Ghoul

Ghoul

Noah Gibson

The lonesome desert sat in a hushed daze, keeping secret over the atrocities of the day. The shadows crept along the smooth, tan sand as the sun hid along the horizon like a coward. The rotting stench of death invaded Jason Buck’s nostrils, uppercutting them and forcing a constant flaring motion. He paced back and forth on the border of the death pit. His eyes were drawn to the corpses. He didn’t want to look, but his brain pressured his eyes to do so.

Look at what you’ve done.

He adjusted his rifle in his hands, clicking the safety on and off repeatedly. The bullet riddled bodies stared back at him with disappointed glare. A child’s face was highlighted by a strand of sunlight that darted through the desolate wasteland. Buck met the gaze and shuttered at what he and the other soldiers had done. The bullet hole through the young boy’s forehead brought an acidic rumble to his gut. He hated this. He hated death. He just wanted to just go home.

It had been exactly two years since the desert and Jason Buck could not escape death.

He was now working as a security guard for a hospital in the city he grew up in. He understood that people die at hospitals, but when he signed up for the security job, he didn’t know he would have to move the bodies to and from the hospital’s morgue. How was a security guard responsible for that? And to add insult to injury, he had not been informed of this upon taking the job. It was a sickening surprise on his first day there. And to further the cruelty, since Buck was still the newest of the guards on night shift, the morgue runs were all on him.

Grand Mercy Hospital was where people were sent to die. It was no secret. Buck visited the morgue up to ten times a shift on a usual night. And this night was no different.

It was ten minutes past midnight when they got the call.

“Morgue run, second floor ICU,” Jenson called out over the radio with a mechanical squall at the end that shrieked throughout the building.

“Copy,” Buck radioed back with a roll in his eyes. This was the fifth run of the night. The other four rolling in an hour after shift change.

Buck sighed as he loaded himself on to the ancient elevator. It jerked as it lifted him up to the second floor, then again when it came to a sudden halt. With his hands tucked deep into his pockets, he strolled into the ICU. McElvine was there waiting for him, a slug in human form.

The tall, round man leaned against the wall with a blank stare in his hollow eyes. His stubble stretched all the way from his ears to his chest, hanging on a fat extra chin. McElvine’s hair was a mullet with a blaring bald spot on top, an interesting style that he couldn’t help. Buck appeared a near opposite: short, in shape, buzz cut, clean shaven, and tan.

“S’up man,” Buck said with an awkward wave.

“Havanagoodayman?” McElvine mumbled then returned the awkwardness with a subtle nod of his big head.

“Was that a question or are you saying you’re having a good day?”

“Question.”

“Yeah man…it’s all good. Let’s just get this done okay?”

The other guards deemed the two, the “Morgue Bitches”. For Buck, the job was a punishment, but for McElvine, it was a choice. Nonetheless, they got it done.

They loaded the bagged body onto a separate gurney. Buck felt that the corpse was still warm through the bag.

“Still warm,” McElvine said in a sinister tone, like he found the sensation arousing.

Buck cocked his head and examined the pale sloth. The young nurse that stuck to a corner of the disaster of an ICU room gave McElvine a look of utter shock and disgust.

Buck and McElvine took the service elevator down to the first floor, popping out near the loading dock at the back of the hospital. From there, they rolled it down the cracked concrete of the ramp. The body rattled in the gurney as they always did down the ramp.

The hospital’s morgue was located in a building attached to the employee’s parking garage, separate from the actual hospital. It was about a two hundred foot walk from the hospital through a vacant slab of cement to the icebox. There was one source of light that hung off to the side, it hardly illuminated a thing. The walk in the dark was a constant reminder of death.

Buck let McElvine command the gurney as they navigated along the rocky pavement. Buck rubbed his arms, the cold of the night berating his skin. A cool wind whipped through the buildings of the city and gusted into the men. McElvine’s greasy hair fluttered as Buck’s body tensed. There were construction noises off in the night. The crews had been working constantly to put in the city’s new sewer system.

They arrived at the morgue and McElvine badged in. Entering the small office space before the refrigerator of death, Buck’s nostrils flared at a familiar stench.

Death.

Buck coughed and covered his nose, forcing back a gag. “You smell that?”

McElvine gave a big whiff of the pungent air, a smirk etched across his fat, pimple-infested face. “Mmm. Someone must’ve left a bag open.”

“Did you just moan? Bro…what the fuck is wrong with you?”

McElvine sat down on a quivering swivel chair, it squealed at his monstrous weight. He began to scribble down on the check-in paper, leaning forward on the cheap plastic table. Buck mouthed the word “damn” as the table’s legs bent at the heaviness of McElvine. Buck then got the gurney inside and wheeled it over to the wall. Then sat down himself and tried not to think about the smell. If there was one thing the military taught him, it was that discomfort was just a state of mind. Still, the stench brought back memories that Buck would like to forget at all costs.

Buck got up from the chair and put on new gloves. McElvine rose from his chair in a huff and did the same, putting on size mediums that fit his chubby hands loosely.

Buck peaked into the frosty window of the refrigeration unit and could see nothing through the foggy glass. He looked out of habit, he knew how many bodies were in there.

Eleven in total. Four from earlier in the shift and another three from the day shift. The other four were from yesterday, they still hadn’t been picked up by the funeral homes yet.

A sudden crash from inside the unit sent Buck backwards. He staggered back, like he was just hit with a strong jab.

“What the fuck was that?!” McElvine said. Buck could hear the fear in his voice.

The man was never much for confrontation, Buck had noticed in their time working together. Maybe that was why the man stuck to morgue duty?

“Not sure,” Buck said calmly as he approached the window again. There was always a light on in the unit, but the source was a dim bulb that sat on the wall in the back. It barely lit the room and flickered like a campy stereotype.

“Fuckin’ look in there,” McElvine said like a whiny child. Buck shot the man a glance that caused McElvine to avert his eyes to the sticky floor of the office.

“Go ahead and look there because that’s where you’ll end up if you keep talkin’ to me like that.”

Buck tugged on the door and the heavy metal gave in, opening with a hydraulic hiss. Icy evaporation made wavelike clouds in the air that spiraled out of the unit. Buck gestured for McElvine to go inside and he followed Buck’s suggestion.

McElvine hesitated as he stepped inside the L-shaped unit. Buck placed a hand on the man’s back to guide him in further. His gloved hand felt the softness of his coworker and Buck pondered how the man would fare in a fight. Probably not good at all.

The unit was lined with bodies on the side, four on the right and four on the left. Near the entrance was a shelving unit with buckets of organs, labeled accordingly. In the back section of the unit, hidden behind the bend were the other three bodies and a mass of buckets filled with limbs and God only knows what else.

One of those buckets was laying on the ground near the turn, with a trail of liquid around it.

“You think-” McElvine gulped. “-it fell?”

“How would it fall? They’re all flat on the ground,” Buck whispered. He decided to lower his voice, just in case. His eyes told McElvine to do the same.

Buck took a cautious step toward the bucket at the far side of the unit and stopped in his tracks at the sight of the thing. It popped its head out from around the corner. McElvine lost his breath and stumbled against one of the bodies on the wall, causing the gurney to clank off the metal of the unit.

It stood at waste level to the men. Its eyes were yellow, jaundice-like and seemed to glow. It had the face of a bizarre child, innocent looking with a narrow nose and small mouth. Its hands were tucked just below the thing’s neck, like it was copying a praying mantis. Buck noticed the jagged, yellow nails of the thing and winced. It looked at the men with curiosity.

“The fuck-” Buck started before he was cut off by McElvine’s girly shrill. Buck turned his head toward his coworker with disgust, taking his eyes off the thing. This was a mistake.

It bolted toward Buck with inhuman speed. Its body was a nude, pale blur. It was on Buck in an instant and viciously slashed at the man with its otherworldly claws. Buck’s shirt was ripped to his skin and blood oozed from the wound like a leaking pipe. Buck fell back, knocked to the ground by the small creature. He crashed into the shelving unit and the jars with organs toppled down, spilling all over Buck and the floor. The fowl liquid drenched him and the bloody body parts sloshed out on the ground.

“Oh fuck!” Buck yelled as he pawed at his wounds.

McElvine attempted to climb on top of the gurney where the body of Clyde Martin lay, but the creature had other plans. It bit down on the back of the obese man’s arm, causing him to scream. Buck tried to get to his feet, but the liquid forced him to slip and slide about on the ground.

The ghoul ripped the flesh from McElvine’s tricep and gobbled down the chunk of meat like it was cotton candy. McElvine sobbed as his body remained atop the gurney, one foot on and one foot off. Blood sprayed from his gash, soiling his uniform. The creature then grabbed him, hauling the man off the gurney with ease. It dragged the screaming guard back into the hidden corner of the unit. McElvine grabbed hold of the wall as a last resort effort to stop the assault, but it was of no use. The thing easily pulled him from the wall and out of Buck’s sight.

“Nonononono!” McElvine yelled. What followed was screams of sheer shock, panic, and pain combined with sounds of flesh ripping and tearing. McElvine screams died down after a few seconds then ceased entirely after a few more.

Buck got to his feet and gagged as his eyes caught sight of the organs splayed out on the ground. His feet squashed what he believed was a heart and Buck lifted his leg quickly, attempting to backtrack on the destruction of the high priced organ and property of the hospital. He fell to his knees and demolished a few more organs along the way. He then lifted himself up with the help of the gurney with Mr. Martin’s body, his hand sliding on McElvine’s blood in the process. Thankfully he still had his gloves on.

“McElvine?! What the fuck?!” Buck’s voice cracked like he was going through puberty.

Buck rounded the side and his face contorted at the sight on the other side of the bend.

McElvine’s face converted to a red blob of flesh. The thing picked at the meat casually, like it was eating a bowl of nuts. The three bodies on the gurneys were more or less the same. The bags were ripped open and the bodies were chewed on. One of the corpses had its entire stomach eaten out. While another looked like its front side had been skinned entirely. The buckets of limbs were picked through as well. The corner was a mess. Devoured arms and legs plagued with grotesque diseases and afflictions were thrown about like scraps to a hungry dog. They had chunks bit out of them that matched the small mouth of the thing that was eating McElvine. Buck scrambled against the wall as the little creature leered at him, like he was the one intruding.

Buck gave the ghoul a once over and noticed that the thing’s stomach was engorged, probably from eating all the bodies. And the thing was genderless, sporting a smooth patch of skin where genitals should be.

Buck needed to get the fuck out of there.

But Buck had waited too long. The ghoul walked toward him on all fours, stalking him, moving like a spider. Buck shot quick glances at the door and back to the creature, repeating the process one too many times. The thing jumped towards him and Buck moved back into the corner of death.

Now he was trapped. Fuck.

It jumped at him again and Buck juked the thing. His feet slid in the liquid and blood that festered in the unit, but the thing did too. It slid back into the gurneys and banged against them with tremendous force. Buck saw the opportunity and took it. He leaped forward as he heard the ghoul scrambling behind him, knocking metal against metal. Buck lost his footing on the slippery floor and quickly got back to his feet, charging toward the door. He shouldered the hard metal and it gave with unexpected ease.

He fell into the office and turned to his back. The morgue’s door began to ease shut then shot open with a bang as the ghoul blasted through. It was on top of Buck, clawing and chomping. Its teeth were dark grey and its foul breath smelled of rotting meat. Buck grabbed hold of the thing’s wrists in an attempt to gain control of it, while it hissed in his face, doing its damnedest to try and bite his nose off. The teeth of the thing clanged shut, the bone on bone thwack sent a chill down Buck’s spine. He finally adjusted the thing in a sudden twist, jerking its body off to his right. He got behind it and shoved its head into the shockingly dirty floors of the office.

Buck got to his feet and kicked the ghoul in the ribs. It screeched. The sound was deafening and Buck quickly paced backwards as his back smacked against the wall, covering his stinging eardrums. He hurt it.

But so fucking what?

It quickly jerked its head to him and their eyes met with intensity, like two rivals facing off. The look in the thing’s eyes brought Buck back to the desert, to the boy’s eyes in the pit. This was God’s payback. This was how he would die.

Fuck that.

Buck quickly averted his gaze and scurried out the door. The cold night pecked at Buck’s skin. He walked backwards, keeping an eye on the door. As soon as he began to turn, it flung open. He lost his footing and landed on his ass, the frigid pavement meeting his rear with a thud. The ghoul stood in the doorway and just stared at him.

Buck watched the thing and waited. It didn’t move, the yellow, glowing eyes sat perfectly still. It took a moment for his senses to notice what loomed around the building. Dozens of sets of yellow eyes, glowing in the darkness of the night. Some on top of the building, some to the side. The light post flickered behind him, then gave out.

In the darkness, the yellow eyes inched closer, climbing off the building and from behind the morgue. Buck pushed himself back, but he knew there was no use.

The eyes darted toward him.

Jason Buck could never escape death.