Out For Blood 17

At 2.30am the station door opened again and Vicky raised her head, she smelt the odour of burnt paper and noticed a blue mist hanging around the fluorescent tube above the desk. A middle aged woman walked over to Mr Rob, her steps thudding on the wooden floor, and he immediately stood when he saw her.

She was like everyone else they had seen in this town so far, tall. She wasn’t thin but she wasn’t fat either, her hair was long, black and grey and unkempt. Her face was fairly smooth which made her look forty-five to fifty; although Jill got the impression she was much older. She wore a dirty grey short-sleeved floral dress that hung almost to her ankles. A dark green shawl wrapped around her lower back and draped over each of her arms at the elbows.

She was stood facing the cells behind Mr Robs chair; her eyes were the same as his. Jill and Vicky looked at each other then back at the woman, who without making any noise was now stood just outside the cell door, her face pushed up to the bars sniffing at Jill and Vicky; like some kind of animal. Jill could swear she hadn’t heard her moving across the floor.

‘Sniff… this one will be ready for breeding soon.’ she said indicating with her head at Vicky, her voice parched and raspy.

Jill and Vicky looked incredulously at each other. What the woman had just said struck fear into their very core. Breeding? Fucking breeding?

Then the woman narrowed her dark eyes and looked closely at Vicky's swollen face, she turned and thudded toward the desk.
Vicky shouted. ‘What the fuck’s that supposed to mean? Hey you, bitch!’

The woman did not respond, she stood facing Mr Rob almost nose to nose, and moved her right hand to her left shoulder and struck him solidly across his scarred right cheek. ‘What good will they be if you fuck them up?’ she shouted into his face.
Both Jill and Vicky were now standing at the bars and shouting as well, nothing they had heard in the last couple of minutes had eased their anguish.

‘What the fuck’s up with you people?’ shouted Jill.
‘Let us out of here you fucking freaks!’ shouted Vicky.
‘Hey, fuck face!’ Jill said and then spat at the woman but missed.

Mr Rob looked over the womans shoulder at Jill and Vicky, who were still shouting. The woman also turned and looked back at them. ‘Be still,’ she said. ‘if you need anything, Hal here will get it for you.’

Jill shouted. ‘What we need is for you to open this fucking cage and let us the fuck out of here!’
‘That… is out of the question.’ she turned back to Hal. ‘How long before he restores?’ she said with an upward nod toward the other cell.
Hal looked at the clock on the wall above the washroom. ‘Around thirty minutes.’

‘Okay, get him strapped to the floor and open the hatch. It’ll rain soon, and this time, I don’t want any fuck-ups! You got that?’ she said raising her eyebrows. ‘When you’ve done that, get yourself over to the Town Hall, we’ll wait out the storm then clean up this whole mess later.’
Hal nodded. ‘Yes Ella.’

She turned and looked at Jill and Vicky. Who by now had stopped shouting. ‘The blond one is very precious, see to it she comes to no more harm.’ then she started out the door.

‘And the other one Ella?’ said Hal holding the door open.
Ella paused just outside before she answered. ‘She is fodder; you can take her to “Chambers” and hook her up. If it rains before you get finished use the tunnel.’ she then left.