"We have to help them!" one of the guards yelled, but his cries went unanswered as the crowd continued to block the doors.
Still crouched behind the car, frozen with fear, Samuel heard the cries of the mother and child. 'I have to move!' he thought. 'I'm so dumb for doing this.' Forcing himself to act despite his fears.
Scanning the area, he spots a glass bottle lying in the parking lot. But just as he grabs it, a piercing scream rings out—the dogs have reached the mother and the child.
As Samuel dashed toward the mother and child, frustration rose within him. 'I should've acted sooner!'
Reaching them, he swung the bottle at one of the bloodthirsty dogs attacking the woman. The dogs momentarily backed off, snarling at him. Taking the chance, Samuel checked on the mother and child.
The woman had succumbed to her injuries, but in her final moments, she had shielded her child from the attack.
Samuel left the child in her mother's arms, hoping the dogs wouldn't notice and target her. 'I need to draw them away,' he thought.
With a surge of determination, he shouted, "Come get me, you bastards!" as he grabbed the dogs' attention.
As the dogs closed in on Samuel, he raced toward the car, scrambling to climb atop it for safety. Glaring at the crowd inside, he screamed, "Are you really going to let an innocent child die? Let her in, NOW, while I lead these damn dogs away!"
Moved by Samuel's bravery, the guards fought their way through, shoving people aside and tearing down the makeshift barricade piece by piece to let the child inside.
As he watched the child safely enter the hospital, Samuel sighed, guilt weighing on him. 'If I had moved faster, I could've saved the woman too.'
His thoughts were interrupted as he wondered, 'Now how do I get out of here?'
Just then, the three dogs, showing unexpected intelligence and strength, charged together from one side of the car, knocking Samuel off balance.
'Oh f*ck!' he thought as he tumbled to the ground.
Once he fell to the ground, he immediately tried to get up and run to the hospital, but the dogs were still faster and reached him quickly. He broke the bottle on the ground to stab one of the dogs, killing it, but the last two dogs were too fast and bit his arm and leg.
"Sh*t, help me!" he shouted in desperation.
The guards inside came to Samuel's aid quickly but not fast enough. One of the dogs bit Samuel on the neck.
Bleeding heavily, Samuel was dragged inside the hospital after the guards shot the two dogs. The nurses started tending to Samuel and noticed a black bracelet on his wrist.
A nurse exclaimed, "He is on the list!"
Samuel started to slowly lose consciousness. In and out of awareness, he saw flashing lights and heard shouting around him. He woke up briefly, though in a very dazed state.
Samuel's eyes flickered open to see a massive capsule looming before him. He was unable to move as a doctor lifted him and placed him inside.
Slowly, his awareness began to fade, but just before he slipped into unconsciousness, a sharp, stinging pain spread across his back. He watched in confusion as the capsule filled with an unfamiliar liquid.
His final thought echoed in his mind: 'If only I could've decided faster…'
**********
'So cold… Where am I… Why do I feel like I am floating?'
As Samuel's eyes slowly opened, he realized he was floating vertically inside a glass capsule filled with some unknown liquid, and for some reason, he could still breathe within it.
'Where the hell am I?'
Panic set in, and suddenly, the liquid began to drain, sending sharp, painful pricks across his back.
He glanced back to see several needle-like tendrils slowly retracting away from his back into the capsule.
'What the hell were those!?'
In shock, Samuel quickly reached to check his back but found no wounds or blood. As he examined himself, the capsule door suddenly swung open. The stale air hit his skin.
'Should I step out?' Samuel hesitated.
Slowly peeking outside the capsule. He saw a room filled with computers and wires, with the capsule embedded in the wall.
'I need to get out of this machine!' He cautiously stepped out, noticing cobwebs in the corners. Looked like the place had been abandoned.
'But I was in a hospital before I passed out didn't I?' he thought.
He was so confused as he tried to recall what had happened. 'Wait, wasn't I attacked? What happened to my wounds? They're gone?'
He began inspecting his body once again.
'Strange…' A weird feeling crept in.
He didn't have any scars or wounds, and he even felt better than before. He was breathing fine even though his heartbeat started pulsing faster than normal.
Just as Samuel finished checking himself, his stomach growled the only time he realized he needed to find some food and clothes.
He spotted a door and headed through it, entering a barren and silent hallway, he peeked through it.
'So, I am still in the hospital... but where is everyone?'
Samuel cautiously made his way down the hall and opened the door at the far end.
Outside the door, there was another hallway, this time in the hospital. Samuel looked back and examined the door he had just gone out from and realized it was a hidden entrance in the wall.
'Why would there be a concealed door here?'
Samuel surveyed his surroundings, and found tattered clothes on the floor, and picked them up.
'Better than nothing,' he sighed as he put them on.
He noticed that the entire hospital appeared abandoned, vines climbing up the walls, cobwebs clinging to the corners. An eerie silence pervading the hospital.
'Are those dried bloodstains on the floor?'
He inspected the reddish brown spots and realized someone must have bled there, likely to their death.
'Where is everyone? What happened to me?'
Samuel entered an empty ward and gazed out the window. The silence was overwhelming, and the entire area was deserted and overgrown, some areas showing signs of collapse.
The unsettling quiet and the blood on the floor only heightened his unease, making him even more cautious, suspecting there might be something lurking inside the hospital.
Samuel cautiously made his way to the lobby, recalling how the guards had dragged him in there. He noticed dried blood scattered throughout the area and glass shards littering the floor.
As he searched for any signs of what had happened, he found nothing. A hospital stripped of medical supplies. 'Had people taken them?'
As he surveyed the area, Samuel noticed that the parking lot was broken down, weeds growing all over it.
'I need to know how long I've been in that capsule,' he thought. 'But is it safe outside?' He began searching for a weapon or anything he could use to defend himself in case of an attack.
He discovered a scalpel lying under one of the benches. 'Better than nothing,' he thought.
He then spotted the car he had hidden behind earlier. Just as he was about to step outside, a massive shadow loomed above him. He looked up to see a giant bird.
'What the hell is that? Did it see me?' Samuel quickly hid behind a pillar in the lobby. Then, he heard screaming from the roof.
One of the voices was high-pitched, sharp, and piercing a voice of a young girl. Another was deeper but still piercing, unfiltered, and out of balance a voice of a young boy.
Realization strikes. 'Kids! There are kids on the roof!'