Nightmare Ward (2)

[Dahlia Breaker]

After reuniting at the airport, it was decided to split up. The adults went to retrive gas for the Director's car, and the youths, being Rae, Dahlia, and Luigi, were sent into the city to Saving Grace Hospital.

The attack by her mother, now a Smoker, is still fresh on Dahlia's mind. And the will of the maternal instinct knows no bounds....

The child peeked out from behind Luigi and Rae, eyes wide at the sight that lay before them. The hospital, once a building for healing and curing the sick and hurt, was now a place of disease and death. Add a number of blood trails leading into it, and you have the complete setup to a nightmare.

"So.... They wanted us to go... Here? B-by ourselves?" She whispered, a slight fear in her voice. She was still rather shaken up from the subway.

[Luigi Martin]

Luigi, on the other hand, couldn’t believe it. The older members of their group literally sent the three to a zombie-infested hospital…alone. On the bright side, he knew how to navigate his ways through hospitals like these thanks to Mercy Hospital.

“Leave it up to the adults to find a way to get rid of us,” he whispered to Rae scornfully before looking down at Dahlia and ruffled her hair. “It’s okay, sweetie. We’ll be fine.”

I hope. The teen left these words unspoken.

Walking over to the front desk, Luigi picked up a silenced submachine gun and P220 pistol. He tossed Rae and Dahlia their first-aid kits before strapping his over his back.

“So we going to do this thing or what?” he asked a little impatiently.

[Rae Beckham]

"They weren't that much of a jolly bunch either." Rae mumbled in reply to Luigi. "Especially that Director guy, talk about a pole up the ass. And that Italian guy was no dentist. More like an assassin if you ask me..."

She grabbed a sniper rifle and pocketed some ammo. Looking through the scope with one gray eye, she sweeped over the hall around them for any signs of infected.

"The halls seem clear so far, but it's best to be on the safe side," she said as she nodded back to the bloody trail along the floor. "Something's obviously in here, and I have a feeling it's going to cause us some major problems."

[Dahlia Breaker]

If there were several things that she had come to love in this apocolypse, it was these; The thought of her Daddy finding her, the comfort of Mr. B, and Luigi and Rae.

Those, aside from being closest to her age, were also the ones who actually cared about her. Sure, Missi and Paulie looked after her, and Mr. Director wasn't as mean to her, and Riley was funny to listen to, but Luigi and Rae were the ones she held the closest.

So when Luigi told her it would be alright, she brightened a bit. Still sticking close to both of them, she wandered around the room a bit, avoiding the blood. But Rae was right; What caused this trail? It looked like someone had been dragged along the ground while bleeding badly. And the further it went in, it seemed to get fresher... And a dripping noise could be heard...

Suddenly uneasy again, she backed away from the dark hallway. Sure, Rae had said there were no-one down the hallway, but that didn't mean there wasn't something scary down there...

And to top it all off, a faint hacking noise could be heard, elicting a frightened gasp from the child.

What if she was here?

[Maxwell Johnson]

Max had his back against the wall, right next to a corner down a hallway, which seemed to open into the front lobby. He was almost out of this nightmarish place that he'd ended up being trapped in for several day, and he didnt' want to rush it now and end up getting himself killed.

He could hear sounds coming from the front lobby. He couldn't quite tell what they were, what with all the echoes in the junk-cluttered hallway, but there was only one thing that it could be. More and more infected. There was no end to them, it seemed, and he was down to just five more clips. He had ten empty ones in the pockets of his vest, half of which had been emptied here in the hospital.

His rifle gripped securely in his hand, his knuckles white on the handguards around the barrel of the weapon, he whipped out around the corner, sighted down the ACOG sight on his weapon. However, there was nothing in the hallway itself. All the activity seemed to be in the lobby. It only sounded like one or two infected, though. Nothing he couldn't handle with a couple of pulls of the trigger.

He advanced slowly down the hallway, still looking down the sights of his weapon, even as he stepped over the debris in the hallway. Finally, he reached the end and came around the corner, sighting at the three small targets in the room.

Just as his finger had the trigger squeezed enough to fire the weapon, however, he realized that the three kids in the room weren't infected. They were survivors.

"Shit....," he muttered, slinging his rifle over his shoulders and walkign over to the kids. The two older ones looked to be somewhere in their mid-teens, and the youngest one no older than maybe ten. The young one was staring off down another hallway that had a trail of blood going down it.....

The blood looked fresh.....

"Get away from there," he said, moving quickly over and taking her arm gently in his hand and pulling her back away from the hallway and behind the relative safety of the desk. As he stood there, he motioned for the other two to join them,"Where in the world did you kids come from? What're you doing out here?"

[Dahlia Breaker]

Dahlia didn't react to the hand that took her arm at first, she was still in a small state of fright. But as soon as the hand released her, she looked up to the person, expecting it to be Rae or Luigi.

It wasn't. It wasn't Luigi, although it was a guy, and it certainly wasn't Rae. It was a stranger. Now, truthfully, she had reacted the same way when she first met Luigi, but she had been alone and appropriatly terrified.

A flurry of panic set in, tearing herself away from the man, stumbling to the floor in her fright. She backpedled away from him, crying out for her companions.

"No! Nonononono! Luigi! Rae!"

[As a note to Maxwell, it's generally a common courtesy to ask to join someone else's thread. Now, as a suggestion, a good idea would be to get something started with Patrick and Odie? Same characters, but you'll be able to do whatever you want there. I've said my peice.]

[Luigi Martin]

"No! Nonononono! Luigi! Rae!"

Upon hearing Dahlia’s frightened screams, Luigi sprang into action. He pulled the girl into an embrace and glared at the man who had caused her panic attack.

“Do you want her to have a heart attack?” he demanded. “Please don’t scare her again.”

Taking Dahlia’s hand in his, Luigi took off down the hallway the man had come from. That one hallway with the trail of blood was definitely out, so he figured they could settle in this one. He paused to glance back at Rae.

“You coming or do you want to wait there for something to get you?” he asked teasingly.

[Rae Beckham]

Rae was quick to follow Luigi down the hall, right at his heels. She couldn't help but crack a smirk at the other teen's words.

"What, and leave Dahlia alone here in your hands?" she joked in a non-insulting way. "I think not! And next time we see that guy and he pulls some shit like that again, mind if I give him a few bullets in the head?" she added in an innocent tone.

Nobody messes with Rae Beckham while she was in big-sister mode.

[Dahlia Breaker]

Still recovering from her scare, she took comfort in the presence of Luigi and Rae.

"Always safe with Weegee and Rae, always safe, always safe..."

She muttered to this to herself over and over, calming down with this assurance. It sounded rather crazy, sure. But given the situation, it was appropriate.

Taking a few more deep breaths, she took in the hallway. Unlike the darker, bloody hallway, this one was a lot less dark, and a lot less bloody. Sure, some of the lights were out, and there were definatly some blood and bodies here and there, but it seemed like a better choice than the other hall.

But something still was nagging her. The coughing she heard. She had to wonder if...

"No, no, she's not here, she was in the subway..." She muttered to herself. "She can't be here..."

But something told her that her Mommy was here. That little voice at the back of her head, the one that always filled a person with fear and doubt.

Deciding to ask if it was possible that Mommy was here, she looked up to Luigi.

"Luigi, do you think it's possible that... That she's here?"

[Luigi Martin]

Shivering as he remembered just who Dahlia was talking about, Luigi didn’t respond to her right away. In fact, he went through a couple of infected before responding.

“I don’t know,” he murmured and looked down at her. “But pray to God that she’s not here.”

They cleared the end of the hallway and Luigi saw some stairs. He began climbing up them, silenced submachine gun ready for what waited ahead. When he reached the top it was strangely quiet, but he swore he heard heavy grunting. Mentioning for Rae and Dahlia to shush, he listened intently.

“There’s a tank ahead,” Luigi announced quietly, but to where his companions could hear him. “I don’t want to take any chances with it, especially with Dahlia with us. We’ll have to sneak around.”

[Luke Shiloh]

<sub>(Mind if I drag Shiloh back into this mess?)

Luke Shiloh was many things.

He was named a liar, known a womanizer, branded a swindler and termed a drifter. He had a cruel wit and a biting sarcasm, maintained the mentality of "me first", and preferred to show he was a "man" through use of his fists. Those who met him thought him charming and suave; those who knew him hated yet grudgingly respected his self-interested cunning.

He was also, however, a stubborn and prideful blockhead on several other occasions.

Six hours ago Shiloh had been driven by pure desperation to seek supplies from the local hospital, despite his better judgement to avoid places that were known to be swarmed by throngs of infected. Now, tracking the flickering and blood-smeared halls, he was beginning to get careless; he became more bold, dispatching infected with his baseball bat instead of doing his best to creep around, rounding corners without checking the way was clear first. By this method, the southerner quickly became arrogantly careless, and, stepping around a corner without first investigating, stepped directly into the path of a tank.


The creature was huge; even in the large hallway, it sat hunched beneath one of the flickering lights, shoulders heaving, small, beady eyes finding Shiloh and fixing him with a murderous glare. Its breath came out in low snarls, and its knuckles dragged against the blood streaked floor, its huge girth making passage impassable. For a moment it seemed to consider Shiloh, giving him the perfect opportunity to turn and at least get a head start on the monster- as it were, the southerner could only allow his mouth to fall agape and the arm wielding the bat slide limply to his side.

"Well, shit," he said quietly to himself.

With a sudden snort, the Tank reared back and bellowed, surging forward with unprecedented speed. Holding his ground like the proud fool he was, Shiloh groped for the pistols at his belt and managed to tug one free, ripping five shots into the monster's shoulder before it was upon him. Whipping his arms in front of his face in a desperate measure, the man was thrown from his feet and through the opposing set of double doors, which burst open and dumped him at the foot of several other people, whom he looked up at hazily.

"Fly you fools," he mumbled drunkenly; olive eyes straying out of focus, his head slumped to the side, and he was silent.</sub>

[Maxwell Johnson]

(ooc: But....I was in the other nightmare ward. It's just....I posted like right before it died. .-.
Besides, nobody told me about the asking to join threads rule. I had no clue.)

Max recoiled slightly as the little girl began yelling in protest at him pulling her back toward the desk. It was then he realized she must've thought he was trying to kidnap her or something. Brilliant move. He never was any good with kids, and now he had just severely upset one in the middle of a zombie apocalypse....

Then, the other two kids came over, understandably berating him for upseting the little girl. He could take the boy's comments, which were at least somewhat respectful. When the girl came up and said she'd put a bullet in his head, all he could do was stare dumbly at her or a moment, unable to believe what he'd just heard. Then, as the surprise of it all wore off, he just scoffed at her.

"Look little girl, maybe if you two'd been watching her instead of letting her wander off into a blood streaked hallway by herself, I wouldn't have had to intervene and upset her," Max said, pointing at the younger girl,"Do yourself a favor and put your attitude aside. It doesn't do any good out here in this zombie infested hell-hole. It only causes problems.

"Now, look, what're you kids doing here all alone? Don't you know that hospitals are some of the most heavily infected places?" he asked, walking with them as they went upstairs. Logic told him that he should just leave them, but he couldn't do that in good conscience. Leaving a trio of kids alone out here wasn't something he could do.

When they reached the top of the stairs, though, the sounds of a tank became very, very clear. It wasn't in sight, though, which meant they still had a chance to get away.

"Come on, you three, lets turn around and just get out of here," he said, leaning down and whispering quietly to the three of them, his M16 held ready as he stepped in front of them to cover their retreat,"Go ahead and get out of here. I'll make sure it doesn't-"

Max was cut off as a man came flying through the double doors right next to them. He landed on the floor, blood on his face from whatever blow he'd sustained. Max turned and looked up the hallway beyond the doors to see the very tank they were trying to avoid, its massive, knotted muscles bulging as it roared at its prey. As Max looked at it, he felt a cold tingle going through his entire body for a single moment, and then he moved into action.

"Run!" he shouted to the kids as the man that had landed through the door did the same, firing his weapon with on arm as he reached down with the other to pull the man up,"Get out of here! I'll keep it away from you!"

[Rae Beckham]

"Time to scat! Dahlia, run ahead! Luigi, give me a hand!" Rae ordered quickly. She pulled one of the unconscious man's arms over her shoulders and began to struggle down the hall with difficulty. The man was much bigger in size, nearly dragging her to the cold tile floor.

"Come on man, wake up!" she exclaimed to the stranger. "This is no time for a nap!"

The gunfire from behind reminded Rae of the other man. "Get your ass moving! There's no way you alone can take a tank! You insane?!" she called out to him. "Get moving!"

[Dahlia Breaker]

Not questioning Rae's decision, Dahlia ran as fast as her small legs would carry her. All the other sick people seemed to be gone, probably because of the big sick man.

Making sure that she wasn't getting too far ahead of the group, the child quickly dared a glance over her shoulder, noticing Rae carrying the man. She did not, however, notice the wall rapidly approaching until she ran straight into it. With a surprised gasp, she fell on her back, rubbing her head.

"Owww..."

She slowly rose to her feet, slightly dazed. She even forgot the danger that was thundering after them for a moment.

She did notice, however, the figure at her left. Down the hall, it's lights flickering on and off, stood a very familier figure.

But as the lights flickere on and off, she vanished, leaving only the smell of smoke.

[Mother]

Coughing and hacking, she left her child where she was, making her way through the air ducts, which were large enough for her to fit in and use as shortcuts through the hospital.

While she did want her child, the Tank that was rampaging was too much of a variable. It could very well decide that the small girl was an easy target and try to maul them both. No, she'd take her chances with something less violent. Add the fact that she had a hard enough time getting back into the vent without the extra weight.

She was not concered about the other humans. In fact, if any were killed by the Tank, it would make everything else easier. But for now, perhaps she could help the Tank a bit. Not by putting herself in danger, of course. Someone else would be just fine.

Climbing out of the vent a good distance away from the action, she looked around the nearby rooms, hoping to find somthing to add to the confusion. And a wet gurgling told her that she struck gold.

Venturing into the room, she found a Boomer idly standing by, it's piggish eyes briefly focusing on her before resuming it's blank stare.

It gave a surprised belch when she grabbed it, pulling it along with her, despite it's annoyed protests. She remained careful to not be too rough, she didn't want it exploding on her or anything.

As she rounded the corner, she pulled back when she saw the humans approaching. Her mouth pulled into what may have been a grin as she saw the opportunity. With a hiss, she shoved the fat infected from around the corner towards the survivours. It stumbled a bit, but picked up the pace when it saw the humans.

Content that the humans would have thier hands full for the time being, she went back down the hallway, looking for more ways to end the humans.

Mother was here, and she was not leaving without her child.