A short story by E.H. Esguerra (April 2020)

“We’ve done it, I hope” the doctor said with worry, as he got the antidote for the disease that had plagued the whole world for the past four months. It has been difficult these past few months but after today everything is going to be alright, or so they thought.

The patient started coughing severely, they injected the person with the serum, they immediately fell unconscious on their hospital bed. The room went silent and all that could be heard was the beeping of the heart monitor, after a few seconds he flat lined on the bed. The doctor put his head down in disappointment, he let another patient die of this virus. Suddenly, the patient opened their eyes then started to growl and the doctor looked up and saw the patient alive, but the heart monitor was still flat, he was confused. The patient turned his head towards the doctor, sat up and got out of the bed before attacking the doctor violently. The doctor was shocked to see him walking around as he laid on the ground gasping for air and losing blood, he reached for the intercom, but it was too late, he was slipping out of consciousness. The undead person roamed the halls of the hospital, no one payed attention to him until he got to the front desk.

“Excuse me sir, where are you going?” The receptionist asked, the undead looked over and headed towards the desk, groaning at the receptionist.

All he could hear was mumbling as he lunged at the receptionist. The nearby hospital staff looked on in horror as the patient was attacking the receptionist. Two security guards came in and grabbed the undead by the arm not realizing what they were dealing with. They tasered the undead but that didn’t do anything. It chomped down on one of the guard’s arms. Suddenly, a scream rose from down the hall where an orderly who discovered the doctor was being attacked. Moments later the doctor turned the corner slowly as an undead person does. The guard who had been bitten opened his eyes, stood up, slouched and started walking slowly towards the door, growling.

“Help! Help!” Something has gone wrong; we need back up!” The receptionist said before she fell unconscious and turned.

Dave was at the station when he got the frantic voicemail from the hospital.

‘Help! Help! Something has gone wrong; we need back up!’ it said, he pressed the button to talk

“Hello, is there someone I can talk to?” He asked but no answer, “Hello, come in, that’s an order” He said then he got up and grabbed his gun, he alerted his partner Tom to help him check out what’s going on at the hospital.

When they got there, they saw somebody walking slowly and limping a little, they saw the lab coat and realised that it was the doctor. They raced over to him and tapped him on the shoulder, the doctor turned around, growled and stared at them before attacking Dave’s partner. Dave shot the doctor twice in the chest but it seemed to do nothing but just aggravate him more as he saw that thing which was clearly not the doctor tore up his partner who was screaming in pain. The doctor finished with Dave’s partner he turned his head and looked at him, then screeched loud and charged at Dave. Dave started shooting at the doctor, but it was no use, it just seemed to slow the doctor down. Dave chucked the gun at the doctor but that did nothing either and the doctor just charged at him and toppled him to the ground, Dave just tried to keep him away from his face. The doctor bit Dave’s hand but Dave still was not letting the doctor get to his face. Just as he was about to let go a big bang happened near them and that got the doctor’s attention, he looked over and saw that there was two other people coming from the distance. The doctor let go of Dave and charged at the on comers and got shot right in the head and fell to the ground instantly. They raced over to where Dave was.

“Did it bite you?” The female asked, Dave nodded and showed them the bite, they both looked at it and then looked at each other. “We need to cut that off now, before it becomes more infected” She explained, as she handed Dave something to bite down on, Dave just nodded his head like he was saying do it.

The man grabbed his hatchet and with one good swing he cut his hand off. Dave was tearing up then relaxed himself, they removed the cloth from his mouth.

“Are you ok?” The man asked trying to be friendly, Dave just nodded. “You got a name, stranger?” He asked as he picked Dave up.

“Dave, and thank you by the way” He answered, the man just smiled.

“The name’s Matt and the woman over there is my wife, Helen, and your welcome, we’ve got a farm close to here, with a couple of survivors, just like yourself, if you want to join” He explained as he looked at Dave and put his hand out for a shake, Dave reached for it with the one hand he had left, and shook Matt’s hand, they headed towards the forest and to the farm.

They made it back to the farm, Matt led Dave into the barn where the people were hiding out, he opened the barn door and everyone in the barn went silent and just stared at Dave walking in.

“Guys this is Dave, he was at the west end hospital when this all happened” Matt explained and Dave looked around there was a mother and her baby, an Asian looking fella, and a kid.

That night they got all acquainted with each other.

“The name’s Han” Said the Asian guy.

“Stella and the baby’s name is Max” The mother said as she kissed her baby on the forehead.

“My name’s Tom” Said the boy.

“Well, my name is David, I’m a cop, I don’t know exactly what’s going on” He explained.

“Well for starter’s the dead’s walking, so that’s one thing” Han said.

There was a silence, then a knock on the door, it was Matt.

“Dinner is served” He said as he brought in a massive plate of meat.

“Thank you” Said Dave, everyone chimed in to say thanks, Matt smiled and left.

All of them started digging in and having a conversation with each other, there was laughing, there were tears. They finished up their conversation, turned off the light and went to bed. When Dave fell asleep one piece of advice really stuck with him during the conversation, something from Han.

‘When in doubt, always go for the head’ And this piece of advice would help him a lot in the future.