Kenneth couldn’t keep himself quiet; he had to ask the old man what was going on.“What’s wrong, where is everyone?” The old man kept looking around like a crazy person, completely ignoring Kenneth. Kenneth asked again with no answer, but on his third try, Kenneth grabbed the old man’s face and guided his eyes toward his own. His eyes showed how frightened the old man was, but even so, Kenneth asked again, “What happened to everyone?”
The old man looked at him, “They all died or went crazy.”“What do you mean?” Kenneth asked.
Kenneth didn’t know what the old man had seen, and deep down inside he didn’t want to know. But his curiosity had more power than he thought, and he asked the old man again. The old man was trying to break eye contact, but Kenneth didn’t allow him, he squeezed the old man’s face. After a few seconds the old man finally spoke again.
“Some were jumping out of the windows, some just laid down and died, but the rest were killing each other like savages, cannibals.” Kenneth didn’t know if to believe him or just rule him as a complete nut job.
“Why haven’t you gone outside the hospital to look for help?” Kenneth asked.
“I, I been here for two days now,” the old man said. Kenneth opened his eyes wide in disbelief. Then he let go of the old man’s face, he had more questions for him, but he didn’t even bother. He thought, Why waste more time on this old man, if he is more likely crazy?
“What is your name?” the old man asked. Kenneth looked at the old man, and for a few seconds he held the same dumb look. “Well, so what is it?” the old man asked again. Kenneth realized that he couldn’t answer the question, no matter how hard he thought about it, he didn’t know. He tried to remember anything from his past, but with no luck.
He looked at the old man and said, “I don’t know, I can’t remember anything.” The old man looked at him. “It’s ok, I don’t even remember the last time I changed my underwear.”
Kenneth smiled a little, not sure if it was the right time for him to laugh. After all, now he needed to find out what was wrong with the world and, more importantly, who he was. Both of them remained still, avoiding eye contact. Kenneth was trying to remember anything that could help him answer the old man’s question, but every time he forced himself to remember, sharp pain speared across his forehead. He tried to ignore it the first couple of times, but on the third try his vision turned blurry and he felt like he was about to past out, so he paused for bit. He tried to stand up, but the old man wouldn’t allow it and put his index finger on Kenneth lips.
“Shhhh, they are out there, at least two of them,” the old man whispered.
“Who? Who is out there?” Kenneth said. He freed himself from the old man’s hold and stood up. He looked over the concrete wall beside the plant, but couldn’t see anything. He took a few steps forward, he thought he saw something behind one of the benches. He was right.
He saw a pair of shoes. He moved a little closer and saw what appeared to be a nurse lying face down on the floor. He looked back toward the old man who was waving him to stop, but Kenneth ignored him and kept walking. At soon he passed the front desk, and was about ten steps from the bench where the nurse was laying, he caught movement front the corner of his left eye. Kenneth stopped. It took him a few seconds before he gathered the courage to face whatever was moving. When he finally turned around, he saw there was another nurse on the floor. She was moving her arms, spreading them on the floor as if she was trying to make snow angels, until suddenly the movement stopped.
Both of her arms were wide open and she slowly raised her elbows then started to push herself up. After her elbows were fully locked, she raised her head slowly. Kenneth wanted to start running, but he was way too curious to see her face like he did with the nurse upstairs. The nurse raised her head, her blonde hair was covering half of her face, and her eyes were hollow. Kenneth noticed that her eyeballs were missing and her nose was cracked open.
Kenneth could see inside of her head, through the holes where her eyes and nose belonged. Even without them she was moving her face as if she was looking for something or someone. Kenneth realized she was looking for his scent, her mouth opened and a spray of blood flooded the floor in front of her, followed by and unholy scream. Kenneth had never seen anything like it, and for a moment, he was glad that he couldn’t remember a thing because if he had seen something like this before, he surely would like to erase it from his mind. The nurse tried to stand up but couldn’t. After a few try’s it seemed like she gave up and got on all fours, keeping her body as close to the ground as she could — or maybe as close as her muscles allowed her. She continued to shake her head side to side, violently searching for the scent, searching for Kenneth.
Kenneth was petrified. He needed to run, he needed to get out of there as fast as he could, but his body was not synchronizing with his brain. All Kenneth could do was to stare at the nurse crawling toward him, her mouth open as wide as a normal human could. Now the nurse was about five feet from Kenneth, he started swearing and his hand was shaking. The nurse was about three feet from him. How, how can I die here, not knowing what is happening, not even knowing my name? he thought. I don’t want to die. Tears were running down his face. He closed his watery eyes and managed to close his hands into fists, he still was not able to control his fists from shaking. Kenneth could hear the sound of groaning getting closer and closer, he opened his eyes and looked down. The nurse was right in front of him, ready to launch.
The nurse screamed again and dived at him. Kenneth managed to move his arms and legs just enough to assume a defend position, but the nurse didn’t make it within a foot. The old man hit her on the face with a clipboard. Kenneth reacted and jumped on top of the front desk counter. Kenneth watched as the old man brutally beat the clipboard over the nurse’s head. He couldn’t believe the old man could move his arms so fast.
The old man continued to hack the nurse’s head with the clipboard until he was holding nothing else in his hands. Kenneth leapt down from the desk and grabbed the old man by the hand. He pulled on the old man to move him back. “We got to go, before more of them come,” Kenneth said. He pulled the old man toward the double doors. They were getting closer to the exit when sounds of braking tires filled the night. Both of them stopped, not knowing if they should continue.
They got closer to the double glass door and saw two people inside of a small white sedan. Kenneth recognized the make of the car, a Kia optima. He was amazed that he could remember and recognize the car, but not remember his own name. He kept staring at the car, trying to see if he could remember anything, but his head started to pound and the headache returned. The old man opened the door when he saw a girl about sixteen years old exiting the driver’s side of the car. Kenneth stepped behind the old man, his vision was getting blurry and his headache was getting worse. Kenneth turned around to ensure the double doors were closed but to his horror, the nurse was no longer lying in front of the desk. He reached back trying to put his hand on the old man’s shoulder, but the old man was not close enough for him to reach.