To Kill a Cactus - Dark Matter part 3

Dark Matter part 2: HERE

...

Eventually, I managed to fall asleep, although after my night time adventures the bed felt uncomfortable and the silence was screaming in my ears. The next moment I opened my eyes, the silence was gone and it was replaced with a loud siren. 

I sat up in my bed since I realised it was moving, my bed rolled to the corner of the room, weird lasers scanned the room and I was barred into a little cage, I wasn't sure if it was there to protect me or hold me captive, so I was panicking, the house felt like it was shaking, but it may have been just me trembling from terror.

I could hear screams and growls which sounded scarily familiar, it couldn't have been possible that the zombies somehow got in or was it? Thoughts ran through my head and my heart was beating so loudly I thought it might actually jump out of my chest.

The door slammed open and my nurse ran in, she had blood splatter all over her stark white clothes, she closed the door and barricaded with a cupboard, I was surprised that the tiny woman could move such a big piece of furniture, but the fear I saw in her eyes, clearly gave her the strength to do it.

Once the door was secure, she ran to me and fell to the ground, she was crying, so I moved to her. I didn't know what to say, I never had been good at consoling people, I personally just wanted to be alone, when I was sad, but she clearly needed my company.

She reached her hands to me and said in agony: "Please help me!"

I held her hand, but I didn't know what to do.

"I don't know how to let you in here," I answered.

I looked around frantically searching for a way in, but the cage seemed smooth all-around, she looked anxiously at the door, it was shaking and I could hear the growling get closer.

"No, not in, just do it!" she shouted, she held onto my hand as if her life depended on it, I wanted to help her, but I didn't know what she wanted.

"What do I have to do?" I asked.

Before the nurse could answer, the door burst open, the cupboard was broken to pieces, and a zombie ran in, straight for her, she backed away from me to the wall, as if she had anywhere to go, I jumped on the bed and crawled under the covers, I didn't want to see any of it, I was so scared although I was fairly sure that the zombie couldn't get into the cage. I was still scared for the nice nurse, who was deemed to a horrible faith.

I heard her scream, the zombie was feeding on her, his growls sounded almost joyful. It seemed like the torture lasted forever, she kept crying and screaming and it felt like the entire hospital was doing the same with her. I tried to block my ears and crawl deeper into the bed, but none of it worked, I felt tears run down my face, I felt so useless and tiny. She asked for my help and I couldn't do anything, I felt like it was my fault that she was suffering.

All of a sudden there was silence, I heard the zombie make an odd sound and then a loud thump, which sounded like he fell to the ground. There were footsteps running in and out of the door, I peeked out and saw some of the nurses dragging both the male zombie and my nurse out from the room, her name tag was in a puddle of blood on the ground. It said Stacy Nood, someone mopped it all up and when I finally got out of the covers it almost looked like nothing had happened.

"Paithoon, are you okay?" I heard a familiar voice say. It was the strange man from the lake.

He was dressed in rather smart clothing, but the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up and I could see a few specks of blood on his shoes.

I looked up at him, but I couldn't get a single word out of my mouth, he seemed to understand though. He just walked up to my cage and slid it up as if it was as light as a feather, but I imagine there was a way of opening the cage, the nurse simply didn't know it.

"I'm sorry...there was an invasion, I don't know who planned it, but it was clearly the work of someone much smarter than the average zombie, we have put the guard back up and are investigating, everything will be fine," he said it calmly as he had said everything else during our brief meeting before.

"She asked for my help," I finally said, "but I didn't know what to do."

He sat down on the edge of my bed and looked out of the window, I knew that he knew something about it, but wasn't telling me. Once the room was clear of the nurses washing the floor and walls, he looked back at me, his dark eyes were very serious.

"There is something you should know," he said it carefully.

"What?" I asked. I knew I was getting closer to the truth. He seemed hesitant.

"This is not a safe place to have this talk, come with me," he said and got up, reaching his hand out towards me.

I wasn't sure if I should go or not, I didn't know if I could trust him, but my curiosity got the best of me and I accepted his hand. He helped me up and we left the room.

...

To be Continued