Gray's Cozy Nook

(My writing buddies seem to have plenty of challenges for me to use for blogging and exercise my brain, and apparently, they’re happy to challenge the horror element on me.)

READER’S DISCRETION IS ADVISED: This challenge will have action, certain scary situations, mild violence, and blood.

THE CHALLENGE: Symptoms of an unknown disease have started to appear in the hospital you currently work at, as one of the lead medical advisors you report it to the CDC. The next day after having made the report, the CDC, WHO, and the government have taken actions to quarantine everyone in the hospital including yourself. Whilst in quarantine, you start to see patients who are infected are starting showing vampiric psychosis or lycanthropy. 

Which otome husbands/characters are with you in this predicament?

Will you escape the quarantine zone?

WHO I AM QUARANTINED WITH:

Kasuza Hanai

Occupation:  MPD, SP Detective

Current Status: Quarantined at Hope Hospital

I stepped back from the sealed doors, my eyes still watching the havoc unfolding behind the small looking glass in the center of the gate. Crimson painted my scrubs and my gloved hands, the hands that were meant to save, this uniform that meant to be a hero to the people. Yet I was not a hero, not anymore, as I remembered what I had done to a patient behind those doors.

All of them, my kind, gentle and elderly patients… had become monsters from an unknown disease that they had contracted from a skilled nursing facility on Hope Hospital Grounds. Screams and cries for help ensued on the other side of the door, and yet, as I heard someone banging against walls inside the West Wing… I dare not open it.

Two days ago, I had sent a report to the CDC and WHO on regards to a strange illness that didn’t resemble anything I had ever seen. Patients’ first exhibited what looked to be a normal case of chickenpox at the time, however, the pustules would dissipate in less than 24 hours after appearing, and then patients would exhibit signs of hallucinations, grand delusions, and finally… lycanthropy or vampiric psychosis.

Over a time span of four days, the infected became violent and would purposely attack those around them in a brutal manner that resembled that of a wild animal. The first hospital staff to fall victim to the disease was Dr. Toshiyuki Sezaki, albeit his age could have been one of the main reasons and his health, he didn’t take the necessary precautions I had advised when I first explained the situation.

“Get away from the door, Cassidy!” I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was pulled roughly back into someone’s chest as I realized an infected was staring through the small window. It was one of the nurses, her eyes showed nothing but darkness as she tilted her head from side to side as she watched me and Kasuza Hanai through the glass. In a blink of an eye, she struck the glass, again and again as her own knuckle began to turn red.

“Get back,” pushing me away from the door Kasuza quickly began to place furniture and other medical equipment against the door. The slams against the glass getting louder as I heard more and more fists and bodies slamming into the postern. “Damn CDC,” I heard him complain as he pushed an MRI machine against the door, “Cassidy, stop daydreaming, I need you to focus right now!”

His voice snapped me back to reality as I realized the door wouldn’t hold for much longer as I heard a sickly groan coming from the other side. “Get your head in the game, Cass,” I chided myself as I forced myself into work mode and went to the nurse’s station and grabbed the first aid kit. Turning towards the narcotics dispenser, I ran my badge and punched in the override codes and dispensed morphine, ativan, soma, and a few other drugs into my possession.

Diving my fingers into the drawer, I grabbed syringes, bandages, and few antibiotics as the banging against the door ensued. Heart pounding in my chest, I thought quickly of what other supplies we could need just in case we ran into trouble.

“We gotta go, now!” Kasuza rushed to me, the weight of door moaned as more and more of the infected thrashed against it. Tossing the bag of medical supplies over my shoulder, we fled. Pushing open the exit doors, we immediately forced them to shut and bolted the doors down, at that moment I heard the door from the inside break as slithering and squirming bodies hit the floor. My heart pounded in my chest as I drew my card and pressed it against the scanner and entered the lockdown code.

A loud beep echoed around us as the doors engaged into a quarantine mode as the wave of infected individuals hit the door. I felt Hanai’s hand slip into my own as he tugged at me to move, with a nod we both dashed down the corridors.

“Damn!” Kasuza exclaimed as he saw the doors to the outside were barricaded and the windows were sealed, every turn we made, every exit was sealed, “the hell are they thinking!?”

I heard another crash from the floor above us as we continued our descent down the halls and towards the main foyer. The sounds of groans and snarls encompassed the corridors as we made brisk turns at each level, avoiding any casualties we could as we finally found the staff door that led to the main branch of Hope Hospital.

Pressing my key card against the door, we pushed it open and slammed it behind us as dead bodies of fellow colleagues and patients lay strewn about in heaps of blood and entrails. I swallowed my vomit as we continued to the goal.

Running towards the main gates of the hospital, I froze as red dots suddenly appeared on our bodies, looking ahead we saw men in military-like uniforms training their weapons at us. I held my hands up, “please let us out, we aren’t infected!” I shouted as the men didn’t move, only the thin glass remained between us as I felt the laser pointers on their weapons against my skin.

“We can’t do that ma’am, I’m sorry,” one of them shouted as I felt anxiety and anger begin to boil over, “I’m Nurse Grace Cassidy, I was the one who made the report to the CDC and WHO, I need to speak to whoever is f**king in charge of you idiots!”

“We don’t have time for small talk,” Hanai angrily gestured at the men, “they’re following us, are you stating you will also shoot innocent civilians in your attempt to protect the people?”

None of them moved as I glared them down, and another loud bang resounded behind us as sweat trickled down my neck as our time became even more limited. The doors I had managed to force into lockdown mode weren’t holding up as long as I wanted them too. I opened my mouth to protest again when a familiar figure shoved a few men out of the way, his energy recognizable from his old days as a gang leader. I felt a wave of relief as the man glared at the men surrounding the door and looked at us with concern.

 

“Stand down,” Kirisawa the head of MPD: Special Investigations Unit came forward as he saw both myself and Hanai, as I saw him withdraw something from his pocket, “this is a special order from Chief Nomura, they are allowed to–”

Both Hanai and I gasped as the doors behind us exploded, sending pieces of glass onto the floor as we saw the infected had made their way to the main hall of the hospital. How could that be? The doors should of held them off a bit longer, at least another thirty minutes longer, it was as if… No!

I pulled away from my suspicious thoughts and ran to one of the employee exits and fervidly began typing in the override code. It beeped red as I glared at it again and processed another code as a barrage of gunshots resounded behind me. Furniture, walls, and plaster exploded around me as I slammed a fist into the gadget and it finally turned green.

“HANAI! COME ON!” 

“Dammit!” Hanai shot another round and turned, reloading his gun as he followed after me, slamming the door behind us I entered the quarantine code and watched it flick to orange as the door sealed itself. Quickly, we ran down the length of the hall and I turned into one of the rooms and opened one of the windows, ” KIRISAWA!”

Hanai grabbed me from behind, “we need to get to safety, come on!”

I shook my head and called out again as I saw Kirisawa and Eiki look up to see me waving at them, immediately I pointed to the roof.

“UNDERSTOOD!”

I heard Eiki yell as I nodded and grabbed Hanai, forcefully dragged him to the emergency stairwell, blood roaring in my ears as we both raced up the stairs. A deafening crash erupted behind us as door after door flung open and the dead began to fill the halls. How? I felt panic bubbling in me as screeches and groans filled the once empty stairwell, my heart pounding as none of this was making sense.

How were these things getting through the hospital so quickly and finding us so fast? Blood splattered against my face as one of the infected came too close for comfort and was shot point blank.

The sounds of a chopper could be heard above us as we reached the final door and I slid my card to open the door.

“ACCESS DENIED”

My eyes widened in disbelief as I heard Hanai reload his gun, “what’s wrong?” He shouted as he fired another round as I slid my card again and punched in the override code.

“ACCESS DENIED”

“A computer error, I can handle it!” I managed to state as I struggled to input any of the hospital codes into the door but the loud buzzer noise echoed in my ears as the door continued to deny us. That feeling of anxiety and suspicion barreled through me as every code was rejected by the door, I glanced upwards to see the security camera trained on us as I tried to make the door open.

The feeling that someone was purposely tampering with the security systems to purposely put us in danger sickened me, but as the last code I typed in failed to open the door. It became clear that the infected weren’t our only enemies in this hospital.

“I’m sorry Hanai,” I turned to him, a look of concern on his face as I grabbed his gun and kicked one of the infected backwards into the swarm.

“What are you thinking–!?” He didn’t have time to speak as one of the infected came close and he slammed his fist into the side of their head knocking the enemy back and into a couple of stragglers reaching for us.

Taking poor aim at the device on the door, I fired three shots into the lock and watched it short circuit. Without hesitation I drove my fingers into the small hole I had created, hot metal bit into my flesh as I reached for the release valve inside the mechanism. Blood began to pour down my fingers as I forced my hand further into the door until I finally felt the surface of the manual release.

“GRACE!” I heard Hanai yell as I pressed the button and the door swung open with my weight, pulling my hand out as both of us ran towards a chopper that was circling above us. Looking up I saw Tennoji unraveling the ladder to us and motioning for us to run as he drew his own weapon and began shooting the infected.

Swinging my arm around I fired the last remaining rounds into the patients I had cared for, as Kasuza grabbed the ladder from the helicopter and grabbed my bleeding hand. I felt myself stumble as my knees hit the ground from the sudden action he caused, a horrifying screech echoed behind me as the helicopter pulled upwards and my legs dangled beneath me as we lifted off the roof.

“Hold on!”

Hanai dug his fingers into my skin as he pulled me up against him, “don’t do something stupid like that again!” He snarled at me as he held me close, my face pressing against his chest as we were slowly pulled into the chopper.

The hospital drew farther away as we heard the echoes of gunfire explode beneath us. Hanai kept a firm grip around my body as we both laid against the hull of the craft a sigh of relief left his lips. His warmth enveloping me as I looked down and felt a wave a guilt wash over me, my eyes staring at my bloodied hands again.

All the tension, fear, and anxiety finally surged forward and the sting of tears reached my eyes as I felt them finally slide down my cheeks…