by West, J. D.
“They are not going to make it are they?” a voice shouted behind me.
Multiple sets of hands pulled the family outside one by one as they disappeared into the crowd.
“Get back! Get back! NO!”
We could hear them yelling and screaming for the pain to stop.
“We have to open the doors!” a man pleaded.” We have to let them in!”
The cries of distress and agony were also getting closer. A couple of people in the ER were upset. I told everyone stay away from the doors.
“If anyone tries to open those doors they will get shot!” I scolded. “Don't you people understand what's going on? Don't you get it? Anyone that gets bit by one of those things is going to die and when they get back up their going to try and kill us. Your only obligation right now is to survive.”
I paused for second and looked back outside then we heard the chorus of moans.
“GRRRRRR! GRRRRRR! GRRRRRR!”
“We are not going to be able to save everybody no matter how much we want too.” I said.
“He is right!” said Maria. “If those zombies or whatever they are get in here then we are all dead! Instead of arguing lets figure out what to do next!”
CHAPTER 9:
The Murder of the Innocent
Unaware of what was happening upstairs in the hospital a nurse went downstairs to the morgue to make copies of her deceased patient's chart. She got to the morgue door and found it unlocked. Without thinking she opened the door and went inside. There was a noticeably strong chemical smell. Two additional doors were inside the room. One had a big red sign that said “Autopsy room only medical personnel may enter.” The other door said “Cold room bio hazard inside!” The other room held the remains of several cadavers lying on metal tables. White sheets covered the bodies. She was thankful that the paperwork for the deceased patient was on the desk like always. Understandably she didn't want to spend any more time in the morgue than she had too. The nurse was singing country music to herself to keep from being scared. She hated to have to come down to the basement. She began copying the paperwork and didn't notice the morgue freezer door open behind her. Just over her shoulder a pair of fingers reached around the door and a figure emerged from the cold mist. The singing nurse didn’t hear the figure stumble and stammer towards her. She only turned around after the freezer's cold air sent shivers up her spine.
“GRRRRRR!”
The creature quickly overpowered her and bit down hard on her left shoulder
“GNAAAW!”
Blood streamed down her shirt as she screamed in agony.
“Stoooop!”
She pulled free from his grasp giving her time to run towards the door. Her blood covered hand fumbled over the knob.
“Please open up!” she cried.
After wiping her hand on her pants she was able to pull the door open. The terrified nurse looked back only to see a second figure emerged from the freezer. She made it into the hallway and closed the door before collapsing from the shock and pain. As she starred at the door in disbelief it was pulled open by multiple sets of hands. Her eyes filled with tears as she pulled herself up to her feet. Her heart pounded fast and her breathing was heavy. She clutched her wound and ran down the hall to the housekeeping supervisor's office.
“Will somebody help me?” she begged.
The supervisor heard her voice echoing down the concrete halls. She got up from her desk and opened the office door. She turned the corner and stepped into the darkness. She could see the injured nurse moving down the hall then suddenly something grabbed her by the shoulder. The nurse spun around and her attacker’s hands found her neck. The twisting motion caused her to lose her balance and she fell sideways hitting her head on the wall. The nurse pushed off the wall with her hands and surged backwards. Her attacker was knocked to the ground so now the supervisor could finally see him. She realized that it was Jose the transporter. His skin was bruised and lumpy. There were dark stains on his scrubs and his nose was missing. His lifeless eyes burned a hole through her. The look in his eyes had housekeeping supervisor petrified with fear. She called out to him but got no response. The only sounds he made were deep throated and unintelligible.
“Uuuhhhggg!”
Jose had gone crazy. She thought about heading toward the stairwell exit but he was back up on his feet blocking the path. Safety was just a few feet away but it might as well have been a mile. She tried to run past Jose but he grabbed a hold of her. The nurse came up behind him and hit him across the face with a broom handle from the office to help her. She raised the broom handle as Jose lurched forward. He opened his mouth wide and produced a loud gurgled moan.
“GRRRRRRR!”
The tip entered his mouth just as he fell backwards. The crazy man tripped over her feet and was impaled on the broom as it hit the concrete floor. The handle pierced the roof of his mouth and exited the back of his head puncturing his brain.
“What the hell is going on?” asked the supervisor. “We have to get out of here!”
“It's okay, he's dead.” said the nurse.
“I'm not talking about him!” responded the supervisor.
They both could hear the footsteps of someone moving toward the open morgue door. The head of the first figure poked out the door and then rigidly turned towards the two women. His eyes were glazed and sinister. The movements of the deformed group were stiff and deliberate. The supervisor stared down the corridor.
“What are you people doing down here?” she asked. “This is a restricted area!”
The new batch of emerging ghouls shuffled and tripped down the hall towards them.
“We have to get in the office!” begged the nurse.
The supervisor pulled the nurse into her office and locked the door. The office was really just a glorified closet but there was nowhere else to go. Right away the women could here strange noises coming from the other side of the locked door.
“GRRRRRR!”
Seconds later the door began to tremble as the creatures pressed against it. The nurse began to scream but was silence after the supervisors hand covered her mouth. She clamped down tightly even after the nurse bit down into her hand. Neither of them could comprehend what was happening. The supervisor thought they would go away but the hungry beasts were determined. The lead monster held up a clenched fist and pounded the door. With the help of the other beasts he reduced the wooden door to splinters and sawdust.
“BAM! BAM! CRASH!”
“GROOOWWWL!”
“Eeeoooeeeooo!”
Their screams did not last that long. Both of the women’s voices pierced the darkness and then fell silent. Their deaths were instantaneous. The killers stumbled out the small room with blood on their chins and empty eyes. A couple of hours later the supervisor lurched out of the room with part of her arm and trachea missing. She was trailed by the nurse whose lips and stomach were injured. They both followed a trail of bloody footprints down the hall.
******
Hernandez watched in horror from the first floor security office. The slow paced but carnivorous hoard overran the first floor killing and eating the sick and the healthy. The cameras picked up victims trying to crawl or stagger away. Most of them were in pain and could only move a couple of steps before stopping. He called the hospital operator and told her to go on the overhead paging system and tell everyone to evacuate the building. The order to evacuate came a few seconds later complete with alarms and flashing lights. It was delivered three times to make sure everyone in the building heard it. After wards Hernandez starred at all the monitors hoping that everyone would make it out alive. The murderous mob of forsaken was still killing and eating everyone. Pieces of flesh along with bones made it look like a butcher’s shops floor. The hospital staff ups
tairs treated the evacuation like it was a fire drill. We had seven floors and over three hundred occupied beds. Many of them had serious illnesses and other conditions. Everyone stayed off the elevators and used the stairs. It took some them a long time to get their patients down the stairs. Congestion slowed the decent as people tried not to trample each other. Patients with oxygen tanks and electric monitors had to stay on their floors.
Once they were outside they rushed for their cars or ran in the opposite direction of the advancing horde. Only a few of them made it out the parking lot. The forsaken ripped their clothes off to get to the tender flesh underneath. All over the hospital panic alarms were going off. When Hernandez answered them all he got was screaming and pleas for help. One of the alarms was from a behavioral tech trapped on the third floor. The man was in a room with some kids from pediatrics and a couple of nurses and doctors.
“Hello! Hello can you hear me?” he asked.
“I can hear you, sir. How can I help you?”
“Dude you have to get us out of here!” he responded. “Those things are everywhere!”
“Don't worry sir. We're going to help you.”
The man told Hernandez they were about to evacuate the building when a group of creatures stumbled off the elevator. Their skin was punctured and pot marked by nasty bit wounds.
“GRRRRRR! GRRRRRR! GRRRRRR!”
Suddenly people started running. A wall of dead flesh was coming at them. An overweight doctor tried to get away but weighing almost four hundred pounds he was quickly chased down. The man watched as outstretched hands grabbed the doctor by the back of his lab coat. He tried to pull himself away but they jumped on him and began biting and mauling him.
”CHOMP!”
They caused injuries to his head and back. The B.H.T tried to pull him away from them but was unsuccessful. They ripped off the doctor's hands, nose and eyelids. The B.H.T and the other survivors rushed back down the hall. With the help of the other adults he was able to get the rest of the children back inside the ward and barricaded the doors. A group of three forsaken sunk their teeth into the doctor's skin and tore him to pieces.
“GROOOWWWL!”
They also managed to attack a nurse carrying one of the patients. The rest of the staff wanted to help her but it was too dangerous to go back outside. The attackers clamped their mouths and leathery lips down on the nurse’s skin.
“Please! Please help us!” she screamed.
“GNAAAW!”
They ripped off her lips and lower jaw as pool of blood formed around her body. Hernandez told them he would send help when he could. Loud moaning filled the background of the call as the three monsters mauled the small child still left in the hall.
“I want my daddy! Daddy, please help me!” she screamed.
“GNAAAW!”
Her shrill screams caused Him to fall down to his knees. Hernandez's tried to control his breathing but felt himself choking up. The assault was primitive and barbaric.
“GNAAAW!”
Strips of flesh and layers of fat were torn away from all the bodies. It looked like they were scavenged by wild animals. Tears streamed from his eyes and he could hardly move. The screaming stopped a few seconds later and then Hernandez's heard loud banging.
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
The B.H.T moved away from the door as it began to tremble from the undead monsters hammering against it.
“Find something to block the door! You have got to keep them out!” Hernandez pleaded. The staff moved some beds in front the weakening door but they could not last long without a rescue.
“Don’t leave us here dude!” he begged.
“I will send help as soon as I can!” Hernandez promised. “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
“Mommy! I want my mommy!” whimpered the children.
“CRASH!”
“Run!” yelled a male voice.
New mothers and staff cradled several squirming infants in their arms. Hernandez herd children crying and the horde rushing through the door. He could hear their small voices calling out and beckoning for help he couldn’t give them.
“Get everyone the fuck out of there now!” screamed Hernandez before the call ended abruptly.
CHAPTER 10:
Dressed to Kill
The pressure of Hernandez having watching all the screens filled with death was hard but not every death was caught on camera. One of the other victims was a young woman working late in administration. She stayed late to complete an important project her boss needed done by Monday morning. Most of the other secretary’s and assistants left at eight o’clock. She was trying to get a pay raise so she stayed later. She hoped that it wouldn’t take all night. She finished the project ahead of time and went to turn it in.
“Finally it’s done!” she proclaimed. “Now it’s time to get my groove on.”
For a second she thought she heard a noise but figured it was just her imagination. The administration office was a maze of desks and cubicles in a larger room. She walked through the partially lit darkness and went to her boss’s office. He had a large wooden desk with a high back chair. He was not there but his desk lamp was still on. The attractive young woman placed the project file on his desk and started to leave. When she got to the door she turned back around and turned out the desk lamp.
“It is time to party!” she whispered to herself. She navigated the dim maze back to her desk. She was almost there when she heard the vacuum cleaner running. She went down a row of cubicles toward the sound. A cord stretched along the floor and ran down the aisle. She followed the cord to an intersection and found the vacuum cleaner lying on its side. She picked the vacuum cleaner up and turned it off. It was right in front of her friend Latisha’s desk. Someone had knocked stuff off her friend’s desk and the idiot even spilled some type of dark colored ink all over her cubicle. She knew Latisha was very anal about her stuff and was probably going to be upset.
“Hello! I know that someone is in here!” she called out.
She listened closely and could hear someone moving around close by.
“I will not say anything about the desk. Just have everything cleaned up by Monday please!” She did not get an answer so she kept walking. When she reached her own desk she turned off the computer and grabbed a shopping bag from a mall boutique.
Then the young woman picked up her purse and heeded to the ladies restroom. She needed to freshen up and get ready. The clubs closed in a couple of hours and she was meeting her girlfriends for drinks. The young woman took off her work clothes and was completely naked a few minutes later. She slowly applied moisturizer all over her body, legs and feet. Her dress and everything else was laid out on a bench in the restrooms communal area. She had done this same drill every Friday for a couple of months. Many of her female coworkers did not approve. They already felt like her hairstyles and make up were too dramatic for work. They even criticized her cloths. Most of them were married and older than her. The angry women spread malicious gossip about her and accused her of sleeping with the boss to get her job. The other women thought one of their friends who had been employed longer should have got the promotion.
The young woman on the other hand could care less about what the thought. It was none of their business why she was hired. She worked hard to get everything she had being beautiful was just a bonus. Other than the new girl Latisha none of the other women talked to her or invited her to lunch. They were all grown women acting like childish teenagers. It was like being in high school all over again. It got so bad that human resources got wind of the rumors and called her in to be questioned. They asked her if she engaged in any inappropriate behavior or had any sexual relations with anyone in management. The questions made her upset and she explained that the only thing she was guilty
of was being young and attractive. If the other women wanted better jobs then they should change their attitudes at work. Quit coming in late, stay off the internet and cut out all the smoke breaks.
Human resources checked her performance reviews and declared that any praise or recognition heaped on her was well deserved. After that she was determined to show them that a strong, intelligent and attractive woman could accomplish anything. She thought that was the end of it but the cattiness continued. Now they complained about her changing in the bathroom. So far no one told her to stop. After all it was the ladies room so what was wrong with parading around naked. She believed they were jealous because she had a nice body. It was obvious that that her coworkers were insecure and threatened by her. Last Friday she finally told those saggy titties, under wire and spanks wearing bitches off. Gossip was the love child of jealousy and envy. She was tired of all the back stabbing, insults and whispers. Tonight they were all at home while she took the initiative and stayed back to complete extra work. It had been a long week and now it was her time. She was sliding on a pair of satin panties when the muffled sounds of the evacuation announcement came through the door. She did not hear it over the rap music playing on her new I-phone. Next she slid a tight fitting little black dress on. It flowed over the curves of her body leaving nothing to the imagination. The only thing she loved more than getting all dolled up was applying her makeup. She took her time and made sure it was perfect.
