A/N: Originally I had planned on only having the story done through Tessa's POV only. However I started toying with the idea of what McCree was seeing and feeling during these events. So I decided chapter three would be based on his POV. I think from this point on I will be doing my chapters from both Tessa's and McCree's POV. Thank you to everyone who has stopped and taken the time to read BCG. Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Dawn of the dead. I do however own Tessa, McCree and Kyra.
I knew something wasn't right tonight. When you do time in a maximum security prison for five years, you catch on real quick when something is about to go down. Tonight was no different. I had sensed something was wrong all night. This feeling was so strong it dragged me out of a dead sleep. The feeling was hard to describe at first. It reminded of me the first few weeks I had spent in prison. I had a lot of sleepless nights back then. I knew someone was coming for me. It was the feeling of knowing that death was coming but you had to beat it to the punch. It was a mixture of being anxious and fearful. Those were the feelings I had the night my gang decided it was time for me to make my bones. Now five years later those feelings had suddenly come out of nowhere again.
I paced my room for what seemed like hours just trying to figure out what was going on. I caught a few glimpses outside the window on my door, but I didn't see much. It wasn't until I saw all the nurses scramble for some alarm. That's when I finally got my first glimpse of what was to come.
Suddenly I saw a bunch of security and nurses drag this one nurse out. She looked almost dead. Half her arm was missing and from what I saw she was losing a lot of blood. I've seen people stabbed and cut and I've done it to a few people myself to know when someone is at the end of the line. This broad was definitely there. After that things got quiet, way too quiet.
I didn't bother asking the fat fuck who was assigned to guard me. What was the point? He sure as hell wouldn't tell me anything. As far as he was concerned I was another babysitting job. To him I was some asshole doing life and getting a free vacation by going through detox. My sentence meant that I was nothing but a worthless piece of shit in his eyes and everyone else's. As far as he was concerned I was a man becoming a little more institutionalized each day and a little bit more like an animal with every passing minute.
There was no point in talking to the nurses either. They were decent to me, but I wasn't a fool. I could smell their fear and disgust and the animal inside of me loved it. That's the funny thing about prison, you never get a choice. Whether you like it or not, you become a predator or you become the kill. I didn't want to be a predator though, but prison is predatory. So I did what was natural to me, I became the predator. The nurses looked at me the same way the rest of the society did; they saw a biker, a murderer and a convict. I had prison tattoos and burn scars on my face and part of my upper body, and that made them look at me as even more of a monster. The truth was I wasn't a monster at least not at this point in my life. Maybe in the past I was, but at the moment I was looking at to hurt anyone. It was the first time in my life my mind felt clear, and I didn't want to give that up. It was the first time in a long time I was sober, but people never saw the importance of that. People never appreciated what it took to gain a small victory. They wanted the big bang, the miracle; they wanted a bullshit story of triumph that was fit for Oprah. By nature people aren't willing to look past their first impression. To most people prisons meant bad jokes and the basic theory of out of sight out of mind. When people see prisons they see frightening looking men with tattoos and high fences, barbed wire and men in towers with guns. What most people don't see is a wasteland of mentally ill, drug addicted and sane men with all the potential in this world slowly going insane. People never saw or wanted to see the violence, the rape the endless cycle of boredom. They call it corrections rather than prison these days. It was such a fucking joke. A guard laughed and told me his theory on corrections once. He told me people only correct themselves inside prison if they want to be corrected. I had never heard a truer statement. At the moment I wasn't even sure if I wanted to be corrected. I had life with the chance of parole, so there always was a chance I could change. The main question to be answered was. What was the point of changing for a world that didn't want me?
The nurses despite their pleasant professional attitude were no different. Tonight the nurses were helping me though without even realizing it. Unlike prison guards the nurses didn't totally hide their emotions. Their body language always spoke volumes. I watched them constantly, every move they made. I could tell if they were running on no sleep or if they were having a good or bad day. Fuck I could even tell if they had gotten laid before their shift. I knew how to read people and the nurses were always easy to read.
The first nurse I watched after the incident was a woman named Kyra. I hadn't thought much of her at first. She like the other nurses was straight to the point and all business. However after she had given that asshole guard shit for screwing around on his wife I couldn't help but respect her. As for that greasy bastard he deserved every bit of hell she gave him. Tonight I couldn't tell much from her. As usual she hadn't said much. Only taking the time to ask the standard medical questions when she had checked on me earlier in the evening. The one thing I had noticed was a cut on her head. I thought to ask her about it but decided there was no point. I knew I wouldn't get a straight answer. As I watched her I couldn't help but notice that she seemed distracted and sort of on edge. Whatever had happened had put some fear into her.
The next nurse I saw tonight was Tessa. I knew I would never forget her. Life had a funny way of kicking you in the balls. When you don't see a decent looking woman for five years and then suddenly life puts a woman like Tessa in front of you and you know you can't touch her. Life is definitely cruel. Long curly dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and curves in all the right places. Yeah, life was definitely kicking me in the balls and punching me in the face. It wasn't just her looks I liked about her. Unlike the other nurses she was different. She had been from the very start. I knew my first few weeks here had been hell on her and all the staff. I had punched her, screamed at her, hell I had even thrown up on her. Yet despite it all she came to work every day and never once quit on me and had somehow gotten me sober, at least for the moment. I knew she was scared of me, but unlike the other nurses she didn't hide her fear and go through the motions of her job. She didn't gawk at my tattoos or burns and look like she was about to be sick. She always looked me in the eyes. She fought her fear in front of me so she could do the best job possible. She talked to me like I was a person and made me feel like I was just in for a normal check up, like out in the free world. Speaking with her made me feel free again even if it was for five minutes. I knew I shouldn't read into her actions too much. I guessed that nurses probably had to deal with patients becoming attached. In a strange way though I couldn't help reading into it. After all it was the first time in five years someone had treated me like a human being, and that had to count for something.
I had to be honest with myself though. When you see things crawling up the walls of your room and you hear the voices of your dead friends, the one thing detox will do is make you honest. At this point I had to be honest with myself. I knew that my time here at the hospital was short. Most of the drugs were out of my system and I was due to finish up my rehab at the prison. Tessa would be gone and I wouldn't even be a thought to her. Why would she want to remember me? I had barely spoken to her and when I did it was either to answer a question or to call her a fucking whore or god knows what else. I was a patient and nothing more to her. So when I saw her at my window earlier tonight I felt a strange mix of hate and happiness. I was happy to see her at first. Somehow over the last few weeks her ability to make me feel human had become my new drug. I hated her because she would be gone. Because I knew I was the type of person someone like her would cross the street to avoid. Truthfully I wouldn't blame her if she did try to avoid me on the street. I wasn't some misunderstood church boy with a tortured soul. I was a convict, a loser and a killer. So tonight when I saw her I let the hate flow. I asked her about the guard and the food. I looked at her as if I was trying to burn a hole in her head. I wanted to intimidate her and make her feel like I was mind fucking her the whole time she spoke to me. In the end however, I apologized to her. I hated myself even more because I couldn't totally hate this woman. She always seemed to draw out something else in me that I didn't quite understand.
She had answered my questions and from what I could tell the charge nurse had asked her to stay for an extra shift. I could see the strain in her eyes. Like Kyra she somehow seemed distracted tonight. I could see her body language was betraying her. She was afraid of something maybe it was me or maybe it was something else.
I wished I had asked her about that something else. Because when I heard the doors pop I knew they were unlocked for a reason and it sure as hell wasn't a good one. Now here I stood holding my hand over Tessa's mouth. I could feel her tremble her eyes were wide and her tears were rolling down my hand. I turned my eyes away from her. I could smell the scent of her hair and when I looked back down I could see her terror. The combination of her fear and her being so close was too much. I could feel myself getting warm and I pushed myself closer to her. Being this close to a woman after five years had its problems. I felt an ache inside that had all but been snuffed out by the addiction. Now it was back daring me to go just a little closer, to cross that line. I knew it wasn't right. I wasn't one of those rapo's that I hated and tortured in prison I was better than that. I fought hard and managed to win this one small battle for the moment. I pushed myself away and gently removed my hand from her mouth. I watched as she began to bolt for the door. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back further into the room. That was about the time Kyra hit me with a chair. I could feel the small visitor's chair collide with my head. I fell back hitting the wall and slid down to the floor.
"Get the hell away from her you son of a bitch!" I ducked the second time she swung. I also watched Tessa run behind her.
"Look you crazy bitch I'm trying to help you two!" She swung the small visitors chair again and this time it was a little too close for comfort. "Shut the fuck up and listen to me you psycho bitch! If you keep making noise whatever the hell is out there is going to hear us!"
"Bitch! Did you just call me a bitch! She swung again but this time I caught the chair and pulled it away from her. "I know what you're all about. I know you're one of those bikers and you're a murderer! I know your type and your type sure as hell don't belong in Detroit." She began to step forward and that's when I stood up and walked forward. Thankfully it was enough to make her step back.
"Look lady, I've never raped or beat any women or kids. I've always been decent to people on the outside no matter who they were. If I was sent out to hurt someone or put them underground, then I can fucking guarantee that they did something to bring me there. And yeah I did murder some people! I did go to prison and I did hook up with some likeminded people. And if I have to choose between being politically correct or getting ass raped in the shower guess which one I am going to pick!" Not even a minute after I had finished my sentence Kyra walked up and slapped me. At this point Tessa stepped between us. I could see she was still shaking but trying to put on a brave face.
"Kyra you are over looking two very important points right now! First, McCree here has for the moment saved our lives. The second point we have bigger problems then McCree's choice of friends he spends time with. I am pretty sure that right now outside our door there are a bunch of cannibals who are going around murdering people. Not only that I'm fairly certain that the people they are killing are getting back up and eating our co-workers. So right now is not the time and place to be fighting. If you two want to kill each other do it after we find a way out of this hospital!" At this point she had stopped crying and was screaming at us.
I watched as Kyra stepped back. I could see as she looked at Tessa that she trusted her judgment. "Fine!" She snapped at Tessa.
"Fine we can save the fighting for later. How the hell are we going to get off this floor and out of the hospital?" I asked hoping that maybe there was some sort of emergency exit.
I watched as Tessa stood there in silence for a moment. I was guessing she was trying to work things out in her head. Finally she looked to her friend Kyra and gave her a quick nod.
"We can't take the elevators. If this hospital is full of those things we would be trapped. Frankly I don't want to be torn apart before I even set foot outside the elevator. I'm thinking we should just take the stairs. At least we can go up or down or in a rush go onto another unit. That would give us some running room. Plus the other floors aren't lock down units which is good." McCree can you remember this number? 3896* In case either Kyra or me get hurt you need to remember this code. It's the access to the doors to the stairwell."
"Girl, are you crazy!" Kyra shouted at her. "You're gonna set him lose?"
"Kyra, what other choice do we have. We can't just leave him here and the other patients to die!"
"You're gonna lose your license for this shit!" Kyra said putting her hand on Tessa's shoulder. At that moment it occurred to me how much Tessa had risked for me and everyone else on the floor.
"Look a lot of nurses are going to lose their license because of this shit. I'll just take my ass back to Canada if I have too. The hospitals over there will hire me back real quick. Look can we talk about jobs later. We need to get the hell out of here now!"
I could see the annoyed looks on both their faces. "What are we going to do after we get out of the hospital? Where are we going to go?" In that moment it was the first time in five years I realized I was free.
"I need to go home and see my kids and husband!" It was strange to hear Kyra sounds so frightened suddenly.
"I need to go home to Canada. That means I have to get to that tunnel before people panic and get stuck in there. Where do you need to go" Tessa said looking at me. I realized then that I really didn't know where to go. The only place I could think of was my gang's chapter here.
"I need to go to the club house where my brother's have set up. They might be able to help me." I tried to sound sure of myself. We were a strong gang but I didn't know if the Detroit chapter would be too receptive to an out of state member. They had to be though. They knew the rules.
"Fine then it's settled." Tessa said heading for the door. "You're the man with the chair now. You can clear the way." Tessa said her voice suddenly filled with authority.
"Great" I mumbled under my voice.
She quickly opened the door and I stepped out. The first creature stood moving slowly towards me. I could see it was the charge nurse from before. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Injuries like that were supposed to cause death. Yet here she stood in front of me in some strange semi rabid daze. She reached out with her one remaining arm. I could have easily vomited just looking at her half eaten face. Suddenly I couldn't help but be reminded of all the shitty zombie movies I had watched as a teen. The one thing I remembered was you had to destroy the head of these things. I swung hard and as the chair hit her head it sounded like a watermelon being smashed. I felt the girls rush pasted me into the hall. As we stepped out I could see things were much worse than I had anticipated. The halls were thick with these fucking things. Thankfully they were moving fairly slow.
"We have to get around the nursing station, if we want to get to the stairs." I heard Kyra say as she looked around the corner.
We made our way around the corner to the nursing station. Most of the creatures seemed busy with the bodies of the remaining nurses and patients. I swung the chair so many times I could start to feel my arms getting sore. Most of these fucking things needed a few shots or more to the head before they would go down. It was not the most practical weapon but it would have to do. We crossed behind the nursing station and I watched as both Kyra and Tessa swiped some keys. I took a few quick seconds to scan for more of these fucked up people around and that's when my eyes fell on it. I looked over to see the cart that I knew held most of the drugs for this floor. I could feel myself starting to sweat. My stomach felt like a million butterflies were moving around in it. The thought of all the different types of pain killers danced in my head. I could feel myself getting dizzy with pleasure. I began to walk towards it when I saw out of the corner of my eye a small arm shoot out. It was Tessa's and she was screaming and crying and for a moment everything seemed to be in slow motion. Behind her I could see Kyra at the entrance to the stair well. She was motioning for me to come to the door. In front of me Tessa screamed and pulled my arm. Behind her I could see one of those fucking things creeping up slowly behind her. Something in me snapped. I guess you could call it self preservation. I pushed Tessa aside and swung the chair. It hit its mark and fell, the contents of its head spilling out onto the floor. I grabbed Tessa's arm and ran to the stairs were Kyra stood.
I entered the stair well first and looked around. I could see nothing above me and as I looked down nothing below. Kyra and Tessa entered the stair well and I slammed the door shut. Both women began to go down the stairs and that's when I heard a voice.
"Run! Their coming!" I could see a woman in light blue scrubs screaming. She was covered in blood and I was sure bite marks. She began to walk down the stairs when I saw a pair of hands spring out and pull her away. I looked down towards the girls and pushed them to keep moving. We made our way quickly doing our best not to trip down the stairs. After several minutes we finally made it to the ground floor. We all stopped and looked out the stairwell door window. I guessed the main floor was where the ER was located. I could see the dead were moving around the ER slowly. Several of the dead seemed busy with the bodies of some of the nurses and doctors. The entire scene looked like a cross between a national Geographic's special with lions and a very nasty BBQ.
"We're gonna have to go back up." I said to the women trying to take charge.
Tessa pushed passed me and looked out the door. I could see she was thinking yet again and I was praying she wouldn't opt to go out there. Because I knew I sure as fuck wasn't following her out there. She stepped back from the door and leaned against the wall.
"Look most of those things out there seem busy with the people they are eating. Look if we don't go out there we are out of options. We can go back up to the other floors and get trapped in here. Or we can go down one more floor to the underground parking. On any normal day when there aren't a bunch of dead cannibals running around, I normally don't go down into that parking garage for fear for my own safety. I don't even want to think of what is running around down there now. So we have two choices the emerge and at least we can see what we are dealing with, or we can go down into the underground parking and not know what is eating us. If either of you two have a better suggestion I would love to hear it right about now!"
"Emerge" Kyra said without hesitation.
"ER" I said quickly echoing her statement. I didn't like the idea but she did have a point. I sure as fuck didn't want to die trapped in some dark underground death trap.
Kyra stepped forward and looked out the window. "This is going to be a problem. We're on the opposite side from the parking lot."
"You two know the way out of here right?" I said wondering which one of us was going to make it through there alive. I watched both women sizing them up. Kyra seemed like she had the will to survive, but Tessa kept surprising me with her survival instincts. At this point I really didn't care just as long as I made it out.
"Yeah, we know the way. No point in talking let's just get this done." After having said that I watched Kyra open the door and step out.
As we stepped out into the ER I could see that most of waiting area had become a slaughter house. Blood spattered across the wall. I could see empty strollers that once held infants now were merely stained with blood. The once sterile smell of the ER was now replaced with a coppery scent. Kyra seemed to know where she was going. I stayed in step behind her figuring that if any of these things attacked she would be the first to go. I looked back at Tessa who was at this point crying. I hated to admit it but if I was quick I could grab her arm and throw her to those fucking things if need be. At least I had some sort of chance with two nice pieces of bait.
We made our way around several corridors and many different twists and turns. I never realized how big an ER could actually be. I saw many rooms most with their doors shut but I could hear sounds on the other side. I wasn't into heroics at this point and sure as fuck wasn't going to open the door to look for survivors. It was at this point as we were nearing the final set of doors to the exit that's when it happened.
Rounding the corner was one big mother fucker of a dead man. In life I guessed from the uniform he had been security here. From the looks of things he had enjoyed his momma's cooking a bit too much. He was a big boy from what I could guess was around 350 pounds. Except that part of that weight must have gone with the missing half of his belly. He started to charge at Kyra and before I knew what I was doing I had tackled the dead guy. At 6'3 and 240 lbs I knew I wasn't some small weakling but I knew this wasn't a fair fight. This bastard was bigger, meaner and the worst part he didn't feel any pain. I quickly got back to my feet and hadn't been up a few seconds when that fat bastard tackled me and knocked me into the examining room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kyra get tackled by what appeared to be a dead nurse.
The big boy on top of me and inched his nasty face closer to mine. I could smell the flesh and blood on his teeth. He snapped closer to my face and I struggled to keep him off. Every so often I was able to get a punch in but this asshole didn't feel a thing. I could feel him getting closer when a flash of red crossed my eyes. I could see standing above me was Kyra with a fire extinguisher. She must have won her fight with the dead nurse. She kept hitting this guy but it didn't seem to affect this big son of bitch. Tessa who had disappeared somehow reappeared and ran over to Kyra. I glanced quickly to see her grab something from Kyra's pocket. It was then that I watched as Tessa grabbed a handful of the dead guy's hair and pull his head back. I used all my strength to push this fucker off of me and up. It was then that I watched Tessa give one good pull and yank this bastard's head back. Seconds later I watched her stab a pen into his ear. I could see his body shaking like jell-o and then suddenly he went dead weight on top of me. I pushed the fat piece of shit off of me. I looked over to see Kyra bent over the body looking for something. Tessa extended her hand and helped me up. I stood up quickly in time to see Kyra stand up. It appeared that she had found whatever she was looking for.
Tessa looked towards me and Kyra. She pointed to the big glass doors with the words exit printed in big red letters. She extended her hand to Kyra and then to me. I stuck out my good hand and she grabbed it. She turned and looked at both of us and said. "Let's get the fuck out of here!"