Help

Are you kidding me? She still transformed?! Maybe...maybe there's just another zombie or something…

Page readies her gun as she heads to the door. She places her hand on the doorknob, but before she goes to turn it, she glances at Derek, laying asleep on the bed.

What if something manages to get in while he's unconscious? There's a lock on the door, maybe there's a spare key at the reception desk I can use to lock it. Hopefully whatever's out there is out of hearing range now.

Page turns the handle to the door, slowly opening it and peeking into the hallway. It's empty, with nothing but the sound of the flickering lights breaking the silence. Looking to the left, she sees the nurse's body is gone with nothing but the small puddle of blood from the bullet wound remaining. The stuff that fell off the cart is more scattered about as well. Looking to the right it's empty, the door to the reception desk is partly open, that must have been where the nurse was hiding when Page came in with Derek.

As Page steps into the hall she keeps glancing in both directions, the echos from her footsteps running all around her. She carefully closes the door to Derek's room, only a very soft click when it shuts. The air feels completely different from when she came rushing in with Derek, the place seemed more, welcoming, a bit brighter somehow. Making her way to the door left ajar, she enters the receptionist room. She's shocked to see the corpse of a man laying against the back wall, hidden out of sight from anyone on the other side of the desk. The blood on the wall, it's too much to have been all from them, a lot more must happened in here.

The man is in a blood-stained lab coat, parts of his skin are grey, but most of the skin is tinted slightly green. Luckily he's not showing any signs of rapid regeneration.

If I keep the door open, something may sneak up behind me...but if it's closed and this doctor ends up coming back than I'm trapped in here with him.

Looking around the room she sees an office chair, giving her an idea. She moves the chair near the door, so it's impossible to get into the room without moving it, and it's impossible for the dead guy to come back to life, if he does, without moving it too. Walking up to the desk, she looks around a mess of papers thrown about, some covered in blood and illegible. No keys. Looking through some drawers, she finds nothing, until she opens the middle one. A single key, hopefully the master key to all the patient rooms. As she closes the drawer and is about to exit the room, a hand slams against the glass.

The nurse from before stands on the other side, a bloody green bump on her head where the bullet hole was. Her skin is similar to that of the doctor's, but more green. Her jaw is a bit lop-sided, showing her teeth are all sharp like the grey zombies. Her eyes glow a yellowish-red, and some veins bulge out of the skin slightly. The nurse suddenly starts to stumble to the right side of the desk towards the hall, at an awkward speed that's not slow, but yet, not even remotely fast. Page hurries out of the room, pushing the chair aside. Entering the hall she aims her gun at the nurse as she comes into view.

She shoots the zombie in it's head, stopping it in its tracks. It hunches over a bit, it's head starting to shake violently. It suddenly starts to split open, the bump on the head being the center of the opening. Parts of the face start to open up, like a flower blossoming, but much bloodier and disturbing to watch. Most of the face folded open, a large round thing covered with several small eyes is revealed, along with a short tentacle like limb tipped with sharp bones.

Page is completely shocked at what she just witnessed as the zombie starts to move in closer towards her, the tentacle now flailing about aggressively. She manages to get a grip on herself and aims at the zombie once more, aiming for the eye thing in its head. She shoots it, landing a direct hit. The zombie starts to stumble towards her, the flailing tentacle going absolutely crazy now. Page jumps back to avoid getting slashed at by it. She shoots it two more times, and the eyes all suddenly start to shake, than combust. The body falls to the ground, the tentacle becoming limp. A putrid smell of rotting meat, and soiled vegetables cooking fills the air as the body catches fire, and melts into a puddle of burnt blood.

"...What the fuck…" Page mutters to herself as she takes in deep breaths to calm herself, "Can't any of these things just be normal zombies?"

After staring at the puddle for a few more seconds, accepting what she just saw, Page goes to the room Derek's in. Opening the door she sees Derek is still sound asleep. She closes it once more and puts the key in the lock, to her relief it fits. She locks the door and puts the key in her pocket before looking down the right side of the hall.

That just leads back to the bar, and to the streets...it's impossible to travel outside with that bull and all those zombies. There must be some way around...Wait, Derek, if he was the one shooting at us back at the market, than he must have the thing he used to swing over the street!

Page unlocks the door and enters, quietly closing the door to not disturb his slumber. Looking at Derek, she sees the holster on his right leg, what looks like a magnum is placed in it, but the bottom of the holster is much larger than a normal holster would be. She walks up to the left side of the bed, glancing once more at Derek's face to make sure he's still unconscious before she reaches for the gun. As her hand nears the handle, he starts to move. She quickly draws her hand back as he starts to speak,"

"A-Ada?" He murmurs as he starts to open his eyes. Fully opening his eyes, he becomes more awake as he finds himself staring at Page. He looks around the room than back to her.

"Where am I? Where's my-" He winces in pain as he tries to push himself up.

"Hey, easy," Page says as she places a hand on his shoulder, gently pushing him back down onto the bed, "We were close to a hospital after getting shoved into the bar by the bull. I brought you here,"

Derek just stares at her with a look of utter confusion, disbelief, and distrust.

"...Why?" He finally asks.

"Why, what?"

"Why did you, bring me here?" He asks with winded breath.

"Well, you jumped between me and the bull's horns, so this was the least I could do to thank you,"

Derek's expression changes hearing her response, becoming a bit softer and surprised. Derek goes to push himself up again, and manages to sit up.

"How long have I been out?" He asks as he turns to the left, seeing his stuff on the nightstand.

"Not more than a few minutes, actually," As Derek turns his body to the left and gets off the bed Page is surprised by how little blood is on the bandages, barely any blood stains them.

"Have you been standing there this whole time?" Derek asks as he puts his shirt and chest holster on.

"No, I got a key to lock the door so I could leave you," Derek stops putting his holster on for a moment before continuing.

"...Then why did you come back?"

"Well I have no reliable way out of here," Derek reaches for his rifle, "And seeing your rifle I kind of figured that you were the one shooting at us back in the market," Derek once more pauses as he holds the rifle in his hands before he continues to drape the strap over his shoulder, "I thought you might have the grapple thing you used to swing over the street,"

"And what if I do?"

"Well I was hoping to just take it while you were asleep, but now you're awake...So I guess I have no choice but to ask for your help,"

"Help?" He asks, looking at her with a baffled and irritated expression as he walks towards her, "You know I'm the one who shot at you in the market, yet you're asking for my help?"

"Yes," She replies bluntly, standing her ground, "And I also know who you are, Derek Clifford Simmons, ex-leader of the Family, and responsible for the bio-terrorist attack at Tall Oaks, resulting in the death of the president. I read the reports of the China incident and even a couple more that I wasn't supposed to,"

Derek is left at a loss for words.

"But none of that really matters at the moment since I need to travel across a city full of zombies, and get to the shipping yard. So, will you help me?"

"...Sure,"

"Great," She replies with a slight smile, her focused expression lighting up a bit, "Let's get moving then, but, take it slow, and be careful. These zombies seem to always have their own unique quirks,"

Page heads for the door and goes to open it, but notices Derek is just standing there.

"Simmons? Need a second to rest?"

"N-No, I'm fine," He says as he walks up to her.

Page opens the door, glancing out into the hallway before opening the door all the way and exiting the room, Derek following. Guns drawn, the two turn left and walk further into the hospital. As they reach the end of the hall they stop at the sound of something falling over. They turn around to see a zombie walking out from the reception room, it's the doctor Page stumbled upon. Derek grabs his pistol and shoots it, hitting it in the head. The zombie falls to the floor with an echoed thud. Derek lowers his gun as the two of them stare at the zombie to make sure it stays dead. No movement.

The two turn back around and walk into a large lobby, a pair of sliding glass doors are to their left leading to a small entrance room with another pair of sliding doors that lead out to what looks like a garden. In front of them is another hall going deeper into the hospital. To the right are some stairs, and near the stairs is another hall. Some tables are placed to the right of the stairs with some papers and laptops that have been thrown around on the ground. Blood trails near the tables trail up to the stairs.

"Let's go out there real quick, I need to contact-" Page gets interrupted when they someone moaning behind them. They turn around to the see the zombie starting to rise from the ground, their head fully green and the bullet hole gone.

"Guess the first one didn't do the trick," Derek says irritably as he brings up his gun.

"Wait, don't-!" Page tries to warn him before he shoots the zombie in the head again. The zombie steps back from the impact, its head leaning back a bit. As its head comes back forward, it starts to shake.

"What the-" Derke mutters to himself as the head suddenly starts to rip open, revealing a large red sack with some eye around it. tentacles emerge from under the head, one tipped with a sharp bone, the other with a round blobby thing that looks like a plastic bag filled with blood. Derek aims to shoot it again but Page lowers his arms.

"Come on, let's head outside, we can deal with it later," Derek glances at the thing before looking back at her. With a sigh of annoyance, he lowers his gun and the two head out into the garden area. As they exit the hospital Page's radio starts to pick up a signal.

"Pa...P...ge! Page?! You there?!" Jacob's voice exclaims.

"I'm here," Page says as she picks up her radio.

"I forgot that hospitals blocked radio waves. How you holding up?"

"I'm fine, I'm in some sort of garden that's part of the hospital,"

"That place is walled off from the streets, so enjoy the fresh air while you can. How's the injured person, did they turn?" Page glances at Derek who looks away, "He's fine, there was a nurse who helped me, but she had been bit, and I had to take her out,"

"Oh, so it was a guy. He must be your type if you were so worried about him,"

"That's not why I helped him!" Page retaliates, "He was severely injured and in need of help, you would have done the same, wouldn't you?"

"...Sure," Jacob replies with an unconvincing tone, "So are you going to stay at the hospital till they recover or something? I'm almost at the shipping yard already, and it's not looking too good,"

"Well they've recovered enough to move, I'm bringing them with me,"

"Another person to deal with, yay," Jacob says sarcastically, "If you were at the Mercy Bar than you entered the hospital from the south end, the north end is actually only a couple buildings away from the shipping yard. Head to the north end and stick to the alleys to travel between buildings and you should make it here in little over half an hour,"

"Got it, see you in half an hour then. I'll contact you again when we leave the hospital,"

"I'll be waiting,"

Page puts her radio back, and as she turns to Derek she sees the doctor zombie is just now reaching the first pair of doors.

"Let's see if there's another way back in," Page gestures for Derek to follow. Derek glances back and sees the zombie before he follows Page into the garden. Several neatly trimmed bushes make tiny little fences about three feet high, forming walkways throughout the yard. In the center is a fountain with four metal fish shooting out water towards the center where a star stands. Lights surrounded by bushes shine on the star making it appear like its glowing. Some benches are placed around, making indents in the shrub fences. A large brick wall encases the garden, providing a sturdy barrier from the rest of the city.

Walking down one of the paths, the two zigzag their way to the right side of the garden. There's nothing but just windows in the hospital walls, no doors to he found. As they start to make their way to the other side they see the doctor zombie is outside with them. Derek brings up his handgun.

"I'll just kill it and we can be on our way," He shoots it, hitting the side of its head. It stumbles to the side a bit, but continues moving towards them. Derek shoots at it again, hitting the blood sack in the middle of the head. The sack burst open, the blood spraying onto everything near it, and bursting into flames. The zombie flails about as it's body catches fire but soon succumbs to the flames and falls to the ground, meanwhile the bushes that got sprayed by the blood are now on fire. The flames start to spread along the bushes, making the paths impossible to use without being burned.

The two quickly jump over to a different path, running around the spreading flames and passing the fountain. As they reach the doors to get back inside, the flames start to engulf the garden.

"Well," Page says as they stare at the fire filled garden, "Now we know not to shoot those ones," Page sees Derek hunched over slightly as he catches his breath, "You alright?"

"Yeah," He says with slightly winded breath, "My back just feels like it's on fire," He straightens up, "Let's get moving, I wanna get out of this damn city as soon as possible,"