She looked at the lit end of the cigarette, and blew on it, watching the embers fire up for a second before she crushed it out and threw it into the ashtray next to the door.
Sniffing her hands, she winced and whispered, “Fuck.”
Out of her pocket, she pulled a small bottle of cinnamon sugar scented hand sanitizer. She hoped it would mask the smell. She’d used it last night and he didn’t seem to notice the smoky aroma left behind by the cancer sticks. Her breath was another matter. She pulled a small bottle of mouthwash from her other pocket, poured a little into her mouth, swished it around, spit it out, and then popped in some strawberry gum.
Mallory was about to walk back into the hospital when she heard what sounded like dragging coming from the parking lot. She wheeled around to see someone walking with a limp, kind of dragging his foot forward, scraping it against the pavement. The side entrance of the hospital was an odd place for a patient to be entering. This was where most of the staff took their breaks. It wasn’t a main entrance.
“Excuse me,” she said, wondering if she should walk away. She wasn’t security and she had no responsibility to keep people from entering this way. When the man didn’t answer, she said, “I think you want to go in the other way. This entrance is for staff only.”
An overhead parking lot lamp shone down on him, and Mallory saw it was a cop. She noticed the uniform and was pretty sure it was the new guy. He was a cutie. Riley was his name. She was pretty sure of it.
Now you think he’s cute too?
She’d been a straight-up horn ball since divorcing her husband. It was like she’d been given a new sexual lease on life. It had become her responsibility to have as many orgasms as she could with whatever man she wanted.
“Officer Riley, is that you, hun?” she called out. “What happened to your leg?”
She heard him mumble something, but she wasn’t sure what it was, so she stepped forward.
“I couldn’t hear you, hun,” she said.
The officer growled and grumbled. She couldn’t make out any of his words, but she could see he was injured.
“Looks pretty bad. Let’s get you in here and have you looked at.”
If it were anyone else, she would have made them go around to the main entrance or over to the ER, but this was a cop, and she needed to make sure he was taken care of. He would do the same for her if she were hurt. He needed a hand, so she rushed toward him. She was only a couple of feet away and was about to reach out, throw his arm around her shoulder, and help him navigate the rest of the parking lot when she noticed he didn’t look so great in the face either.
His eyes were lazy, and his head was tilted a bit. He looked sickly.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
Behind him, from around the corner of the building, came at least ten others. She recognized Milton and Sheriff Morris… and they were coming right at her. She wasn’t expecting it when Riley jumped on her. A slight growl escaped him as he dove at her with his good leg.
He grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her in close, and bit into her shoulder.
Light flashed behind her eyes as her entire body went into panic mode. It was an attack, but why? Why would he do this to her?
His teeth tore into her flesh, and she heard something near her. Something abnormal. It sounded like a pool of angry insects stepping over each other to get to her. All clicking and hissing. Mallory screamed, pulled away from him, and then sprang forward and bit his nose. She pulled back and ripped it clean off. Blood flung wide, but his grip didn’t loosen. It was like he didn’t even feel the attack. He had her tightly in his clench, and when she spit out his nose and looked back at him, her eyes were drawn to his hairline.
There, in his short, cropped hair, she saw something move. Tiny bugs, like minuscule maggots, writhed through his hair, causing it to ruffle.
Mallory screamed again, but it only made it halfway out her mouth before catching and turning into a gurgle. The maggots leaped from his head and landed on hers. There, she felt everything. The bugs clawed at her hair, laid eggs at the roots, planting them in the soil-like flesh of her scalp. Then they began to dig, pressing past their egg-engulfed, infant children and biting into her like miniature torpedoes burrowing into her skull.
Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she passed out.
A minute or two later, Mallory dragged herself alongside the others as they entered the staff entrance of the hospital and went after every living being inside.
13
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” Phyllis called out from the center of the room.
Nitsy rolled over and looked at her new friend. She was not about this morning crew life. Yes, the rest of the campus would be waking up soon to the sound of their banging on pots and pans, but that wouldn’t be for at least another thirty minutes. They still had to brush their teeth, get dressed, stumble outside to meet the group, pick up their pots and pans provided by Eggo, and then go from floor to floor being royal pains in the asses to everyone who wasn’t a part of their crew.
She would rather take these thirty minutes to rest peacefully, but then again, she would not enjoy waking up to the racket her crew was about to make.
“You’re way too cheerful,” Nitsy said through a mouthful of pillow.
“This is exciting, isn’t it?”
“It’s not.”
“It’s so not,” their other roommate, Megan, agreed. She too was face down in her pillow, refusing to get up and get ready.
“I’ll get to see Bradley’s sleepy face,” Phyllis said.
Nitsy rolled her eyes. The girl’s infatuation with the artsy kid from their group wasn’t reason enough for her to get out of bed. Nitsy didn’t need to be a part of their romantic, leadership-conference fling.
It must have been obvious Nitsy wasn’t going to change her mood, because Phyllis switched to, “And Robbie’s?”
“You don’t even know what room he’s in,” Nitsy said, trying to hide the excitement in her voice. If anything could get her out of bed, it was the thought of seeing Robbie when he first woke up. Not only because she thought he was handsome, but she could snap a picture of him looking his worst and threaten to use it against him. She’d never do that, but he didn’t know that. It would be fun holding that over him.
Plus, she still hadn’t decided whether she trusted him or not. She’d started the trip so frustrated that he’d been chosen to attend the conference with her. She was sure he was an asshole. That he was a high school jock who thought he was God’s gift to women. She’d judged him. Perhaps a bit unfairly considering she’d never had a full conversation with him before. Could he really be a nice guy or was this all a ruse? She hoped it was the former.
“Let’s go see Robbie,” Phyllis sang.
Thirty minutes later, Nitsy was outside the dormitory hallways, standing next to the statue of Stonewall Jackson. Eggo had a big box of old pots and pans, tea kettles, a trash can lid, serving spoons, ladles, a jar of nuts and bolts, and other random items that could rattle, clink, and clank.
With two metal skillet lids in hand, held out like symbols, Nitsy followed Phyllis. They strolled into the halls like bandmates about to put on the Super Bowl halftime show. Most of the boys in their group headed straight up to the girls’ floor. Of course, they would. As Nitsy contemplated the predictability of the boys, Phyllis and she remained on the first floor, and she realized they weren’t much different.
Everything, whether they liked it or not, had to do with attraction. They were excited to rouse the male students.
Maybe if you’re the first thing Robbie sees when he wakes up, he’ll think of you all day.