Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

heavy, dragging sounds were definitely closer. Wet, slippery sounds accompanied them, sounds that grated on the nerves and upset the stomach. All of them heading straight for the group, with definite purpose.
    “I suppose a big transplant Frankenstein thing isn’t entirely out of the question,” said Melody. “But the noises don’t seem right for that.”
    “Definitely organic,” said Kim. “And kind of squishy.”
    “They were only developing organs,” JC said firmly. “Not building actual people.”
    “Who knows what happened after the new energies changed things?” said Melody.
    “Hell with this,” JC said briskly. “I’m not built for standing around and waiting.”
    He strode down the long, open floor, towards the sounds. It took him a while to realise that none of the others were following him. Not even Kim. JC stopped and looked back.
    “Oh come on! This is definitely time for Go team go! ”
    “Not even for a substantial raise and a stretch limo all my own,” said Happy. “I know my limitations. And they very definitely include squishy things.”
    “Right,” said Melody. “I have a really bad feeling about this. I say we skip this floor and go straight up to face the New People. I could cope with New People. Strange, invisible, squishy things is something else entirely.”
    “What is the matter with you people?” said JC. “Big Black Dogges with mouthfuls of huge jaggedy teeth didn’t even slow you down!”
    “Don’t like strange squelchy things,” Kim said firmly. “Especially ones I can’t see.”
    “Right,” said Happy.
    “Damn right,” said Melody.
    JC looked round suddenly. Something was moving about very near him. He spun round and round, glaring in every direction, and then, finally, he looked down. And said, “Oh shit.”
    “What?” said Happy. “What?”
    But JC was already sprinting back to join the group. He stumbled to a halt before them and put a hand on Melody’s and Happy’s shoulders to support himself while he got his breath back. His face was slack with shock. The others stared wildly back to where he’d been, but they still couldn’t see anything.
    “Damn, JC,” said Melody. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you move that fast before.”
    “Should we be leaving?” said Happy, practical as ever.
    “JC, talk to me, sweetie,” said Kim. “What was it? What did you see?”
    “Should we be running?” said Happy. “JC, what did you see?”
    “They’re coming,” said JC.
    “What’s coming?” said Melody.
    “We were looking in the wrong places,” said JC, straightening up and regaining his composure. He glared back the way he’d come. “We should have been looking down. At the floor.”
    He pointed, and they all looked, just in time to see the first attackers hump and slide into view. The things were crawling across the floor, humping along like massively oversized worms or slugs, leaving long smeared trails of blood and filth and steaming acid behind them. They were red and purple and black, lumpy and distorted, though their basic shapes were still recognisable—and they were all much larger than they should have been. More of them came crawling across the walls, leaving streaky viscous trails behind them, and even more hung from the ceiling. Hundreds of modified, improved, augmented human organs, made strong and self-sufficient by the Bio Reactor and unknown energies, set loose to move independently, with implacable progress and intent.
    They were all covered in networks of dark, pulsing veins, their outer membranes sweating strange acidic fluids. They heaved and pulsed, the size of heads or basketballs or dogs. But oversized and distorted as they were, they were still quite clearly hearts and lungs, kidneys and livers, and even tangles of living intestines. They had no eyes, no apparent sensory apparatus at all, but they obviously knew where JC and his team were, and they headed straight for them.
    “You have got to be fucking kidding,” said Melody.
    “Oh, that is gross,” said Happy. “Seriously gross, with a whole side order of disgusting. Human insides should stay on the inside, where they belong. But they’re still an improvement on the Frankenstein blobby thing I was expecting, I suppose. I mean, those things are wrong , on so many levels, but they’re not exactly dangerous, are they? Just big lumps of meat, humping across the floor. What are they going to do—hump our legs to death?”
    “You don’t get it,”