A Doctor's Survival

Here's a short story (3 pages in Microsoft Word) that I wrote as the background for my character, I hope you guys enjoy it.


June 28, 2016 Friday

It’s another usual day for me, Drake Dark, at Fairview Regional Hospital. Having just finished my residency the week before I am still wildly excited with my official status as Dr. Dark. I get busy with my patients, prescribing medicine, recommending treatments, and even giving bad news to a few unlucky people. Lunch comes around and I am finally able to take a break. I go into the staff lounge, escaping the frantic atmosphere of the hospital, and let out a sigh as I sit down on the couch next to Stacy, a young nurse who I have known since my internship began.

“Rough morning?” she asks with a smile on her face.

“Yeah, I had to tell Mrs. Duboe that she has advanced lung cancer, it’s not looking good for her” I replied solemnly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I hate delivering bad news” she replied.

“Yeah, me too, so what’s going on outside these walls?”I asked, shifting my attention to the channel 5 news program on the television screen in front of us.

“Apparently that Secronom company had been doing illegal human drug trials, can you believe that?” she responded.

“Wow, what was the drug they were testing?”

“They don’t know yet, you just missed the police walking out the staff they arrested, you should have seen the lab technicians when they were coming out, they were screaming and yelling, the police had to taser some of them because they kept trying to escape the policemen’s grip. They found the 109 test subjects locked up in cages like animals.”

“That’s horrible,” I replied.

The coverage of the Secronom scandal continued for the rest of the day, even into the night for when I finally arrived at my apartment after a long day of looking at charts and blood test results the Secronom story was still being discussed by the news anchors. I sat down on the couch and continued watching the news story while playing with the pen knife my grandfather gave me on my 16th birthday. I went to bed that night wishing something more exciting would happen; little did I know that that would be the last normal day I would ever have.



June 29, 2016 Saturday

The alarm clock began to ring. I reached over lazily and turned it off. My daily morning ritual commenced and as I got ready to leave my apartment for another day at the hospital, my mind was pulled toward the pen knife that was laying on my nightstand besides my bed. Something in the back of my mind was telling me to take the small weapon, that I would need it. I grabbed the small knife and hid it in my coat then continued on towards the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I grabbed a newspaper and continued towards the staff lounge. I stare at the headline on the newspaper: “The Dead Walk!”I smirk and read the newspaper a bit before tossing it in the trash can. Stacy then walks in drinking a cup of coffee.

“Hey Stacy did you see the ridiculous headline in today’s newspaper?’The Dead Walk,’ I can’t believe they put that on the front page, it must have been an accident, someone’s going to get their ass fired today.”

“No I haven’t seen the paper, but have u seen the news today?”

Stacy turns on the television and turns it to channel 5 where the anchorwoman begins to talk about a protest that is being staged at the Secronom building, “As you can see behind me dozens of angry protesters have gathered outside the Secronom building, braving the rain to show their anger at the despicable actions of this giant corporation. In other news, there have been multiple unusual reports in surrounding cities of hideous, violent crimes being committed by many people for no known reason. Police have tried to apprehend these criminals, only to be attacked. Some police have even fired at these people, which only aggravated them even more and did little to stop them…”

Having heard enough, I headed over to check on my patients. As lunch was approaching, Stacy came up to me with a worried look on her face.

“Drake you have to come see this, hurry!” she said.

I followed her to the staff lounge where a dozen other doctors and nurses were concentrated on the television screen.

I listened to the panicking anchorwoman, “I am here outside the Secronom building having been forced to report from the top of our van. Almost an hour ago a swat team went into the building and immediately the sound of gunfire was heard and continued for the next half an hour before going silent. Then the team and what are suspected to be Secronom employees began stumbling out of the building and immediately began attacking the protesters outside…”

I stared at the screen with the rest of the staff, amazed at what was happening. Suddenly, we heard running and yelling outside in the halls. As I headed down towards the lobby I spotted a nurse who was rushing towards the lobby as well.

“Hey what’s happened?” I asked her as we got into the elevator.

“A 13 car pile-up occurred on the highway, there are many injured,” she said.

The elevator doors opened and a dozen gurneys rushed by and continued down the hall with medical staff hovering all around them, trying to stabilize the unfortunate victims. In the lobby there were patients with non-life threatening injuries being bandaged and tended to by doctors and nurses. Then another ambulance arrived and doctors quickly rushed out to meet with the EMTs.

“We had to strap him down to the gurney, I don’t know what is wrong with him, he’s been trying to bite us ever since we picked him up. He has a severed leg, and what looks like massive internal bleeding, he must have been hit by a car, so we think he might have been with the group of people who walked out onto the highway and caused the crash,” the EMT said while bringing out the gurney where a man covered in blood and snapping at everyone in sight lay.

“Were going to have to take him to the emergency room. Sir I need you to stop doing that, were here to help you,” one of the doctors said, but it was of no use, the man kept snapping at everyone who got close to him.

He was rushed to the ER and then I heard the sirens of more ambulances approaching and more EMTs rushed in with gurneys carrying injured people, some of which were wildly snapping at everyone who got near and trying to escape their constraints. I then heard the faint screams of people down the hall. I followed the security guards to the source of the screams and saw some people run toward us.

“Get the hell out of here!” one of the doctors yelled as he ran by.

I felt that I should listen to him, but I was too curious and continued advancing towards the screams at a slow, cautious pace. I went through a set of doors and came to a grizzly scene. There were a dozen people soaked in blood. The floor was also flooded with blood and a few bodies, which were being devoured by other people. I saw one person take a huge chunk of still warm flesh out of one of the security guards arms; he was still screaming and trying to stop the creatures from tearing him apart.

“Oh my God,” I whispered as I put my hand over my mouth. Some of the creatures closest to me looked up and saw me standing there with a horrified expression. They growled and showed their blood-red teeth. I slowly began stepping back and they got up and started coming towards me, at which point I began running like never before.
I yelled at the staff I saw as I was running, “Get out! Get out of here now!”

“What’s wrong?” One of them yelled.

“Turn around!” I yelled back. They looked back and saw the bloody creatures stumbling down the hall, growling loudly.

I continued running and never looked back, shouting out to everyone I saw, “Run! Get out of here!”

I then heard screams coming from above and I remembered Stacy, so I rushed to the third floor to find her. When the elevator doors opened I looked out into the hall and saw a gruesome sight. The floor and walls were stained with blood and just 5 yards from me was one of the creatures, feeding on the flesh of some poor soul. The creature looked up at me and I was horrified at what I saw.

Stacy’s blood-soaked face was looking at me. Her red, evil-looking eyes were staring into mine and I knew that Stacy was no longer human. She got up and started walking towards me. I continually slammed on the elevator button to take me down. The doors closed just as she got to the elevator and banged on the metal doors. When the elevator doors opened back up I was back on the first floor.

The lobby was completely devoid of life, except for a few of the zombies walking around, looking for food. I ran out of the hospital and into the heavy rain. I heard car alarms and faint screams on all sides of me. I ran to my car and searched my pants for my keys, but I couldn’t find them, nor could I find my phone. All I had was my pen knife.

“Damn it, I must have left them in my locker,” I whispered. I took out my pen knife and held it tightly in my hand, ready to strike at anything that came near me, and began walking home. All around me I saw people running and screaming and crying. The roads were filled with empty cars and every now and then I saw movement coming from the stores which turned out to just be looters trying to cash in on the chaos that dominated the city on this gloomy day.

I finally arrived at my apartment complex and walked up to my apartment. When I got in I locked the door and closed the curtains. I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes, thinking about everything that had just happened. A tear ran down my cheek as I remembered seeing Stacy’s face, covered in blood, with human flesh poking out of her mouth. I eventually got the strength to stand up and turn on the lights. I made myself something to eat, although I could barely take in much. Once I had eaten as much as I could I went to turn on the TV, but the lights suddenly turned off and the TV wouldn’t turn on.

I let out a sigh as I sat down on the couch, unable to learn more about what the hell was going on because there was no more electricity. I knew that I couldn’t stay here. My food and water supply would eventually run out, forcing me to scour the city and put me at risk of getting devoured.

The sound of car alarms, store alarms, and faint screams echoed outside the window. I didn’t want to leave the safety of my home, but I had no choice, eventually I had to go out and brave the hordes of zombies that stumbled around, waiting for fresh prey. I decided I would head towards the edge of the city, where there were fewer people and, hopefully, fewer zombies.

I packed some clothes, food, water, and a few other necessary supplies and left the complex, heading west. I had gotten exactly what I had wished for, excitement. The world was never going to be the same again, and neither was I.

To Be Continued