All the Fiends of Hell by Adam Nevill

Author:Adam Nevill [Nevill, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ritual Limited
Published: 2024-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

6

Eventually, hospital buildings of brown brick, studded with dark windows, filled the windscreen. Karl pulled over beside three ambulances parked on tarmac gridded with yellow lines, their rear doors open. Above the steel and glass awning of a new extension, a three-storey wing was burned out. None of the grey panels on the facade of the building had escaped the blaze. Black streaks licked from every window. A brown haze of evil-smelling smoke drifted from behind the wing.

Beyond the main block, interconnected prefabricated cabins and what resembled social housing were arranged around the newer buildings, all threaded with a road system. In some of the older buildings, a few electric lights shone whitely, though not in the main edifice.

Karl peered up fearfully at the new dawn. The clouds remained white above the sprawling hospital but a rim of pink, visible at a distance, now encroached from the red ocean of sky. To the north and east, the contagion bled freshly. The western sky was obscured by buildings and higher ground. He didn’t know how long it would be before the crimson canopy arrived and discoloured the land here. Hours, perhaps, if they were lucky. The wind had stayed low all night and into the morning. But that could change, or be changed.

Karl eased himself from the car and stood up, groaning, before bending over just as quickly. The pain caused by operating the car with one hand and an injured arm caught up with him again. ‘Stay put,’ he told Jake.

To his astonishment, a woman emerged from out of one of the ambulances. A heavy-set figure, wearing blue hospital scrubs, who bustled across the tarmac towards them. As she came closer, Karl could see that she’d been worn to a nub. Drawn and pale with a face scored by lines new and old, her hair wiry, grey and wild, she presented as harassed and fatigued a spectacle as he’d ever seen. Her eyes filled with tears. But she was real enough and his relief at the sight of a nurse’s uniform near triggered the collapse of his legs.

To make sure he was really there too, the woman took his good arm. Mute with wonder, she stared at him with tired blue eyes, the sclera bloodshot. Her fingers palpated his forearm.

‘I’m Karl. Me and a boy are hurt. We—’

‘I’d given up on seeing anyone again.’ She removed her hand from his arm and touched her chest as if to monitor a pulse. ‘But this will make everything so much easier. You’ve answered my prayers. You’ve no idea how desperate we’ve been. For help.’ She self-consciously patted her hair as if to make herself presentable for the visitor.

Karl received the impression that she wasn’t so much addressing him but telling herself how things were going to be. He struggled to maintain a nervy smile. ‘We’re hurt. Me and the boy.’

‘I’m Barbara.’

Karl looked over her shoulder, into the foyer. The main doors were wedged open but there was no electric light in reception. A darkened space with a low ceiling funnelled away from the entrance.

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