The Coming of the End (flashback of 3 months)

[Darlene McGregory]

The day had started out normal enough. Darlene had woken up at six in the morning, alone again because Ira had already gone off to attend to the business of the church. He did that a lot as of late. Maybe he had just needed his own space. He needed time to think.

He hadn't taken the news of a new baby as good as she had hoped. She couldn't blame him though. He was a smart man and had probably already figured out that he was not the father. Darlene didn't have the heart to tell him but with how rocky their marriage had been lately and how often he had been away, he had to know that it couldn't be his.

As she tried to fight off another wave of morning sickness, she was overcome with guilt again. She never wanted to have an affair, she never planned on it but it just sort of happened. Then she got pregnant. That was not a part of the plan. God made his own plans though and she was left to what he decided. She was as much a victim to his will as she was to the morning sickness that made her lose what little she had eaten the night before.

After wiping the last of the vomit from her cheeks, Darlene grabbed her cell phone out of the purse she had left on the bathroom counter. The boys had been complaining about some kind of sickness around school and she decided to keep them home from school for the day. Her usual sitter, a young spunky girl by the name of Sara was more then happy to watch the boys while she went to work.

With a shower and some clean clothing, followed by a nice cup of coffee, Darlene felt like a whole new woman. It was surprising how good a cup of coffee could make you feel, even if she shouldn't be drinking it with the baby. "Just a little wont hurt" she told herself.

When Sara arrived, she kissed the boys and made her way out the door. Work was waiting for her and babies didn't just deliver themselves.

[Liz Burke]

Get it. Get the data. Get out. That’s all Liz had to do, and that’s all she kept reminding herself as she walked through the corridors of the hospital. It was such a stupid location for a hospital, she’d often thought this. Why would they not put it in the town centre with the rest of the important buildings – like the clinic. It was just weird.

Liz’s heels made the distinct clopping noise as her pace quickened; she was hurrying towards the elevator. ‘Get in, get the date, get out’, she thought as the elevator closed and she was taken up 3 floors. It was a normal day, the weather wasn’t exactly brilliant, a little cloudy but the warmth was there. It was almost as if the warmth was trapped beneath a blanket, the blanket being the heavy cloud that was over the city.

The elevator opened. Liz shot out like a bat out of hell. Why was she rushing? Emergency phone call – that would be her story and she was going to stick to it! Four times she had been stopped since she had entered the building. Not for any official reason, but to be talked to – funny, she didn’t have that many friends in the hospital yet they all wanted to talk today. Liz was respected, but not loved. Of course she had friends, but the staff also knew that she was the one who could hire and fire too – being the head of the surgical team on the paediatric ward.

Leading a double life wasn’t easy, but Liz did it with a cool head. Paediatric surgeon/doctor but also a military doctor/scientist working on a rare disease or virus, she wasn’t sure entirely what it was yet.

Liz approached the office, all her staff were wandering around the ward and corridors doing their business – but for how long would it all last?

[Darlene McGregory]

Darlene pulled out her cell phone again checking the time before shoving it back into her purse. Cutting it close today. She tapped her foot lightly on the freshly waxed linoleum floor as she waited for the elevator. Com on. Come on. Seconds ticked by but it felt like minutes, like hours.

Finally the doors opened with a small chime. Already there had been several people within. They had to push themselves to the sides to make room for her. It would only get worse as the thing within her belly grew but that was something she didn't want to think about right now.

It had been hard enough telling her husband and she didn't want to tell him. Him being the father of her child, the man she had had an affair with. It was over between them but what would he say when he found out that she was pregnant? Would he know that it was his? Would he try to intervene and destroy her marriage?

As the doors opened, Darlene tried to plot her path to the maturity ward carefully. The last thing she wanted was to run into him today.

[Liz Burke]

Into the office she burst. It didn’t take her long to savage through her drawers – she didn’t care how they came out as long as they did. There were papers all over the room now; it looked as if a hurricane had hit it. “Where are you?!” She belted. Everyone outside her office at the reception desk turned to look through her window – all glancing in wondering what was up with the head of paediatric surgery. “Damn it!” She cussed, throwing the last drawer on the floor.

‘Announcement: Could all department staff head to the conference room. Could all department staff head to the conference room.’

It was starting. The military had arrived. No doubt Liz’s boss was in the conference room waiting – waiting with her other boss. It was very confusing. Liz’s boss, the general at the military base and her boss at the hospital – the administrator. Things were moving on. She needed the papers! The data was important.

Liz burst back out of the office and began running across corridor to the maternity end of the paediatric floor. The maternity staff should have on record the names she needed – hopefully. Liz ignored the women talking at the reception desk on the maternity end; she didn’t want to get involved with some Brian having an affair with a Jayne. Who gave a damn?! They’d be gone in an hour!

“Where’s the maternity file? The deliveries, the book with the years deliveries?!” She demanded. This wasn’t making Liz any new friends.

[Darlene McGregory]

Darlene had been one of the women standing at the reception desk that served as the entrance to the maturity ward. Nobody entered or left the ward without bypassing the large wooden desk. It was the only way either in or out of this section of the hospital. Certain precautions had to be made in order to keep the newborns safe. There was no telling the kind of weirdos that would try to sneak out with a baby that belonged to somebody else.

As she was checking in at the front desk and attaching her giant pink name tag that notified others that she was a member of the ward and not a stranger trying to steal babies; a doctor from another part of the hospital came charging over. She seemed rushed or in a hurry.

Glancing up from her tag, now buttoned to her nice new silk pink blouse, Darlene looked at the woman. She looked familiar. There was something about her blonde hair that caught her eye. She knew this woman but from where?

"Dr. Burke?" She would be embarrassed if she was wrong but if not then there were two women working these halls that shared the same look.

Surely it had to be her. With how many times Darlene had had to take the boys in to see a doctor over the years she should be able to recognize their pediatrician. The thought only made her think of Matthew and wonder how Sara was doing at home with the boys.

"Is that you?"

[Liz Burke]

Elizabeth glanced to the left at the woman sitting behind the desk – she knew Liz? Liz prayed it wasn’t someone who had seen her coming from the military base; she’d be busted on the most important day of all. “Yes?” She answered questioningly. “Do I know you?” She enquired. Liz was pretty good with faces, rubbish with names though – but she didn’t recognise this woman. She must have worked with her somewhere or sometime, especially if she was on the same floor as paediatrics.

Liz glanced at the clock on the wall above the desk. Shit, she thought, get a move on Elizabeth! Liz knew she didn’t have long before everything hit off – before the shit hit the pan. She needed to get her date sheets, get to her family and then get out – if she was late though she had the military’s word that her family would be airlifted to a safe haven and she could pass the barricades using her badge.

Little did Liz know that she had been used. Her family within the next 5 hours would be dead and she’d be trapped within the city limits – hiding with a group of people that thought she had nothing to do with the disaster that was the walking undead.

[Darlene McGregory]

Could I be wrong? No it had to be her. This hospital was too small for there to be two identical looking woman. It wasn't that big. Williamsburg was too small of a city for it to have too many identical people. Then she said "yes."

"Dr. Burke, I am Mrs. McGregory. My sons Matthew and Johnathan are patients of yours."

Dr. Burke looked distracted. She kept glancing around as if she were in some sort of rush, as if there were some sort of emergency. As far as Darlene knew, it had been just another day and everything seemed to be going just fine.

"What can I help you with doctor?" It wasn't really all that common that a pediatrician would wonder into the maturity ward but it wasn't unheard of either. Occasionally problems recorded at birth persisted into childhood and these records needed to be accessed to determine the growth and development of the child. Matthew had been on of these cases.

Surely that is why she must here. What other reason could she have for being in this part of the hospital if not for the early records of one of her patients?

[Liz Burke]

Liz nodded, she pushed on a smile to hide the eagerness of her entrance, she didn’t want questions. Sweat formed on her brow, she was obviously in a rush. “Of course, how is your son?” Liz hadn’t noticed that the woman had said she had two sons. She was too preoccupied.

“I need records. They were in a little blue satchel – in my office.” They had probably been taken by accident when all the records for the day had been collected. “They would have been taken by mistake – and very confidential.” She said with eagerness in her voice. If someone had seen the documents she was fucked. All the work she had done for the military was in there, tests, anti-viral tests – she needed the damned results to see how the virus would spread. Most of all she needed to know how she could immune herself from it – and her family. But she wouldn’t know if she didn’t have the files.

Liz moved around and came to Darlene’s side of the desk; she began to look around the files. “It must be here, please say it’s here.” Liz wanted to cry. Her ass would be on the fire line for this. “It’s a blue satchel.” She repeated. “It says confidential in BIG letter – BIG red letters!”

[Darlene McGregory]

"Blue satchel?" Darlene was speaking more to herself then to anybody else as she turned over stacks of papers and medical records. The desk had been nicely organized before hand in to three neat little piles. There had been one pile for the low risk patients, one for the medium risk patients and one for the high risk patients. Now the piles were scattered and it would take sometime to sort them out.

"I don't see any satchel. Are you sure it ended up here?" She opened up desk drawls and dug through those as well. The search turned up many loose pens, pacifiers, name tags but no satchel. "I am sorry doctor but I have not seen what you are looking for."

Standing up straight, Darlene smoothed out her shirt and hit the space key on the keyboard in front of her. The cute little screen saver with pictures of various babies that had been born in the hospital disappeared. In place of the screen saver a text window popped up asking for a password and staff information. If records needed to be found, the computer system was the best way to do it.

"I don't know what it is you are after doctor but if it is any of our patient records, we can access them from the computer if you need." She tried to put one of her best smiles on as she looked the doctor in the eyes.