Reaching our floor 3 starting point, I heard the woman gasp as she covered her face in response to the stench of rotting bodies.

The little girl screwed up her face and started to complain but the woman shushed her and pulled her closer to cover her eyes from the source..

I felt like a twat for not thinking to warn them.

Fuck it.

We would be out of there shortly.

We navigated down the stairwell slowly and carefully, our breathing and footsteps were deafening in the suffocating darkness.

Add that to the occasional snuffle or babble from Lone and my teeth were constantly clenched with anticipation.

We made it past floors 2 then 1 without stopping and then finally to the ground floor.

Right in front of us we could see the door out of here.

Praise health and safety for enforcing regulations!

We finally could see a fire escape to the outside!

I wasted no time, pushing it open and scouting around before waving everyone to join me.

After the last person was out, I carefully put a brick in the doorway to stop the door from fully shutting.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs full of the outside oxygen and smiled in relief.

We’re outside! HELL YEAH!

The fresh cool air was very welcome and the sun's warmth on my skin felt fantastic. I looked up at the sky and could see very dark clouds in the distance coming in fast.

Typical. Looks like rain…

Nevermind that. Let's not stay here for too long, don’t want to become one of those typical characters in a movie where you’re screaming at the TV ‘HURRY! MOVE! RUN!’

Our surroundings were other hospital buildings with trees towering behind those buildings and we had come out on the north side of the maternity ward and going by the sign I’d located, our car park was on the opposite south side.

The route to the car park was on our left.

“Okay” I whispered to the group. “Our car is parked in the B car park which is on the other side of the ward. So we’ll go left here and then move onwards and look for the next sign.” I pointed to the sign that had given me our first direction.

I had tried to remember where we’d parked from the day we arrived, but I simply couldn’t remember.

“Once we get to the car, you are welcome to come with us if you need a ride?” Marri offered to the lady and the little girl.

“Thank you ever so much. Yes please. I don’t drive myself, but my sister….” her eyes glanced at the little girl before looking down.

Damn. I felt bad for her.

Marri gently placed a hand on her arm and gave her a comforting smile.

I gave another quick check of my surroundings then turned back to them all and continued speaking in a hushed voice.

“Okay, let’s move on quickly. We need to carefully watch around corners so keep a few steps back whilst I check them and I’ll wave you on when it is okay.”

Thinking back to that grinning shitter just standing there silently gave me shivers.

We moved up to the left corner and I peeked around…

Phew, all clear.

Moving up to the next corner I checked again carefully…it looked all clear.

Except for the blood splatter marks, from where we’d thrown the three bulging eye grinning nightmares we had fought so far.

The corpses weren’t anywhere to be seen even though they definitely would have died…right?

I’ll be on extra lookout for something that would drag monster corpses away.

I spotted the sign for the B Car park pointing us to the building in front, so I somewhat recklessly sped up and followed the path as it trailed down the right side of the building.

The side of the building was a long walkway, with the right side framed by a fence holding a thick wooded area.

It was a bit unnerving as it gave perfect shelter both for us but also for an ambush, but it was a straight walkway and it looked clear so we briskly walked forwards towards the next corner.

And once we rounded that corner…we could see the lines of the car park.

We’ve actually made it!

I turned around to grin at my companions but movement behind them caught my eye.

Stretching my neck to look, my heart skipped several beats and tried to jump out of my ribcage when I saw…it.

There was an abnormally large head poking out from behind the corner we had just come from and it had pupiless white eyes, no visible hair, a bulbous nose, large ears and a dislocated jaw that hung low stretching its mouth as if it was silently screaming…

But the worst thing was that it was very high up in the air, towering past the second story window.

I felt my face turn pale from the fear.

The thing was mildly jerking its large head around which made its dislocated lower jaw flap grotesquely each time.

I looked at Marri’s concerned face as I put my hand up with a STOP sign and mouthed DON’T MOVE as I put a finger to my lips to signal for silence.

I was making a split second gamble based on instincts that it couldn’t see very well and that the breeze was blowing towards us so it couldn’t smell us.

It slowly moved a limb around the corner and my heart fucking plummeted into the ground.

Shit.

It was a huge limb, like a stick insect and it was attached to a body which looked vaguely human, but was elongated and had a joint in the middle of it where you would expect a normal human's sternum to be.

It made barely any noise as it crept out into full view as it kept twitching its head left, right, left, right.

The head was hunching lower than the shoulders and its skin was greyish white, taught against its skeletal frame.

It took one step towards us and I very nearly fucked it all to hell and yelled out RUN….but I waited...

And my hesitation paid off as a distant hollering noise grabbed its attention.

It jolted its head away from us and emitted a deep rumbling groan as it carefully moved back round the corner and finally, out of sight.

We just stood there for 10 very long seconds in complete silence before I just silently waved them to follow and turned around to enter the B car park.

Inside my mind, a new core fear had been formed…that thing had been at least 6 metres tall..fucking, giraffe size tall.

What the hell could we do against something like that? Run and hope it isn’t fast?

The car park was very large, but only had 5 cars in it.

While that added to the overall creepiness, it helped us easily spot ours which was in the middle. The whole car park was surrounded by a row of trees and when we first arrived, we had entered the hospital from the front main entrance, but this time we would be leaving from the back.

We moved quickly towards our car and I was getting extremely excited yet nervous whether it still had charge in it.

Frantically clicking the open button whilst getting closer, I tried the old trick of putting the key closer to your skull and nearly cried with joy when I saw the yellow lights flash to signal it unlocked the car.

It was a big brand new SUV, with tinted windows, comfy seats, tons of space for the new baby and for myself as I was quite tall at around 6’ 3” or 190cm.

We were almost fully sprinting by the time we reached the car and we all yanked open the doors and jumped inside.

Me in the driver, Marri in the back, the lady in the front and the little girl in behind me.

“PHEW OKAY!” I breathed out as I locked the doors.

“That was scary as hell but we made it! We really made it! Oh man, it feeeeeeels amazing!”

I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“Okay I think before we head off we should introduce ourselves and explain what we’ve experienced so far.” I pointed to my gloves.

“Aaaand, I think we should grab something to eat as you guys look like you could use something to eat and drink. As do I!”

We spent some time having a drink and some food whilst we introduced ourselves and shared stories.

Their names were Erza, who was the young lady, and Lyra, who was the little girl who was 8 years old.

Erza was lightly tanned, with flawless skin, eyes slightly higher than typical and slightly slanted with a small pointed chin. Possibly of Syrian heritage but she had really sparkling blue eyes with dark brown hair that was a bit matted.

She was very pretty, not that it mattered to me.

Lyra looked very similar but with dark blonde hair, I had originally thought she was her daughter but it turned out this was not the case.

She was also very pretty and no doubt will break a few hearts when she gets older.

By the way they spoke, you could tell instantly that they were kind hearted, genuinely good people.

Lyra was Erza’s Niece and her Mother worked at the Ward as a Maternity nurse so she would babysit when she did night shifts.

I didn’t ask right away where she was for obvious reasons, but Erza explained that they had made their way to the hospital after this whole nightmare started happening.

They lived a 30 minute walk away and after the power had gone out, things started going crazy.

She said she had heard a few fights and people were starting to panic as all access to phones or the internet were completely gone everywhere.

But it wasn’t only access, they also explained that most electronic devices had just disappeared.

I checked but the radio was completely dead, not even static.

I’d tried to get it on the car but the infotainment system did not pick up anything and the gps signal was gone.

When Erza and Lyra had arrived at the hospital it was utter chaos and she’d heard horrific noises just like we had.

They had entered the building opposite and tried to make their way to the Maternity Ward office, but hadn’t been able to make it due to the chaos and people warning them to run away.

They had got swept up in the crowd and ended up barricading themselves in a staff kitchen area with some of the remaining staff members.

The staff members had told stories about horrific things, she didn’t go into detail but she said it was all graphic and extremely violent.

She recalled that over a few days, the other staff members had all eventually gone off on their own missions to get back home, look for others or try and return to their posts or patients…with not a single one ever returning.

But Erza and Lyra were holding out, waiting for either Lyra’s mum or any sign of the authorities.

Erza had ventured out briefly but had witnessed the nightmares stalking the corridors so she rushed back.

After that they stayed a couple more days but they didn’t have any food or water left so she was faced with a horrible decision.

They would either starve or they would have to flee and risk being slaughtered.

So they had left the same morning we had and it hadn’t taken long until she was attacked by one of the Grinning bulging eye nightmares whilst they attempted to get down their own building’s stairwell.

She had managed to fend it off and send it tumbling down the stairwell, after blasting it with a lighter and can of fun-breeze air freshener.

But the commotion had attracted more of them and they could hear more coming up the stairs.

So they had to backtrack and tried the corridor to the Maternity Ward in desperation, which was where we saw them cornered by that Janky nightmare.

After she had finished her story, I gave them the rundown of our experience in the room and how we hadn’t seen a single human soul apart from them since it all began.

Lone started to make chomping noises, the classic sign for “Gimme some food right now parents or else” so Marri got him settled feeding whilst I continued.

The sight of her nurturing him made me grin and feel happy, most likely due to some primitive instincts in our DNA that helps us keep our babies nourished. I felt even more compelled to give them food, shelter and safety.

I then continued to share my theories around how we would grow stronger for killing the nightmare creatures.

“So this will sound very far-fetched but Marri has experienced extremely similar things without us discussing them, right Marri?”

She nodded.

“Cool. Ok so, I’ve had to fight a few of these monsters and each time I go to sleep afterwards, I find myself in this very vivid dream where there are symbols and ‘choices’ that need to be made.”

“Sorry, but are you trying to suggest that something religious is occurring?”

Erza gave me a puzzled look.

“What kind of symbols and choices have you witnessed?” she questioned politely but I sensed she was starting to worry I was a nutjob as her eyes briefly flicked towards the door handle.

“Uhhh, no no no.”

I shook my head confidently.

“I don’t think it's religious. Even considering the circumstances..no. I don’t think there could be anything…like that…well definitely not anything such as…well you know, some kind of rapture or apocalypse.” my confidence started wavering as my mind pondered on the likelihoods.

“Okay it could be, but I highly doubt it, but who knows….”

I scratched my head, now feeling awkward.

Never really was good at explaining my ideas...

“Anyways, the symbols and tablets are like buttons that make you stronger or give you abilities. Urm, if you’ve ever read a book or played a game revolving around role playing games or RPGs then it's like the skills or attributes or classes…in…those...” I blushed a little because saying it out loud sounded dumb, it sounded ridiculous…but the evidence was there!

“Riiiight…urm”

She looked sideways at Marri, seeking confirmation, possibly both to my exotic theory and my sanity.

To which Marri responded with a shrug and sympathetic nod.

“I. See..and you say you’ve both experienced these ‘vivid dreams’? What ‘options’ have you both elected for? And what ‘abilities’ have you acquired? Can you demonstrate any of them to me?”

She was definitely sceptical, but she glanced at my equipped hands and appeared to have an internal voice reminding her she’d seen shimmering smoke turn into my gauntlets.

“Well, I don’t think we know how to yet, sorry. So far, for myself I’ve seen regeneration and physical combat, but it isn’t very clear. It is all very vague and information provided is extremely limited…But!”

I held up my hands and waved them.

“The fact that these appeared, is strikingly similar to a typical interaction where you get item drops after you…uhh..’defeat’ an opponent.”

I pursed my lips.

She winced with confusion, struggling to wrap her head around it.

This is a bit frustrating. How do you explain obscure RPG mechanics that have suddenly appeared in reality?

“Have you ever played any games where you level up or fight things to get stronger?” I was getting desperate.

She shook her head.

Ughh. Okay fair enough. Those games aren’t everyone's cup of tea.

“Okay nevermind, I suppose it doesn’t matter as it’s not completely the same-”

Screw it, the semantics don’t really matter, let's focus on the useful info.

“-but in summary we know that there are nightmares/monsters/creatures, however you want to call them and after I killed one-”

I saw her eyes shift nervously when I said ‘killed’.

“-the shimmering smoke materialised these gloves.”

“And there was one other experience where I was wounded during a fight and the ‘shimmer’ flew into my face and made me cough out black crap, but my wounds healed way beyond what is possible.”

“So for now, the ‘shimmer’ could be considered an item drop/healing or overall some reward type mechanism. And at the end of the day, when you sleep, you get to make choices based on that day's total experience.”

Looking out the window, her face was scrunched tight like someone performing complex mathematical equations on condensed matter physics.

I scratched the corner of my mouth waiting for a response.

After a few moments of silence, she blew out air and deflated like a balloon.

“My word…it’s all just too bizarre.”

You’ll experience this sooner or later I mentally answered.

“But I shan’t dwell on it further considering the situation, rather, may we please kindly ask for a lift back to our home? perhaps we’ll hopefully be safe enough to contemplate our next moves.”

Erza’s voice was polite and sincere, which was well appreciated since manners cost nothing and if you were polite you would automatically earn yourself brownie points with me.

I smiled and nodded. “Sure thing, no problem. I know it’s absolutely mental and maybe I’m wrong, but let's get out of here and see how things go.”

I pushed the start button of the car and the dashboard lit up, running pre-checks. It flickered then everything turned off.

“No no no…don’t do this to me…” panic evidence in my muttering words.

I tried again, this time the dashboard didn’t light up, but the aircon was running which was usually a sign that the system was ready to drive.

Apprehensively, I twisted the switch to drive mode and pressed the accelerator.

The car started to move forward.

We all collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

“Haha phew! That would have ruined my day!”

The dashboard was broken but we were still moving, the infotainment was also dead…but we were still moving!

I was overflowing with relief and optimism, it just felt so much safer being in the car moving.

Moving away from the nightmares and insanity that lurked around the hospital.

“Alright then we’re off!” I grinned.

“Erza, lead the way!”

***

The extremely dark grey clouds had arrived, blanketing the sky and reducing visibility a significant amount even though it was probably just after midday.

The car's automatic headlights had failed to come on, so I drove extra carefully.

Last thing we need is to have a crash.

However, along the way there was an extremely noticeable lack of vehicles.

The UK, with its small windy roads, was usually a test of nerves and perception where you would have to overtake people parking opposite T-Junctions just because there was so little room for proper parking spots.

But we saw perhaps 5 or 6 other cars parked, whilst driving down residential roads.

That wasn’t right.

Has a mass evacuation occurred?

“Do you think a mass evacuation has occurred?” I opened the question to the car.

“There must have been…I can’t think of where else the cars could have gone..” Marri responded, sounding deep in thought.

This is giving me the creeps.

There was not a single soul in sight, possibly due to the miserable looking weather.

Or perhaps it’s due to fucking monsters lurking around? I laughed internally at my typical British disposition, reflexively expecting the weather to be people’s main driver in all things.

The houses we passed had various degrees of damage, some looking normal, some with smashed windows, some with chunks of walls smashed in..all the way to houses burnt down to a pile of rubble and ash.

In most places it looked like a warzone, but there were a few houses that looked okayish, mainly the ones that had been reinforced by the occupants.

Boards and other strong materials filling windows and doorways, but I hadn’t seen a single person navigating outside.

There was a sombre silence as we continued to pass clear signs of fighting and I grimaced as we passed sections of pavement heavily caked in dried blood.

“Take the first right after the sign for Wood of the Squirrels, then follow all the way to the end and then finally a right at the T-Junction.” Erza quietly gave me the last directions.

“Roger that.” I confirmed with a nod.

Keeping my eyes peeled for danger..or for people.

“Krrrrrchhh Over. Tally-Ho. Roger Dodger.”

Marri mock imitated me with a deep voice.

Honestly the woman was audacious, joking in such times…

I snorted, shaking my head, trying to stifle a laugh.

Prompting giggles from Lyra.

Well done Marri, but still!

The Wood of the Squirrels area was beautiful.

The roads were surrounded by trees and, noticing it was a newbuild area, I could see construction had been ongoing as well as a site map which basically looked like a half circle fortress, but with houses.

The front of the estate had two entrances and as we drove onwards, nearer to the back, I could see that there was a steep drop down toward a row of trees and then after that a motorway.

The houses in the estate had barely any damage, with only a couple of houses looking ransacked and the rest looking well reinforced.

We pulled up at the end of the road and parked in the front of a large detached house.

I got out and noticed that the side of the estate also had the ditch going down.

“Does this ditch go all the way around?” I asked Erza.

“Um, yes. I do believe it does. The Left, Bottom and right sides have a sound proofing high fence located at the top side and then at the bottom of a rather steep slope, there is a chain link fence.” She responded.

“Hmm, very cool..I was just thinking, it’s quite a unique location, on top of a hill surrounded by trees..” I mused.

“This all used to be part of the very old hospital buildings. A huge part of the area was the old hospital estate. All the trees you see were planted to protect the buildings from high winds coming in. But over time however, it’s been segmented into sections of estates for housing.”

Erza had scanned the front of the house, then moved over to the door and unlocked it whilst explaining the history of the area.

“Wow, yeah really cool. It is a really nice place to-”

A gigantic, cosmic scale, volcanic like roar that rumbled the ground and pierced the horizon interrupted me.

It bellowed out for over 15 seconds before simmering down to faint echoes.

“FFFFFFFUucking Hell!” I exclaimed, after it finished.

Glancing over at Lyra and Erza I felt a bit bad for being uncouth.

“Excuse my language, apologies.” I bowed slightly to Erza.

We were all staring North East, which I think was the direction of London, but also the similar direction as home which was Bracknell.

There were faint flashes of light, accompanied with faint booming sounds which started off slowly but appeared to be escalating.

“N-no no. That was exactly my thoughts too…” Erza absentmindedly trailed off..

We stood for a few minutes, mesmerised by the distant multi coloured flashes that lit up the clouds.

“Ohhh No, Ohh, OHH NO! WHAT. IS. THAT!” Marri shrieked.

We stared in horror as a bright white light illuminated the sky violently.

A dark mushroom cloud blasted up.

Shit, that can’t be a nuke surely?

We watched in stunned silence as the light started to fade out, but I started counting.

If it was a nuke, we’d certainly fucking hear it at least and that would give us an estimate of the distance.

A memory surfaced of a video I’d seen explaining how to measure the distance of sounds, like thunder and lightning.

Count the seconds.

One-one-thousand-two-one-thousand-three-one-thousand.

Then take the seconds and divide by 5.

…

…

121..122..123..

“I..think we should go inside now, please do come in.” Erza pleaded as she ushered Lyra into the house.

155..156..157..158

I put my thumbs up and nodded quickly saying “Just counting distance” and returned to counting the numbers under my breath.

188..189..190..191..

They went inside and I continued staring at the cloud. The sky had started to form clouds and was beginning to darken, reducing light levels even though it seemed to be midday.

244..245..246..247..248

Hmm maybe it was a building collapsing or a fuel refinery explosion. Not strong enough to..

Overhead, movement caught my eye and I squinted as I realised a layer of the dark clouds were being eerily blasted apart heading in our direction-

*Shhhhhhrrrrrrrrwum.*

There was a sudden loud rustling in the air before it went deathly silent for a split second-

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.*

A cataclysmic boom slammed into the sky as a secondary visible air wave raced past, tilting trees over, rattling windows and blasting dust and debris in its path.

The noise was simply terrifying and it left my ears ringing.

I rushed inside the house and shut the door.

***