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"Are you coood, I’oing around at the motel, everybody has it But it’s probably for the best anyway, I think we should hold off But I’ve been doing a ton of research It turns out the government has put up a list of naive you the address--"

A up on him, and turned off her phone

It was, she would have to say, the angriest she had ever been in her entire life She took a dozen deep breaths, trying to remember the techniques from the meditation class she had taken (somebody claimed it could do as much to control pain as any prescription painkiller, ha-ha)

She only had one other option She dug the zombie flyer frouy had given out during the press conference

She punched her way through a series of voice options, then when she reached an operator said, "Uh, hi My na His house is where the infection started Both of us were there I’ symptoms I think I should be quarantined but I’ pause on the other end

"Please hold"

After amale voice came on the line and said, "Ms Sullivan?"

"Yes, sir"

"We’ll coet you Stay exactly where you are Don’t panic"

"Okay Do you knohere the bus stop is in front of--"

"We knohere you are We’ll be there within thirty minutes Please stay where you are If someone else approaches you, ask them to stay at least fifty feet away Remain calm"

Thirtyup and bit into a Red Vine She felt stupid This is what she should have done all along She’d be in Undisclosed before dark

13 Hours, 30 Minutes Until the Massacre at Ffirth Asylum

Dark Thirsty

I had been hospitalized only once before, for a concussion and some cuts and a fractured eye socket I suffered in a car accident, and for a unshot wound unrelated to the accident I don’t re a period ofI do reo bob to consciousness that cahts and sic, and a sense that the world had skipped ahead in time without me And under it all, the thirst This was like that

My last solidout of the BB’s restrooathered behind the store The people were being herded into that spot by National Guard--confused, scared kids with assault rifles and no protective gear So and a head burst like a balloon next to h the door I had just exited

Days had passed since then I knew that I could feel it in ue sense of cycles, of consciousness and unconsciousness--sleeping through a night, drifting in and out of a day that was just as dark I had been urney I re an IV in my arm for a while, and then they took it out, and then put it back I had been outside at so to other people I reh ht There and gone Meaningless

Sleep

Awake

Dark

I had eyes I felt the twitch of h the view reht arht of plastic tubes attached, so I had been unhooked at some point With some effort I lifted my hand to my face, to see if my eyes were covered They were not I blinked I tried to lift roaned--a bolt of pain fired up ital clock, or a slit of light under a door, or blinking green lights on a console

I tried to sit up I peeled my back off of the sheets, but ed on it and heard the clank of metal and felt cold steel around ood sign

I peeled apart dry lips and croaked, "Hello?"

Nobody would have heard it unless they were sitting on the bed with ive it another shot

"Hello? Is anybody out there?"

So about the echo of my voice told me I was in a s nurse’s footsteps outside, or even the jingling of keys and a burly prison guard to tellto put ht I detected the sound of water dripping, somewhere

Suddenly I was certain--absolutely certain--that I had been abandoned here No question, they had stuck , chained to a bed, and left ht on I’d lie here, for days, pissing and shittingin a trailer park whose oas off doing meth somewhere

"HEY! ANYBODY?"

I yanked at the cuffs It didn’t do anything butnoise I couldn’t even see a door

There isn’t a door, they just built up a brick wall over the opening, or lockedcontainer and bulldozed a thousand tons of dirt on top of it or sank it to the botto up--neither was restrained as far as I could tell--and kicked at the railing the cuffs were attached to I had no strength in the leg The railing didn’t give

"HEY! GODDAMNIT!"

"Sir?"

A tiny voice I froze

Did I actually hear that?

I blinked into the darkness, stupidly, looking foron my lap and I wouldn’t have seen them

"Hello? Is soirl "Can you be quieter? You’re scaring us"

"Who are you?"

"I’m Anna Is your naht they called you Walt earlier When they brought you in"

"No Oh, okay Wong They probably said Wong, that’s "

"Are you from Japan?"

"No Who else is in here?"