Day 28: Turn Out the Lights

“Can we run through this one more time?” Troy asked as they stood at the exit of the emergency room.

“Sure,” Matthew sighed, motioning for Natalie to hold her position. “Natalie’s going to remove the automatic timers so that the emergency doors open. You and I are going out there to clear any roamers who may be lurking out back, drive one of those ambulances closer, pile in all of the stuff we’ve collected and get the hell out of here.”

“See, this is where the plan hits a snag for me. Where exactly are we going?”

“I don’t know, Troy. Hopefully we can find a place that’s not…infested.”

“Here we go,” Troy said as Matthew gave Natalie the signal.

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Day 24: Incurable

A loud crash echoed through the empty hallway and everyone turned. “What was that?” Natalie asked.

Matthew stepped in front of her, hand clutched on the butt of the guard’s gun, he moved closer towards the door. “Hello?”

“Are you serious? You don’t go shouting ‘hello’ when you’re investigating noises!” Troy groaned. “Are you expecting them to reply? They don’t talk!”

“What is it?” Avery asked as Matthew snatched open the door to the storage locker.

“A stairwell.”

“Wait, you’re not seriously thinking about going down there are you?” Avery asked, watching Matthew check the load on his weapon and step inside the door. “You have no idea what’s down there!”

“Hence the reason I’m going to see,” Matthew sighed and started forward. Troy dropped the crate to the countertop and he and Natalie followed down after him. The stairs led to an employee’s only section of the hospital where the laundry and maintenance rooms were located. At the end of the hallway was an elevator. The lights indicated it was headed to the basement.

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Day 20: Endless Night

“What about him?” Troy asked, motioning towards the guard.

“We need to take care of it,” Matthew replied.

“Take care of him?” Avery asked. “He was conscious and talking a second ago.”

“Yeah and Lorelei was just sitting there complaining about her face. If he’s been bitten, he will turn. It’s as simple as that. I’m not taking any chances with my life.”

“Yeah but…”

“How about this,” Matthew interrupted Avery’s rebuttal, “We put it to a vote. All in favor of seeing if the guard can be saved, raise your hands.” Natalie, Troy and Matthew’s hands remained at their sides and he nodded. “Majority rules.”

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Day 16: No One Can Hear You Scream

“Did I stop speaking English at some point or is everyone conveniently ignoring the words coming out of my mouth? I’m not going in there and getting myself killed! And I’m sorry, did it fail to grab your attention that there are bloody handprints on the door with even bloodier boot prints leading towards it? You people are insane!”

“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO…” Matthew growled and angrily stepped forward. Natalie placed a calming hand on his shoulder and took lead.

“Lorelei, you have a choice. You can shimmy your narrow hips and bulimic buns through that window or I can take Matt’s knife and put an end to your constant whining. And if you think for one second that I’m bluffing,” Natalie glanced back at Matthew and smiled as he politely offered her his dagger. “Try me.”

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Day 12: Restless Souls

“What the hell?” Avery exclaimed. “Seriously, I mean…what the hell?” No one replied. Instead they continued staring out of the windows along the hall as they made their way towards the elevators. Nothing out there indicated that the world had forever changed. Aside from the fact that it was Monday and not a single soul could be seen for miles excluding the zombies, of course. It was dark out but it was also downtown in an often bustling city. There were no lights from passing motorists, no loud music, no rampant conversations. Just stillness.

Ever since the guy popped off the stretcher, Avery’s mind raced with the possibility that everyone he knew and loved had met the same fate. His fiancée Penny, his dog Max…even his 4,000 Instagram followers. All dead. “This stuff is only supposed to happen in movies!” he tried again. “Not in real life. But those things…they’re real. They’re people—like us.”

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Day 08: Dead Ringer

“I thought you said he was dead!” Troy shouted in Natalie’s direction.

“He was…he is!” she exclaimed and backed away from the stretcher. “Maybe it was gas.”

“Gas? His hand came out from under the sheet and touched me. Dead men don’t move!” Troy stated the obvious. “You must be incredibly bad at your job to miss that!”

“I know how to do my damn job! He has NO PULSE!”

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Matthew growled. Grabbing a combat knife from his right boot, he pulled back the sheet and placed the blade beneath the man’s nose and waited. “No breath. He’s dead and you’re a fucking idiot. Now that we’ve cleared that up, you think we can get a move on?”

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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?”

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