Basement Cameras

I worked part time security on the night shift at a psychiatric hospital one summer while studying at college. I worked with an older guy named Vincent. He had worked security there for years so he sort of broke me in until I was ready to spend the shift on my own.
The hospital itself dates back to 1845, although much of the building was built far more recently when they extended it in the nineties. Its huge, from outside it gives the impression of a sprawling Victorian mansion house. That first week he showed me around, which took almost half an hour considering its size. We began in the security office where Vincent pointed to the tags posted under each monitor identifying what area you were looking at on camera. Then we walked quickly through the patrol route I was to take on each shift, pointing out the various areas of the hospital as we went.
We took the elevator to the basement floor where we passed a large set of double door.
"That's the abandoned section of the hospital” Vincent told me.
I thought he shivered a little when he said it.
“Operating rooms used to be though there before the new section was built. Elevator breaks down quite a lot on this side, old wiring. If you want to get back up you gotta go through there.” he said pointing at the double doors
He looked me in the eyes and accentuated as he spoke, the way people do when giving you instructions you must remember.
“You’ll find the stairs to the first floor at the end. Just keep walking though until you reach it”
I stepped forward to peer through the glass panes on the door but Vincent placed a hand in front of me and continued to hold my gaze with that expression of grave seriousness on his face.
“Now, It’s pitch black down there and sometimes you have to fumble around in the dark to find the light switch. There’s a slight delay so don’t worry if they don’t come on right away.”
His seriousness turned to a look of sympathy then and he placed a hand on my shoulder.
“You’ll be ok” he said
He was trying to be reassuring but I didn’t understand why. I didn’t understand why he was making a big deal of it
Before we left I took another look at the basement corridor, something didn’t seem right. Then I realized what it was. I was sure I had seen a metal gurney here when I looked at the image on the monitors above, the one tagged basment. It was gone now.

The second week I was on my own. It was a little lonely at times but I enjoyed the solitude too. I would bring my laptop along and read while listening to music.On this particular night, something caught my eye, a flash of movement on the monitors. It was too quick for me but I could see one of the doors on the basement level was wide open. One of my duties is to make sure the rooms are clear and locked, so I got up to check it out.
I took the elevator down and quckly found the open door. It was just an empty room. I’m not sure what its purpose had been. Clearly there was nobody inside so I locked the door, did a quick sweep of some of the other rooms and then headed back down the corridor to leave.. I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched but I put it down to silence that surrounded me that was making me uneasy.
I pushed the call button but no elevator came, I pressed my ear to the metal doors, listening for the sound of movement, but all I heard were faint creaks, and the occasional indeterminate sounds of pipes and other noises that old buildings make. I turned to the heavy doors of the abandoned section. I’d have to make my way through to the stairs that Vincent mentioned.
I understood why Vincent might have been uneasy about the place. It was hellish. Apart from the almost total lack of light, it was also incredibly warm and stuffy down there due to the heating being on constantly. I don't know they bother to keep it heated. The corridor was littered with metal bed frames, cardboard boxes and other junk.
You're completely alone down there, surrounded by pitch-black empty rooms and hallways. Even during the day it’s likely the nearest living soul is halfway across the building.
I began to navigate through the corridors, remembering to turn off the lights as I went, leaving each preceding corridor in darkness. I wished Vincent had at least walked me through so I’d know how far I had to go. I flicked the switch of the next corridor and waited for the lights to slowly blink on one by one but nothing happened.

I flicked the switch again uselessly. The lights from the corridor behind me provided just enough light that I could make my way through and find the switch for the corridor beyond, which I managed to do successfully, only losing my nerve once when my arm brushed against some spider web.
I had to make a second trip to turn off the lights of the previous corridor before I proceeded again to the next room. I could see the exit sign ahead now. From behind I heard a faint squeaking sound. I turned and peered into the blackness beyond the doors, I could tell the sound had come from a good distance behind me...Somewhere back there in the dark.
The sound came again, louder this time, nearer. Whoever was back there was getting closer. It sounded like somebody running the fingers over glass while running past it SQQQUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAKKKK.
“Is somebody there?” I called. No answer came,
There was a loud crash of metal that startled me so much I recoiled a little. I was genuinely creeped out now so I booted it out of there pretty fast. I reached the stairs to the second floor, I'd forgotten to turn off the lights but I didn’t care. I climbed the stairs, my heart thumping out of my chest. I pushed the crash bar on the fire doors and escaped into the reassuring brightness of the hospital.
I began to relax again as I walked back to the security office. I felt pretty silly actually for getting in such a panic. Still, I wouldn’t like to venture down there again tonight I thought. The rest of the shift went by without any strangeness. The monitors showed only the hospital empty corridors when I returned. I had put the experience behind me, until the next morning when I saw Vincent.
He was sitting in front of the monitors but he stood up when I walked in.
“How did the shift go?” he asked,
“Alright I guess. I went to check out the basement and the elevator died on me but I found the stairs like you said. Otherwise, nothing to report.”
I told him about the elevator working, I didn't mention what happened after that.
Then he got that sympathetic look in his eyes again.
"Who was that in the basement?"
"Who was what?" I asked
He paused for a moment "You didn’t see anybody?"
"See what?"
“I had to ask before I showed you” he said
“What do you mean? Show me what?”
Then he showed me surveillance footage of the basement.

There are two cameras on the basement level, since that area connects to the morgue where bodies are brought out and where deliveries brought in. I stared at the monitor and saw myself leave the elevator and walk down the hall.
There was nothing apparently unusual until I noticed something on the second hallway camera. Standing just below the camera, almost out of frame was what appeared to be the naked figure of a bald man. Only his upper half was visible, and he was facing away from the cam with his face in his palms like he was in pain.
I felt my blood go cold as I watched myself turn the corner and walk down the hall. It would have been impossible not to see him standing there but I walked straight towards him, completely oblivious to his presence. I locked the door, did my sweep and headed back to the elevator. All while the man remained standing with his head in his hands. I left the frame as I headed to the abandoned section. The man made some movement. He jerked his head from his hands as though something had caught his attention and now he was listening.
Moments passed and the man made no further movements. There are no cameras in the old section of the hospital so I could only I estimated I should be almost to the stairs at this point. Then it happened, the scene that has caused me endless sleepless nights.

I witnessed the nightmare that the security cameras had recorded.

The man’s arms reached behind him to grab something, then he began to move at a sickening speed and I saw that he had not been standing at all, this man had no legs to speak of. He was dragging behind him a metal stretcher, on which was piled various human appendages, hands, arms, legs all of which appeared to be moving.
The eviscerated mans upper body was somehow propelling itself down the corridor at such speed that the stretcher swerved and struck the walls. Suddenly the image flickered and suddenly there were hospital apparatus strew in the corridor that had not been there before, and blood and grime seemed to coat the floors
The second camera revealed more of the stretchers containing animated human parts. A leg lay on the floor, flopping about and kicking the air. A man missing his arms and legs struggled in a wheel chair he was tied to. A group of monstrosities had just begun to shamble into frame when Vincent stopped the tape.
He turned to me. “You see some strange things on the cameras sometimes.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding and waited for the feeling in my legs to return when he said,
“Just be thankful you don’t see those things with your eyes”.