The Patient

Chapter 3: The Hospital

A little late, I reached at the front of the woods at 12:34 PM where there seemed to be a lot of people, newspaper writers, journalists and many important people. I located Jack, who was with six soldiers, all dressed in blue armor and armed with guns.
  
“What took you so long?” asked Jack.
  
“Wasn’t paying attention to the time.” I replied.
  
“No matter, you are here and that’s what we need.”
  
“By the way,” I said. “Why are we even doing this? I mean, the voices pose no threat, they are a bit annoying but, that’s it.”
  
“You are not understanding, Mr. Ali” said Jack, his eyes narrowing “Those voices don’t sound like any animal that lives in the woods, something mysterious is making those sounds, something mankind has never heard before, something out of this world.”
  
“And how can you be sure of that?” I asked.
  
“I told you, no sound like that has ever been heard, I’ve asked many zoologists and biologists. You must understand, there – is – no – voice – like – that.” He said slowly and steadily.
  
“Fine,” I said, giving up arguing “I will go in the hospital.”
  
“Great,” said Jack “these six soldiers will be going with you.”
  
“And why for heaven’s sake do you want to involve guns in the operation?”
  
“Just in case things go out of hand.” said Jack
  
“And possibly how–”
  
“No time to waste, for you must go.”
  
With that, I left to the woods with the soldiers, not bothering to ask any more questions to Jack. He’s off his rocker. I thought as I stepped foot in the great and mildly frightening woods.

*~*
  
It was an hour or so until we caught sight of the hospital. It was an old – at least 50 years – building, on the top there was a giant red plus sign, white concrete was visible on the walls, as the naked walls hadn’t been clothed with paint. The windows were broken and the entire structure had a sort of town hall type of architecture. In front of the doors, there were broken wheel chairs and sign above which said ENTRANCE with the E and C hanging on. Without hesitation, we opened the doors and entered the hospital.
  
As we entered the hospital, it was pitch black everywhere and barely anything was visible, the lights were completely off, we had to turn on our flashlights, and only then things began to be visible a lot clearer. I gazed around the different hallways and rooms. What a mess! I thought. There were beds scattered everywhere as well as wheelchairs eighter turned over or broken, we decided to split up, three soldiers would go somewhere and the other three would go somewhere else, which left me. I decided to investigate by myself, sure it was dangerous and all that but who was living in this place anyways? So, I started searching rooms.
  
After about ten minutes of searching, I found a room which caught my eye. This room, unlike the others, was lit up by one light hanging above the ceiling, flickering. I looked at the bed, turned over, like the others, but I saw something else on the floor, it was red liquid – blood. I was beginning to ponder at the blood, it looked mysteriously fresh. As I was wondering, I heard screams and guns firing, I quickly rushed out of the room and followed the screams until I came to a hallway. I stopped dead when I stumbled upon a hideous scene. Blood. Eighter sprayed or swept on the marble floor and a disturbing scene of a body of a soldier. I stood there flabbergasted, dumbstruck, I found myself unable to speak let alone make out a yell, but the worst was yet to come, a sound of more screams and gun firing came, this time it was closer. I ran to the screams.
  
I ran to the screams and found more blood and more bodies. I was confused. How was this happening? Was one soldier backstabbing the others? Were the soldiers shooting at each other out of confusion? I stood there, frozen in my spot, unable to move. What was happening? I thought, but something strange happened, the light bulb, which was turned off, suddenly turned on, then another one behind it, then another one. Soon every light in the hallway was lit up and a horrific sight was seen at the end of the hallway. A person with a patient’s clothes, it was very skinny and had crooked legs, but the most extraordinary thing was its face, and what a horrendous face it was! Its eyes were just sockets with two black void holes with no depth. Its mouth, which seemed to be grinning from ear to ear, revealed hundreds of teeth, all of them dripping blood of a fresh victim. The entity had no nose, instead, it was just a hole, the type you see in skulls, its clothes were stained with blood, and the head, it was opened exposing the brain and, to my horror, a scissor was sticking out of the pink organ.
  
At that moment, disturbing images of creatures flashed in my head, entities which were only heard in stories, or seen in films, not believing they existed, but there it stood, in front of me with its soulless eyes, and head tilted.
  
Somehow, I managed to wake up to reality and ran as fast as my legs would carry me, I turned left to another hallway. Murmuring prayers, I looked behind me, the creature was there, it seemed to be moving at least five meters closer by every flash of light, I couldn’t see his legs move, he seemed to teleport. I kept turning to hallways, running out of breath but still determined to not get in the hands of the beast and end up like the soldiers. It was at least a minute of running before I saw it, at the end of a hallway I saw a sign saying: EXIT. I ran faster than ever and looked behind, the entity was still coming to me, it felt like hours but I made it to the door and continued running until I was out of the woods.