Nightmare Asylum 

 
(c) 2001 Nicholas Thomson AKA MinionZombie "King of the Undead") 

 

It was a blustery autumn day and the leaves were torn from their trees viscously, sent twirling and curling in the gray toned sky. The air was damp and heavy leaving a slight chill snap at the tip of your nose if you were outside too long. The ground was slippy for all the mushed up dead leaves that crashed to the ground previously. It was, as usual, a quiet day in Georgetown, Ohio and it was beginning to get colder, but as all the residents of this peaceful mountain town knew, the town autumn festival was coming.

The festival meant fun and laughter, music and games for all the locals. It was renowned across the state area and people would flock for miles to come and take part in the multitude of events that created the wonderful, joyous atmosphere of a small town party.

The festival was just a couple of weeks away, and that's what made Jefferson, Guy and Mary's arrival at the Peaceful View Asylum even more angst inducing. The three of them were being driven down a quiet road through the woodlands of Georgetown and as they sat there in the back of the rocking station wagon, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous. They were not heading there to visit someone and they were not heading there for a job interview. They were heading there to commit themselves, all three of them. However, neither one of them was crazy. They all knew it, and so did their Psychology teacher who was driving them to the Asylum himself. It was their final year at university and they needed to produce a really astounding project if they had any hope of passing with a decent grade. After recently studying an experiment by the sociologist, Rosenhan, who had committed some of his students into a mental asylum to test labeling theory, the trio of Psychology students enquired into possibility of doing such a thing with their Professor, Dr. David Cage. He had agreed that this was indeed a marvelous idea and that an updated version of the experiment would allow them to assess both the socialization and psychology behind a mental asylum, a place where many in the small town feared to tread.

The woodlands emphasized the gloomy nature of the miserable autumn day. Muffled pockets of dulled sunlight shone through the naked branches of the trees surrounding them and the thick, slushing sound of leaves and fresh rainwater underneath the tyres rang out eerily.

"You kids nervous?" asked the Professor, glancing into the backseat of the car through the mirror.

The three students all looked at each other and then focused back on the eyes of their professor, which glanced back and forth at them in the rear-view mirror.

"Maybe just a little," replied Mary.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad once you get in there really, I came up here a couple of years ago when I was producing a dissertation on the effects an enclosed surrounding has on the unstable mind. The place isn't that bad at all, I've seen worse, that's for sure."

"How much worse?" asked Guy.

"Trust me, you don't want to know how bad I've seen some of these sorts of places," muttered Dr. Crane.

"My trust in you has just sky rocketed, David," said Jefferson as he stared out of the window with a mild curiosity as to what lay deep within the woods he was surrounded by.

"That's good to now, because we're here. No turning back now!"

Mary, Guy and Jefferson all crept to the driver's side of the car to gain a better look at the building.

"It's not the Ritz, but I think it'll do, just don't lose our documentation Doc!" said Mary, "the last thing we want is to be trapped in there, this isn't The Blair Witch Project you know, I want to actually see my family again."

"Calm down, Mary. Trust me, this place is really not that bad. Sure it's big and all gothic looking, but when you get inside, it's a really friendly atmosphere and everything's clean and crisp. Just don't blow your cover when you get in there, we don't want you to be treated any different that any of the other patients, otherwise this is a total waste of time. Trust me, when it gets to the end of next month I'll send the notification into the staff. Only the head of the Asylum knows about this, so you'll be in safe hands all the way. Anyway, we're here now, so we're not turning back," reassured Dr. Crane. 

 

The asylum itself was an old building from the last century and the owners were obviously not too bothered about keeping the outside clean. Mould coated the walls, as did a thick skin of lichen while long, running strips of rust stained the metal doors and bars on the windows. The rust even ran onto the stonework and trickled nearly all the way down to the ground. A heavy, black roof, which was beautifully decorated in miniature gargoyles and cherubs, adorned the forward facing façade of the building. Like something out of a bad horror movie, the building stood there in front of the three students who stopped there for a moment beside the car, in quiet, fearing awe of the over-powering building.

The windows were filthy and some were cracked and quickly patched up with duct tape. The ground beneath their feet was moist and made their footsteps squelch as the three students, accompanied by their lecturer walked towards the cold, heavy metal, black doors. As they got nearer and nearer, they began to hear the quiet mumbling of the full-time residents inside. Slowly, the insane muttering got louder and louder until the front door of the building suddenly burst open and out came two employees who were dragging large sacks of rubbish out to the waste disposal units to the left of the entrance.

The two men were surly types who would fit in at the local bar rather than working in a mental institution. Each man was lugging four sacks of whatever was inside the thick, black bags. Whatever it was, it seemed to be moist and made a squelching sound as the bags bounced off the men's legs as they rushed out of the way of the approaching four strangers.

"Is this the way to the reception?" asked Dr Cage.

"Yes Sir, it is. Just go on inside and follow the yellow line on the middle of the floor around to the left, Betty will be there, she'll sort you out," replied the nearest burly worker and no sooner had he helped them out he had disappeared around to the bins and was hoisting his bags of rubbish into the gaping hole of the disposal unit. Whatever was in those bags seemed to be cumbersome, perhaps overly heavy for normal waste. But that matter was not important at this moment, the feeling of sudden dread beginning to fill the hearts of the students was more important right now.

"Doctor, I'm not sure if this is such a good idea after all," stated Mary, whispering over the echoes of several wails of inane and jumbled chatter from the cells down the corridors to the left and right.

"Don't worry, everything is okay and it will continue to be alright, so don't blow this thing or you're grades will not come back up to scratch!" replied Dr Cage sharply but somewhat reassuringly. 

 

The main corridor of the institution was medical white. The floors were freshly cleaned and the sheen of the drying dampness on the linoleum shone a pale reflection of themselves as they walked slowly up the corridor, guided by the yellow strip all the way to the reception.

The reception was clearly marked and behind a large and overpowering white desk, Betty, a middle-aged woman whose current obsession for Belgian Buns had clearly gotten out of control. The four stepped up to the reception, Dr Cage placing his hands on the edge of the desk. He received no response from the vegetative receptionist.

Coughing into his hand sharply, Dr Cage managed to arouse a response from the woman, "Get behind the line and stay there!" She ordered.

Dr Cage stepped back from the desk, pushing his students back with his right arm as he glanced at the floor. Sure enough, a thick black line was painted on the floor surrounding the reception desk. This must have been one of the measures to instill respect and discipline throughout the facility.

"Excuse me, Miss," pronounced Dr Cage.

"Yeah," muttered the woman as she sat up in her chair and swiveled to face the four people stood in front of her.

"I wish to commit these three young people, they are currently unfit for society. I suggest a period of mental re-adjustment may be in order," stated Dr Cage.

"You what?" bellowed the plump and rippling woman who still sat hunched over in her chair despite correcting her posture.

"I wish to commit these here three youngsters for a period of evaluation," stated Dr Cage in a slightly more forceful tone.

"You mean you wanna bung 'em in the loony bin for a month?" said Betty rather abruptly.

"In the simplest of terms, yes."

Betty sighed and reached over to her right to pick a clipboard off a large pile of "In" mail and handed it over to Dr Cage.

"Fill in these forms and get them back pronto, bub. My shift ends in 20 minutes and I ain't hanging around for no punk ass crazy fuckers."

Dr Cage let a snide lift of his lip smear onto his face as he quickly snapped the forms from the woman, picking a pen up from the muddled desk as he did so.

"Follow me," he said to the three students.

Dr Cage and his prospective mental patient students all walked over to a seating area where they sat and waited for the forms to be filled in. After much scribbling of names and addresses followed by numbers and facts, Dr Cage finally finished all the forms and was quick about handing them into Betty as the three students followed sheepishly behind him.

"It's about friggin' time, bud. One more minute and you'd be taking care of these swizzle sticks for another day," grunted Betty as she snatched the forms out of Dr Cage's hands, pressing a large red button with her free hand. 

No sooner had she pressed the button than a troop of staff all decked out in clean, white overalls came marching out of a door to the side of the reception. Three staff for three new patients.

"Have fun now kiddies, welcome to the brain barrel," shouted Betty as the three, slightly scared students backed away slightly from the approaching staff, all of which were carrying one straight jacket for their choice of new inmate.

The three surly staff member, one of which had been taking out the garbage just a short while before, stepped up to the new patients and grabbed hold of them, placing the straight jackets around the shaking figures, tying them off and leading them away back through the doors that the staff had only just walked through. As the three students were led away, the all looked back at Dr Cage who was looking slightly worried, but still quietly optimistic as the doors closed between them and the sounds of the existing inmates began to flood the halls of the asylum. 

 

As they all approached the end of the first corridor, which directly connected with the reception area, the sudden stench of stale body odor mixed with the bleach, which coated every surface viewable hit the three new statistics. They all wanted to hide the smell from their sense by covering their noses, but being strapped up stopped them from it, and they were forced to continue to step through a new wave of smells when they entered the main common room for the patients.

"Take a seat over there and we'll send someone to take you to the chief medical examiner," groaned one of the burly staff members.

For a moment, the three new numbers were freed, but the lack of movement caused them to feel a helpless sense of insecurity as the doors behind them slammed shut once again and the attention of all those in the immediate area was drawn towards the three scared individuals.

"God damn that shit grade is looking mighty sweet right now," claimed Jefferson.

"Somehow I think your logic for once is correct," replied Mary while Guy remained silent, his eyes dashing from each approaching patient to the next.

As the hoard of seemingly mindless vessels got closer and closer, the surrounding air began to get tighter and tighter until eventually they were surrounded by a group of the heavy breathing, mindless individuals, some of which, the merest sense of decency was lost on while others stood there and let thick streams of drool coat their chins.

"We're not in Kansas anymore, guys," whispered Guy.

"I hear that," replied Jefferson while Mary began to glance around the immediate, hungry inmates that surrounded her as they ran their eyes back and forth over her.

"I think this was one big fucking mistake," said Mary.

"Swearer! Swearer! Swearer! Swearer!" shouted one of the immediate inmates. "We're not allowed to cuss in here! Or they'll wash your mouth out! Wash your mouth out! Wash it out! Out! Out!"

"Alright, knock this shit off!" bellowed the warden of the wing who came crashing through the doors into the room.

"Go back to your beds, now! Get the hell out of my site you piles of shit! Go!" 

As the crowd dispersed from the vicinity and gradually there just remained the three new inmates and a new batch of staff who had appeared behind them during the recent run in with the existing members of the meatball club.

"All right, first off, you young lady are coming with me," ordered a tall, thin man who's thinning wiry hair flapped as he spoke. The man grabbed Mary by the arm and dragged her out of the room through the two large, heavy doors behind that slammed harshly as the two disappeared down the corridor.

"Hey, where's he taking her?" asked Jefferson to the warden of the wing.

"She's being taken to the female ward, we can't have her bouncing around in here with all these sex-starved lunatics now can we?"

"Then what's happening to us then?" continued Jefferson.

"Ask anymore questions, boy, and I'll make it worth my while!" shouted a sudden burly man who came booming through the doors. "Now shut your hole and follow me!" he shouted at Jefferson and Guy who was glancing around the room at the drooling, following faces of the others in the ward as they bounced off the walls and ran amok, tugging on the bars or jumping on the beds, either that or they were just cowering in a corner balled up like a frightened animal.

The surly man grabbed hold of the collars of both Jefferson's and Guy's straight jackets and hoisted them off their feet momentarily then dropping them down again to face the doors through which the fuming staff member came charging through just moments before.

"Walk you son's of bitches! Move!" ordered the man.

Without one iota of hesitation, the two jacketed, crumpled men complied with the orders given and bashed their way out of the two doors ahead of them, walking slowly down the corridor.

"You see that red line there boy, follow that," muttered the surly guy at Jefferson who was leading the way. "You're gonna meet the nurse now, she'll give you your morning medication."

Jefferson did as he was told, as did Guy, and they both meandered their way following the red line painted on the floor. 

The building must have been very old, the paint on the floor was badly chipped and non-existent in some spots and the distinct smell of damp whistled through the echoing hallways as the grunts and snorts of the surly guy behind Guy boomed down the hall, waking the inmates behind the closed doors lining the main hallway.

At the end of the corridor was a single, wide white door, although there was more rust and grime than white or anything remotely sanitary by the looks of things.

"Go through that door ahead of you, boy!" boomed the man again.

Jefferson robotically complied and crashed his way through the doors with his shoulders hunched over. 

 

Suddenly, a blast of white light hit Jefferson and Guy as they entered the room. Thick strip lights were bolted fast into the ceiling and an out of use extractor fan lay dormant and dirty in the wall to their left. To their right was a large cabinet filled with multi-coloured pills and white bottles and many other utensils and medications. Straight in front of them stood Ms Webster, a matronly woman who was ready and waiting, plastic gloves applied and mask firmly positioned over her nose and mouth. The large white door slammed shut. As the nurse began to organize a series of pills and tools on the table beside her, Jefferson turned to run, but found himself confronted with the chest of the tall and surly man who had been following them all the way down. As the realization set in that escape was futile, the sound of screaming inmates and jabbering prophets of false hope and mind suddenly filled the air.

"Where do you think you're going asshole?" said the surly man sharply. "Nurse, do this bastard first, give him an extra dose, this one seems hostile to me."

The great big surly bastard of a man grinned as the nurse took hold of Jefferson's arm and led him over to the bed where he was forcefully sat down and his arm tied off with a thick rubber ring. The nurse patted Jefferson's forearm and located a vein. As she took strong hold of his arm, she reached over to her assortment of tricks and devices and picked up a large syringe full of green fluid.

"Jab him quick or he'll squirm," boomed the surly man who stood in the background, grinning incessantly.

"You don't need to tell me how to do my job, Joel. I have done this plenty of times to know of the effects of squirming, massive blood loss and severance of the limb was the result of the last squirmer, wasn't it, Joel?" said the nurse calmly.

"Yeah that guy never knew what shit hit him!" laughed Joel as his burly chest pounded with his laughter.

Suddenly, as the needle approached Jefferson's arm, Guy took a step back, knowing his fate, only to be held in place by Joel. 

 

The needle stabbed into Jefferson's arm and the nurse quickly pumped a long stream of the green fluid into his arm. As soon as it entered his bloodstream, Jefferson suddenly felt weak and groggy, his arm going numb in an instant.

"Now give me the other one, Joel," said the nurse as Jefferson flopped from the bed and slouched off towards the corner of the room near the dysfunctional fan where a slow, chilled meandering flow of air-cooled his suddenly raging head, which sizzled with heat. 

"I understand that you're one of three new patients, is that correct, umm, Mary?" muttered a short, stumpy old man as he fiddled with his beard.

"Yes sir, that is correct," whispered Mary as the watchful eye of the man who had led her to this new and strange smelling room ran up and down Mary's back.

"And why were you committed here, Mary? You sure don't seem like the sort who would end up somewhere like this."

"No sir, I can't remember why I am here."

"You can't remember, huh?" muttered the short man as he stood proudly behind his desk amidst piles of papers and cabinets of files and documents. "Well, whatever the reason you're here for, you're not going anyway for a while, so get comfortable."

And with that, the dumpy little man stamped a red notice on Mary's file denoting Mary's apparent insanity in big, bold letters.

"Take her away now, get her comfortable in her new room, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of you, Mary," finished the short man as Mary was led out of the room.

"Go on, move you're pretty little ass, bitch!" ordered the man behind her as he slapped her behind with vigor.

"Get the fuck off me you pervert!" she shouted.

"What the fuck did you just call me you whore?" boomed the man as he grabbed hold of her, swinging her around to meet his eyes.

"I said not to touch me you cocksucker!"

"Right, that's fucking it, get your ass down that set of stairs down the corridor, I think you need to meet our resident surgeon!"

And with that, the big burly bastard grabbed hold of Mary by the arm and almost single-handedly dragged her down a spiral staircase deep into the basement of the building. 

 

The air was dank and musty and there was a sharp, delayed sound of water dripping from old lead pipes, mended with rags and duct tape. Only a few spotlights every few yards lit the dingy corridor than led deep into the heart of the basement. At the end of the corridor stood a dormant metal door on which old, brown stains of blood ran down and coated the immediate floor. The sound of Mary's feet scuffing on the floor was echoed up and down the corridor, vibrating off the walls and the ceiling as dust was knocked out of place by the sheer size of the bustling surly bastard behind her. For what seemed an eternity, the walk, or dragging rather, to the room at the end of the dank hall was arduously drawn out and by the time they reached their destination, Mary was screaming at the top of her voice to be let go, to run free and to flee from this horrid place.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go you oversized sack of shit!" she shouted as the burly man who carried her threw her through the doors which burst open, exposing the contents of the room to Mary's eyes. In the darkened corner of the room immediately to Mary's right stood a thin man, a mask hoisted over the lower half of his face to disguise him from his demon deeds. As the thin man began to step out of the light, Mary could see the blood that soaked his operating uniform and particularly the gore that hung from his broken medic's watch, which lay upside down on the lapel of his clothing.

"Thank you kind sir, I'll send for you when I'm finished," murmured the doctor.

The burly bastard obeyed the orders and stepped outside and as the sound of his thunderous footsteps disappeared down the hallway, Mary following the surgeon through the room as he wandered away from her for a moment to explore his medical cabinet. On the other lapel of his top, Mary read his name, 'Doctor Veber.'

"You know it is not often that I am graced with such beautiful company my dear, it often gets very lonely down here of an evening, but my work keeps me occupied. Don't worry dear, you'll feel nothing," he continued to murmur.

"What are you going to do to me?" Mary asked nervously.

"Aw, now don't you worry, as I said, you'll feel nothing."

And with that, Dr. Veber turned round suddenly and charged towards Mary, a bloody mallet in his hand gripped tight and slowly rising above her head. And with one thunderous blow, Mary was sent into nightmarish sleep, just prior to which, she screamed suddenly and sharply, finally falling down to the floor in a heap.

"Well, you may feel a little something." 

There was a sudden blast of cold air all of a sudden when Mary awoke from her nightmare sleep, for a moment she thought it was all a dream until she heard the chilling calls and screams of the other patients in the building.

"Ah good, you're awake my dear, well come now, drink up," muttered Dr. Veber as he tipped her head up, lifting a moldy glass of murky water to her mouth, forcing her to drink the rank fluid.

As she coughed and spluttered while Dr. Veber rubbed her throat to make her swallow, Mary managed to get out a few words, "why are you doing this to me? What do you want?"

"Now that would be telling, besides, medical science and world progression has no time to stop and explain its actions," replied Veber as he took the glass away from Mary's mouth, stroking her matted hair as he did so.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"On the edge of a new age, a new species, my dear, you are witnessing history as we speak, and soon, you'll be a part of it too soon enough, but for now, just look at what we have achieved so far," murmured the doctor as he pointed a light towards a new corner of the room.

This corner into which Mary was staring was previously unseen by her until now, and what she saw made her want to wretch or run, but she could do neither. She was strapped down to a medical bed with grimy sheets covered in spatters of brown blood. Standing in the corner was what appeared human at first, but on closer inspection, the figure standing in the corner was missing its lower jaw and a distinct and crude mark remained from an operation. A bloody and poorly sewed up 'Y Section' appeared in the figure's chest.

Mary screamed and struggled with the restraints, her eyes transfixed on the hideous beast in the corner, which flinched from the bright light that, shone into its eyes.

"Yes, quite the medical marvel wouldn't you say my dear? A true achievement of science, a new era of warfare, a new era of mankind, an unstoppable army of the undead!" shouted the doctor.

"You're fucking crazy!" stammered Mary as she flinched and gagged at the grotesque image in front of her very own eyes. No, this couldn't be true, it's not possible, this is impossible. This is something of nightmares, not real life. But it was true, and it was slathering all over itself as thick strands of gore dripped from the roof of its mouth down onto its shirt, letting out short, subdued moans as the light was finally drawn away from the monster.

"Now my dear, one day, very soon, you will be just like him, and you'll live forever my sweet, you'll live on in history and forever be a marvel."

Mary passed out as the stench of death consumed her and the noise of the nightmare asylum filled her head with its noxious ramblings and terror. 

"Where do you think they took Mary?" whispered Guy as he sat crumpled in an old chair in the corner of their ward.

"I don't know, but I don't think she's coming back, I heard screaming last night, several different people," replied Jefferson.

"What do you mean? Screaming, were people just in pain? What do you mean?"

"No, it was more than that, it was screams of terror, echoed, I think there must be a basement in this building somewhere, deep down. The screams were muffled, but I could hear them. I think Mary was taken down there yesterday, I think it was her screaming last night," whispered Jefferson.

"What? You mean she's what? Dead?"

"Maybe, but for the love of god I hope not," said Jefferson grimly as the warden of the wing came wandering past them and several of the other patients who were still bouncing off the walls, trapped like flies in a jar, constantly flying into walls for the hope of escape.

Suddenly, the doors to the ward swung open, banging against the walls to either side of the entrance. The whispered voice of the warden could be heard followed by the doors creaking closed again. Slowly, as the warden disappeared back into his office, a shambling wreck of a man came shuffling into the centre of the room. His eyes were glazed over, his tongue waggling out of the corner of his mouth. His skin was gray, his eyes bloodshot and his clothes rumpled. As this strange figure meandered through the maze of chairs and cradling meatballs, the figure stumbled into a bed and crashed out over it, landing in the thin mattress where he remained for many hours after.

But finally, the mysterious figure arose again and slowly stood and faced the doors of the ward, shuffling slowly at first towards them, and then faster as they came closer to him. Thick, white drool coated his mouth and trickled madly down his chin as his claw-like hands scratched the air, trying to reach the doors ahead of him, but just before he reached the warden's office, another surly staff member came bursting through the door followed by a slightly smaller, but just as butch man who was followed by a thin, tall man.

The three men crowded around the figure, but when he noticed them, he attacked, grabbed hold of the first man he saw, the first to enter the room. Grabbing hold of his arm he raised it to his jaws and he tried to sink his teeth into the butch bastard's flesh.

"Get the bastard!" one of them shouted as they crowded closer around the shuffling figure.

The first man to burst through the double doors again advanced on the shuffling patient and gave a massive blow to his face, breaking the nose swiftly letting a sudden, sharp torrent of blood to gush out in a fountain. As the blood splattered across the patient's white clothes, the other two orderlies dashed in and tackled the groaning man down to the floor where they repeatedly pummeled him until he lay slightly subdued enough for the third man to tie the man's hands together so that he could be carted away off down the corridor and presumably down into the basement. 

As the warden of the wing ordered there to be silence and calm, the sound of groaning and heavy footsteps echoed from the stairs to the basement, into the ward where the patients gleefully continued about bouncing off the walls and screaming at each other in inaudible mumbles and screeches.

"What, the, fuck, was that?" asked Jefferson as he turned back to face Guy.

"Whatever the fuck it was it wasn't happy."

"Guy, I think there's something going on here, something I don't know exactly what it is, but I don't want to stick around and find out."

"Yeah. Did you see that guy's eyes though? They were black and sunken, his skin was gray, he was like some sort of monster, not some subdued wacko, something really is up here," muttered Guy.

"I hear ya, I think we oughta get the hell out of this place before something like that happens to somebody like us.

"Well how the hell do you suppose we get out of here then? It's not like strolling out saying, 'Sorry, I don't appear to be insane anymore Miss Betty, nothing wrong with my noggin!'" quietly exclaimed Guy.

"Look, I've been studying the routines of this place for a couple of days now, after the first few days here, I knew there was something going on, but I needed time to sort out my head, just to make sure I was indeed sane and not suffering from the initial shock of this place. I think there's a way out, down in the basement, I figure there's some sort of rear access to the building, there has to be. I got word from one of the other patients of what usually happens of a Friday evening. He says that at 8pm sharp, a van comes to collect all the dirty sheets at the rear of the building and then apparently heads off down the east road towards the town. I think it's a goer, what do you think?"

"Well apart from being based on information from a convicted nut, I think it's beautiful, how long until Friday?" asked Guy.

"Today is Friday! What's the matter with you, man? Forget what the day was?" whispered Jefferson.

"Well, yeah. I forgot, so what? Everyone forgets what day it is sometimes."

"Guy, have you at all felt a little numb at all?" said Jefferson, guiding the conversation into another direction.

"What? How do you mean?"

"Numb, you know, numb, numb in the brain. Have you been forgetting a lot of stuff lately, feeling like a drone or some fucking zombie or something?" asked Jefferson.

"When you ask, yes. I've been forgetting a couple of things, you know, normal stuff, my phone number, my parent's names, shit, wait, what the fuck is my name? I can't remember my fucking name!" Guy said as he slightly raised his voice in panic.

"Calm the fuck down! Don't attract attention to yourself! It's Guy, your name is Guy! Now calm down. I've been forgetting stuff too, things like you, I think that whatever they gave us in those syringes a few days back is doing something to our memories or something. Like softening us up before some big operation or something. Whatever the fuck it is, I don't want to find out, and I suggest we get our asses to the basement by eight tonight if we want to get this mess sorted. Otherwise we might as well forget about Mary. Fuck, she's probably gone already, I heard her screams last night, I don't think she's alive anymore, or she's restrained or some shit, we gotta get the fuck out of here tonight and get to town and find Dr. Cage. We have to let the people on the outside know. We've got to get out!" Jefferson finished the conversation there and the pair of them split apart so as not to be seen apparently plotting by the warden. 

 

The day wore on slowly, almost at a snail's pace it seemed to Jefferson and Guy, but when it came to 7 o'clock and time for their hour of evening exercise, or in other words, stumbling outside in the grounds, the pair knew this was their chance. 

On the way out of the ward, they both assumed the front positions of the line so that the warden who followed the double width line of patients wouldn't see them duck away from the line and dive into a large trolley in which all the dirty sheets for their ward were placed. As they hunkered down amongst the sheets, they waited for the trolley to be moved down to the basement via the elevator, and sure enough, as a few minutes passed, the trolley started to move, they were being taken down to the basement. 

They entered the elevator and they felt it descend and eventually come to a sharp thump at the bottom as the doors screeched open and the trolley wheels squeaked across the greasy floor of the rank smelling basement.

As the trolley was wheeled around the maze of basement corridors, the sounds of screaming and sharp noises that put an end to the shouts only to be over-ridden by the echoing sounds of groaning and muffled wails. The stench of the basement soon infiltrated the trolley, but even the masses of sheets couldn't stop the smell from invading their noses and soon, the both of them were gagging and trying hard not to leap out of the trolley at that moment and run to fresh air. No, they had to wait, but it was a seemingly long journey until the trolley reached the outside of the asylum. But eventually it did, thank god. As they heard the muffled voices of two men above them, and the eventual disappearance of one of them, closely followed by the other, it was their time to run.

Jefferson signaled to Guy by tapping his arm and whispering "Let's go!" just before he leapt out of the trolley. But on his landing on the ground he was confronted by the same, zombi-fied figure he had seen get beaten to a bloody pulp just hours earlier in the ward. His eyes were even more dark and sunken and his skin was almost hanging off his bones, like there was no overall muscle retention of shape at all. Thick streams of drool dribbled down the figure's chin and onto his shirt still and just before the man lunged, Jefferson sharply alerted Guy to the situation by breathing the words "Not yet! Stay there!" to him. And that was the last words Guy heard from Jefferson as the next sound he heard was the new, second party lunging towards Jefferson, tearing with its teeth into Jefferson's throat, extracting a large chunk of his wind pipe with the chunk of meat. 

As the creature who was once a man stepped back from Jefferson, he began to munch on the clump of flesh, leaving Jefferson to collapse to the ground, totally disjointed from what was going on, and gurgling as blood gushing from the large open wound on his neck.

"Jesus! What the fuck!" shouted one of the burly bastards who was down in the basement and standing near when the incident occurred.

"Jesus Christ! Jones! Get the fucking doc, one of the specimens just attacked a patient!"

And with that, Jones dashed into the room, viewing the carnage as it continued. With fleeting terror, he dashed back out of the room and down the hall, bursting into the operating room in which Mary was still strapped down in front of another 'specimen', which was chained to the wall.

"Doc! One of the specimens just attacked a patient! Doc, the patient was not fully prepped!" shouted Jones as he stood in the doorway to the operating room, gasping from the horror.

"Jesus God almighty!" replied the Doctor as he grabbed hold of a syringe on a table near to him.

"Take me there!" he shouted as Jones ran off down the corridor, the Doctor closely following him to get to the scene of the carnage quickly. 

The two men arrived at the scene to see the other burly man struggling with the specimen as it continued to gorge upon the body of Jefferson whilst fighting with its attacker, trying to bite him too.

"Doc, the fucking thing's gone nuts! It's attacking me!"

The Doctor quickly pounced on the creature and forced the syringe into its neck, letting the fluid within the syringe gush into the creature's blood stream. Quickly, the monster was overcome with a sudden paralysis, which sent it crashing down to the floor in a quivering state.

"Doc, what the fuck! What the fuck is going on here!" shouted Jones.

"Don't worry, neither of you got bit, and this thing's down for a good few hours now, I gave it enough serum to drop an elephant! But this guy here, we'd better get him to the operating room now before he wakes. The state in which he'll be we have not yet experienced with any test. We'd better use maximum restraints; we can't take a risk. If my calculations are correct, a test subject who is not fully prepped is going to be totally unruly and out of control, not subduing itself to anyone like all the other specimens. Hurry men! We don't have much time till revival!"

And with that, the two burly bastards grabbed hold of the fallen Jefferson, leaving the drugged specimen to lie where it fell. The doctor led the way back to the operating room and held the door open for the men to come through. 

They entered the room and hurried over to the nearest free operating table, which was next to the one on which Mary lay semi-conscious now and strapped down. Summoning the vast majority of her strength, Mary raised her head and followed the action around the room, eventually coming to a screaming stop at the table beside her. The vision of Jefferson, slaughtered and caked in blood was almost too much to bear. His cold, dead eyes stared out towards the two doors leading out of the operating theatre and his hands were clenched tight and spattered with thick, smeared claret.  

As the madness ensued and as Mary screamed from beneath her semi-consciousness, the two staff members acted quickly to restrain Jefferson for his re-animation was near according to Dr. Veber who was running around the room, grabbing syringes full of fluids and medical instruments.

"You got him tied down men? Good, now stand back, I have to act fast, it looks like he's near re-animation," ordered the doctor as he moved in on Jefferson's corpse. 

Dr. Veber first pulled out a syringe and a bottle of clear fluid. He filled the syringe, expelling the air from the plastic shaft before injecting the fluid content into the heart of Jefferson. However, the doctor was just too late and as the fluid began to pump into Jefferson's heart, he revived early and began to struggle with the restraints while he foamed heavily at the mouth.

"Stand back men! He's revived! Run! Get out!" shouted Dr. Veber.

The two men followed his orders and ran from the room, rocketing back up to the ground floor of the asylum. 

As Jefferson continued to struggle, Dr. Veber backed away slowly, his hands waving behind his back, searching for the edge of a desk a few steps behind him. As he reached the desk, Dr. Veber spun around sharply and tugged open the middle drawer of a set of three. Frantically, he searched amidst a series of loose sheets and junk until he grabbed hold of a 44. Magnum. Pulling it out of the drawer hastily he pointed the weapon towards Jefferson's head and pulled the trigger. A sharp click sounded from the gun. Again, he tried to fire at Jefferson, but another click followed by another. The gun was empty.

"Shit!" shouted the doctor at himself.

Turning back and bending down to rummage in the drawer again, his pace was quickened by the sound of one of the restraints tearing away from the operating table. He glanced back and saw Jefferson beginning to raise himself from the table. Again, the doctor fumbled around with the jumbled contents of the desk drawer until he found a box of bullets. A sudden stroke of relief came across the doctor as he emptied the contents of the box onto the table. Five bullets lay scattered across the blood-smeared desk. Quickly, he loaded them and slammed the gun shut, cocking it sharply before pointing it at Jefferson's head. Finally, just before Dr. Veber fired, Jefferson's re-activated body glanced over to the doctor, and wailed angrily at him. Then, his brains blasted out across the wall behind him. 

Mary screamed again as the limp, lifeless body of Jefferson wavered slightly and then collapsed back onto the operating table, a thick, continuous flow of blood oozing from the gaping head would that dripped claret and gore on the filthy linoleum flooring. 

As the echo of the gunshot filtered from the basement and disappeared altogether, the doctor came back to consciousness again and suddenly darted from the room in a frenzied pace, almost falling to the floor as he crashed through the double doors. As Mary lay screaming on the table, the doctor disappeared down the corridor and darted off somewhere into the darkness of the basement. 

Escape was ensured via the back entrance to the asylum where Jefferson and Guy had attempted to run from, but as the doctor ran around the corner to face his planned escape, he was confronted with several shambling corpses, all riled up from the feeding frenzy they had been given. As they feasted violently on the body of Guy, the doctor gasped at the sight, alerting the attention of a few of the zombies who quickly stood up from the feeding frenzy and came wandering towards him. 

As the sight of hanging flesh and groaning bodies presented itself in front of Dr. Veber, he panicked and lifted his magnum hastily, firing into the air wildly, only skimming the arm of one of the shambling corpses in front of his with all four remaining shots left in the weapon. 

Screaming in fear, the doctor stepped back quickly from the advancing undead and he turned to face the other way, but as he viewed his back-up escape, he could see several of his specimens from the wards upstairs descending the staircase from the ground floor of the asylum. They had broken free; the pre-op specimens had busted loose from their holding cell and were coming down the stairs at the smell of free flesh. 

Finally, the doctor tried his last chance of escape; he kicked open a door just part way down the corridor, which was blocked by the undead at both ends. Hoping for sanctuary, he was confronted with another crowd of the living dead. As the doctor stopping in his tracks, he felt the cold, gray hands of death surround his body and begin to consume him with vigor.  

The Peaceful View Mental Asylum of Georgetown was quickly consumed by the living dead which poured from every doorway, from every window, every opening in the structure. They flooded out of the complex, breaking through the fences at the rear and the gates at the sides of the building to swarm on the town. They stumbled down the hills and flooded into the peaceful town where the population was consumed by the plague that had been delivered unto them. Screams of agony, pain and suffering sounded from the town through the night and the following days until not one living soul remained. 
 

And that was just the beginning…