03-19-2010, 04:43 AM
Tanner's heart raced. He had to get out. He had to get out before he got trapped in there with a bunch of people going insane. He should have gone into photojournalism. They don't have to deal with Hippocratic oaths and other...oaths and people quickly going insane. Had he been exposed to the virus? He had been breathing without a mask on at some point. He could lose it. He could lose it at any second.
"Pull it together, Tanner," he spoke aloud. As casually as possible, Tanner made his way down the stairs. The floors were much more calm than the restricted ward, but the tension was palpable. He was breathing faster. Why was it so weird to breathe? Oh, the mask. Tanner would have taken the surgical mask off if he didn't think it was the only thing between himself and disease. Gloves. He'd need gloves.
"No no no no...." He muttered with each step down he took. He had to just make it out. Maybe he could slip out before the-
Nope. There they were, right outside the doors. It's like they were waiting just for him. Tanner made it to the automatic doors, but an armed soldier turned to him, gun pointed down, but still a gun.
"Hey, uh...sirs. Listen," he said to the military personnel. "I've been sterile through this whole ordeal, and I really need to-"
"Sir, you are required to stay within the confines of this hospital."
"But I need-"
"Sir. You are required to stay within the confines of the hospital, and I have been given orders to carry out this mandate by any means necessary."
Tanner's heart sank and splashed in his stomach. Before he could say anything else, he saw a girl with a bloody leg. He wanted to scream at her, tell her to get away, but she was already in the quarantined region. It was too late.
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