, we want to help you, but there’s nothing we can do. The door is padlocked. I’m sorry. Unless you know where they keep the key?”

“The fat man always has the key on a chain around his neck. He always keeps it locked.” He slammed the door again in frustration.

“Look, we’ll come back if we can and try and get you out.”

They backed away from the door. Zed felt bad leaving them here like this. He knew they were leaving them here to die, to face torture, experiments, heaven knows what. He hurried down the corridor to rejoin Riley and the others who were checking the rest of the rooms on this floor. He couldn't shake the feeling that they had stumbled upon something significant, but the truth was eluding him. What were they doing to them? What did the old man mean when he said they were experimenting on them?

“Come on, let’s find Will and get out of this place,” said Riley, pulling at Zed’s sleeve, eager to leave.

Chapter Twenty-three

On the next floor, the two teams split up and set off in opposite directions, sweeping silently from room to room. There was still no sign of Will, and Riley was beginning to lose hope. She had made the grim discovery of a waiting room being used as a mortuary.

Five bodies were laid out in an orderly row with a sheet over each of them. Riley pulled her sweater up over her mouth and tried to avoid breathing in the stench. She lifted up the corner of a sheet covering the body closest to her and recoiled at the sight of a body ravaged by sickness. A young woman’s blue eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. The victim could have been no more than eighteen. Her face was gaunt, her skin drawn tight. Dried blood crusted around her nose and ears. She wore a pale yellow dress with a plunging neckline, her bra strap exposed. Along her alabaster-white left arm was a crop of needle marks, many in small red circles. Riley had seen her fair share of death, but seeing one so young, in the prime of her life, chilled her to the very bone. Judging by the girl’s face, she had died only very recently, probably in the last twenty-four hours. She was surprised they hadn’t moved the bodies already. Back at Hurst, they burned the dead to reduce the risk of contamination.

She moved to the next section through a heavy security door with a keypad entry system whose screen was inactive. The sign above the doorway was marked “Restricted Access – No Admittance”. To her surprise she found the door unlocked. She pushed on, her senses alert, checking behind her, making sure no one was following.

Riley whipped her head around at the sound of a light tapping from one of the rooms at the end of the corridor. Treading lightly, controlling her breaths as best she could, she leaned against the painted wooden door, listening carefully.

“Hello, is there somebody there?” came a child’s voice from inside.

The girl sounded very young and frightened. Zed had been very clear. They were here for Will. They couldn’t save everyone. The girl’s voice interrupted her moment of indecision.

“I can hear you breathing. Please, can you get me out?”

Riley tried the handle but the door was locked. She got down on one knee and looked through the keyhole. A green eye with long lashes close to the hole blinked back at her. The top lock was basic, the kind Riley knew how to open with a credit card, providing the lower mortise lock wasn't engaged. She checked her pockets but found nothing. There wasn’t much call for credit cards any more. She looked around her and noticed a door open to what looked like a staffroom. A nurse’s uniform hung next to a cheap white desk with a grey computer monitor, its screen lifeless. She checked the pockets before finding a set of keys with a “lucky eight ball” attached.

On the third attempt, the key turned. Before she knew it, a little girl wrenched the door open from her grasp and brushed past her. She was no more than ten or eleven, with long dark hair, dressed in clothes that looked a size too small for her. She hugged Riley and stepped back to get a proper look. Riley checked to make sure there was no one else hiding inside.

The girl said her name was Adele. She had been brought here a few days ago with her older brother Jamie. They had been separated and she hadn’t heard or seen him since. She rolled up her sleeve and showed Riley a series of pinprick-marks on her skin where they had injected her and taken her blood. For the last two weeks she had been held in isolation. She wasn’t sure why, but it meant better food and daily injections.

Riley studied the marks on her arm, too many to count. Who would do this to a child? she asked herself. She had worked in the health system long enough to recognise what looked like the arm of a junkie, but why would they repeatedly inject a child? Adele didn’t look ill. Why keep her in isolation? Why would they do that? There was no way she was leaving a child to die in this place.

“You’re coming with us,” said Riley, with a smile. The little girl grinned, revealing a couple of missing teeth. Riley dropped down on to her knees so their faces were level. “First, I have something very important to ask you. We’re looking for a friend. His name is Will. He’s South African. Do you know where we might find him?”

The girl shook her head and balanced on tiptoes to make herself taller, taking Riley’s hand to steady herself.

Sean reappeared from his sweep of the other corridor. He looked Adele up and down, shaking his head. “Who the hell’s this? We can’t take a kid, Riley. She’ll only slow us down.”

“I don’t want to hear about it, Sean. She’s coming with us. We’re not leaving her, okay? End of story.”

“Fine. She’s your baggage.” He tutted to himself and wandered off to check the last of the rooms.

“He’s okay when you get to know him,” said Riley, reassuringly.

They made to leave but the little girl pulled her back. “Wait. There’s someone else. She’s like me, Riley, but older. Her name’s Stella.”

She dragged Riley along. Her delicate soft fingers laced through Riley's, and they stood outside the last door. They tried all the keys, but none of them worked. Riley shrugged her shoulders.

“Sorry, kiddo. We could go back to the nurse’s station and try the drawers.”

Adele stared down at the floor. Her whole body seemed to sag. She straightened suddenly as if electrified by a thought. She tried the handle and to both of their surprise the door swung open.

There was the sound of coughing, and a young woman sat up in bed, clutching a brown hospital blanket to her bare chest. She glowered at Riley, clearly annoyed at the intrusion. Her eyes darted furtively across to Adele. There was a flicker of recognition, but her expression remained the same: a curious blend of defiance and vulnerability. She looked back at Adele, confused.

“Who is she, Adele?” she said, before addressing Riley directly. “What do you want?”

“She’s here to rescue us,” said the girl brightly.

“Not exactly,” corrected Riley. “We’re looking for our friend Will and found you two instead.” There was something about the girl that Riley didn’t trust. Riley pointed to the door. “All the other rooms were locked. How come yours isn’t?”

The young woman yawned and swung her legs off the bed. She reached over and grabbed a top that lay crumpled on a blue plastic chair by the wall. Facing the wall, she dropped the blanket. She was underdeveloped for her age with slim hips and a narrow waist. Her pale shoulders and back were covered in small red marks and dark bruises. Her spine and rib cage were clearly visible as she hunched over. Riley noticed her wrists. They looked raw and swollen where she must have been tied up previously. The girl threaded her arms through the sleeves of a grey-white sweatshirt with a faded Mickey Mouse on the front.

She glanced back at them, her face half-hidden again by reddish-blonde hair. She looked like a frightened animal, wild and untamed. “They leave mine unlocked because they know I won’t leave.”

“Are you a prisoner here?”

“You wouldn’t understand. It’s not as simple as that.”

“Try me,” said Riley.

“They…they keep me here,” continued the girl. “I can’t leave.”

Riley looked puzzled. “In what way? Are you a patient or a prisoner?” she said scornfully and regretted it. The words just slipped out.

“It’s not like that.” Her cheeks flushed red. “Look, if I do what they say then everything’s fine. They bring me food, treat me nice. But if I don’t then they beat me. At first I fought back, but now I’ve learned to just shut up and let them…” Her voice trailed off.

The girl looked down at her bare feet, wiggling her toes childishly. She was about Mila’s age, but pale and thin. Riley walked over and put an arm around her waist. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here. You’re coming with us.”

Stella seemed uncertain. “Please, just leave me here. If they find me out of my room, they’ll only beat me again…”

Riley insisted. “We’re getting you out of here. Someplace safe. Where you don’t have to live like this any more. How did you end up here anyway?”

Stella told them her story in barely above a whisper, stopping several times to compose herself. They’d captured her and two of her friends a few miles from here almost a month back. Her friends had refused to cooperate and were badly beaten. They took them away; she didn’t know where. One of the men was kind to her and protected her from the others. She ended up here in this room, sleeping for most of the day, reading books, waiting for the man to visit her. She started to cry, beginning to remember the pain and horror she had been subjected to. Riley had seen this defence mechanism before in victims of abuse. The mind just disconnected. Adele started shivering as suppressed memories came flooding back. Adele walked up to her and hugged her tightly. Nevertheless, Stella seemed uncertain about leaving. They each grabbed a hand and half supported her as her legs grew weak again.

Sean was speechless when they found him. He shook his head at the latest addition to Riley’s entourage and walked away. There was still no sign of Will and they were out of time.

Stella pleaded with them to finish up and get out of there. She stood nervously gnawing her fingernails. The “monsters” would be back soon and she didn’t want to be around when they came back. Just then a piercing alarm made them all flinch, splitting the air close to their heads. They looked at each other, confused.

There were footsteps coming towards them along the corridor. Riley ushered the group into the nurse’s station to the right and took a deep breath. She unhooked the strap securing the shotgun to her backpack and readied herself. She braced the stock against her shoulder like Zed had shown her and waited, half-hidden