Gone

Chapter 3

I need to talk to someone. I need to find out more about what's going on. I walk down the hallway to go to my room. I'm gonna try to talk to the doctor. I can't focus on anything but what's going on right now...and I bump into a lady. Her papers fall. I keep walking. I don't care.

"Hey!" She says. I turn around.

"Sorry." I say. I turn back around to keep walking but something stops me. I turn back around and sigh. I walk up to her and pick up her papers and hand them to her.

"Thank you." She smiles.

"Yup." I say, without caring.

"And you are?"

"Teressa."

"I'm nurse Stacy." She shakes my hand.

"So how are you liking it here Teressa?"

"Are you kidding me? This place is like prison. You guys can't keep me locked up here forever."

"Why? Why do you want to leave?"

"My family. I need to find them."

"Well they probably left like everyone else, or they didn't make it. But if I were you, I would do the same. I'll help you out."

She walks down the hallway and I follow her. We walk past my room and into this one room two doors down from mine. It must be her office. She shuts the door and locks it.

She sits down at a chair and I sit in a chair across from her.

"So, you want to find your family?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll help you out. I'll let you leave. But no one else could know that I am helping you. No other doctors or nurses or anybody."

"I know."

"But there's some things you need to know before you go out there."

I nod. I fold my hands on my lap. My hands are sweating. Why?

"Those things out there...are vicious. They run as fast as you do. They are gross. And if you get bit or scratched, you're infected and turn into one of them within twelve seconds. But you don't have to worry about that, you're special."

Special. I am special?

"So, you need protection." She turns her chair around and opens a drawer. She pulls out a gun. A small pistol. She hands it to me.

"You know how to work a gun right?" She asks.

"Yeah." I say. I reload it. I'm ready. I remember when my dad taught me how to use a gun. We would hunt all the time.

"But be careful, these things are attracted to sound."

"Okay."

"But before you go, you need to ask other patients if they want to go as well. Many others are like you too and want to find their families."

"Okay." I sigh.

"Meet me down in this hallway after you find some people. And I'll hand you the key, out to the back door. I think they let you out through that door before, to let you see everything."

"Yeah."

"Okay, and something else. In the city, you will see red x marks everywhere. Spray painted on walls, cars, fences. Everywhere. Those signs were drawn by people who left our city. You follow those signs, and you might find your family and everyone else who left. They also left a map behind I think, but I don't know where that is."

"Okay. You should come with me."

"No. I'm fine."

I smile. I get up and she does too. I give her a hug and whisper in her ear, "thank you."

She doesn't know how happy and glad I am.

"No problem. If I were you, I would want someone to help me too."

I nod and smile.

"And you can take those hideous hospital clothes off. The clothes we found you in are under your hospital bed in a bag."

"Okay."

I leave. I walk into my room. I take off my hospital clothes. I'm in my bra and underwear. I reach under the bed and find the bag. I pull it out from underneath and open it. My black tank top. It's dirty and a little dry blood is on it. Probably from me getting scratched by one of those things. I put it on. I grab black jeans from inside it too. I put on those. I grab the last thing in there: My black sneakers. I really love black. I put those on. I leave my room and walk down the hallway into the cafeteria. I see the group of people sitting at that long table again. I sit at an open seat next to the blonde boy that sat next to me yesterday.

"Who wants to leave this place?" I say.

"I do!" Says the blonde boy.

"Anyone else?"

No one responds.

"Alright. Fine by me." I say.

I tell the blonde boy who is going with me to ask any other people.

After a few minutes, he walks back to me and says, "It's just us two."

"Alright. Let's go."

Me and him walk towards the hallway and a girl yells, "Wait!" I turn around. It's a little girl.

"Can I come with you?"

"I think it's too dangerous for you out there. You would be more safe here." I tell her nicely.

"Okay. If you find my brother, can you tell him where I am?" She says. She hands me a photo. I look at the photo. Her parents and her and her brother. Her brother looks about my age. He's pretty good looking. Short brown hair with brown eyes.

"Yes." I say.

The little girl looks about twelve years old. And she walks away. Leaving me with just the photo. I stuff it in my jean pocket. It's all bended probably now. But that doesn't matter.

I walk down the hallway with the boy next to me.

"What's your name?" He whispers.

"Teressa."

"Oh, I'm Tyler."

I don't respond. I see Nurse Stacy walking in front of me. As she comes closer, I reach out my hand and she sneaks the key into my hand. No one notices.

"Where did you get those clothes from?" Asks Tyler.

"Please be quiet." I say in an annoying tone of voice.

"Alright then."

We walk up to the back door. I put the key into the door lock and someone stops me. It's the doctor. The doctor that keeps coming into my room. He's annoying.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asks softly.

He moves his eyes down to my chest and smirks.

I stomp my foot on his toe.

He yells and holds his foot.

"Pervert." I say and I turn the key and the door is unlocked.

"Hey! Stop right now!" Yells a man behind us.

"We have to go...now!" Yells Tyler.

I open the door and me and Tyler run out, sprinting. I grab the gun out of my back pocket and then turn around to face the back of the building. Security guards. On top of the roof. They start shooting at us.

I shoot back and hit a few.

"Let's go! Keep running!" I yell.

Me and Tyler run super fast and disappear into the woods. They can't see us now.

"Dumb asses. They can't even aim." I laugh.

"She could of gave me a weapon. I have nothing." Says Tyler.