Andy rushed to the window and saw a scene right out of a horror movie. The blood-red sky glowed ominously over the dark streets, where clumps of red mist gathered together.
As he looked at what seemed like clouds on the roads, his eyes opened as wide because a stream of creatures which looked like what he had encountered the previous night rushed out from the mist. Some were flying, others running, and some...slithering, as all manner of demonic monsters revealed themselves in the dim, red hues of the night.
All were covered with the same smooth, jet-black scales, with evil looking spikes jutting out from their limbs and joints. Their razor-sharp claws were at least two feet long, and their eyes glowed with malevolent hunger.
The terror began as the demons lunged at the people on the street and began tearing them apart, feasting on their flesh.
"Wha-" he almost got whiplash as he was pulled around abruptly and Danae smacked her forehead against his.
"My sword, where's my sword?" she demanded with frantic urgency.
His mind went blank for a moment. "Oh...when we came in, I had to pass it to the security...at the front desk."
"Bring me there now!"
Seeing that her body was still limping in pain even after being patched up by the doctor, he put her arm over his shoulder and supported her as they rushed towards the lift.
Outside the room, all was calm in the corridor because not many had realised the disaster that befell them yet. They managed to get to the lift without any problems and made their way to the ground floor. He could hear her ragged breaths as she struggled with the wounds which had just been stitched up.
"It's OK, we're almost there, Danae." he tried to reassure her although he knew she probably didn't understand him. She took a deep breath and tried to respond with a smile because she could hear his efforts at supporting her in his tone.
But nothing prepared them for what they would see as the lift doors slowly opened. They could already hear the terrified screams outside before they saw anything.
The lobby was filled with complete chaos and gore. Broken bodies and limps lay all over, and not a single person could be seen unharmed. From what they could see and hear, the security hadn't even managed to reach their guns and shoot yet before the deadly creatures smashed through the glass automatic doors in their unstoppable attack.
Three demons had their teeth buried in the bodies around them and the air began to be filled with loud slurping sounds and the cracking of bones, as the fangs crushed through them to get to the marrow inside.
"Oh shittt!!" Andy saw another demon he had missed standing to the side, merely 40 feet from the lift. His heart almost burst with fear as its red eyes lifted and looked in the direction of the opening lift.
Pulling Danae back from the doors, he jammed on the close button.
"Shit, shit, shit, close nowww!"
With a slight screeching sound, the doors opened and then began closing at the tremendous speed of his grandma doing the 60 yard dash...in a wheelchair. As the lift closed, his eyes looked up in horror as the demon began scuttling to them with intense speed.
It looked like a shortened centipede, with around 12 legs on each side that caused an uncomfortable clacking sound on the tiles as it approached. Although this monster didn't have any horns like the previous one, it had two lower jaws that extended out like pincers, dripping with black venom.
It arrived at the lift doors right when it closed and slammed in frustration against it with loud crash. Andy could feel the lift shake as he stumbled and fell down, and there was even a dent in the reinforced steel doors, but thankfully it held together and began moving up to a random floor he had pressed on.
He looked at the number '5' that was lighted up and looked at the details next to the button.
"Maternity Ward?" he muttered. "Oh my god, the babies..."
He felt a sinking feeling in his heart as he thought about the monsters tearing apart the tiny bodies of the babies. He turned to Danae and made contact again.
"What are we going to do? We couldn't get to your sword." he stammered out in nervousness.
Her eyes dropped to the ground. "We hide and hope we don't get found. If we can last until dawn, we have a chance to survive. If not...we're already dead."
He had sudden thought. 'Dawn! The creatures can't take sunlight!' He wondered if the UV lights that were used to treat jaundice in babies could be used. They arrived at the fifth floor and made their way to the maternity ward.
It was in complete uproar with the nurses all gathered at the windows and looking out at the scenes on the street outside. Some were shrieking, while others sobbed quietly in fear or stood, staring shock.
'Oh crap, how are we going to survive tonight? What a mess...' he thought to himself. He had never had to take lead in anything before, preferring to follow the loudest voice in the room and not get into any conflicts.
But at this point, no one in the room looked like they were going to take charge.
He suddenly heard a bloodcurdling, collective scream from the nurses closest to the window. He looked up just as there was a loud breaking noise and a giant, gargoyle-like creature burst through the windows.
It's massive arms tore through three nurses in an instant in an explosion of blood and flesh, as the group fell away and scrambled to escape as fast as they could. Standing up straight and looking around in disdain with its scarlet eyes, it lifted a leg it had snapped off to its mouth filled with hundreds of jagged teeth, and tore off a large piece of flesh from the thigh, closing its eyes for a moment to savour the delicious taste.
Without thinking, Andy ran to one of the UV devices hanging over a baby and lifted it away from the crib. Without even checking how far the wire could extend, he lifted it up in the direction of the creature and ran towards it like a bull targeting a red flag.
For a moment, he wished he could take out one of the tube lights and wield it like a sword like a Jedi Master. 'I mean, how cool would that be??'
The demon glared at him with mild surprise but continued nonchalantly chewing through the limb in its hand, not believing that these weak creatures could do anything to it, until...the UV light hit it right in its face.
It hissed in agony, then roared, as smoke started coming out from its eye balls. Instinctively, it jumped with all its strength out of the window it had just come in from, and flapped its wings with desperate strength, but in just those few moments, its face started to melt off already. It smashed back out through another window and fell five floors to the ground below, unable to maintain its flight while flying blind. They heard more roars of pain and anger as it stumbled around on the road outside.
The entire room looked at Andy holding the UV lights in his hands, stunned at what had transpired in the last few seconds.
"The monsters can't stand UV light! Hurry, collect all the ones here and protect this room from every entrance and window!" he shouted out.
When no one around him moved, he lifted his voice even louder, "NOWWW!!!" They jumped up in fear but started to do as he instructed, while tears and sobbing continued, trembling with every step that they took.
'That's right, my young padawans, listen to me.' he chuckled to himself to try to diffuse the raging fear inside himself.
Before long, they had gathered every person in the ward to position at the safest corner of the room, and had a total of twelve UV lights lit up and facing outwards. Fortunately, during those few minutes, no other monster had flown in.
The whole time, Danae had stayed quite in shock at seeing the lights hit the demons. Her world had never found a way to replicate the radiation that came from the sun, and she had watched in amazement at the effectiveness of this weapon...this weapon that had originally been used over the babies of this race of strange people.
Across the night, they didn't lose anyone in that room. Two demons had come through the stairwell door, and another one had flown through the broken window, but they quickly found out the excruciating agony that would follow them if they attempted to reach this group of people.
In fact, the second monster that had flown in had not turned around in time, and had fallen to the ward floor, disintegrating as the purple coloured lights hit it from every direction. The strangest thing was that Danae had jumped out of the protective circle before the demon completely dissolved and thrust her hand in its melting chest to grab what looked like a large black crystal in her hands.
'This must have been what she called the demon core yesterday. Why does she want it?' Andy wondered.
They heard snarls, screams, roars and even gunfire throughout the night as babies cried around them through the night until the rays of dawn started appearing.
But at least, they were alive.