Blood isn't only on the battlefield. In this city's case, it's everywhere. A doctor and another pale-looking doctor in an operating room look over a patient lying on a bed, a white-colored sheet, almost stained red with blood, covering his body. The doctor checks the pulse of the patient but finds none. She looks at the patient, confused, because the body is still showing every sign of life.
"I don't understand..." she says, removing her stethoscope from the patient's chest. "Doctor, what's going on with the patient?" The other doctor, who is wearing a medical mask, still covers his mouth as he coughs. He looks at the corpse with empty eyes, then back at the doctor.
"Another casualty... he says, then breaks into a coughing fit, keeling over in pain, clutching his stomach. The first doctor rushes to his side to help, but he stops her before she can get close. "Over two million marked dead...I...I can't believe how fast this spread..." he falls flat on the ground, his glasses falling off of his face. "Go..." he groans. "Before it's too late..." the doctor backs away in fear after realizing that the other doctor is dead. She stumbles out of the operating room and sprints for the exit. What the hell...what the hell is going on here? She thinks, but her thoughts are interrupted by her face slamming straight into a sand-colored plate carrier. She looks up, rubbing her head from the pain of hitting a steel plate. A soldier looks back at her, his face fully covered by a pair of goggles and a mask. Other than that, he looks like a typical soldier.
"What are you still doing here?" the soldier asks harshly. "I thought this area was marked off-limits to civilians!" she inhales to speak, but he doesn't want to hear it. He sighs and points down the hall. "Exits' down there. You'll make it if you run."
"Uh, thank you!" she says, before taking off. The soldier doesn't respond and just turns his back and continues down the hall, raising his rifle. She yanks the glass sliding door of the hospital open, to see a sight that makes her immediately shut the door. Strange-looking people are attacking other people. Bodies litter the ground. Military and police have begun to fire on what seems to be angry rioters, taking refuge on makeshift towers or bunkers made of vehicles. A small child shakes what appears to be his mother's mutilated and deformed dead body amid the chaos, before the mother jerks back up and attacks the screaming child, blood flying everywhere. The doctor spares herself of the horrible experience by closing her eyes. But that doesn't help the screams. The loud, painful screaming is an agonizing sound to the doctor. What she hears is human, mixed with the guttural sound of a thousand years' worth of excruciating pain, taken out in the form of a scream.
It's loud.
So loud, that the doctor runs back into the hallway, screaming in fear, where she collides into something, knocking her to the floor. It's the same soldier, now firing his rifle into the hallway, seemingly at a human figure. The figure drops after being shot a couple of times, but the doctor can't make out what it was. Or, who it was. The soldier looks back at her, lifting her off of the ground.
"What are you doing!?" he shouts, the doctor being able to see the fear in his eyes. "Those-Those things are in here with us! We have to go!" she retaliates, his fear multiplying her already existing fear.
"No! Those things are out there too!" she shouts back. "We-" the thought of the child being devoured right before her eyes wriggles into her mind, making her cringe away from the soldier. "We can't! We'll die!"
"Better chances of escape out there than in here!" he says, grabbing her arm and pulling her through the door. His grip is too strong for her to break off, so she gives up and follows him. They run through the chaotic streets of the once beautiful city of New Estarnia, the soldier gunning down any of those 'things' that tried to attack them. He stops briefly to pick up a rifle magazine and a pistol, quickly slipping the rifle magazine into one of his ammo pouches. The soldier then holds up the pistol to show the doctor.
"You know how to shoot one of these?" he asks.
"I-I suppose," she replies, reaching to grab it. The soldier pulls it away.
"Yes or no question, lady!" he says, suspending the pistol from her reach.
"Yes!" she then answers. He hands her the pistol, and she takes it carefully, immediately pointing it at the ground, earning a look of approval from the soldier.
"Then say so. Indecision on the battlefield and you end up dead," he says, then they continue to push forward. The soldier spots a still operable-looking car and runs for it. He sees two infected, one of them having the car keys dangling from a necklace on its neck. He shoots it down with a headshot and kills the second one with a volley of rounds. The soldier quickly reloads his gun and opens the car door, but something stops him from going in. An infected woman leaps out of the car, seemingly waiting for him to open the door. Her mouth salivates and her ravenous expression intensifies as she pins the soldier to the floor, preparing to eat him. The soldier's eyes widen and he lifts his rifle to shoot her as she pounces, but he is far too slow to save himself. A shot rings out behind him and the infected woman drops to the side, her blood-stained hair covering her face. The soldier looks back to see the doctor holding a smoking pistol.
"Nice shot," he remarks, getting to his feet. He carefully steps over the woman's body and shows the doctor to the driver's seat. She hops in the driver's seat, deciding not to question why he isn't driving. The soldier jumps shotgun and slams the door shut.
"Step on it!" he shouts, spotting a few infected who caught wind of their presence and started running towards them. The beat-up white Sudan speeds down the streets of New Estarnia, dodging infected and people alike, as well as obstacles like cars and random large objects in the road.
"I'm gonna be sick," the soldier groans, clutching his stomach.
"You better not be turning into one of those monsters," the doctor says, a taint of doubt about the soldier's humanity sprouting in her head.
"No... you're jerking the car back and forth..." he says, then immediately straightens up. This confuses the doctor, prompting her to ask.
"What's up?" she asks, without taking her eyes off of the road.
"I forgot about the containment blockade!" he says, his hands moving from his stomach to his head. "It's right on the highway- they'll gun us down!" the doctor doesn't let the soldier's fret distract her but replies.
"Well, radio them!" she shouts, her eyes still glued to the road in front of her. "Do something!" the soldier takes well to the idea, fumbling for his radio.
"This is Private Campbell, we are approaching the blockade in a white Sudan! I have one confirmed survivor, neither of us is infected!" The blockade takes a few seconds to respond.
"We see your car, Private Campbell. Increase speed, we'll dispatch the horde behind you." the radioman responds.
"Copy. Thank you, sir." Campbell says. "Over and out." he looks over at the doctor and lets out a sigh of relief. The doctor, who has heard the conversation, speeds up as the car reaches the highway, as there are not many obstacles preventing her from doing so. The sound of chain gun turrets suddenly rings out and Campbell looks back to see the horde being thinned out by machine gun fire. The blockade appears in the distance. It is a heavily fortified short concrete wall with holes in it where machine gun turrets poke out. On the top of the wall are more turrets manned by soldiers, and more soldiers line the top of the wall. It doesn't cover the entire width of the highway, but there are shorter walls and piles of sandbags flanking it, allowing for the entrance and exit of soldiers. A hopeful expression appears on the doctor's face, as she floors it to the blockade in the distance. She's too elated to notice the movement of a manhole directly in front of them.
The manhole bursts open when the car is right on top of it, flipping the car upside down as it lands, the white Sudan skidding along the highway, sparks flying everywhere.
The car stops in front of the quarantine blockade, the lid of the manhole landing next to it.
YOU ARE READING
THE GRAVES WE DUG OURSELVES
HorrorA swift order from the officer and the turrets and mortar crew fire their weapons, laying waste to the infected horde. At least, that's what should have happened. In reality, nothing changed. A few bodies went flying, sure, hundreds of infected drop...
