Glass boxes. Rows upon rows of sealed rooms in a grid, lit by the skylights on the slanted ceiling. Each contains a bed, monitoring equipment, and all the medical apparatus a patient might need.
Black figures advance down the white paths between the rooms. The conscious patients watch on in mute confusion and terror.
They slow their walk when the first bodies appear on the paths before them. A nurse. Then further along, two more nurses. Doctors. Patients. Cleaners and admin staff. Piles of bodies, stacked along the paths. Pressed up against the glass.
An alarm grunts a rhythmic warning.
One operative pulls back another who steps closer to the bodies. They all watch for a moment.
The body of a nurse rises backwards, and begins to run in reverse, terrified of something unseen behind him, yet moving towards it.
A chrono virus. The facility is rampant with it. The squad leader checks his watch.
Thirty minutes remain.
Paddy Dobson
2nd August 2021