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THE DOOR WAS PUSHED open slowly, and together we peeked out into the hallway. Everyone in our little room had found some sort of weapon to arm themselves. The best weapon was the fire extinguisher one fellow had pulled from the wall, but most of us had just grabbed the nearest medical device. I personally had found a stethoscope. As bad as that seemed, it was nothing compared to the poor woman who had nothing more than a clipboard!
We had all anticipated seeing the same ghost prowling the hall when we pushed open the door. In the back of my mind, I wondered just how effective a weapon would be against a dead specter, but I didn't give the idea much thought. This whole situation was already completely out of hand, so there was no point devoting much time to this problem. I'd deal with it when the time came.
Thankfully, the hallway was empty. We all crept out together, staying in a tight group, too afraid to stray too far from the comfort that came from our numbers. Since we knew that the main entrance had been blocked off, we chose to push deeper into the bowels of the hospital. The place appeared totally empty, but there was evidence that struggles had taken place here recently. We passed overturned carts and beds in the halls and peered into examination rooms that had been ransacked. Occasionally we passed streaks of blood on the floor and walls, similar to what I had seen earlier. I shuddered to imagine the atrocities that had been committed here.
After some time we found ourselves in front of an elevator shaft and a staircase that both led to higher levels of the hospital.
“What do you think we should do?” asked one of the women in a hospital gown.
“We should stay on the first floor,” another man added. “Our odds of escape won't improve if we go higher.
“True, but we haven't seen anything yet that indicated another exit!” someone else spoke up.
I was silent. Going up didn't seem like the right thing to do here, but I also didn't want to go back the way I had come. I was still thinking about that ghost that had chased me in the hall. Just then, the women in the hospital gown hissed and pointed.
“Look!” she said through her teeth.
Down the hall from where we had come were TWO ghosts! They were floating listlessly in the air. They had not begun to come our way but were instead just looking blankly in our direction. I took a moment to note that they were indeed hanging out just below a ventilator, as one of the men had pointed out.
“Well, that decides it,” I said. “I'm going to the next floor.”
No one wanted to argue now, we just wanted to get away from the ghosts. We punched the button for the elevator, but the only response was a strange noise from up above. Clearly, the lift was no longer functioning. So instead, we all filed through the door leading into the stairwell and walked up to the next floor.
We spilled out into the hall on the second floor and were greeted by a scene straight from a horror movie. Decapitated bodies and entrails were strewn all across the floor. Blood was smeared and splattered from the floor to the ceiling.
“Oh my gosh...” murmured one of the women.
“Well, well, well!”
We were all startled by voices from further down the hall. Standing at the end of the corridor were three men who appeared to be doctors. They were clad in the sterile white doctors' coats and blue latex gloves, but their uniforms were splotched with blood. Their faces were covered by white face masks.
“It looks like we have a few patients to 'evaluate'!” said one of the doctors to another, and with that, they started running straight towards us!