Ellie Dixon

This is Not How I Imagined Hell

My whole body felt heavy. My mouth opened before my eyes. I took in a few deep breaths. I'm dead. Well, that's a shame. I wonder if I'll run into Chris Evans in the afterlife. Hope they have some nice music though, that would be cool. I slowly blinked open my eyes and I was met with a blindingly bright light. "Oh, crap, I am dead." I muttered. It took a while for my eyes to actually adjust to the light. I managed to turn my head to the side with a groan. My whole body was stiff. I looked down to see some tubes in my arms. I pulled them out without thinking about it. It hurt to move my arm though because of just how achy I felt. I slowly pushed myself to sit up. I began stretching my neck and arms as I looked around the room. It was a hospital room. Like an actual hospital room. Nothing like the infirmary at Alexandria, or at Hilltop. I pushed myself to the end of the bed and my legs instantly buckled beneath me. I fell to the ground. "Seems like unnecessary punishment if I'm already in Hell." I said aloud.

I managed to push myself up using the bed. I stretched my legs and managed to get myself to stand. The room was modern and bright. Full of medical equipment. I noticed Teddy on the bed, flowers in most of the room and a polaroid photo of me, Sophia, Carl, mama, mum, dad and RJ. I took the photo, furrowing my eyebrows before placing it with Teddy on the bed. I realised I was in white, cotton pyjamas. I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked to the white fluffy socks on my feet. Slowly, I walked over to the door and pulled it open. The blinds on the windows that would've showed me what was outside my room were shut, so I hadn't seen before what I was seeing now.

Everything looked destroyed. Rotten. Abandoned. I looked back to my hospital room, it no longer looked like a shiny, modern room... It looked destroyed as well. Like it hadn't been touched for years. The flowers were all pretty much ashes, Teddy seemed ripped to shreds. I furrowed my eyebrows before walking out into the hallway. I felt the need to watch my step in the abandoned hospital. "Ellie! Ellie!" I heard my name being called. It sounded like Carl's voice.

I spun around, looking for him. "Carl!" I shouted out, trying to locate my brother. "Carl, where are you?"

That's when I saw something moving in the corner of my eye. I turned and saw... Beta. That's where the sounds of my name had been coming from. It wasn't Carl though. It was the man who actually beat me in a fight. If you could even call someone of his size a man. I wasn't stupid enough to fight him again. I started running. I wasn't very fast as you can imagine, but he followed me. His long strides were practically double the pace of my attempt at a run.

I didn't bother trying with the lift as I went straight to the stairwell. I ran down as far as I could... I wasn't going to hide, I was going to leave the building. I went down at least six flights. Towards the bottom was a single walker, I simply pushed it so it landed on its back on the ground. The stairwell was just as bad as the floor I'd shown up on. I found the lobby and pushed the door open. Just like before, everything seemed to be leaking, falling apart, vines were everywhere. I didn't stop to look at the sight. I didn't care how dirty my pyjamas were. I had to escape Beta.

My speed was picking up as it seemed my body was waking up again. I could see outside the building. Clear streets, but in the same state. However, after I blinked... They were suddenly filled with walkers. They all banged on the closed windows and doors, attempting to get in. My breath caught in my throat. I heard groaning behind me, I turned and saw a walker. I kicked out its feet before going onto my knees next to it. I smashed its head into the ground once before its juices flowed everywhere.

I managed to pick up a conveniently placed shard of glass before tearing the walker in two down the middle. I didn't hesitate to grab handfuls of its guts and smear it all over my body. I was well aware that Beta was still coming, and I'd rather take my chances with the thousands of walkers. When I deemed myself soaked in blood enough, and could hear Beta in the stairwell I ran over to the doors. I did keep the shard of glass in hand though. Somehow... The doors weren't locked or barricaded in anyway... But the walkers didn't get through until I opened them.