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I LEFT MY FORMER COMPANIONS to their own devices. I wasn't thrilled in the least to be heading back into the bowels of the haunted hospital, but I just couldn't justify abandoning all those other people to the devices of the deranged doctors without at least trying to save them first. Still, my endeavors already felt fruitless, especially since I had no real idea where I was going. The hospital felt like a maze of darkened corridors, something pulled straight from a horror film. The carnage and destruction prevalent everywhere only made things that much more difficult for navigation. I probably would never have found the three doctors, but thankfully, they found me.
I was approaching what seemed to be another in an endless series of hallway intersections when I heard a loud scraping sound coming from an adjoining hall. Immediately, I ducked behind an overturned medicine cart and peered forward. Moments later, the three doctors appeared. They were all dragging large black body bags across the floor.
The other patients, I surmised.
“Gosh, what have these people been eating? Bricks!?” one of the doctors said.
“I know!” the second chimed in. “I'd love to know what this guy ate for lunch!”
The third spoke up. “Don't worry fellas, we'll get to find out real soon!”
All three men laughed, sending chills down my spine. They proceed across the hallway and away from my view, leaving me alone again.
I guess my options are pretty limited, I thought. If I want to help those people, I'll just have to follow them!
Doing my best to keep absolutely quiet, I crept down the hallway behind the trio of doctors. I kept my distance, but there was no real need for stealth. The men were completely engrossed in their task of dragging the bodies.
I hope they aren't dead already, I thought.
The men made their way to a staircase and then proceeded up it. I waited a few moments, and then followed. There was only one more floor, and I exited out onto it cautiously. Outside of the stairwell, a sign was flickering dimly. It read: surgery, and pointed further down a dark hallway. Logic told me that this was the path that the men had taken, so I crept in that direction. Moments later I found myself in front of a large window that peered into a massive surgical room. This would have been where major surgeries would have taken place, with the window serving as a place for doctoral candidates could observe. But now it was serving as something completely different.
“Aww... have my little boys brought me new toys to play with?” an oddly familiar voice spoke from within the operating room.
That voice! I know that voice!
I peeked my head from behind the wall and looked into the large window. Sure enough, the voice that had just spoken belonged to nurse Valentina! She was wearing the same revealing outfit that I had seen earlier, but now she was also splattered with blood and had a deranged, evil look on her face.
“Y-yes, nurse Valentina. We found several more in the hallway a few minutes ago.” one of the doctors said. The tremble in his voice made it obvious that he was as scared of her as I now was.
“Good!” she said, and then cackled loudly. “So I guess the nerve gas is still doing the trick?”
“Yes, ma'am. I think it led them right to us.”
“Excellent!” the neurotic nurse said gleefully. “Now, get one of those bodies up here on the operating table and let's take a closer look at him!”
The doctors did as they were told, and I watched in growing dismay as it became apparent the nurse Valentina was preparing to dismember the poor man. I racked my brain for an idea on how to stop her, but I was interrupted when around the corner, just a few feet away, appeared yet another floating ghost!