Park Ave – By Dan Leicht
Part 2
Chapter 6:
I woke up to find my arm stuck to an IV set. The small screen in the corner of the room was hissing white noise quietly. My clothes I could see were folded up on a chair sitting across from me. The impact of that hit had sent me to the floor. I looked the devil in the eyes for a few hours before waking up. I was still feeling woozy so I pressed the button to call for a nurse. The hospital was silent. I let the clock tick by until I pressed it again, and again, until I eventually heard light footsteps approaching my room, the footsteps of a ballerina or small child.
“You need something?” said a shrill voice from the open doorway. She stood out of sight from the bed I was trapped in.
“Come in so I can see you,” I asked the voice.
She stepped into the room and turned to look at me, her eyes consumed by the pupil, her skin a dry, flaky, pale white, her jaw unhinged and sagging. As she spoke me adjusted her mouth with a balled up fist. She wore a tattered nurses outfit that looked decades old. She moved in closer as she cocked her head back and forth, her chin swinging like a pendulum.
“And to think I thought all those people stocking up on water and duct-tape for the zombie apocalypse were crazy,” I said as I tugged at the needle in my arm. It’d been sealed in with a strong adhesive, so I leapt out of the bad and grabbed the metal IV stand in my hand.
“You have beautiful eyes, but I’m sure you hear that all the time,” I said as I tried not to gag at the smell.
“Please get back in bed. You’re not well, Mr. Splints.”
“I’m well enough, Nurse of the undead.”
Her brow turned inward as she glared at me and moved even closer. I tightened my grip on the stand and walked toward her. Her body soon started to change, her jaw snapped into place, her fists grew three times larger. She lunged at me but I was able to dodge it. As she regained herself I gripped the metal stand in both hands and held it up as a barrier. She lunged again, but it was clear she didn’t possess the same strength as the shapeshifter that had knocked me out. As she tried to regain herself the second time I took a swing and heard her back crack as she let out a deafening shriek. While she tried to compose herself on the floor I made a dash for the doorway and out into the hall, where I found myself confronted with two options, go left and face more undead nurses, or go right and challenge the man I see in the mirror every morning. Getting down to the ground floor of this place wasn’t going to be as easy as just taking a ride down the elevator.
