~*~*~ Hey guys, this is my first ever Walking Dead fiction. Let me know if you think it's worth going on with it or not! (: ~*~*~
I waited in the staff office of St Joseph's hospital in Atlanta, reading an old copy of Rolling Stone magazine that had been lying around. I had been sitting for over an hour, and I could hear the hustle and bustle of the hospital outside the doors. Well, I could hear the frantic work of doctors and nurses and the distress of patients which was well above the normal level. Truth be told, this job was incredibly important to me, but with each passing minute I began to worry about the likelihood of being able to leave, and just wanted to find my brother and somehow get home to see if my dad was doing okay through all of this. I just felt so useless sitting here. Suddenly the door opened and I looked up.
"Raelen, I'm terribly sorry to do this to you, but we're extremely overrun today." The head administrator of St Joseph's hospital Karl Tanner apologised to me. The guy looked utterly distressed, the look I had seen on many people's faces since leaving the airport yesterday afternoon… when I was supposed to be interviewed but wasn't. "Is there any chance you could throw on some scrubs and help out in the emergency room?"
"Of course Mr Tanner!" Although I was worried, I was secretly delighted; I had come down here for a job interview as an assistant cardio physician, and the best way I could showcase any of my skills was to actually do some hands-on work. Plus, I had worked the emergency room for the past two years, nothing fazed me about it… or so I thought…
I followed Karl Tanner as he showed me quickly where to get my scrubs.
"Scrubs are just in there and you can put your things into one of the lockers." He hurriedly spilled. "The emergency room is just down the hall and to the left. I don't want you to be too alarmed, but there are some police present to… keep order."
"Keep order? Is it really that bad?" I looked into the older man's strained face.
"I don't know what this flu has done to people, but they have literally gone crazy. They're attacking each other, and biting like rabid animals. I can't begin to explain this, hopefully the government will be doing something to help. Unlikely though." He gave a humourless short chuckle. "Quick as you can Raelen, we need your help."
"Right away." He left and I grabbed the scrubs and went back to the staffroom to change quickly before anyone could walk in, and so that I could get down there quicker. I stuffed my clothes/wallet/etc. into my backpack I had brought with me (hoping to be on a plane home tonight) and into one of the vacant lockers and turned the key and took it with me, using an elastic band to strap the key to my inner arm (a trick I had learned in the first week of my residency).
I followed the signs to the Emergency Room, the noise reaching a crescendo as I neared the door. When I opened the swing doors I was almost shocked by the sheer amount of people I saw sitting there… and standing all over the place. I thought the corridors were busy, but it looked like a Friday night in a local popular bar, there were people everywhere. There were quite a few police officers too, including (to my surprise) my brother Dean. He was one of the reasons I really wanted this job (aside from the fact being an assistant Cardio physician was a large step in the direction of my dream), I missed him when he moved away from home, and we'd always been super close. He was currently trying to calm a hysterical woman whose cries were so shrill that her words were impossible to discern. Medical personnel were dashing to and fro and the two receptionists looked ready to keel over with the sheer amount of work.
"Dean?" I walked up to him.
"Little sister." He turned and put his arm around my shoulders, gave a quick squeeze, and then dropped it. He looked stressed beyond belief, but also slightly relieved (probably to see me). "What you doing in scrubs? You get the job that quick?"
"No, I got asked to help out. Speaking of which I better go do. You still want me to come over later before I go home?"
"Raelen." His tone stopped me in my tracks and he came up close to me so he wouldn't be overheard. "Look… it's pretty dangerous right now. The entire city seems to have gone crazy. There's a bunch of folks attacking and…" He paused for a second, like there was something he was afraid of saying, but he knew I was made of sterner stuff than most. One had to be if they wanted to be a heart surgeon. Plus, I'd already heard it from Tanner. "They're trying to eat people Rae."
"Eat them?" That was something Tanner had not told me.
"Yeah, it's like a full on World War Z out there. You promise me if someone even tries to take a snap out of you, you come find me. I won't be leaving here, I need to stay and try to keep things in order." I couldn't comprehend what he was trying to say. I knew the nation was suffering from some flu-like virus and things were a bit manic, but I couldn't understand fully how dangerous he was insinuating it was out there.
"Dean, calm down, it can't be that bad. Believe me, I worked the emergency room during the swine flu scare and a Pittsburgh weekend when the Penguins lost combined. I can handle it."
"Listen to me Rae, it's serious. You know I wouldn't say that unless it was true. Right?" My older brother was not someone to get spooked, or scared and was the bravest man I had ever met apart from our dad. Dean regularly made jokes about everything, even in serious situations and seeing him rattled like this got to me. Maybe things were that bad out there.
"Okay, I'll be careful."
"And I'm not leaving here without you, so if I have to leave if we're in trouble, then you come too, understand?" He gave me that stern look that reminded me of when I was 15 and he was 19 and he was in charge of the house for the weekend when our parents were on some kind of weekend break. All I had suggested was having a small get together and he gave me that withering look. That was twelve years ago now, but I remember everything, memory like an elephant.
"Got it. I better go see if I can help." I backed away from him.
"Careful Rae." He warned again ominously and then turned to where a scuffle had broken out between two patients waiting near the entrance. I wasted no time, I marched right up to the desk.
"Hey guys, I'm Dr Gardner. Mr Tanner sent me down. Put me to work." I smiled a tight-lipped smile at them and they had looks of minor relief on their faces.
"Thank you so much doctor. Dr Collins!" She shouted to a passing doctor who stopped. "This is Dr Gardner, she's been sent down to help out."
"Oh fantastic." He smiled at her. What's your area doctor?"
"Emergency room wannabe cardio surgeon."
"We could always use an emergency room wannabe cardio surgeon." He smiled a tight-lipped smile. At that moment two paramedics burst in the door wheeling in a patient and rushed to get him through the back.
"Show me what you're made of Dr Gardner." He nodded at me and I approached the paramedics, going through the door with them to the emergency operating rooms.
"What have we got here guys?"
"Male, 46, heart attack, has two of these bites everyone has been coming in with." Shit, Dean must be right, I thought fleetingly. But I was now focused on the task at hand. I'm a doctor and I save lives. That's not me trying to be arrogant; I need that mantra, especially on the difficult days. I also noticed a nurse was following me around, a young nurse.
"Okay, nurse…"
"Chloe." She said quietly. The poor girl looked terrified. The paramedics had barely parked the man before they dashed out.
"Okay, Chloe, prepare me an ECG stat." Chloe hesitated. "Now Chloe." I sound like such a bitch, but when people's lives are at stake you can't be soft and gentle about the subject. She quickly set about getting the equipment whilst I popped open the man's shirt and saw whilst I was doing this a bite on his left forearm and his right shoulder. They were nasty deep gashes that were bleeding pretty badly. I quickly taped some gauze to both wounds to staunch the bleeding whilst I concentrated on his malfunctioning heart. By this point Chloe had completed the ECG.
"Okay, there's ST-elevation. I'm going in. Chloe I need a catheter, a hypodermic and 5mil of Roxanol." Chloe scurried about getting the items I requested while I prepared to make an incision in his chest. The man's pulse was slowing and his breathing felt non-existent and suddenly he flat-lined.
"Fuck. Chloe, 10mils of Vasopressin, now!" I began chest compressions and instructed Chloe to inject the Vasopressin into his arm as quickly and accurately as she could. This is where I loathe movies and TV shows. Contrary to popular belief, a defibrillator is not the go-to tool when your patient is flat-lining. In most cases this makes it less likely that your patient will be revived. Although we tried more endorphin-increasing drugs and more compressions, the man was dead. "Okay, I'm calling it. What's the time Chloe?" I walked away from her, taking my gloves off and putting them into the appropriate bin.
"It's 6.17." She said. I heard movement behind me and then Chloe screamed. I spun around to find that the man on the table had grabbed Chloe's wrist and was using her to pull himself up. By Chloe's screams I could tell that he was gripping her very tightly and I moved to help her remove him. Now I am by no stretch of the imagination even remotely strong. I am 5'2" and although I am pretty curvaceous there was not a noticeable amount of strength in my upper body. I could do chest compressions and similar to my patients because I put my entire body into it (there's a thing to be said for determined effort no matter how strong you are). I don't know what made me think that I could possibly get this man to let go of Chloe, but instinct takes over just like when I'm working. I pulled and pulled but all it seemed to do was make the man move further towards us.
"Let go!" I shouted at him and then I almost fell on my ass when I looked at him. His eyes were glazed over, and he was snarling at us, in a feral, animalistic way, which scared the shit out of me. Suddenly the door flew open and my brother came in and put one bullet through the patient's head and he dropped back onto the trolley. I managed to catch Chloe before she fell over, and looked over at my brother in shock. "You shot him. What the fuck?"
"Several people in the waiting room have changed. We need to get the fuck out of here."
"Changed into what?"
"Fucking zombies Raelen, now come on!" I pulled Chloe out of the room after Dean and when we stopped at the waiting room Chloe shrieked but I was just in total horrified awe of what I seen. Human beings tearing bits of flesh off of other human beings. One elderly lady took a chunk the size of an Oreo out of the neck of one of the male nurses, and a man was chewing on what looked like the dead girl in front of his knees' forearm… since she was missing an arm and was splattered in blood. The waiting room looked like something straight out of a horror film. All that was missing was the hero or heroine saving the day. I realised in less than a second that wasn't going to be the case and I ran back through the doors the way I had first come to the waiting room, with Dean and Chloe hot on my heels.
"Shit, where do we go?" Asked Dean.
"The window of the staff room is next to the escape stairs, we could get out there." Chloe told us, completely spaced out.
"Let's go right now." I moved in the direction of the staff room, trying to ignore the screams behind us… and above us… Considering the carnage in the waiting room the corridor was relatively empty besides the couple of dead bodies we had to dodge and Chloe screeched each time she saw one. I, on the other hand, have seen more dead bodies than I care to remember. Nothing freaked me out about dead bodies… unless they were getting up… and moving towards me… like the woman dressed in a nurse's uniform who was doing the exact same in front of us. She sat up and snarled, teeth snapping, but before she could take a bite out of Dean (who was closest to her) I quickly grabbed a metal crutch and bust her head open with it. She fell backwards and her head hit the ground. I realised that her blood had went all over my scrubs.
"Shit Rae, your upper body is deceptive if it can hide strength like that." Fucking Dean making fucking jokes when they were in peril.
"Shut the hell up and keep moving." I hissed at him. I noticed that Chloe had stopped moving and was staring at the woman whose brains I had just bashed in. She was about ten feet behind us. "Wait, Dean, I need to get Chloe."
"Who?" I ignored him and moved back towards Chloe.
"Come on Chloe, we need to get out of here now."
"I… I can't." She stuttered. She was completely petrified. I slapped her with my left hand, which was not as effective as my right (which was still hanging onto the crutch), but it got her back to her senses and moving quickly with me back to Dean. The doors behind us opened and three people came through, slowly, but ominously. One look at them told me all I needed to know.
"Move, now!" I dragged Chloe quickly behind me, but the three milling around the door noticed us and started ambling towards us. Without looking back we ran to but it staff room and Dean used one of the lounge chairs to keep the door closed.
"Okay let's go." He opened the window to reveal the emergency stairs Chloe has told us about. I snapped the key on the elastic band off of my arm and ran to the locker I had put my things in. "There's no time for this Rae."
"Just wait!" I grabbed my backpack and threw it around my shoulders before following Chloe out into the emergency stairs. I heard a pounding noise on the staff room door and the lounge chair moved forward slightly. "Come on Dean, get out here." Dean quickly stepped out and followed the girls to the bottom of the stairs. There were screams coming from all directions.
"Okay girls, stay behind me." He held his handgun up. "We're going to go straight to my jeep, it's parked across the road from the entrance to the hospital, just round this corner." He pointed round to the right. We hurried behind him and nothing could have prepared us for what we saw on the street. It was the waiting room on a larger scale, but zombies (zombies? Fucking zombies!) were shuffling along after people. They weren't running, the motor functions enabling them to run having long gone, but they did shuffle in a sort of hasty way. I heard a growl from behind us and saw a zombie walking (shuffling? Sliding?) towards us. I let out a yelp and rushed at the zombie, bringing my crutch weapon down on his head twice until he stopped moving.
"Remind me never to sneak up on you." Yes, my brother is still cracking jokes. "Let's go." He sped quickly but quietly down the street and we were just as quiet. When I saw his red Cherokee jeep I sighed in relief. Dean tossed me the keys. "Rae, you drive, I want to be able to shoot if I need to." I opened the doors quickly and got into the driver's seat whilst Chloe slid into the back and Dean into the passenger seat.
"So… where to?" I asked as I started up the engine.
~*~*~ I hope you liked it guys! Sorry there wasn't much Daryl in this first chapter, but he'll be all up in your grill for the next chapter, pinky swear. Also, I did some reading, so the medical stuff is mostly accurate, but definitely not 100%, so if someone has a heart attack you should still phone an ambulance! ^_^ ~*~*~