King Bullet by Richard Kadrey

Author:Richard Kadrey [Kadrey, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: 1665101334
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

The L.A. County hospital is huge and it takes me a few minutes to find the emergency room. Inside, it reminds me of the bad old days and the chaos of souls entering Hell for the first time—a deafening mix of animal screams, fury, and cries for help. I put on my mask and go inside.

The ER is packed with patients, nervous families, and staff. It’s the usual mix of gunshots and knife wounds, but the craziness level goes way beyond that. Whole families have to hold down bloody patients with mangled faces—Shoggots in the making. Mixed in with them are patients with their hands and arms wrapped in crude bandages. Some are still gnawing on their wounds. More autophagia cases. Many of them have already gnawed off their own lips. Still, they snap at their limbs and any of the interns who try to put surgical masks over their faces. I don’t know what else to do, so I get in line with all the civilians trying to talk to someone at the counter.

The line doesn’t fucking move. I wait for five minutes. Then ten. After that I start running hoodoo tricks through my head. Murdering everyone is out of the question—Janet and Candy wouldn’t approve. Can I make this crowd disappear? Yes, probably. Can I bring them all back? I have no idea, so maybe that’s not a good option. Can I turn invisible? Again, maybe. But I still have no idea if I could make myself visible again. Phones are ringing all over the place, but none of them are getting answered, so I can’t even call like a regular asshole.

I keep my eyes open for interns or staff who might be one of King Bullet’s crazies, but I doubt I’ll find any here. There are too many people and most of them are already scared. Where’s the fun in terrifying people whose fear meter is already pegged as far as it will go?

After a couple more pointless minutes I get out of line and look for the youngest, most pissed-off, most exhausted intern I can find.

I spot her wrestling with a big guy who’s already eaten one of his hands and probably his tongue, from the look of the blood coming out of his mouth. I run over to them and hold him down until a couple of linebacker-size orderlies come by and take over.

The intern brushes some blond hair from her face with the back of her hand. Her scrubs are soaked with sweat and her eyes are red with exhaustion. She’s been working all night and will probably be stuck there all day too. I feel bad for her, but I feel worse for Kasabian.

Once she catches her breath she nods at me.

“Thank you. I couldn’t have held him much longer.”

I look at her name tag. “Maggie.” Use it. Personalize things. It always helps.

“I’m glad I could help, Maggie. Maybe you can help me. I’m looking for someone.”

“You’ll have to speak to someone at the desk for that information.

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