Maybe it was because he was drenched in sweat, or maybe because he was scared, scared of everything that was happening outside those doors. It seemed like an hour by the time the elevator reached what Moore thought was the lobby, but the elevator actually stopped on the second floor. He braced himself, expecting the worst after seeing Dr. Whitney and his co-workers turn into mindless beasts, and try to kill him. He held in his hand the only thing he had available to defend himself, a ball point black pen. He knew it was not much, but at least it gave him some type of hope.
The elevator stopped and Dr. Moore looked up to the floor number display, realizing that the elevator had stopped on the second floor. He tried to push the button as fast as he could to keep the doors closed, and force the elevator to continue on a one-way trip to the lobby, but it was too late. The doors slowly opened and to his horror there was someone standing in front of the doors. He could not see the face of the person because its back was facing the elevator. Dr. Moore didn’t make a sound. He remained still, holding his breath for as long as he could, aiming the pen at the back of another fellow co-worker.
The lights in the room were off, the only light present was the one coming from inside of the elevator, which made him feel more like a target. The elevator doors were fully open, and without missing a beat, the bell sounded letting everyone know he was there. As soon the sound ended, the thing in front of the elevator turned around, the unholy scream filled the room and echoed thru the elevator. Dr. Moore was surprised to see the thing in front of him was none other than Dr. Barkley.
Both men stared at each other, examining one another to see if they had signs of the infection. It only took them a second or two to realize both of them were not infected, well at least not for now. Dr. Barkley got inside the elevator, and pushed the button to close the door behind him. Neither man said a word. They kept their eyes moving from the elevator door to each other. Dr. Moore barricaded himself in a corner of the elevator, holding out his pen.
Dr. Barkley had the opposite corner from Dr. Moore. They could see in each other faces the fear of what they would find in the lobby. They hoped that no one, or nothing, would still be there. As the doors opened, they were surprised to find the lights on and no one in the lobby. They took a quick look around before exiting completely out of the elevator.
Dr. Barkley stopped by the front desk to access the computer. Dr. Moore didn’t know what Barkley was doing, and he really didn’t care. All he wanted was to get out of there and go to his family. Dr. Moore walked toward the door and opened it, but before he could set a foot outside the building, Dr Barkley called to him.
“Wait, keep the door open,” Dr. Barkley said running toward him. “What are you doing?” Moore said.“We’re going to walk out, but not without burning this place behind us.” Dr. Barkley said, staring into Moore’s eyes for a brief second. They closed the door and kept walking, they could still hear in the distance a female voice saying, “Contamination protocol activated,” and then silence. Dr. Moore knew what Barkley had done. But, it was for the best. Both men walked toward the parking lot, looking at each other for a last time knowing that they would never see each other again. That the world and people they knew were no longer here. They knew that even though they had survived the night, they would either be dead or infected tomorrow.
They both gave each other one last look and went their separate ways. Dr. Moore only turned around when he reached the driver’s side of this car, and he could see the reflection of the fire through the glass of the building. He could see the fire inside of the offices, a self-contained human oven. Tears ran down his cheeks as memories of good friends and colleagues swam across his mind.
Dr. Barkley’s car drove behind him, probably on his way to see his family. Dr. Moore turned around and stared at the car until the tail light faded away, it was time for him to do the same. Anxious to see his wife and kid, he unlocked the car, but didn’t make it inside. One of the infected had snuck behind him while he was staring at Barkley’s car. Without a sound, his dream of seeing his family again had vanished in the darkness of the night…
CHAPTER SIX
Kenneth Blackburn
The strange beeping sound was getting annoying. He didn’t know where it was coming from, but he realized he was not asleep anymore. He opened his eyes, dazed and confused. He didn’t know where he was, and it scared him to see all the medical equipment surrounding him. He realized he was in a hospital room, but could not remember why he was there or for how long. He moved his right arm in search of the emergency button attached to the bed. After a few tries, he found it and pressed it a couple of times. After a few minutes and no nurse in sight, he decided to get off the bed and unplug all the medical equipment from his body.
It was painful, especially removing the IV from his arm. Kenneth slowly sat up on the edge of the bed and looked around one more time for any sign of a nurse. He took his time trying to stand up, something inside told him to take it slow. He took a few steps forward until he arrived at the room door. He popped his head into the hallway, but there was no one in sight. He stepped outside his room. The hospital was quiet, with no noise except for the medical equipment. He decided to make a right turn, and he saw the corner of what looked like a nurse’s desk or information center.
Walking toward the help desk, he noticed that all of the other rooms next to his were empty, but he didn’t think much of it. Arriving at the help desk, he noticed a nurse sitting behind the desk with her head down on the counter, resting on her forearms. At first he thought she was sleeping or just taking a quick break, especially since it was dark outside. He figured it had to be really late. He looked around until he found a wall clock behind the desk. It was 3:45am. He cleared his throat a few times to get the nurse’s attention, but that didn’t work. He knocked on the counter like he was knocking a normal door.
“Hello, excuse me,” he said. He decided to walk behind the counter and tap the nurse on the shoulder, though tapping the nurse twice didn’t work. There wasn’t even a breathing noise coming from under her dark brown hair, which was covering all her face and her arms. Reluctantly he put his hand on the nurse shoulder and slowly pulled her back, her head remained glued to the counter.
He pulled harder and the motionless body fell to the floor, face up. He took a look at her face, her hollow and motionless eyes staring up at him. Her face was cracked and covered with little holes, like the result of a flesh eating bacteria. He was paralyzed at the sight of it. His body tried to react to the image. He took two steps back and away from the counter. Kenneth started to walk down the hallway looking for a sign that would show him the way toward the elevators. The slow walk turned into a full sprint after seeing the elevator sign about 30 feet away.
He pressed the down arrow at the elevator and waited for it to open. As soon as it opened, he rushed in. He was nervous; his hands and face were sweating as if he had run five miles. Kenneth took a quick look around the elevator, and then pressed the button for the lobby. With everything going on around him, he completely forgot that he was still wearing the hospital pajamas and no shoes. He hoped that he didn’t have to run, whenever the elevator opened it door.
The elevator opened and he stepped outside. The lobby seemed quiet, especially for a hospital. The only sound he heard was the sound of the elevator doors closing behind him. Kenneth didn’t bother to look back and just kept walking forward toward the front desk. He was still a little dazed and confused from just having woke up, but he continued walking. The empty lobby provided no comfort to him. How can the whole hospital be empty? he thought.
“Hey,” a voice said from within the lobby. Kenneth looked around but couldn’t see anyone or anything. He remained quiet and scanned the open room from just a few feet away from the elevator.
“Pssst, pssst,” the sound sounded familiar but Kenneth couldn’t determine the origin of it. He took a look around again and noticed someone poking their head from behind a big fake tree basket. He focused h
is vision, trying to get a better look at who was behind the basket, but he couldn’t. Then he heard it again, the “Pssst, Pssst,” sound, but this time whoever it was used his or her hands to wave him closer. Kenneth walked toward the basket, approaching the individual. It was an old man in his late sixties, with gray hair, and, like Kenneth, he was still wearing his hospital pajamas with no shoes. Kenneth got about two feet away from the old man when he grabbed Kenneth’s arm, pulled him down closer to him, and put a finger on Kenneth’s mouth to keep him from talking.
Kenneth couldn’t keep himself quiet; he had to ask the old man what was going on.“What’s wrong, where is everyone?” The old man kept looking around like a crazy person, completely ignoring Kenneth. Kenneth asked again with no answer, but on his third try, Kenneth grabbed the old man’s face and guided his eyes toward his own. His eyes showed how frightened the old man was, but even so, Kenneth asked again, “What happened to everyone?”
The old man looked at him, “They all died or went crazy.”“What do you mean?” Kenneth asked.
Kenneth didn’t know what the old man had seen, and deep down inside he didn’t want to know. But his curiosity had more power than he thought, and he asked the old man again. The old man was trying to break eye contact, but Kenneth didn’t allow him, he squeezed the old man’s face. After a few seconds the old man finally spoke again.
“Some were jumping out of the windows, some just laid down and died, but the rest were killing each other like savages, cannibals.” Kenneth didn’t know if to believe him or just rule him as a complete nut job.
“Why haven’t you gone outside the hospital to look for help?” Kenneth asked.
“I, I been here for two days now,” the old man said. Kenneth opened his eyes wide in disbelief. Then he let go of the old man’s face, he had more questions for him, but he didn’t even bother. He thought, Why waste more time on this old man, if he is more likely crazy?
“What is your name?” the old man asked. Kenneth looked at the old man, and for a few seconds he held the same dumb look. “Well, so what is it?” the old man asked again. Kenneth realized that he couldn’t answer the question, no matter how hard he thought about it, he didn’t know. He tried to remember anything from his past, but with no luck.
He looked at the old man and said, “I don’t know, I can’t remember anything.” The old man looked at him. “It’s ok, I don’t even remember the last time I changed my underwear.”
Kenneth smiled a little, not sure if it was the right time for him to laugh. After all, now he needed to find out what was wrong with the world and, more importantly, who he was. Both of them remained still, avoiding eye contact. Kenneth was trying to remember anything that could help him answer the old man’s question, but every time he forced himself to remember, sharp pain speared across his forehead. He tried to ignore it the first couple of times, but on the third try his vision turned blurry and he felt like he was about to past out, so he paused for bit. He tried to stand up, but the old man wouldn’t allow it and put his index finger on Kenneth lips.
“Shhhh, they are out there, at least two of them,” the old man whispered.
“Who? Who is out there?” Kenneth said. He freed himself from the old man’s hold and stood up. He looked over the concrete wall beside the plant, but couldn’t see anything. He took a few steps forward, he thought he saw something behind one of the benches. He was right.
He saw a pair of shoes. He moved a little closer and saw what appeared to be a nurse lying face down on the floor. He looked back toward the old man who was waving him to stop, but Kenneth ignored him and kept walking. At soon he passed the front desk, and was about ten steps from the bench where the nurse was laying, he caught movement front the corner of his left eye. Kenneth stopped. It took him a few seconds before he gathered the courage to face whatever was moving. When he finally turned around, he saw there was another nurse on the floor. She was moving her arms, spreading them on the floor as if she was trying to make snow angels, until suddenly the movement stopped.
Both of her arms were wide open and she slowly raised her elbows then started to push herself up. After her elbows were fully locked, she raised her head slowly. Kenneth wanted to start running, but he was way too curious to see her face like he did with the nurse upstairs. The nurse raised her head, her blonde hair was covering half of her face, and her eyes were hollow. Kenneth noticed that her eyeballs were missing and her nose was cracked open.
Kenneth could see inside of her head, through the holes where her eyes and nose belonged. Even without them she was moving her face as if she was looking for something or someone. Kenneth realized she was looking for his scent, her mouth opened and a spray of blood flooded the floor in front of her, followed by and unholy scream. Kenneth had never seen anything like it, and for a moment, he was glad that he couldn’t remember a thing because if he had seen something like this before, he surely would like to erase it from his mind. The nurse tried to stand up but couldn’t. After a few try’s it seemed like she gave up and got on all fours, keeping her body as close to the ground as she could — or maybe as close as her muscles allowed her. She continued to shake her head side to side, violently searching for the scent, searching for Kenneth.
Kenneth was petrified. He needed to run, he needed to get out of there as fast as he could, but his body was not synchronizing with his brain. All Kenneth could do was to stare at the nurse crawling toward him, her mouth open as wide as a normal human could. Now the nurse was about five feet from Kenneth, he started swearing and his hand was shaking. The nurse was about three feet from him. How, how can I die here, not knowing what is happening, not even knowing my name? he thought. I don’t want to die. Tears were running down his face. He closed his watery eyes and managed to close his hands into fists, he still was not able to control his fists from shaking. Kenneth could hear the sound of groaning getting closer and closer, he opened his eyes and looked down. The nurse was right in front of him, ready to launch.
The nurse screamed again and dived at him. Kenneth managed to move his arms and legs just enough to assume a defend position, but the nurse didn’t make it within a foot. The old man hit her on the face with a clipboard. Kenneth reacted and jumped on top of the front desk counter. Kenneth watched as the old man brutally beat the clipboard over the nurse’s head. He couldn’t believe the old man could move his arms so fast.
The old man continued to hack the nurse’s head with the clipboard until he was holding nothing else in his hands. Kenneth leapt down from the desk and grabbed the old man by the hand. He pulled on the old man to move him back. “We got to go, before more of them come,” Kenneth said. He pulled the old man toward the double doors. They were getting closer to the exit when sounds of braking tires filled the night. Both of them stopped, not knowing if they should continue.
They got closer to the double glass door and saw two people inside of a small white sedan. Kenneth recognized the make of the car, a Kia optima. He was amazed that he could remember and recognize the car, but not remember his own name. He kept staring at the car, trying to see if he could remember anything, but his head started to pound and the headache returned. The old man opened the door when he saw a girl about sixteen years old exiting the driver’s side of the car. Kenneth stepped behind the old man, his vision was getting blurry and his headache was getting worse. Kenneth turned around to ensure the double doors were closed but to his horror, the nurse was no longer lying in front of the desk. He reached back trying to put his hand on the old man’s shoulder, but the old man was not close enough for him to reach.
“Let’s go!” a girls voice yelled. Kenneth’s head felt like it was about to explode, the pain was so unbearable. To his horror, his eyes had found the missing nurse; he could tell she was at full speed crawler toward the door.
Kenneth turned around to warn the old man about the nurse. When he looked to the car, he saw a beautiful brunette dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a dark red hooded sweater. Kenneth cou
ld tell she was yelling something, but he couldn’t hear her. His headache overwhelmed him, everything around him was getting dark as if someone had turned off the lights. Kenneth managed to walk a few steps forward but he never saw the stairs in front of him. He tumbled down the stairs, right next to the old man. Kenneth landed face up. He opened his eyes, barely able to see. Kenneth was able to hear the girl’s voice yelling for them to hurry up. Then a blurry image popped in front of him. It took a few seconds for his vision to adjust. The old man was kneeling next to him.
“You alright buddy?” he said. Kenneth was trying to open his mouth but the words wouldn’t come out. He was trying to warn them about what was inside of the hospital. Even if he could have spoken, it would have been too late. A shadow covered his vision, and the screams of the old man filled his ears. Kenneth looked to the right of him and saw the nurse on top of the old man. She was biting his face off and ravaging through the old man’s entire body, like a wild dog tearing apart a rabbit.
Kenneth heard a few gunshots and the nursed dropped motionless on top of the old man. He knew it was too late, the old man was dead and he hoped that the nurse was too.
“Are you ok?” a female voice asked. As soon as he heard the voice, a sharp pain came across his forehead. Kenneth looked up, looking for the girl. The moment he saw her face his whole vision turned black. He could no longer stand the pain and started to fade in and out of consciousness. Kenneth was able to hear the girl calling for someone, maybe the other person inside the car. She was asking him or her for some help. He felt a couple of hands grab him under his shoulder, then he felt the two of them drag him somewhere.
His vision was still not reliable and he still couldn’t make out anything he was looking at. The face of the girl and the other person appeared blurry and distorted. Kenneth heard the sound of a door open, then he was dragged inside the back of the car.
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