I wake up in a panic and notice I'm in a room I'm not accustomed to. I get out of bed and realize I'm in a hospital room. I look around and see a bag on the floor. I look in and change into the clothes provided which are clothes I recognize as my own. I throw the patient's robe on the bed and open the hospital room door.
"Hello?" I say as I exit the room. "Can someone help me?" I wait a few seconds and don't get a response. I then notice that there's absolutely no one around and all the lights are out. "Hello?" I say again. Still...no response. I make my way to the elevator and after hitting the down button a few times, realize that it's not going to work either. Power must be out.
I find the stairs and head down to the main floor. As I exit onto the main floor, I again realize no one is around. I'm headed for the exit when I hear a sound. It sounds like a low grumbling sound so I head towards it. It ends up being behind a locked hospital room door so I peer into the glass and notice someone looking out the window. I knock on the glass.
"Hello?" I yell through the glass. The person turns around and comes towards the door still making the growling sound. When they finally make it to the door, I notice how ugly this person is. "Who are you?" The person bangs his head on the glass and makes a louder grumbling. "Stop, you're going to hurt yourself!" He bangs his head again, cracking the glass. "Fuck this!" I turn around a rush out of the hospital.
I look around a notice a bunch of abandoned cars and some crashed cars. "What the fuck happened here?" I say to myself. I look around and try to find my truck but don't see it anywhere. I do realize I'm at the hospital about five miles from my apartment so I decide to make the trek back home. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to the apartment and on the way I noticed more crashed cars, broken in houses and shops, and some small house fires.
I make it to my floor and realize I didn't check the bag at the hospital for my keys. Luckily, I live on the first floor. I find the bedroom window and take a rock from outside and break the window. I crawl inside and notice that my apartment hasn't been touched. "Serenity?" I call to my cat. To my surprise, she walks into the bedroom purring. "Thank god I found someone." I smile and pick her up and set her on my shoulders. "What happened here girl?" She responds with a meow and nuzzles my cheek. "Me neither girl, me neither."
I rummage around the apartment for a couple hours, throwing stuff into a duffle bag and a back pack of mine. I grab my rifle, pistol, and some ammo and throw the rifle and ammo in the duffle bag and clip the pistol on my hip. I then find Serenity's harness and a leash and get her all set. "I know you hate this thing but I can't have you running off on me." She just meows and surprisingly lets me put it on her. "Good girl!" I sat, petting her on the head. I make my way to the kitchen and throw some food in the duffle bag and grab the cat food. "No wonder why you're still here and alive...and I little heavier. You chewed your way into this bag." I find some Walmart bags and pour a bunch of the food in them and throw them in the duffle.
"OK, I think we're ready." I say to Serenity. "Let's head out." I snatch the spare key to the apartment from the drop table and head out the door. Again, there's no one around. "Where to girl?" Again, a meow and a nuzzle. "I agree. Let's see if Tom and Angela are at home." Tom and Angela are childhood friends that ended up getting married. They live about ten miles away so if I'm lucky, I can make it there before nightfall. "We gotta hurry girl." I take off at a fast walk and head towards their home.
We make it about halfway before trouble finds us. I once again here a low grumbling and so does Serenity. I know to keep quite and keep moving but Serenity is a curious cat and doesn't. She looks towards the grumbling and meows quite loudly. I shush her but it doesn't do any good and she meows again. I keep moving hoping no one heard anything but am not so lucky. Out between the building walks a naked man, still grumbling. "Sir, are you alright?" No answer as he continues to walk towards me. I grab my pistol and point it at him. "Sir, don't come any closer. Are you alright?" Again, the man acts like he doesn't hear anything and keeps coming closer. I fire a shot at his feet but it doesn't have an effect. "Sir, I'll tell you one more time, don't come any closer!" Again, nothing. So I shoot him in the leg but he acts like he didn't feel it and keeps coming towards me. "I'm sorry." I say, right before I shoot him between the eyes. He falls over backwards and doesn't make anymore movements.
"What the fuck is going on her Serenity?" She just meows back and stays on alert. "Me too girl, me too." We walk the rest of the way to Tom and Angela's house and make it right before the sun goes down. I go to the door and knock a couple times. No answer. I knock again and still no answer. "Tom?" I yell through the door. "Angela?" I wait a few seconds and hear footsteps. The door opens and Angela is standing there, shocked. She hugs me and starts crying. "Angela, what the heck is going on around here? It's like the town has been abandoned and there's weird people who seem like they've gone mad."
Angela let's go of me and wipes her eyes. "You haven't heard?"
"Heard what? I woke up in a hospital and the next thing I know, no one's around." She motions for me to come in. I do as she says and she locks and deadbolts the door behind me.
"There was an infection that spread rapidly about three months ago. Most people either fled the United States or died. A select few of us, like me, couldn't catch a ride out and now we're stuck in here." She grabs a map and sets it on the table. "Supposedly, everything in this red circle is infected zone. They're not letting anyone out anymore so whoever is inside is stuck here."
"Hold on, where's Tom?" I look around noticing no one else is around. "Where are the kids?"
"The kids were with grandma and grandpa when it happened. They were able to get them out." Angela starts crying again but doesn't say anything else.
"Angela, where's Tom?" I look at her, concerned.
"He was part of the squad that was to go and stop the infection from spreading." She says through sobs. "Before the power went out, Matt called me and said that they were fighting off some of the infected but he got separated from Tom. When he went back, he said he saw a bunch of dead men but they weren't recognizable due to those infected chewing through them. He did say one of the bodies had Tom's gun next to it. Tom's dead!" She starts balling and I grab her and pull her in and hold her.
"I'm so sorry Angela." I start to tear up. "I can't believe all of this happened and I was stuck in a hospital. I could have been there for him."
