Page 4 of Chaos Destiny
Julien was called out of town for an emergency. As he often liaised as an analyst with the federal government, they’d plugged their ears when he told them he had a baby due any day now.
So, I flew to the DMV area to be with Ari.
The very same week, she went into labor.
I stepped out into the hallway, quietly shutting the door behind me. Images of babies in large frames decorated the yellow walls, and it never made sense to me why so many hospitals shied away from grays and blues. The mustard-colored paint gave me sensory overload, so I could only imagine its effect on someone in active labor.
Another door opened, and a man stepped out. At first, he looked down the hall, but then he swung his gaze in my direction. It was too late for me to turn around, so when he called out to me, I had little choice but to respond.
“Have you seen the doctor?” he asked. “Or even a nurse? My wife’s in pain, and they promised someone was coming right away, but that was a half hour ago.”
More doors opened, and it dawned on me how eerily empty the corridor had been before the first guy stepped out. Hospital traffic could wax and wane, yet it was almost as if nobody was there but the patients and their guests.
“I’m on my way to see what’s going on,” I said.
He pointed at me. “Coming with you, buddy.”
I started to tell him that no one had invited him to tag along, but I gave him some leeway because of the uniqueness of the situation.
We headed for the nurse’s station only to find that empty as well. The man, who’d introduced himself as Greg, tossed up his hands.
“Well, this is just rich.”
A faint voice sounded from far off.
“What kind of hospital?—”
“Mate.” I shot him a glare. “Quiet.”
I followed the voice to a room on the other side of the hallway, where it seemed like all the floor staff had gathered. Some cried and held each other, while others stared at their phones. The rest were huddled around the TV.
Behind me, Greg huffed. “Hey, what’s going on here? My salary pays the taxes that help run this hospital, so you guys need to be?—”
“Mate, put a fucking sock in it,” I hissed.
If he’d let what I was sure were too-tight briefs out of his ass for a moment, he’d be able to assess the room first to avoid asking questions whose answers were right in front of him.
I went closer to the TV, pulling out my phone at the same time to check on Ari, but I stopped in the middle of pressing her name in my contacts list when I noticed the headline:
IS THIS THE END AS WE KNOW IT?
Two newscasters looked into the camera as if they’d stared death in the face somewhere in the studio seconds before. One had tears and snot dripping from her chin. Another’s handtrembled so aggressively, he had to set down his sheet of paper. Generally, anchors remained emotionally neutral when delivering news for the benefit of the public. Unfortunately, these two looked like they couldn’t even if they tried.
“As of right now, we don’t know what it is,” the male anchor said. “No official statement has been released yet from the CDC or The White House, but we’ve received reports of it sweeping through a hospital ward in Florida.”
I snorted.
Of course.
Fucking Florida.
“In addition, viewers have been submitting videos we’ve just received permission to share. Please be advised that the content you’re about to view is extremely graphic.”
The screen cut to a video shot by a phone camera lens. The angle suggested that the person was hiding, more than likely underneath a desk, and the feed was shakier than a Cloverfield movie. However, that stopped being of any concern to me the moment I saw one human, growling and foaming at the mouth, take a bite out of another human.
Blood squirted.
People screamed, slipping as the fluid covered the floor.
