Authors Note: Sorry this took so long to post, stuff happened. I'll try to post fairly regularly for the next year. And for fans of "The Boy in the Attic" I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow or the next day. Enjoy

Barbara cringed as the door opened. Tommy hugged her tightly, and she held the screwdriver with both her hands, expecting to hear screams and moans.
roaring noise came from outside. She couldn't place it. It wasn't human, it didn't sound like any of the diseased people. And it was loud. As her ears adjusted to the roaring sound, she heard some distant screams. Fortunately, nothing seemed close to them.

Charles slowly leaned out the door. It was a long time before he closed it very gently again, at least it seemed a long time to Barbara.
"It looks clear," he said, "but there's too much smoke, and too many cars to see far. Eddie take the lead, keep your keys safe, and please run slowly for Tommy and Barbara. Women and children please follow Eddie, the doctor and myself will guard the rear," Charles ignored the doctors yelp of fear, hearing that he'd be last. "Eddie whenever your ready please."

Eddie moved towards the door. He stopped when Charles put his hand out. "Before I forget, use this if a person attacks you." Barbara saw him pass Eddie a large metal hammer

"Thanks," Eddie said and kept moving. "If we get separated head for the ugly, old, dark red van."

She heard him take a very deep breath, taking a second to prepare himself. She used the time to move Tommy's arms from her waist, holding his hand firmly in her free one. She motioned for Prince to follow at her side.

She really didn't want to do this.

Eddie pushed the door open as quietly as possible, pausing to look around. "Come on," he whispered.

Barbara smelled the smoke, It was thick in the air. She tried not to gag.
Tommy started coughing, she felt his arm jerk as he he muffled it quickly with his hand. Prince whined, but stayed quiet. She focused on Eddie's feet, as he jogged ahead. With the thick smoke, if she lost sight of him she'd never find him again.

She heard the roar of flames all around them. Unable to resist she looked away from Eddie. The hospital was in flames. The white walls were alive with colour. Gouts of flame leaped from the windows. The emergency room was a sheet of orange and yellow flames. Thick black smoke rose high into the sky, even as a lighter haze covered the parking lot. It looked like Hell.

The brightness of the flames allowed her to see somethings all to clearly. Her eyes, normally so poor, were drawn to the higher windows of the hospital. Blurry blackish shapes waved and shouted at them, their forms highlighted by the flames behind them.

She heard the blurry figures scream for help. The high pitched voices of children cried for their mothers and fathers. At least some of them did. Most just shrieked in terror, as the flames began to come through the windows around them.

Barbara bit her lip hard enough to taste blood. She knew she couldn't scream, even as the small, blurry shapes fell to the ground. Blobs of flame ran towards the small bodies, as they bounced on the blackened grass.

Her ears heard a man screaming for a weapon. She couldn't see him. He screamed to God to give him a weapon. Anything at all. The abominations were getting into the room. He stopped begging, she heard him bellow incoherently, and then silence.

She knew she had to keep watch, to watch Eddie, to watch for the diseased. But she couldn't. Her damnable ears kept hearing people, and her eyes desperately tried to see them. She couldn't save them, but couldn't bear to let them die alone, unseen, unheard.

Only Tommy's hand on hers, kept her going forwards. She didn't know if they were going in the right direction or not. Her mind didn't care.

A woman screamed for her child. Barbara tried desperately to find her amongst the flames, cursing her eyes silently. She yearned to see the mother, to let her see them, to let her know that she wouldn't die alone.

She buckled, grunting in agony, as she ran into a car.

Charles scooped her up, before she could fall. "Look where your going damn it!" he growled. He put her back on her feet, facing the right direction and shoved her forwards.

She had lost Tommy's hand, but saw him running just a few feet in front, looking back at her worryingly. Her knees screamed in agony, from being rammed into the car, but she staggered towards him, waving him on. She grabbed Prince's harness letting him help pull her.

Eddie was lost to her, too far ahead hidden amongst the cars and the smoke. She watched Tommy now, racing between the cars, shutting out the pleas and the screams coming from behind them.

"HOLY SHIT!" Charles yelled.

She turned in fright. A bloody, battered, and torn, thing, had a hold of Charles pant leg. He kicked at it, trying to force it back. It groaned, pulling itself out from under the car it had been hiding beneath.

Dr. Newell was screaming, just out of her line of sight. She heard Eddie yelling at them to hurry up. She heard more of the diseased people screaming and moaning, coming closer.

Charles pulled something off of his belt, he swung it at the arm holding him. She heard a snap and the hand spasmed open for a brief second. Charles jumped back.

The thing tried to follow him, squirming ahead as quickly as its armed lunged forward. It was blocking the only quick way past. Barbara, shaking like a leaf, moved towards it. If she could stab it, maybe they could get past. It wasn't looking at her.

Then she couldn't see it. The doctors white coat was covering it. It jerked and screamed under the white fabric.

She screamed in horror as blood erupted from under the coat. The doctor screamed and writhed as the monster tore at him. Doctor Newell was still in the coat.

"Move now," Charles screamed leaping over the two people. He grabbed her arm and pulled her along behind him. They ran sideways between the cars, awkwardly dodged side mirrors. Prince was just ahead of them.

She heard Prince snarl, she had never heard him snarl before. A woman came out from between the cars. Her clothes were shredded. Prince launched himself on her, growling, snapping, and biting. The woman roared at the dog, and Barbara heard her striking Prince with her hands.

Charles let go of her hand, swinging at another monster as it came towards them. Barbara kept moving forwards, she saw the van ahead of her now. Tommy was waving from the open door.

If the monster hadn't moaned, Barbara wouldn't have known it was there. She turned towards it. Just in time to see the massive monster running at her. Its horrible, bloody mouth, opened wide for biting, and the large mangled hands reaching for her.

She shrieked in terror. She brought the screwdriver up over her head, and brought it down as hard as she could. If the monster had stopped for a second, moved to the side, or even brought its hands up, it would have easily avoided her wild blow.

It didn't.

The screwdriver went deep into its skull. The monster kept moving forwards. It knocked her over, falling on her. She shrieked again feeling it's hard teeth on her stomach.

Barbara wrenched the screwdriver throwing the head off of her. Crying in fear, she pulled the screwdriver free, and stabbed it. Her hands slick with blood, slipped as she clumsily got the screwdriver out. She stabbed it again, and again and again.

New hands, clean hands, grabbed hers as she stabbed the monster again. She screeched, tried to pull the screwdriver free again, to stab the new monster.

"Hey!" Charles shouted at her. "It's dead, move your ass!"

She got up, pulling the screwdriver with her. She felt Charles breath on her neck, he was so close behind her. As they reached the van, Charles didn't let her stop. He grabbed her waist and threw them both inside.

"Go, go!" He shouted at Eddie.

Barbara looked at the door. Tommy had it partly close, he was looking out at something as the van started moving.

"Come here Prince," he yelled.

Prince jumped in, knocking Barbara against the floor, leaving her gasping for breath, as he licked her face. Tommy slammed the door shut.

Charles was already in the front passenger seat. "Step on it please, Eddie," he said.

"Quiet. I'm trying to get a nice long stretch, I saw a bunch of people at the entrance," Eddie told him.

Barbara felt the van turn sharply. Getting up off the floor finally, she sat in the bench seat, and did up the seatbelt.

She and Tommy screamed as the back window cracked. An unmarked face looked in at them, it's beautiful face, scowling and twisted into a fun house mockery. It punched the window again.

The van sped up, leaving the monster behind them.

"Hold on," Eddie whispered, sounding like he hadn't meant to speak.

"Um. Eddie, is this wise?" Charles asked sounding scared. "There are a lot of them."

"If I can get the speed up, I can make it," he told them, as the engine roared.

Barbara fumbled with her hands to make sure Tommy's seatbelt was done up. She heard Charles buckle his.

"Brace yourselves," Eddie whispered again.

The van bounced over the monsters. Barbara felt it shudder and jolt as bodies slammed against the hood, shattering the lights, and cracking the windshield. Prince yelped in pain as he hit the front seats. She felt the van slow almost to a stop.

Hands were beating against windows and sides of the van again. Ugly, malevolent faces, leered in at them. The moans and yells surrounded them. The van rocked, and the windows were covered in spiderwebs of cracks.

The engine roared again, as the van slipped and jerked over the shattered bodies. It found some traction and picked up some speed. The monsters started to fall back. A rear window shattered. But when Barbara looked back she couldn't see a monster.

The van drove away from the hospital, leaving the monsters and flames behind them.