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It's dark. Pitch black, even.
I hear the faint sound of the lights electrocuting some mindless insect that was too ignorant to understand that light kills.
Then the pang sets in. The pang- more like someone drilling into your skull--seeps into my bones. I slowly open my eyes. I am staring at what seems to be a blurred white light.
I blink once.
Twice.
I sit up.
"Oh my god.." I mumble as the blood rushes down my face and into my legs.
I can see clearly now, and I begin to observe my surroundings.
I didn't notice before, but now the droning beep of an IV machine adds onto my drilling head pain.
I follow the IV machine's wires down to my wrists, where one is injected into my vein. This is when I observe the eerie space surrounding me- there's a dim lamp in the one corner..flickering lights on the ceiling. A window...a window is on the far side of the room.
"..What the.." I look down at my body- I'm in a hospital gown.
What kind of hell am i living in?
where AM i?
I stand on my feet and almost fall. I regain my balance, leaning against the IV machine for support. I give it a weak push, rolling it over to the window to see outside.
"Am I..dreaming..?" The outside world looks..massacred. Cars are on fire, one mangled inside of another in a never-ending domino-effect across the horizon.
The sky is black. Buildings are looming above each other, windows smashed.
I scan the room again for an opening- a door! I push myself to the door, regaining my strength. I yank the iv cord out of my wrist, aware of the blood trickling down my arm.
I steadily walk down the dank, dark hallway, noticing stuff skewed everywhere. Was there some kind of tornado?
i am alone as i walk down this nightmarish hallway..until I come upon the receptionist desk. Out of the corner of my eye, there is movement. I hear steady breaths and know i am no longer alone.
"Who's there? ...What is this place?"
"Sh-GET DOWN NOW!" demands the voice of a girl. I do as she asks and duck behind the desk immediately, for a murderous screech engulfs the building. One shot; two shots are fired.
"******** thing followed you down the hallway."
"...what?"
"Get up and see for yourself."
I stand up..slowly making my way out of the circulation desk.
The following sight made me question my being:
A decayed body lays sprawled across the marble floor, reeking of death.
"A.."
"Zombie, yeah. It's a zombie. A screecher, too."
"A what?"
" A screecher. There are different kinds. These ones tend to attract others, as they're mainly attracted to sound."
"I must be asleep. I have to be. There are no such things as zombies."
"You're awake, sadly." I observe the girl, about 16, as she hands me a pair of camouflage shorts and a black t-shirt. She has a beautiful but grimy made-up face, cold blue eyes that seem to stare into your soul, and long, slick black hair tied into a messy bun.
"Put these on. If you're uncomfortable doing it here in front of me, I'll go stand over there and wait."
I put on the clothes and shove the hospital gown into a desk drawer.
"Wait..Who are you? and where am i? What year is it??"
" I'm Samantha. Clearly the both of us are standing in an abandoned hospital, and it's the year 2020."
"2020?!"
Samantha responds by handing me a very thick manilla folder. I open it to find it's my hospital chart.
" Names Amanda Hartwell. You're 17. You're from downtown. You od'ed on some codeine or whatever it's called as a suicide attempt and fell into a coma for about 3 years or so. found you a couple weeks ago and felt bad that you were alone, so I stayed in case you woke up. You got lucky, though. I was about to leave you for the undead."
"..thanks, I guess."
"Hmph. well, I'm sure you're pretty confused after being a former induced coma patient, so I'll catch you up. You and I are the only living around here. 2012 and World War Z? basically the world's fantastical "zombie apocalypse" conspiracy came to be true because some unknown virus rapidly spread across the globe in a few hours. It's been like this for about a year. So far you're the only survivor i've run into. Now let me patch up your arm, get you some food and then we'll move onto target practice. If you're going to survive, you need to learn how to shoot a rifle."
"...Where, exactly? Didn't you say zombies are attracted to sound?"
"I already cleared the entire hospital, and i blocked off all of the entrances. I've got a supply stock of food, water, weapons and ammunition in the basement. Practically soundproof down there. We need to hurry and train you-- we need to get out of here Asap."
"Why..? I thought you said the entrances are all blocked. i'm sorry..im kinda new to this."
"We can't wait much longer, dude. We stay here longer than 10 hours and we're going to be raided. We're talking thousands here. There's a mass amount lingering around this area and they tend to become more aggressive at night. It's roughly 10:30 AM right now, so we really don't have much time. Which means you better learn quickly."
Samantha starts down the left wing, obviously expecting me to follow. I cannot wrap my mind around any of this at all- Is it really the year 2020? Is the Zombie Apocalypse actually happening?! What about my.. "Family," I mumble as we stroll down the hall. "What?"
"family. What about our families?"
" Oh honey. I hate to tell you this, but my family is dead...Well undead. I escaped the raid in my home. Learned how to survive on my own. I don't know about yours but I honestly wouldn't get your hopes up. But you can't linger on the ones you've lost. You need to worry about yourself and how to avoid becoming a cannibalistic dead body. You can grieve later."
"Wait. Samantha..aren't you. Aren't you scared?"
"Scared..of what? Zombies?!" She stops to let out a bitter chuckle.
"There's a time to be afraid. Now is not one of them. If you let fear control you now, you will NEVER survive. You just have to get over it. You can't be afraid, Amanda. It's you against them. And you need to act fast. There's no time for fear. You just have to do it."
She leads me to a rickety elevator and proceeds to press the button.
This girl, Samantha. She seems rude and tough, but she also reminds me of a former popular high-school cheerleader girl. You know, the ones who're afraid of a roach. I have to take what i can get, I guess. She did save my life..She is teaching me how to survive. Who knows.
We enter the elevator, plugging my ears as the door screeches shut.
It's dark. Pitch black, even.
I hear the faint sound of the lights electrocuting some mindless insect that was too ignorant to understand that light kills.
Then the pang sets in. The pang- more like someone drilling into your skull--seeps into my bones. I slowly open my eyes. I am staring at what seems to be a blurred white light.
I blink once.
Twice.
I sit up.
"Oh my god.." I mumble as the blood rushes down my face and into my legs.
I can see clearly now, and I begin to observe my surroundings.
I didn't notice before, but now the droning beep of an IV machine adds onto my drilling head pain.
I follow the IV machine's wires down to my wrists, where one is injected into my vein. This is when I observe the eerie space surrounding me- there's a dim lamp in the one corner..flickering lights on the ceiling. A window...a window is on the far side of the room.
"..What the.." I look down at my body- I'm in a hospital gown.
What kind of hell am i living in?
where AM i?
I stand on my feet and almost fall. I regain my balance, leaning against the IV machine for support. I give it a weak push, rolling it over to the window to see outside.
"Am I..dreaming..?" The outside world looks..massacred. Cars are on fire, one mangled inside of another in a never-ending domino-effect across the horizon.
The sky is black. Buildings are looming above each other, windows smashed.
I scan the room again for an opening- a door! I push myself to the door, regaining my strength. I yank the iv cord out of my wrist, aware of the blood trickling down my arm.
I steadily walk down the dank, dark hallway, noticing stuff skewed everywhere. Was there some kind of tornado?
i am alone as i walk down this nightmarish hallway..until I come upon the receptionist desk. Out of the corner of my eye, there is movement. I hear steady breaths and know i am no longer alone.
"Who's there? ...What is this place?"
"Sh-GET DOWN NOW!" demands the voice of a girl. I do as she asks and duck behind the desk immediately, for a murderous screech engulfs the building. One shot; two shots are fired.
"******** thing followed you down the hallway."
"...what?"
"Get up and see for yourself."
I stand up..slowly making my way out of the circulation desk.
The following sight made me question my being:
A decayed body lays sprawled across the marble floor, reeking of death.
"A.."
"Zombie, yeah. It's a zombie. A screecher, too."
"A what?"
" A screecher. There are different kinds. These ones tend to attract others, as they're mainly attracted to sound."
"I must be asleep. I have to be. There are no such things as zombies."
"You're awake, sadly." I observe the girl, about 16, as she hands me a pair of camouflage shorts and a black t-shirt. She has a beautiful but grimy made-up face, cold blue eyes that seem to stare into your soul, and long, slick black hair tied into a messy bun.
"Put these on. If you're uncomfortable doing it here in front of me, I'll go stand over there and wait."
I put on the clothes and shove the hospital gown into a desk drawer.
"Wait..Who are you? and where am i? What year is it??"
" I'm Samantha. Clearly the both of us are standing in an abandoned hospital, and it's the year 2020."
"2020?!"
Samantha responds by handing me a very thick manilla folder. I open it to find it's my hospital chart.
" Names Amanda Hartwell. You're 17. You're from downtown. You od'ed on some codeine or whatever it's called as a suicide attempt and fell into a coma for about 3 years or so. found you a couple weeks ago and felt bad that you were alone, so I stayed in case you woke up. You got lucky, though. I was about to leave you for the undead."
"..thanks, I guess."
"Hmph. well, I'm sure you're pretty confused after being a former induced coma patient, so I'll catch you up. You and I are the only living around here. 2012 and World War Z? basically the world's fantastical "zombie apocalypse" conspiracy came to be true because some unknown virus rapidly spread across the globe in a few hours. It's been like this for about a year. So far you're the only survivor i've run into. Now let me patch up your arm, get you some food and then we'll move onto target practice. If you're going to survive, you need to learn how to shoot a rifle."
"...Where, exactly? Didn't you say zombies are attracted to sound?"
"I already cleared the entire hospital, and i blocked off all of the entrances. I've got a supply stock of food, water, weapons and ammunition in the basement. Practically soundproof down there. We need to hurry and train you-- we need to get out of here Asap."
"Why..? I thought you said the entrances are all blocked. i'm sorry..im kinda new to this."
"We can't wait much longer, dude. We stay here longer than 10 hours and we're going to be raided. We're talking thousands here. There's a mass amount lingering around this area and they tend to become more aggressive at night. It's roughly 10:30 AM right now, so we really don't have much time. Which means you better learn quickly."
Samantha starts down the left wing, obviously expecting me to follow. I cannot wrap my mind around any of this at all- Is it really the year 2020? Is the Zombie Apocalypse actually happening?! What about my.. "Family," I mumble as we stroll down the hall. "What?"
"family. What about our families?"
" Oh honey. I hate to tell you this, but my family is dead...Well undead. I escaped the raid in my home. Learned how to survive on my own. I don't know about yours but I honestly wouldn't get your hopes up. But you can't linger on the ones you've lost. You need to worry about yourself and how to avoid becoming a cannibalistic dead body. You can grieve later."
"Wait. Samantha..aren't you. Aren't you scared?"
"Scared..of what? Zombies?!" She stops to let out a bitter chuckle.
"There's a time to be afraid. Now is not one of them. If you let fear control you now, you will NEVER survive. You just have to get over it. You can't be afraid, Amanda. It's you against them. And you need to act fast. There's no time for fear. You just have to do it."
She leads me to a rickety elevator and proceeds to press the button.
This girl, Samantha. She seems rude and tough, but she also reminds me of a former popular high-school cheerleader girl. You know, the ones who're afraid of a roach. I have to take what i can get, I guess. She did save my life..She is teaching me how to survive. Who knows.
We enter the elevator, plugging my ears as the door screeches shut.
