I woke up in the same bed. My muscles were stiff, but I did find it easier to breathe.

    I wasn't the only one in my room. Standing just by the doorway was a boy around my age, maybe older. His hair was short and dark and his cheek bones where sharp. He also wore a military uniform but it didn't look as proper as the other guy. He held a semi-automatic sniper rifle in his hands and I could see his finger on the trigger. From here, I noticed that his eyes were closed and in his ears, were a pair of white headphones. It looked like he was sleeping.

   I eyed him before slipping off the bed silently; I didn't take my eyes off of him. I again, for the second time that day, searched for a weapon. The doctor had the bright idea of taking out the scissors after my first freak-out. Finding nothing as a weapon, I edged my way closer to the door; reassuring myself that if worst comes to worst I would have to try and take him on in hand to hand combat.

I moved slowly to the door, my eyes didn't leave the guy. I was an arms' length away from the door when the guy spoke, his voice was low and smooth.

   "I would sit back down if I was you." His eyes were still closed. I stood frozen to the spot, I didn't hesitate, I leapt for the door, my only way to freedom.

   My fingers just barely grazed the door knob when I felt the blunt end of his rifle connect with my stomach. He tossed me to the ground as if I weighed no more than a sack of potatoes. I lay on my back gasping for breath. Once I regained the ability to breathe properly, I was to my feet in an instant. I didn't let myself second guess, I just lunged at the guy. Grabbing for his gun, his hair, anything for me to use to overpower him.

   To me I was fighting hard but to him, I was a minor inconvenience. He groaned when I hit him where it hurt, but he didn't go down like I had thought he would. That appeared to be his last straw because as soon as he caught his breathe, he punched me in the face and tossed me back to the ground, before he pointed the barrel of his gun at me. I could already feel my cheek beginning to swell up. The guy was looking down on me with cold blue eyes.

   "I did warn you."

I saw his finger on the trigger twitch and tighten, I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain to come but instead the door was thrown open.

   "What the hell are you doing? Put your gun down!" Doctor Stitchberry's voice drew both of our attention.

The boy complied and it pointed his gun away from my face.

Doctor Stitchberry glared at him for a little bit longer before turning back to me. I was already picking myself off of the floor.

   "Forgive Ghost. He's like a bad dog on a long chain. You may leave now, Ghost." She told the guy but instead of following her directions he stayed put.

   "Don't you ever listen? Go!" the doctor commanded but even than he didn't move, just stayed where he was.

   "I don't take orders from you." Was all he said before taking his place back at the door. I saw the doctor glare at him for a minute more before turning back to me.

   "I really am sorry about Ghost and I hope he didn't hurt you in anyway."

   "Where am I?" I questioned right away. I wasn't too fond of the meet and greet.

Doctor Stitchberry paused for a moment before speaking again, "Rhode Island Medical Center."

   "What?" I said in disbelief. "How is that possible? I'm from California, how did I get all the way over here in Rhode Island?"

The doctor shrugged, not having the answer to my questions. "I don't know. I'm sorry, but I really don't know. But what I do know is, you're safe now. You have nothing to worry about anymore."

   I glared at the doctor, something about this didn't feel right at all. The last time I had seen living people was about a month ago and at that time they were robbing me. This was the apocalypse, people don't just help somebody for no reason.

   "I want to leave. Let me leave." I said to her point blank. My statement seemed to shock her, because her facial features went from soft and caring to confused and flustered.

   "Why would you want to leave? You're safe here from the undead, nothing will hurt you here. All that's outside this compound is nothing but the undead!" She tried to explain to me.

   "I would rather take my chances out there with the walking corpses than in here with trigger happy over there.” I nodded towards Ghost; he merely glanced our way, but other than that, he didn’t say anything.

   “We can’t send you outside of this compound!” Doctor Stitchberry exclaimed, her eyes were wide.

My eyes narrowed and I crossed my arms over my chest, “And why can’t you?” I questioned. I saw the doctor’s eyes flicker from Ghost and back to me,    “Show her. She might understand if she sees for herself.” Ghost nodded before popping open the door.

    “Come on, I don’t have all day to stand and wait for you.” Ghost called to me.

    With careful steps I followed Ghost out of my room and into the dimly lit hallway. I kept my eyes trained on the back of his head as we walked through the halls. From the corner of my eye I would see old men and women coughing and spitting up on themselves, sick people strapped to their beds awaiting their inevitable fates. I even saw another girl around out age, standing at the small window of the door. One side of her face was badly burnt and the one good eye she had seemed to stare right through us.

    “A little risky to have all these sick and dying people inside your compound, don’t you think?” I addressed Ghost.

   “We have enough healthy men and women to take café of them if shit was to hit the fan.” Ghost said to me, not bothering to go into anymore detail.

He stopped at the door marked: “stairwell,” before he popped it open and walked inside.

I followed behind him; our feet created a sharp slapping sound each time we climbed the steps and the sound echoed throughout the stairwell. We were on the second floor and I had no idea how many floors we had climbed, the stairwell seemed to last forever. By the time we reached the fifth floor, the cut on my leg had began to mess with me.

   “Can we rest for a moment?” I gasped, pausing at the landing of the sixth floor.

Ghost paused, but he didn’t bother to make sure that I was alright.

I leaned against the wall, making sure to put pressure on the newly opened would on my leg.

    “How many floors are there in this building?” I groaned, trying to catch my breath.

   “Just four more floors than we need to get to the roof.” Was all that Ghost said before falling silent. “Come on, we don’t have all the time in the world.” And he started climbing the stairs again, leaving me behind.

I groaned with annoyance before pushing myself from the wall and I followed him up the last few flights of stairs.

   The roof was covered in sand and gravel; stacked in the corners of the roof were bags of sand and empty gun shells littered the ground. Ghost moved over to the north side of the rooftop, before pulling himself onto a low hanging wall. For a split second, I thought he was going to jump, but instead he just turned back around and motioned for me to come over to him. The wall came up to my chest and I pressed the palms of my hands on the cold cement; I tried to push myself onto the wall, but with no avail. I saw Ghost roll his eyes, before reaching down, grabbing me under my armpits and yanking me up the wall.

   My heart stopped at the sight before us. Buildings were in piles of rubble, the undead was scratching and screaming at us from a chain link fence, there was hundreds of them gathered at the fence. Guards were slowly picking off zombies one by one, but it didn’t seem to do much. With every one zombie that would fall, two more seemed to take its place.

    “Why are they all here? Why haven’t your people handled them?” I questioned, my voice quivered with fear.

The sheer mass of the giant horde below was enough to make me nervous and uneasy.

Ghost shrugged, he didn’t seem to concerned with the fact just a few stories down was death.

   “We tried, but they just keep coming back.” He explained to me.

    “Why are they coming back” I asked, my shock was wearing off and was replaced by morbid curiosity.

    “Don’t know. I guess they can tell that we’re the only thing with a pulse for miles so they come here in hopes of getting a free meal.” I nodded in understanding, but my eyes did not leave the hungry mass below.

   This place is nothing but a ticking time bomb just minutes from going off! I thought to myself.

   “Now do you understand why we can’t let you leave? It would be like throwing you into a fish tank of hungry sharks.” Ghost explained to me.

I squared my shoulders, gathering up my confidence and I said to him, “I don’t care. I want to leave; like I said, I would rather take my chances out there than in here with all the sick and dying.”

Ghost stared at me for a moment before nodding, “Okay… alright, I can do that.” He jumped off the wall, I tried to follow, but I felt his hand press in to my stomach and I felt my stomach drop as I fell from the roof. I felt his hand tighten around my wrists, keeping me from falling to my death.

Ghost stared down at me, his eyes were like ice; cold and unfeeling. “Well, what are you hanging around for? I thought you wanted to leave?” he yelled down to me.

I clawed at his hand, my heart was pounding desperately against my ribcage.

   “Pull me up!” I screamed at him, my eyes were wide with fear.

    “Why? I thought you wanted too leave?” He called down to me.

I didn’t hear him, I just screamed for him to pull me up, in which he complied. As soon as I was on solid ground, I wiped away the tears that had been falling down my face, before turning around and beating on Ghost’s chest as hard as I could.

   “What the hell is wrong with you!? Why would you do that?! You asshole!” I screamed.

He grabbed my hands, forcing me to stop my assault, “Sorry sweet cheeks, there’s only one way out of this place and that’s to fall.” Ghost told me.

My cheeks were red with anger and embarrassment.

    “Why?” I cried, my heart was still raging in my chest.

    “The undead blocks all the exits and entrees, no one can get out without stepping in to a herd of flesh eaters. Now, come on someone wants to speak with you.” And he started to move towards the door. In a haze, I followed close behind him, all I could hear was the hungry moans of the dead behind me.