My name is Natalie Palmer. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. I mean that's why I'm here, but you're a total stranger and there's nothing you can do to change anything. Still, I feel like something's bottled up inside of me and if I don't let it out I'll die. *giggle*... I have to tell someone and since that's how all of this works, you're the lucky person.
I work... well, I
worked
at the state mental hospital. The main one, on El Paso Street. I've been there for twenty-four years, right out of high school. It's a nice place to work. My boss, Dr. Freemont is a good person. I mean, she can be a little tough, but that's what a boss does, right? I really like her. She's seen me through a failed marriage, a daughter (now twenty-two years old), and now this. She's been a mother-figure when I wanted it, a rock when I needed it, and a Doctor when all else fails. She always says "good morning" and takes a serious interest in her employees. A few people have come and gone over the years, but not me. I was in it for the long haul.
A few days ago, I had lunch with my daughter and her fiancé, Hunter. They talked non-stop about their impending wedding and I smiled and nodded and was a supportive mother. Jennifer knew how I felt about men. I even warned her when she started dating this husky redneck, but when they got serious I toned it way down. I mean, just because I soured on marriage doesn't mean that I have to show it to someone as idealistic and sweet as my Jennifer and her big, dumb soon-to-be spouse.
Jennifer is a beautiful young lady, with long, straight red hair (just like mine), and a body that could get a girl into trouble if she wasn't as level-headed as my daughter. Hunter was a big, husky, blond good ol' boy, just a little too much like my ex, but what can I say? A lot of girls end up marrying their fathers and we both like 'em big and stupid. I thought Hunter was a good person, so I overlooked a lot of things that I felt weren't his fault, just my jaded opinions.
I didn't date at that point. I kept myself up out of habit but I didn't have a single hot outfit to my name and I couldn't have found a pair of heels in my closet if my life depended on it. My ex, Richard, had pretty much destroyed whatever faith I'd once had in men, although I had always known that they were creeps. Not a one of them could keep his dick in his pants. Not my dad (as my mother told me), not Richard, not even Phillip, that "nice guy" I dated a couple of years ago and who I found in bed with some stripper one night. That was pretty much the capper, and the end of my dating career. All I needed now was BOB (my Battery-Operated Boyfriend), who pretty much attended to my needs without demanding that I cater to his whims. The only thing BOB needed was fresh batteries.
After that lunch, as I was walking into the hospital building, I stopped and stared at the crowd around the main elevators. It gets busy here about this time, but somebody must have opened up the floodgates. You'd think we had a celebrity caged up here with all the cameras and lights and maybe we did. It wouldn't be the first time. Fortunately, having worked here long enough, I knew where the gurney elevator was, so I made a quick move to the stairs and took one flight up to where it was easily accessible. Easy and quiet. The gurney-vator hadn't been upgraded when the main ones were a few years ago, and it moved very slowly, so I was sure I'd be the only one on it.
I waited so long I could have climbed the stairs to the fifth floor on my own. I heard the "ding" and the doors s-l-o-w-l-y slid open. I walked in and pressed the button and they s-l-o-w-l-y slid closed. There were doors on both sides of the gurney elevator, and both sides closed with a laziness that defied description. Still, just before they managed to close completely, a woman in street clothes got on.
Most patients here are pretty safe, and it's not uncommon to see them wandering the halls of the upper floors, but never this far down, and never fully clothed. She wasn't wearing a gown, she was wearing this really trashy outfit and I thought she might be a hooker. I knew she had to be a patient from her demeanor. She was about my age, with short, black hair and wild eyes that darted from side-to-side. Her hair was matted to her face, covered in sweat and her heavy make-up smeared. She had an impressive set of breasts, showcased in a low-cut dress and threatening to burst out. Alarm bells were going off in my head, but I knew better than to make any sudden moves. I very slowly inched back toward the doors on the other side and the waiting panic button. I nodded politely, a plastic smile on my face.
The woman would have none of it. With surprising speed, she lept forward and knocked me back against the doors behind me. Her ragged breath smelled of booze and cigarettes and I wondered where she had gotten either of them in the hospital.
"They're after me," she breathed, her eyes darting around. "They want what I got, what I got, what I got... They want it. Want it. Want it, got to get it, pretty boys."
"Please," I said, trying to steady my voice. "I'll help you, just please calm down."
She grabbed my hand and dug her long fingernails into it, breaking the skin and drawing some blood. Then she licked the scratches! She giggled maniacally. "I have the fever, got the fever, get the fever, pretty boys. Now you have it too!" The doors slowly opened on the third floor and my would-be captor jumped out, knocking over an orderly and racing down the hall.
The orderly was Jimmy, a kid of about twenty, with a shaved head and a bony frame. I'd seen him around a few times and he was always very polite, but dripping wet he couldn't have weighed more than 130 pounds. He was an easy target for the madwoman to knock over. I managed to help him up and he started yelling "Hey, she's here! She's on Third, East Wing!" Jimmy bolted for the stairs and raced downward, leaving me confused and breathing hard with excitement. I got back onto the elevator and shaking, made my way up to the fifth-floor office.
"You look like shit," Elloise said as I staggered into Dr. Freemont's office from the staff entrance. Elloise was about nineteen and blonde in appearance and demeanor. She was a nice enough girl, but she wasn't going to give Einstein much in the way of mental competition. Or Pee Wee Herman for that matter.
"Gee, thanks," I muttered, sinking into the closest chair. Elloise got me some water and crouched down to look at me and make sure I was all right.
"What happened?"
"There's some lunatic loose in the building," I said. I looked at the "quarter jar" on the counter beside my computer. Every time we said "lunatic" or "nutjob" or any other derrogatory term about a mental patient, Dr. Freemont insisted on a quarter. We generally used the money to buy sodas from the vending machine, but the point was well-taken. I'd give her a quarter later.
"Yeah, I heard," Elloise said. "They told everyone to stay in their offices and lock the doors. The CDC is out there too, according to Mina."
"The CDC?"
