Out For Blood 49

‘Hey, take it easy. It’s me Nick!’
Jill recognised his voice and stepped back into the doorway; still semi blinded by the flash of light. ‘That was a fucking stupid thing to do, don’t you realise I could have killed you just now?’
‘Yes,’ he said pulling a Polaroid picture from the front of his camera. ‘And if I’d been stood on the table you might have even hit me!’ He then snapped another photograph of Jill.

‘Will you fuck off doing that? And I thought we said not to go back to your van?’
‘Look lady, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. There’s no way I’m not going to get some kind of record of it!’
Jill scoweled deeply at Nick. ‘The names Jill, call me lady one more time… and I won’t fucking miss!’

Nick sensed she meant every word. ‘Okay, I’m sorry… so did you find anything?’ he said putting the polaroids into a plastic bag and then into his jacket pocket.
She pointed to the empty blood bag lying on the floor. Nick crouched and picked it up. ‘So it’s a plastic bag, don’t mean much!’

‘Look closely at it Nick...'
Nick did so, that’s when he saw how the contents of the bag had actually been extracted. ‘Are these…?’ he trailed off.
‘Yes, teeth marks,’ said Jill. ‘Take a look in the dogs' feeding bowl, I’m only guessing here... but I think that is how they disposed of the human empties!’

Nick took the bowl from the floor and placing it and the plastic blood bag on the table he took another photograph. ‘Oh boy, this is really gonna get me recognised with the organisers of the convention.’

Jill put her gun in the back of her jeans. ‘If you keep flashing away with that thing they won’t be the only ones noticing you!’
Nick looked at Jill then at his camera, and then he smiled. ‘Gotcha!’
Jill then walked out into the rain. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘We have another store to search, this one’s empty.’

Nick put the new photograph away and followed. She reached the last of the three stores and on seeing the size of the padlock on this door she knew hitting it with a rock would do as much damage as hitting it with a stick of candy-floss. Holding out her gun only inches from the padlock and averting her gaze she fired two rapid shots and the padlock fell to the ground, Jill then kicked open the door and they both entered.

This room was similar in size to that of the rear of the store they had just left, only it was much colder, and the door that stood before them was made of steel with a small glass panel. Beside the door attached to the wall was a thermal gauge that read two degrees Celsius, not quite freezing but close enough. Jill tried to look through the glass panel but insufficient light prevented her from seeing anything the room might be holding. As there was no lock on the door Jill tugged on the hefty chrome handle, the steel door hissed slightly as the warmer air was sucked into the inner room through the inch gap she had made.

‘Before you open that further…’ said Nick. ‘What might we find in there?’
‘I don’t know Nick, but of what I’ve witnessed these past six hours... what ever is in here can’t be any worse.’ At that Jill leant back and pulled on the door handle again.

They both stepped away to allow it to open fully, when they peered inside it was still too dark to see anything. The colder air now seemed to pool around their feet making them shiver almost instantly.

‘Pass me your camera Nick,’ said Jill.
Nick frowned almost incredulously but not quite, he then past his camera to Jill who held it out just over the threshold of the door and took a photograph. The initial flash provided a nano second of vision into the room; all they saw from this were a number of brown cardboard boxes. Jill pulled the Polaroid film from the front and passed the camera back to Nick. She tore off the chemical strip and then began to waft it to and fro, she also blew over it in order to make it self develop a little faster.

‘That’s a common mistake,’ offered Nick with a smile.
‘I’m sorry?’
‘Wafting it like that! It’s a common mistake, well… not a mistake as such, you see—’
‘Can it Nick,’ said Jill cutting him off. She then looked at the image. ‘Boxes, about a dozen of them.’
Nick took the photograph from her. ‘What does “B.P.L.” mean? And Puricell?’
‘No idea,’ replied Jill. ‘But just be thankful there’s nothing hanging from the ceiling.’

Jill walked into the refrigerated room and began dragging out one of the boxes which was about the size of a dishwasher. Nick noticed how she was struggling with it, hanging his camera around his neck he helped her pull it into the light coming from the rear door. Jill ripped the lid of the box open and they both looked inside. Nick reached into the box and retrieved part of its contents. ‘Well it looks like they have their own personal supply!’ He said holding up a blood filled bag.

‘Okay… so why take the girls?’ questioned Jill.
Nick shrugged tossing the bag onto the table. ‘Perhaps they prefer warm food!’ The camera then flashed again as Nick took a photograph of the boxes contents.
‘Come on, there’s nothing of use here. Let’s get back to Gregg.’ said Jill.

As Nick turned and headed out into the rain Jill picked up the blood bag from the table and without Nick seeing she slipped it under her poncho, then with a sharp intake of breath slid it down the neck of her T-shirt. ‘Fuck me that’s cold!’ She said.
‘Sorry?’ said Nick turning back.
‘I said it’s cold… in here, come on... let’s get back to that heater.’

Nick led the way back to the garage at a rather more brisk pace than he did leaving it, and that’s when Jill realised he was acting up earlier when claiming to be breathless. She now knew it was a ploy just to get his camera. They both ducked under the open shutter and Gregg stood to greet them.

‘What was the gunfire?’ he said hurriedly hitting the down button.
‘I had to shoot some locks off,’ explained Jill, not mentioning the fact that she had shot at and almost killed Nick.
‘I thought you’d actually come across one of them.’

Jill and Nick stood by the fan heater trying to dry off once more. Jill noticed a change in Gregg, he seemed very edgy, and although it was only slight she also noticed his skin tone was paler than it was twenty minutes ago. ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked him.
‘Do you really want to know?’
‘Here, look at these,’ said Nick passing Gregg the photographs. ‘See those boxes… they’re full of blood!’ He said enthusiastically.

Gregg looked askance at Jill and she half smiled back at him... then he knew. ‘I thought we said not to go back to your van Nick?’
Nick didn't understand their concern; he was back, and he was still alive. ‘I had to; I couldn’t leave this place without some proof of what’s going on here Gregg. Surely you of all people can understand that?’

‘What makes you think you’ll leave here at all Nick?’ said Jill.
Nick said nothing in reply; he shrunk inwards thinking of the enormity of her question.

Gregg pushed the photographs back into Nicks’ hand. ‘And that’s all you found?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ said Jill. ‘The first store was like "Fort Knox", no way of getting in. The next we managed get into but was almost bare, the place looked like it hadn’t been used in years. And the last one was the blood bank! What about the cinema?’
‘Empty... which probably means the rest of them are up at the Town Hall. All we need now is a plan to get those girls out. I'm open to suggestions!’