Apocalypse Hearts

Chapter 2 - Patient Zero

"Sir, when did you last eat?" Sally asked.

No response from the patient. Only staring at her. Sally stepped closer to observe him. His skin was faint gray, as though fully dehydrated. Tiny beads of sweat stuck to his forehead despite the hospital having cool air-conditioning.

"Let's draw blood. We need to know what is happening," Sally said.

Ronald wrapped the tourniquet around the patient's upper arm after applying an alcohol swab to the skin. The patient's muscle was unnaturally rigid beneath the skin, almost like a hardwood. Sally tapped the vein inside the elbow. Nothing, no bounce. She pressed harder; the same happened.

"That's odd, I can't find the median vein."

Ronald tried on the other arm. No usable vein either. Sally, Ronald, and the EMTs looked at each other. Then the patient's finger twitched. The fingers tapped against the metal side rail of the stretcher.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Paused. Tap. Tap. Tap. Paused. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Like Morse Code, so soft.

"What are you doing?" Sally asked the patient.

The tapping stopped. The patient turned his head toward the doorway, nostrils flared. He inhaled so deeply like he was catching a scent. Outside the ward, a little girl laughed. The laughter traveled from the waiting area to the rooms. The patient's eyes widened, so wide that the whites were gone. Then he smiled, an excited smile. The patient's face transformed into an excited rage. He didn't look human at all.

Sally stepped back instinctively. She turned to Ronald, "Doc, get security. Now!"

Ronald reached for the phone on the wall. Before he could dial, another crash echoed from the opposite side of the ward. Someone screamed again. A long, desperate one that was in so much pain. Everyone talking in the ER stopped. Doctors looked up from the charts. Nurses stood up. Relatives stopped what they were doing with their patients. Only the TV was too loud.

A second scream followed. Closer to the ER. Running footsteps came fast, panicked. The automatic door burst open, followed by a nursing aide whose white uniform was covered in blood.

"They are attacking everyone." She bent forward, coughing, "They're biting people… The patients…"

Sally and Ronald thought originally that it was mass hysteria. Maybe a riot due to d**g addiction or an escaped psychiatric patient. There had to be an explanation. Then a security guard appeared in the corridor running away, not towards them. Behind the security guard came three patients, all wearing hospital gowns. One was dragging an IV pole behind him with wheels clattering carelessly across the floor. The other patient was limping with a badly fractured leg, with knee bones exposed. The third one had a bandage all over his head; only the eyes were uncovered. None of them should be able to move that way, but they seemed not to mind their own injuries. Their eyes were fixed on the fleeing security guard.

The three patients reached the guard, and he disappeared beneath them. The guard screamed for a few seconds and then stopped; wet, tearing sounds followed. The entire ER froze. Sally's pulse hammered in her ears. Her gut told her to move, to run.

A soft metallic click sounded. She turned and saw the restraint on the stretcher hanging open. The patient was gone. The leather restraints swung gently from the sides of the empty stretcher, still shaking. It meant the patient was freed just seconds ago. Ronald was the first to react. "Lock the door!"

One paramedic, before Ronald could finish what he was saying, already rushed to the ward entrance and slammed the heavy door shut. The lead paramedic came from the other end of the ward, who had just locked the rear door. All of them, including other patients and relatives, were breathing hard.

Sally and Ronald scanned the room. They looked at the ceiling, the curtains, and the cabinets; there was nowhere to hide. She asked others while looking around, "Did you see the patient here?" The other people in the room just shook their heads. Faces looked terrified, even to speak.

A metallic clang echoed somewhere beyond the door. Then another clang, something heavy striking the floor. Another raw, terrified scream echoed in the whole ER. Somehow, Sally found the voice familiar. She went towards the door.

"Stay with other patients," she told Ronald.

"Sally!" Ronald tried to stop her, but she was through the door before he could stop her.

The whole ER was in chaos. Patients were abandoning wheelchairs. Relatives and patients shouted names across the room. Doctors barked orders. Nurses were helping patients, while some younger nurses stood in the far corner. Medical charts were scattered all over the floor. Doors of the ER were locked. Inside that door was Camille Reyes, standing; she met Sally's eyes on the other side of the chaotic ER.

I knew it was you. Sally's eyes spoke to Camille. It was Camille, her best friend, who had just screamed. She had just arrived for her afternoon shift, and Sally knew that.

Outside the ER door were two security guards, two paramedics, and two patients banging on the door. Wanted to enter the ER, but they were enraged. The whites of their eyes were almost gone. Sally noticed the cracks on the glass door of the ER. She lifted her hand and signaled to Camille.

"Run!"

***

Two floors below the ER, Mang Ben, the veteran maintenance man of the hospital, tightened the final bolt in the humming water pump. Thirty-two years of fixing broken pipes, faulty generators, jammed elevators, and leaking roofs. He knew the blueprint of the whole hospital. Every doctor, every nurse, every intern, and every employee of the hospital knew him. His handheld radio crackled, "Code White. ER."

Mang Ben sighed, then clipped the wrench back onto his belt. Then the radio came alive again, only this time, there was no announcement on the other side. Just screaming. Many voices. Silence immediately came after. He had never heard silence like that in this hospital.

He picked up the emergency key ring beside the generator room door. It was the mother of all the entrance and exit keys in the hospital. He also wore his small backpack without knowing why. His gut also told him to double-check his motorcycle keys in his pocket.

***

Back upstairs, Camille ran towards Sally, pushing through the crowd, not removing her eyes from Sally. She saw Sally go to her cabinet and hastily pick up her backpack and other things. Their eyes met again; they reached each other's arms before running.

From Sally's peripheral view, someone stood up and lunged from behind an overturned wheelchair. She didn't think; she sprinted faster while holding Camille's wrist, which signaled Camille to also run faster. That someone crashed into the wall; a heartbeat skipped Camille. They both turned their heads while running and saw the man and his empty eyes, mouth glistened with fresh blood.

Camille stumbled as Sally pulled her down the corridor.

"What is happening?" she shouted, struggling to keep up.

"I don't know! Don't stop. We need to get out here."

Patients and other hospital employees surged towards other hospital exits. Many have gone out.

"Sally!" Ronald appeared from behind, his gown soaked in blood.

Camille's eyes widened. "Are you hurt?"

"It's not mine." He grabbed Sally's shoulder. "We've got people trapped in pediatrics.

"How many?"

"I don't know. The corridors are blocked."

Before Sally could answer, Mang Ben emerged from the crowd. "What is happening, lass?" He asked Sally.

"Mang Ben, we need to get out."

Another scream echoed through the building.

"What is happening?" Mang Ben repeated his question, "I've never heard people scream like that in my thirty years working here."

Ronald answered, "We don't know yet, Mang Ben. But patients are attacking, biting people. We need to get out of this hospital."

A loud crash interrupted. The glass doors exploded inward. A security guard stumbled through the opening. His face was covered in blood, and one arm was bent unnaturally at the elbow. He walked towards the people. Behind him came an old woman in a patient's gown with eyes all black and mouth full of blood. Sally recognized the old diabetic lady.