Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 68: She Was Dead

Chapter 68: She Was Dead

I watched as blood started to bubble out of the hole in the paramedic’s neck as she struggled to take in oxygen. She turned her head to look at me, a desperate plea for help in her eyes, but there was nothing I could do.

She was dead; she just didn’t know it yet.

I reached for one of the tranks I had in the pocket of my hazmat suit, ready to stick it into the boy, but all of a sudden, the entire ER department was plunged into darkness.

And that was when shit really hit the fan.

Screams rose all around me, both patients and staff, as I could hear people fighting each other in the darkness.

"The generator will kick in in a few seconds. Everyone remain where you are!" I shouted, just as I was grabbed from behind and spun around.

Unable to see anything, the only thing I could do was react. I plunged the needle with the trank in my hand into the neck of my assailant and then flipped them over my shoulder until they crashed into the stretcher that was right in front of me.

I was counting in my head the whole time, waiting for the generators to kick in... But they didn’t.

"Fuck!" I cursed as yet another pair of hands grabbed me, and I could hear my hazmat suit ripping and my air escaping.

It was absolute chaos in the ER as more and more people started screaming in pain. I needed to get to my office and grab the camping light that I had stored away in there. It was the only way I could think of to retain order until the generator came back on.

Hell, even the emergency lighting was out, and that never happened. It had its own backup energy source so that even if there were no electricity, it would still be able to produce light. And yet... nothing.

I was plunged into darkness, my entire world gone as people ran around me. Sometimes, someone would bump into me, sending me to the floor. Other times, people would grab onto me, trying to rip into me.

What the fuck was going on?!?

I closed my eyes because, let’s face it, they weren’t all that useful right now. Pulling up the layout of my department, I slowly made my way toward the hallway that had my office in it.

I shuffled my feet, not daring to raise them so much as an inch off of the ground. I didn’t know what stood in my way; I didn’t know what was on the floor, so shuffling was the only way I could guarantee that I could retain my balance and not step on anything.

The screams started to die off, and more and more roars and snarls sounded in the darkness like we were in the middle of a zoo and not an ER.

I could feel my heart beating fast as my head started to clear up more than it ever had.

It has come.

I took in a deep breath, and my body almost seemed to relax. I knew something terrible was going to happen, and it did.

I wasn’t going crazy.

More confident in myself, I continued on the path I imagined in my head, ducking under swinging arms and avoiding places where I could sense a presence.

I strained my ears, trying to get them to paint a picture I wasn’t able to see, but all I could hear was the sound of... eating?

Just off to my right. On the floor. The sound of something ripping and then teeth cutting and grinding. Someone was eating?

Not possible.

I needed to get the backup generator going if I was going to deal with whatever situation was currently happening. I needed light.

Counting my steps from where I was to where I needed to go, I raised my right hand and found the corner indicating the hallway to my office.

My hand landed on something liquidity. I pulled my hand away and brought it to my nose. The pungent smell of iron let me know precisely what was coating the walls.

Blood.

Cold, sticky, blood.

Picking up my pace without picking up my feet, I continued to count my footsteps until I was just outside of my office.

Taking the key out of my pocket, the one that didn’t have a bunch of tranks inside of it, I unlocked the door and quickly slipped inside. I softly shut the door behind me, listening to the click of the handle catching. I then locked the door, knowing that it wouldn’t keep anyone out who really wanted to get in.

Confident that there was no one in here, even in the darkness, I went to my filing cabinet, and, moving aside a few of the things on top, I reached around for the lamp.

I pulled up the top and let the light flood my office.

There was nothing out of place, the benefit of keeping my door locked at all times.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I headed toward the door, ready to head out again to see what I could do to restore order in my ER.

That was when I saw it.

In my office door was a frosted half glass that allowed me to see out, but not clearly. I did not need to see clearly to know that the thing outside of my office door was not human.

It had a huge head that seemed to be inflated and attached to a stick-thin neck. But that wasn’t what got to me.

As the light from my lantern shone on it, I could see the same pinprick pupils in a sea of whiteness that I had seen in at least two of the patients in the ER.

What I hadn’t seen there was the rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth inside a mouth that was too big to be human.

What the fuck was outside of my door.

The creature, whatever it was, cocked its head to the side, studying me as much as I was studying it.

I could hear the handle of my office door turning like the scene out of a horror movie. But it stopped, unable to go forward anymore thanks to me locking it behind me when I first got here.

The door shook as the monster, and I continued to stare at each other.