There are only four Pillars in the world, each was a kind of identical super hospital. Composed of 100 floors to treat everything from cancer to the common cold. Despite its prestigious nature, I still managed to land a job at the North American Pillar.
The first time I walked in, the receptionist greeted me with a smile and the question "you're the new guy, for extreme care, right?" Answering with a brief "yes" and flashed a half-faked smile before taking the badge and note to my supervisor she was handing me which had the floor number 101 at the top, so I left for the elevator, knowing better than to question common knowledge. Once in the elevator, I pushed the 100 button, as 101 wasn't an option, and waited only a few moments before the doors opened again. I went to the receptionist on this floor to find out how to get to 101 and she gave me a worried look before directing me to a service ladder behind her, saying they were installed into every floor just in case. As I left for the ladder she stopped me, saying "just be careful ok, I've seen more people go up that ladder than come down", admittedly instilling a slight fear in my heart as I climbed off after a nod.
Once I neared the stop a man shouted, "I thought I heard someone coming up!" scaring me enough to nearly fall. "I'm the extreme care supervisor" he continued, and once I reached the top he shook my hand and took the note out of my pocket, without me even mentioning where I put the note, let alone that I even had one. He then led me to the main room, that was nearly the width of the full floor, and gestured to the giant metal doors at each cardinal direction and dryly stated "meet the four horsemen" with a chuckle, "at least that's what I call them" he added. He started his tour, "My job is simple, watch, study, and try to cure these 'people', more like monsters if you ask me, and I'm sure none of them asked to be this way, but that changes nothing." He continued, "Meet Pestilence", motioning to the southern door, "a real enigma, he has just about every disease, ailment, are otherwise issue you could imagine whether it's transmittable or not so we keep him in a hazmat suit". He moved on motioning to the east door, "Famine is next, the man hasn't eaten since I got here, I'm not even sure how long ago. You lose track of the days without the sun, anyway, I just completely stopped feeding him, and yet I swear he's getting stronger." Making sure to add a visible shudder before moving to the west door. "this is War, he is ungodly strong, we keep him behind three of those doors and keep his wrists in electromagnetic cuffs." He then turned to the north door "That leaves Death, he-" being cut off by a sudden power outage, my supervisor frantically started running towards the ladder shouting "not again, you're going out first buddy!" locking me in the room with the now unlocked horsemen.
The next thing I knew I was in one of the jail-like rooms with the door left slightly ajar. I slowly rose to my feet and peered of the room to find no one, "at least the horsemen hadn't stuck around" I thought as I walked towards the door that hid the ladder only to find it was busted in, along with a good portion of the wall that held it. Realizing that extent of what was going on I ran to the ladder and quickly descended. Looking into the next level, I saw blood everywhere; the wall, the floor, even the roof. The smell of death was overwhelming. Then I heard crying and realized I wasn't the only one left alive on the level, as I started to run to the voice I heard it say "I'm so hungry, the others took all the fresh ones", but it was too late I had already taken three good steps into a surgical room and through a puddle of blood. It heard me, screeching "fresh meat!" before leaping from behind a wall and lunging at me knocking me over and clawing into my chest. Its silhouette was remarkably human, but it was too strong for its slender frame, its nails were more like claws, and it seemed cloaked in ambiguity and shadow, constantly shifting. I tried to push the thing away, but couldn't so I felt around desperately looking for something to help. As soon as I felt something I brought it down of the things head. I learned I had found a scalpel just as the scalpel found the monster eye, and then its brain. The shadowy figure lurched to the side and curled up gasping, "so... hungry..." before it stopped moving. Only then did I realize what I had done. I had killed someone. "No, I had killed some...thing" I whispered to console myself and reminded myself I was attacked first as I looked for painkillers and disinfectants. I told myself I had to keep moving if I wanted to live and found the ladder going down, with the door blocking the stairs in a similar state as the one on the last floor.
The first one was the hardest, as they say, but as the creatures kept coming it was easier to convince myself it had to be done. Each floor I descended held more creatures than the last, and yet they got easier, I could predict their mindless movements and put them down before they could touch me most of the time. I started using the narrow halls and the collection of medical equipment on each floor. I even found a guard's corpse, complete with its own loaded gun, which I promptly held onto for later, as none of these weak dregs required bullets, but I knew the horsemen would. Knowing I had to leave as quickly as possible as I could if I wished to live on, and knowing I would very likely catch up to the horsemen. I steeled myself, and descended level after level. 97...96...95...94...93...92...
Level 91 was the first level to be drastically different from the ones before it. It was a giant medical operating theatre, and in the middle, was my supervisor strapped to an operating table. A throng of creatures surrounded him and looked on as a monster, dressed as a surgeon and an unusually sturdy build, cut into him, throwing the pieces into the crowd. My supervisor screamed as the surgeon said "don't worry I'll fix you". Without even trying to help him, I simply started walking toward the next ladder, since those things were too busy with the 'surgery'. I told myself, "I need to save my energy for the horsemen, right?" Knowing that wasn't even half true and that I could full well kill everyone in the room if I wished. When I was about halfway through the room, the screaming stopped and I heard a cold thud as the surgeon pushed the mangled body off the table and called, "bring in the next patient". I didn't even bother looking at the new person entering as I kept walking towards the ladder and descended it.
After that the floor plan returned to the usual infirmary, or surgery floor with an increasing numbers of those... things. But I also started to notice a decline of objects I could weaponized and sometimes I had to resort to my fists. So I continued to descend, 90... 89... 88... 87... 86... 85... 84... 83... 82...
As I stepped off the ladder onto floor 81 I heard a giant thud, and immediately knew it was War, I ducked behind a wall not even to enter the room. I sat and waited as I heard those monsters push people out of the hole War made in the wall. I asked myself why I left that 'surgeon' if I was just going to hide from the horsemen. Angry with myself for my own selfishness, and the sudden deep desire to avenge the others I left to die 10 floors before, I charged into the room drawing the pistol I had been holding onto the whole time. I aimed straight into War's chest and fired every last bullet, but he stopped the bullets with his body and seemingly sheer force of will. The bullets barely even managed to draw blood. War reacted quickly throwing the mob of the creatures out of his way like insects, half of which flew out of the building. He pinned me to a wall and began crushing my throat slowly, effortlessly. I panicked as my breaths shortened and stabbed my thumbs into his eyes, in a desperate attempt to free myself. As the hulk of a man roared in pain, he let go of my throat and clasped both my wrists and pulled. He pulled until my shoulder gave away and I was thrown into another wall. I just laid there and watched as everything faded, as War walked away clutching my arm. I wallowed in self-pity whimpering "it's over, it's all over" again and again thinking how I let so many people die for nothing, how I saved no one. As everything went black, I heard the screams return, the screams of lives being thrown away through that bloodied hole.
