by West, J. D.
I put my arm around Dr. Sanchez and pulled her close. I saw the look in her eyes and wanted her to feel safe. The world that we knew just changed forever. A group of friends and relatives of the patients saw the broadcast too. They gathered at the registration window asking questions. Most of them were skeptical about what happened. Back in the ER a patient approached me and Dr. Sanchez.
“Is everything alright officer?” she asked. “We just had a little situation that’s all Miss.” Dr. Sanchez replied.
“Why is this happening to us? Are we going to die?” asked the woman.
“I don’t know why this is happening but I am sure everything will be alright.” I stated.
I told Dr. Sanchez and the woman what they needed to hear but I did not know if I believed that myself. Besides I had a bad feeling this was just the beginning.
******
Outside in the parking lot one of the janitors was sitting in his truck. He went outside to smoke weed. He was with two female housekeepers. He noticed a bunch of people moving across the parking lot. The group bobbed and weaved through the maze of parked cars. They were bumping and tripping over each other. He thought it was a bunch of drunks coming from a neighborhood party. Their break was almost over so they finished getting high and got out of the truck. When the first drunk got close enough the janitor held out the weed pipe.
“Damn dawg!” he joked. “You should have smoked weed then you could still function.” “GRRRRRR!”
Was the only response he heard from the tall thin teenager wearing dirty sweat pants. One of the housekeepers grabbed the pipe away from the janitor.
“Screw him! He has to get his own.”
They all started laughing as she raised the pipe up and hit it. She was in the middle of taking a toke when the teenager in the front with an unwashed face grabbed her arm and bit down hard.
“CHOMP!”
His head snapped back leaving a hole in her wrist. Blood squirted from the wound.
“Aaahhh!” She screamed in pain as her coworkers ran away.
More of the other drunks inched closer to her attracted by the smell of fresh blood in the air. The other housekeeper only got a couple of feet before she was stopped dead in their tracks. All of the friends ended up surrounded in the blink of an eye. The crazy crowd of drunks circled them like a pack of lions. They closed in on them moaning and growling.
“GRRRRRR!”
The janitor punched one of them in the face.
“Take that vato!” he shouted.
The heavy set drunk on the other side bit him on the shoulder.
“What the hell you bite me for?” he said pulling away in pain.
He took off running but glanced back only to see the two women disappear after being consumed by the crowd.
“CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP!”
He heard their screams followed by a roar.
“NOOOOOOOOO!”
“GROOOWWWL!”
The terrified and panic stricken man sprinted across the asphalt as the blood of his friends was splattered on the ground. He ran until he made it to the south entrance glass doors. Then he closed them and turned the power off. The janitor peered through the glass doors trying to catch his breath. He leaned forward with his hands on his knees gasping for air. Blood slowly flowed down his arm. The drunks followed close behind him. They moved using a stumble. Walked with limps and lurched into the lights outside the entrance. Even behind glass they seemed to be able to detect the sweet smell of blood emitted from his wound. The janitor saw the deformed bloody faces of his attackers. From head to toe bruises, cuts and bites covered their bodies. Fresh blood seeped out the corners of their mouths and was caked on their hands since they had recently fed.
“GROOOWWWL!”
They covered the glass with red hand prints and smears. As the janitor looked into the frosted dead eyes of the killers on the other side of the glass urine ran down his leg and soaked his shoes. The crowd grew large but he was too scared to run. Sweat made his hands clammy and underarms soaked.
“BANG! BANG! BANG!”
On the other side of the glass dead hands and fists created an offbeat drum like rhythm that grew louder and louder. Cracks and fractures began to form in the glass. Soon the glass started to tremble and buckle under the weight of so many bodies.
“BANG! BANG! CRASH!”
A waterfall of glass showered the janitor. Large shards rained down on him leaving cuts and gashes. People in the hall came to see about all the noise.
“What’s going on?” asked a sleepy looking man on his way back from the vending machine.
The army of killers surged slowly forward. The first lady that came stumbling through the door had half her arm hanging off. The man that slowly followed her had blood all over his face and pieces of his chest missing. A rag tag group of deformed bloody misfits followed close behind them. There was no way to tell who these people had once been. They groaned, snarled, and grunted like wild animals. The creatures spotted the injured janitor as he tried to flee. Their pace quickened as they got closer. The janitor ran past the other staff and visitors in the hall.
“Run dammit!” echoed behind him as he passed them.
A doctor from the OR and a nurse from the burn unit saw the group’s injuries and rushed over to help the misfits. The forsaken broke off their pursuit of the janitor and attacked their new prey.
“GNAAAW!”
Both of them were dead in less than thirty seconds. “Nooooooooo!” The janitor ran into the ER waiting room and tried to get in the security door. Everyone else was watching the new crisis update on TV and didn’t notice the commotion. The news broadcast was showing aerial images of a police barricade in Tempe. Another mob of the forsaken attacked the police setting off an unstoppable chain of events! The video footage of the attack was shot from a helicopter. Another camera man on the ground filmed the county Sheriff coloring in the map of Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs. Every hour he was getting new incoming intelligence but question still remained. His men formed a line standing shoulder to shoulder. The wall of deputies in riot gear complete with guns, helmets, and glass shields marched toward the approaching monsters. Residents and rubbernecking bystanders foolishly pulled out their cell phones and started filming rather than running away.
Concerned officers tried to persuade them to leave. The deputies fired a couple of shots over their heads but the forsaken did not scatter or disperse. The creature’s spastic body movements were determined by the scents in the air and sounds around them. With no other option the officers shot volley after volley into the stumbling dead. The officers did their best to put down as many walking pus bags as possible. The forsaken slowly surged forward as any that were killed were replaced by the creatures behind them. The forsaken moved around the area in tightly packed groups of three and four. All of them were scared from bite wounds and missing limbs. The officers killed more creatures than they could keep track of. The creatures reacted to sudden movements in their field of vision. The dead feverishly attacked everyone they encountered. Long periods of silence were followed by bursts of sporadic gunfire in the distance from other officers. They witnessed their fellow officers being ripped apart exposing bone and organ’s in some cases. Soft tissues like the eyes ears and nose were the first to go. The depleted squad of deputies couldn’t hold them back. Outnumbered and running out of ammunition they were quickly circled. They fired bullets and threw flash grenades leaving a trail of bodies dead and living. It was like the whole city was coming down on them. Bullet casings saturated the ground and grass. Gunfire continued to ring out until all of them were overtaken.
******
With all that going on there was no one at the registration window to let the terrified janitor in. “Open the door you fools!” he begged.
“They’re right behind me!” None of the other people paid attention as two dozen forsaken stumbled toward the room. The helpless janitor pleaded for someone to open the door. He watched as they drifted from left to right moving with the coordination of a toddler learning to walk. “Please hurry!” he cried. “You’ve got to let me in!” He looked like a crazy man to everyone else. He turned around to see a young woman standing in the middle of the room. She stared back at him with a blank expression on her face. The girl was only in panties and a bra. She had worked at a diner across the street and had always greeted him with a smile. It was hard to tell she was dead except for the golf ball size gashes on the back of her neck. Blood splatter stains were also clearly present on her face and mouth. She slowly shambled up to him. Her large breasts dislodged from the torn lace exposing her protruding pink nipples. As he stared in disbelief she inched closer to him. He began to cry loudly and unapologetically like a child. By the time he decided to move it was too late. Her breast pressed against his body as he used all his strength to hold her head back. She snapped at him mashing her teeth between moans.
“GRRRRRR”
“Get this bitch off me!”
The janitor shoved her into the cinder block wall and tried to take off running. She suddenly lurched forward at an accelerated pace and bit into his shoulder.
“CHOMP!”
The janitor squealed in pain! Blood started pouring everywhere and everyone else started yelling. The rest of the forsaken stumbled through the door and attacked all the families inside. The smell of blood and guts got them agitated and riled up just like flies buzzing around shit. The forsaken showed no mercy, remorse, or pity. A lot of people rushed out into the hall but had to turn back around. The group from the parking lot was already inside growling and gnashing their teeth together. The people were pushing on each other but there was no way out. Everyone was screaming or trying to hide. Several visitors ran into the bathroom to escape the rampage but could not hold the door closed. The patient closest to the door shrieked in pain as a set of sharp teeth from a bush bearded fat man pierced his hand. A couple more of those things pushed their way inside. The men, women, and children had nowhere to run. The small bathroom became their tomb. They reduced every person they touched inside to bones in several minutes. The rest of the forsaken out in the waiting room ripped a boy out his mother’s arms and assaulted them both. They pulled on the boys' legs until they came off.
“Screech!”
He passed out from the blood loss and pain. His mother tried to save him but got her throat ripped out. The blood flowed heavily from her neck. Somehow she still managed to crawl across the floor and cover her son’s body with hers trying to conceal him. The forsaken also attacked an old man with a walker. He tried to fight them off with it smashing the aluminum into them crushing bone but there were too many of them. One bite quickly became ten as blood spatter patterns soon covered his freshly pressed pants and ironed shirt. The sound of him dying in agony filled the waiting room. Everyone was wailing and crying out for help that wasn’t coming. The forsaken inflicted severe physical injuries and untold suffering. A young woman tried to hide under a table that one them was standing on. She was terrified by everything she saw and curled up in a ball trying to hide from him. It is impossible to say how many minutes she laid there frozen in place as people were killed around her. She tried to play dead but they heard her breathing. “Get away from me. Get away!”
The ungodly horde flipped the table over and feasted on her young body. They left another young man in the room with his shirt ripped and ribcage exposed. They ate the flesh off his chest and tore his left arm off. The young woman next to him was still alive as the horde devoured both her legs leaving strings of meat hanging from the exposed bones. Blood spurted from the severed arteries and veins. She remained conscious through the whole ordeal before finally dying from blood loss. The forsaken also killed her sister by pulling her organs out her belly and consuming them slowly. Clearly shaken by the graphic images Hernandez let out a scream over the radio. His voice was trembling as he tried to speak. He saw the blood bath on the camera and wanted to save them but was powerless to intervene. It was the worst thing he ever witnessed. “Hurry up and get to the waiting room Robinson!” he begged. “They're killing everyone!” I did not know what was going on but I heard the terror in his voice. I hurried down the hall to see what was going on. “Aaahhhiiieee!”
I rushed faster when I heard the screaming. I went to the window at the registration desk. By the time I got there multiple people were down and bleeding. I stood there watching with the triage nurses and registration girls. One of the hungry forsaken picked a young boy up by his head. He had become an animal. All of his memory from his past life was lost to the new hunger he felt inside. The eviscerated monstrosity’s first bite landed on the boy’s neck.
“MUNCH!”
The bite cut open his carotid artery causing massive blood loss. The bastard also bit off his nose and ears then he tossed his limp body against the bullet proof registration window.
“SLAM!”
The high intensity attack left his corpse disfigured. The forsaken killer starred at us through the glass as the boys blood ran down his chin and stained his pizza shop work shirt. Again and again he attacked the window pounding his boney dead fist into the thick glass.
“BAM! BAM! BAM!”
I had a responsibility to protect everyone but it was too late. I moved all the rest of the employees and patients away from the window. They would suffer lifelong emotional trauma from what the saw if they lived through tonight. There was no hope for those poor souls in the waiting room. Every single human being in the waiting room was soon dead. The only thing left besides traces of blood were shreds of clothes, shoes, and a few cell phones. They littered the floor along with unconsumed body parts. The large group of forsaken tried to get through the bulletproof glass while their friends fed. The chaotic scene and carnage lasted nineteen minutes. Suddenly everything was calm. The forsaken had their fill and left as slowly as they came. A jumbled patch work of bloody footprints marked their exit. Unfortunately for us the killing would continue. One of the house keepers had neglectfully propped open the steel security doors leading to the main hospital. Most of the blood thirsty pack was able to push forward into the rest of the building. Hernandez said he could see the forsaken assaulting patients and hospital personnel all across the first floor. The emerging creatures injured and wounded dozens. If we didn’t get help A.S.A.P. the death toll was going to rise.
CHAPTER 7:
The Aftermath
We were still trying to process what just happened. This was the top trauma center in Phoenix and the ER staff was highly trained. They work under bad conditions all the time. They dealt with disasters before but this outbreak was different. They immediately started to identify the most seriously injured patients. This is what the ER staff did best. At least fifty or more people were still in the ER. They were scared, jumpy and some were in shock. Several people mumbled to themselves in between their tears. They were all exhausted and running on adrenaline. Dr. Sanchez jumped right in and tried to comfort everyone. One young girl had lost her sister. Her screams caught all of our attention.
“No! No! No!” she yelled hysterically. ”That is not her!” Going through something like will change you. No amount of reassuring from Dr. Sanchez could bring her sister back. She was a child and could not comprehend what just happened.
“They killed my sister!” she screamed while trying to call 911 on her cell phone. ”They killed my best friend in the world.”
Almost every cell phone network was busy to calls but some text messages got through. Even the adults could feel her pain. Most of them were inconsolable and will have long lasting emotional scars. Many of them criticized the staff and were verball
y abusive. Some of them even threatened to sue the hospital for lack of adequate security. They had nothing left to live for but somehow showed incredible resilience.
“What the hell is going?” a man asked.” Why are they doing this?”
“This is it!” screeched a young woman. “This is the end!” When you work in the ER you see the evil that men do all the time. Our staff members saw death and destruction on a daily basis but this attack was more barbaric and disturbing. All around the ER I saw dedicated doctors and nurses struggling to save lives. They had to deal with the patients and the horrible death that waited just outside. I could tell the staff was under a lot of psychological pressure. Some of them struggled to keep it together. They were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They had to take care of their patients and their colleagues.
Every couple of minutes someone would start crying or have a panic attack before pulling it back together. One nurse temporarily developed amnesia and forgot how to talk. She spent so much time taking care of everyone else that she had no time to deal with their own fear and anxiety. After all the carnage witnessed tonight everyone’s foundation was rocked a little. Anne a girl from registration rocked back and forth in disbelief
“Oh my God!” she pleaded. “God please help us!” Her eyes were puffy and tears streamed down her face.
She had just watched the janitor’s lifeless body dragged off leaving a trail of his blood behind it.
“This isn’t right!” she yelled. “I knew him for God sake!” Some of the people in the ER did not stay. They were so scared that they did not think about it twice. They just reacted. The only thing that mattered to everyone was they did not feel safe in the hospital anymore. They fled out the ER’s ambulance doors running into the darkness and uncertain terror. I guess they were foolish enough to think they could escape the dead ghouls lurking around the neighborhood. The viciousness and depravity of the attack sent shock waves through the emergency department.