(Warning: cRINGY cONTENT, Zombie prejudice, violence)

Previously: “I’m leaving you in charge Scotty, keep them in check. We’ll meet back up at the police station.”

The boss says and drives away with me and my coworker. I look back at him as he groans, “Where are we going? How did you get past the zombies?” “Still talking, that’s good, zombies don’t talk. Stay alive kid, we’re taking you to the hospital.” 

“Is that safe?” The coworker grabs my sleeve, looking to me. 

“We’re about to find out.” The boss answers. I clench my seat belt and watch the sides of the road for zombies. 

The first one I saw I cussed causing the leader to tense up, “I see him.” He swerves to purposefully hit it, causing me to cuss again, louder. “Why did you do that?”

“And leave a zombie for someone else to come across?” The leader says in a very thoughtful way. I start to relax, maybe it would be a good thing for a man that cares about others to be in charge. “Also it’s kind of fun.” He ads with a huge shit-eating grin. I clench my seatbelt again. 

“So what’s your buddies name?” He asks me out of the blue after driving for a while. I look back at my coworker and then, grateful that he was wearing his name tag, say, “We’re not super close, this is actually one of the first times I actually talked to him, his name is Dilan.” 

“I like the fact you were so concerned about helping a stranger, is your mom gonna be okay?” 

“I lied, it was just an excuse to stay.” I mumble. 

“No mom?”

“Not anywhere near here, nor does she care enough about me to send a text so…” I let the sentence trail off. The man grunts in response, “My name is Paul.” 

“You probably saw my name tag but it’s Rory.” 

“Actually there’s blood-” He points and I look down, just like he said blood was splattered all over my clothing and was covering my name tag. I cover my mouth quickly and look out the window. ‘It’s from Dilan.’ I remind myself but still feel a little sick, now I could feel the dampness against my clothes and smell it. How did I not notice it before?

Somehow we make it to the hospital without any mishaps. It’s strange. Driving right up to the door we rush inside to make sure they were still functioning as a hospital and not an all you can eat buffet. They looked really upset to see the man carrying his gun. He simply said it was for attackers, the same one they should have been warned about by the government. A few people cast concerned glances but he was sent to move his car and leave his gun in it. I follow Dilan on his gurney ride. Explaining everything that happened except changing zombies to attackers.

They had no reason not to believe us and were very concerned especially with the constant government warnings and preparing lockdowns. I fiddle my thumbs sitting in the waiting area until the leader comes back in. We are allowed in the patient's room to fill in any more questions we might know. It’s depressingly little, and they have to figure out his blood type by testing his blood.

He gets the transfusion and stitches and slowly, groggily wakes up. I practically pounce on him, “Don’t say zombies,” I hiss, “we’re saying attackers.”

He goes pale looking around quickly in fear. “I thought it was a nightmare.” He tears up and turns his face away. The leader waits until the necessary information is filled out by Dilan then puts his hand on my shoulder, “These doors will hold if something happens, here’s my number. Call me if you know what happens, I’m gonna go rally as many men as I can and scope out the hospital for potential threats and or safe areas. See you later Ross.” “Rory.” I correct him.

“No, it’s Phil,” he grins big again and leaves. 

The hospital is creepily normal. I strain my ears for screams. “C, can you close the door?” Dilan asks me. I get up and watch as it slowly, slowly shuts. There’s no lock and it opens from the outside. I guess I could shove something up against it. I went back over to Dilan who was starting to have color return to his face. “Do you mind if I pass out?” I ask him, feeling like I hadn’t slept in days. He shakes his head. “Are we safe?” I get comfortable, “They haven’t had any attacks and they have really sturdy doors, we should be safe for now, especially since they’re setting up a lockdown. I feel Dilan relax and then soon he’s asleep, I pass out soon after. 

Alarms and red lights wake me up. I lift my head to see Dilan recoiled in the corner of his bed. He points to something beside me. I feel a breath blow on my face and jerk around arms up in hopes of defending myself before it bites off my face. The nurse gasps as I wake up throwing off her hand and panting looking around in a panic before realizing that the lights are normal and it was a nightmare. Dilan stirs with whimper and I put my hand on his arm, “Dilan it’s a nightmare, you’re okay.” He wakes up and then sighs, going back to sleep. ‘Lucky, I feel like I chugged a pot of coffee.’ The nurse asks if I’m okay. “I heard that you were victims to a terrorist attack.” 

“Well it was terrifying.” I say honestly. 

“I brought you some clean clothes, are you hurt?”

“My shoulder and arm are pretty messed up, I think I tore some muscles.” She goes to get me some hot and cold packs as I change my shirt. I get up with a groan, my hurt arm is stiff and aches. Wielding my credit card I venture to find a vending machine in the hall. I look down one way then the other, calm, peaceful, quiet. “We need to get out of here.” I mutter out loud. I start to let myself think over what had happened as I mindlessly eat an armful of snacks. When the nurse comes back in she says, “If you’re hungry there’s a cafeteria.” 

“I don’t wanna leave him.” I say pointing to Dilan.  

“You’re such a good boyfriend.” She says with a knowing smile. I choke on the mouthful of potato chips. Then remember only family or something like that can stay past visiting hours. I just make a mmm hmm noise as she takes care of my arm. The hot and cold kicks in immediately and I let out a little sigh of relief. “Don’t worry we’re very accepting at this hospital, we have lots of LGBTQ doctors and nurses!” I just nod again awkwardly. “Go ahead and try to nap some more while you can.” She says leaving, we’re locking down soon and only patients and staff are allowed to stay in the hospital.

I lay my head down and Dylan waits until the door shuts before he asks, “Did I hit my head and miss something?”

“Oh my gosh, you know the hospital only lets people that are family or dating to stay with patients, not random coworkers that only started talking that day!”

“I’m so flattered that you chose boyfriend rather than brother,” he cackles as I flush, realizing my mistake. “Don’t worry,” He rolls over, obviously really enjoying that pain killer, “You’re cute so I’ll let it go.” He closes his eyes. 

“Hey, wait.” I whisper. “Are you…”I rethink that question very quickly then say, “They’re locking down, we're gonna hafta leave soon, hey, wake up.” I don’t get a wink of sleep. All too soon but probably hours later the nurse returns.

“Time to go.” She says apologetically. I ask for a minute and text Paul. He texts back that he was dealing with some rouge people causing trouble and that the hospital would have to wait. I decide to pretend to leave but sneak back in. Since I leave willingly they don’t check that I actually made it to the door. I watch the soldiers lock the doors and stand in front of them with guns.

I approach curiously and they say, “Sorry kid, nobody in or out, go back to the waiting room.”

I go to find the nurse which is easy, “They won’t let me leave,” I say faking concern.

She huffs irritated, “They’ve turned away a few others, I’m so sorry about the inconvenience, but hey at least you get to stay with you know who.”

‘That was, thankfully, one of the easiest things today, let’s hope I don’t regret it.’ I think, “Well you know where I’ll be.” I say waving. 

I see Dylan sitting up and he gasps, “They told me you left!” 

I hold a finger to my lips, “Yeah I stuck around and pretended that the guards were there longer than they actually were.” 

“I thought it was because of the joke I made.” He worries. He lays back and sighs, “It's scary, I don’t think I’ll ever trust anywhere to not suddenly get swarmed by zombies ever again.” I feel myself shiver, “At least they have guards with guns at the doors here.” 

“Let's talk about something else, what is your favorite color?” 

“Red, was, now I wanna say green.” I chortle darkly.

“Pink.” Dilan smiles. 

“What, but you’re always wearing all black.” I call out. 

“It makes me feel secure.” He murmurs softly, “I don’t have a lot of friends, my anemia has always made me sickly pale and I struggle to climb stairs or exert too much energy so I can’t participate in gym or sports. I was pegged as an emo kid, but I don’t really have that much in common with them and they’re hard to make friends with cause they’re so dark.”

I laugh, “Pegged is a poor choice of word.” He sputters and I add. “I had an emo phase, I can relate.” 

“I honestly didn’t think we were going to end up here, I thought you’d end up getting supplies and we’d camp on the roof for days, weeks, months, who knows how long.” I tense up a little, “Dilan…if I hadn’t have gotten you here…” 

“Don’t say it.” He says quickly and rolling over, sighs. Then after I get settled into a comfy spot for a much needed nap he rolls back over asking, “That happened right?” 

“What?” I mumble.

“The zombies, them attacking, everything? It actually happened, right?” He whispers looking lost and scared. I guess he was processing it all before me because I feel numb. 

“Yeah. The freakiest thing is that there was this one zombie there that felt…different from the others it was…” ‘intelligent’ I try to remind myself that it had died, it was beside the wall when I came down and there when we went up…but something was pestering my mind.  

“Where was it?” Dilan asks.

“It got killed like the others.” I say feeling my heart beat strangely. 

“But where was it’s body?” He pokes me to show me that something was up. Like he knew something. “I thought it was a dream.” He breathes, “But I think I know which one you were talking about, was it beside the ladder to the roof?” I stand up panicking, remembering my dream, it had hunted me down, the lights flicker and I mouth, “no.”

The alarm makes me flinch and Dilan exclaims, “It was still alive! It winked at me when I regained consciousness at the bottom of the ladder. I remember opening my eyes and its eyes were for a second, then it…” He looks around terrified as the room turns red. Then the screaming starts and gun shots ring out. I turn towards the door and then grab the chair I was sitting on for self defense. For an impossibly long time nothing happens, nobody runs by, my body hurts from being tense for so long.

The alarm stops and the normal lights turn back on. The gun shots are few and far between and then the screaming stops too. I wait until it’s silent for a long time before relaxing. Turning back to Dilan I whisper, “I think we should go. Take the IV out of your arm.” He’s sitting up staring at the door too. Nodding he starts pulling cords out of him and that alerts the nurse. I put the chair down slowly as to my surprise the nurse came in. She’s flustered and looks like she’s been running.

“Come on, you too are going to the west side.” She checks something off of her clipboard, one of the sides is covered in blood like she bludgeoned someone.

“Are you okay?” I ask worried. “What’s happening out there?”

“What happened do you mean?” She brushed some hair out of her face. The entire first floor went berserk, I’m guessing gas considering it was in the air, the attackers are here. She looks at her clipboard and gets lost in thought. “If you see gas, run, don’t breathe it in. Stacy went mad.” Then she rushes out and I grab Dilan helping him down from the bed. He’s wearing a patient gown that was practically made out of nothing. I could almost see through it. I at least had a scrub shirt. I go out into the hall and see a long line of patients going a certain way. I look back the way the nurse went.

“Come on, let's find you something to wear.” I say guiding him responsibly where they were taking all the patients that could still walk.

“No shoes.” He mumbles, showing me his little booties.

I look down and cover my face for a second, “hold on, I’m gonna ask the nurse where our clothes are.” I turn around and see something I can’t immediately process. ‘A roly poly human? Made out of smoke.’ Then the tussling bodies break apart and I realize it’s a patient ripping out a nurse's throat. The next thing I know canisters of gas go screaming by whirling in circles. I turn to see everyone running and screaming before starting to choke on the gas. “Dilan!” I yell, unable to see him in the chaos and gas. He yanks me back into his room and we watch as the door slowly closes. It doesn’t seal out the gas but I’m able to breathe again. Covering my face with my shirt I watch as Dilan uses his pillowcase. Grabbing the chair I put it underneath the handle like I've seen in movies as screaming bodies move by in the smoke.The unmistakable rabid noises of zombies follow. Dilan walks over watching with me as a zombie turns and tries to handle, then moves on. I start shaking and see the look of despair on Dilan’s face. I put my hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll be fine.” I promise, “We made it this far.” He looks up at me like he wants to believe. I sit against the door and gesture for him to join me.

“One sec,” He coughs, then goes and gets his sheets, I help him plug underneath the door. We sit against it and watch what little smoke in the room, curling around.

“Shouldn’t we be coughing more?” I ask, feeling it in my lungs but not feeling the urge to cough.

He takes a deep breath and coughs, “I dunno.” I look at him and see a red mark on his cheekbone.

“What that.” I point.

He touches his cheek humorlessly,“I got one of the canisters to the face.” I cover my mouth, smirking.

“Don’t laugh you douche,” He says aghast. “I can’t help it, what are the chances?” I giggle. He goes to say something and we hear footsteps. I put my arm across him as the door handle wiggles. We try not to breathe. Then as it goes silent on the other side of the door, Dilan doubles over, eyes watering, making the chuffing noise of trying to not cough when you have to. A shuffle from right outside the door precedes the door getting tested again, this time it starts opening. The chair scrapes effortlessly, my sneakers squeak desperately and Dilan’s little booties make no difference as we scramble to keep the door shut.

The part of my brain that’s still able to think tells me to jump up and grab the chair for self defense but it wasn’t a zombie. Walking in surrounded by a huge wall of smoke was a guard. I cover my mouth and nose relieved, thank goodness, they must be looking for survivors/stragglers. They turn their head viewing the room with a gas mask on, holding their gun at the ready.