BITTEN

Chapter 3 - What Befell Us In The Hospital

3

Before we left for the local hospital, I didn't want to put my my dog in the middle of the horror going on so I gave it away for the mean time. It was a pity because I knew I would miss having it around me.

Komalia hospital. It was a very large one in the middle of the island, painted all white. That was the only hospital we had on the island so it was swarmed with people on a daily basis .
By the time we got to the hospital, Benjamin's skin had already turned completely pale and his eyes became red as if it were filled with blood. He was shaking uncontrollably. We rushed him to one of the nurses who told us what every nurse would have told us.

"He's going to be fine," the nurse said, trying to give us false hope. I didn't blame her, that's her Job.

Lucinda, Benjamin's girlfriend paced up and down the hall in anxiety, as we waited.

"Hey, calm down," I said, "you heard the female nurse. He'll be fine."

"Calm down? You saw the way he was changing right?" Lucinda responded.

"Hey Lucy, John is right."Alex came to my rescue.

"Look," Lucinda hit back, "he's my boyfriend. How do you expect me to feel? Happy?"

Nathan finally decided to speak, and what he said made me wish he didn't say anything.

"Guys, if there's one thing life has thought me," Nathan started, making me assume he was going to say something motivational, "is that you choose to be happy or not, hungry or not, so I decided to bring a bowl of ice-cream to make everyone happy, including Lucinda."

"Nathan, this is no time for silly jokes. I gotta see how's doing," spoke Lucinda before she left.

"Don't you think we should go after her?" I asked.

"Why?" Nathan shrugged. "She chose to walk away from happiness." said Nathan, referring to his ice cream.

I knew Nathan was a food freak, so I pretended like I didn't hear that.

So we searched for the room where Benjamin was receiving treatment.

"Block A, Room 19.I think this is it," Alex mentioned.

"Okay, let's g- " I was interrupted by the loud scream of Lucinda as she rushed out of room.

"What's wrong?" I grabbed her.

"Ben..Ben," she stammered in shock.

"Oh shit," Nathan cursed silently.

I opened the door and the sight inside was horrible. What the hell happened here? The nurses were bleeding, with their dripping blood staining their white uniforms. Benjamin turned, only for us to see that the Zombie effect had taken its toll on him and the workers were already infected by now.

"Run! Run." I repeated, as Benjamin was on our tails, growling and chasing us. We ran all the way into a small room. Actually, it was a toilet. Nathan locked the door shut, but Lucinda seemed ready to open the door.

"Hey Lucinda, what do you think you're doing?" asked Nathan, furiously.

"I can't just leave Ben there," she answered.

"Okay, this is not Mathematics, it's simple ABC. We love our lives, so we try to run away, not run towards." Nathan explained, gesticulating.

"Lemme put it this way, those zombies out there have only two purposes. Either you become one of them, or they eat you up while trying not to become one of them." I chipped in.

"I'm sorry Lucy, he's gone and so are the nurses." Alex consoled her.

"I know how you feel," I told Lucinda sincerely.

"It's your fault," She cut in. She was sobbing already.

"My fault?" I said, trying to understand.

"Yes John. Your mother started this whole zombie thing huh? Without your family, none of this would have happened," She buttressed her point.

"Hey, John has lost his whole family because of this mess, so I won't stand here and watch you blame him for the rise of the Zombies." Nathan came to my defence.

I grew silent and thoughtful, while watching the both of them argue, and finally, I said "She's right."

"Don't blame yourself for this," Alex said, looking into my eyes.

I turned, to see Nathan and Lucinda struggling for the key to the toilet's door.

"Give it to me," Lucinda grunted.

"I won't allow you open the door. That's suicidal," Nathan responded .

They went on and on, until the key finally ended up inside the toilet. Hurriedly, Nathan sank his hand inside the toilet, in search of the key but it was gone. We were stuck in the rest room, and all we could hear was the endless screeching of the infected. That was when I realized that it was going to be a really long day.

It didn't take long before Alex started to shiver. She was catching a cold.

"Are you catching a cold?" I asked, as I sat on the tiled floor close to her.

"No, she ain't catching it, she's throwing it," Nathan replied, playfully and gave me a wink which seemed to say she's all yours.

I decided to be a gentleman, and I pulled my black leather Jacket. She wore it, and our eyes met. She gave me a sweet smile, and I stared at her as she had it on. I had always had a crush on Alex, although she didn't seem to notice me. Well, until now that is.
"What are you looking at?" she said as she caught me staring.

I had no chance to explain myself, as I was interrupted by the banging on the door. What now? I thought fearfully.

"Oh shit! The virus must have spread to the other workers and patients," explained Nathan.

"And thanks to that romantic session from both of you, they heard us." Lucinda snapped.

"I can see you're playing the blame game again," Nathan voiced out.

"Hey guys,can we try not to kill ourselves before the Zombies get a chance to kill us?" Alex spoke, just when the banging stopped.

There was silence.

And then then it continued again This time, it was more purposeful. As I heard my heart race so fast, so also did I hear the door break open. We all froze in fear. Is this the end? I thought. That thought was cut short when a manly figure came in and yelled, "come on, let's go." That was when we realized that the figure wasn't a Zombie.

Without much ado, we followed the man as he shot the Zombie workers that were in our way. We ran all the way till we got outside the building. In a haste we got into what seemed like a car. That was strange because cars were not allowed here by law. But we needed to do whatever we needed to do, just to survive . Lucinda peeped through the window and she could see Benjamin for the last time but she didn't stop crying and screaming his name.

I had no idea who this man was, but who ever he was, he just saved ourselves. But it was far from over as the zombies , who were pretty fast, were on the pursuit.

A/N
I want to thank everyone for the support so far and if you liked this part, don't forget to vote and tell me what you think. Love you all.