I stared at the door as if it held all the answers. Who would be banging on the door? Zoe got up to answer it, but I grabbed her arm as she passed by.
"Are you insane? That could be the crazy, sick woman," I hissed.
"I'm just going to look through the peep-hole," she answered, removing her arm from my grasp.
Zoe walked over to the door and looked out. Before I could say anything more, she ripped open the door. A disheveled guy in sweatpants and a faded t-shirt, burst into the room, shutting the door behind him.
"Mike, what the hell?" Zoe demanded of the scruffy guy.
"Zoe," he huffed.
I noticed he was bleeding from a gash in his leg. The blood was staining his sweatpants and dripping onto the carpet.
"Are you ok?" Zoe asked, taking a step back from Mike, whose eyes were darting all over the place rapidly.
"One of," Mike took a deep breath. "One of my buddies got sick I think. He bit my leg!"
Zoe ran into the bathroom for our last clean towel and he placed it on his leg wound, as he sat down on the bed. Sitting seemed to calm him down; he didn't look as panicked as he did before. I noticed him looking at me.
"I'm Bailey by the way," I said, giving him a noncommittal wave.
"Mike."
I wanted to say, yeah I got that, but I held my tongue for once. I grabbed Zoe and ushered her into the bathroom.
"Ah, who's that?" I asked.
"He's the guy from last night." She had the good graces to look embarrassed. I rolled my eyes.
"Hey, you girls see the news?" Mike yelled from the other room.
"Yeah, there's some serious shit going on," Zoe said leading us back to where Mike was. "We were about to head to the hospital."
I glared at Zoe for telling him, undoubtly he would want to come along.
"Mind if I go to? I think I need to have this looked at too," he motioned to the still bleeding wound that adorned his lower leg. See, I knew it.
"Well if we are going to do this, let's go," I sighed, grabbing my bag with all my documents in it.
The motion of putting the bag strap on my shoulder pulled my wound taunt and I hissed at the fresh wave of pain that radiated from my side.
"You get bit too?" Mike asked.
"Scratched by some crazy woman downstairs," I answered through clenched teeth.
"Should we be going back down there then?" He asked, a scared look flashing across his face.
"How else do you suggest we get to the hospital?" I asked.
"Call for an ambulance?"
"No ambulance would come for a scratch and a bite," Zoe sighed, grabbing her own purse.
I had briefly thought of calling the police to report the attack, but I figured I would have to fill out something at the hospital, so I would just do it all there.
"We should call a taxi though," I suggested, as the idea came to me.
Zoe nodded and started flipping through the phone book beside the room phone. She found a number and then tried dialing it. Mike and I just watched in silence as she held the receiver to her ear.
"You're fucking kidding me," Zoe sighed as she slammed it down. "No one is answering there either!"
I had to admit, at this point I was starting to get freaked out by the whole situation. I was attacked by some crazy woman, who appeared to have ripped open another man earlier, the news was going on about some virus, and flights were being cancelled. This was like something straight out of a b-list Hollywood horror movie and I was having a hard time believing it was all real. Maybe I was still hungover, asleep. At that thought, hope bloomed in my chest, but then I remembered the pain from my wound and I knew I wasn't imagining all this. Unfortunately, I was living it and first things first, I needed to get my side looked at.
"Well I guess we will be walking so let's go," I said heading towards the door.
"Are you going to be able to walk?" Zoe asked Mike.
"I should be able to hobble there, it's only got to be like a ten minute walk from here anyways," he said, heaving himself back to a standing position.
I opened the door a bit and peaked outside, looking down the hallway for signs of any sick people. The coast was clear, so I stepped outside with the other two following me. Mike was limping, slowing us down as we walked quietly to the elevator. I wasn't going back to the stairs again and this time it had nothing to do with my laziness. Plus, Mike wouldn't take the stairs too well either, he was going to slow us down enough as it was.
"Should we be taking the elevator?" Mike asked as I smashed the down button.
"The place isn't on fire."
The ride down was awkward; we were all looking anywhere else but at each other. Oh look, a stain on the floor how interesting. This is what I hated about elevators; they turned everyone into socially awkward weirdoes. With a ding, the elevator opened up to the first floor, but none of us made a move to get out. I was about to say 'after you', when Zoe took the plunge and stepped out first. I glanced around trying to spot anyone or see if that crazy lady was back.
"Wow there really is no one down here," Zoe said quietly.
"What, did you think it was all an elaborate hoax?" I said sarcastically and she glared at me.
The pain continually ebbing along my side was making me even more unpleasant than I was when I woke up hung over. We walked outside and instantly, I noticed all the activity outside the hotel. Cars were rushing and honking all over the road, people were running along the sidewalks, sirens were going off all over the place. Although, since this was Mardi Gras, all the activity wasn't that unusual, but the atmosphere had taken on a panicked feel rather than one of letting loose. I was almost run down by some guy pushing an overflowing shopping cart he had stolen from a local Wal-Mart, but I managed to dance around him as he sped by.
"Excuse you!" Zoe yelled after the guy, but he was long gone.
"So I don't think we will be able to get a taxi," I sighed as I started the walk to the hospital.
I could see the giant H sign from our hotel, but like everywhere in the city, all the buildings were further than they looked. With Mike slowing us down and all the craziness going on, the ten minute walk would most likely be stretched out. We almost got mowed down while crossing the street and Mike barely hobbled out of the way in time.
"Jesus!" Mike yelled as he stumbled to find his footing.
"This is like the LA riots!" Zoe said.
"Zoe, you were like four when the L.A. riots happened," I shook my head.
"Well Bailey, there's this magical entity called the internet that gives you information for things that you weren't there to see happen in person," Zoe replied sarcastically.
"Anyways, it doesn't look like there's any looting going on yet," I said and as soon as the words left my mouth, one of the store front windows crashed in on the other side of the street.
Zoe shot me a smug look and I gritted my teeth. I gave a quick glance over to where the noise had come from and thankfully, I didn't see anyone carrying off a TV set, but people were filing in through the open store front window. Jay's Pharmacy didn't stand a chance. Looking up, I could see that we were closer to the hospital, but a lot of the traffic seemed to be heading that way so I took that as not a very good sign that I would be treated anytime soon. Maybe I should have hit up that pharmacy.....
"How much longer do you think it will be?" Mike asked, obviously in pain.
"I think we're pretty close," Zoe shrugged.
An ambulance whizzed past us with its sirens blaring and tires squealing. I heard a scream from behind us, we all wheeled around to see what happened. A woman had been tackled by someone who looked like they were infected with whatever the crazy woman from the hotel had. The guy fell on top of her, tearing into her, causing blood to spray everywhere and pool around her. Her muffled screams soon stopped and new screams of people who witnessed the attack erupted. People scrambled to get away and we were forced to run before we got trampled by the panicked group now heading in our direction.
"Holy shit!" Mike yelled as he tried to keep up with us despite his injured leg.
Zoe sent me a look that could only be summed up as 'what the hell did we just witness?' For that, I had no answer. It did help shine some light on what happened to me in the hotel lobby. I had come so close to ending up like that poor woman back there, the thought made a shiver run down my spine.
Huffing with exertion we had finally made it to the hospital, thanks to the group on our heels forcing us to run. My side was burning anew from the heavy breaths that were wracking my lungs and chest. Mike seemed to have it worse, he was now wincing with every step he took and his skin had taken on an ashen color making him look sickly. Maybe the bite was causing him to catch whatever those crazy sick people had. I unconsciously touched my side and looked at my reflection in the glass windows surrounding the hospital. I didn't have the sickly appearance, so maybe a scratch didn't have the same effect that a bite did. Only one way to find out.
"Shit, we're going to be here for hours," I grumbled as we walked into the crowded lobby.
We had to squeeze our way through the masses just to get to the front desk line. People were yelling and crying all over the place. Some people had bloody rags pressed to their wounds which were now dripping blood all over the place. This had to be the most unsanitary hospital I have ever seen. Others were trying to calm down the hysteric patients, not having much luck. Finally, we had gotten through the line and had our turn at the desk.
"Number of people and emergency," the frazzled receptionist stated.
"Ah, two injured with a bite and deep scratches," I said adding an extra bit of pain into my voice hoping she would not just send us away.
"We are taking only emergencies at the moment due to the high volume of incidents," she pleaded.
"We were bit and scratched by someone who has that sickness or whatever it is," I reasoned.
Her eyes flashed to mine, she knew something we didn't.
"Forth floor, take a left at the elevators."
I was about to ask her why, when she yelled next and we were effectively dealt with. I motioned for the stairs and Mike grimaced, but it looked like the two elevators would be busy for a while judging by the crowd waiting to get on to them. The door to the stairs was held open due to the steady stream of people going up and down not wanting to wait for the elevator.
"It's only the fourth floor." I shrugged when Mike said he wouldn't be able to take them.
My attitude towards stairs sure had changed in the last twenty-four hours not that taking the stairs appealed to me, just that they would be quicker. We squeezed into the cramped flow of traffic that was heading up the stairs, with Mike being prodded on by the people behind him. Now came the tricky part of being able to stop long enough to get through the door labeled fourth floor. I managed to open it enough so that I could get through, much to the dismay of the very vocal people behind us.
Unfortunately, this floor was just as crowded as the downstairs and even more alarming was the fact that some doctors were coming in and out of certain rooms in bulky biohazard suits. Every seat was taken up with sickly looking people and pretty much all the walls were lined with people just waiting to be treated. Going past the elevators, we found yet another desk to approach and told them what happened, giving them our papers.
"Take a seat and we will call you when it's your turn," the nurse said from behind her Plexiglass wall, taking one last look at my Canadian driver's license before handing back.
"So let's see if there was any space by the water fountains," I said leading Zoe and Mike away.
Once we found enough space to claim as our own, Mike plunked down looking worse than ever. It seemed like he wasn't able to catch his breath, even though we had more than enough time to while standing in line at the desk. Zoe sat down beside him and I gingerly sat down on the other side of her, my side protesting the whole way. We sat there for a good hour watching person by person being called, new people taking their vacated chairs and spots.
What I didn't start to notice until just now, was the fact that we never saw them leave back through the lobby area. Was there another way off of this floor? The biohazard men were mainly sticking to the rooms at the end of the hall, which only the worse looking patients were being ushered to. It all seemed very suspicious, made more so by the fact that the staff refused to answer anyone's questions.
"Guys I think it's getting worse," Mike said and we turned to him.
He started to cough violently, blood started to drip from his mouth, staining his teeth with red. Holy shit! Zoe and I jumped up as he started to go into convulsions.
"Nurse!" Zoe screamed in panic.
I just stood there, not having a clue what to do.