Degeneration (29 page)

Thick s
moke
crept into the stairwell from underneath the
door. A housekeeping cart
had been
overturned and jammed under the doorknob, preventing anybo
dy from entering the stairwell.

Richard kicked the overturned cart away from the door.

As he turned the scoldi
ng silver knob and cracked
the door, flame
s entered
the staircase
and immense heat enveloped his body
.

Richard quickly slammed the door shut and leaned against it, coughing violently. Slowly, he
sunk down alon
g the door to the floor and hung
his head between his legs. Tears ra
n down his soot-covered cheeks
.

He felt trapped, useless, and afraid.

Richard stared at his pistol
a moment.

It would be an easy way out and a sure way to silence the voice inside of his head forever.

Richar
d closed his eyes and
stuck the barrel
under his chin.

What are you doing, Richie? Have you forgotten about me?

“Stop it,” Richard hoarsely choked, barrel pressed underneath his chin. “You’re not even really him, so just shut up and let me do this.”

Tears welted in his eyes.

I’m not real? Then who the fuck am I, Richard?

“I don’t know!” Richard spat between his clenched teeth. The pistol shook in his grip. “I don’t fucking know what you are!”

I know what you are, though. You’re a murderer.

“I’m sorry… I’m so fucking sorry, brother. I never meant to hurt anybody,” Richard mumbled. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter as tears ran down his ash-covered cheeks. His whole body trembled.

Don’t be sorry. I understand you. You’ll never have to apologize to me for what you are. You’re my brother and, despite it all, I love you. I understand why you want out of this wretched life.

Richard’s grip on the pistol tightened.

At least I thought I understood you…

Richard’s eyes slowly opened.

“What- what do you mean by that?” he asked, tears clouding his vision.

I just never pegged my own brother as a selfish coward.

“I’m not selfish! I’ve never been selfish! I gave you everything! EVERYTHING I DID WAS FOR YOU!” Richard screamed.

Andy laughed.

You get to take the easy way out while I sit here and waste away inside a prison cell and starve to death. That seems pretty selfish to me…

Richard abruptly stood up and hurled the pistol in the back of the stairwell.

“Well what the
fuck
do you want me to do, Andy!?” Richard shouted up the stairwell, afraid. “I can’t even get out of this goddamn hospital much less navigate my way to Butner! So what do you want me to fucking do?! TELL ME!”

TRY! I want you to at least try! Fucking try! Stop being a frightened bitch and at least try to save me! After all you’ve done to me… it’s the least you can do!

“It’s a goddamn suicide mission and you fucking know it!” Richard shouted, tears streaming from his eyes. “I’ll fail you! I’ll fail you like I always have!”

But at least you would have tried. Do the right thing… for me… for mom… for dad… and even for Stacy.

Richard’s face flushed with anger upon hearing his sister’s name.

“Not for her. Everything that ever happened… it’s all her fucking fault,” Richard said.

Andy snickered.

Then do it for me. Save me to spite her. Be the man they never thought you were. I always had faith in you. Prove me right and prove them wrong. Don’t let me waste away in there…

“Goddamnit…” Richard muttered, shaking his head. He started to pace in the small stairwell, rubbing his neck. “I can’t let you die in there. It’s just not fucking right.”

That’s right, be a man, little brother.

“I’m sorry…” Richard said shamefully, closing his eyes. “I was being selfish… afraid to fight on. I was being a selfish pussy. You deserve better than that. I’m fucking sorry… I will. I will save you. I will save you even if it kills me.”

Richard gripped the scalding doorknob and opened the–

Intense h
eat and thick smoke billowed
through the doorway
and
made Richard cough
violently. He fo
rced his teary
eyes to open and peer into the flame engulfed
first-floor hospital lobby
.

The lobby was
engulfed in flames. The inferno had spread
across the
ceiling and
ate holes into the
drywall. B
olted metal
rods
were all that remained of the
melted plastic
waiting room chairs that
filled
the
lobby. The sliding glass
entrance doors
had been barricaded from the outside
. Half-melted
silver lettering
on the
wall read: ‘Emergency Department and Admittance’. Sections of the second floor had collapsed throughout the lobby and blocked off access to the rear halls and the reception area.

The smoke was inundati
ng and the flames were blinding.

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t see.

Richard slammed the door shut and collapsed
o
nto his knees inside th
e stairwell, gasping for breath in-between violent coughing fits. Mucus dribbled out of his nose
and tears flowed
down his ashen cheeks
profusely.

“We–
,” he strugg
led out between gasps, “–we can’t… can’t go out that way, Andy
”

Then think of another way before that fire guts the whole building.

Richard slowly got back onto his feet. Jets passed overhead and the
building
trembled
.
He
stumbled against the side of the stairwell and steadied himself.

“We’ll go up to the second floor,” he said and then erupted into
a
coughing
fit
. “We will have to jump from the second floor, that’s the only way.”

He struggled
his way
up to the 2
nd
floor landing and
cautiously grabbed the
stairwell doorknob.

It was cool to the touch.

He
tried op
ening the door, but
something was
weighed against it from the other side
. He slammed
his bodyweight
against the doo
r and the toppled the overturned supply chest that was propped against it tumbled
b
ackwards as the door flew open.

Richard staggered through the door and cautiously entered the hall.

The hallway was short, dark, and narrow. Smoke hung near the ceiling and plaster
ceiling
tiles
lay
shattered
on the floor. F
luorescent light fixtures
hung
from their housings
in the ceiling and swung side-to-side
. Shell casings littered the floor and bullet holes peppered the drywall.
A silver door stood at the far end of the hall.

Richard’s
approached one of the dangling florescent lights
in the center of the hall
and pushed it aside.
The frayed wires arced
and sent a shower of sparks into the air.
He startled an
d ran past it
, heart pounding.
As he neared the
silver
door, he
read the
blue s
ign above it and the words twisted his stomach into knots:

Infectious Diseases
Wing

He
pulled the door
’s
lever; the
electronic lock was powerless
and the door swun
g open effortlessly. He ran through the door and ran
past flaming offices and barricaded doors
that lined both sides of the hallway
, desperate to find some way out
of the building that was burning down around him. Parts of the floor were sunken and the walls were lined with fine cracks. At
end of the hall he saw a set of
steel double-doors that read
Hematology
Lab.

The building suddenly shifted and shuttered, flinging Richard
against the wall.
The hallway shook violently, shaking loose ceiling tiles and chunks of plaster. The lights flickered off and bathed the hall in battery-powered yellow emergency strobes.

Ahead
of Richard
, it sounded like a freight train was
tearing
through the hospital and, in an instant, Central Hospital’s
Hematology Lab collapsed
into the
engulfed
first floor and
blocked Richard’s
path
with
a massive pile of rubble.

             
There was another loud rumble behind him.

Richard spun around
and watched
as the hallway started to cave-
in on itsel
f. The emergency lights blew
in
rapid succession
a
s large chunks of debris pelted through the ceiling and punched
through the ceiling. The entire second-floor was collapsing down into the enflamed first-floor.

             
He ran
towards the door
closest to him and
slammed
against it
shoulder-first.
The door flung open and he tumbled inside
just seconds before the doorway
was barricaded with flaming rubble.

             
Richard
slowly
stood and coughed violently in the
dust-filled air.

The room had eight
metal
gurneys in it. Each gurney was bolted to the floor and stood next to a
steel sink
. The
stench of formaldehyde and bleach
fermented in
the air and
permeated
through
the smoke.
Empty chemical jugs were scattered across
the floor.
Doors lined
both sides of the room
and large
windows
facing outside dominated the room opposite of the door
. The view through the wind
ows was blurred by the half-melted
plastic
tarp
covering the
building.

“I found a way out,” Richard whispered, staring at the large windows.

The floor rumbled underneath Richard’s feet.

             
This place is falling apart! You’re going to get killed and I’m going to die in that fucking prison! You’re fucking useless!

             
“
I’m not useless!!
!” Richard screamed. “
Shut the fuck up and let me figure this out
, okay?!”

             
A set
of doors
across
the room swun
g open at the sound of his
voice.

             
Four male orderlies
in
bloo
d-smeared smocks and two
lacerated police officers
ran
into the room
towards Richard, giving
feral cries.

             
Before Richard could react, a series of explosions rippled throughout the building.
The floor under
neath
his feet upheaved and knocked him
onto the floor.

The enclosing
infected
stopped
running
as the floor warbled underne
ath their feet, rendering them barely able to stand.

A second
violent jolt
knocked
the
infected
down onto th
e ground and
made the ceiling pelt down
around them.
A series of fine cracks
formed
along the floor and portions of the room sunk as sections started to crumble away into the engulfed first floor lobby
.