Hospital Car Park

[Laraqua]

Mark's twitching body is pulled off of her with ease by both Geoff and Roger (I imagine you'd not stop your crusade now) and he collapses onto his side, still shuddering. Almost immediately, Sarah feels strength return to her limbs. The little boy sobs softly. For a long moment that stretches on to a seeming infinity, there is silence. Then one of the doors fall open and the darkness of Accident & Emergency is revealed by the focused glow of the dropped torch.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah's limbs tingle, and she finally recovers enough to roll over and spit the mushrooms away. She pulls off the soggy mask and tosses it aside. Gagging, she rises to her hands and knees. "Oh, God," she moans, leaning into the corner. She retches and vomits, the foul taste still in her mouth. Her breath comes in quick, short gasps. "Thank you, chaps," she wheezes, "Thought I was a goner for sure." She looks at Mark's twitching corpse with a shudder. "Gotta finish him..." She glances back and sees the open door. "Oh no..."

[Zombiedla]

"Are you gonna be ok?" Roger asks Sarah, trying to forget about what he just witnessed.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah nods as she finishes heaving. "I'll be okay..." she manages, "thanks to you blokes. If you hadn't been here I'd have been killed or...or worse...I'll be okay...I'll be okay..." Maybe if I say it enough times I'll believe it myself, she thinks. She smiles at the little boy as she groggily stands up. "You're such a brave lad. You hold onto those scissors; just be careful with them. I'm going to find a real knife like that one." She looks at the scalpel Geoff had had to stab Mark with to rescue her. "I'm so sorry, Geoff...I know he was your friend...I was trying to save him...noticed he was moving...listened to his heart and it was still beating, thought he had to be alive somehow and couldn't be a zombie or anything...I'm such an idiot...I just knew something awful would happen to me in here, but I couldn't have imagined...I was trying to move him when he forced himself on me..."

Sarah tries to fight back the tears, and fails. She meets Geoff's gaze. Can I tell him? she thinks. I've got to. I can never repay him for all he's done for me. It's the least I can do, and he needs to hear this. She takes a deep breath and goes on: "I know this sounds strange, but I know exactly what you're going through. Not all that long ago someone who had once been a good friend turned into a monster...I had no choice but to kill him...I stabbed him in the heart, just like you did..."

[Wrl101]

Geoff shivers as he thinks over what he has just done as he backs away from the door, wedging himself into a corner. Cutting his friend, defiling the body in such a way. But it isn't Mark. It wasn't Mark. It ceased being him when they got here.
Say it. Know it.

"It's not Mark..." he shakes his head, prodding the think carefully with his foot "I don't think its anything... Not a.. zombie. Not a man. Sure as shit isn't Mark. Its bloody madness and bloody flesh."

One hand holds tight around the knife still, he puts the other hand to his face, rubbing his temples and closing his eyes.

"You did what you could: now and.. then, "he sighs, drained "You couldn't have known... hell, Karlene didn't know. I'm sorry about... I'm sorry."

Geoff pauses, his head lowered, fingers still rubbing at his aching head. Staring at the floor, he speaks again with a jagged edge of certainty, dulled by a hint of fatigue.

"We have to get out of this box..."

[Zombiedla]

"I..." Roger seems lost for a moment, then continues "I agree. I'm starting to feel somewhat... claustrophobic." His lips carried a sad, kind of nervous, smile.

[AdversusVeritas]

Paul's once shallow breathing crackles into a deep exhalation, pausing at its climax as his eyes flutter open. He stares straight at the ceiling of the ambulance, trying to make sense of where he is. Before his vision even manages to clear, however, he pitches his head to the side suddenly, and weakly opens his mouth to let a mixture of saliva-diluted vomit dribble onto his stretcher. His tear filled eyes search for familiar shapes.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah nods, then hugs Geoff, folding her arms around him and leaning her head against his shoulder. His body heat helps take the edge off the chill in her bones. "It's okay," she says. "You did everything you could too. It's not your fault. You had to do what you did, and you saved me. I'll always be grateful."

Sarah pats Geoff on the back and then breaks away awkwardly. She looks at Mark again, who is still twitching, and backs off from him. She can still feel his crushing weight on top of her, still taste him in her mouth. "Should we just leave him like that? I mean, what if he gets back up? Maybe we should...uh...I...I can do it if you can't...I think..." She shivers. "I can't stay in here either, not with...that. This place is like a tomb. It was nearly my tomb. But we're going to need to collect what we can, and we'll need a plan."

She retreats into the rear of the ambulance, locates some mouthwash, and gargles with it into the sink. Then she gathers a couple of scalpels and enough surgical masks for everybody, and puts on a fresh mask. "We're all going to need these," she says. "If I hadn't been wearing one when he...I was totally paralyzed. His saliva leaked through my mask and into my mouth, but I'm not sure if that's what caused it. He tried to force those digusting mushrooms down my throat. Only the mask stopped them, but it wouldn't have held up much longer. Without it...they might have killed me...or turned me into one of him...or anything. There could be more of those things out there."

Sarah hands a mask each to Geoff and Roger. She gives Roger one of the scalpels and keeps the other for herself. "I'm usually a dab hand with a knife," she says, "but I was so panicky earlier I couldn't hit him." She kneels down beside the boy. "Here, sweetie, let me help you on with this." She puts the mask on over his face and stands up. "We're going to have to bring the unconscious man with us somehow. Can we wake him-" She turns and jumps, startled, when she sees him move. He's not one of them too, is he? she thinks. "H-hello?" she says, her voice cracking.

[Laraqua]

Accident & Emergency's intercom sparked to life. Beneath the static, a voice can be heard. "Nurse Sarah to Paediatrics Play Room, Nurse Sarah to Paediatrics Play Room," says an oddly toneless and genderless voice.

The little boy snatches up the torch and hugs it to his chest anxiously, uttering a little whimper.

OOC: Your ambulance has smashed into the windows of that large square room to the furthest left of Accident & Emergency.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah puts a hand to her chest, her heart fluttering. She backs up against the empty gurney and clutches it so tightly that her knuckles turn white. "W-who said that?" she gasps, looking around with fear in her eyes. "How can they know I'm here? How can they know my name?" She takes a few deep breaths and tries to calm herself down. The memory of her ordeal is still fresh in her mind. What if it happens again? What if more than one of them come at me? What if there's nobody to help me next time? "I still feel so weak. I daren't go anywhere alone, that's for sure. Since you chaps haven't been to this hospital, I'd better tell you the layout of this place in case...in case something else happens to me. We're in Accident & Emergency, on the ground floor. The Pediatrics Play Room is to the southeast, not far from here. That message could be a trap. Someone...or something...wants me."

A chill runs down Sarah's spine as she remembers the times Lyle had showed up at the hospital to stalk her. He had disguised himself in scrubs, a surgical mask, and a cap. She could never prove it was him, and he would always disappear as soon as she had noticed him. I know he's dead, she thinks, but what if he didn't stay that way? Mark didn't, and I heard Lyle's voice over the radio earlier. She could still hear that voice in her mind, suave and frightening at the same time: "You're mine, Sarah. You belong to me forever."

Sarah collects herself and tries to stand up straight. No, she thinks. It's over. Lyle can't be back. I mean, it's bloody impossible, innit? Yet so many other impossible things are happening. She looks down at the boy. I've got to be strong. Got to be strong, for him. She pulls down her mask and smiles at him. "It's going to be okay," she says, trying to be reassuring. "I'll protect you." Who am I kidding? I can't even protect myself! She grabs some paper towels and uses one to wipe her mouth. Then she briefly lifts her goggles to dab at her eyes and mop up her tears, and wipes her face with a third. She then throws the towels away and puts her mask and goggles back on.

"Let's get what we can before heading out." Sarah takes out a large piece of cloth and starts gathering medical supplies in it, describing the layout of the hospital to the others as she does so. She collects bandages, ointments, and sutures, as well as any remaining masks in case they run into other survivors or need to replace their own. She puts one mask aside for the unconscious man and an extra scalpel for him to use if he wakes up, but she's still too afraid to get too near him. She hands out any other pairs of goggles that are left too. Any scalpels that are left she wraps up so that the blades won't puncture the bundle she's making. She also collects any containers of water, since the water supply might not be safe, and the moist towelletes along with any other supplies that look useful. When she's done, she ties up the cloth into a bundle to carry over her shoulder. She peers nervously out of the ambulance door, then looks back at the man on the gurney. "Are you awake?" she asks, trying to hide her nervousness. "Can you speak?"

[AdversusVeritas]

Paul mumbles, "Mmm-hmm" and slowly sits up. He brings one of his languid hands from his lap to his face just long enough to blot away some of the tears that have built up there. "Was there some sort of accident?"

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah breathes a sigh of relief. Calm down, Sarah, she thinks. You're jumping at shadows. If he had been one of those creatures he wouldn't have spoken, he simply would have tried to put the moves on you. "Not exactly," she tells Paul, wiping up his tears and cleaning his face with some more paper towels. "I don't know how much you've heard us saying or if you remember anything from before you lost consciousness, but I'm guessing not much. My name is Sarah Carpenter. I'm a nurse here at Mercy Cross Hospital. These rather heroic blokes here are Geoff, one of the paramedics who brought you here, Roger, another patient, and-" She motions to each of them in turn and stops when she gets to the boy. "I'm sorry, young fellow, I don't believe you ever said your name.

"Anyway, I know this is going to sound crazy, but these chaps can confirm it's all true. I don't fully understand what's going on myself, but this black cloud has been sweeping over London, raining some sort of ash and doing horrid things to everything in its path. We survived because we sealed ourselves in the ambulance, but the seals have since been breached and it's gotten awfully cold. We're getting ready to leave now." She drapes the blanket she had used earlier over him, cleaning it off first and making sure the side that was not exposed to the ash is the side that touches him. "There's worse news, too. There are...monsters...out there. I'm sorry, but I don't know what else to call them. One of them ripped open the doors earlier and dragged one of the paramedics outside. I don't know what it did to her, but..." Sarah shivers. "I managed to get the doors shut, but then something undid the brake and the ambulance rolled downhill and crashed through the hospital windows. I think it must have been the driver. He...got turned into something hideous. When I went into the cab to try to turn the heater on, he attacked me." She begins to shake, and cannot stop.

"His skin was coming off, and his mouth was full of these hideous mushrooms. He...he...he seized me and..." Sarah looks at her feet. "I couldn't move at all, I was helpless, and he tried to shove those mushrooms down my throat. If I hadn't been wearing a mask like this one, he would have done. Even so it was starting to tear, but the others rescued me before it was too late." She helps him put the extra mask on. "We've all got to wear these, just in case there are any others like him." Then she gives him the spare scalpel she had set aside earlier. "You may need to protect yourself or others. Do you think you can walk?"

Sarah hefts the bundle after making certain that all of the supplies she might need are in there, including some syringes and various medicines, then looks into the gloom outside the door once more. "That's Accident & Emergency out there. That message over the intercom told me to go to the Play Area, which isn't far, but it couldn't be legit. They should have used my last name, not just my first, especially since this is a big hospital and I'm sure I'm not the only nurse named Sarah. It must have come from one of the nurses' stations around the hospital, or possibly the administration office on the top floor." She swallows. "I think we need to check it out, in case there are children there who need our help, but there's no bloody way I'm going by myself. We all should stick together anyhow." She glances back at Geoff and Roger. "Anything else you chaps want to do before we leave?"

[Laraqua]

The ambulance is full of a variety of emergency equipment: sutures, gauze, needles, all of which are required for a successful First Aid roll when dealing with lacerations. Broken limbs will have to be set the old-fashioned way until they heal. Bruises can be helped with ointment but there are none in the ambulance.

Geoff has a large first aid kit that can be slung over one hip that contains all sorts of vital equipment. There is one torch. There are a selection of cutting implements that count as small knives and deal 1d4 damage. There are two blankets. Whatever is taken must be listed in your inventory, be aware of your pocket space, though.

Paul is still quite sickened from the poison that had knocked him unconscious. He will need a wheelchair to get around as his legs are still quite numb. Fortunately, there is one in view in Accident & Emergency.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah ties up the bundle of sutures, needles, and gauze, along with any surplus surgical masks and knives, containers of water, and moist towelletes. She secures it to the end of something sturdy and slings it over her left shoulder. In her right hand she grips her scalpel. She looks outside with trepidation and shuffles her feet.

"There's a wheelchair out there we can use," she says. "Geoff, can you please bring the torch and help me get it? I'm still feeling kind of woozy and I'm...uh...I'm afraid to go out there by myself after...after what happened."

[Zombiedla]

Roger prepares himself for venturing into the hospital. He brings all the first aid equipment he can fill his pockets with. If there's enough masks he puts two on. When he's finnished with his on preperations he will help the others with whatever preperations they need to make before they leave.

[Mr. Handy]

"Oh, good thinking!" says Sarah. She takes the extra masks out of the bundle and passes them out so that everyone has two of them, putting a second one on herself if there's enough left. "Double up, everyone." It won't keep those mushrooms out forever if I get another smooch from hell, she thinks, but they'll last longer than just the one. "Roger, are you sure you're up to helping me fetch the wheelchair? If you're stll feeling the effects of the sedatives maybe Geoff should come with me. If there's one thing my...experience has taught me, it's that nobody should go anywhere alone, not even to the loo. Especially not to the loo; that's a good way to caught with one's pants down. We have to stick together. One of us can carry the bundle of medical supplies and the other can carry the torch. Once we get the wheelchair back here, we can help this fellow into it and be on our way. We can even tie the bundle to the back of the wheelchair."

[Laraqua]

Sarah finds herself speaking to an empty ambulance. She feels like she has been there for quite some time, alone, abandoned. She can hear the echoes of her fellows voices ringing in her ears but there is no one there, merely the memory of what was once there.

OOC: Handyman, Post in Paradys' thread from now on, even if you refuse to leave the ambulance. All sounds you make will probably filter through in the quiet, anyhow.

The others in the ambulance no longer remember Sarah as ever having been there. They know that they are very cold and that without any heat they will suffer and probably die. The ambulance is as cold as a meat locker and the occupants are starting to look like partially frozen meat. Their cheeks are becoming bright red, their lips a little frosted, and their lunges hurt to breathe, although the pain is reduced by the face masks that hold some of the heat from their out-going breaths and warm, just a little, their incoming breaths.

OOC: Query me if you have any questions as to what's going on. Well, any questions about what your characters knows is going on.

[Wrl101]

Geoff shakes his head, woefully confused about the events of the last few minutes but somewhat comfortable and thankful for that. He thinks he recalls something where something that was but wasn't Mark had stumbled into the freezing back of the ambulance, groping and grabbing at the air, for something -someone who wasn't... at all. The odd thoughts swirl in Geoff's mind and he finally pushes himself from such ideas.

Things just aren't right here.

Geoff grabs a hold of the torch, thankful to have a hold of something solid.

"We'll... we can't live in this coffin..." he looks to both patients, knowing that he has to be responsible for them, without Karlene. It occurs to Geoff that he has never before felt so alone with people near him. "Its.. a lot to ask, but if you're up to it at all, Roger, could you help me with him?"

Geoff nods towards Paul, hoping that together they might escape the death trap that the ambulance offers. The irony of the ambulance being such a threat to their lives now, to patients and to paramedics, makes him feel sick.

[Zombiedla]

Roger can't really get rid of the feeling that he forgot something important and is continuously haunted by it. When Geoff addresses him Roger doesn't answer right away, as if he didn't hear him. But after a second call Roger leaves the little world in his head to return to reality. "Uh... yeah... I'm ok. Sorry about that, here, let me help you."

[Laraqua]

A somewhat familiar but unknown voice comes over the Intercom: "Attention everyone! The water supply is contaminated. Do not drink or even touch tap water, or any standing water you come across. Use only water in bottles or other sealed containers. Do not go outside under any circumstances, and avoid all exits or places that are otherwise exposed to the outside. It is extremely dangerous out there, and there are small parasitical organisms that attack people and burrow into their flesh. Once that happens, they are transformed into something no longer human. These creatures are alive and have a pulse, and their mouths are full of fleshy fungal material. They will attempt to seize their victims and lock their mouths over the victims' mouths. If they succeed, the victim is rendered paralysed and helpless, and they will then try to force the fungus down the victims' throats. Keep your distance from them at all costs, and keep your mouths covered at all times! A surgical mask will work, but the fungus will eventually rip through it. Two masks will last longer. Towels could also be used. Do not go anywhere alone if at all possible. If you fall prey to one of these creatures, you will need someone else to get it off of you.

She takes a deep breath and then continues: "There are other strange creatures and phenomena as well. The dark cloud that has covered the hospital is raining down a strange black ash. Its effects are unknown, but you should minimize your exposure to it. It can be wiped off with moist towelettes, but again make sure that you do not use tap water. Metal objects have rusted due to the arrival of this cloud, and have apparently aged decades in rather short order. You may notice that your sense of time is distorted, and people may seem to vanish. You may also see apparitions or hear voices of people you know. On the second floor there was an unknown creature that produced a whistling sound. If it approaches you, run. It is possible to outrun and escape from it. This is Nurse Sarah Carpenter. Stay safe, everyone."