by Sue Edge
" You bet. You know how I love cafeteria food. Highlight of my day."
Laughing, Emma wagged her finger at me. "Still living on the edge, I see."
I returned to the office and took a quick look at the board. Several people had presented with symptoms of possible encephalitis but that always happened when an alert went out. People started seeing serious symptoms in the common cold.
The sound of a rough cough startled me. I was surprised to see Bob leaning against the doorway and alarmed to see how unwell he looked. I hurried over and pressed my hand to his forehead. It was burning hot. His eyes seemed bleary as he tried to focus on me.
"Hey Lori, I think maybe that bugger gave me some nasty infection..."
"That, or you're on the grog again." I took his arm firmly and led him back inside. He lay down gratefully on the bed. "How long have you been running this fever?"
"About half an hour, I suppose. And I've got a hell of a headache." He groaned. "I've been trying to find someone to give me some damned pills so I can go home to bed."
I sniffed derisively even as my thoughts raced through the possibilities. Could this be encephalitis? Could it even develop this quickly? "You're not going anywhere, mister, at least not until you've been seen by another doctor."
Bob moaned in protest. "What did I do to deserve that?!"
I poked him lightly. "If you can still make jokes, there's hope for you yet."
I left him dozing while I hunted down a doctor. Dr Bennett stood at the nurse's counter filling in a form, and with a little persuasion, agreed to examine Bob. As I went to follow her, she shooed me away. "The triage nurse could do with some help. The waiting room is filling up with neurotic parents and hypochondriacs who are convinced that they've got this encephalitis bug." I gritted my teeth and left her to it. Truth be, there was a backlog of sniffling, groaning patients in the waiting room now, and I knew that Bob was in good, if irritating, hands. I'd always found Dr Bennett with her Margaret Thatcher hair and condescending attitude a pain but I couldn't fault her expertise.
After sending home two patients with the cold and referring another patient who actually could have the virus, I noticed a sudden flurry of activity as nurses and doctors rushed past my door.
"Excuse me." I murmured to the young girl I was with and hurried out. In the hallway, there seemed to be struggle going on. I heard a groan that sent a chill down my back. The young girl peered around me. "What's going on?"
I glanced down at her. " I don't know. Probably nothing but I am going to check it out. Stay here."
She nodded obediently and backed up.
I had a lump in the pit of my stomach as I heard that drawn out moan again. It couldn't be. As I neared, I saw that the staff had someone pinned on the floor outside Bob's room. Dr Bennett stood near by, her perfect hair mussed, face flushed and deep scratches on her cheeks. She glanced up at me and acknowledged silently what I had dreaded: it was Bob struggling on the floor under two men and two women.
"What happened?" I rushed forward to help them. Dr Bennett grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Sudden aggression, disorientation...he tried to attack me and then a nurse."
I opened my mouth to respond when there was a scream of pain from one of orderlies. "The son of a bitch bit me!" He leapt up clutching his neck and I saw Bob looking up at me. But it wasn't Bob. Gone was the sardonic, wiry man I had worked with for years and in his place was ...blankness. With the pasty skin and the dead eyes, I knew without doubt that he had been infected by the same virus that had ravaged the miners.
Bob's empty eyes shifted to the woman holding his left arm.
"Don't let him bite you!" I called out. " He - he might be infectious!"
The woman squealed and released her hold, scrambling back. The remaining two men struggled to hold Bob down as he grunted and writhed and snapped viciously at them. "Hey, I can't hang on much longer!" One of the men pinning down Bob cried out. "Jab him with something, will you?!"
Dr Bennett grabbed an injection off a nearby trolley and pumped the full syringe into his thigh. "He should be out in a couple of minutes." She said with satisfaction. I knelt beside her, pinning down Bob's convulsing legs. "Dr Bennett, if this is the same virus as the encephalitis patients, sedation probably won't work."
"Where the hell is security?!" Dr Bennett yelled before turning to me in irritation. "Well, we can't very well sit on him indefinitely, can we? Go find security, will you? He needs to be properly restrained before he hurts someone else or himself."
I ignored the flare of anger and edged around Bob cautiously. As I passed the injured orderly, I paused to tell him to disinfect the wound and get checked out immediately by a doctor. If this was the virus, it had taken less than two hours from the time of the bite for the infection to reach Bob's brain. That was impossibly fast. Maybe Joe was right about the threat of an epidemic, after all. I suddenly wished I could talk to him. I feared a doctor would treat such a suggestion with ridicule. After all, maybe Bob had been exposed on an earlier job.
I hurried on. For some reason, there was not a single security guard on the floor. I decided to head upstairs to the isolation ward. Chances were the guards had been called in to deal with more outbreaks of aggression.
There was no one at the outside nurses' station, odd in itself. Nibbling on my lip tentatively, I pushed the doors open. The silence that greeted me was unnerving at first, but the sound I finally heard chilled me to the bone. I didn't know what I was listening to at first but as it got closer, I suddenly realized what it was.
Screaming.
Panicked, desperate screaming getting closer and closer.
4
Instinctively I hit the security alarm beside the door before racing into the ward. The hallway was completely deserted. Images flashed across my eyes like snapshots. A mop in a pool of water. A chair overturned. Records spilled on the floor. Coffee cup smashed. Bedding spilling off a trolley. What had happened here?
My ears were assaulted by the sounds of people's panicked cries ahead of me. My heart began to thump. I reached over and picked up the mop. Quickly I unscrewed the head, leaving me with a solid piece of wood to wield, if I needed to. And I had the feeling I would need to.
I sent up a quick prayer that security would respond soon and started to move down the hall. The screams had stopped to be replaced by even more disturbing sounds. Thumps, bangs, whimpers and growls merged with cries of pain and terror. Swallowing convulsively, I clutched my pole tightly and peered around the corner.
A sight beyond imagining lay before me. It was a few seconds before my brain could even make sense of the images it was seeing. But when it did register, I couldn't breathe. Bodies lay scattered along the length of the hallway. Five, six? Hunched over the closest ones were three blood-covered men. For a moment I thought they were trying to help the fallen individuals and then the truth dawned on me with horrifying clarity. They were eating them. I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes but still they continued to tear chunks out of the fallen bodies and chew the meat with such relish, that bile rose in my throat. Their pale skin was splattered with the blood of my colleagues! The blood was in their hair, their clothes, their nails.
A groan drew my eyes to the victim closest to me. It was a man laying on his back. Wrinkled face, grey hair...it was Dr Wilson. Oh my God, he was still alive! His eyes fluttered as he moaned again. The man kneeling over him - no, not a man, no human being could do that - the maniac leaned over and buried his head in his victim's chest, ripping pieces of flesh off with his teeth. As he flung his head up, I recognized the dark hair and blank eyes as the first miner I had seen coming in.
Slowly I pulled back. For a long moment, I stood pressed against the wall paralyzed. I was terrified of moving, for fear the maniacs would hear me. Then a new sound. A door slammed and footsteps ran up the hallway towards us. A feminine cry of despair as whoever it was realized what she had run into. I took a deep breath and forced myself to peer around the corner again.
Emma, dear bubbly Emma, stood a few feet from the scene of the carnage. Beside her stood a young man with glasses who looked vaguely familiar(Ken?). Slowly he reached over and grasped her hand and started to edge backwards and the maniacs stopped their dining to stare at them.
Behind them, a young woman came through the doors, and then another. With a sinking feeling in my gut, I saw the now familiar pale saggy skin.
Emma glanced behind her and cried out again. They were trapped and they knew it. Without thinking, I flung myself around the corner.
"Hey! Come and get me!" I waved my pole and jeered in a foolhardy attempt to distract the maniacs long enough to allow Emma and Ken to escape. "What are you waiting for, you ugly bastards?"
As the maniacs rose clumsily to their feet, I felt a thrill of satisfaction that my plan had actually worked and they were coming after me. Then - sheer terror. They were coming after me. Shit, shit, shit.
"Catch!" I hollered and flung my pole like a javelin towards Ken. Without waiting to see if he caught it, I turned and ran for my life. The doors loomed ahead, 50 meters, 40...If I could get through, I could bolt it and get help.
A raspy growl echoed through the hall just behind me. Oh God. 30 meters. Please God. A door suddenly opened at the side and a bloody figure stepped through. I cried out and veered away from it. I caught a glimpse of ashen skin and a half chewed face. I banged against the far wall and fell over an overturned chair. The woman lurched at me, hands clenched into claws. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the other maniacs moving towards me. I grabbed the chair and heaved it at the woman in desperation. It didn't even slow her down; she reached down and grabbed my ankle. Screaming, I kicked violently at her face with my other foot until she released me. Scrambling to my feet, I pelted desperately towards the doorway.
20 meters. Suddenly the doors flung open and the wonderful sight of our security men greeted me. I pushed past them as they spread out across the hallway. "There are people down there that need your help!" I gasped. "Please hurry."
"Don't worry, miss" An older man smiled at me. "We'll have this under control soon."
I clutched his arm. "They're completely insane! They're eating people!" He blinked and patted my hand reassuringly before moving off.
I drew back and tried to control my trembling limbs. I took in the scene. The woman missing half her face was reaching for a young security guard who pointed his weapon and shouted at her to stop. Two other maniacs were being circled by two armed officers while another two continued down the hall. I prayed that they were in time to save Ken and Emma.
Suddenly a shot rang out. My head snapped around to see the young security guard had fired a warning shot above the woman's head.
"What the hell, Jack!" The security officer standing next to me, yelled out. "These are patients! Use your taser!"
I watched on as the guards fired their tasers - with absolutely no effect. And in those precious wasted seconds, the maniacs reached out and grabbed the officers. The woman sunk her teeth eagerly into the young guard, Jack's arm and tore a chunk out. He screamed in disbelief and tried to fend her off. Further down the hall, the two guards were grappling with the two maniacs that I suddenly recognized as the miners I'd seen brought in.
Cries rang out as the struggles became increasingly desperate. The maniacs ripped into any part of the body they could reach- hands, ears, neck.
"Do something!" I shouted despairingly at the officer beside me. A quick check identified him as as the officer in charge. "Biggs!"
Biggs shook himself and pulled his gun out. "Shoot, shoot! Defend yourself if you have to!" He strode forward and and tried to find a clear shot. The woman with a jagged hole where her lips once were, pulled Jack close and sunk her teeth into the his cheek. He screamed again but seemed helpless to fight her off. Biggs pulled her away and aimed his gun at her. "Don't make me do this, lady."
She bared bloody teeth at him and lunged forward. He shot her in the chest. She stumbled back a few steps then moved towards him again. In incredulity, he shot her again. Again she reached for him. Desperate, he pointed his gun at her head and pulled the trigger. The woman collapsed instantly like a marionette, a bloody mess where her head had been.
The senior officer stared at her fallen body in disbelief. Around him, panic took hold as shots rang out without effect. "They aren't stopping!"
Horrified, I watched the older officer who had comforted me, drop his gun and stagger towards us. His yells became garbled and blood poured from a ragged wound in his throat.
Do something! Stepping forward, I yelled at the top of my voice. "Shoot them in the head! It works!"
Another guard took up the cry. "Go for the head!" A cacophony of gunshots followed as the three standing men desperately targeted the maniacs' heads.
As the noise died away, the officers stood surrounded by the corpses of the maniacs. They gazed at each other, stunned into somber silence. Suddenly, the sound of a woman's scream brought my head up sharply. Emma! She ran towards me from the far end of the corridor, waving her arms frantically. "Run! Run!" Behind her, I heard shots being fired and then Ken and the security guards came bolting around the corner. They were looking over their shoulders and yelling, "Move! Move!"
In the moment of frozen inaction that gripped me and the others, I saw them - a throng of blood-splattered creatures staggering around the corner. It is an image that will forever be burned in my memory. A doctor with arms that ended in bloody stumps; a security guard with intestines dragging on the floor; a young dark-haired woman with a gaping hole where her abdomen once was. Doctor Wilson stumbled behind her, oblivious to the gaping hole in his chest. One of the guards turned and fired wildly at them. A bullet slammed into the chest of a middle-aged woman in a nurse's uniform. She fell back into the crowd. And then she stood up.
"Help the wounded!" Biggs yelled, snapping everyone out of their paralysis. "Get going!" He grabbed the Jack's arm and pulled him up. We followed the other guards carrying the older injured man through. I rushed back to hold a door open. I waved at Emma and the others. "Come on!"
She was so close, I could see the flush on her cheeks and the terror in her wide eyes. Not far behind her were the men and oh, so close, too close, were the monsters. Their missing limbs slowed them down, thank god, but they kept coming...
"Hurry, Emma." I murmured and held my hand out to her. Her eyes met mine and she reached for me. I closed my fingers around hers and swept her into a tight one-armed hug as I continued to hold the door open.
"Am I safe?" She whispered pleadingly.
"For now." I answered truthfully as I watched the boys drawing closer over her shoulder. And then they were through, and the guards were bolting the doors shut.
5
A gurgled cry drew my attention. The older guard was lying against the wall. The nurse in me kicked in. I grabbed a kit from the nearby counter and hurried over to examine them.
"Call for help" I snapped at Biggs as I ran by. Kneeling by the older man, I struggled to stem the flow of blood from his neck but I saw the light of life already fading from his eyes. Within a minute, he was gone. I stood up. "I'm sorry. He's gone." I quickly moved over to the young man. His wounds were more serious but not immediately life threatening. I worried that he was going into shock.
As I knelt beside the lad, Emma moved to join me, her red hair falling over her face. "You saved my life, Lori. I can't believe that you risked your life like that!"
I shrugged, embarrassed, as I worked on the boy. "Momentary madness."
Emma grinned, and with a professional eye, quickly assessed the situation in the room. Her smile faded as her eyes settled on the dead guard.
"How long has he been dead?" She pointed.
I frowned, puzzled. "A few minutes. Why?"
Emma stood up, agitated. "You've got to get him out of here. Now!" Her blue eyes appealed to the other guards. "The ones who have been bitten turn quickly when they die. Hurry, we don't have long!"
Ev
en as she spoke, I saw the dead man's eyes snap open. His lips peeled back and he lunged at a blond guard near him, sinking his teeth into the man's calf.
"Get him off, get him off!" The guard screamed, fumbling with his gun. Biggs stepped forward, coolly pressed his gun against the side of the dead man's head and pulled the trigger.
Biggs turned an icy blue eye on me. "Either you are a shitty nurse who can't tell when a man is dead, ma'am, or I just iced a corpse. " He closed his eyes briefly. "I don't suppose there's much chance you're a shitty nurse, is there?"
I shook my head wordlessly, pushing myself to my feet. "He was gone."
Biggs sighed and turned away. "Not sure how I am going to explain this away if there is an inquiry. Then again, not sure there's any way to explain any of this..."
He passed Ken as he gathered his remaining able officers for a conference.
"Thanks." Ken's sensitive face was drawn and pale. "That stick allowed me to hold off Jan...those creatures until the officers arrived."
I accepted his thanks with an awkward nod. It was hard to feel proud when I had abandoned them and run like hell.
The stocky sandy-haired guard (I privately nicknamed him B1, with his pointy head and spiky hair) sent to make a call trotted back from the nurses' station, looking unsettled. "I can't raise anyone in admin, or down in ER, the office..."
Biggs scowled. "Everyone's spread so damned thin today. We've been dealing with outbreaks of aggression all over the hospital in the last hour -" He stopped abruptly as the same appalling thought occurred to all of us. What if this was happening all over the hospital?
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, folks." He turned to a bald man calmly chewing gum. "Jim, go get a visual on what's happening downstairs in ER."
Jim nodded and turned to go.
"And make it quick."
Jim snorted. "Count on it."
My head was spinning. Surely we were overreacting. There was no way this craziness could be happening all over the hospital?! Emma looked pale. Ken murmured, "Just a few of those creatures took out our whole staff and security guards. If this disease has spread..."
