Chapter Two:

Great Escape

*Nick*

"Hello!" I hollered through the bars of my cell, "Anyone out there!"

"Nick, Nick, Nick…what have you done now?" asked my ex-wife Robin as she clicked her tongue at my being in prison again.

"Robin!" I shouted trying to reach for her, but something was holding me back.

"Nicholas, why did you leave me to die?" she cried.

I bowed my head, regret filling me.

"Nick!"

I gasped as my head shot up. Ellie stood there, tears running down her cheeks.

"E-Ellie?" I asked, "Ellie is that you?"

"Oh Nick, why?"

"Why what baby?" I asked.

"Why did you do it", she screamed, "Why did you have to kill him!"

"Kill who?"

"Bill. You left him to die Nick, just as you left me to die by Keith's hand."

"But your alive!" I shouted at her.

She shook her head.

"No Nick, I am dead."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

My scream filled the air as I gasped awake. I looked around the room, my head aching like crazy. Looking down at the restraints on my legs and stomach, I quickly undid them and slipped off the bed. My legs nearly collapsing out from under me when I touched the floor, the muscles no longer strong like they had once been.

Looking around what looked to me to be a hospital facility; I was trying to think about how I had gotten here. The place looked familiar, but everything was so blurry.

I spotted a man in a bed like my own. He was a large man with dark skin and a bald head. He looked to be sleeping, no doubt like I had just been.

Like the hospital room, he too looked familiar, but I couldn't seem to place him.

Glancing at his chart, it said 'Irvin Griswold'.

Walking over to him I shook his arm, trying to wake him.

"Hey Irvin", I tried to gasp out, my voice sounding as though I hadn't spoken in months.

I tried again. "Irvin!"

The man bolted awake and looked around, his eyes finally resting on me. He got a confused look on his face.

"Do I know you?" he asked me.

"Name's Nick", I whispered.

"Call me Coach" he said back, his voice sounding as bad as mine.

"Where are we?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Don't know."

He started to get out of the bed. I noticed he was dressed in green scrubs where as I was dressed in blue. Did that have a meaning?

Something seemed to nag at my memory but I couldn't figure out what it was.

"Do you remember why we are here?" I asked the man called Coach.

He looked at me and shook his head.

"I think I should know, but I can't remember."

"Yeah me either", I said.

A growling sound got our attention. Looking up we watched in curiosity as a creature crawled in on all fours, a blue dark hoodie covering his head.

"Hello?" I asked stepping towards it.

It growled louder. Something told me it was very dangerous and I took a step back just as the thing chose to pounce. I nearly tripped as I stumbled back in surprise, but Coach all at once grabbed a nearby chair and smashed it over the things head. It collapsed in a broken mass of blood and flesh.

"Uh thanks", I muttered looking at him in shock.

He seemed just as surprised by his own actions as he nodded and put the chair back down.

"Just felt natural to do", he said as his eyes widened, "Oh no! Am I a murderer?"

I shrugged. "Who knows, but if you are, I probably am to."

"I think we need to get out of here", Coach said when he heard more sounds coming towards us.

"I would agree with you big man."

We took off out the door and down the hall, our muscles protesting with every step.

"Over here!" yelled a voice.

I turned around and noticed an older woman with a young girl and a man standing there. Motioning Coach to follow, we took off towards them, keeping low in case of danger. They waited until we entered before they shut the door.

Looking around, I noticed it was a cafeteria of sorts.

"This is the hospital kitchen", said the woman, "My name is Margaret Barkley, I am…was a doctor here."

"What do you mean was?" I asked curiously.

She sighed.

I was working with the military three months ago. I was here when you and your friends were brought in. I was attending to you when…

"Wait, what friends?" I asked, "There are more of us?"

She seemed confused at my question.

"You don't remember?"

I shook my head.

"You don't either?" she asked Coach.

He glanced at me and then also shook his head no.

"Huh", she muttered as she glanced at the other two people behind her, "Side effect of the sedative no doubt. Probably temporary, so don't worry boys."

"Should be anyways", said the man behind her as he paced, looking deep in thought.

"Yeah okay, but if there were more of us, where are they now?"

"I don't know", she continued, "They could be dead or gone by now. Depends on who got to them first. I know most of the experiments and prisoners were trying to free everyone they could."

"Alright, you were saying about when you were attending to us?"

"Oh right", she said as she continued her train of thought before I had stopped her, "I was attending to the girls who were with you. I sedated them and just as I was doing that, a head honcho from headquarters in Washington DC walked in. He said he was taking the place over and all of us were under arrest for malpractice. He even arrested the base commander, Douglas who he threw into the tank, as well as several of his men."

"Tank?" I asked, the vision of a large mountain of pink flesh coming to mind.

"Uh yeah, it's what we call the experimentation cell block. The tank where we keep infected individuals we were working to cure."

"Oh"

"Yeah but then he tossed me in the prison cells with some of my nurses and other doctors and said all patients would be kept for further examination prior to what he defined as "Z day", whatever that is."

"So who are they?" I asked pointing at the girl and man.

"Oh this is Doctor Weston and Commander Douglas' daughter, Sophia."

"A pleasure to meet you", I said with a nod of my head.

Coach smiled at them as well as he knelt beside the girl who couldn't be more then maybe eight years old.

"Hi little one", he said softly.

She smiled, "Hi sir."

Coach smiled back at her and then stood up and glanced at Dr. Weston with suspicion.

"What is it?" I asked coming up beside him.

"He looks familiar."

"Yeah he does", I agreed.

The doctor in question stopped pacing and glanced up at us as if just hearing what we were saying.

"Well of course I look familiar, I was your doctor", he said and then continued pacing.

"Sorry gentleman, he is freaking out a bit because of the infiltration", said the female doctor.

"Infiltration?"

"Yeah, the infected infiltrated the base because of that idiot honcho guy from DC. He didn't know how to keep the base up to date so when the infected attacked the gates, he freaked out and called an evacuation. They left all of us behind to die."

"Well, this just keeps getting more and more fun huh?" I said sighing.

The woman smiled.

"Guess so."

"You said we have friends here, can you show us to their room?"

"If I can, it depends on where the infected are."

"Do what you can", I said as I followed after her and the others after me.

As we walked through the facility, visions or what I guessed were memories were coming back to me. Things looked familiar but I couldn't place when exactly I had seen them.

"Oh the supply room should be right here", the doctor said as she turned all of a sudden and opened a door with her personal identification code.

The door swung open and a light turned on overhead as we stepped inside. I was thrilled to see a row of weapons as well as some boxes in the back.

As Coach turned to grab a weapon, I headed to the back where the boxes were located.

Opening one of them I tipped it over and let the stuff inside fall out of it. The box consisted mostly of old clothes and shoes. Going over to the next one, I noticed something familiar inside it. Grabbing the box, I flipped it over and watched as a backpack slipped out along with a large FHS shirt and jeans as well as a woman's outfit consisting of a pink shirt and jeans and brown boots.

"Hey that's mine", said Coach grabbing the FHS shirt and large pair of jeans and tennis shoes.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Familiar to me", he said, "I think I was a football coach."

"Good, not a murderer", I said with a smirk.

Grabbing the backpack, I opened it up and began to rifle through it. I pulled out a white suit and a blue dress shirt. A memory of me wearing it came to mind.

"Huh", I muttered as I picked it up and slipped the white jacket on. It fit just right, even a little loose. Looking inside the backpack further, I pulled out a white stuffed bear.

"Stormy", I whispered, although I couldn't remember where I had gotten the name from.

I noticed the girl who was with us, her eyes lighting up when she saw the bear. Smiling, I gestured her over to me.

"Here", I said handing it to her, "It belongs to someone I care about, perhaps you can take care of it for her?"

She nodded happily as she hugged it to her. I smiled as I thought about what I had just said. How did I know it was someone I cared about?

I pounded my hands against my head, trying to remember.

"Don't force it Mr. Dean", said Dr. Weston, "It will come on its own time."

I sighed knowing he was right.

Stuffing the rest of the suit back into the backpack, I strapped it on and headed towards the door. I stopped when I noticed a magnum lying on the floor near the gun rack. Picking it up, I placed it in the back of my pants with the safety on as I continued out of the supply room.

"Should be right here", Dr. Barkley said as she pushed open the door.

We walked into the lit room and looked around. Two beds looked to have been slept in recently, but no one was here now.

"They must have been rescued", she said looking around.

"What exactly were they doing to us here?" I asked her.

"We were going to monitor you for a week and make sure your emotional and mental capacities weren't damaged from having been in contact with the infected. However when the DC idiot took over, he kept you all asleep for the past three months."

"No wonder I can't remember anything", I said.

"Yeah and my legs feel like Jell-O", agreed Coach.

"You were never meant to stay under that long", the doctor said shaking her head with remorse, "I'm terribly sorry."

"Did they do anything else to us?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"I honestly don't know. After they put me in the cells, I had no contact with anyone for three months aside from those in the cell block with me."

"I see."

Glancing down, I noticed the clipboards hanging from the end of the beds. Walking over, I picked up the first beds chart.

"Rochelle Lane", I read out loud.

Coach whipped his head around.

"Did you say Rochelle?" he asked.

"I remember her", he said after a moment, his eyes scrunching in pain, "She is beautiful. I think…I think I loved her."

I looked at him a moment and then stepped to the other beds chart. I picked it up just as the sound of breaking glass came from the hallway.

"Oh no, they are coming!" yelled Dr. Weston backing up.

"This way", shouted Dr. Barkley as she ran out of the room, all us following her. She rushed down the hall and out the double doors. We looked around in a panic as we noticed zombies standing around, looking for a new meal.

"A truck is over there", she said pointing, "If we can get to it, I have the key required to drive it."

"Alright, let's go then", I said as I started out, keeping my head and body low as I moved quickly and stealthily along the sides of the buildings.

"I can't believe they haven't noticed us", said Dr. Weston with joy.

At that moment, several of them looked up in surprise.

"Way to go dude", I said as I shook my head, face palming.

He blushed, but we didn't have time to waste with his embarrassment. We took off for the truck as fast as we could move.

I noticed Sophia falling behind, the others not thinking much about her except Coach who tried to speed her up with encouragement.

Sprinting back, I scooped her into my arms. My muscles protesting with the added weight it wasn't used to having. Ignoring the protest as I rushed to the truck with her in my arms and practically shoved her inside as I slid into the passenger seat beside Dr. Barkley who took her place behind the steering wheel, her face determined with concentration.

Coach and Dr. Weston jumped into the back of the truck as she hit the gas and sped through the already open gates down the road towards the city.