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Hospital - Chapter Two
By Guilty Spark
Cameron turned towards the group of people gathered in the basement cafeteria of Ridgeton General. Junkee and SnakeMark had just finished discussing with the group exactly how much danger they really were in. They were trapped in a hospital with things, that for all intensive purposes could be called, zombies. This was quite a pickle.
“Alright, our top priority should be getting out of here,” Cameron was trying his best to keep his cool, “But we can only do that if we can defend ourselves, so we need to find something that could be used as a weapon, agreed?”
“Hey,” Yvonne’s husband Dac stood up from his chair, “Who made you leader? Why should we be following a guy who’s wearing a gown? For all we know, you’re some kook from the psych unit. I say we sit tight until a rescue party comes along.”
“What makes you think any rescue party is going to come?” The janitor, who’s nametag read Mark in black marker spoke up for the first time.
“Well why wouldn’t they? They have to come back,” Dac was speaking more in hope than in actual belief, “Right?”
JP Junkee looked around the room at this group. Half of these people were barely capable of walking, let alone running from zombies. How were they going to get out of here alive? “Hey,” Junkee directed himself right at Cameron, “He’s right. Give us a reason to follow you. Give us a reason to trust in you.”
“Well, for one I’m an ex-marine. For two, who else can any of us trust but each other?”
Junkee nodded his head, and looked up to the patients wearing gowns, “There’s a doctors’ locker room down the hall from here. We can get you all changed into more suitable clothing there. Then, I’m sure that Guilty and Camel have some sort of weaponry for emergency use in their office.”
“Yeah,” Guilty piped up, “A shotgun, and a spare pistol.”
“Alright then,” Junkee started for the door, “Let’s go then.”
Outside of the hospital, a lone news van pulled up next to the main entrance. From the door stepped the intrepid young newscaster from Channel 8 Evening Report, Naninou. Naninou had just finished up her internship and had just been put on the real payroll less than a week prior to tonight. This was going to be her first real story.
Smith, a wizened cameraman who had been working for Evening Report for thirty-five years stepped out behind her, and instantly was suspicious. Four huge helicopters had left the roof of the hospital less than an hour before hand, with nobody coming out of the hospital since then, and no other crew was here? It struck Smith as extremely odd.
“Maybe we could get inside for a look around?” Naninou was already tugging hard on the main entrance door, but to no avail.
“They could be on lockdown,” Smith looked up at all the windows on the side of the building, “But then where’s the cops? The yellow tape? The other reporters?”
“Hey, Smithy! Look over here,” Naninou had popped open the grate on a vent nearby the door, “The grate was loose. We could get in through here.”
“Kiddo, I am not crawling through a ventilation duct just to take some pictures of the inside of a hospital.”
“Aw, come on Smith, where’s that die-hard, anything for a story attitude I’ve heard so much about?”
“I’ll couldn’t tell you where it is, but I know it’s not in a vent duct.”
“Come on Smith,” She was pouting now, and Smith was a sucker for a pouty girl, “Help me get my first break.” Without another word, Smith slowly started in behind her down the vent tunnel, into the hospital.
“I will tell you this now friend,” A patient from the psych unit named Aragorn was talking hurriedly to Martin Randle, “The government is behind this. They’ve locked down this hospital, because they’re trying to hide something from us all.”
Martin looked more irritated than interested, but upon hearing Aragorn’s theory, Junkee cracked a smirk at SnakeMark. Snake was helping JP3fan usher Mad Rex into a wheelchair, as he had badly bruised both legs in his tumble off of the stretcher earlier, making it unbearable to walk.
After changing into more appropriate attire, they followed Camel and Guilty towards the security office. “Ok,” Camel began, “Up at this four way intersection thing, we’re going to be taking the North hallway, which doubles back around the kitchen and lab.”
The entire group stopped as a tall, but well-built, man rounded the corner at the end of the hallway. He was dressed in a finely tailored suit, and sunglasses hid his eyes from them. “He one of the new executives?” Sandra asked Parasaur.
“I don’t know, I sure don’t recognize him. Hey,” Parasaur called out down the hall, his voice echoing, “Hey you! Do you know of a way out of here? We were left behind.”
The man’s face turned towards them, and even though his eyes were not visible, they all knew that he was giving them a freezing stare. From his far side he pulled up was looked like a long cylinder that ended with a handle and an odd looking chain produced from a metal box. He pointed the end of it in their direction.
“Everyone down!” Cameron tackled Martin and Yvonne down with his arms into the North hallway with Guilty, Snake, Parasaur, and Camel following them. Into the South hallway Junkee shoved Mark, JP3girl, and Dac. Sandra barely managed to pull herself and Aragorn. Mad Rex was still in the middle of the hallway, fear locked into his face as the barrel of the mini-gun stared him down. SnakeMark thrust his leg out and managed to kick the wheelchair baring Mad Rex in it, out of the way as a storm of bullets went whizzing by.
It was as if a hurricane had hit and wind carried lead. Bits of brick shattered and spun of the walls. Yvonne was screaming at the top of her lungs but it was drowned out in the screech from the mini-gun. Cameron made eye contact with Junkee, and wordlessly told him to get them all to the elevator and get upstairs.
Understanding perfectly, Junkee beckoned his little group to follow him in a dash for the elevator, Mark pushing Mad Rex’s wheelchair at top speed. In the opposite direction, Camel and Guilty led the others towards the security office for weapons. The elevators never seemed so far to Sandra. Her feet felt like iron in her shoes, dragging her backwards, not letting her gain any momentum. Behind them, the gun firing had stopped, but they could hear the ‘click-click’ of the man’s dress shoes on the tile floor.
As Aragorn was the first to reach the elevator, he hit the up button so hard it cracked the plastic covering it. Looking back, he saw the man come around the corner, and lift the hefty gun up. There was a faint ‘ding,’ and Aragorn spun to see the doors opening. Everyone threw themselves in, and the gap between the doors began to shrink, and finally close.
“To the sides,” Junkee screamed, “To the sides of the elevator, against the walls, now!” Everyone did as he said, and not two seconds later, small holes punctuated through the doors and left dents in the back wall of the elevator, tiny hot bullets bouncing down upon the occupants. Mark managed to slip his fingers over to the control panel, and it the button for the eighth floor by random. The elevator jerked itself upwards.
Out in the South hallway of the basement, Stealth Raptor 2 lifted his cell phone to his ear. A voice came out the other end, and sounded almost bored, “Yes? What is your progress?”
“I am currently in the process of tracking down those who were left behind.”
“Have you found the information I want, SR2?”
“I was executing my terminate order first, sir.”
“I need those people dead SR2, but I also need that information. Failure will not be accepted. You don’t want to end up like your predecessor, do you SR2?”
“No, sir. The mission will be completed in full.”
Somewhere in the vent ducts, Naninou and Smith crawled their way towards the exit. Echos of gunfire met their ears, and Naninou knew her hunch was right: this was going to be huge. Smith knew his hunch was right too: he should have called in today.
8/31/2006 3:32:32 PM
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