the great war (r.g)

prologue

august 26 2010

the hospital was always busy during the summer. something was different about today, though. cora had been rushing around the place since she had got there but she finally had time to take a breath in the break room. "how are you doing?" one of her coworkers, dan, asked as cora started roaming the fridge.

"i'm only on hour 4 and i feel dead on my feet. remind me to never pick up a 12 hour shift in the high of summer ever again," cora told him. "my next patient is easy, though. a coma patient." just as she sat down with her drink, the pager attached to her hip started beeping.

"the dreadful pager. the beep of death," dan said in a low, spooky voice.

"come on now, you've gotta stop with that joke," cora laughed. once the pager stopped, the screams started. ear-piercing screams echoed through the halls as cora and dan left the room in search for the source.

the er was a madhouse. patients and doctors running around, screaming. there was a handful of security guards and what looked like a swat team running around with their guns drawn, shooting. "what is going on?" dan asked one of the frantic surgeons running by.

"theres people or . . . things biting everyone," he said before bolting off in the opposite direction from the commotion.

"biting? what does he mean biting?" dan looked confused but as if to answer his question, one of the receptionists ran back into a wall as one of the people flung himself onto her. an instant later, he sunk his teeth into ellie's arm. without thinking, cora rushed to her side and pushed the biter off.

"ellie, are you okay?" cora asked. dumb question. her arm was gushing blood.

"yeah my arm hurts bad as shit though," ellie said. funny how people don't loose their sense of humor when in immense pain.

"right," cora said. "here, take this. apply pressure." there was a surgical table to the right of them with mounds of gauze on it. cora handed ellie one before turning to the biter that was not smart enough the stand up. carefully, she kneeled down and inspected the thing. it was mr. johns, the patient from room 302. the same patient that she had to put down not thirty minutes ago.

"mr. johns?" the biter didn't show any signs of recognizing the name. instead, he decided to latch itself onto cora. once she grabbed ahold of the scalpel on the surgical table, cora stabbed it into the arm of the biter. he had no reaction. another stab to the chest. nothing again. into the neck. nothing.

"the head!" yelled one of the swat members from across the room. "stab the head! it'll kill them." cora listened and stabbed the tool into mr. johns head. his grip loosened and cora ripped her leg loose.

she was in shock. who wouldnt? she just killed a man that died not long before. there was blood on her leg. some on her hand. probably some on her face with how she stabbed the man.

belatedly, cora remembered ellie being wounded behind her. "ellie?" there was no response from the girl. she was unmoving on the floor, slumped against the wall. dead, probably. but so was mr. johns before he was biting ellie.

one second ellie was dead. the next, she had cora pinned to the ground.