Glad to see the story has some followers already! Here's the next chapter!
I tossed the duffle bag that S had left me over my shoulder, abandoning the clothes I had been wearing in a heap on the bed. I decided I needed to get out of the hospital before I let myself think about eating the food I had been left.
Cautiously I made my way to the door and pressed my face gingerly against the little glass window, careful not to put pressure on the injured part of my head. There wasn't much light available to see, but there were a few working lights still blinking. There must have been some sort of backup generator still working. The hallway was empty but scattered with papers and some stretchers. No people though.
Hesitantly I pushed the door open, my eyes scanning both directions. Readjusting the duffle bag strap on my shoulder nervously, I took a few steps out of my room, letting the door quietly close behind me. There was an exit sign to my right, so I decided to head in that direction.
As I went, my eyes scanned the numbered rooms. 458. I guessed I had to be on the fourth floor if the numbers meant anything. Continuing forward, I thought I heard something fall and I froze up. I listened intently, trying to figure out where it had come from.
There was nothing for a moment, so I took a few steps forward again but was stopped when I thought I heard a voice calling out. My heart began racing in my chest when I realized it was coming from a room up ahead. I picked up my pace and stopped at room 450, a stretcher was shoved up against the door, barring entrance or exit. Glancing in through the little window on the door, I spotted a man lying on the floor faintly calling out for a nurse. His eyes caught mine and I faintly heard him emit a weak, "Help."
Making sure we were still alone, I shoved the stretcher away from the door and pulled it open.
"I need a nurse," the man on the ground said weakly.
I chewed my lip as I took in his appearance. He was dressed in hospital garb, his shirt opened and his torso was wrapped in a bandage.
"Can you stand?" I asked him.
"I need a nurse," he told me again, his eyes darting to the door behind me.
"There aren't any."
His gaze met mine again and his eyes widened. "What?"
I offered the man a sympathetic smile. "I just woke up in a hospital room down the hall a few minutes ago. I tried calling for help. There's no one. I'm surprised you're even here, awake."
He glanced around the room in what I imagined was him trying to make sense of his surroundings and the information he had just been given. A moment later he was looking back at me.
"Where is everyone? What happened?"
I shook my head. "I know as much as you." I sighed. "Probably less," I muttered, more to myself than to the man before me.
He began trying to stand up so I grabbed onto one of his shoulders and helped steady him.
"You alright?" I asked him, eyeing his bandaged waist.
"I'm thirsty. And my head hurts."
I nodded in understanding before pulling the IV needle from his arm. "Maybe the bathroom faucet is working."
I followed him as he made his way to the bathroom. I was surprised when he turned on the water and it actually flowed from the tap. He splashed some onto his face before drinking feverishly for a few moments. When he was done he glanced at me, eyebrows raised questioningly. I hadn't realized how dry my mouth was until I'd heard the running water, and carefully we swapped places so I could get a drink. When I was satisfied, I turned off the faucet and saw him staring out the window of his hospital room door.
"There's no one," he stated, still sounding surprised.
"Whatever happened, it doesn't look to be good," I told him. "I looked outside. It's not just this hospital."
He froze, stiff as a board suddenly. "My family. I have to find my family."
I nodded my head. "We'll find them, but let's find a way out of here first. You okay to walk?"
The man nodded in answer.
"Then we should follow the exit signs. Maybe we should keep quiet too. I don't know what happened, but if there are people out there that did this, I don't think we want to find them."
"Right," the man said in response. "Ready?"
I gave him a firm nod.
He pushed the door opened and together we quietly entered the hallway. I glanced around, taking in our surroundings. Nothing had changed within the last few minutes. The man started forward in the direction I had been going, following the exit signs like I had suggested. A little further down the hall we came to an abandoned nurse's station. No one was there. The man rushed over and picked up the phone hopefully, pressing a few buttons, before realizing it was futile. The phone was dead.
I spotted a set of double doors and grabbed the man's attention before gesturing to it. We slowly made our way towards it but I immediately wished we hadn't. A woman's body lay in the hall. It was torn up, most of the flesh missing, and partially decaying. Her intestines were spilling out on the floor.
I threw a hand over my mouth and quickly turned away, feeling again like I was going to be sick. The man was beside me again, heading in the other direction looking just as horrified. I followed after him and felt my stomach drop farther when I spotted the bullet holes and blood lining the wall. Wires were hanging from the ceiling, a few sparking still. There was a pool of blood that had seeped out from under one of the hospital rooms. The man glanced over his shoulder and exchanged a look with me before pressing forward. I was even more afraid now of what we might find next.
At the end of this hallway there was a set of double doors that were padlocked shut with a piece of wood shoved between the handles. The ominous words "Don't Open Dead Inside" were spray painted in black. Movement was coming from behind the doors, pressing against them. Suddenly the doors pushed open a crack, straining the padlocked chain as far as it would go. Wheezing groans erupted from behind it, and a few pale hands snaked through the opening.
The man jumped in shock and I grabbed his arm and pulled him away towards a pair of double doors to our left. I did not want to know what was behind those locked doors.
The elevators were suddenly in our sight and the man rushed over and began frantically pushing the buttons to no avail. The elevators wouldn't be functioning without power. I spotted the fire exit and pushed the door open. I was met with total darkness and I felt my skin begin to crawl in fear of what might be in the dark.
The man came over towards the fire exit and peered in. He pulled something out of the pocket of his hospital gown's shirt and held it up for me to see. A book of matches with what must have been the hospital's name on it. I assumed he had taken them from the nurse's station.
He lit a match and I followed him into the fire exit. Once the door shut with a slam behind us, the only light was from the match in his hand. An overpowering stench hit our noses and caused both of us to gag. I covered my nose with a hand and followed him down the flights of stairs. He had to relight a match every few seconds until we finally came to a door, above it was an exit sign.
The man quickly shoved it open, dropping the match when we were hit with blindingly bright light from the outside. We recovered once our eyes adjusted and made our way out of the stairwell, down a few more stairs to the pavement below.
There dozens of dead bodies covered in bloodied white sheets lined up in rows. Flies were buzzing everywhere around them. I let out a gasp and grabbed onto the man's arm. His hand instinctively grabbed onto mine as he navigated us around the corpses.
"Oh God," he mumbled as he eyed a body whose head was not covered.
"Let's just get out of here," I whispered hurriedly.
We cut through the grass, struggling up a hill, to come face to face with a helicopter. There were other vehicles that looked to be military parked around the area as well. It must have been a base at some point, but it was empty now.
Not far from the hospital was what looked to be a park. A few bikes were abandoned in the grass, next to the decaying upper half of a woman. We made our way to the bikes, when suddenly the corpse rolled over and let out a snarl, a long arm reaching towards us.
Startled, I let out a gasp and tumbled into the man who just nearly caught me.
"Oh God," I heard him say again in horror.
He grabbed the bike and I quickly grabbed the one next to it, both of us hopping on and pedaling far from the animated corpse.
We rode about a mile in the heat. I had no idea where we were going, but seeing as I didn't know the area I continued to follow the man who looked like he did.
Eventually we came upon a white house and the man nearly jumped off his bike, tossing it to the side and rushing inside. I got off my bike a little more carefully, not wanting to irritate my head further.
"Lori?" I heard him call into the house frantically.
I stood just inside the doorway, my back to the wall so nothing could sneak up on me. I watched as the man began searching each room, picking things up and tossing them down while calling out for what I assumed was his wife and son. It didn't take me long to figure out they weren't in the house, but I was too afraid to say anything.
When he finally came to that conclusion himself, he broke down crying on the floor of what looked to be his living room, calling out their names again. I didn't know what to do, feeling sadness for this stranger welling up inside of me. Considering I couldn't remember who I was, I didn't know if I had a family of my own somewhere. Or parents and siblings. I couldn't even comprehend what he was feeling right now, because as I suddenly realized, I had no one. At least, no one that I was aware of. I supposed there was the mysterious S, but I had no clue who that was. The thought that they might be dead didn't really cause me to feel anything. It was a disturbing feeling that filled me suddenly, knowing I had no one to care about. Except for this stranger in front of me. He was all I had.
When the man started slapping himself, muttering "Wake up, wake up!" as if he was in some sort of nightmare, I snapped back to the moment.
"Hey, hey," I said soothingly, rushing to his side. "They could be somewhere else. We'll find them."
Slowly he nodded and stood up before heading back outside. I followed after him, switching the duffle bag to my other shoulder. It wasn't exactly heavy, but my arm was getting tired of carrying the little weight nonetheless.
"I never got your name," I called after the man, feeling a little awkward asking him this after what had just happened inside.
There was a moment as he sat down on the steps leading up to his house before he answered me. "Rick." He glanced at me, obviously expecting a name in return.
For a moment I forgot what it was, but then I remembered what had been written on my medical chart in the hospital.
"Isabell," I told him, though the name felt strange and foreign to me.
He nodded before turning his attention to the road, my eyes following his gaze. There was someone stumbling down it, dressed in all black, coming towards us. I squinted to try to make the person out better, but suddenly someone behind me hit Rick in the head with a shovel. He toppled over as I let out a surprised shout.
"Stop!" I shouted before the young boy went to hit me as well.
A gunshot fired behind me and I spun to see another man in the road. The first one in all black dropped to the pavement limply.
I threw my hands up in surrender. "Don't shoot!"
"Son, don't!" the man in the street shouted at the young boy behind me. "You know they don't talk!"
I spun around to see the boy about to hit me in the head with his shovel, but at his dad's words, he stopped.
"What's that bandage for?" the man asked me as he ran over to Rick. "Was he bit?"
I was confused. "Bit by what?"
The man trained his gun on Rick. "Was he bit? Answer me or I'll shoot you both!"
"No, I don't think so!" I shouted near hysterics.
"What's that bandage for? What type of wound?" he asked me frantically.
"I don't know! We just woke up in the hospital! I don't know what's going on!"
The man eyed me sternly for a moment before nodding his head to his son.
"Hold out your hands," the man ordered.
I did as he commanded and saw Rick go unconscious on the ground. The man's son put zip ties around my wrists, restricting my movement. The boy put them on Rick as well before handing his gun to his son, telling him to keep it on me.
"Come on," the man ordered, reaching down and pulling Rick up. "Follow me."
I started following him to the house next door. Before we stepped inside the man turned his head to me and warned, "You try anything funny, or I find out you were bit, you're both getting a bullet in the head."