Aleksander- Norway

Lars- Ladonia

…

Woohoo! Fast updates!

I think at this point I should stop putting up warnings cause anyone who's still reading clearly isn't phased by a little blood and gore. It's gonna be scary and bloody all the way through. So yeah people have started getting infected. Things will pick up pretty quickly so kiss your favourite characters goodbye because chances are they will be eaten by zombies.

Oh, and Berwald's condition is leukaemia, which is something I honestly didn't think I'd be emotionally capable of writing.

...

Arjun left a confused and terrified Elise behind as he dashed down the corridor towards the sound of shouting. What the hell was going on? It had been Monique who'd screamed, even though she never did such a thing. What had gone wrong to make her do that? And were the patients safe?

He ran into the waiting room and was met with a scene of chaos.

Monique was sprawled on the floor, blood covering her face as she whimpered behind an upturned chair. Several other patients were bleeding too, lying on the floor clutching faces, necks and arms, and most were trying to escape. Many were too ill to stand, let alone run, and were either being pulled away by relatives or simply sobbing in their seats. Arjun glanced at one person lying deathly still on the floor, and gagged; he could see brain tissue leaking from their skull. There were more in a similar state. Dead. His patients were being murdered.

Niran was trying to reason with what Arjun assumed to be the attacker, and was failing badly. His arms were out in front of him, and he stood at a distance from the man with blood dribbling down his chin.

"Sir, please calm down," he cried, trying to remain calm himself in front of the patients. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to jump back if his assailant lunged for him, which Arjun suspected would happen soon. "Stop this at once! We don't tolerate abuse towards our staff and patients!"

For a few moments, Arjun could only stand there and look on in horror at the dribbling monster that had ripped through the waiting room, with its peeling skin and horrifying, glowing eyes. Either Niran couldn't see that it couldn't be reasoned with, or he was desperate to do something to protect those in his care, even if it was fruitless and just putting himself in grave danger.

He saw a group of people huddling in the corner, including a young boy staring up at him with wide fearful eyes through his mother's arms, and spurred into action. Arjun grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and ran over to Niran.

"Hey, I'll take it from here!"

Niran leapt back as the attacker lunged, jogging to a safe distance before turning to Arjun.

"Thank goodness you turned up," he gasped, "the man just went crazy and started taking bites out of everyone!"

"Bites?" Arjun's voice went up an octave. He'd thought the man had a knife or something.

"Yeah," Niran glanced at the snarling shell of a human, "his teeth are all pointed. They weren't like that when he came in."

Before Arjun could reply, the attacker lunged and he swung the fire extinguisher at him in defence. The attacker backed off slightly.

"Niran! Call for backup!" he shouted. Niran darted off to the phone on his desk, punching in a number to call for someone. Anyone.

Arjun continued to exchange blows with his assailant, dodging as the monster-man lashed out with jagged claws, snapping with those teeth. He gagged at the rancid smell of the man's rotten flesh.

"Woah, you need to get some moisturiser on your crusty fucking skin!" he exclaimed, and even through the commotion he could hear Niran sigh from across the room.

"Focus!" he shouted.

And Niran had a point, because just then, what had been Tsvetan lunged forward and scratched his face. Arjun hissed, falling back and wiping blood from his cheek. He slipped and crashed to the floor. The monster advanced and Arjun struggled to get up again, still clutching the fire extinguisher.

Then a chair flew out of nowhere, hitting his attacker in the chest and knocking him back. The monster stumbled, but remained standing. Still, it gave Arjun a chance and he took it, scrambling to his feet and swinging the fire extinguisher at Tsvetan's head.

It hit, but not hard enough. The monster lurched but kept coming.

Another chair. It was Monique, lunging forward and swinging the thing at the attacker, knocking him backwards. Arjun joined in, bringing the fire extinguisher down on his head.

And finally, the monster collapsed to the floor with a groan.

Tsvetan's body twitched, and Arjun brought down the extinguisher again, bile rising in his throat at the sickening crack of the man's skull. He looked down, trembling and panting at the now lifeless body. He'd killed someone. He'd killed one of his own patients!

Arjun and Monique exchanged horrified glances in the silence that followed, and Niran slowly joined them.

"Is he… dead?" he asked, gripping Monique's sleeve nervously.

"I think so." Arjun looked at the other two. "What the hell happened here?"

"I don't know," Monique shivered, "he just attacked me. I don't think he was human… but what else could he be?" Blood was still trickling down her face and the bite marks were beginning to scab over. Arjun pretended not to see the green pus spilling out of a few of the wounds.

"I killed him," Arjun said, voice monotonous.

"You had to," Niran told him, "he was killing the other patients. It was self-defence, right?"

He turned to the surviving patients, checking any injuries and trying to calm them down. Monique was about to follow, when Arjun grabbed her sleeve.

"You should get your face checked out," he told her, "that looks pretty nasty."

"Likewise."

It was then that Niran's backup finally arrived. Dr Davies burst into the waiting room, and cried out at the scene that met them.

"Your back up was one person?" he hissed at Niran, who just shrugged.

"Everyone was busy," he replied, "besides, it didn't matter if I'd called for one person or the army. You still would've smashed that man's brains out before they got here." Arjun flinched.

"Dr Kapur, Mr Mookjai, Dr Bonnefoy," Hunapo exclaimed, "why are there bodies all over the floor? What the hell happened?"

Niran gushed out a hurried explanation whilst Arjun calmed everyone down. Monique sat on one of the chairs, clutching at her face and hissing. Arjun pretended not to notice. There was one word buzzing around his head. A word he'd heard plenty of times in American and British films, one that would explain Tsvetan's behaviour. And one that meant Monique was doomed, as well as a danger to anyone she came nto contact with. Him too, Arjun realised as he brushed his cheek, claw marks still fresh and jagged.

But zombies didn't exist, right?

"You two need medical attention," Dr Davies stated, "you're in the right place for it at least." They chuckled at their own joke before continuing, "look, take any injured patients off to a side room and I'll take a look at you all in a minute."

"Right, of course," Arjun helped Monique up, directing the patients that could still stand down the corridor to a side room whilst Niran and Dr Davies fetched wheelchairs for the patients that couldn't. Uninjured patients were moved to children's A&E whilst the regular A&E was out of bounds, given tea, and placed under Niran's watchful eye.

As Arjun paced up and down the side room trying to comfort patients, all thoughts of zombies and other such nonsense fled from his mind, replaced by a larger and far more ominous thought.

How exactly was he supposed to explain away bludgeoning a man to death to the police?

…

Elsewhere in the hospital, things were their usual hectic. There were forms to be filled, tests to be carried out, sick people to operate on. Just a normal day for most of the staff.

Tino nodded to Dr Lalande as he entered the ward and walked over to his husband. Berwald smiled warmly, but didn't have the energy to wave, and when Tino hugged him, he couldn't raise his arms to hug back. Berwald was thin and pale, the bruises littering his arms vivid shades of purple and yellow. His breathing was ragged and when Tino took one of his hands, it was clammy.

Berwald's hand twitched and he smiled again.

"How are you?" Tino asked.

"Fine, I guess." Berwald blinked slowly.

He seemed almost transparent to Tino now, especially in the bright sunlight against the white sheets, a far cry from the tall, solid man he had married all those years ago. The sight of his husband, so fragile and helpless, tore at Tino's heart and terrified him.

But he never showed it.

He had to be strong for Berwald. But the long weeks spent in and out of hospital had worn Tino down emotionally and he didn't know how much more he could take. He just wanted things to return to the way they were, and remembered when he and Berwald had been a newly married couple, happy and in love, filling out adoption forms and talking to social workers. The adoption process had been dull at the time, he'll admit, but now he missed dull. 'Dull' was definitely better than frightened and uncertain for the future.

Did they even have a future now?

But he said nothing. After all, it was Berwald who needed the bone marrow transplant, who had gone through chemotherapy, not him.

Still, his younger brother, Aleksander, had been found to have the same tissue type, and was willing to be a donor. Berwald's operation was tomorrow, and Tino tried to be positive, but the procedure would put enormous physical strain on Berwald, and so many things could go wrong. It could kill him, even, and if he survived, he'd be in hospital for several weeks just recovering.

"Are they treating you well here?" he tried.

Berwald sighed. "Y's, perfectly well."

There was an agonising pause as Tino thought about the past few months. The chemotherapy had wreaked havoc on Berwald's body and done little to actually kill the cancerous cells in his bloodstream. It had made him severely ill, gave him mouth ulcers and caused his hair to fall out. Berwald hadn't minded, so long as he was getting treatment.

But it hadn't been effective so now the doctors were trying a transplant. Again, Berwald didn't complain; he just wanted to get better and go home to his family.

"How are our boys?" he asked.

"Oh fine," Tino sat down next to him, "they say hi, by the way. Lars is in homework club again and Peter got a detention for farting in another student's face."

Berwald laughed, as did the man in the bed next to him.

"Your kids are hilarious," Sadik exclaimed whilst Kuzey rolled his eyes.

"Oh they are," Tino let out a sigh, "a handful though."

"Luckily I have Kuzey, who is no trouble at all," Sadik reached out a hand to ruffle his son's hair, and poked him in the face.

"Baba!" Kuzey exclaimed.

"Oh, sorry." Sadik grinned, "so where are your little boys then?"

"At school," Tino replied, glancing at Kuzey but saying nothing. He knew why the boy was constantly bunking from school and understood fully. Kuzey had such little time left with his father.

Besides, Tino himself was only here because he'd phoned in sick from work. Like he wasn't going to be beside Berwald on the day before his operation.

"Oh that's a shame," Sadik frowned, "Kuzey can't see his friends today."

Kuzey shifted so neither Tino nor Berwald could see him pull a face.

"Speaking of friends," began Tino, turning back to Berwald, "how have you and Mr Adnan been getting along?"

"Talks too much," Berwald stated, "never shuts up, then c'mplains he's tired." Tino laughed.

"Oh come on! I don't talk that much!"

"You do a bit," Tino commented, "like me, I guess."

"Are the others being mean to you?" Dr Lalande cooed, standing on the other side of Sadik's bed and filling out his chart.

"Don't worry about it, Dr Angel," Sadik waved a hand, "I'm blind to the haters."

"And everything else," Tino muttered.

"Don't be mean!" cried Kuzey and Berwald at the same time.

"Fine, sorry."

"That's my son." Kuzey gave his father a hug, which was returned.

"So are you scared about your operation tomorrow?" Tino asked, turning to Berwald and stroking his hand with a thumb.

"Yes," Berwald admitted, "but it'll be worth it in the end. I just have to do this and it'll be all over."

Tino smiled. "Yes. All over…"

…

The Liberator walked back to his van, a silver transit sat in the car park. He took out his keys and unlocked the back door to find a crowd of teenagers with wide fearful eyes staring back, crouched on the floor and holding several devices each. Like Tsvetan, they wore hoods to cover their faces, and some were covered in bruises.

He'd recruited them from the local shopping centre, forcing them to work for them or he'd tell the police they'd been bunking off to spend the day loitering and vandalising property.

"Well," he began, "you know what to do."

One of the teens, a young boy, peered out at where they were and whimpered.

"A hospital? What are we doing here?"

"That's not your concern. Just do your job."

"But my parents are here," the boy continued, "I don't want to hurt them. You're going to make us hurt people, aren't you?"

The Liberator sighed; there was always one. He grabbed the boy roughly by his hair and climbed into the van, ignoring the child's screams and closing the doors behind him.

…

The other teens looked at their dead friend with tears in their eyes as the Liberator stood over the body, wiping blood from his knife. Blood bubbled from the slit in the boy's throat as his glassy eyes stared blankly up at the roof of the van.

"Anyone else got any problems?" he asked, and the teens shook their heads. "Good. Now go."

They opened the doors of the van and burst out to complete whatever job they'd been assigned, either setting up locking devices or to direct ambulances and cars to other hospitals.

And when they were done, he could finally act.