Chapter 16

The car ride was deathly silent as we rode along a slightly deserted road. We were flanked on both sides by a lush green forest. I cracked open the window to feel a breeze, and was slapped in the face with a cold wind. I shivered before rolling up the window. We must be getting into fall, I thought to myself.

We had been driving for a good ten minutes before we finally saw the big red cross indicating the Hospital finally appear on the horizon. We passed a sign that read "Fortune Regional Hospital" as we sped down the road. The gate that indicated hospital grounds was quickly rushing up to meet us, and we slowed down to a stop in front of the big yellow bars. I had never really been conscious whenever we got to this point, but, I imagine someone was supposed to come out, or open the gate. No such luck.

Mino had a questioning look on her face, and she shut off the car as we both got out to investigate. There was a small guardhouse off the side of the road, where I imagine they have the controls for the gate, along with a chair and camera for the guard. I gestured for Mino to wait by the car as I slowly stalked towards said guardhouse. "Hello?" I called out.

In response, all I heard was a small, wet sound. It almost sounded like someone was gurgling water. I took small steps towards the open door, but stopped cold when I noticed a dark red liquid slowly seeping out and falling down the two little steps the guardhouse had. It dripped onto the gravel below it, staining it a dark red. I approached the open doorway and took a peek inside, and almost threw up everything I had in my stomach.

There was definitely a security guard there, but there wasn't much left of him. His face looked like it had been right next to an explosive as it went off. The skin seemed to open and curl out from the middle of his face where his nose was, blossoming outward like a flower fresh from spring. The skin was rough and jagged, like it had been hacked at by something that was irregular in shape, and the rest of his body wasn't much better.

One of his arms was missing at the crease of his elbow, and his other arm had three large chunks missing out of it, the bone peeking out at me through a mass of deformed muscles and tissue. I backed out of the guard house holding my mouth. The vomit threatened to rise up through my throat and onto the ground below, but I suppressed it. Mino quickly noticed something was wrong, and dashed over to peek inside the guardhouse herself. While she didn't react as strongly as I did, her face noticeably paled in comparison to before.

She slightly stumbled backwards before shaking her head and turning to me. "We keep going on foot, if there are monsters around here, we don't want to let them know we're here." She then proceeded to step around the yellow bars that made up the gate and started lightly jogging down the road. I slowly swallowed down the little bit of vomit that was coming up my throat. I slapped myself in the face lightly before following after her.

She had stepped off the road at this point and was running alongside the tree line. "Stick close to the tree's, makes it easier to hide if we need to." I stepped into stride behind her as we slowly got close to the hospital.

I glanced behind me at the sun slowly dipping lower and lower into the sky. From what I can tell, it was becoming late afternoon. I turned my gaze forward towards Mino before huffing out, "Hey, so what exactly is happening here? How did you know something was wrong?" She jogged for a few steps before answering. "I got a phone call. I couldn't make out anything that was said, but I heard the sounds of struggling, and….." She stopped for a second before continuing. "Gunshots. I hadn't thought it was that serious, but this might be bigger than I thought."

I thought about what she said before asking another question. "Wh-Why did they call you?" She answered this one immediately, like she had already thought of it. "I don't know, but most likely we were the most recent Selected in that Hospital, and they thought we could handle what was happening, and not the cops. But I don't know for sure."

Then I thought popped into my head, and I started to panic for a second before continuing. "What about Zach?! What if he's already here, what if he needs help?" My sudden concern surprised me. I hadn't realized how dependent I had become on his presence watching my back this past month, but his support had been reassuring, more than I realized.

Mino didn't even sound like she was extremely concerned about it, but she said "Call him, you have his number, right?" So I pulled out my phone and tried to launch a call. He didn't pick up. I tried again. This time it went straight to voicemail without ringing. Before I could voice my concern, Mino came to a deadstop in front of me. I almost ran into her back while slipping my phone into my pocket, waving my arms in the air as I almost fell forward.

I glanced over her shoulder and saw the reason for her stopping. Ahead, an ambulance was flipped on its side, the back door open to the outside air. Its lights were on, but no sound was coming out. But, that wasn't the main reason for stopping.

In the middle of the road, there stood a creature. It looked vaguely human-like. But it's skin, from what I could see from so far away, was gray, and parts of its skin and body were missing, almost like they had been rotted away. It had on human clothes, but they were tattered and in shambles. In its right hand, there hung a sword, loosely held in its weak looking grip. But in its other hand….. Was what looked like a human hand. That it was standing there, chewing like an apple. Blood was smeared all over its mouth as its teeth bit into and tore off chunks of flesh.

And the hospital stood behind it at a distance, glaring at us ominously, completely silent.