Every floor Shawn passed looked worst than the last. Every floor covered with more blood, more spent shells, more broken furniture, and who knows what else than the previous. That was until he got to the first floor lobby. Shawn figured he must have started on the fifth floor, and looking at a large map at the front entrance, there were two others above that plus a flat roof.
'There might be other people up there. They could be trapped. Or they could know what happened,' he thought aloud.
"Strange," he said to himself. "The lobby was practically untouched compared to the floors above. With the carnage progressively worsening on the way down, you'd think the lobby would be completely torn apart."
The sound of glass shattering made Peterson jump and turn quickly toward the source of the sound. It was a young woman, probably in her early to mid twenties, clad in a surgical gown like the one Shawn had traded in for the scrubs he was wearing now. She stared at the broken glass on the floor--a clear bottle, probably rubbing alcohol--with a look of fear unlike anything Shawn had ever seen. A brief look at him, her eyes staring directly into his, then she bolted down the hall.
Wanting answers Peterson gave chase, catching up to this mystery woman in less than a minute despite the considerable distance between them, and tackling her to the ground. She didn't scream or even say a word. It was almost as though she were even trying to quiet her breathing.
She struggled as he turned her--it was easier than he thought it would be, she didn't look that weak.
Shawn began to loosen his grip and get up a bit when he quietly popped the first of his questions, "Who are you?"
"My name is Susan Harding," she responded, trying to keep her voice as low as possible.
"My name is Shawn Peterson," he said, returning the favor. "What's happened? What's going on?"
"Get off me and I'll tell you."
He did stood up. She remained on the floor, one knee bent in the air, the other leg lying outstreched on the floor.
Susan was the first to speak, "Where did you get those clothes? Are you a doctor here?"
Shaking his head slowly once or twice, "I woke up on the fifth floor in a surgical gown. The whole floor was deserted. I found these and decided to make a trade. You said you'd tell me what's going on."
Susan looked down to avoid eye contact while she stood up and spoke, "People started disapearing all over town, a few at first, but things picked up speed pretty quick. It actually took a while before anyone saw one of them, and even longer for anyone to believe it. Some people were talking about containment like there was a disease going around."
"You said nobody would believe what they had seen, what do you mean, what did they see?"
"Creatures that looked part human and part animal. They went around attacking people, then the people they attacked started turning into those things."
"Are you telling me we're being attacked by werewolves or something?"
"I don't know what those things are. All I know is that they showed up and now wierd s*** is happenening all over the place.
There was a moment of silence before Susan spoke up again, "Why were you in here?"