Road to Eden | ONC 2022

8 - Nepharios

By the time the sun had fully sunk, the hospital had transformed into a battleground.

The people affected by the unknown disease had awoken one by one and started attacking anything that moved. In their frenzy, they had managed to damage the power supply, plunging the whole building in total darkness. Not that it made any difference for Azazel.

"Wouldn't it be better to just kill them?" Azazel asked no one in particular. He had to use his whole body to keep the door of the cafeteria closed under relentless attacks of the awakened humans. He doubted the door would last long.

"Angels are supposed to save people." The leader guy answered. He was tending to the wounds of one of the patient who had taken refuge in the cafeteria. Most of the examinee had taken refuge there and were panicking like headless chickens.

"You can't become an angel if you commit murder. Stop asking stupid questions and push harder." His teammate said. She was next to him, using her whole body to maintain the door closed.

"None of us will become angels if we die here."

There was another wave of panic across the room. He thought he had said that quietly.

"Don't worry, the angels will come helps us before that happens." The leader guy reassured the crowd.

Despite his annoying know-it-all attitude, Azazel had to admit that the guy had guts. He could see his hands shake as he applied a gaze on the patient and hear his heart beating out of his chest.

"In the meanwhile, does anyone have an idea ? Apparently killing them is not good, and this door won't last all night long."

There were murmurs, and he could feel the tension thicken in the rooms.

"Can you stop scaring them?" His teammate gritted next to him. It was getting harder to held off the persistent attempts of the crazy humans on the other side.

"I am just stating the truth."

The rest of her sentence was drowned by a loud crack as the burst open. Azazel's dragged his teammate as he ran away from the door.

Waves of crazed humans invaded the room. Were there always that many?

The screams, the grunts, the cries and the voices created a disturbing symphony. Chairs were thrown around, tables flipped over, windows broken, blood splattered.

Azazel had taken refuge on a table and was fending off the onslaught of attackers with his boots. He was the first one to hear the faint noise of fluttering feathers. And a lot of feathers.

"Try to get out through the windows, the angel are outside." He screamed over the noise.

A few of the examinee and other sane humans started rushing towards the windows while avoiding the attacks of the patients.

"Wait, this is the second floor!" Someone screamed. It was unclear who said it amongst the chaos, but Azazel could swear it was the leader guy.

"Don't worry, you won't die for that." Azazel screamed back. Some people had already jumped, and people fought to escape first.

Azazel kept fighting off the crazed humans while jumping from table to table until he was near the window. He collected chairs to reinforce the makeshift barrier between the windows and the wave of infected. He tried to plug the holes while the others were escaping behind him.

 By the time he was almost done, only him and his teammate were left. She was crawling up one of the windows' sill, her wounded left leg slowing her down. Her ankle bone was visible with flesh attached to it.