I'm Stuck at a Hospital and I Can't Leave - Part 04

For those of you who are still following me on my nightmare of a journey, I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart. You all are my only real support from the outside, and the only thread I am hanging onto that confirms my sanity.

Well, what little sanity I have left.

Going to sleep turned out to be a terrible idea. Someone suggested that I should have looked for a camera in my room, but I fell alseep before I read that. That was a mistake on my part and I am haunted by it, because if I would have seen that, I wouldn't have blood on my hands.

Firstly, I do feel rested, but I have no idea how long I slept for. Time is not flowing normally here, I think we all know that at this point, but even minutes are passing at a different rate on my clock compared to when I count it out. My clock read that I slept for close to 20 hours. I don't believe that, but I do feel better.

Well, I did for about 2 minutes after I woke up.

I woke up on my side and I checked my phone for any new messages, or even some proof that my experience was all a dream.

It wasn't.

I rolled over and was faced with the biggest scare of my life. There were two watchers in my room. I guess these were the nurses who ran the ICU, because the door was unlocked and the table I moved in front of the door was moved.

I was terrified, and I did what any terrified person would have done; I used my weapon to prevent harm to myself. The knife was on the bedside counter, and as soon as I saw the watchers, I grabbed the knife with my good hand and swung it at a watcher, plunging it into their cheek. As soon as the blade was buried in their face, I saw something that made my already strange situation even stranger.

Their eyes flashed between a bright white and pink for a couple moments, before the body collapsed.

I managed to keep my grip on the knife while the body fell, and was sprayed with blood as the knife dislodged from their face. I was prepared to defend myself from the second watcher, but they just stared at me for a few moments, before they began to unleash their silent scream at me. Just like before, there was no sound, but I felt my body vibrate from whatever they were doing.

I felt dizzy and nauseous, and I covered my ears with my hands, trying to cradle my brain, to try and stop the splitting feeling that was roaring through my head.

But just as quickly as the silent scream started, it was finished, and watcher number two was gone, and I was alone in the ICU room. Alone with my thoughts, but one thought was larger and louder that the rest.

I just killed someone.

Even though they were a threat, even though they might not have been fully human, they used to be, and now they never would be again. I panicked and I freaked out. I never thought I would ever have to defend myself like this, and I acted without hesitation.

I felt like a monster, like I deserved to be in the hell I was in.

I stewed in these thoughts for a while, but I did snap out of it and survival mode set in. I gathered my belongings, with the idea of leaving in my head. One thing put a pause on my journey though.

When I went to wash the blood off my hands and face, I noticed the colour was dark, which was really strange to me.

Now, I know blood will be darker or brighter depending on whether it is from and artery or a vein. But this was darker, almost like motor oil.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it was oil or anything like that. What I'm saying is that it resembled old blood you would find in a hematoma. I know this, because I had a large hematoma in my thigh from my injury, and when it was drained I saw what it looked like, and it looked like the same liquid that was on me, and the same colour that was pooled around that dead body.

Blood is that colour when it is old, so does that mean that the blood in the watchers is old?

Something I would ponder on, something I still am. But at the time, I was determined to get out of that hell hole.

Some people have suggested I steal an ambulance and drive off in it. That is the first thing I tried to do after I left the ICU. I made my way down to the ambulance bay and was pleased to find that there was one left. I looked around the offices and rooms close by and found a set of keys on a counter near the ambulance bay. When I tried them on the ambulance I was happily surprised that the door opened.

I thought that finally my luck had changed, and I would be able to leave. I should have known that it was too good to be true.

I tried to turn on the ambulance but nothing happened. I tried a couple times and every time nothing happened. Now, I don't know a lot about cars, but I know enough to look under the hood when a car wont start. So I popped the hood and looked inside to see if I could notice anything wrong.

Turns out, a missing battery makes everything look incomplete.

I knew the easily accessed keys were too good to be true. I left the bay. I wasn't going to let one setback turn me off of my journey, or let it discourage me.

I was going to leave this hospital. I wouldn't let this stop me.

I made my way to the parking lot with the thought in my mind that I would steal one of the cars out there. The closest car had a young woman in it. I opened up the car door and shouted at her, pointing the knife at her.

“GET THE HELL OUT!”

To my surprise, she unbuckled and got out of the car, no objections at all. This was too easy and I expected something to go wrong. That something was no gas in the tank. I got out and made my way to the next car. Just like the first, there was a person in the car who left it without force. Just like the first car too, it would start. Dead battery this time.

I tried six cars total. Every car had something wrong with it. Every. Single. Car. No gas, dead battery, flat tires, stalled engine, locked steering wheel, and the last one didn't even have a steering wheel. I gave up, and walked away. As I was walking away, I noticed that all six people that left their cars were just standing beside their cars, for some reason they didn't get back into them. The just stood beside them, staring in my direction. Now it was dark out, so I couldn't know for sure, but I noticed that each head had a little pink glow that was flashing in my direction. Unnerved, I set off with my final plan.

One of the most popular questions/suggestions I have gotten was just to walk out of the hospital, and the reason I hadn't was due to my injuries. But I found some T3's and I was angry and scared enough to test my luck. So while the sky was still black and the snow was still falling, I left that parking lot, found the nearest road and walked along the curb. I didn't look back and I didn't care where I was going to end up, I just needed to get out. The cold winds went right through me, but my drive just pushed me to keep walking.

According to my phone, I walked for just over an hour. My body was partially numb and there was ice clinging to my beard, I thought I was going to collapse. But then I saw a light in the distance, and that lit a fire in my chest. I didn't feel numb any more, and I felt like I was at peak strength. Hopeful, I walked towards the lights. It looked like an apartment building, which means that there would be lots of people inside.

This would finally be the end of this hell.

Except it wasn't.

The closer I got to the building, the more familiar the shape looked. I stopped in my tracks when I realized that the building I was looking at was the same cursed hospital that I have spent the last few days at.

I didn't know what to do. The small amount of hope that I had left left me.

I considered just standing out there, letting the cold overtake me. For a while, that is what I was going to do. Why not? I wasn't allowed to leave, so I might as well die.

But I didn't want to give up. I had the drive to survive, and if I couldn't leave, then maybe I needed to stop whatever was going on inside. So, I walked back to the hospital and walked through that same outpatient door.

Unsurprisingly, everyone was watching me when I walked in.

“Yea, yea. I'm back, so what?”

I yelled this as I gripped my knife, expecting some attack. But nothing happened. They just all went to the same tasks that they have been doing since I got here. So I sat down in my same spot in the same waiting room and now I am writing all of this down.

Now I have received a few suggestions from you kind people on what I can try, and I'll quickly answer some of the questions/suggestions I haven't talked about yet.

Someone suggested that I should try and hide in the vents. That would only work temporarily, and It wouldn't work for me. Not only would I not fit in there because most of the ones I have found were large enough to fit a cat, they are all high up. With my bad leg and arm, I wouldn't be able to get to them, and I definitely wouldn't be able to get around in them.

One that I have gotten a couple times was trying to call 911. I did, three times. After the third one, I gave up. The first time I called I said I couldn't leave the hospital, and I received this response,

“Well, that's because you are supposed to be there. Please enjoy your stay.”

The second time I made up a story that I saw someone in the parking lot who dropped a briefcase. I was told that police would be there right away. That was days ago at this point.

The third time I called chilled me, and that is why I stopped calling. I called them saying I was being held against my will, and they said that police were on their way and requested to stay on the phone with me. But I was told something that almost made me throw my phone against the wall,

“Sir, we are at the location where you say you are, but we do not see anyone matching your description.”

I was looking out the window at this point and I saw no police cars there. I hung up, and that is why I haven't tried calling 911 again.

Someone sent a DM to me suggesting that I invite someone to meet me at the hospital, almost trying to trick whatever is going on here. I can't do that for a couple reasons. First, the moral reason, that I don't want anyone else to be trapped with me. Regardless if it means I could be freed, or if I wouldn't be alone, I couldn't do that to someone I cared about. Second, every other call that I have tried to make haven't been good at all, so why bother?

But I am done trying to leave here, obviously something doesn't want me to. So, I need to figure out what is going on here.

Someone suggested that maybe I am dealing with some sort of simulation, and although I will believe anything at this point, I don't think that is likely. Unless I was in a simulation for a while, wouldn't I have had to pass out or have something happen to me to be put into the simulation? I know I can't rule anything out, but I don't find that likely.

What I will do is try and figure out where this damn static is coming from and if there is a central hub for it. I didn't say this before, but I found a backpack, and I have been stealing the receivers off of every phone I can find. I don't know where the PA room is, but I do know that all the land line phones should be connected to it, I know I have seen staff using them to page other staff in the past.

So, every time I see a landline, I disconnect the receiver and cord, just to make sure that they can't be used with the PA, thus ruling out the landlines producing the static.

But I do need to finish this update and find someplace safe for a bit, one without a camera this time. The static started up as I was typing this, and it has been on for about fifteen minutes. What is scaring me though, is that the watchers who are outside are responding to the static.

The watchers inside are staring up at the ceiling, like they always do, but the ones outside have gotten out of their cars. They aren't standing close enough to be completely visible, but I can see an endless row of them, all staring at me with their mouths wide open, but they aren't screaming.

Yet.

I can't see the watchers behind them, but I can see the pink flash in their eyes. There are more than I can count, like a field of pink stars.

This place is feeling more dangerous than before, but I have my knife now, and I know they can be killed if I need to do that.

I just hope that I don't have to do that again.

Time to find the source of the static, and to possibly find a place to bunker down if the watchers outside get in.

I hope that I get to make another update.



- Cody S