Day 04: Something's Rotten

“Get them inside, quickly,” Natalie Scott urged as another explosion rocked the ground. “Come on, come on. Shut the doors! Hurry!” Four more made it inside behind her before the emergency doors slammed shut and she disengaged the automatic timer. Moving with great urgency, she rushed through the next set of double doors, pulling an injured man with her.

“What the FUCK is going on out there?” Lorelei Lester shouted in panic as she frantically ran in behind the others and positioned herself against the far wall. “Has everyone lost their fucking minds?”
 

“It’s some plague. It’s everywhere. People are going crazy, biting each other! It started last night,” Troy Brunner added, pacing back and forth in front of the opened door. “It’s nuts. It’s chaos outside and no one seems to be doing a damn thing to stop it!”

“Calm down, alright? You’re scaring people. There’s no need to panic,” Avery Gallagher spoke as he helped Natalie sit the injured man in a chair near the wall.

“NO NEED TO PANIC?! Look out there! Everyone has lost their minds and attacking without provocation. There is EVERY need to panic!”

“What about the police? Has anyone tried to call?” Lorelei asked, moving further into the room. She held herself protectively, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“The cops are useless!” Troy rejoined. “Hell, one of the ones that attacked me and my business group WAS a cop.”

The glass double doors were getting pounded and a unison shout of concern swept through the group. “Don’t worry,” Natalie replied in a calming tone. “There’s no way they can get in through the front. After our last hail storm, the board of directors had all the doors and windows replaced with shatter resistant glass.”

“Just the same, I think it would be wise to barricade all entry points. With enough effort, those people out there will eventually find a way to get in here and we may need to bunker down,” Matthew Danner finally spoke. 

Matthew, Troy, and Avery began moving loose pieces of furniture and piling them up at the entrance. Before long, they had created a decent sized barricade. “That should hold for now. Alright, what we need to do now is sweep the place. Look for any survivors or people who haven’t gone mad and have them come to the main entrance. But if you run into anyone acting like those people outside, they need to be quarantined,” Matthew instructed.

“Quarantined? And where exactly are we supposed to do that?” Troy asked, moving back into the room.

“It’s a hospital…figure it out.”

“There are offices behind the second floor nurses’ station we could use. The keys are left with security at night so we just have to swing by there and pick them up,” Natalie replied, stepping out into the hallway with the others.

“Perfect. Also, try and find anything that can be used as a weapon and bring it back here.” Matthew continued directing. 

“Wait, ok, hold up. Who died and made you leader? What makes you think any of us want to go traipsing through this place looking for survivors or weapons?” Troy asked, growing more and more agitated the longer Matthew spoke.

“Do you have a better idea or would you rather sit with your thumb up your ass until those people make it inside? We need to figure out who or what is still inside this hospital. We need to have a way to protect ourselves in case something does happen. And we need a plan to ensure we make it out of here alive. Anyone unwilling to help can take a fucking walk right now.” Matthew paused and looked over the group. “Anyone?  Well alright then. We should split up; we’ll move faster that way.”

“Split up? Have you never watched a horror movie in your life?” Troy exclaimed. “Splitting up gets people killed quicker! We should move in groups of 2.”

“There are only 6 of us, genius, one of which is injured and out cold leaving 5. Even in groups of 2, someone is going alone.”

“And that someone can be you. It was your suggestion,” Troy argued. “How about you show us just how tough you really are?”

“He’s right. If you think for one second I’m going anywhere in this…hell hole by myself, you’ve got another thing coming,” Lorelei replied, stepping closer to Troy. “There’s no way I’m going anywhere alone.”

“Fine. Then you can keep him company. I’ll take the 3^rd and 4^th floors myself. You and…”

“Natalie,” she introduced herself.

“Natalie, can take the 2^nd,” Matthew pointed towards Avery. “These two can have the 1^st. 10 minutes. That’s it. Get through the floors as quickly as you can and get back here by then. If you’re not back in 10, we’ll assume something’s happened, in which case, the others should come looking. Everyone got it?” The group nodded and checked their cell phones and watches. “Great. Let’s get moving. I’m Matthew, by the way.”

After brief introductions, the group split up and began searching their assigned floors. Troy and Lorelei made it back within four minutes. Finding a tool kit from a maintenance closet, several broom handles and, strangely enough, a baseball bat. It took Avery and Natalie another two. They recovered two golf bags, a hammer and a fire ax. Matthew arrived back in nine, meeting up with everyone in the main hall. He was empty handed. “Find anything?” Avery asked once Matthew rounded the corner to the front entrance.

“Nothing. There’s no one here. The 4^th floor is a mess though. It looks like there was some sort of a struggle; lots of blood, footprints and drag marks. It’s a war zone. No bodies though so I’m guessing they got out when the place was evacuated.”

“You mean you hope,” Troy replied, twirling the bat around in his hand.

“What about you? Any survivors?” Matthew asked.

“None. The place is like a ghost town which is bizarre. When a crisis like this happens you’d think the first place people would run is the local hospitals,” Natalie thought aloud.

“Yeah well, like Matthew said, Governor Flynn declared the town a state of emergency. The injured and elderly were evacuated first. It makes sense no one else was left…aside from the ones outside,” Avery stated.

“You mean the fucking whack jobs,” Lorelei chimed in. “Good. Let them stay out there.”

“Well, there is still one place we haven’t checked,” Matthew stated, leaning against the wall. “How can we know for certain they are all out there?”

“You mean the basement?” Avery asked.

“No way, absolutely not. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not going into the creepy basement of this dump,” Lorelei replied, folding her arms into her chest. “These are a $1600 D&G pants and a $1900 Cordonetto lace original! Don’t even get me started on the price tag of these heels! I’m not walking through god knows what in an icky basement in this outfit!”

“I’ll go. I just need to check on our friend in the lobby first,” Natalie replied, rolling her eyes and starting towards the main doors. The group entered behind her and waited as she checked the man’s vital signs. “Damn,” Natalie stated solemnly. “He’s dead.”

“Are you sure?”

“What kind of question is that?” she asked, glaring at Troy as he stood in the doorway. “Of course I’m sure. Now can I get some help moving him to the morgue?”

“Yeah.” Avery located a stretcher out in the main hallway and pushed it forward. “Anybody know who he was?” he asked, lifting him and placing him gently on the cot. No one answered and he sighed as he watched Natalie draw a white sheet over his body. “So where’s the morgue?”

“In the basement,” she replied and pulled the stretcher towards the door.

“Of course it is,” Troy grumbled and followed behind the group. Suddenly the sheet moved and Troy screamed as he swung his bat around, clipping Avery’s left arm.

“Dude, what the fuck?!” he exclaimed, clutching his shoulder in pain.

“H-he m-moved!” Troy stammered, stepping away from the stretcher as the man’s hand slipped from under the sheet and made contact with his hip.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE **So here's a bit of a bait and switch, folks. I am VERY sorry but I just sort of realized the original poll had nothing to do with "what happens next" so I kinda just changed it (SORRY! I'm an idiot.) It's all straightened out now I think. Feel free to vote again. Thank you!**