The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans

by M. Evans

  She stood between the doctor and his exit to freedom. As he got within arm's length of the door, she reached in and grabbed his arm with both of hers biting down hard and drawing a good amount of blood from his bony wrist. The only thing keeping his skin on was his stiff white lab coat sleeve. He screamed in pain and shock, his eyes opened wide with fear and confusion. He looked at the only thing he carried of use to him right now and repeatedly brought his left hand with the heavy metal clipboard down on the back of her skull. She finally let go, growling and lifting her head up slowly towards him to meet his eyes. She tossed the little man onto the hospital bed. He hit with a thud, sliding off the side of the bed and landing on the floor.

  Everything was quiet, and he thought Ms. Randall was gone. Closing his eyes at first, he tried to sense where the fresh cut on his head was. After patting his head down he knew the liquid was not his own. He wiped at it with his sleeve. He put his hand up to block the fluids only coming to the horrible realization it was coming from above. He squinted, scooting himself backwards, and saw that it was blood mixed with saliva.

  The patient who had looked so innocent and peaceful less than an hour ago was drooling as she was hovering over him from her bed, sitting on her haunches and licking her lips as the bloody saliva fell freely from her face mixed with the blood dripping from her eyes. He screamed, scooting back further, walking on his feet and hands pushing his way back.

  She hopped down within a foot of him.

  "Get back, Ms. Randall! I'm not afraid to hurt you!" When his request was ignored he brought his well-shined, wingtip shoe back and sent his heel crashing into her forehead making her fly backwards up against the bed. Her head snapped against the bed rails.

  At the same time, nurse Betty pushed through the doors. "Doctor Sanji, I couldn't remember what type you liked to use for sedatives so I got you one of...." She immediately stopped mid-sentence, seeing the scene in front of her. She screamed, turning around and yelling into the hallway. "Emergency code green! Ronnie! John! Get in here now! The doctor needs help! The patient has gone mental!"

  The unfortunate nurse, who took great pride in her work and helping others, ran to the doctor's aid thinking she would easily be able to hold down the crazed woman. She could not have been more wrong.

  The patient grabbed the nurse by the hair before the nurse could put a hand on her. Karen quickly and forcefully threw her like a rag doll up against a heart monitor. The nurse hit with a horrific crash, screaming and flailing to the ground, and starting to cry tears of pain. She was staring at the doctor who was staring at her--both of them looking utterly defeated, both of them thinking that this might be their final day on Earth.

  The two large orderlies pushed through the door running into the room. There wasn't anything they were scared of as there was nothing up until now they hadn't seen or dealt with. If someone in the hospital yelled for a code green then it was not a joking matter. As they began to assess the situation, both of them looked at the mess and the blood on the floor. They saw the downed doctor and nurse, trying to rationalize what was happening in front of them. But mostly, they could see the patient.

  What used to be the patient--a woman who was now strangely pale, but with a hole in her arm which was oozing with blood. Blood trickled from her eyes and blood covered her mouth.

  They were very confused by how something like this could possibly be happening when the woman they saw rolled in was completely unresponsive hours ago at the start of their shift. Somehow it appeared she had the strength of five men. Ronnie and John ran to her side, gripped her by the biceps and shoulders, and forcefully lifted her up as she hissed and growled at them, shaking her head wildly, and kicking her legs and bucking back and forth. They took her to the bedside and held her down the best they could and having a hard time restraining her. Ronnie looked at John. "John! Look at her mouth! What happened to this woman!? She looks like she's been eating someone! Doctor, what the hell has she been doing?" Ronnie hadn't yet noticed the blood mark on Sanji's white sleeve.

  Dr. Sanji got up off of the floor, regaining a small shred of his demeanor, and helped the nurse up. He grabbed the medicine from her--two syringes as she had previously mentioned before she became a flying rag doll. He bit down on the caps and pulled the needles free. He ran to Karen's side, not worrying about sterilizing the patient, and began administering the sedatives as quickly as he could into Karen's thigh. He was hoping and praying to anyone who would listen that the medicine would start working and put this woman down quickly.

  No one in the room said anything. They were simply waiting to see if the sedatives would take effect. Ronnie and John arms were quivering, their muscles growing tired from trying to hold her down. The nurse moved as fast as she could to get the restraints on the patient's forearms.

  Karen reached up and ripped a giant chunk out of Ronnie's tricep and spat it into the face of John who immediately and regrettably let go with one of his hands to wipe away the gore. She seized the moment, fully capitalizing on John's mistake. She ripped her arm away from him, grabbed him by his thin hair, and pulled him within reach of her mouth. She bent her head and neck up and she opened her mouth wide and ripped the young man's ear clean off, chewing at it viciously and savoring the warm fluids running off of his face.

  He screamed in agony, grabbing where his ear had been, and made the mistake of letting go of the woman. She sat up the best she could biting again into Ronnie's dark arm, pulling him closer. His large white eyes growing with every inch as he fought her the best he could.

  Nurse Betty had made her way back to standing and yelled again for a code green, but as she opened the door four men and two nurses trampled over her, tripping and knocking her back to the ground. They entered the room, saw the scene, and jumped on top of the patient in a makeshift dog pile, although the only loser at this point was the man whose neck was closest to Karen's mouth.

  She reached up, growling--hungry for blood and flesh. She bit down hard taking off a chunk, and as the blood started to flow freely, she reached up biting everyone she could. The nurses and the rest of the orderlies were all doing what they could. Finally a man got up and ran back out the door only to return a moment later with much stronger restraints to hold the insane woman down.

  Dr. Sanji knew this wouldn't end until she was out and ran to the medical supply cabinet. He used his good arm to grab a box full of sedatives. He got enough to knock out a horse and ran back into the room, wishing this to end. He jabbed the needles sloppily into her thigh which brought an onslaught of blood spewing from her legs getting in the bystanders mouths and eyes, all of them screaming and running backwards towards the emergency wash sink to get the crazy woman's blood off of themselves.

  Karen finally started to relax and stopped fighting. She collapsed back into her pillow, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she let out one final growl. Dr. Sanji approached her slowly, viewing for himself if the restraints had been put on correctly, and stared at the scene around him. John was on his hands and knees crying and screaming in pain, holding the spot where his ear was once attached. The blood was soaking and pooling around his knees. Ronnie had a towel up against his arms, yelling for someone to please help him.

  The doctor put a stethoscope to Karen's heart. "It is beating like a rocket still! Oh, Krishna, what is happening?" Moments later it would explode in her chest.

  He stared at the blood covering her gown and the giant chunks missing from her arms. She looked like she'd gone into a war zone and been hit with everything they could throw at her. The staff were rushed to the emergency care unit where everyone, including Dr. Sanji, got first rate care.

  All of them felt thankful to be getting away from this disaster.

  Dr. Meyers stared around the room in shock and confusion. He could think of no medical explanation for any of this. This Sunday, a day of usual boredom and calmness, had taken a turn for the worse, and he knew the shit meter on it was only going to increase. She had lost anyone
competent in the triage emergency unit to a multiple car crash. Once the call for immediate assistance had come through, all seasoned professionals under her oversight were called away and she was left with nothing but interns.

  This was the first time in all her years she had this many hospital staff in need of emergency aid, if she didn't count flu season each year for the stubborn employees who missed or skipped their annual flu shot.

  She walked down the line of people. She had five interns and ten hospital staff. She looked at the bruises, lacerations, missing ears, and bite marks in disbelief wondering how one little woman could have done all this. She did not expect to have this many wounded workers who were completely out cold.

  She thought if maybe one of them had these symptoms that it could be attributed to shock but there was no way this many people, especially a seasoned doctor like Sanji, would be completely comatose. She walked the line, wrote down the injuries, and noticed all of them had started a light bleeding from their eyes. The worst three were Dr. Sanji and the two male orderlies, Ronnie and John. John had passed out earlier than the other two, but with the shock of losing his ear like that, she wasn't surprised. The hospital had called for a plastic surgeon to come in and examine it, but trying to get one on a Sunday was no easy task.

  She noted on a timeline what she thought to be some weird infection. From what she could discern, whoever was in the room earliest had the worst effects. She yelled to the staff advising them to keep these new patients comfortable and to finish treating their immediate wounds. Dr. Smith, one of the young interns in her mid-twenties, asked, "What is wrong with them, doctor?"

  Meyers shook her head slowly staring at them. "Just keep them comfortable. I'm going to call The Center for Disease Control to verify there's no outbreak they were aware of."

  "Uh ... what do we do if it's contagious?"

  Meyers shrugged. "Pray that you haven't caught whatever it is."

  Smith stared wide-eyed at Ronnie's bloody shirt hanging out from a disposal can and hoped they truly were all just in a state of shock. She lifted the bed rails so the large man didn't fall off of the side of the bed and further injure himself. She had seen pictures of wounds like these that resembled dog bites, but nothing like this which a human had ever done. She finished sewing his wounds the best she could, treated them with disinfectant, and finished by wrapping with bandages.

  She moved on to Dr. Sanji who needed no more than a little ointment and a bandage. He had a clear bite mark and a good cut. He was completely out of it though. She noticed him looking closely at his arm and she took it as a positive sign that he was focusing on anything at all. She redid a vitals checklist on him, taking great care with his eyes, trying to figure out the problem of where the blood was coming from. She lifted his eyelids, but could see no bruising or cuts that would cause this bleeding--the same bleeding the rest of the staff had. She checked his pulse and it was racing rapidly. His breathing was rapid and shallow. She looked back at one of the other interns. "Hey, Katrina. Have you checked all the vitals to make a list for Dr. Meyers? Might be an easy way to help show we can do this on our own!"

  The other doctor nodded and started running the same quick checks her colleague was doing.

  Smith turned back around and felt a spurt of fear go down her spine. The man who was comatose less than a moment ago was now gnawing on his own arm ... ripping at it. She watched the blood coming smoothly out of it.

  "Dr. Sanji! No! What are you doing!? Katrina, get over here and help me!"

  A growl erupted from behind her. The big man, Ronnie, had blood dripping from his chin with a similar bite mark from his much bigger mouth on his own arm. His eyes were bleeding horribly now and he growled again, startling everyone in the room. Dr. Smith walked up holding her hands out in front of her in a non-threatening manner. "Mr. Lewis? Please lay back down!"

  The other doctors watched as Smith made it within a foot of him before realizing that the slow sluggishness he'd been suffering from had completely disappeared. He ran for the doctor, growling, and grabbed her by the neck and crotch and lifted her over his head, bringing her down and biting into her abdomen. When he threw her aside, his mouth was full of meat, and an askew rib left a blood trail as she sailed into the air and up against a window, leaving what looked like a modern art design painted in red on the glass.

  Katrina screamed at the top of her lungs catching a group of nurses' attention who were on their way to a smoke break. They poured into the room but were unsure if they should turn and run or try to assist. They noticed it was medical staff in the beds and yelled for Ronnie to lay back down, relax, and please settle down.

  He was far from done and far from full--a hunger ran inside him like he'd never before experienced. He ran to the downed doctor, taking another tear of skin and chewing it. Fresh blood poured out, freely running from fresh wounds. In all the havoc, no one noticed the rest of the patients sitting up in their beds, all with bleeding eyes and fresh bite marks and torn skin on their forearms.

  Katrina looked and noticed blood dripping out of Dr. Sanji's mouth, and she screamed as he launched his skinny body from the bed. He landed on her shoulders, biting into her face and ripping her nose from its place. Blood spurted and she screamed. A nurse ran over to try to pull the small man off when an earless patient, John, gripped her and threw her to the bed. He ripped into the woman's thigh, chewing the fresh meat and licking the blood squirting out.

  Dr. Meyers was still on the phone after requesting a list of any known infectious diseases with a short period before the disease made the patients comatose. She was ordered to let them know if there were any changes in the patients' demeanors. She had just hung up when her pager went off. She slapped her forehead. "Jesus Christ! What are interns good for!? They come in hung over and can't do anything without having their damn hand held!"

  She ran back to the room as quickly as she could. She charged through the doors and saw the carnage in front of her--nurses and interns scattered on the floor. The patients, who just ten minutes ago had been lying in bed, were now very much awake and devouring her staff. She couldn't speak or make a noise. She started backing up slowly, her only intention to get the hell out of this room and lock it down. Whatever was happening, she knew had to be contained.

  She stepped on an overturned medical tray breaking blood sample vials. She closed her eyes in regret.

  Dr. Sanji looked up. He had someone's dismembered hand in his and was ripping fingers off one at a time. She tried to smile like it was no big deal and the twelve patients jumped her like a pack of wolves. There would be no turning for her, no bloody eyes, no forever walking, because there would be nothing but a skeleton left of her scattered throughout the room.

  ****

  Frank pulled up to the emergency department parking lot. Looking around, everything appeared normal, he locked his truck and ran for the hospital entrance, hoping he was not too late, praying what she'd been given was not X-74.

  Frank walked across the parking lot. It was crazy busy with people running for their cars. He was almost in a trance thinking everything he could through down to the last detail. He was all too aware that Pat, who was no fool himself, would eventually see the digital recording and call the police, if he hadn’t already when the alarm went off. He would have no idea that the unarmed man was crazed out of his mind and would still be wandering the halls to kill if he hadn't taken him out.

  It would make no difference at all and he knew very well that no matter how justified his actions were they would need to be answered for one way or another. He knew it was only a matter of time before police would be looking for him and he would be put behind bars.

  He knew even better there would be a limited number of places they would think about looking for him. On the drive to the hospital he had already figured there was a good chance someone had stopped at the house to speak with Shaun, knowing he would have no insight as to why they were asking about him and probably scaring the poor kid to de
ath. Shaun was certainly not needing additional stress in his life, nor the ungodly thought that maybe he had lost another parent.

  He had tried calling to explain to Shaun that he was okay and he would not be taking him or Ellie to the hospital with him, unsure how he would have eluded questions about why. He was sure Shaun was fuming being let down again by the one person in his life who never should. He knew it would sound ridiculous to try and explain that the hospital, of all places, was potentially too dangerous to bring them to.

  Frank bypassed walking through the entrance on the east side for the emergency department lobby knowing it would save him no time on his way to the cancer ward. He looked suspiciously at the hallways, finally coming out of his daze and wondering why so many staff were rushing to get out of the building. If there was somewhere better to be it had to be anywhere but there. It wasn't anything which was going to affect him and he did not need additional problems to complicate this already stressful day. He was already paranoid there could be someone here on the lookout who would happily report him to the police. He walked quickly through the main entrance and down the hallway taking an elevator up to the cancer ward.

  When Frank stepped out onto Karen's floor, he walked quickly to her room, making sure not to make eye contact with or look at anyone for too long. He checked to make sure nobody was watching the door. Satisfied it was clear, he pushed his way into the room shutting the door quickly behind.

  He sucked in a large, deep breath when he saw the love of his life restrained to the bed and looking like she herself had been through a war zone. She was sitting in an almost up right position. There were cuts and bruises lining her forehead and cheeks, and her fingers were blood soaked. Taking in the room, he could only speculate at what transpired here. The blinds were torn and hanging off of their rods. There was blood on the floor still drying. The heart rate monitor was overturned and smashed to pieces leaving broken shards of glass lying all around.