At first I thought it was a dream. I sat up slowly in my bed, dizzy from the energy expended earlier. I rubbed my tired eyes as the blurry room began to take form in front of me. A shrill scream filled the air, cutting through the dense silence of the hallway.
I became alert in an instant; the scream sounded just like the ones I’d heard before in the hospital. I stood up next to my cot, waiting to hear anything else.
There was a faint scratching noise in the hallway. As I stood there trembling in the darkness, it grew in intensity. Whatever it was, it was making its way down the hall, right past my door. The scratching noise sent sharp chills down my spine as it slowly passed by. After a few moments, everything was silent again. Two loud gunshots filled the air. Then the panic began.
I reacted immediately; I threw the door open and stepped into the hallway. The lights of the hallway flickered on, blinding and disorienting me for a second. Once my eyes adjusted to the new light, I saw the scene clearly.
Blood covered the floor in a thick, red ooze. I looked over to my right first. I saw a young, frightened soldier holding a smoking silver pistol. He had a look of utter horror on his face. His arms and legs shook visibly. He screamed at me in a cracked voice, “You’ve gotta get outta’ here! They’re everywhere! Run! Run!” I never got to give him a reply because as soon as he barked his orders, he took off running around the corner behind him. I turned to my left to see what he’d shot in the lonely corridors of the building.
I saw a jumbled and twisted corpse on the bloody floor; one of its gnarled arms reached towards the end of the hallway that led towards the room where the rest of the survivors would be. I stood there for a second to take in the scene. Then I walked in the direction of the corpse. I came up next to the body and knelt down beside it.
It was definitely one of the infected. The body had become gnarled and tangled as the disease had clearly ravaged the body of this woman. She had cuts all over her arms and legs, which were filling with blood and pus. She was face down on the floor, and I could see a puddle of thick, green spittle mixed with the blood spreading from her head.
My mind immediately flashed back to the father and the little girl just beyond the doors. I needed to make sure they were okay. I ran through the empty halls of the building until I came back to the large wooden doors that led into the room with the sea of people. I placed my hand on the handle of the closest door and began to push it open. I stopped halfway as a thought occurred to me. What if there were other creatures lurking around the floor? I had to be careful. My gut lurched forward, warning me that something was going on around there.
I opened the rest of the door. The room that had once contained a sea of people was completely empty, save a slew of bodies lying all over the ground. The walls were covered in streams of thick, red blood. Everything was in disarray. The cots were thrown about and remnants of food and water canteens were everywhere underneath overturned tables.
I began to walk around the floor, examining the bodies thrown about. It was a mix of human and infected bodies. The human bodies had slashes across their necks, arms, and legs. Some had gunshots in them, signifying the confusion that’d taken place sometime earlier. The bodies of the infected were like that of the body left in the hallway. I glanced over their bodies, looking at the disgusting abominations those people had become.
They all shared the same characteristics: They had no pupils, their hair was beginning to recede from their scalps, their skin was breaking in various places, blood was beginning to seep through their broken skin, their posture was gnarled and twisted, and they had expressions of insatiable hunger on their faces.
I navigated my way through the room, scanning each body in the fear that the father and his daughter were either dead or had become the abominations covering the floor. I heaved a sigh of relief when I finished looking at the last body on the floor, realizing that they were either in another part of the compound, unhurt, or had somehow escaped from the base.
I turned behind me, looking for something to protect myself with. There was no way I was gonna go outside without a weapon. I began to retrace my steps, looking for anything I could use as a means of protection. Near one of the overturned food tables I saw a metal bar the length of my arm. It was lying in a pool of blood near the base of the table. I grasped it in my hands and felt the heavy weight of the metal. I grabbed a nearby jacket on the floor and used it to cleanse the bar of the blood stuck to it. I threw the jacket on the ground and made my way to the stairs leading to the floor below.
The lights were on downstairs, revealing a trail of blood leading from where I was to the main floor. I grasped the bar tightly, holding it in front of my body like a sword. I took slow, cautious steps down the stairs. I watched my surroundings carefully as I made my descent, making sure I wouldn’t be ambushed by any creature that could be lurking about. I reached the base of the stairs and saw the first floor in full view.
The same horrid scene I witnessed on the second floor was repeated there on the first. However, instead of civilian bodies, soldiers’ bodies lined the floor alongside those of dead infected. Those soldiers had to have been taken by surprise because there were no guns on the entire floor. I waded through the field of bodies, checking for anything useful to take with me as I departed.
One of the infected had a large knife in its skull, which I pulled out and tucked into my belt. I found an army backpack on the floor, which I emptied and carried with me as I continued to scavenge on the floor. I found a full canteen of water, some power bars, a flare, and some army food packages.
After scavenging for a few more moments, I placed the items in the backpack and put it on. I took the metal bar back up into my hands and skulked over to the main doors of the building. I took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped outside.
The compound was a crime scene. Bodies were strewn across the compound, seeming to make a path from the building I was at to the building on the opposite side of the compound. The main gates of the base were open, most likely because some tried to escape the infection that’d gotten into the compound. I saw a few army cars still idling by, patiently waiting for a driver to step in and get them off of the base. I began to step towards the nearest car when cries filled my ears.
I turned and saw two dark, twisted silhouettes on the far side of the building, seeing new prey in sight. I gauged the situation in my mind: I could attempt to get through the infected and enter the car unscathed, or I could make a run to the building on the far side of the compound. I decided to make a run for the building.
I broke out in a sprint towards the building. More cries filled the air as the silhouettes chased after me. I could sense them moving in on me, getting closer with every step I took. I had to lose weight.
With one powerful thrust, I hurled the backpack from my shoulders in the direction of the monsters. I still held onto the metal bar, just in case I didn’t make it to the doors in time. I made my way across the compound and reached the large doors. I threw the nearest door open and slammed it behind me. I held the door closed and locked it. After locking the door, I could hear the cries of the infected on the opposite side. They banged on the door, desperate to enter the building. I took a step back and held the bar tightly against my chest.
That was when I realized I was completely in the dark. I felt my way to the nearest wall and searched for a light switch. I moved slowly along the wall, making sure not to make too much noise. I continued to feel along the wall until I found a light switch panel. I flipped all of the switches on, filling the room with blinding white light. I saw the maze of cubicles from the search for the little girl’s father. I could still hear the creatures outside, attempting to get inside and reach me.
I decided to make my way through the cubicles and up to the storage room. I held the bar tightly and began to creep through. I slid my feet slowly and carefully, checking every corner twice for any creatures. I passed by various offices, finding bodies and blood in some as I passed.
One office I passed held the ravaged corpse of the woman that helped me find the little girl’s father. I walked into her cubicle solemnly, allowing my eyes to search the red-splattered room. Her blood-soaked body was spread across the desk, looking at the ceiling above with an expression of pure agony. There was an enormous chasm in her chest which let me see directly through her body and onto the shimmering surface below. I suppressed the vomit rising in my throat and looked at the rest of her. Her arms and legs were mangled and sprawled across the desk. The pool of blood beneath them shone bright and dripped from the desktop to the floor. I looked away in shame and scanned the floor before me. Papers and wires covered it in a tangled mess. What made everything worse were the bloody lollipops scattered across the floor, perfectly visible at my feet. I pulled one up and wiped the blood from it. It was a vibrant green color. A lump formed in my throat as the little girl flashed into my mind. I had to find her and her father. I threw the lollipop on the floor and backed out of the cubicle. I took one last look at what was left of that kind woman and slowly walked away.
I managed to make my way through the maze unheeded by anyone or anything. I reached the stairs leading up to the storage room. I made my way up the steps, still watching my back for any enemies.
I reached the door reading “Storage” and quietly opened it. The room wasn’t as devastated as the other rooms I’d seen. There were papers blowing across the floor, but other than that, there seemed to be no disturbances. I spotted the shelves on the right side of the room; there were opened boxes lining the shelves, and I decided to see what I could scavenge from whatever was left.
I walked over to the racks and began my search, going from box to box. When I reached the third or fourth rack, I saw a large box begin to move in the far corner of the room. It shook vigorously for a few moments, and then all was still. There was no way I was going to be surprised by this monster.
I grasped the metal bar in my hand, holding it above my head. I walked cautiously towards the box, ready to swing at whatever sprung from it. I slid over to it, and it shook intensely for a second time as I came close. I grabbed the top of the box and pulled it away from its spot, metal bar ready to kill.
I was mid-swing when I heard a small voice cry, “No! Stop! Please don’t hurt me!” It was the little girl, trembling with fright. Large tears filled her pretty green eyes, and they forced me to drop the bar and bring her into my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck and said, “Daddy left to help, but he hasn’t come back! I’ve been here for a long time, and I’m scared Daddy’s hurt! I heard screaming outside a while ago, but it’s stopped now. Can you help me find Daddy?”
My mind jumped to the conclusion that her father had either become an infected or one of the corpses lying about the compound, but I had to give this scared little girl some hope. I told her, “Don’t worry. We’re going to find your daddy and get out of here. Let’s get going.”
I put the little girl down and stood up. I gave her a big smile of confidence and held my hand out to her. She placed her cold, slimy hand in mine and looked up at me with a hopeful smile. We scavenged through the racks of boxes, hoping to find anything. To my disappointment, all of the boxes I searched were empty.
The little girl was on her knees pulling a small box from underneath one of the nearby racks as I looked down. I knelt next her and asked, “Did you find anything?” She said, “I found this box hiding from me over here. Let’s look inside.”
The little girl seemed a lot braver and less scared; She wasn’t crying anymore, and was able to calmly smile up at me. That comforted me, because I was still worried about the creatures outside and her missing father.
I knelt next to her on the floor and helped her open the small box. To our surprise, we found the box to be full of gummy bear packages. That made me laugh cynically. I was expecting something useful, but we got gummy bears instead.
The little girl reached in and pulled a package out. She tore it open and started eating the candies inside. She looked up at me with a big smile and said, “Yummy! Do you want some?” I shook my head and told her I wasn’t very hungry. She finished the gummy bears and said we should take some with us. I consented to having her stick a package in her jacket and putting two or three of them into my own pockets.
After stuffing them in my pockets, I stood up and told the little girl, “Okay. We have to get going. We’re gonna go outside and look for your daddy. When we go downstairs you need to stay close to me and do exactly what I tell you to do. Okay?” She replied with a silent nod as she stood up in front of me. She grabbed my hand in hers and said, “Okay. Let’s go.”
I walked with her back to the metal bar I dropped and picked it back up with my right hand. Then we made our way to the door. I opened the door slowly. Everything was silent. I could see the stairs and the beginning of the maze of cubicles. We made our way down the stairs slowly, watching carefully for any movement. We reached the base of the stairs safely and began to proceed through the cubicles.
When we turned the second corner of the maze, I heard a shuffling noise somewhere behind us. We stopped in our tracks, listening for any more movement. We seemed to be waiting for an eternity. The little girl began to tug on my arm aggressively. I slowly turned my head to look around.
I saw an infected standing at the end of the aisle behind us. It wasn’t moving; it was waiting for more movement, just like we were. I had to make up my mind to do something. I began to slide my left foot forward along the floor, making as little noise as possible. The creature still heard me.
It turned its head, and I saw its white eyes widen and its nostrils flare. The expression on its face changed from one of curiosity to one of anger as it turned in our direction. It began to charge at us, its screams filling the air. I grabbed the little girl and yelled, “Run!”
We turned the nearest corner and sprinted down the aisle. After turning another corner, we ducked into the nearest cubicle. I placed the little girl underneath the desk and told her to stay put until I got back. She pulled herself into the dark shadows underneath the desk, almost disappearing completely.
I turned around and entered back into the aisle. The creature entered the aisle as I stepped out. I ran in the opposite direction of the monster and turned the nearest corner. I stepped into the nearest cubicle and prepared to strike with the metal bar in my hand. I could gauge where the creature was because its screams still cut through the air. I prepared to swing as I heard it getting closer and closer. It turned the corner and I swung with all my might.
I missed. The monster ducked as it ran past me. It stopped in its tracks and turned to face me. Green spittle was dripping from its gaping mouth. I got the bar ready for a second swing. The monster sprinted towards me, leaping in the air above me. I closed my eyes and swung.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the floor. The monster was a few feet behind me, lying on the ground. I could see the metal bar stuck in its ribcage, and a pool of blood was spreading on the floor. I got up and walked over to the creature. As I neared it, it began to twitch. The creature was dying, but it surely wasn’t dead. I pulled the knife out of my belt and prepared to slit its throat. As I reached down to grab its head, I heard a loud scream fill the room.
My mind immediately recalled the little girl I’d left. I left the dying creature lying there as I sprinted down the aisle, knife in hand. I returned back to where I placed the girl, but she wasn’t there. A cold sweat came over me, as did all the worst case scenarios of what could be happening to her at that moment. Another desperate cry reached my ears.
I turned and ran down multiple aisles, losing myself at every turn. I ran hard, calling out her name and hoping to find her at every turn I took. I finally began to hear her voice clearly. I heard her saying, “No! Please! No!”
I sprinted down the aisle and turned the corner. I saw the little girl backed up against a wall of the building, seeming to grow smaller and smaller with each passin
g second. Another abomination was caught in between us, keeping me from getting to her. The abomination had a broken leg that it was dragging alongside it. Yet it was rapidly sliding its presence across the aisle, inching closer and closer to the girl. I yelled out at the creature, trying to draw its attention. I was horrified when it turned around.
It was the girl’s father; he’d become an infected. Like the other infected I had beheld, the disease made him a new and grotesque creation. It was difficult to look at. The image of the kind, hard working man became enshrouded by the evil in front of me. He slouched over himself, letting blood and spittle stream from his mouth to the floor. His red shirt was vibrant against his pale, torn skin. His right leg had been torn as well, and I could see white a bone protruding from the leg. I saw his body heaved silently in the light of the room.
I watched on as he turned back in the direction of the girl and was almost on the verge of reaching her. The little girl was still crying aloud, pleading with her father not to hurt her. I stood there, stunned. I watched him move in on her, stretching out one of his disheveled hands towards her throat.
I got my wits and started to run in the direction of the monster. I sprinted down the aisle and leaped into the air, flying directly into him. I tackled him into the wall and smashed his head against it. Blood and slime flew from his head as he let out a blood-curdling scream. The little girl moved herself away from our fight, scooting herself against the wall of the nearest cubicle.
Even though he was weakened, the monster still had immense strength. He threw me from on top of himself, causing me to land some distance away. Then he leapt up and sprinted in my direction. Although he was limping, he still had the speed of a demon.
He caught me before I could get up. The monster flew into me, picking me up and tackling me through a cubicle and into the next one over. I was dazed. I could only hear the pounding of my heart and the screams of the little girl telling her infected father to stop hurting me.
He pinned me down on a pile of debris and let his cold, horrible spittle drip onto my face. He looked as if he was smiling at me, savoring the meal he was about to enjoy. His sick, demented smile struck fear into my body, causing me to panic and struggle.
I looked to my right, seeing my knife just out of reach. I clawed and pounded the ground, trying to bring it closer. I looked back into the white, evil eyes of my enemy, and his head was getting closer to mine, preparing to take a bite out of my neck. I continued to panic, seeing the end in sight.
Then, the little girl jumped on the back of the monster and reached for his face. She stuck her thumbs right into his soulless eyes, gouging them and causing fluid to leak from his eyes onto my face. The monster reared up, throwing the little girl from his back and loosening his grip on me.
I reached for my knife and grasped it. I sat up, knife in hand, and plunged it in the middle of his chest. This only knocked him back, allowing me to be on top again. I centered myself, pulled the knife from his chest, and made one huge stab right into his head. Blood spurted out of his head, landing all over the ground and my face.
The smile on the monster’s face faded as the life left his body. I wrenched the knife out of his head and tucked it back into my belt. The little girl was not far off, crying on the floor. I knelt beside her and placed my hand on her shoulder. She was crying intensely, consoling herself as she said, “He had to do it Daddy………..you were being such a meanie.”
I sat down next to her and let her cry for a few more moments. I rested my head against the wall and looked up into the light above me. This girl had just lost everything, just like I had. I hated myself because I had to be the one who took it away. I wiped the blood and tears off of my face and stood up. She was still crying.
I picked her up into my arms, and she put her arms around my neck. She said in my ear, “You won’t become a meanie like Daddy, will you?” I whispered calmly in her ear, affirming that I would never let that happen or leave her alone. I carried her in my arms away from the body of her dead father, disappearing around the corner closest to us. I carried her back to the main entrance of the building. That was the only way out of the hell we were in. There was no scratching or banging on the doors in front of us. I pulled the knife from my belt and clutched it tightly in my hand. I whispered in the little girl’s ear, saying, “Hold on tight, we’re getting out of here.”
I unlocked the door and opened it slowly. There was no life outside in the compound. Perhaps the creatures from before found better prey. I made my way completely outside as I cradled the girl in my arms. I took slow, careful steps as I crossed the compound, making little noise. I reached the backpack I dropped before and slung it over my shoulder.
A car was still idling nearby, waiting for me to drive it out of there. I opened the door of the car silently, and placed the girl in the passenger’s seat. I put the backpack at her feet and got in the car. I locked the doors and looked over at the little girl. She had a crushed look on her face, almost as if all the life had been drained from her body. I decided not to say anything.
I put my foot on the gas and drove us off the compound. I turned left, leading away from the city and the base. I looked back, watching the base disappear until it was only a speck off in the distance.
Tape #7