The Downward Spiral Book 1

Chapter 5. Dead Silence

On the way to the hospital, I was hoping to see some sign of life.

But during the entire drive, the streets remained bare. It wasn't bustling with cars, no obnoxious people yelling at each other in traffic, no joggers running down the sidewalks, nothing.

I swallowed hard when I saw another body in the middle of the road and my heart started beating a mile a minute. I held back the cry of surprise and maneuvered around it quietly to avoid it. I wasn't in the mood of waking up and dealing with another one of those freaks.

However, the path I took towards St. River Hospital, more and more decaying corpses were starting to appear.

Lily tried calling her mom's phone repeatedly but it kept going to voicemail. I asked her to call 911 next to possibly reach someone who was, you know, around to possibly fill us in on what happened last night. It was ringing and ringing but one answered.

Cars were lined up near the hospital's emergency entrance. As I pulled up behind the last one, I shut off the truck and observed the tall glass building. I was already getting bad vibes from this place from how quiet it was but I turned around in my seat and reminded myself that we had to do this for Lily.

When I looked at her and my brother, their faces were stoic, gloomy, and downright depressing to look at. No one was eager to jump out after what we experienced. I wasn't either but I went ahead and put on a false smile to lighten the mood a little.

"Well, shall we go in then?"

Silence.

Lily or Ray didn't even acknowledge me. They reluctantly slid out of their seats and closed their doors in my face without even giving me an answer. I let out an exasperated sigh and climbed out too.

We headed over to the automatic clear glass doors and stood in front of the black mat to activate it, it didn't budge.

I waved my hand in front of my own reflection repeatedly and it slightly moved out of place before sealing up again.

"Do you think the power is out?" Lily inquired, stomping her own wedges down on the rugged carpet with me to get it to move again.

"Maybe, I'm not sure though.."I replied, scratching my head.

"No, I think the door is jammed." Ray said and squatted down to take a closer look at it.

"What makes you sure, nerd?" I teased.

He glared at me through his glasses before turning back and studying the door. "Because dumbass, we all saw it move a little, even if it was just an inch. If the power was out it wouldn't budge at all." He replied making it sound like it was obvious.

Lily's face went pink at the realization. I folded my hands across my chest and scoffed. "Well then, maybe there's an emergency button we can push to force it to open or something then."

"That's exactly what I'm looking for, genius."

"Oh grow up. I'm going to watch our backs while you handle that then." I huffed and stormed off. It was taking all the energy in the world not to fight with Ray in this kind of situation but that little turd always knew how to piss me off in a matter of seconds.

I tried to take my mind off him by surveying the rest of the area. The parking lot was filled up with cars, like people should have been inside, yet it was already midday and we haven't seen a single person.

Alive anyway.

Was this what they were keeping us from seeing yesterday? If it was, why did it look like no one did anything to stop it? Or managed to get away from it?