07-14-2016, 11:03 AM
The streets were ill lit, and with one of the group cuffed, one of them leaning looking very poorly and another grimly holding the cuffed one ahead of her, the remaining two huddled together nervously.
Carmelita’s eyepiece displayed a picture of the map to her as they travelled. A left turn, then a right turn, and she kept glancing around for any sign of ambush. Nothing stirred. There was the sound of distant crashes, but it sounded more like buildings collapsing than a fight, so they pressed on.
The hospital hove into view, the green glow of the cross above the entrance the only light visible. Together, the group made their way to the front doors, which opened silently at their approach.
“Amber, how’re you holding up?” Carmelita asked, glancing down at the slumped shoulders of Jess.
“I’m running off quiet rage and disgust at the moment, but I feel terrible. I think… I lost a chunk of skin a bit back. My arm’s raw and exposed, and it hurts numbly.” Amber followed her statement with a soft string of curses.
There was a squelch, and Jazz examined her boot with distaste.
“Ew, gross. Dog shhhhaaaah!”
The near scream came as Carmelita illuminated what the woman had stepped in: a dead body, rotting on the sidewalk. Handing Jess over to Jonah, Carmelita crouched down and examined the man.
He wore military garments, and had a fairly large hole blown through his head. Carmelita squinted at him, working out how he’d fallen, and lined up the shot with one of the upper windows.
“There was a fight here. Stay sharp. Amber, you still good to wield your gun?”
The faunus nodded, steadfastly avoiding looking at the body and watching for any movement inside. Sharing a look, the two led the way into the hospital, weapons at the ready.
As they entered, the lights flickered on automatically to reveal a bloodbath. The entire reception was filled with bodies, uniforms of police blue, military green and hospital white mixed with patient scrubs and civilian clothing under a blanket of gore. A cloud of flies rose from the bodies at the light, buzzing as the stench rolled over the group.
“Madre de dios…” Carmelita whispered, horrified at the sight. Behind her there was the sound of retching and crying, while to her left Amber’s skin became even more pale than it already had been. “Jonah, Jazz, I’m going to ask you to keep an eye on Jess. We’ll situate you in the house opposite, so sit tight there. If we’re not back by mid-day, head to the radio tower and wait for Arturia.”
Meekly, the Syntech employees nodded, and without further comment followed Carmelita and Amber across to a small townhouse and huddled in one of the rooms. Carmelita eyed the cuffs on Jess, but left them there: she’d have to make do with the two pairs she had on her.
As Carmelita and Amber headed back into the hospital, the faunus gave Carmelita a glance.
“What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”
---
The two prowled through the hospital. After the massacre in the reception, the two were unsurprised to find bodies lying in the hallways and in the wards. Carmelita kept taking pictures, saving them under the title ‘Hospital Incident’.
It was as they were entering one the main operating theatre that they found the first outlyer. All the previous bodies had been killed through gunfire or blunt trauma, but there was something off about the woman who lay face down in the doorframe. Carmelita gingerly turned her over.
The woman’s face was hideously warped. The nose had twisted to the left, her eyes were twice as big as her eye sockets and her teeth were razor sharp and way too small for her mouth. Carmelita clamped down on the horror and thrust it to one side in her mind, instead methodically taking pictures and returning the body to its previous position.
A glance at Amber showed the faunus was not nearly as composed, as she leant against a wall, shaking slightly. Carmelita, however, took a moment to compare the faunus with the woman by her feet and was slightly concerned that the swelling of her skin was not impossible to correlate with the contortions of the woman by her feet.
“We’re changing direction, we’re going to pathology,” she decided. “We need to find the case files.”
The two took off down a corridor, lights flickering on. Both of them were jogging now, a sense of urgency filling them, as if the tragedies they were seeing were occurring just out of hearing and if they could only catch them up they could stop them.
They passed the delivery ward (neither of them wanted to look in there) and headed past the pediatric ward. A young boy lay in the corridor, innards distorted and visible through a great gaping hole in his chest, and Carmelita took a moment to document the grisly spectacle before continuing.
At the stairs, the sign for pathology pointed upstairs. Carmelita took the steps two at a time, followed by Amber, and they ground to a halt at the top of the steps.
The corridor they now looked down had windows, and all the way down the windows lay shattered, bullet holes lining the walls. Patients and military personnel lay dead, another choke point not dissimilar to the reception filled with a bloodbath.
The two gingerly made their way over the mess and into the main ward. The beds were full, some of them seating two or three to a single bed. Horrible claw marks accompanied frenzied signs of fighting, and warped flesh that resembled everything from granite to hair was visible on every body.
Carmelita pushed her emotions down, taking photo after photo. Amber gulped and closed her eyes, turning to cover the doorway.
Carmelita crossed the room, and found a nurse slumped over a desk in the back midway through writing a final note. She eased the file out and flicked through the last few pages.
‘8/9/22, infected numbers increased from nine to twelve. Aside from the usual symptoms, they are becoming more irritated than usual. Increased medication dosage for patient zero and patient five.
10/9/22, overheard Doctor Bondsen talking with one of the researchers from pharmaceuticals. Apparently he was concerned that the disease might have been one of the bugs they were trying to cure, but they said there was no leak.
12/9/22, Doctor Bondsen went down to the basement to talk to pharmaceuticals again, then called to say he was taking a sick day. Patients are becoming much more sickly, and with the increase in numbers we’ve taken on additional nurses from other departments.
17/9/22, had to restrain patient zero today. The man tried to attack Dolly when she gave him his breakfast. Keeps complaining that the twisting inside of him is trying to get out.
19/9/22, the ward is full and the other departments are reporting their patients have begun exhibiting symptoms. We called town hall, and they quarantined the hospital. The police force set up a cordon, but pharmaceuticals says they’re near a breakthrough to cure this disease.
20/9/22, I don’t know why, but the men from the military base turned up with the cops. The patients have been getting even worse, and even some of the staff are being confined to their beds. Patient zero got hold of a knife and had to be put down.
21/9/22, everything’s gone crazy. Pharmaceuticals rang to say they had a cure, but the patients suddenly rioted. I hid in the closet, but I can hear gunfire coming closer.
22/9/22, I got hit by a gunshot. I’m bleeding out, but if someone finds this, I think there’s a cure in pharmaceuticals. I still hear gunfire and screams from the rest of the hospital, and patient three is still alive in here. She keeps screaming at me, but I’m ignoring her. Too tired to do anything else.’
Carmelita went to the door, and handed the folder to Amber.
“We need to get to the basement.”
As Amber opened her mouth to reply, an unearthly shriek sounded from elsewhere in the hospital. The two glanced at each other before readying themselves for combat.
Carmelita’s eyepiece displayed a picture of the map to her as they travelled. A left turn, then a right turn, and she kept glancing around for any sign of ambush. Nothing stirred. There was the sound of distant crashes, but it sounded more like buildings collapsing than a fight, so they pressed on.
The hospital hove into view, the green glow of the cross above the entrance the only light visible. Together, the group made their way to the front doors, which opened silently at their approach.
“Amber, how’re you holding up?” Carmelita asked, glancing down at the slumped shoulders of Jess.
“I’m running off quiet rage and disgust at the moment, but I feel terrible. I think… I lost a chunk of skin a bit back. My arm’s raw and exposed, and it hurts numbly.” Amber followed her statement with a soft string of curses.
There was a squelch, and Jazz examined her boot with distaste.
“Ew, gross. Dog shhhhaaaah!”
The near scream came as Carmelita illuminated what the woman had stepped in: a dead body, rotting on the sidewalk. Handing Jess over to Jonah, Carmelita crouched down and examined the man.
He wore military garments, and had a fairly large hole blown through his head. Carmelita squinted at him, working out how he’d fallen, and lined up the shot with one of the upper windows.
“There was a fight here. Stay sharp. Amber, you still good to wield your gun?”
The faunus nodded, steadfastly avoiding looking at the body and watching for any movement inside. Sharing a look, the two led the way into the hospital, weapons at the ready.
As they entered, the lights flickered on automatically to reveal a bloodbath. The entire reception was filled with bodies, uniforms of police blue, military green and hospital white mixed with patient scrubs and civilian clothing under a blanket of gore. A cloud of flies rose from the bodies at the light, buzzing as the stench rolled over the group.
“Madre de dios…” Carmelita whispered, horrified at the sight. Behind her there was the sound of retching and crying, while to her left Amber’s skin became even more pale than it already had been. “Jonah, Jazz, I’m going to ask you to keep an eye on Jess. We’ll situate you in the house opposite, so sit tight there. If we’re not back by mid-day, head to the radio tower and wait for Arturia.”
Meekly, the Syntech employees nodded, and without further comment followed Carmelita and Amber across to a small townhouse and huddled in one of the rooms. Carmelita eyed the cuffs on Jess, but left them there: she’d have to make do with the two pairs she had on her.
As Carmelita and Amber headed back into the hospital, the faunus gave Carmelita a glance.
“What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”
---
The two prowled through the hospital. After the massacre in the reception, the two were unsurprised to find bodies lying in the hallways and in the wards. Carmelita kept taking pictures, saving them under the title ‘Hospital Incident’.
It was as they were entering one the main operating theatre that they found the first outlyer. All the previous bodies had been killed through gunfire or blunt trauma, but there was something off about the woman who lay face down in the doorframe. Carmelita gingerly turned her over.
The woman’s face was hideously warped. The nose had twisted to the left, her eyes were twice as big as her eye sockets and her teeth were razor sharp and way too small for her mouth. Carmelita clamped down on the horror and thrust it to one side in her mind, instead methodically taking pictures and returning the body to its previous position.
A glance at Amber showed the faunus was not nearly as composed, as she leant against a wall, shaking slightly. Carmelita, however, took a moment to compare the faunus with the woman by her feet and was slightly concerned that the swelling of her skin was not impossible to correlate with the contortions of the woman by her feet.
“We’re changing direction, we’re going to pathology,” she decided. “We need to find the case files.”
The two took off down a corridor, lights flickering on. Both of them were jogging now, a sense of urgency filling them, as if the tragedies they were seeing were occurring just out of hearing and if they could only catch them up they could stop them.
They passed the delivery ward (neither of them wanted to look in there) and headed past the pediatric ward. A young boy lay in the corridor, innards distorted and visible through a great gaping hole in his chest, and Carmelita took a moment to document the grisly spectacle before continuing.
At the stairs, the sign for pathology pointed upstairs. Carmelita took the steps two at a time, followed by Amber, and they ground to a halt at the top of the steps.
The corridor they now looked down had windows, and all the way down the windows lay shattered, bullet holes lining the walls. Patients and military personnel lay dead, another choke point not dissimilar to the reception filled with a bloodbath.
The two gingerly made their way over the mess and into the main ward. The beds were full, some of them seating two or three to a single bed. Horrible claw marks accompanied frenzied signs of fighting, and warped flesh that resembled everything from granite to hair was visible on every body.
Carmelita pushed her emotions down, taking photo after photo. Amber gulped and closed her eyes, turning to cover the doorway.
Carmelita crossed the room, and found a nurse slumped over a desk in the back midway through writing a final note. She eased the file out and flicked through the last few pages.
‘8/9/22, infected numbers increased from nine to twelve. Aside from the usual symptoms, they are becoming more irritated than usual. Increased medication dosage for patient zero and patient five.
10/9/22, overheard Doctor Bondsen talking with one of the researchers from pharmaceuticals. Apparently he was concerned that the disease might have been one of the bugs they were trying to cure, but they said there was no leak.
12/9/22, Doctor Bondsen went down to the basement to talk to pharmaceuticals again, then called to say he was taking a sick day. Patients are becoming much more sickly, and with the increase in numbers we’ve taken on additional nurses from other departments.
17/9/22, had to restrain patient zero today. The man tried to attack Dolly when she gave him his breakfast. Keeps complaining that the twisting inside of him is trying to get out.
19/9/22, the ward is full and the other departments are reporting their patients have begun exhibiting symptoms. We called town hall, and they quarantined the hospital. The police force set up a cordon, but pharmaceuticals says they’re near a breakthrough to cure this disease.
20/9/22, I don’t know why, but the men from the military base turned up with the cops. The patients have been getting even worse, and even some of the staff are being confined to their beds. Patient zero got hold of a knife and had to be put down.
21/9/22, everything’s gone crazy. Pharmaceuticals rang to say they had a cure, but the patients suddenly rioted. I hid in the closet, but I can hear gunfire coming closer.
22/9/22, I got hit by a gunshot. I’m bleeding out, but if someone finds this, I think there’s a cure in pharmaceuticals. I still hear gunfire and screams from the rest of the hospital, and patient three is still alive in here. She keeps screaming at me, but I’m ignoring her. Too tired to do anything else.’
Carmelita went to the door, and handed the folder to Amber.
“We need to get to the basement.”
As Amber opened her mouth to reply, an unearthly shriek sounded from elsewhere in the hospital. The two glanced at each other before readying themselves for combat.