The Walking Dead: Starling Sinking
Chapter One
The day the world ended started out as any other. Bex Starling tied her auburn hair into a ponytail as she entered Harrison Memorial Hospital. A 12-hour shifted awaited her today so Bex planned accordingly allowing her a full nine hours of sleep. Instead of arriving at the hospital early to get ready she kept her scrubs, showered right before going to bed, and left a salad within the desk of the doctor who was currently on vacation. The empty office was also the perfect place for napping, hiding, and lounging around on breaks. Bex took her career quite seriously but she added some extra flair and excitement. If being the perfect registered nurse were her only way to live life she would have ended up in a mental ward.
"Good morning, Bex!" The receptionist greeted. Bex wave her hand as she passed by while grabbing a random magazine off the counter and also feeling slightly guilty that she never learned the name of the friendly coworker. She knew of him as the guy who slept with most of the sexually confused male interns. There was no judgment as this hospital held some of the sleaziest of characters. Bex entered the elevator pressing the button of her desired floor. As the doors were closing a hand blocked them causing them to reopen. A police officer joined Bex. He had short black curly hair, a masculine body, and a cocky smirk as she checked him out.
"Good morning, nurse." He said.
"Good morning, officer." Bex replied with a small nod.
"Please, you can call me Shane," his smirk widened. "Does this beautiful face have a name?"
"I believe her name is Scarlett, if you're referring to this woman on the cover." Bex tapped the model posed on the front of the magazine.
"A sense of humor, cute. No I mean the woman in the scrubs holding the magazine." Shane continued.
"Bex." She answered as the doors opened. She exited first making a right. Her day would begin with checking on yesterday's patients and updating their charts from the night shift nurse's recordings. Her walk was not taken alone. Shane was right beside her.
"Any exciting patients today?" He asked winking at the passing nurses.
"Mr. Coleman requested a scrub bath in the near future. Perhaps today he wants to cash in his luck," Bex pulled out her phone checking the time. She was a few minutes early just as expected. "What about you, Shane? Any marvelous events happening out in the field?"
"A few teenagers caught drinking and driving. A bunch of little dumb shits if you ask me."
Bex overly dramatically gasped, "Wow, I didn't know the authority could speak in such a way."
"I probably shouldn't but I can trust you." Shane winked. That seemed to be his thing.
"Ah, but be careful who you trust. One of those little dumb shits could very well be my nephew, or son, or boyfriend." Bex finished covering her mouth and faking a shocked expression.
"That's sexist of you to think they were all male."
"Were they all male?"
"Yes, actually. And if one of them is your boyfriend then I think you would be in a little bit of trouble. And I don't just mean with the law. A kid like that wouldn't know how to handle a woman such as yourself." Shane winked once more.
"And they can't be my nephew since I'm an only child."
"And one of them obviously can't be your son. You're much too long to be a parent of one of them." Another wink.
"Hmm, then I can't have any relation whatsoever with those little dumb shits. Good thing for you or I could have called the gossip girls to spread some juicy drama." Bex winked internally mocking Shane. "So, Shane, what exactly are you doing here?" She grabbed a clipboard from the counter the two had finally reached.
"My partner was shot last month. He's been in a coma ever since." Shane ran a hair through his hair looking down.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Bex said. "But I can guarantee he is in good hands."
"I know he is. You're here." Shane smiled.
"Well, I'm not assigned to him so I actually play no factor in his recovery."
"Or downfall."
"Yes but that's normally not something a friend would tease."
"We've been best friends for years. We tease each other about everything."
"That's cute. Well, I have work to do. Nice chatting with you, Shane." Bex offered a small smile before turning away and heading towards her nearest patient.
"Wait, you never gave me your number." Shane called after.
"Yep, sure didn't." And with that Bex gave a thumb up and entered the room of her first patient.
Lunch break was finally upon Bex. She wrote down her remaining notes of her latest patient, punched out for lunch, tossed her gloves into the trash and made her way to the staff recreation room. As she entered she noticed everyone had his or her attention focused on the television. Bex slowly and quietly crept to the only empty chair taking a seat. The channel was set to a news station. A man stood within a city with a crowd of people behind him. The headline: NEW DISEASE RAPIDLY INCREASING. PEOPLE TURNED VIOLENT.
"What did I miss?" Bex asked the nurse next to her. She was older with graying blonde hair cut moderately short.
"Some new flu or something. People are rioting." She whispered knowing better than to disturb the others.
"Where are they?"
"Atlanta. Do you know anyone in the city?'
"A friend from college. She works some dead-end office job."
"My sister is there. She owns a little floral shop somewhere near the outskirts. Oh, I do hope she's alright."
"Why are there so many people there?" Bex noticed the oddly extremely amount of people behind the reporter.
"City is a safe zone apparently. Military thinks if they round everyone up in the city then the disease will stay out or something. They're being vague about the details. I know they're hiding something."
"You think everyone is hiding something, Trudy." A male doctor told. He had dirty blonde hair styled from what Bex recognized as a Caesar cut. She spent an embarrassing amount of time reading fashion magazines. His skin was pale and he had a distinctive jawline.
"Cause most people are, Dr. Williamson." Trudy protested. "He's upset because I was changing a young woman with a broken leg and wrist; car accident and he walked in on it. Made a big ordeal about the situation. Truth he told, I can tell he thinks she's attractive and seeing her with her top off must have drove him crazy." Trudy chuckled as Dr. Williamson marched out of the room. "He acted as if he didn't know what the curtains were for. That's my name for you." Bex giggled along with Trudy.
"So, is this disease something to worry about?"
"Don't pay it too much attention dear. The press is just being themselves and throwing things our of proportion to get their views up."
"If you say so, I'm going to go get some lunch. Care to join me?"
"Oh, my shift is just about over. Maybe another time? Be sure to get a hot dog they taste much better today!"
Bex Starling was sitting alone in the stairway eating her hot dog and sipping on a soda. Tried as she did, she could not think of anything else but the news. If there was some disease how come none of the nurses were informed of it prior to it becoming a headline on some news channel. Surely the health professionals would be aware of illnesses before the general public. But then again she didn't know these things. She had only begun work as a registered nurse only seven months ago. She was the youngest and newest nurse in the hospital. Bex picked up on things quickly but was still clueless about others. Like when the RNs are told about new sicknesses. Bex shook her head trying to clear her thoughts. Some overbearing soccer mom probably has a kid with a high fever and went crazy talking about the worst-case scenarios. Bex's pager went off. Pagers were a shitty way of communicating but this hospital forbid the use of cell phones while on the job. An alert was sent out but the message was unclear. Suddenly a door possibly just a few floors below sounded as if it were forced open. Bex brought herself to a stand and leaned over the railing to see the commotion. Men dressed in black with helmets and masks and guns were running up the steps. A scream echoed within the stairwell.
"Hey!" One of the men shouted looking directly at Bex. She took that as her cue to leave. She ran out into the hallway and was met with chaos. All the employees were running around, paperwork was scattered along the floor, and patients were asking everyone who passed by what was going on. A person left alone to their thoughts can block out the entire universe.
"Miss, nurse, what is happening right now?" A frightened man asked. He wore the typical hospital gown.
"I have no idea. Stay here, I'll be right back." Bex told him jogging towards the service counter. One woman was still seated trying to calm someone done on the telephone.
"Hey, what the hell is happening?" Bex asked.
"The military charged in on the first floor a few minutes ago. They're not letting anyone in or out." The woman replied. Her chocolate colored hair was dully spiked. Her black scrubs were a few shades darker than her skin.
"What? Why?"
"I don't know! I think it has to do with the news but they're not telling us anything. Trudy Williamson just called from down there saying she thought she heard gunshots."
Oh shit, Trudy.
"Gunshots? Oh god, we have to get everyone off this floor then. Some men were running up the stairs."
"I'll help." The woman offered slamming the phone down that she was ignoring. Bex led her to the scared man who was still standing in the middle of the hallway. His face was now a deep red.
"Sir, this woman is here to help you." Bex calmly spoke. She leaned closer to the woman, "get him to the other stairwell I doubt the military is coming up both ways." She nodded wrapping an arm around the man trying to ease the situation.
"Hi, I'm Sheila, what's your name?"
"Daniel Hopkins, but my friends call me Dan." The man nervously told. Left behind in his place was a puddle of liquid easily identifiable as urine. Bex was saddened now knowing why his face had grown so red. She brushed off the thought running down the hall. She dragged an equipment cart in front of the door blocking entry. She piled on the chairs behind the counter and the computer figuring a little extra weight might help. Bex looked around her surroundings. This floor had turned to hell. She hadn't the slightest idea how to escort all these patients out of the hospital but she knew she needed to.
Bex managed to pass off four patients to over nurses and doctors exiting the building before the cart she has placed just under an hour ago flew across the room. A group of military personnel dressed in riot gear barged onto the floor guns in hand and shouting orders. They were grabbing the nearest people and lining them up. Another group was cornering others aiming their guns at them. Bex needed to hide. The morale thing to do was to fight back to devise a plan to get those people out but the sensible action was to hide from the military. She would be worthless to everyone if she did something stupid and died. Bex entered the room to her left. The occupant had just been led away from a fellow nurse moments ago. Hiding under the bed seemed to be the easiest thing but the most obvious. Those men would know to search the room it seemed ordinary. She needed to make it seem like the room had been ransacked already. Bex turned the shower on, grabbed handfuls of toilet paper throwing torn pieces along the floor. She knocked over the chairs, end tables, and smashed the framed picture of a family. Balloons were floating all around. Bex popped most of them, dropped the glass vase of flowers, scattered the 'get well' cards and flipped over the bed with the strength of her adrenaline and after whipping off a sheet. Bex squished herself into the small storage space cabinets where they kept the patients clothes that were worn the day they were admitted. With the sheet she covered herself. Her hope was if the men even ventured further into the room after seeing the disaster it was and decided to check the cabinets the sheet would provide some cover. It also acted as a small sound barrier as she tried controlling her breathing. She thought about the people out there. Why were they being lined up? Did they have some device that could scan them and determine if anyone had this disease? And what the hell was this disease and why was it causing the military to overtake a fucking hospital. Gunshots broke her train of thoughts. Screams followed, pleas for mercy and help joined in. Bex placed a hand over her mouth stopping her gasps to be silenced. Tears trickled down her cheeks. Those innocent people were being murdered. The military was performing a fucking massacre inside the hospital. The thought was sickening. The screams did not end. They were continuous and grew louder as Bex heard the door to the room creek open.
"What the fuck happened in here?" A man asked. There was an absence of footsteps.
"Maybe one of those fucking freaks got in." Another man suggested. His voice was more distinct as it had a rougher tone.
"Then where is the blood?" The first man questioned.
"Who the fuck cares? This room is empty, move your fucking ass." A third voice ordered. This one was female with a sharp tone.
"Yes ma'am." The two men said in unison.
"Fuck, they're here!" Someone yelled. Gunshots erupted but became somewhat suppressed as the door slammed shut. Bex sat there; hands clamped over her ears and eyes shut. This was unreal. This was not happening. Little did she know this would be the beginning of the new world.