A Drill

Just then, the emergency lights came on in the hallway.  They were almost worse than having no lights.  They cast a red glow over everything, giving me barely enough light to see my way, but I was relieved to have any form of light at all.  Further down the hallway on the other side, I noticed a dark liquid streaming down the wall.  The liquid appeared to be something relatively thick as it was slowly making its way down the wall.  Something thinner, like water, would more rapidly progress down.  I walked closer to it as I continued watching intently.  It appeared to be almost entirely painting the wall as it made its gradual descent.

As I got closer, I crossed the hallway and reached out to touch it pulling back some of the substance on the tips of my fingers.  It was something fairly thick, slightly sticky and appeared to be dark - like an oil of some kind, but I couldn’t exactly tell in the low red light.  I smelled it and it had an odd metallic smell. 

Suddenly the hall was filled with another form of light whose source appeared from nowhere.  It was an ugly yellowish light and not the normal florescent white lights that usually lit these halls.  I glanced back at the wall and at the dripping substance.  It was a deep, dark crimson color.  Suddenly horrified, I finally knew what I was looking at, what I had on my fingers that had the odd texture and metallic smell.  It was blood.