Ward 15, Third Floor

[Laraqua]

They had left her laying on the bed, her pale blonde hair swept from her face, her blue eyes gently closed to hide the emptiness. Her body was limp, the wrinkles on her face somewhat smoothed out. Her chest no longer rising and falling.

No more...

Footsteps in the corridor. Intruding through the open door even as the people pass. A few more minutes, hopefully, before they take her way. A rattling sound in one of the vents. The gaps seem to be filled with a hard white substance.

Close the door, dear, I'm tired.

Almost as if she spoke. He could almost hear her. Almost see her turn toward him, her eyes still closed, her face creasing in a smile. Could almost hear the soft rasp of her hospital gown on crisp white sheets.

They're so loud. I can't sleep with them traipsing down that corridor all the time. Please, dear, close the door.

[jtull_84]

Bernard steps inside the ward. He tries his best to keep quiet. She was always a light sleeper. The styrofoam cup warms his hands and he walks to her bed. Her face looks relaxed, happy, like she was before the sickness. When he notices that her hest isn't moving, everything slows down. The cup slips from his hands and hot coffee splashes on his legs and accross the floor. He thinks he hears an alarm or something, but everything is so numb right now. He leans against the wall and wills himself not to cry.

[Laraqua]

Close the door, dear, I'm tired.

Insistent repetition. Yet wasn't it just a thought in his own head? Yet louder then his grief. Stronger.

What's on the telly?

Her eyes were open, staring at the wall on the other side of her. The remote lay beside her left hand. The television set was fixed to the top left corner of the room.

[jtull_84]

Bernard shakes his head, so tired. He pushes himself off the wall and goes over to the door, pushing it closed. He then walks to the chair behind his wife's bed and picks up the remote control. As he turns on the TV he lets out a long slow breath.

[Laraqua]

Static filled the television screen but it isn't absolute. It's almost as though the television is tuned in between channels and little bits and pieces of a television show can be glimpsed. Something twists and contorts behind the static, twirling and encircling, coalescing and expanding. Disgustingly organic like maggots in a corpse on a time-lapse camera. Or tapeworms, squirming together.

The sight made him feel nauseas but there are words beneath the static. No, not words, but something else. He could swear he can hear something and if he only pays more attention, listens more closely, he can find out what it is, yet part of him rebels against the idea of comprehension. Part of him doesn't want to here. The urge to cover his ears and close his eyes seems almost overwhelming. But so is the curiosity, the sense of something just beyond his senses, soon to be revealed.

[jtull_84]

Something doesn't seem right. Bernard heaves himself out of his seat and walks out of the ward and into the hall. He should tell someone about his wife. Shouldn't there be an alarm or something?
"Hello? Is there anyone here? My wife is..." He chokes on those last words.

[Laraqua]

The nurse's station is empty. There are no nurses walking around although there are still a few patient's families visible in the corridors. The static of the television he had not yet turned off provides a lure at his back. Now that he has left the ward, a thrill of excitement and a twinge of disgust affect him both equally strongly, at the prospect of going back there and watching the television set.

Had their been an announcement? He can't be sure. Someone had spoken over the intercom but he had been too overwhelmed with grief to notice.

[jtull_84]

As tempting as the static is, Bernard cannot rest before letting someone know what happened to his wife. He stops the nearest family. "Can you help me? My wife just passed. I need to tell a nurse. Have you seen them? Where are the nurses and doctors?"

[Laraqua]

An elderly man being led along by his family, dragging some sort of IV contraption along with him, pauses and turns his bleary eyes on Bernard. "There's been an emergency," he says sharply. "They're all tending to people who need attention far more than your dead wife!" Then he ambles off, his family muttering about Bernard's selfishness as they went.

The floor does seem so much more vacant than before. The nurse's station contains one gray-haired, middle-aged nurse. There are no other doctors nor nurses in view.

[jtull_84]

Bernard walks over to the nurse's station and gets her attention. "Pardon me Miss, but my wife has just died, in Ward 15. Her name is Martha Cromwell. I understand that there is an emergency situation, and I'd understand if you needed the ward space. Do you need any help, I could direct people at the very least." He just needs to stay busy, he doesn't want to hear the static.

[Laraqua]

The phone rings and the nurse hurries over to it. "Please, take a seat, sir. We'll work something out later." Then she turns her attention to the telephone.

[jtull_84]

Bernard goes back to his wife's room if he is ignored for more than 10 minutes. Once there he will watch the TV.

[Laraqua]

The blare of static is almost comforting as he sits down on the visitor's chair. The sight of the twisting something-or-other beneath the heavy haze of static most certainly is not. It tears at his mind, leaving him confused and numb. His chin sinks towards his chest, he finds it hard to breathe. It's so hard, so very hard.

Images flash across the screen. He can see them now. The screams of twisted creature's haggard features. Water rolling back of the shore of something terrible. Twisting vines of dripping black dangling from the sky. A voice that shatters glass. A rolling front of white-hot trembling air coming forward. Flesh flayed from bones.

A man faces a woman with a knife. She intones, her hands twisting through a number of bizarre gestures, snake-like, intense, wrong. The man's face twists in pain, his limbs jerking back, pustules cross his face, blistering, fluidic, his eyes clouded with blood, growing red, the blood running along lines in his blistered face. He turns to the television screen.

The sight of people barricading their homes, running sticky tape along the edges of doorways and windows. A view of black ash passing before their house, lights flickering, but not coming into it.

A group stand out on the hills, their faces upturned, mouths slack. The camera begins to rotate upward. A sense of terrible dread fills Bernard. A warning to close his eyes or switch off the television. A wave of adrenaline forces aside the numbness.

Do you continue watching?

[jtull_84]

Bernard stares at the television screen. He is transfixed. What is coming from the sky?

[Laraqua]

The speakers emit a high-pitched frequency and the television set explodes in a cloud of sparks.

[jtull_84]

As the television explodes Bernard comes out of his stupor. He begins to relaize parts of what he saw on the tv. He gets up and takes stock of ward 15. How many beds are there? How many occupied? Are there any sinks? Is there any tape? Would wet linen work to block the gaps? Is there anyone who can help?

[Laraqua]

There is only one bed in this ward, complete with sheets, a blanket and a pillow, with a green curtain that can be drawn across the railing to give his wife some privacy. There is a little bedside cabinet that contains his wife's clothing. White linen curtains billow in front of the open window, letting in the sweet aroma of baking from somewhere outside. There is no stationary or sticky tape in the room although he might be able to get some from the nurse's station or the front desk. The gap between door and wall is to thin to stuff with blankets, but something thinner could be placed around the door, which could then be shut, thus putting a lining within the gaps.

[jtull_84]

Bernard has to try and warn the Nurse at the station. Before he does that, he tries to get a look at the approaching cloud to see how much time he has.

[Laraqua]

Watching the television seems to have taken more time then he might have hoped. The dark clouds are just starting to nibble at the edges of the sun. They seem to be moving somewhat quickly. At this rate, he might have ten or twenty minutes before they pass overhead. Maybe.

[jtull_84]

Bernard decides to secure the room before warning the crowd. He's not wasting time while people waffle around. He takes the curtains down and closes the window. He checks to see if there are any gaps when the windo is shut and locked. After that he checks to see if any of the fabric he has available (curtains, sheet, wife's clothes, robe) would work for blocking the gaps on the door. He takes the most suitable fabric and after making any alterations needed he fits them around the door. Once that is done he checks for any other gaps (vents?) and then goes to the nearest vending machine. He buys all the jerky, snack cakes he can, and a few bottles of water and stocks Ward 15. After he deems the room easily securable, he will warn the nurse and invite anyone he sees to shelter with him.