“Dr. Moore, Dr. Meacham never hung up the phone,” Dr. Barkley handed over the phone speaker to Dr. Moore.
“Hello, this is Dr. Moore, who is this?”
A brief silence through the phone speaker, made him a little nervous.
“Where is Dr. Meacham?”
“He left, what did you say to him and who are you?”
“This is ECDC, and I am Dr. Spranger. I was informing Dr. Meacham about an outbreak of some type here, we already have 3 cases and no leads. All of them are showing the same symptoms; bloody eyes, blood dripping down their noses, and ears.”
“We have patients with the same symptoms here, it was one of our colleagues. We ran a blood test on everyone in the building and everyone is infected. Hello? Dr. Spranger, you there?”
No sound was coming out of the speaker, Dr.Moore thought that maybe Dr. Spranger was in shock, until a heavy breathing filled the phone line.
“Hello? Hello? Doctor you still there?” Dr. Moore asked. He was wondering what happened, why Dr. Meacham left, and why he told him to let everyone go. He was about to ask Dr. Spranger when an unholy scream drilled through his ear, shaking every cell in his body. He let go of the phone. The scream was so loud that the rest of the people in the room heard it. They all covered their mouths in shock. They could still hear the screams through the broken phone speaker. Filled with fear, his heart beating a thousand miles per hour, all he could do was listen to the screams coming over the phone. Dr. Moore lifted his head and looked straight ahead toward the glass window, and to his horror, patient “zero” slowly raised her head and looked straight at him.
They made eye contact, and for a second or two he thought he was dreaming, having a nightmare. He was so wrong. She slowly opened her mouth and let out the same unholy scream still being heard through the phone speaker. Everyone in the room was in shock, too scared to move, or maybe just waiting for Dr. Moore to tell them what to do since he was the next one in charge.
“Everyone out, lock down is over. Dr. Barkley, I need you to execute protocol and neutralize patient “zero.” Everyone else in the room left, some ran down the hallway toward the elevator, others, trying to stay civilized, walked as fast as they could. They all headed to the same place. They all needed to go back to their respective workstations to pick up their car keys, and then stop by the lobby to pick-up their cell phones, before they departed the building. Dr. Moore knew he had to do the same, but first he had to make sure patient “zero” was completely neutralized. The screams coming from the containment room trembled him to his core, he told Dr. Barkley to leave and that he’d take care of the rest.
An hour passed and he was finally done with the reports and the cleaning of the containment room. He decide to go back, pick up his cell phone from the front desk, and go home.
The elevator doors opened on the 3rd floor. Everything was so quiet, no typing, no phone ringing, and nobody having their normal late night conversation. He stepped outside the elevator and walked down to his office to pickup his wallet and car keys, turn off the computer monitor, and lock his office. He was headed toward the elevator when he heard the sound of a key chain. He looked around but didn’t see anything. He kept walking straight for the elevator. It had been a really strange day and he knew that it was not over yet, but if the top Doctor left to spend time with his family, well, he could do the same. He took three more steps when he heard the keys rattle again, this time he looked to his left and saw a woman with her back toward him. She was standing in front of the water fountain.
“Hello, Nancy? Is that you?” he asked in a whisper. The woman didn’t reply. It had to be Nancy, but what the hell was she doing? he thought. Having spent hours talking to Nancy during an office party last month, he knew she would never act like that. After the party, she stopped by his office every morning asking how he was doing, and every afternoon, she would stop to say goodbye. The person in front of him was no longer Nancy. He noticed that she was not moving or saying anything, he thought about going to her, but something inside his gut told him to stay away.
The sound of keys filled his ears again. As he turned around to look to the back of the 3rd floor, the image terrified him. All of the 3rd floor employees were gathered on the back corner of the room facing the wall, none of them moving except for the janitor whose keys jingled occasionally with the slight shuffling movement of the group. He didn’t notice them before due to the sensor light the office floor had, and since it only worked by sections, the back of the room was all dark when he walked into his office. To his surprise, all of the lights were on and he could see all of his colleagues standing against the wall.
He kept walking backward toward the elevator, keeping an eye on them, when he bumped into Dr. Perry’s desk and knocked over a Christmas toy Dr. Perry’s son had giving him last year. As soon the toy hit the floor, the stupid thing went off, playing a Christmas song. He kept his eyes focused on the mob gathered in the corner. They all slowly turned around. Their bloody faces and hollow eyes aiming strait at him. He turned around toward the elevator and was about to start running, but the woman was in front of the elevator, like a guard dog with her mouth open and on all fours. He took a quick glance back to the mob, but they were all gone.
His heart stopped for a second, and glancing back to the elevator, he knew if he didn’t get inside and close the door, he would meet a horrible fate. He squatted down and picked up the toy. He pushed the button and threw it to the other side of the cubicles, the thing in front of him hesitated for second before it launched on attack mode toward the toy. Dr. Moore didn’t waste time and ran to the elevator. He entered and pushed the button for the lobby. He looked outside and saw all his co-workers crawling toward him, it seemed like an eternity as he waited for the door to close. His heart was beating so hard, he wondered briefly if he was about to have a heart attack. At this point, a heart attack would be a gift, he thought. His face was covered with sweat and tears, and a horrified expression caused by the sight of dead approaching. He couldn’t do anything but stare at what used to be his friends. He closed his eyes and prayed, prayed for his family to be safe and that he would wake up from this bizarre nightmare. He really didn’t care about dying; all he wanted was to ensure his family was safe.
He squeezed his eyes as hard as he could, as if by doing so he would be safe. He could hear the growling of his co-workers getting closer and closer, until the scream from one of them echoed inside the elevator. He could feel them inches from his face, and then silence surrounded him, and he knew this was the end…
CHAPTER FIVE
Dr. Barkley
“Ding” the sound of the elevator bell made him open his eyes, and he realized the doors were closed. He was alive and it needed to stay that way so he could make it back to his family. He rubbed his head, trying to figure out how all this happened. Could he be dreaming? Or maybe some side effects from an invisible gas? But he knew. He knew that everything that was happening was real. Even though adrenaline was still running through his veins, the cold air inside of the elevator was making him tremble.
Maybe it was because he was drenched in sweat, or maybe because he was scared, scared of everything that was happening outside those doors. It seemed like an hour by the time the elevator reached what Moore thought was the lobby, but the elevator actually stopped on the second floor. He braced himself, expecting the worst after seeing Dr. Whitney and his co-workers turn into mindless beasts, and try to kill him. He held in his hand the only thing he had available to defend himself, a ball point black pen. He knew it was not much, but at least it gave him some type of hope.