Quitting a Night Job

My new year resolution for 2020 was to leave my job on the night shift at the hospital. Unfortunately 2020 had other ideas. It was December 31st and a global pandemic of all things had prevented me from leaving. As was the way of 2020, I was still yet to have my opportunity to fulfill my resolution.

It started around eight thirty last night. A woman was brought into the hospital last night with bite marks and scratches all over her body. Blood everywhere. She was wailing. Screaming. Something or someone more likely that was completely rabid had attacked her and her girlfriend. We did everything we could to save her. We knew it was hopeless though. Her spleen fell out when we tried peeling her clothes off her body. She was gone within ten minutes.

There was hardly anytime to contemplate what had happened. A man was brought in next bleeding profusely from a massive gash he had in the left side of his neck. Gone within seconds.

And for the next hour or so it was one after another. All bought into what felt like simply to die.

By ten o’clock, the morgue was full. We couldn’t take any more to simply die. But almost as if on cue a Colonel from the local barracks came in demanding to know where the morgue was. Not survivors even though there were none. Not victims either. But the morgue.

As one of the more senior nurses I took him there myself. On our way I wanted to know why he was so interested in the morgue and nothing else. However when I asked a deep dark knot began to form in the pit of my stomach when he responded, “I need a clear route to my team out the back with absolutely no one nearby”

I wish I never asked.

I cleared the way for him and his team. As I made my way to the back loading dock for his team I was stopped by what I saw. Before me stood four soldiers decked out in what could only be described as something out of an apocalyptic science fiction story. No skin was visible at all only black cloth and armour. They moved with a determination I had never seen.

Once I led them to the morgue the Colonel told me to head back to the Emergency Ward where a Medic would provide further instructions. As I turned to head back I saw two more soldiers walking in holding hoses attached to some large tanks on their back. I knew what they were immediately. Flamethrowers. They looked exactly like the ones the Japanese and the Americans were using in the Pacific during the Second World War.

When I got back to the ER Ward the Medic was waiting there that had been ordered there by the Colonel. She had strict orders that anybody presenting with the symptoms from earlier in the night or anyone who died with those symptoms were to be wheeled into the elevator on a gurney and the elevator sent to the level the morgue was on. No one was to accompany the elevator. I told the others of what I had seen of both the soldiers and the state of the morgue and said it was best to do as we’re told. No one was happy about it but considering that the current mortality rate was 100% we figured there was not much we could do.

And that was it for the next hour. With a thorough precision body after body was taken one by one to their big black trucks out the back. Whether it be from what felt like the most gruesome dumb waiter system or the morgue itself. I watched on in amazement from the safety of the security desk of the ER Ward. The closed circuit television provided some of the most enthralling television I’d seen all year.

Then the shrieking started. As the unmistakable roar of flamethrowers activated the Medic escorted the next body down. As the doors to the elevator closed she shouted back to me “PREPARE FOR EVACUATION!!!”

A few other staff had heard and without a word between us all we began to prepare to evacuate the patients. The shrieking from down below began growing louder over the roar of flamethrowers and the odd gunshot. It got to a point where the shrieking was nigh on unbearable even with a few floors between us and the morgue.

Once again right on cue as the sprinkler system activated the Colonel came bursting through the doors to the emergency stairwell. He moved swiftly to where I was standing and grabbed the microphone to the PA system.

“EVACUATE!!! MOVE TO THE FRONT FIRE EXITS ONLY. NO ONE. I REPEAT NO ONE IS TO EVACUATE OUT THE BACK.”

I don’t know what took over me but I hammered the evacuation alarm to help get things moving. The Colonel looked over at me and pulled me to the side. “You’re not going to be able to save everyone. Save who you can. We are on the verge of loss of containment. I will bring this building to save many more if I have to.”

Whatever this was I now had no doubts that he was definitely someone to listen to. That advice he just gave along with all I’ve seen and heard so far gave me the fortitude to tell whatever staff I could to pick and choose as best they can.

For me when it came to picking and choosing who to save and who to leave despite my job to save all was knowing that I was at least saving. Within thirty minutes we had those that we could out in the street.

The Colonel and myself managed to spy each other at the same time. We quickly approached each other and I heard him shout

“DID YOU GET AS MANY AS...”

Before he could even finish his radio burst to life with screams and static. It was a female voice I recognised immediately as the Medic assigned to the ER Ward.

“CONTAINMENT DOWN!!! CODE BRAVO DELTA 411 NOW OR NEVER!!!”

“UNDERSTOOD. FLIGHT YOU HEARD THE LADY MAKE IT HAPPEN” the Colonel bellowed into the radio.

“Affirmative, Colonel package is away. ETA 15 seconds.” a calm measured tone stated across all the radios.

A low whine could be heard could be heard in the distance as a missile was streaking across the sky. Right at 15 seconds and about half an hour before the new year started the building was reduced to mere rubble.

When the dust finally settled I could see flames darting out at all angles. When the ringing in my ears cleared I could hear the roar of the flamethrowers again. I realised the Colonel had sent his troops scouring over the rubble. They were mopping up whatever it was that needed to be eradicated. I imagined it was indiscriminate.

I could hear screams every now and then. Like moths to a flame the soldiers would move in to silence them. After a while an overpowering stench hit. One containing the smell of burnt and rotting flesh.

I tended to the patients outside for a while. At what must’ve been an hour into the new year I was sitting down resting until the Colonel came over.

He said simply “There’s a plague that’s breaking out at the moment. We’ve got no idea exactly what we’re up against but the mortality rate is close to 100%. You’re one of the few medical professionals to have treated patients and lived to tell the tale. By order of the government I need you to come with me. You’re not under arrest but you’re now on the front lines. Grab what you need, we leave in five minutes to head back to our base.”

And like that I had left my job on the night shift at the hospital.