T-Dog
T-Dog lowered Daryl's crossbow. He still felt like he shouldn't be using it, but Georgie had pointed out that they needed to use stealth weapons if they were to have a chance to rescue Matthew from whoever was hiding out at the hospital. Not that it mattered now.
They'd driven up to the hospital entrance without attracting any attention. T-Dog had insisted on keeping the headlights down low, to minimise any chance of being spotted as they came up. The journey had been tense and silent; both Andrea and Georgie seemed lost in their own thoughts. Whilst Andrea seemed reflective and tense, Georgie radiated fury, barely concealed under a seemingly neutral facade. T-Dog wondered what she was thinking. He was fairly certain that Andrea was thinking about Dale, about whether she would see him again, the same way that he was thinking about Miao. He would have guessed that Georgie was thinking about Sophie: about who would look after her if she didn't come back. But from the look on her face, it had been clear her mind was already thinking of how she wanted to deal with the mysterious characters at the hospital. For some reason, it'd made him feel very uneasy.
Like before, they'd driven almost up to the gate of the hospital, only this time they hadn't bothered to hide the car, nor had they been as cautious to approach the hospital. Picking their way through the reception area, T-Dog had felt his hands start to shake, just like they had done last time. His jaw was clenched, his stomach ached as if someone had pummelled him and he couldn't stop sweating. He felt three, four, five hundred times worse than he had done when they had first come to the place. Then, he'd had ignorance on his side. Now he knew what was inside the place, and that it wasn't ignorant walkers, fuelled by hunger and nothing else. It was people, people who had somehow created death traps within the old building, for an unknown purpose, who had cunning on their side, as well as knowledge of the layout of the hospital. He swallowed the bile rising in his throat and instead focused on the task at hand. They slowly made their way along the ground and first floor, checking every room, softly calling for Matthew. There was no sign of either him, or the attackers from last time.
The light was fading fast now, and shadows were reaching across the hallway, making everything seem even more sinister and foreboding, something T-Dog hadn't realised was possible. When they got to the second floor, where Daryl had been attacked, he could see scorch marks still clung to the walls, and even though it had been four days ago, the smell of scorched flesh still clung to the corridor like an unwelcome guest. Georgie and Andrea's faces had blanched briefly at this, unprepared for it as they were. Again, on this floor, no sign of life. T-Dog wasn't fooled. He'd been unprepared once before, he wasn't making that mistake again.
"I guess we're going up another floor then?" Andrea murmured.
"Looks that way." T-Dog gritted his teeth. "Be alert. Try not to touch anything. We don't know what they've set up." Wild images raced through his mind: trip wires, swinging axes, more flame throwers. He had no idea how the inhabitants of the hospital would have set any of this up, but his mind wouldn't listen to logic anymore. Every horror movie he had seen was racing through his head, reminding him of more and more scenarios they could encounter, some more likely than others.
"Can you hear that?" Georgie's urgent whisper broke through the silence. T-Dog strained his ears. He frowned, confused.
"What is that?" A scrabbling noise, faint but distinct, was echoing down the hall. Andrea put her finger to her lips, and motioned them onwards. As they moved down the hall, the scratching, scrabbling noise became louder, as did the sound of harsh, rasping groans. Andrea froze in front of them and turned to face him.
"Walkers" she mouthed. Georgie raised her cross bow as Andrea fell behind her and T-Dog, rifle ready. T-Dog raised Daryl's bow.
"Only shoot if there too many," Georgie reminded Andrea out of the corner of her mouth. "We want to make this an ambush." Andrea nodded solemnly. All three of them moved stealthily, weapons at the ready. T-Dog was pretty sure he could hear his blood pounding in his ears, his heart was beating so fast. The noises got louder as they moved further down the hall, until...
"Stop!" T-Dog spoke a little too loudly and a thumping and banging echoed down the hall. Georgie and Adele looked at him confused. "They're in there." T-Dog pointed to the closed elevator door. He could clearly now hear the things inside the shaft. He couldn't tell if they were on their level or a little below, but one thing was for sure; they could hear them out here, and they were hungry. For a moment, relief flickered across Georgie's face, then she steeled herself again.
"Stay sharp guys." Andrea shouldered her rifle again. She didn't need to finish the sentence. Therecouldstillbeothers. Taking a final glance at the doors, T-Dog raised the crossbow and moved on down the hall.
They had barely taken five steps, when they heard another moaning noise, this time from one of the rooms. Georgie whipped around pointing her arrow at the door of the room, and started to move forward, but Andrea stopped her. A look of intense concentration was on her face, and she seemed to be listening keenly. There was silence for a moment, and then the thing inside the room made a coughing spluttering sound, then back to moaning. Georgie lowered her bow and looked inquisitively at Andrea. The noises didn't sound right for a walker. They sounded too...human. T-Dog could see Andrea thought the same. She moved towards the room, and cautiously opened the door, Georgie covering her back. She froze, and gave a small cry of revulsion and shock that she quickly smothered. Georgie looked over her shoulder and reeled back. She looked like she was going to be sick. She motioned T-Dog forward.
"You go in with her. I'll stay...I can't..." She stared at the floor, wan faced. T-Dog moved past her, apprehensive about what he would find.
It was the smell that hit him first. Blood, burnt flesh, faeces, and other things he couldn't describe. He almost followed Georgie out of the room, but by breathing in through his mouth, he was able to lessen the impact that the stench had on him. Once he was over the smell, he took in the small room. It might have once been a pleasant ward for recovery, but now it looked like a scene from a nightmare. Blood splatter covered the walls, some of it old, some still relatively fresh and glistening. Occasionally, some sort of flesh or matter was plastered to the wall as well, splayed out as if it had hit it at some speed. Some of the wall appeared to be moving, and on further investigation, to T-Dogs revulsion, he could see maggots and larvae feeding on the flesh that was stuck there. The window had been boarded up and only small slithered of moonlight illuminated the floor, which was also swimming in blood and flesh, and judging by the smell, human waste. As he moved his head around the small room, to his horror, T-Dog could also see a human hand lying in the corner next to the door. But worse than this, dug deep into the door, were scratch marks. When T-Dog reached his hands out to examine them, he couldn't help but notice no matter how hard he tried, that they fitted the shape of his fingers. He moved away, shuddering. Wherever he looked, he noticed more details to add to the dreadfulness of the situation: a tray full of surgical and non-surgical instruments; beakers and syringes full of ominous liquid; another dismembered body part. He'd only ever seen one place that even came close to this hellish nightmare. As soon as he thought of it, he wished he hadn't. Remembering the Governors daughter chained to the wall, feeding on the remains of contenders of the ring, including his friend was something he had tried to banish to his dreams. He didn't need to think of it here and now, not when he was already stretched to his last nerve, not when he felt like his sanity was hanging by a thread.
He squinted in the darkness, trying to find Andrea-she seemed to have disappeared into the walls. He shook that thought off immediately. It was bad enough that the dead were walking without him creating images of processed rooms. Then he spotted her. She was over a large bundle on the far side of the room. As he watched, the bundle stirred.
He froze. It was happening again, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop the images of the Governors daughter flooding his brain. He closed his eyes and opened them again, but the thing was still there with Andrea. He wracked his brains for something to try to make himself feel braver, anything at all. All that sprang to mind was a song his Grandfather use to sing to his Grandmother when he'd had a few glasses of rum. And even then, he could only remember the first verse. He started to hum it to himself under his breath anyway, trying to push back the scream that was threatening to escape him.
Black,black,black
isthecolourofmytruelove'shair
Herlipsarelikearosesofair
Andtheprettiestfaceandtheneatesthands.
Ilovethegrasswhereonshestands
Shewiththewondroushair.
He raised the crossbow and moved forward to Andrea, humming the song over and over forcibly. He didn't trust himself to ask her what she was doing, for fear he would scream and never stop. The closer he got to the bundle and Andrea, the clearer he could see them.
The bundle was a body, a young woman judging by the hair. Alive, but only just. Her clothes and face were soaked in blood. Her face was scarred in a similar way to Daryl's, and was red raw with burns. Her legs were bent in an impossible way, that suggested they were broken, and the fingers on the hand he could see were all bent and twisted, some missing fingernails. Despite this, she was holding Andreas hand, clinging to it as if for comfort. Her mouth was moving urgently, whispering something to Andrea, whose head was close to hers. T-Dog couldn't see, but he thought Andrea might be crying. As he watched, the woman's face turned to look at him. In spite of himself, he winced. Her eye had been gorged out of the socket, leaving a blank empty hole in her face. Part of her cheek seemed to have been carved away. Her neck had angry red welts around it. He felt any fear leave him, to be replaced by anger.
"Whodidthistoyou?" he wanted to ask her. "Dotheyhaveourkid? We'lltakecareofthemforyou." But he couldn't form the words. He stopped a little way from her and Andrea, watching silently. Somewhere from above them, something fell over and crashed. Andrea drew her hand gun and placed it next to the woman's right temple. A look of peace fell over her face, and she closed her eyes. She opened her mouth and started to sing softly the rest of T-Dogs song.
Black, black, black
is the colour of my true love's hair
Alone, my life would be so bare.
I would sigh, I would weep,
I would –
Andrea pulled the trigger and the shot echoed through the room and the whole hospital. For a moment, she was silent. Then she started to speak.
"She asked me to. They tortured her until she was near dead. She wanted to be put out of her misery. T-Dog, what if they've already..."
Two more shots rang through the room, coming from the outdoor corridor. Andrea and T-Dog leapt to their feet and ran to Georgie.
The elevator doors were open, and two walkers lay, spilt out of it. Georgie was sat on the floor, her handgun in her hand, her crossbow apparently forgotten. She looked up at T-Dog and Andrea as they clattered into the hallway.
"Fucking zombies opened it with their hands. I couldn't reload the bow fast enough for both of them." She looked up at the ceiling. Voices were shouting to each other, footsteps clattering across the floor. "So much for stealth." She sprung to her feet, and glanced into the room next to the one T-Dog and Andrea had just been in. Whatever was in there seemed to satisfy her, and she turned back to the pair of them.
"I've got a plan."
