AN: It's time for another chapter. I finished it around Monday this week, but I've been waiting for Carradine to return the chapter proofread. Again he didn't return it, so it's over. I'm not going to use his help anymore, since I can't keep waiting for the proofread chapters to show up. You guys will just have to settle with my lousy, unedited writing style. Sorry...

Carradine, if you read this, I just want to tell you that you've been a great help and that you can still give me some advice from the sideline, but I'm not going to use you as a beta anymore. I hope you understand.

In other news: I've noticed that my story is getting a lot of hits. 5542 is the exact number right now. Of course about 25 percent of those are just people who check out the first chapter and then stop reading. But the 86 hits to chapter 20 could suggest that there are at least 86 different people that are reading my story. That's pretty good.
However, while there were 86 hits to the chapter, there were only 4 people who decided to review it. That's pretty damn bad, imo.
I know I probably shouldn't be complaining, but I'm just tired of readers who just read and read, but never review any of the stories. You guys should get your fingers out of your lazy asses and start reviewing.
Seriously, we writers put a lot of hard work into our stories, and the least you can do as a reader is to give us some feedback. I mean, leaving a review isn't going to kill you. It takes 5 minutes max. to leave one, but that one review can do the difference and keep the writer motivated.

To you guys that have been reviewing; thanks. You really make a difference when you review. Even if it's just a short one. Every review motivates me to keep writing and keep trying to get better.

Anyway, I just wanted to get that out. I hope I didn't scare you too much. Please don't stop reading XD

Here's the latest installment of Chambered.

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

Francis Quarles
English poet (1592 - 1644)

Chapter 21

Remedy

Sean had found his way to the ambulance entrance on the other side of the hospital. He hadn't been able to enter through the front doors, because they were locked. He wondered why someone would lock the doors, keeping people from reaching help, but then he thought that maybe someone inside was still alive and had tried to barricade the place.

The only other way of entering the hospital was through the other side of the building, and that was where he was at now. The hospital had a road leading from Amy Street down to the entrance, making it perfect for the ambulances to enter there. Amy Street lead out to Mission Street which lead out to Raccoon Street, or Main Street as some of the citizens called it, which was the central vein of the city. From there you could quickly get to any place in the northern parts of the city.

The small road sloped down to the entrance, which allowed the ambulances to drive inside a garage where the patients would be transported into an elevator and up to the emergency rooms.

Right in front of the reception area an ambulance was parked. When the ambulances came in with a patient, the patient would be examined quickly to determine which floor he should be transported to. Sean had experienced the procedure before. Once he had gotten a seizure because he had accidentally gotten an overdose of insulin, because the dosage in one of the syringes had been wrong. Sean had soon lost conscience, but luckily his mother had found him and had called an ambulance. The ambulance had brought him in through this area. He couldn't really remember anything beyond the elevator, but he remembered how a doctor had examined him quickly before sending him up to the ER. After that Sean had passed out again on the stretcher and didn't wake up before much later where he had been moved to intensive care.

There weren't anyone down there now. The reception area was empty, not even a zombie in sight. It suited Sean just fine since he couldn't move very fast at the time, so he wouldn't be able to outrun any threats. His condition was still worsening, but he had managed to get himself back on his feet after falling on the stairs at the front entrance. He had walked to the back of the building, using the buildings walls as support on the way there.

If he didn't get insulin very soon, he would collapse. He was sure of that. His legs could barely hold him up much longer, and they forced him to take it slow. 4-5 steps at a time and then a short break, resting his legs by leaning himself against the pillars. The elevator was not far away now. Just a little longer, he kept thinking.

All of a sudden Sean heard a sound and he stopped, putting his journey to the next pillar on hold for a second. He listened carefully, looking around the area.

Nothing.

He thought that maybe he was delusional. His low blood sugar had perhaps taken its toll on his sanity.

As he was about to turn around and continue, he suddenly heard the sound again. Now he was pretty sure the sound was real, not a figment of his imagination. It sounded like something wet hit the floor. Not like water dripping, but like a cloth soaked in oil fell to the floor.

Splat! The sound echoed in the vast empty spaces of the entrance.

Sean felt a shiver run up his spine. He was unarmed and out of strength to fight. He had left the axe on the stairs at the front entrance. It had been too heavy for him to carry any longer, so he had abandoned it, hoping he wouldn't run into another zombie. Right now he felt stupid for leaving it behind, but he had been in his right mind to do it. He wouldn't have gotten this far with it.

His best option now was to run, but even that seemed impossible.

Splat! Another wet "cloth" hit the floor.

Sean started moving forward, limping his way to the next pillar. It was the last between him and the elevator. The next challenge was the small slope up to it. Luckily there was a railing he could use to support himself.

Splat!

Sean started moving a little faster, but he didn't look back. His heart was racing and if it wasn't because he was soaked from the rain, he would've been pouring with sweat.

He couldn't even begin to imagine what generated the sickening sound, but he knew he had to get as far away from it as possible. Over the past days he had learned that anything that didn't sound normal probably wasn't, and that you should stay clear of it. Your own curiosity could mean the end of you.

Splat, splat… Splat!

The sounds got more and more frequent and Sean started moving faster and faster. He reached the railing and started moving up the small slope, making slight jumps in an attempt at moving faster.

He caught something out the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see, but nothing was there. He could've sworn that he had seen something move on the surface of the dark and wet concrete that was the floor. He continued towards the elevator.

With clammy and shaking hands he pushed the call button. He looked over his shoulder. There was nothing to see and the sounds had stopped. He listened carefully, but no, nothing could be heard. Sean felt his heart slowing down again.

The elevator pinged behind him and the doors slid open as he turned back around. The elevator was huge. It had room for at least two stretchers and a handful of people. He limped inside and looked at the control panel. His options were: B1F, 1F, 2F, 3F and the roof. Sean pushed the 2F button. He knew that there was a nurse station on that floor, and that they always kept all kinds of medicine there, including insulin.

The elevator doors slid shut as he stepped further back into the elevator, leaning against the back of it. There was a railing inside the elevator he could use for support too.

What I wouldn't give for a wheelchair right now, Sean thought, cursing his legs. His legs didn't have much strength left in them, but his arms still had some.

Before the elevator started moving, something bumped onto the closed slide doors. It sounded like someone had slammed their hand onto it. Somehow like a thud, but with more of a wet splat to it. Whatever it was, it was connected to the sounds he had heard before entering the elevator.

He heard another bump, and then two more before the elevator finally started moving upwards. He noticed that his heart was beating even harder than before. He got a bad feeling. Something terrible was haunting the hospital. If it wasn't because his life depended on that he found insulin, he would've left this place a long time ago.

Now that Sean's bandage was all wet the blood had started flowing from his wound again. His arm was practically soaked in blood. He lifted his hand up and looked at it. The blood was dripping from his fingertips and into a small pool on the floor in front of his feet. It was thin from the water and so it looked worse than it was. But he probably still had to change the bandage. He could use some of the stuff he had brought with him in his pockets, but since he was in a hospital he could just as well find some and save the ones he got for later.

The elevator reached the 2nd floor, pinging and then sliding the doors open. It revealed a dark corridor only lit by the light Sean had brought with the elevator. He stepped slowly out from the elevator, looking both right and left to check if he was alright to come out. Luckily nothing was there.

He walked out into the corridor and stood there for a second, trying to figure out what direction to go. To his right the corridor ended (with a door leading to the stairway) a few feet from where he stood, but to his left it went on and into a bend. He couldn't see beyond the bend, but he could see light coming from there. Aside from a few doors and two double doors the corridor didn't have anything else in it. No furniture, no plants, nothing. It was obvious that visitors weren't allowed in this area. The lack of furniture was proof of that. He wouldn't be surprised if the little labels next to the double doors said Operating Room or Emergency Room.

Sean wasn't going to check it out, though, so he headed straight for the bend up ahead. His legs still wouldn't allow him to walk without support, so he kept to the walls, moving alongside them.

He fought his way to the bend, but stopped when he got around it. A really sturdy looking shutter was blocking his access to the rest of the hospital. He knew that the nurse station was beyond that shutter, because he recognized the area he could see on the other side. It wasn't far away from where he was, but with the shutter in the way, the nurse station could just as well have been on the moon.

Sean had no idea what to do. He couldn't break through that shutter, especially not in his current state of health. He wondered if he could access the 2nd floor from the 3rd, or perhaps from the 1st floor. It was probably possible, but it was a long way to go, and he didn't feel he could walk for much longer. He just didn't have enough strength left in him to travel that far. And what if he went to one of those floors only to find out that the shutters were down there too? Then he would again have to find another way.

Sean stood there thinking for awhile. It wasn't easy for him to concentrate when he was low on blood sugar, starved and extremely tired. But he did come to think of a thing: if a patient with diabetes went into insulin shock during surgery, they would have to give him insulin quickly. It didn't make sense for them to run all the way to the nurse station to get it, so they had to have some in the room. He wasn't sure if he was right, but it was his only shot; if there weren't any in there then he was as good as dead.

He prayed that he was right as he started going back towards the rooms with the double doors. The first one he got to said "Emergency Room" on a subtle label beside the doors. He looked through the round windows in the door, but couldn't see anything in there because the lights weren't on. Despite that, he pushed on of the doors open and went in there. He held the door open to allow the little light there was in the corridor inside, helping him to find the light switch. He found it and flipped it on, but nothing happened. After flicking it on and off a couple of times he gave up. The power was apparently gone in this section of the hospital. The elevator was still running, though, so maybe it had its own generator. It didn't really matter; it wouldn't make a difference anyway, as long as it worked.

Sean found a metal stool and placed it in the doorway, keeping the door open. The light from the corridor wasn't much, but better than nothing. Now he could see that there was a bed in the middle of the room, a cabinet to the right, a table filled with all sorts of gadgets, and scattered around the room was a lot of other equipment he didn't know the function of. The only things he could name were the ECG (electrocardiograph) and the defibrillator. The two things most people would recognize.

As he stepped deeper into the room his eyes caught something he hadn't noticed before. The bed was covered with a white sheet, but it looked like something was under it. First he had thought it was just the duvet or something, but now he could see the outlines of a face and a body. A cold chill ran down his spine.

Sean prayed that whoever was lying under the sheet had died of natural causes. He - Sean assumed judging by the size of the person - could've been bitten and died while they tried to save him. That would explain why he had been covered with the sheet. But something didn't add up; if he had been infected and died, then why was he still lying there? He had to have been dead for quite a while, seeing that everyone had left the hospital. It couldn't have happened just before he got there, no way. The man had been lying there for many hours. He couldn't be absolutely certain that he was dead for good, but he didn't feel like lifting the sheet off to check it out. For now he had to focus on finding the insulin.

He found his way to the large cabinet in the back of the room and opened it. All sorts of medicine were in there, but Sean eventually found a little box with the label insulin. He also found a small pack of insulin syringes much like the ones he used himself. He didn't know why they would have those among the other syringes, since the insulin syringes was made for self injection. Perhaps the markings in insulin units, as opposed to milliliters, made it easier for the nurses to use them. It suited Sean just fine though, he didn't feel like using an oversized syringe with a long needle. The insulin syringes had short ones, which made it easier for him to inject it, especially now that he was shaking so much.

Sean sat down on the floor, resting his back against the wall. The pain shot through his arm when he used it to support himself on the way down. His hand left a bloody handprint on the floor.

He really needed to fix that arm up again, but it would have to wait until he was finished with the insulin. Sean picked up the little box and got it open, pulling out one of the vials inside. He put the vial down and ripped open the pack of syringes. He stuck the syringe's needle into the vial and extracted the insulin in the exact amount of units he needed. Putting the vial down, he cleared the syringe for air bubbles, spraying a little of the insulin out in the process. With blurry eyes he looked at the syringe as he pulled his shirt up, and stung himself in the stomach.

A few seconds went before he suddenly felt the effect. At first he got a little tense as always, but then he suddenly went into a seizure. All his muscles seemed to contract all at once, and he went into a fetus position. The pain was unbearable and he felt like he was going to throw up again. Luckily it never happened. He could've been suffocated if he did. His jaws were locked shut so it would've had nowhere to go.

Sean's muscles continued to contract and relax for a minute or so. He gasped for air when it stopped and rolled over on his back. Staring up into the ceiling, his breathing slowly went down and he could relax again. He had never experienced a seizure like that before, so it really scared him. Something was seriously wrong with him, he knew that. But he couldn't figure out why he wasn't dead yet. It would've been easier if he just knew, because then he could accept that he was going to die. He kept feeling that there was hope left, that he was going to live through this, but he couldn't be sure of that either. The uncertainty was killing him.

What the hell is happening to me…? He thought, as his eyelids got heavier and heavier. He was so tired, and soon he couldn't fight it any longer. His eyes closed and he drifted away.

xxxxxxxxxxx

The rain had stopped. Unfortunately, Sabrina was already soaked, so it didn't make much of a difference. But at least now she had the chance to dry after some time. If it didn't start to rain again, that was. The clouds still looked kind of menacing.

As Sabrina was running up along Raccoon Street, Sean's cellphone suddenly started ringing. She stopped and frantically pulled it out of her pocket. She didn't get a chance to see who was calling, because she immediately pressed the answer button and put the phone to her ear. Luckily the phone hadn't been damaged by lying in the pocket of her soaking wet pants.

"Sean?!" she said, assuming that it was him calling.

"No, this is his father. Who am I speaking with?" A soft and pleasant, male voice answered her. Even if he hadn't said who he was, Sabrina would still have known. She recognized his voice.

"This is Sabrina." She said, letting him know who she was, since he apparently didn't recognize her voice.

"Oh, Sabrina! I'm glad to hear you're okay," he said. Sabrina and him had met each other on several occasions, since her and Sean often had hung out together back when they had been in high school.

Sabrina was still a little confused. The fact that it had been Sean's father calling had surprised her, and so she had a hard time finding the right words. Also, she was a little out of breath from running, which didn't make things any easier.

"Is Sean okay?" he then asked, sensing that something was wrong.

Sabrina swallowed hard, but then started explaining.

"Sean is… he got separated from us," Sabrina said, looking down on the asphalt before her. "But he's alive and we know where he's heading. I'm on my way there now."

"Is… is he okay?" he asked, clearly shaken by the news.

"I don't know, Paul…" Sabrina answered, calling him by his first name. "We haven't been in contact with him for some time."

He went silent for a few seconds.

"You said he was heading somewhere?" Paul then said, staying relatively calm much to Sabrina's surprise. Sean's father wasn't a cold man, but he was strong of character, just as Sean was.

Sabrina began to explain the whole situation to him, as she continued towards the hospital.

Paul was quite shaken to hear about the turn of events. His house had been burned down, his son and his friends had escaped death on more than one occasion, and now his son's life was again hanging in a thin thread.

"You've got to get to Sean!" Paul begged her.

"I'll be at the hospital really soon," Sabrina said. "I just hope he's there."

"He is… I'm sure of it," Paul said, apparently holding on to the little hope that he had left. "And I know that I can trust his life with you, Sabrina."

Sabrina felt touched. She hadn't told Paul about Sean and her, but she felt good knowing that he trusted her. It was a small ray of light in a dark and disturbing sky.

She snapped out of the thought, and reminded herself that she had to stay sharp and focused. Time was running out.

"I'm almost there." Sabrina said, getting to the point.

"Alright, I'm gonna hang up," he said, understanding that she needed her hands free. "I'll call back in awhile. Don't call me." Paul quickly ended the conversation and hung up.

She thought about the last thing he had said before he hung up; 'Don't call me'.

She wasn't sure, but it seemed like he was hiding something. Was he so busy that he couldn't be interrupted? Not even when his son was in danger? That didn't make any sense to her. Something odd was going down in Paris, and she knew it had something to do with the outbreak. She didn't have time to think about it. The situation at hand required her attention.

Sabrina put the cellphone back in her pocket. Without having to keep the phone to her ear she could now move her arms better allowing her to run faster than before. She had only been jogging while talking to Sean's dad.

Sabrina was in excellent shape, so she could normally keep going for a long time. But she was tired and she was hungry, and running at full speed drained her of energy. She decided to slow down a little bit to save her strength. She wouldn't be of much help if she was exhausted when she got to the hospital.

The streets were far from empty. Zombies were everywhere, but they were scattered around the streets in small groups or alone. They were easy to avoid, as long as she kept her eyes on the surroundings. Zombies weren't the only things she had to dodge. There were cars and all kinds of obstacles on the road. She had to be careful she didn't trip over something that would send her flying into the arms of one of the undead.

Sabrina reached the front doors of the hospital, but soon found out that the doors were locked. She figured that Sean had either locked the doors once inside or he had found the doors locked, just like she had, and had taken a different route. Or maybe he had never reached the hospital at all.

She shuttered the thought, but then she found an axe lying on one of the steps leading up to the entrance. She wondered where it could've come from. It could've been Sean, but she couldn't be sure of that. Anyone could've left it there.

She examined it closer and noticed that the blade was red of blood. She was surprised to see that it hadn't been washed away by the rain. Perhaps the blood had dried a long time ago, making it difficult to wash off. It had obviously been used as a weapon, and it would make sense if Sean had been using it, seeing that he had left the radio station unarmed.

She had to believe that he was in there. It was the only thing she could hold on to, and it was also her only lead. She had nowhere else to go.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean opened his eyes slowly.

He was lying on his back, looking straight up at the ceiling. He didn't try to move, he just laid there for awhile.

His vision was blurry, and he had a bad taste in his mouth. His brain felt like it was two sizes too large for his skull. It was pounding in pace with his heavy heartbeat. Basically, he felt like he had a really bad hangover. The kind that would keep you in bed an entire Sunday.

Moaning in pain, he sat up. When the blood left his head again, it hurt even more than before. His vision also went out for a few seconds, showing nothing but static, like he had just woken up with a TV screen stuck to his face. And judging by how heavy his head felt, it was a big-screen TV.

Once his body stopped prickling and his sight turned to normal, he started looking around the room; the (still) occupied hospital bed, lots of heavy equipment and an open cabinet, containing all sorts of medicine. It wasn't before now he remembered where he was; the emergency room.

He sat there on the floor for a minute, waiting for the grogginess to dissipate. Then he got up on his feet and started loading the insulin syringes and the box of insulin into his pockets. There should be enough insulin in the box for a couple of days.

Before leaving the hospital he should probably change his bandage, as he had planned to do earlier. He looked around the room once more. The bandages were in the cabinet along with all the other medical supplies.

Sean was about to start taking the old one off, when he suddenly noticed he had stopped bleeding again. When he first had entered the hospital, the blood had literally been streaming out of the wound. The dark red stains on the floor where he had been lying were proof of that. There was even a trail of blood leading out to the corridor.

He gently untied the red and dirty bandage from his arm, examining the wound when he had removed it completely. Turning towards the light so he could see, he discovered that the wound had closed. It was not yet a scar, but it wasn't far from that stage of the healing process.

Sean couldn't believe his own eyes, so he gently drove his fingers over the wound to feel it. The skin felt hard and dry. Even the signs of infection was now gone. There were no red rashes around it as there had been earlier. The wound didn't itch anymore either.

He wondered whether it was necessary to wrap a bandage around the wound anymore. The wound was closed, but it could be ripped open if he wasn't careful with it. He decided to put a bandage on anyway.

After wrapping his arm up, he thought it would be best to leave the place. He had nothing else to do there, so it was time to move on to the next thing. Though, he hadn't yet decided where to go, he knew that he had to find somewhere else to hide.

Sean felt that the hospital wasn't safe, even though it appeared so. Too many things were off about the place: the sounds he had heard down in the ambulance entrance, the fact that no one was here, and the lack of dead bodies and blood, especially the last two things. The hospital would've been one of the first places to get infested by zombies, since people would go there when they had experienced the symptoms. He imagined how hell had broken loose in there, and how many people had been killed in a matter of minutes. All that would've left a lot of dead bodies, lots of blood, and not to mention zombies. He had expected to see more zombies in the place, but he hadn't even encountered one.

Sean had a bad feeling that the hospital was occupied by something much more terrifying than the zombies. Something that had driven them out or perhaps even worse; devoured them.

He felt a chill down his spine. Without a weapon he didn't stand a chance against whatever it was. He could probably take on a zombie or two barehanded, but not if he met something similar to the beast he had encountered in the grocery store. That thing had been hard to kill, even with the axe.

Sean didn't feel sick anymore. In fact he felt full of energy and ready to run a mile. That didn't mean that he could take on anything, but he felt confident that he could outrun it. Fleeing was always to prefer, fighting should be the last option. So the smartest thing he could do right now was to leave the hospital, before something nasty showed up.

He turned around and went for the double doors, which were being held open by the metal stool. Just as he was about to go out of the room, he heard a strange, disturbing yet familiar noise from the back of the room.

Splat!

He spun around on his feet, looking straight in the direction of the noise. In the corner of the room he saw what looked like a slug lying on the floor. What frightened him, though, was that it was about the same size of a fist.

It started moving around a little, and then it rose up from the floor as if it was scouting the room.

Splat, splat, splat!

Three more fell to the floor, and Sean then looked up from where they had come from; a ventilation shaft in the ceiling. More fell out of it, and they started to move in Sean's direction.

He started to back out of the door, but he stopped when the slugs suddenly stopped moving. Their attention had gone to something on the floor they were moving across. He could hear a disgusting sound coming from the slugs as they were apparently feeding from something on the floor. Then he realized what it was that they were feeding on; the small pool of blood that had formed on the floor, while he had been out cold.

He then realized something else; that the slugs weren't slugs at all, they were leeches.