The city of Hargrove has a population of 2.3 million people. Of those, 2.2 million are taxpayers, and the remaining .1 million are illegal immigrants and homeless. For every one hundred citizens, there are five policemen, seven firemen, and three doctors. The most active and well-reputed hospital in the city was the South County Hospital. The staff was kind and efficient. The surgeons were held as some of the most effective in the country, and even the interns were commended for their work.

Tanner Grady was one of the newest interns in the facility. He was looking to go into something technical and highly-specialized. Something that took intense dedication and skill. Something that would pay for that car he wanted, and maybe an antique pinball machine. Or, with the rate he dropped equipment and mixed up medical orders, he could get a job that would allow him to keep an under-sized apartment and a Moped. Sure, he was the one bringing down the rep of all the interns around him, but they only hated him a little for it.

Any chance to make up for a mistake was golden for Tanner. He was 28 and about to have to make one of those big life-decisions about what he wants to do with himself and blah blah blah. He just had to make sure the guy was checked in, let a doctor know, and make sure the guy didn’t bleed or die while he waited for his doctor.

The patient was Joe Abbey. Late fifties, Caucasian, underweight. Coughing fits and headaches.

Tanner triple-checked the chart. Just do what he had to do. He flipped through the chart quickly. “Alright, Mr. Abbey. How would you descri-”

“It hurts.”

“I understand that you have a headache, could you just say what type of pain you’re experiencing. Is it sharp, pounding?”

Joe began coughing. He covered his mouth, but the sound echoed through the room. Tanner offered him one of the flimsy tissues on the counter, but he refused it.

“It hurts, dammit!”

“Mr. Ab-”

“Get me my doctor, dammit!”

Tanner filled out what he could of the chart before slipping out. “Angry son of a-” he mumbled as he hung the chart on the door.

Claire Cassidy turned off of the interstate and into the road that led into the city of Hargrove, humming to herself as she went. It was a reasonably nice day, the wind blowing across her bare arms.

She eventually came to a stop, outside of a small motel. Tired and rather hungry, she parked her motorcycle and slid a few coins into the parking meter.

"Damned money crunch," she murmured rather mildly, before going to check in. As she reached for the door, a man stumbled out, bumping into her shoulder. "Sorry," she said, reaching out to steady him. He jerked away from her, mumbling something darkly, and staggered away. Claire watched, concerned, then shrugged and entered the motel, running a hand through her short, dark hair to make sure it was somewhat decent looking. Her helmet always gave her the worst hat hair.

After checking in and throwing her stuff into her room, she went back out, deciding to walk around and find a place to eat. The twenty-one-year-old had come into town to meet an old friend, and together they were supposed to hang out for the whole weekend, just the two of them riding and whatnot, but Gabe hadn't answered Claire's call that morning, so she was left to her own devices until he called back.

After Tanner informed Dr. Alton about the new patient, the doctor stared at him with a raised brow. Tanner looked back at the doctor, a mix of feelings on his face. Confusion, fright, everything that didn't help in a social situation. He pushed back a lock of his curly bleached hair and shifted his eyes through the room.

"Is there anything else I can-"

"You didn't fill out the entire form, did you?" Dr. Alton interrupted.

"I got more than last-"

"Jesus, Grady." The doctor stood up, towering well over Tanner.

"He was getting impatient, I had to hurry."

"Don't tell me. Coughing fits and a headache?"

"Yes, sir."

"They've all been impatient, Grady. It's part of the bug that's been going around. Of course, you'd know that if you paid attention to the patient on occasion."

With that, the doctor left Tanner and headed down the hallway. Tanner looked after him, a hand signal expressing what he couldn't with words.

Claire wandered down the streets, whistling slightly to herself. She was surprised by how few people were out and about- it was a nice day, after all. She paused as she passed a news stand and peered down at one of the headlines. Something about an illness going around, and the generic how-to-protect-oneself mumbo jumbo. The way Claire figured it, a cold was a cold. If it was going to happen, it would happen.

She turned and ran into another person, who wheeled back and fell almost into the street. "Whoa, I'm sorry," she said, hurrying over and kneeling next to the woman. "Are you okay?" the woman made no sound, and only emmitted a low moan.

"Miss, get away," the man working the stand said, hurrying over and grabbing Claire by the arm. "Hey, let me go," Claire said, trying to shrug him off. He was too strong; he managed to pull her away from the woman and back towards his cart. "Listen, Miss, obviously you're new in town. Word of advice- stay away from the sick ones." The man looked up at the sky, as if he saw something bad there, then looked back at Claire and nodded once before releasing her and going back to his cart, closing it up.

Claire frowned, then turned back to help the woman- except she had already gotten up and staggered off. Claire shrugged and continued on, trying not to be spooked by what the man had told her.

People are so inconsiderate these days, she thought as she walked, unconciously going in the general direction of the hospital. She reached into her vest pocket and pulled out her phone- no calls, no texts. She flipped the phone open and hit the callback number, attempting to call Gabe again.

"Hi, you've reached Gabe Brindelle, sorry I can't-"

Claire hung up with a mild curse, staring at the device before slipping it into her pocket and continuing down the walk.

Tanner made his way to the third floor. They were keeping most of the bug-infected patients there. Yeah, he knew the signs, but he had to hope it was something different each time. The thought of something massive breaking out in the city was a bit much to digest. He grabbed a face mask before entering the ward and began making rounds to the patients, checking each chart before going in their room.

They were all at different stages of the illness. The newer ones were coughing and angry with a headache, just like Joe had been. After that, they appeared to be subdued, but with a pain in their heads that was enough to bring them to tears. Then they became almost catatonic, barely able to walk around.

It was the fourth stage they had to look out for. They became violent, unintelligible. All they did was scream and lash out at anyone around them. Those patients were few so far, and they were locked in their own restricted ward. Unfortunately, the stages were progressing quickly.

Tanner knocked on one of the second-stage patient's doors before entering. The middle-aged woman lied in her bed, tears streaming down her face. Tanner approached her slowly, keeping his voice low.

"Mrs. Roberts?"

The woman tilted her head slightly to face him. "Please...please I need...I need more...." She choked back a sob and raised her hands to her head. Tanner looked through her file.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Roberts. We're already giving you the maximum safe dosage. Now, I can put in a request for a physical therapist."

"God, it feels like drills...drills in my mind."

"Mrs. Roberts, I know you must be in a great amount of pain, but right now we are doing everything we can for you."

She shook with her tears and rested her hands across her chest. "Just go...I don't need anything else...."

Tanner nodded and left her room, quietly closing the door behind him.

As he was filling out the request form, Tanner her a shriek down the hall. He looked quickly and saw one of the nurses hurrying from the restricted hall.

"Son of a bitch bit me!" She grasped her arm. The bite was bleeding plenty, and there was a small amount of black saliva around the bite marks. "The first patient in the bug ward. He just bit me."

Tanner watched as she ran to bandage herself up. Something about it made his stomach sink. Bit. Bit. He had no idea why that one word put him on edge, but it sent a shiver through his spine.

Claire stopped as she heard a groan, and peered down the alley that the sound had come from. "Hello?" she called out, looking down the lengthy alley. It was filthy, filled with garbage and old, ruined furniture. She didn't see any movement.

There was another groan, and suddenly a man staggered out of the shadows, looking terrible. "Excuse me? Are you okay?" The man lifted his head to look at her, and suddenly he snarled, lunging across the alley at her.

With a small gasp she fell, srambling back as the man lunged. He tripped and toppled down, landing on top of the lower portion of her legs. She screamed and began to kick as his nails raked at her bare flesh, his expression furious and... and hungry.

Claire reached forward and attempted to grab his shoulder, instead grabbing his face. She shoved him back; his head snapped back, throwing him off balance and causing him to fall to the side. she was up in an instant, and running, unaware of the tears streaming down her face or of the warm blood trickling down her leg, from where the man had scratched her.

She was so lost as to what had happened- he had just attacked her! Her mind was still scrambled as she slowed to a walk, thoroughly lost now. She didn't care- she was far away from that man. She wiped angrily at her face, trying to figure out what to do. You need to go to the police, Claire, there are children in this city, you can't let a madman like that run free... she felt a sinking feeling in her gut, something that told her that something was about to go very, very wrong.

Tanner was feeling sick. Not like anyone in the hospital type of sick. Anxious sick. He just had a bad feeling about the place. Now, he wasn't one to have "female intuition" or anything, but the air was thick with chaos. He could feel it in his gut. He tried to shake it off, but the bite had set him on edge. It didn't help that the entire restricted ward began shifting phases at the same time. The patients were growing more restless, violent. Security and nurses rushed to restrict and sedate them. Tanner could only step out of the way.

When one of the head doctors walked through the door with a uniformed Marine captain by his side, Tanner knew things were going to go to hell quickly.

He tried to catch what they said, but they stormed off in a hurry. Danger...hospital...quarantine...evacuation...dise ase...virus....

"Jesus..." Tanner muttered. His eyes widened. He just wanted to get home, lock his doors, and play DDR till the whole thing blew over. He didn't like to think of himself as a coward, but hey, when lingo like that is being tossed around there aren't too many other ways for him to react. But no. He had to stay. He had to do his job.

Even if it killed him.

Which it easily could.

The few televisions that were turned on on the floor were turned to the news. The military was making its way to town. Anyone not within a certain radius of the hospital was being evacuated.

Everyone else would be quarantined.

Claire heard the rumble of heavy vehicles and ducked into an alley, wary of the shadows but suddenly terrified at the idea of being found. She watched the military vehicles rumble by, hiding as marines walked past. What the hell was going on?

As soon as the entourage had passed, she slowly emerged from the alley, a frown on her full lips. Something seriously messed up was going down, and she didn't want to be part of it. She turned and began to walk back to where her motorcycle was, turning the corner... and saw her route of escape blocked.

"What in God's name is...."

She was stopped by a groaning sound coming out of the alley, and was suddenly reminded of the warm trickle of blood seeping down her leg. She backed away from the alley, her heart beginning to pound. She turned around and realized what the huge building before her was- the hospital. Maybe she could find out information there, get her leg fixed up, and find some way out.

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.

Claire almost lost her nerve when she saw the soldiers, and was tempted to turn and run- but she had already been spotted, and they were moving towards her. She casually waved and approached them, forcing herself to relax and breathe.

"Hello, gentlemen," she said innocently. "Um... Is there something wrong with the hospital? I fell and scraped my leg... but I think I could probably take care of it myself if there's something up." Maybe they'd let her go, walk away scotch free...

"Nothing's wrong, ma'am," one of the guards said. "We'll escort you to the door."

Claire's heart sunk as she was led to the door by the two men, deposited in the lobby. There was a boy standing near her, staring at her. She was tempted to shoot a scowl in his direction, but he was in uniform. He might be able to help her.

"Hey, uh... Can you help me with this?" She indicated her leg with a wave of a hand, then lowered her voice and glanced around. "And can you tell me what the hell is going on? I just got in town today and the place is falling to shit."

The girl was "escorted" in and approached Tanner. "Uh, yeah. Yeah I can help you." He watched the military men with caution as he guided the girl through the halls of the hospital. The bottom floor was buzzing with frantic staff trying to keep order amidst the rule of the military. Patients in the waiting area were becoming restless. Security was hustling up and down the floors, doing their best to reassure the imprisoned patients.

Tanner held onto the girl's arm, not wanting to lose her in the chaos around them. They passed a medical cart, and he quickly grabbed some peroxide, cotton swabs, gauze, and medical tape. He looked around them quickly. At the next corner there was a wheelchair.

"Wait right here," he said quickly, though not sure of his words. He hurried to the corner and grabbed the wheelchair before anyone else could. He wheeled it back over to the girl and motioned for her to sit.

"Name's Tanner." He prepared dipped a few swabs in the peroxide. "I'll be performing field care on your leg today."

"Thanks," she said, sinking into the wheel chair. She braced herself for the inevitable sting of the peroxide. She knew it wouldn't be as bad as she expected, but it was just her instinctive reaction.

"Its rather... busy around here," she said, to break the awkward silence that had decended like a hawk. Well, not exactly silence. It was noisy all around them- people bustled around, patients were not so patient, soldiers issued orders; it was a general chaos.

She was tempted to ask if Gabe had been checked in, but she figured he wouldn't know. It was a big hospital, and even without all the chaos she figured he wouldn't remember if he had seen someone or not.

"Busy?" Tanner dabbed the peroxide-soaked swabs on her scratch. The liquid fizzed. He glanced up to Claire briefly. "Bit infected. This should clear it up though." A few military personnel marched passed them as he went over with a second dousing of peroxide. Tanner's muscles tightened with each passing soldier. The more there were, the more there would be in his path to freedom.

"Busy busy busy..." He wasn't sure how to break the news to her. He looked over her leg with his dark brown eyes before wrapping gauze around the injury. "This is gonna have to do for now since things are...like you said, busy." He taped up the gauze and looked back up to her face with a slightly saddened look. He hated delivering bad news. Tanner rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and closed his eyes for a second. He sighed, and spoke slowly.

"Look," he said as he stood up. "Probably shouldn't tell you this, but I guess it doesn't really matter at this point." He looked around the hall quickly, making sure no one with any real authority was nearby. "This whole hospital. The whole area...we're quarantined. Right now I don't think anyone knows how long we'll be here." He didn't want to scare her too much. Nothing like telling someone that two floors above them was brimming with maddened, infectious patients.

"We uh...we aren't too sure why yet." He wasn't a good liar. He always looked away when he lied.

She blinked, catching her reflection in his eyes. You're lying to me, she thought. She didn't push it; there had to be a reason he would lie to her. She had a feeling she would find out soon enough.

"Well, I always loved a good challenge," she mused, watching the soldiers pass by. She noticed that he had tensed up as they passed; must have meant bad news. "There must be something pretty nasty going around. I mean, a quarantine..." She prayed that Gabe had been called out on business, that he had forgotteo to call her and tell her that he had to leave, that they would get together some other time....

"Anyways. If you need any help, I've got a little medical training." Good old Adventurer's camp; high school had given her a few good things. "Oh, and I'm Claire," she added, realizing that while he had given him her name, she had forgotten to give hers. "Nice to meet you, Tanner."

"Claire. That medical training might come in handy..." he caught himself. "Might get short-staffed soon. Everything's so crazy now you never know when you might need-" the lights flickered in the hallway. Tanner jumped at the sudden change with a small yip. He wasn't exactly the bravest man in the world. Yeah, he should have definitely gone into photojournalism. Not across the world either, more like taking photos at dog shows and aquariums. Nice, safe. Menial.

The soldiers began to outnumber the patients and staff in the hallway. Quickly, Tanner grabbed the handles of the wheelchair. "Alright, Claire. We're just gonna take a quick detour this way." He wheeled her down the hall quickly, keeping his eyes off the soldiers. They passed another medical cart, and he grabbed a face mask for Claire.

"Put this on," he said hushed. "I-"

"Attention," said a militant voice over the intercom. "All staff, patients, and personnel are to remain within the building until further notice. The second floor will be restricted to authorized staff, and the third floor is not to be accessed or exited by anyone."

Tanner ducked through the crowd, almost running with the chair. He turned a corner and went down one of the treatment hallways. "Okay, long story short," he said as he jogged down with Claire. "We can't stay here. I mean, we can, but chances are we'll wind up infected. Third floor. No good."

He took a sharp turn and looked around quickly. "Second floor's not much better. Basically, we're screwed unless we can get out of here. Of course," he glanced down at her quickly. "You're more than welcome to stay. I just can't leave my ass here to get shot or attacked." His bleached hair fell in his face and he batted it away quickly. "It's all up to you."

Claire stiffened, trying not to fall out of the wheelchair as he sped through the hospital. She took the maks but didn't put it on yet; she was busy listening to the announcement. The blood drained from her face, and she swallowed heavily.

She looked up at Tanner with searching green eyes, evaluating him. Even if she wanted to stay (which she didn't) she couldn't leave him by himself. Not with a clear conscience, anyhow.

"Okay, we're going to get out of here," she said, her voice soft as she pushed brown hair out of her eyes. "But you need to tell me what's going on here. Also, are there any rooms here that are unoccupied and have a window? We can sneak out through one of those." The gears in her head were turning furiously as she tried to figure out how they could get out of here.