Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead etc. and really need to buy the game and stop borrowing other peoples
A/N: Thank you to anyone who reviewed my other story and I hope that everyone who read it enjoyed it =D This is my first attempt at a story in first person and my second ever FanFic. It's going be done on a chapter by chapter basis so look out for the next instalment! Enjoy =D
POV National Health Service paramedic
"860" I held the radio up to my lips, other hand on the wheel.
"860"
"860 can I have some more details on this please?"
"None available as of yet 860. We'll keep you posted"
"Roger"
As I cut communications with control I glanced again at my MDT radio which was currently displaying the particulars of my current job. I had seen enough of these in the last week or so to have a pretty good idea what I would find when I arrived at the specified address. The diagnosis of 'generally unwell' had been almost all I had been faced with lately and with very few exceptions it seemed to mean exactly the same thing. They were calling it a pandemic although I didn't believe half the rumours the newspapers were coming out with. However, all the A&E departments in the region did seem to be struggling with overcrowding far more than usual.
I flicked the sirens off as I pulled into the correct street and slowed down so I could read the house numbers. Number seventeen was on my right.
Putting the car in neutral I killed the ignition and retrieved my Parabag and LifePak-12 from the boot. Pocketing the keys I made my way through the gate, smiling at a couple of neighbours who had emerged from their houses further down the road to investigate the appearance of an ambulance service vehicle. Temporarily resting my Parabag on the doorstep I knocked on the door.
It was opened almost immediately by a woman in her late sixties, wearing a fluffy pink dressing gown and matching slippers. She was clutching a phone in one hand and a tissue in the other.
"Yes, the ambulance is here now. I'll call you back" she addressed this into the receiver and promptly disconnected the call.
"He's through there" she gestured to a doorway on her right and waited for me to enter before pushing closed the front door behind me. "His name's Frank"
I could hear her coughing in the hallway as I entered the spacious living room.
Frank was the only other person in the room. He was sat to the right of the fireplace in an enormous armchair that was almost devouring him. His head was dropped forward onto his chest, which thankfully was still rising and falling rhythmically, if rapidly.
"Hi Frank, my names Andrew and I'm from the ambulance service. Can you tell me what's happened?"
As I spoke I crouched down to his level and put my bags on the floor beside me. There was no discernable response. From this position I could see that the gentleman in question didn't look at all well. His eyes were closed and the visible skin was almost grey in colour. His breathing was shallow and ragged. "Frank I just need to take your pulse. It won't hurt you in any way"
I gently placed my hand on his forearm and looked for any signs that he knew I was there at all. I didn't find any. Placing two fingers on the inside of his left wrist I counted the palpitations. "Frank, can you open your eyes for me?" I questioned, as I felt the rapid irregularity of his heartbeat.
"Is he going to be alright?" the woman in pink questioned me from across the room where she was nervously hovering by the doorway. "He only had a cold and then this morning it took me forever to wake him up. He wouldn't even eat his breakfast. I thought if I sat him down by the window he might start to feel better"
"He's stable enough at the moment but we do need to get him into the hospital. Are you a friend or relative?"
"I'm his wife. Been married over 40 years"
I smiled. "Well I'll do my best to make sure you're married for many more years yet"
Even I had no idea how futile that assurance was to become.
POV Daniel
"Sharp scratch coming up…"
I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and looked the other way. I may be a paramedic but that didn't mean I had to like it when I was the person the needles were going into.
"Sorry love. You're all done"
She dropped the needle into the sharps bucket next to her leaving the canula sticking out of the back of my right hand. She attached the drip, set the dial and I watched the liquid flow smoothly down the tube and into my vein. It didn't take long before the pain in my abdomen subsided somewhat.
"The doctor should be with you shortly"
"Thanks" I smiled at the nurse as she gathered her equipment together and left the ward, drawing back my curtain as she did so.
The ward I was in was divided into two bays interspaced with several side rooms and nurses stations. My particular bay was male only and consisted of four beds and its own bathroom. Both of the beds opposite me were occupied; one with an elderly gentleman and one with a guy about my age. Both appeared semi-comatose and somewhat agitated. The man who had been in the bed next me had gotten violent and had been moved to a secure ward elsewhere in the hospital about fifteen minutes after I had arrived.
Although I'd only been admitted that morning I was already suffering with a severe case of cabin fever in addition to the constant pain in my abdomen. And to top it all off, my admittance onto the Surgical Assessment Unit meant I was automatically nil-by-mouth. I'd only gone to A&E because Sasha, my wife, had insisted. Knowing what the waiting rooms of those places could be like I'd been understandably reluctant.
"I take people in. I don't go in myself" I'd protested. It was an argument I hadn't expected to win.
"Daniel" she'd sighed. "Stop being so bloody stubborn and get yourself checked out. I just don't like the thought of you being in pain"
I hate emotional blackmail. But she did have a point. It'd started yesterday evening, a discomfort in the centre of my abdomen, developing into an extreme tenderness. As a healthcare professional I knew it wasn't quite right but my stubbornness tended to win out; until Sasha got involved.
As she requested, I had spoken with one of the nursing staff on my shift the following day and after mentioning I had been sick that morning he got me briefly examined by the doctor on call. I had been admitted immediately. Although none too impressed at now being an in-patient myself, I half appreciated being relieved of my shift. It had been a pretty strange week.
Mid-afternoon I found myself chatting to the nurse as she took my blood pressure. I had been a bit disappointed that Sasha hadn't come to visit me during the designated hours but presumed that she had to return to work. She had come in earlier as soon as she'd heard I'd been admitted. Came bearing gifts as well.
"Sorry love there's been no messages taken. Would you like me to give her a call for you?"
"No, that's fine. Thanks anyway"
Noting down my pulse and oxygen saturations on a chart at the end of my bed, she yawned widely.
"Oh goodness! I'm sorry!" she said holding a hand across her mouth.
"Been a long day?" I offered.
"Mmm it has" she replied. We had so many staff call in sick today I've come in to work an extra shift. I was on nights last night"
"You must be shattered!" I exclaimed "Have you ever been asked to do that before?"
"No, never. It's just been crazy lately. We've had so many staff call in sick this past week, and these last few days especially. And that's on top of all the extra people that have been coming in! This ward only yesterday started keeping people in for more than 24 hours. We're pushed for bed space like you wouldn't believe"
The nurse stopped there, glancing up at me briefly as if she had said too much.
"I know the feeling" I replied. "It's been hectic out on the roads too. There's been thousands of people being bought in with the same symptoms. And that's just round this area."
"Well I'm sure it'll blow over soon. It's like one of those really bad flu epidemics I reckon, that goes round in winter. Though I heard that some of the patients on ward sixteen turned a bit violent with it and actually bit a member of staff! Can you believe it?!"
"Bit them?!" I was understandably shocked to hear this and my voice came out slightly louder than I had intended.
"Try and keep your voice down a little" the nurse cautioned. "I don't want to panic the other patients"
"Of course. Sorry" I sunk down in my bed slightly and contemplated what I had just heard.
"Anyway, speaking of which," the nurse continued "I think I may have caught something myself. I can't seem to stop sneezing!"
POV National Health Service Paramedic
Her horrified expression left me with a puzzled one of my own. Wondering what I had said to have provoked such a reaction I looked at her quizzically. Ever so slowly, she raised her arm and pointed behind me. I turned slowly.
Frank was now very much awake and looking at me. Although whether this was the same Frank that his wife had been married to for over forty years was debatable. His eyes were wide and hungry. Without warning, and before I had time to react, he reached out for me, sinking his teeth deep into my forearm.
"Ahhhhh!" I cried out. I wrenched my arm from his grasp, leaving behind a significant chunk of flesh as I did so. Not waiting to see what he would do next I bolted upright and tore from the room. I heard the screams of his once dear wife as I yanked open the front door and sped out into the street. Reaching my car I started frantically searching through my pockets for the keys. The neighbours I had noticed earlier had gotten a lot nearer and it was only now that I stopped to take a proper look.
Something wasn't quite right. The nearest to me was female and staring right at me. Actually, through me would be more accurate. Her head was cocked to the right and as I gazed she tipped her head forward and threw up all over the pavement. Slightly taken aback I continued to search for my keys when the sound of running feet made me turn. The street behind me contained maybe a dozen neighbours and one of these was now charging full pelt at me.
As if taking cue, the remaining neighbours followed suit. Before I knew what was happening, I felt human teeth sink into my neck. The female from before had come at me from behind and bitten me just below my right ear. I cried out for a second time but the sound was drowned out as I was bitten by another and then another. Struggling to fight off the onslaught I staggered into the side of the car and slumped to the floor. There were five of them now and it hit me with a little sadness that this would be the way I would die.
POV Daniel
Just as the light was fading from the sky the nurse stuck her head around my curtain.
"Ready love?"
"As I'll ever be" I smiled as she disappeared back around the curtain and was instantly replaced with two members of the hospital surgical team. The taller of the two introduced himself as Mr Madoc; the shorter I recognised as Mr Eliot from when he had come and discussed the operation with me previously. Taking the brake off of the bed, the two men wheeled me out of the ward and down the maze of corridors to a bank of elevators. As we descended, Mr Madoc, who turned out to be the anaesthetist talked me through the procedure of putting me under a general anaesthetic.
The doors slid open and we continued on our journey. Not two minutes later we were stopping in a small room off of the main theatre where Mr Madoc drew up 400mg of Sodium thiopental. After telling me to count backwards from one hundred, he attached the syringe to the canula and slowly infused the anaesthetic into my vein.
"One hundred...ninety nine...ninety eight..."
I could feel the coldness spreading up my arm.
"Ninety seven...ninety six...ninety five..."
It was getting more and more difficult to concentrate.
"Ninety four...ninety...three...ninety..." my voice trailed off and I felt my eyes closing. I shut off all thought and let the darkness take me.
A/N: Hope you liked it! I will try and update soon as I have gotten really into this one and written most of chapter two already! Any improvements I could make let me know (you can also let me know if you thought there were none XD) Thanks for reading =D
