There was gunfire. Explosions. Screams. The smell of death all around in the hot desert sand of Iraq. There were panicked shouts of 'move! let's go! man down!' The sight of gore. Men and women groaning. Dying. Her own hands were covered in blood.
Selene Leonetti gasped loudly and bolted up out of bed after that horrible dream. Panting, she was drenched in sweat of the hot Georgia air and her dark hair stuck to her neck and face. She looked around and saw she was in a hospital.
How the hell did I get here? she wondered.
She looked at the clock to see that it had stopped at 2:15. Seeing it was still light outside, it had to be somewhere between late morning or early afternoon. She figured the clock had to have stopped due to dead batteries. She looked at the machines she was hooked up to-the monitors were completely black and off. Her IV bag was empty. She felt thirsty-almost dehydrated. Selene reached for the call button, yet frowned when no sound came out of it.
Odd.
Nothing seemed to be working here. Least she was aware of. She thought of what it could be logically-power outage? Nah. The hospital would've had a generator. It was way too odd. Aside that it was darker than usual, it was silent. Too silent. If there was one thing Selene hated, it was silence. She recalled her time in Iraq the days it was too quiet-that's when it was the most frightening. All the uncertainty. Always on alert for any sounds or sights.
With a grunt, she pulled herself into an upright position and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Just when she was about to get out of the bed, she collapsed in a heap on the floor.
"Shit!" she hissed.
She looked at her legs, seeing they were lying there. They were dead asleep. She slapped her thighs, trying to wake them up. They were completely numb.
"Nurse!" she called as best she could. "Help!"
No one seemed to answer. She looked around to see if there was something she could get herself up off the floor. Recalling the times in basic training of an obstacle course of crawling under the barbed wire, she began to drag herself with the dead weight of her atrophied legs towards a wheelchair sitting in the rner. Grunting and straining, she managed to pull herself up into the chair, cursing. First she wheeled herself to the bathroom first since she was dying of thirst.
"Please let the water be on," she prayed.
Turning on the sink, she heaved a sigh of relief that it was and began to splash her face and her lips with some water. She grabbed a plastic cup from the sink to drink as well. She drank several small cups of it before she felt satisfied.
Next, she wheeled herself to the door, opening it. She found the halls were empty, dark and quiet.
"Hello?" she called, her voice echoing.
Pushing the door open with effort, Selene wheeled herself down the dark hall.
"Where the hell is everyone?" she said aloud.
Selene continued to wheel down the corridor. Frowning, she looked down and saw it was a mess-carnage was more like it. There was a stench of copper that hung in the air. Windows on the ward doors were smashed. It looked like the entire hospital had bailed out. There were medical supplies tipped over, papers scattered everywhere, wires were hanging from the open drop ceiling. Lights flickered in parts of the corridor. The silence was overwhelming. Hairs on Selene's neck prickled.
"What the hell happened here?" she said frowning.
While wheeling down the halls, she heard something a few feet down the hall that sounded like a voice.
"H-hey!" she yelled. "Someone here?"
"Down here!" the voice said.
She wheeled faster, following the voice...until her chair ran over something that knocked her out of her chair, causing her to spill out of her chair.
"Aw shit!" she cursed. "Goddammit!"
She pulled herself up to look at what it was she had run over and to her horror, there was a nurse who looked like her skin was ripped off of her with her bones exposed. Not that she hadn't seen dead bodies before, but this was one of the worst. She let out a disgusted whine, shuddering.
"Hey!" called the voice in one of the rooms. "You OK?"
"I-I'm fine..." she said. "I just...fell out of my chair."
"You need help?"
"No," she said. "I can get myself up. Just keep talking. I'll come to you."
She crawled towards the chair, struggling. She grimaced at the grisley sight of the torn apart corpse. She put the brakes on and pulled herself back up into the chair. Releasing the brakes, she wheeled herself towards the room where she heard the voice.
"Keep talking," she said. "I'll come to you."
"Here," called the voice. "I'm here."
Once she had found the room, there was a bed barricading the door. It was hard to move it being in the wheelchair. Damn legs! She pushed it with all the best effort and opened the door. There was a man on the floor who looked really bad.
"Oh shit," she gasped, seeing him on the floor.
She pushed the door with difficulty to get inside and wheeled herself towards the fallen man. His blue eyes were glazed and his forehead was drenched in sweat. He definitely looked dehydrated-nonetheless really sick. His chest was exposed with light colored hair.
"C'mon," she said, reaching for his hand.
"You sure you can pick me up?" he said looking at Selene's wheelchair.
Selene rolled her eyes. "Let's at least sit you up. Your legs are dead as well?"
"Yea," he said in a shaky voice, sitting up and leaning against the bed.
"You need water," she said. "You're dehydrated. I'll get you some."
She wheeled herself towards the bathroom, filling a cup with water. She carefully held the cup and brought the man the cup. He took a sip while sitting on the floor. She looked at the man's IV and saw it was completely empty.
"You may need more than just cups of water," she said. "You need saline bags."
"Where would you find those?"
"Nurses' station. I won't be too long. Let's just hope nothing is locked or there aren't anymore."
"Alright," he said. "I'm Rick, by the way."
"Selene Leonetti," she said. "Army medic."