Once Upon A Zombie

Epilogue: How to Make a Zombie

Once Upon a Zombie

(Disclaimer: I own no characters or anything at all. It's all just for fun)

Storybrooke General Hospital had been a bit boring since the curse had broken. This would have been a fairly trivial matter, save for the fact that it gave a certain Doctor Whale an excess of time in which to conduct his "experiments"... the type of experiment that had once brought Regina's love Daniel back from the dead.

This time, however, Whale was hoping for a slightly better result. Namely, one that didn't result in having a homicidal corpse-maniac on the loose. So far he wasn't having much luck in that department. His last two endeavors had ended with severely mangled bodies being buried behind the hospital in the dead of night. Whale was really hoping he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty again.

Holding his breath, Whale began to suture up his present victim. It was some old door mouse turned human that had dropped dead of a heart attack earlier that week. Without a family there would be no one to miss the man… the perfect candidate for one of Whale's tests. He heaved a sigh of relief as he pulled the needle for the final time. The hard part was finished.

Now it was simply a matter of restarting the enchanted heart that was now in the corpse. That was where his main field of study came into play. Science truly is this world's most powerful magic Whale thought to himself as he pulled out the shock panels and started them up. A wicked grin spread across his face.

"Clear." He said, though only by force of habit. There was no way he'd allow anyone to know about the work he was doing in the hospital's basement. He'd be run out of town faster than Regina during one of her stints as a villain. Shoving the thought out of his head, he brought the panels down on the body and watched as it jolted upwards for a moment, then fell back down. Still no heartbeat.

Taking a long breath, he brought the panels down again. Same result. One more time. Wishing himself luck, Whale hit the body with one last jolt of electricity. Beep. Whale's eyes lit up as the monitor to his left beeped to life. The small green line signifying a heartbeat rose, then fell, then rose again. It was working. It was actually working.

Whale wouldn't allow himself to get too excited just yet, however. The last two "experiments" had begun with a modicum of success. He'd been able to produce a heartbeat, but after five minutes the victim was dead once more. Enchanted hearts were strong, but without some science to back them up they weren't strong enough to support life a second time around. This time, however, Whale felt he'd finally cracked it.

He picked up the small black leather notebook to his left and scribbled down some notes. Patient revived. Heartbeat steady. No visible signs of consciousness yet. Even as he wrote the words, however, Whale saw the man's fingers begin to wiggle. It was working. He was coming back.

"Feeling alright, sir?" Whale asked awkwardly. He'd never made it that far in his experiments before, and the whole experience was rather exhilarating. When no response came, however, Whale began to doubt himself. "Perhaps another few CC's of-" He cut himself off as he saw the patient's eyes open… the patient's suddenly very black eyes. That probably wasn't a very good sign.

Whale glanced at the restraints around the wrists and ankles of the body. They were sturdy and had held the previous two victims in place… though neither of them had been alive again long enough to test the strength of said restraints.

The man on the table was moving now, attempting to get up. He pulled at his wrists and ankles, unable to move them. He looked ravenous, as though he hadn't eaten in days. And those eyes. Those horrible, horrible eyes. Moving down from them, however, Whale saw something even more disgusting: he was foaming at the mouth.

"Oh my God." Whale said, backing up to the door behind him. The man on the operating table had gone from angry to almost inhumanly enraged. He ripped at the restraints hard enough that the bolts holding them in began to pull away from the table. Whale frantically punched his code into the door, which slid open a bit more slowly than he would have liked.

By then the former corpse had managed to rip the arm restraints off and was working hard on the feet. He looked at Whale with a crazed look in his eye. He wanted to kill him… violently. Whale exited the room without a glance back and destroyed the access panel from the outside. Now there would be no way in or out save breaking the door-

Whale's blood froze in his veins when he heard the pounding. It was like a gorilla was trying to break through the door. A gorilla that he'd created. Judging by the dents in the door, Whale didn't have much time before that gorilla caught up with him.

Whale wanted to say something. He wanted to pray. He wanted to beg. He wanted to die. But there was nothing inside of him to say it. There was just terror. He screamed, hoping that somehow someone might hear him… might save him.

He broke into a run, dashing for the end of the hallway where another door waited. His fingers were shaking and the beginnings of tears were staining his eyes. He felt like he was going to throw up. He did throw up. He'd never been so terrified of anything in his life. The worst part was, he'd created.

He wiped his eyes on his coat sleeve and turned to the access panel. 5, 7, 6, 2, 3. Dammit! The three was wrong. His hands were shaking too badly to get the right keys. He looked behind him. A section of the metal door to the operating room had been pulled back. The creature was there, staring at him, pulling at the metal.

Whale threw up again, the acid burning his throat. He screamed again, banging at the door in front of him. All logic had left his mind. This was hysteria, plain and simple. It was the worst feeling imaginable.

He clawed at the access panel, trying to make it work in vain. 5, 7, 6, 4. No, dammit, no! He screamed again, reset the panel and punched in the first two digits. Then he looked back. The door was completely gone. The creature was nowhere in sight. But it was there. He knew it was there.

Whale's stomach twisted more aggressively than ever before. He wretched a final time, this time onto his jacket. He was covered in sweat and his nerves were frayed. The creature was there. Whale sunk to the floor, hoping for death. Death would be better than whatever he'd been through in the last five minutes.

When he opened his eyes again, it was back. The man was there, at the end of the hall, staring at him. Those black eyes. Whale flipped around suddenly and tried the code one final time. Wrong. he punched again, but failed. He collected himself and tried once more. He was one digit away when it grabbed him by the ankle and yanked him away from the door.

He screamed. And he screamed. And he didn't stop screaming until it was over. The monster destroyed Whale. The good doctor was gone. Then, as calmly as the corpse and his physician had entered the room, they got up off the floor and walked out of it. The door was easy enough to beat down with two of them to work at it. Now there was a whole town's worth of food to pick from… As the two made their way up the stairs to the main rotunda of the hospital, there was only one question on Whale's mind: who first?

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Author's Notes:

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