Just as Amelia went to walk back to the nurse's station, Jenny called to her.
"Hey Amelia, we're gonna need you! Just got a call from the paramedics. We have a Code 9 coming in five minutes, so get ready!"
Amelia sighed internally. A Code 9 meant that there were multiple victims which was never a good sign.
"Do we know what from?" she asked as she washed her hands and donned gloves.
"Multiple car pileup on the freeway," Jenny replied, doing the same.
Amelia used some therapeutic breathing techniques that Chuck had taught her in order to calm herself before the victims arrived. This was going to require the utmost concentration. Before she knew it, the stretchers came rolling in. There were around 15 victims in all. Some were worse than others. A few only had minor injuries, but then there were people missing appendages, bleeding everywhere. Amelia ran around, starting IVs, tending to wounds, and trying to stay calm. The ones that were worse off were also extremely violent, requiring heavy sedation and full body restraints. To Amelia's displeasure, those had little effect. No matter what she did, all of the victims kept moaning and groaning. Amelia and the other staff were at their wits end after working on the patients for almost an hour. What was worse, the ones who had to be sedated were growing antsier, the sedatives having no effect.
"Can't you just give them any more sedatives?!" Amelia asked in frustration
"You know I can't do that! Any more of that stuff and they'll go into severe respiratory depression!" the doctor yelled back at her
"Oh yeah, they're clearly in danger of that," she muttered under her breath as she turned around to tend to another patient.
Finally, the straw came that broke the camel's back. One of the victims, who moments before had been laying flat on one of the hospital beds, suddenly sat up and lunged at one of the nurses, managing to take a chunk out of her arm. The others soon followed suit.
Amelia was beyond freaked out. What the hell was going on?! She walked away, hoping to get to a phone to call security. Before she could get very far, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm. She turned to look and it was one of the victims, a boy of about 17 with dark hair and eyes. His eyes had a crazed look to them and she noticed that the blood that stained his body was a dark black color. Just as he opened his mouth and appeared ready to attack Amelia, something came out of nowhere and literally ripped the arm off of the person. Black blood spilled everywhere.
Amelia looked up to see who had saved her and wasn't really surprised to see Sebastien standing there, his face contorted in a snarl.
"You okay? I figured there would be trouble today, so I followed you to work," he explained, noting Amelia's shocked expression.
Before she could reply, one of the doctors came charging over.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!" he demanded, his face turning red as a tomato
Sebastien grabbed the doctor by the lapels and pulled him close.
"My name is not important right now, but you need to listen to me. All of you are in danger right now. These people aren't ordinary people any more. I think they're zombies - " he started.
"Zombies? You've got to be fucking kidding me. There's no way that zombies or anything like that could exist."
Seb growled and bared his razor sharp teeth. "If that's the case, then tell me why I can hear your heart hammering in your chest. Tell me why I can practically smell the fear radiating from every pore."
Before he could say anything else, there was a scream as one of the aides was bitten by several of these creatures. Everyone turned to look at the sound of the scream. Several people tried to rush in, but they were useless. Eventually, the aide was silent, laying unmoving on the ground. To the horror of everyone watching, they watched as the body began to twitch slightly as though it were still alive. Black blood flowed from the bite wounds and the aide made a sort of groaning noise, mimicking the noise being made by the other patients.
Seb looked down at the cowering man in front of him. His lips were moving fast in some kind of silent prayer.
"Now do you believe me?" Seb asked
"What do I have to do?" he replied
"Lock down the hospital. Make sure that nothing gets in or out of the hospital. As for me, I'm taking Amelia with me when I go. May God be with you," Seb said as he let the doctor go. The doctor stood, frozen in place amidst all of the chaos.
"Didn't you hear me?! LOCK DOWN THE HOSPITAL!" Seb shouted and the doctor ran as fast as he could to the nurses station to use the phone.
Seb grabbed Amelia's hand and took off running. They ran back to the breakroom to collect Amelia's things and then ran outside. When Amelia tried to lead him to where she had parked, he shook his head.
"Trust me, if this is going where I think it's going, cars aren't going to be of much use," he explained when she gave him a look as a protest.
They first stopped at Amelia's apartment to collect "only the necessities" as Seb had explained. He didn't say much than that. With a huff, Amelia changed out of her scrubs and into some pants, boots, and a long sleeved shirt. She began to throw things into a duffel bag. As she looked around her room, her eyes fell on the water skin that Chuck had given her. She grabbed it and walked out of her apartment, Seb in tow. He took her to the hotel where he was staying. Upon walking into the room with Seb, she was scooped up into a giant hug from David.
"Amelia, great to see you!" he laughed as he picked her up and spun her around.
"Hi David," she replied, not quite sure of how to feel.
"Is something wrong?" Pierre asked
"I just...I never thought I would have to see you guys again. I thought I put that all behind me, and yet, here we are," she replied, looking down at the ground.
"You know why we're here, though, right?" Jeff asked
"Well, I can only assume that something is going wrong and you guys have to fix it and based on what happened at the hospital, I guess that's true."
"What happened at the hospital?" Chuck wondered
"Well, it was like any other normal day in the ER. It was pretty busy. All of the sudden, we got a call saying that there were multiple victims from a multi car pileup on the freeway. It was difficult to try and stabilize everyone. It was weird though, because these patients were all pretty violent and they were bleeding black blood. I've never seen anything like it. Anyway, one of the patients bit one of the aides, and I'm pretty sure that I saw that same aide regenerate," she explained.
"Regenerate? You don't mean like zombies, do you?" Pierre asked
Amelia nodded.
"I think so. Anyway, when one tried attacking me, Seb stepped in and then managed to convince one of the doctors to lock down the hospital. I don't know what's going on. I should be back at the hospital, helping my patients and my friends, not sitting here getting ready to go play hero with you guys!" she fumed
Seb had walked away into the other room.
"Hey guys, I think you're going to want to see this!" he shouted
The five of them walked into the adjacent room and looked at the television, which was tuned to the local news station.
"Reports are now coming in from the Chicago Metropolitan Hospital of a supposed zombie outbreak and the city is declaring a state of emergency. People are advised to stay inside and to be wary of any family or friends who have recently died. Be on the lookout for people covered in black blood who are extremely violent. Please stay tuned. We will update you as more information becomes available."
Seb turned off the TV and turned to look at everyone.
"Well guys, looks like we're dealing with zombies. What should we do? David, don't even think about it," he said, noticing the gleam in the Airbender's eyes.
"Well, somehow, we need to try and fix this problem. I have no idea how, though," Chuck said.
"Have you thought of contacting Gerard or anything like that?" Amelia asked
"Well, since everyone has gone their separate ways, it's been difficult to keep track of everyone," Pierre explained.
"Wait, I still have Mikey's number. Let me try calling," Seb said as he took his phone out of his pocket.